CAIRO: In a highly charged debate discussing the reasons behind increasing political apathy, the participants of a symposium exchanged more than just accusations. Held at the Prince Taaz Cultural Center on July 7, the symposium didn’t come up with a concrete solution to the lack of political participation. The panelists, each with a different affiliation, …

CAIRO: The People s Assembly (PA) announced its decision not to revoke the parliamentary membership of independent MP Talaat El Sadat, nephew of former President Anwar El Sadat, but to suspend him for 10 sessions, said Mohamed Esmat El Sadat, Talaat’s brother and former MP. Esmat El Sadat told The Daily Star Egypt that the …

The wall will address a symptom not the root cause, says expert CAIRO: An Israeli army publication has reported on Israeli plans to build a security fence along the porous border with Egypt, which is frequently penetrated to smuggle arms and people. According to Associated Press, the weekly Israeli magazine for soldiers Bamahane stated that …

JERUSALEM: A delegation of Israel s liberal Meretz party will travel to Cairo on Sunday to meet with Egyptian officials, the party said in a statement. The delegation will be headed by party chief Yossi Beilin, a veteran Israeli dove, and is due to meet with Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman and Ossama El-Baz, political …

CAIRO/ARISH: Around 100 Palestinians trapped in Al-Arish Airport reportedly went on a hunger strike to pressure the authorities to open the Rafah crossing which had been closed since Hamas took over the Gaza Strip over two weeks ago. As residents of the Gaza Strip, the Palestinians can enter Egypt without a visa to travel elsewhere. …

Associated Press TUZ KHORMATO, Iraq: A suicide truck bomber blasted a Shia town north of Baghdad on Saturday, killing more than 100 people, police said, in a sign Sunni insurgents are pulling away from a US offensive around the capital to attack where security is thinner. The marketplace devastation underlined a hard reality in Iraq: …

“The United States stands with Egypt as it answers its own citizens’ aspirations call to establish their own form of democracy and to protect the rights and dignity of every Egyptian citizen, said Francis J. Ricciardone, the American ambassador to Egypt. The American Independence Day celebration on July 4 took place at the recently renovated …

CAIRO: Transparency International’s 2007 annual report listed Egypt among those countries which suffer from corruption in its legal system.For Egypt to achieve political progress and put an end to the corruption present in the legal system, the legal system and the public prosecutor have to be independent of the government, Hossam Bahgat, chairman of the …

RAFAH, Egypt: Egyptian police arrested 40 Africans, mostly Sudanese, attempting to illegally sneak into Israel, a security official said on Friday. Police on Thursday night arrested 37 Africans, including five Eritreans and four Congolese, as they crossed the Salam Bridge over the Suez Canal into the Sinai Desert demilitarized zone on buses. The remainder, like …

CAIRO: The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have just completed one of the largest infantry exercises of recent years in the Golan Heights region, training for conflict with Syria and Hezbollah, reported on the Israeli daily, Haaretz on Thursday. IDF has denied rumors that the military training signals Israel s readiness for an attack on Syria, …

CAIRO: The British authorities have announced the closing of the investigations into the mysterious death of controversial Egyptian billionaire Ashraf Marwan last week. Marwan, the son-in-law of former President Gamal Abdel Nasser, died at the age of 63 causing frenzy in the local and international media as well as online blogs. The deceased, who was …

Associated Press SAN A, Yemen: Yemeni authorities confirmed Friday that an Egyptian national killed in a gunfight when resisting arrest was an Al-Qaeda suspect and an alleged plotter of the suicide bombing that killed seven Spanish tourists and two Yemenis earlier this week. Authorities said Ahmed Bassiouni Dewidar, 52, was killed Thursday in San a, …

CAIRO: A video by Al-Qaeda’s ideologue, Egyptian Ayman Al-Zawahiri, calling for regime change in Egypt is not likely to have a major effect on the country’s political climate says Nabil Abdel-Fatah, an analyst at Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies. “It will have no effect, Abdel-Fatah told The Daily Star Egypt. The video …

CAIRO: Representatives of human rights organizations and opposition parties criticized Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif, following Nazif’s vociferous attack on both during a talk he gave Thursday at a youth camp in Alexandria. Nazif accused human rights organizations of only reporting on the negative and ignoring all the positive achievements and developments taking place in Egypt. …

CAIRO: Mohamed Esmat El-Sadat s appeal against the People’s Assembly’s decision to revoke his parliamentary membership was not intended to reinstate him but rather to expose how things truly work in the Egyptian system, El-Sadat told The Daily Star Egypt. The former MP – also nephew of former President Mohamed Anwar El Sadat and head …

Efforts should be focused on Palestinian division, expert says The visit to Israel is supposed to come after Aboul Gheit pays a visit to Washington on July 9. Additionally, the EU announced that the Quartet (US, EU, UN and Russia) would convene in July with the “Arab Quartet of Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the …

CAIRO: Last week saw fierce negotiations between different human rights organizations and the interior ministry, in an attempt to release the large number of Bedouin political detainees. We have been lobbying for this issue since the first Taba bombings [2004], Ashraf El-Hefni, head of El-Tagamuu party and chief of the citizens’ rights committee, told The …

Associated Press EL-ARISH, Egypt: Egyptian border guards shot a Sudanese refugee and arrested two others early Wednesday as they tried to cross from Egypt into Israel, a police official said. Twenty-six other refugees were successful in the their attempt to illegally cross the border, the official said. The Israeli army, meanwhile, said 47 Africans crossed …

CAIRO: The release of BBC Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston early yesterday morning, is an attempt by Hamas to mend fences with the West, Mohamed El Sayid Saeed, Deputy Director of Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, told The Daily Star Egypt. Johnston, who was held in captivity for 114 days, told BBC reporters …

CAIRO: The administrative court has postponed till July 31the appeal hearing of detained members of the Quranist movement. Adel Ramadan, the lawyer representing the detainees in the case, told The Daily Star Egypt that on May 29, national security forces had broken into the homes of four members of the Quranist movement at about 2 …

CAIRO: A new initiative to form a party that includes repentant Islamist militants reignited the debate on the limitations of the political integration of Egypt s most notorious armed organizations that left hundreds dead in the 1990s. Islamist lawyer Montasser El-Zayat dropped a bombshell earlier this week by declaring his intention to form The Union …

CAIRO: A meeting between the Quartet, the Palestinian Authority, and Israeli leaders will take place in Egypt mid-July, announced EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana. Toward the middle of the month, we will recuperate this initiative, he said. Political analyst from the Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies Emad Gad told The Daily …

CAIRO: Although scheduled to be issued yesterday, the administrative court has postponed the final decision on Ayman Nour s early release until July 31, due to his critical health condition. Nour s wife Gamila Ismail told The Daily Star Egypt that postponing the final hearing another three weeks is even better than a quicker final …

CAIRO: Investigations surrounding Sherif El-Filali s death, convicted of spying for Israel, are still in the pipeline, sources from the Maadi prosecutor’s office told The Daily Star Egypt. El-Filali, 40, was being held in solitary confinement when he passed away, three days before his death was officially announced by authorities on July 2. The fact …

CAIRO: President Hosni Mubarak told newspapers that Ashraf Marwan “was a real Egyptian nationalist and was not a spy to any party at all, reported the Associated Press. The president spoke to newspaper editors last Sunday on his way back to Cairo after attending the African Union summit in Ghana. Marwan died at age 63 …

CAIRO: After delaying the government appeal against a case filed by Ayman Nour’s supporters by one day, the administrative court agreed Monday to further postpone the hearing until Sept. 2, as requested by his defense team. Amir Salem, Nour’s lawyer, told The Daily Star Egypt that the government rushed in presenting the appeal because the …

Associated Press Writer EL-ARISH: Border guards on Saturday arrested six Sudanese, one Somalian and one Eritrean as they were trying to illegally cross from Egypt into Israel, a police official said. The Sudanese men, who were from the war-torn Darfur region, were attempting to enter Israel in an effort to seek political asylum there, the …

CAIRO: The administrative court postponed for one day the hearing of the appeal presented by the Egyptian government against a case filed by the supporters of former head of the opposition Al Ghad party Ayman Nour, demanding Nour’s release citing his critical health conditions. The final hearing on this case is scheduled for July 3, …

LONDON: A coroner s inquest was opened and adjourned in London Friday into the death of the billionaire son-in-law of former Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser. Financier Ashraf Marwan, 63, who reportedly spied for Israel, is thought to have fallen from the balcony of his fifth-floor apartment in the West End district of the British …

CAIRO: The court postponed the appeal of Al-Jazeera producer Howayda Taha till Sept. 15. The court has transferred the documentary to a technical committee to examine the controversial scenes and determine if they were fabricated, Taha told The Daily Star Egypt. The court will base its final decision on the committee’s report in September. Taha …