Nobel Peace Prize winner barred from entering country

Egyptian authorities barred Yemeni Nobel Peace laureate Tawakul Karman (pictured) - a supporter of deposed president Mohamed Mursi - from entering the country yesterday and put her on a flight back to Dubai, security sources said.State news agency Mena said Karman, who had previously announced her solidarity with supporters of Mursi, was on a list of people who were not allowed to enter Egypt.A spokesman for Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood said Karman had recently joined demonstrations in Cairo demanding the former leader be reinstated.Karman’s Twitter feed yesterday said the writer and activist had been held at Cairo airport and prevented from joining protests. She was sent back on the same plane she flew in on, the security sources said.The Brotherhood criticised Karman’s deportation and said it was reminiscent of the rule of former autocrat Hosni Mubarak.“This is an abandonment of the gains of Egypt’s January revolution. The government is reproducing the practices of Mubarak’s state security,” said Yasser Ali, a Brotherhood official and former presidential spokesman.