DOHA: Hopes of a new US approach to the Muslim world under President Barack Obama are giving way to frustration over the deadlock in Middle East peace efforts, participants in a US-Islam forum said on Sunday. Eight months after Obama addressed the Muslim world from Cairo, prospects for a US policy shift in the region …

DARFUR: The Arab League (AL) coordinates with all political forces in Sudan and not just the government in Khartoum, Secretary General Amr Moussa told Daily News Egypt. During the League s visit Saturday and Sunday, projects were inaugurated in Jeninah in West Darfur as well as in Niyala, during which time it held an extraordinary …

CAIRO: The US military chief has met with Egypt s president at the start of a Middle East tour that Arab media reports say is focused on concerns about Iran s nuclear program. The predominantly Sunni Arab Middle East has been wary of the growing influence of Shia Iran, especially because of international suspicions that …

CAIRO: The trial of 25 men accused of belonging to a terrorist organisation, known as the “Zeitoun case, began Sunday, amid a heavy security presence. Two lines of policemen prevented journalists and defendants’ relatives who arrived after the session had begun from getting anywhere near the courtroom. Inside, lawyers told Daily News Egypt, the dock …

PAARL: Prominent South Africans gathered at a prison outside Cape Town Thursday to fete the 20th anniversary of Nelson Mandela s release from jail, which hastened the demise of apartheid. At a breakfast organized by the ruling party s former anti-apartheid activists, tycoon and veteran activist Cyril Ramaphosa said Mandela was serene as he prepared …

LONDON: Three international broadcasters on Friday accused Iran of deliberately jamming their output. Britain s BBC, German broadcaster Deutsche Welle and the Voice of America said the interference began on Thursday as Iran celebrated the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. They accused Iran of broadcasting freely around the world while denying the Iranian people …

CAIRO: The State Security Prosecution has coined a new set of charges against Muslim Brotherhood leaders detained earlier this week and remanded in custody for another 15 days. The new accusations allege that the detained Deputy Supreme Guide of the group Mahmoud Ezzat, is in fact the actual Supreme Guide of the International Muslim Brotherhood …

KUWAIT CITY: Arab finance and economy ministers opened a meeting in Kuwait on Thursday with calls for speeding up economic integration and establishing a customs union by a 2015 target date. “We must have a working program with a timetable to implement Arab joint ventures and other economic integration projects, Arab League Secretary General Amr …

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama s charm offensive on Muslim states comes to a weekend forum in Qatar where he will send a video message and his chief diplomat will give a speech, organizers said Thursday. Obama will deliver his message to the seventh annual US-Islamic World Forum in the Qatari capital, which Secretary of …

TEHRAN: Hundreds of thousands of government supporters massed Thursday in central Tehran to mark the anniversary of the revolution that created Iran s Islamic republic, while a heavy security force that fanned across the city moved quickly to snuff out counterprotests by the opposition. Police clashed with protesters in several sites around Tehran, firing tear …

CAIRO: Abdel-Halim Qandil, coordinator of the Kefaya movement for change, denied to Daily News Egypt reports claiming that he accused the April 6 Movement and some opposition parties of being funded by the American secret service. Reports had emerged last week that Qandil had accused the April 6 Movement and opposition parties Al-Ghad and the …

CAIRO: The 15 Muslim Brotherhood leaders detained earlier this week are facing a new set of charges, including forming training camps to launch attacks. The group’s deputy leader Mohamed Ezzat and members of the Guidance Office Essam El-Erian and Abdul-Rahman Al-Barr are accused of setting up a body aligned with the thinking of former Brotherhood …

CAIRO: The policies of Finance Minister Yousef Boutros Ghali pose a threat to security and may lead to his assassination, said a parliamentarian this week in an astonishing broadside. Mohamed Abdel-Fatah Omar, deputy of the national security and defense committee of the People’s Assembly (PA), was called to the meeting of the health committee Tuesday …

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s prime minister voiced concern Wednesday about “escalating Israeli war threats, and said his government will support the Shia Muslim group Hezbollah if a new war breaks out with the Jewish state. Saad Hariri’s comments come amid heightened tensions in the Middle East following some of the sharpest exchanges in years between Israel and …

DUBAI: Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the Yemen-based group that claimed a botched Christmas Day attack on a US airliner, on Monday called for more American targets to be hit around the world. American and Crusader interests are everywhere and their agents are moving everywhere, AQAP s number two Said Al-Shihri said in an audio …

CAIRO: The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Filippo Grandi, on Monday urged Egypt and the Arab League to press Israel to allow reconstruction equipment into the blockaded Gaza Strip. I am in Cairo to discuss the situation in Gaza and to call on the Cairo government and the Arab League to continue …

LONDON: British legal aid authorities have seized the London home of jailed radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza to recover costs spent on defending him, they said Tuesday. The Egyptian-born former imam, who has one eye and a hook for one hand, was jailed for seven years in 2007 for inciting followers to murder non-believers, and …

CAIRO: In a strange turn of events, Minister of Electricity Hassan Younis denied reports claiming that Egypt’s first nuclear power plant would be in Dabba, telling the Shoura Council Monday that its location has yet to be decided. Younis said that the site for the power plant was still under consideration and would be announced …

CAIRO: Prominent members of the Muslim Brotherhood including its Deputy Supreme Guide Mahmoud Ezzat and members of its Guidance Office were arrested in raids before dawn on Monday. Along with the newly appointed Ezzat, newly appointed members to the Guidance Office Essam El-Erian and Abdurahman Al-Barr were also taken, as well as group leaders from …

CAIRO: Egypt is stepping up security on its maritime frontier with Gaza in a bid to prevent smuggling by sea, as work continues on an underground barrier along the land border, a security official said Sunday. Authorities have begun construction of a port for boats of Egypt s security forces to prevent all future attempts …

RAMALLAH: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has agreed in principle to indirect talks with Israel under US mediation but has requested a number of guarantees, a Palestinian official said Monday. The latest US proposal for renewing peace talks suspended more than a year ago would have the two sides hold three months of indirect negotiations and …

JERUSALEM: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel wants peace with Syria and the Palestinians, following a fierce exchange of words with Damascus that raised tensions in the region. Israel wants peace with all its neighbors. We made peace with Egypt and Jordan and we seek peace with Syria and the Palestinians, Netanyahu …

CAIRO: Egypt s ambassador to Algeria, recalled in November after a bitter football row, has returned to Algiers, the foreign ministry told AFP on Sunday. Abdel Aziz Seifelnasr returned to Algiers on Saturday, spokesman Hossam Zaki said. Cairo withdrew the envoy after attacks on Egyptian football fans in Sudan and on Egyptian businesses in Algiers, …

CAIRO – Egypt is to host a reconstruction conference for the war-torn Darfur region of western Sudan on March 21, the foreign ministry said on Saturday. The conference for the development and reconstruction of Darfur will be hosted by Egypt on March 21, ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki said in a statement that did not give …

CAIRO: Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said on Saturday that his Fatah movement would meet its Islamist rival Hamas only after the hardline faction signs an Egypt-sponsored reconciliation deal. When Hamas signs the reconciliation, there will immediately be a meeting with (Hamas leader) Khaled Meshaal, between Fatah and Hamas, and between all the factions to apply …

CAIRO: Egypt has called a recent war of words between Israel and Syria and the possibility of any war in the region as “a cause for grave concern and must stop, Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said Friday. Calling for restraint, Aboul Gheit added that Egypt objected to the tone of Israeli officials insinuating war …

UNITED NATIONS: UN chief Ban Ki-moon said Thursday he could not determine whether Israel and the Palestinians have met UN demands to carry out credible, independent probes of alleged war crimes in the Gaza Strip. He made the assessment in a report to the General Assembly which had given both sides until Friday to conduct …

JERUSALEM: Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman issued a sharp warning to Syria not to engage Israel in battle, saying President Bashar Al-Assad would lose not only the war but also his power. When there is another war, you will not just lose it, but you and your family will lose power, he said, a day …

TEHRAN: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran is willing to send its uranium abroad to be further enriched, as Western powers moved Wednesday towards tougher sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear defiance. Iran would have no problem, Ahmadinejad said in a television interview late Tuesday, sending out it stocks of low-enriched uranium (LEU) to be further …