CAIRO: Members of the Egyptian blogosphere, Muslim Brotherhood members, and a number of local and foreign journalists gathered outside the office of the public prosecutor in Shubra on Tuesday morning for a sit-in awaiting the outcome of the the interrogation of detained Brotherhood blogger/journalist Abdel Moneim Mahmoud. The protestors patiently awaited Mahmoud’s legal advisor Ahmed …

CAIRO: What are the differences between protests today and the protests of the 6os and 70s? How has the political and social reality in Egypt changed and what are the manifestations of these changes? Is there a feminist movement in Egypt? What about protest music? What makes Egypt’s Copts take to the streets? To answer …

CAIRO: A panel of trade unionists from across the country gathered at Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies on Tuesday to discuss the wave of strikes that has swept Egypt in the last year, as well as their campaign to form new unions independent of state control. The speakers included Alexandria-based organizer Ahmed Abdullah, Mohamed …

CAIRO: Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit Tuesday received Mark Otte, the EU envoy to the Middle East peace process, who was visiting Egypt as part of a regional tour. Following the meeting, Otte was reported to have said that he had talks with Aboul Gheit on a wide range of issues, hailing intensive Egyptian diplomatic …

CAIRO: Despite the disapproval of the opposition front and the Judges Club, the People s Assembly (PA) on Tuesday approved the new judges law that pushed up the retirement age to 70. Zakaria Abdel Aziz, president of the Judges Club, told The Daily Star Egypt that the new law is unfair to young judges. The …

TOKYO: Japan s foreign minister will visit the United States, Russia and Egypt on an eight-day trip starting this weekend, the ministry announced Thursday. Taro Aso leaves Tokyo on Saturday for a five-day visit to Washington, D.C., where he is slated to meet his US counterpart Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the ministry said in …

CAIRO: International civil society organizations and activists are once again taking action against what they call are “systematic crackdowns on Egyptian bloggers by the national authorities. Today, a network of international human rights activists are staging worldwide demonstrations in protest at the imprisonment of Alexandrian student blogger Kareem Amer, who in late November was sentenced …

GAZA CITY: Palestinian factions are prepared to stand by a fragile truce which Hamas declared over this week after firing rockets into Israel, an Egyptian official said Thursday. The member of an Egyptian security delegation, based in the Gaza Strip, was speaking to AFP following talks with Palestinian faction representatives and Israeli officials to try …

CAIRO: Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Seniora took his campaign for a tribunal for the killers of Rafik Hariri to Egypt on Monday, holding talks with its president days after the United Nations indicated it was unwilling to appoint such a court without all-party agreement. We will exert all efforts and exhaust all means that lead …

CAIRO: During a People’s Assembly session on Monday, Gawdat Al Malt, head of the Central Auditing Agency (CAA) accused Cabinet of working on “isolated islands , reported Al-Masry Al-Youm Tuesday. In a heated discussion of the 2004-05 balance sheets, Al Malt pointed to the gross inconsistencies between the statistics pertaining to inflation rates, unemployment and …

CAIRO: Ahmed Maher, former Foreign Minister stated in Al Wafd newspaper on Monday April 23, that foreign polices all over the world are drawn up by presidents and not foreign ministers. Maher s statement was made during a lecture held in Alexandria library that discussed Egyptian-American relations. Maher described the foreign minister s post as …

CAIRO: Egypt celebrates Sinai Liberation Day today, marking 35 years since the victories of the 1972 war against Israel which eventually led to the return of the Sinai Peninsula from occupation. After three consecutive defeats at Israeli hands, the battle victories near the Suez Canal produced a groundswell of national pride and were the first …

CAIRO: President Hosni Mubarak met with the Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas of India Murli Deora yesterday. Deora delivered a message to President Mubarak from Manmohan Singh, prime minister of India. According to the Indian embassy in Cairo, Mubarak reiterated his support to the traditional relations of friendship and cooperation between India and Egypt …

CAIRO: Former Russian President Boris Yeltsin has died at the age of 76, the Kremlin confirmed yesterday. The cause of death has not been announced but Yeltsin was a notoriously heavy drinker and suffered five heart attacks while in office. Yeltsin was a controversial figure throughout his two terms as the first president of the …

CAIRO: Following weeks of what labor activists have described as “harassment and “intimidation, the Ministry of Social Solidarity has issued an order to shut down the Helwan headquarters of the Center for Trade Union and Worker Services (CTUWS). The CTUWS is an independent worker’s rights organization formed in 1990 by Egyptian industrial workers. The group …

CAIRO: Egypt on Tuesday condemned Israeli forces for killing nine Palestinians and also called on the Palestinians to refrain from firing rockets into Israel, saying that would give the Jewish state an excuse to attack. Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit called on the Palestinian side not to do anything that the enemies of peace … …

BAGHDAD: Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki met Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Sunday to discuss preparations for next month s international conference on Iraq. Ministers from the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, the Group of Eight and Iraq s neighbors are set to meet in Sharm El-Sheikh on May 3-4 to …

Gamal Mubarak, head of the National Democratic Party s Policies Committee, is getting married in early May. Congratulations to Mr Mubarak and his bride. But what is disconcerting about the upcoming wedding is the hoopla and near hysteria displayed by the so-called opposition newspapers. They have hatched conspiracy theories that the marriage is a means …

CAIRO: A state security court sentenced the Canadian-Egyptian citizen, Mohammed Essam Ghoneim Al-Attar, to 15 years in prison after finding him guilty of spying for Israel. Three Israelis, said to be Mossad agents, were tried in absentia and also received 15 years each. Al-Attar was arrested upon arriving in Cairo airport on Jan. 1 of …

CAIRO: Skepticism is pervasive over the Israeli acceptance of the Arab peace initiative proposed at the March Riyadh summit. “Israel is not convinced by the Arab initiative from a strategic view point, Diaa Rashwan from Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies told The Daily Star Egypt. Rashwan was also skeptical that Egypt and …

CAIRO: The office of the public prosecutor in Shubra district ordered on Monday the 15-day detainment of Muslim Brotherhood blogger/journalist Abdel Moneim Mahmoud pending investigation of charges including “membership of an illegal organization and “tarnishing Egypt’s image. Mahmoud, a reporter at the British Al-Hiwar TV and moderator of the blog ‘Ana Ikhwan,’ (‘I am a …

CAIRO: Egypt warned the five permanent members of the UN Security Council on Thursday not to threaten Sudan with fresh sanctions over Darfur, calling instead for confidence-building measures and dialogue. Egypt made the call a day after the United States and Britain, cranking up pressure on Khartoum, threatened sanctions and other punitive measures unless Sudan …

CAIRO: The story of the Egyptian nuclear technician, Mohammed Sayed Saber Ali, who has been charged by Egyptian authorities with spying for Israel, has both shocked the nation and raised many skeptical eyebrows. Ali is alleged to have received $17,000 for documents he took from the Inshas research nuclear reactor where he worked, part of …

Reuters CAIRO: US Defense Secretary Robert Gates urged Middle Eastern states on Wednesday to help stabilize Iraq, warning them that chaos in the country would harm the region well before it hurts the United States. Speaking at an American Chamber of Commerce event in Cairo, Gates said countries should set aside disputes over the U.S.-led …

Reuters CAIRO: Arab foreign ministers asked Egypt and Jordan on Wednesday to contact Israelis to try to persuade them to accept an Arab peace plan, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal said. Egypt and Jordan already have relations with Israel and the Israeli government had hoped that the Arabs would include other Arab governments in …

Reuters CAIRO: Egyptian authorities have charged a nuclear engineer at the state s Atomic Energy Agency with spying for Israel, along with two fugitive foreigners – an Irishman and a Japanese, a government statement said on Tuesday. Mohamed Sayed Saber Ali, 35, is suspected of taking documents from his workplace at Inshas, site of one …

Egyptian border authorities on Tuesday arrested a Palestinian woman in her fifties who was trying to smuggle weapons parts into the Gaza Strip in her suitcase, security sources said. One of the sources said the woman, Fathia Abdel-Razeq Said of the Beach refugee camp, had tried to take in large quantities of parts, including springs …

CAIRO: On the tail of the recent constitutional amendments it has been learnt that reform or real change cannot come from within the regime or from abroad, but rather it must come from people themselves according to Tamer Wagih from the Socialist Studies Center. In reference to the recent amendments Wagih said “the regime have …