CAIRO: Three people were injured, one critically, in a clash Tuesday between Egyptian police and dozens of Palestinians trapped in a north Sinai airport. Approximately 100 Palestinians have been stuck in the airport for nearly three weeks since the Rafah border crossing was closed due to violent clashes in the Gaza Strip one month ago. …

CAIRO: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will meet with Arab counterparts in Sharm El-Sheikh at the end of July, the Foreign Ministry announced Tuesday. The visit is to immediately follow a meeting of Arab ministers in Cairo on July 29 according to the statement. Quoting Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit, the statement said the …

CAIRO: Egyptian and Libyan officials have refuted reports of the arrest of a Libyan man suspected of planning an attack on the Cairo Metro. Two respective sources denied the claim and said that the rumor was no more than “media hype. The story was first published in Al-Wafd newspaper, which reported yesterday that a Libyan …

CAIRO: The National Democratic Party (NDP) is planning some leadership shuffles after the party’s annual conference in September, MP Mohamed Khalil Kwaitah representing the NDP told The Daily Star Egypt. He said that he was not aware that any changes will take place soon, adding that media headlines about the party’s plans to nominate President …

CAIRO: Independent Members of Parliament have once again expressed their wish to be recognized as a distinct bloc within the People’s Assembly. Even though the parliament sessions are adjourned until next November, 11 independent MPs have reiterated their request, Gamal Zahran, independent MP, told The Daily Star Egypt. Zahran announced that they will file an …

CAIRO: Intelligence Chief Omar Suleiman is in the United States a week after Egypt objected to a draft bill in the US House of Representatives calling for the withholding of $200 million in military aid. Suleiman flew into Washington on Sunday to hold talks with American officials over bilateral issues and the ensuing conflicts in …

CAIRO: The opposition independent Al-Dostour daily newspaper published on Sunday an advertisement from the Muslim Brotherhood’s (MB) supreme guide, Mohamed Mahdy Akef, denouncing the trial of civilians in military courts. The ad was dedicated to the movement’s chief financier Khayrat El-Shater, who was arrested with 33 other MB members in December 2006. The ad coincided …

CAIRO: Today marks the sixth day of increased security at Cairo’s metro and train stations, following a bomb threat that was reported to the police last Wednesday. Since then, public safety officials have increased security measures at all major transit points throughout Cairo, setting up metal detectors, patrolling stations with bomb-sniffing dogs, and searching commuters’ …

CAIRO: The third military tribunal of the 40 high-ranking detained members of the Muslim Brotherhood was adjourned until Aug. 8 after a six-hour court session at the Heikstep military base Sunday. Abdel Moneim Abdul Maqsoud, the Muslim Brotherhood s lawyer, told The Daily Star Egypt that the court examined the confiscated belongings of the detainees, …

CAIRO: A security official says Al Qaeda members have revealed the head of the group in the country has fled for the Gaza Strip. The official says the arrested members have revealed during interrogation that Khaled Mahmoud Ahmed escaped to Gaza when Egyptian authorities began arresting members of his group in April. Gaza is now …

CAIRO: Thirty-five Egyptians allegedly belonging to Al-Qaeda group were arrested last April according to Al-Masry Al-Youm, raising questions on whether it’s feasible for Al-Qaeda members to reside and operate in Egypt. The group was allegedly planning to topple the Egyptian government and was financed by the Islamic Army of Iraq. They were also reportedly in …

CAIRO: Bosnian Ambassador in Cairo Radomir Kosic warned of the escalating political crisis in Bosnia-Herzegovina, which is dividing Bosnians deeply along ethnic lines. The situation is very tense. It is a political crisis at its highest level, maybe since the 1990s when war started basically because of the same issues on the political agenda today, …

CAIRO: Editor-in-Chief of Al Ahram s International Politics magazine and member of the Shoura Council, Osama El Ghazaly Harb is also the vice president of the new liberal Democratic Front party. Officially licensed by the Shoura Council s political parties committee last May, the party has recently elected a number of executive leaders, many from …

CAIRO: An Egyptian military court barred former US attorney general Ramsey Clark from observing a trial session on Sunday for 40 opposition Islamists on charges that include money-laundering and terrorism, an Islamist source said. A source in the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt s strongest opposition group, said security men had barred entry to Clark. They also …

Israel controls destiny of the crossing, experts say CAIRO: As the Rafah crossing remains closed, and 4,000 Palestinians are stuck on the Egyptian side of the border, foreign reports place the onus on Egypt for the closure of the crossing, a view with which Egyptian analysts vehemently disagree. “Egypt doesn’t control the opening and closing …

Associated Press CAIRO: The foreign ministers of Egypt and Jordan due to visit Israel later this month will only be representing their countries, not the Arab League, Egypt s chief diplomat said Thursday. Israel had hoped that the visit would be the first by envoys from the Arab League, which has historically been hostile toward …

CAIRO: With an inevitable political turnover facing Egypt’s incumbent regime, the time may be ripe for a new wave of democratization and political liberalization, claim three experts from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. In a policy paper published on July 3, the three senior associates, Michele Dunne, Amr Hamzawy, and Nathan J. Brown, argue …

CAIRO: The Muslim Brotherhood (MB) has nothing to do with the new party recently established by Islamist lawyer Montasser El-Zayat, Mohamed Habib, MB deputy leader, told The Daily Star Egypt. I doubt that this party exists in the first place. I think that the news about it is fabricated, he added. But if the party …

CAIRO: The proposed visit by the Egyptian and Jordanian foreign ministers to Israel has been postponed by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for “private reasons according to a statement by Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit. Speaking to reporters in the US on Monday, Aboul Gheit said, “This visit will be postponed for some time for …

CAIRO: Rumors that the newly-licensed Democratic Front party’s leadership will be dominated by the Harb family have been blown out of proportion, political analyst at the Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies Amr Hashim told The Daily Star Egypt. Hashim downplayed recent speculation on whether the Harb family of Osama El Ghazaly Harb, …

Draft bill withholds meager sum while sanctioning $1.3 bln in military aid CAIRO: Egypt has refused new conditions attached to a military aid bill by the US House of Representatives, Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit told reporters in Cairo Tuesday after his US visit. Aboul Gheit said the newly stipulated conditions were a “step backwards …

CAIRO: Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif sparked controversy when he criticized the Egyptian 1999 Nobel Prize winner Ahmed Zewail, for not living up to his promise of setting up a technological university in Egypt during a talk he gave last Thursday at a youth camp in Alexandria. According to Al-Masry Al-Youm, while meeting with youths in …

RAFAH, Egypt: Egypt has begun deploying hundreds more police to strengthen security at its border with the Gaza Strip over fears Palestinians could try to storm it, security sources said on Wednesday. The deployment began late on Tuesday, and sources told Reuters that additional Egyptian security forces had already taken up positions along the border …

Associated Press CAIRO: Al-Qaeda’s No. 2 issued a new videotape calling for Pakistanis to join the holy war in revenge for the attack by Pakistan’s army on a radical mosque. Ayman Al-Zawahri’s four-and-a-half-minute address was entitled “The Aggression against Lal Masjid and entirely focused on the recent clashes between Islamic students and Pakistan’s army at …

Talks precede Blair’s visit to Cairo as Quartet envoy CAIRO: Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit met with both Middle East Quartet Envoy Tony Blair and newly appointed Foreign Secretary David Miliband in London Wednesday as he returned from a trip to the US. According to the Foreign Ministry, Blair was keen on meeting Aboul Gheit …

CAIRO: The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) was to open the Israeli-run Kerem Shalom crossing Tuesday, July 10, a move that was fervently opposed by Hamas who reportedly threatened to open fire and shell the crossing if used in place of Rafah. Over 6,000 Palestinians have been unable to return to the Gaza Strip since Egypt …

CAIRO: Egypt won t accept new conditions the US House of Representatives has attached to a military aid bill, Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said. Speaking to reporters in Cairo, Aboul Gheit said US Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice were also opposed to the conditions in the bill, which cleared …

CAIRO: Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit returns from a visit to the United States today after meetings with high ranking officials as well as members of Congress. The comprehensive agenda, which explored many facets of Egypt-US relations, included a meeting between Aboul Gheit and US Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice …

CAIRO: Marking a shift from the typical Israeli delegations to Egypt, the left-wing Meretz Party was in Cairo Sunday to meet with Egyptian intelligence Chief Omar Suleiman and political aide to President Hosni Mubarak, Osama El-Baz, to discuss the release of kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, negotiations with the Palestinians, and Egypt’s role in stabilizing …