Egypt attempts to redress regional balance with Russia visit, says expert CAIRO: President Hosni Mubarak’s visit to Russia is seen as a pivotal change in pace for Egyptian foreign policy and its ties with world powers, analysts have said. Although the agenda for the trip initially focused on economic cooperation, reports have since emerged that …

Poll results indicate Egyptians hate Israel and Denmark, love Saudi CAIRO: The Information and Decision Support Center released yesterday the results of a poll identifying which countries Egyptians believe to be their worst enemies. And, yes, Shaaban Abdel Rehim got it right: The most hated country is Israel. Denmark came in second. Only two percent …

Measuring the present by the past: we’ve come a long way The growth of opposition movements, the specter of multi-candidate presidential elections and the constitutional amendments proposed by the president have brought Egypt’s political processes to the fore. If we want to speak about Egypt s interior affairs, we should first examine our past. Egypt …

Associated Press CAIRO: A Muslim preacher is snatched off the streets of an Italian city – purportedly by CIA agents – and whisked off to his homeland, Egypt. There he all but vanishes for more than three years. The abduction of Osama Hassan Mustafa Nasr, known as Abu Omar, is one of the few known …

Israel and Egypt will not initiate security sweep without mutual agreement An expert on military studies dismissed Israeli statements that it was preparing to launch a military operation along the Egypt-Gaza border to destroy tunnels reportedly used by Hamas and other factions to smuggle weapons and drugs to and from the Palestinian territories. Israel is …

Agence France-Presse DOHA: Al-Jazeera news channel, which has changed the face of Arab television reporting by breaking taboos, is set to extend its controversial reach to English-speaking audiences as it marks its 10th anniversary Wednesday. Its second decade will see the repeatedly delayed launch of the English-language Al-Jazeera International, probably in mid-November according to sources …

SYDNEY: Battling widespread condemnation and failing health, Australia s beleaguered Islamic leader stepped aside and conceded that his comparison of women without head scarves to uncovered meat was not appropriate in western society. The 65-year-old Egyptian-born Sunni cleric was admitted to a Sydney hospital Monday after weathering accusations in the media last week that he …

President Hosni Mubarak’s statement denying that 5,000 Egyptian police had been deployed near the border with Gaza has further raised confusion concerning the security situation there. “There is no truth to these reports, he told his ruling National Democratic Party members of parliament yesterday. His statements contradicted earlier Egyptian news reports that had said that …

Director of US foreign assistance meets with ministers CAIRO: The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) won’t be contributing to Egypt’s nuclear plans for the time being, American and Egyptian officials have announced. In a meeting between Minister of International Cooperation Fayza Abu El-Naga and Ambassador Randall L. Tobias, director of US Foreign Assistance …

Associated Press CAIRO: Egyptians are not happy with the way the US is involved in the Middle East, a new poll recently found. A June poll by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press found that less than one-third of the people in Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan and Turkey had a favorable view …

Workers Protest Election Laws, Demand Changes CAIRO- Members of Workers for Change (WFC), an affiliate of the Egyptian Movement for Change (Kefaya), demanded judicial oversight in a demonstration at the High Court downtown yesterday. Students and workers from local factories rallied at the buildings main entrance holding banners that said “No to fraudulent union elections, …

What happened on Oct.24, the first day of Eid Al-Fitr, in downtown Cairo? According to shop owners in the vicinity of Metro Cinema near Talaat Harb Square, up to a thousand young men accosted several women in the area between the hours of 9 p.m. and midnight. According to eyewitness reports, the men had been …

Egypt wants to prevent arms smuggling through tunnels An Israeli official told The Daily Star Egypt that “no decision has been made regarding Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s statement yesterday that the military would launch an operation in the Gaza Strip. The comments come two days after nearly 5,000 Egyptian security police were deployed in …

CAIRO: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak promised Monday to ease restrictions on running for the country s top job. At a meeting of MPs from his ruling National Democratic Party, Mubarak vowed to amend Article 76 of the constitution which says a legal party must control five percent of both houses of parliament to field a …

LONDON: Jailed Islamic cleric Abu Hamza Al-Masri begins a legal challenge on Monday against his convictions for inciting racial hatred and soliciting murder. Egyptian-born Hamza, 48, was jailed for seven years in February after being found guilty of 11 of 15 charges. The charges mostly referred to sermons he delivered in the late 1990s. His …

New governmental approach imperative to jumpstart peace process CAIRO: The European Union’s foreign policy chief Javier Solana met with President Hosni Mubarak yesterday in a bid to jumpstart the moribund Middle East peace process, according to an EU spokeswoman. The discussions centered on the creation of a new Palestinian unity government, which would allow a …

Police force deployed to Egypt-Gaza border Nearly 5,000 state security police were deployed in the vicinity of the Egypt-Gaza border to “secure the tunnels allegedly used to smuggle weapons to and from the Palestinian territories once and for all, a military analyst said. Dr. Mohammed Kadry Saeed, military expert at Al-Ahram Center for Political and …

CAIRO: A deal to release an Israeli soldier captured last June by Palestinian militants in exchange for Palestinians held in Israel is close to being sealed, a spokesman for the ruling Palestinian Hamas movement said Sunday. We are close to a deal but it is tied to an Israeli response, Osama Hamdan said. There is …

ISMAILIA, Egypt: Egypt moved 5,000 more security forces near the Gaza Strip border on Saturday after an Israeli report said Israel may bomb tunnels used for smuggling weapons into Palestinian territories, an Egyptian official said. They requested reinforcements after the Israeli report and also citing fears of Palestinian militants breaching the border wall between the …

Israeli use of smart bombs to destroy tunnels ruled out Cairo: A spokesperson at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said he was not aware of an Israeli newspaper report saying that Israeli air force could start using “smart bombs to bomb tunnels allegedly used to smuggle weapons along the Egypt-Gaza border. The spokesperson told The …

The Israel-Palestine conflict is tragically the most enduring and, arguably, the most written-about. Yet often sincere truth-seekers are left in the dark due to the relentless propaganda emanating from either from professional spin masters or people whose psyches are bound-up with the problem affecting their impartiality. The truth concerning the breakdown of the Oslo Accords …

LONDON: The Suez invasion, 50 years ago on Tuesday, marked the start of close cooperation between London and Washington still visible in the Middle East and made clear for the first time that Britain and France were no longer world powers. It showed that interests between America and its European allies were not always the …

MILAN: An Italian prosecutor called on Friday for an Egyptian accused of helping to plan the 2004 Madrid train bombings to be sentenced to 14 years in prison. The accused, Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, had close links to the commuter train attackers and has claimed credit for the bombings that killed 191 people in the …

ISMAILIA: Egyptian police have recovered nearly one ton of high explosives hidden in a mountainous area of central Sinai, security sources said on Friday. The explosives were buried in 13 plastic bags and were discovered by Bedouin trackers working for the government, according to the sources, who did not specify the type of explosive. The …

Based in Syria, Maashaal was allegedly due to visit Egypt early next week DAMASCUS: Hamas said Friday its exiled political leader had no plans to visit Cairo, despite media reports he would meet with Egyptian intelligence officials there over the case of an abducted Israeli soldier. Arab and Israeli media have reported that Khaled Mashaal, …

MADRID: Spain plans to float the idea of a Mideast peace conference, similar to that held in Madrid in 1991, at a meeting this week of ministers from Mediterranean countries, diplomatic sources said Friday. The suggestion could be made at the Mediterranean Forum (Foromed) meeting in Alicante in southeast Spain being held Friday and Saturday …

DOHA: Arab news channel Al-Jazeera denied Thursday that it was pursuing a political agenda against Tunisia, after Tunis closed its embassy in Doha to protest an alleged hostile campaign by the Qatar-based television. We do not have a political agenda against Tunisia or any other side, said Waddah Khanfar, director general of the satellite channel …

CAIRO: Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit said Friday the United Nations and Sudan must continue to cooperate even if it means sending a new envoy to Khartoum to replace the one expelled from there. In my view, the UN … will send another envoy so that cooperation continues with the Sudanese government, he said, stressing the …

VATICAN CITY: Pope Benedict XVI made a new call for religious dialogue Thursday to paper over the cracks following remarks last month that angered Muslims, a Vatican statement said. Speaking to the new Belgian ambassador to the Vatican, Franck De Coninck, he said that the arrival of more and more immigrants and the increase of …

Agence France-Presse PARIS: On the 50th anniversary of the Franco-British airborne invasion of Egypt that is known as the Suez crisis, French veterans of the campaign are still pushing for official recognition from the state which they say has airbrushed them out of the history books. Some 17,000 French servicemen were involved – mostly at …