CAIRO: The stakes were raised in the internal crisis in the Al-Wafd Party, as Noaman Gomaa, overthrown chairman of Al-Wafd, was barred by his rivals from the party’s headquarters for approximately three days; an act that weakened chances for reconciliation between the party rivals. Gomaa, after being denied access to the party’s headquarters by the …

CAIRO: Egypt made a shaky start on Wednesday in its mediation on the future of the Palestinian Authority after the militant Islamist group Hamas won last week s parliamentary elections. After talks between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, a senior Egyptian official said Abbas would not ask Hamas to form a …

CAIRO: The government of South Sudan is sending a delegation to Egypt to demand a probe into the deaths of 27 Sudanese when police broke up a protest in Cairo, the official SUNA news agency reported. It said the delegation would leave in the coming days with a message from southern leader and Sudanese First …

CAIRO: The government will not deport Sudanese detainees lacking official status as asylum seekers or refugees, according to an official at the foreign affairs ministry. “Now that the [UN refugee agency] UNHCR has completed its assessment interviews, it’s been decided that none of the remaining detainees will be deported back to Sudan, said Nasser Al-Hamzawi, …

CAIRO: All the Arab governments around Israel will deal directly with a Palestinian cabinet dominated by the militant Islamist group Hamas, ignoring U.S. and European attempts to isolate the group, analysts said on Monday. The Egyptian and Syrian governments already have good working relationships with Hamas, although some of their main domestic opponents are Islamists, …

CAIRO: Legal scholars and members of the Egyptian judiciary went head to head to debate the controversial question of whether women should be permitted to sit as judges in Egypt. The Arab Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and Legal Profession (ACIJLP), in collaboration with the Delegation of European Commission in Egypt, hosted the …

ASSIUT, Egypt: Egyptian authorities have arrested 22 Muslims suspected of murder, arson and vandalism during sectarian violence which killed a Christian, judicial sources in the southern town of Luxor said on Sunday. Muslim youths set fire to building materials being used by Christians to turn a house into a church in the southern Egyptian village …

CAIRO: More than 30 of the temporarily banned Al-Wafd newspaper journalists sat-in on Sunday in front of the High Committee for Journalists, protesting the halt of their daily publication. In front of the committee’s headquarters, reporters staged a silent and peaceful protest that lasted around three hours, during which members of the committee were assessing …

CAIRO: Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif said plans to tackle crippling unemployment levels are high on the agenda of his new government programme, which he unveiled Monday in parliament. The cabinet gives priority to job creations in order to absorb the growing workforce and implement President (Hosni) Mubarak s program for 4.5 million new jobs …

CAIRO: Last Friday, the independent daily Al-Masry Al-Youm could not be found on newsstands; rumors that the paper had been banned by the government circulated, as faithful readers searched for the newspaper in dismay. The newspaper has one of the highest rates among opposition and independent newspapers for distribution. The publication has almost always been …

CAIRO: A group of angry Al-Wafd reporters sat-in in front of the press syndicate Saturday morning, protesting the halt of publication of the Al-Wafd newspaper that is now in its fourth day. The newspaper halt was a direct result of longstanding in-fighting among different factions inside the Al-Wafd party. The conflict peaked when Noaman Gomaa, …

CAIRO: Reporters Without Borders Tuesday issued an inflammatory statement slamming the continued hounding of journalists in Egypt and called on President Hosni Mubarak to keep his pledge, made to parliament on Decembe19, to allow press freedom. “Each year, President [Hosni] Mubarak announces that the authorities will stop their harassment of journalists, the worldwide press freedom …

CAIRO: An electronic mail message (e-mail) entitled “Strictly Confidential , preceded with the tag “Forward, is circulated on the Internet to forewarn people of a conspiracy against Islamic preacher Amr Khaled; asking Muslims to pray for the popular young man. Amr Khaled, often described as a modern televangelist, began preaching in Egypt less than a …

CAIRO: President Hosni Mubarak, speaking to the firstever gathering of the Arab Parliament, assured its members Tuesday that solidarity would enable the Arab world to successfully confront the challenges it faces. “Our great Arab world, through the unity of its sons, has the means to restore its vitality, to face current challenges and to assume …

CAIRO: To mark World AIDS Awareness Month, December 2005, the Ministry of Health and Population, in collaboration with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) project Communication for Healthy Living, decided to get on track to increase HIV/AIDS awareness. In an innovative attempt to gain attention, the ministry engaged a six-car train to make …

NEW YORK: The sentencing of El-Ghad party leader Ayman Nour to five years imprisonment on charges that he forged signatures to register his party has received sharp criticism from Washington. In a statement released shortly after the verdict was announced Saturday, White House spokesman Scott McClellan called upon the Egyptian government to release the political …

CAIRO: During his trial last week,incarcerated fromer Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein accused his American guards of torturing him, an allegation that provoked diverse reactions inside Egypt. Human rights groups, however, remain silent in reaction to the claims. The leader, who is strongly suspected of killing thousands during his reign, has been on trial charged with …

CAIRO: Amr Diab’s new album Kammel Kalamak (Finish Your Words) was due for a summer release but was postponed more than once.The August 17 release was first postponed in mourning over the death of Saudi King Fahd Bin Abdel Aziz Al-Saud and the victims of the Sharm El-Sheikh terrorist attack. Then rumors circulated that Diab …

CAIRO: After a trial that dragged on for more than a year, Ayman Nour was sentenced, early Saturday, to five years in jail by an Egyptian court. Nour, chairman of El-Ghad (Tomorrow) Party, was accused last year of forging all but 14 applications out of the 2,000 needed by law to declare his political party …

CAIRO: Kharif Adam or (Adam’s Way), is the first Egyptian film ever to be short-listed in the Oscars and the Golden Globe awards. Although the chance of the film actually winning is slim,just being considered is a big step for Egypt’s film industry. The film’s storyline is not new, based on Mohamed El-Bossaty’s 1970 novel …

CAIRO: Today’s international headlines are choked with references to so-called Islamic terrorism, fundamentalism, and extremism. Images of gunwielding Palestinians and suicide bombers etch negative impressions of the Muslim world to Western audiences. Since the onset of the U.S. and allied invasion of Iraq, disturbing images of Westerners being executed by groups avowing Islamic ideals have …

CAIRO: A British coroner began hearing evidence Monday about the deaths of 11 Britons who died last summer in terrorist bombings in Sharm El-Sheikh. The two-day hearing was being held in Chelmsford, north of London, the BBC reported. As the hearing began, Coroner Caroline Beasley-Murray acknowledged how “dreadful it must be for the families of …

CAIRO: How far can you push the limit, testing authorities’ tolerance to the freedom of expression you are demonstrating? No one can answer this question better than Amr Adib; because for the past six years he has been testing the limits on air. “Freedom is hard-pressed. Meaning, it is acquired, it is not bestowed, says …

‘The case against him is very fishy,’ alleges his attorney CAIRO: A group of El-Ghad (Tomorrow) Party supporters protested rowdily on Monday in front of the Benha Criminal Courthouse chanting, “Down, Down with Mubarak! The protestors flocked from Cairo and Banha (a city in Qalyubiyya) to witness the ruling in the court case of El-Ghad …

CAIRO: Some 1,500 Sudanese asylum seekers have abandoned a more than two-monthlong sit-in outside U.N. offices in Cairo after the agency agreed to review their asylum claims, the body s refugee arm said on Sunday. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said concern for the protestors,who had endured winter temperatures camping in the open …

  *     CAIRO: Some 1,500 Sudanese asylum seekers have abandoned a more than two-monthlong sit-in outside U.N. offices in Cairo after the agency agreed to review their asylum claims, the body s refugee arm said on Sunday. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said concern for the protestors,who had endured winter temperatures …

CAIRO: Even with all of the talk regarding reforms – both political and business related – the majority of Egypt’s population remains poor.The total number of informal housing quarters,including shantytowns and slums, range from 1,150 (according to government statistics) to 1,430 (according to local NGO statistics) with a combined total of over 15 million inhabitants …

CAIRO: President Hosni Mubarak demanded a review of Egypt’s recently run parliamentary elections, which were marred by widespread violence, his spokesman said Monday. Mubarak’s remarks came during a ceremony in which he appointed 10 lawmakers, including five women, and urged newly elected legislators from his ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) to achieve the political, economic …

CAIRO: Newly elected Islamist members of the Egyptian parliament are open to dialogue with members of the U.S. Congress without involving the Cairo government, leading members of the Muslim Brotherhood said on Sunday. But contacts with officials of the U.S. administration would require the approval of the Egyptian foreign ministry, the Brotherhood’s deputy leader Mohamed …

CAIRO: Kefaya demonstrators carried a makeshift coffin, draped in black, with an image of the Maglis El Shaab (People’s Assembly) building on one side and a picture of President Hosni Mubarak on the other, as part of their march commemorating one year of active protesting. The demonstration kicked off with roughly 100 people on the …