CAIRO: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due in Cairo on Tuesday as Washington is drafting documents to serve as a basis for resuming Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Netanyahu will hold talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and other senior officials, Egyptian sources said. Egypt s foreign minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said on Sunday that the …

CAIRO: Constitutional reforms and an amendment to Article 76 were some of the discussions dominating the National Democratic Party’s supreme policies council conference this weekend. Speaking to the press following the conference, Gamal Mubarak, head of the policies committee, and Safwat El-Sherif, general secretary of the NDP, refused to enforce any amendments to the constitution, …

GAZA CITY: The Hamas-run Gaza Strip on Sunday marked one year since the start of the deadliest-ever offensive waged by Israel on the isolated enclave, swathes of which still remain in ruins. Sirens were to wail throughout the Palestinian territory at 11:20 am, when the first bombs of Israel s Operation Cast Lead, launched in …

CAIRO: Members of the Viva Palestina convoy stuck at the Gulf of Aqaba began a hunger strike to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the Israeli offensive on Gaza as they awaited entry into Egypt. Fifteen people from the convoy began the hunger strike at 11:35 am Jordan time to mark the exact moment when Israel …

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would go to Egypt to meet President Hosni Mubarak on Tuesday as talks over a prisoner swap with Hamas appear to be gathering speed. I intend to go on Tuesday to Egypt to meet President Mubarak, Netanyahu said on Sunday at the start of the weekly cabinet …

CAIRO: Egypt has continued to refuse permission for the Gaza aid convoy headed by British MP George Galloway to dock in the port of Nuweiba, insisting that it must head by sea to the port at the city of Al-Arish. The third edition of the Viva Palestina convoy, named Lifeline 3, is currently in Jordan …

CAIRO: Construction work is still ongoing on the border with the Gaza Strip, but for the past two days there has been no erecting of the infamous underground steel wall. Eyewitnesses told Daily News Egypt that digging was still underway, as well as the insertion of long steel pipes underground but there was no work …

CAIRO: Iran made a new offer for resolving tensions with Arab nations, an Egyptian official said Monday, and Egypt s president flew to the Persian Gulf in an unexpected visit to discuss the proposal with his allies. US-allied Arab nations, which are mainly led by Sunni Muslims, have been deeply concerned over the rising power …

JERUSALEM: Marathon top-level Israeli meetings ended early Tuesday without announcement of a decision over whether to accept Islamic militants demand to swap 1,000 Palestinian prisoners for a lone Israeli serviceman. A decision to pay that lopsided price for 23-year-old Sgt. Gilad Shalit could reshuffle Mideast politics in unpredictable ways and possibly ease a punishing blockade …

Residents of Sinai and Bedouin tribe members continued to bemoan their treatment at the hands of security forces in 2009, prolonging a crackdown meted out since Sinai was rocked by terrorist bombings in 2005 and 2006. In addition, inter-tribal tensions also reverberated amongst the Bedouin in Northern Sinai in unrelated clashes. But it was the …

In a move rarely seen in Egypt, President Hosni Mubarak accepted the resignation of Transportation Minister Mohamed Lotfy Mansour on Monday Oct. 26, following a tragic railway accident. Mansour took full responsibility for the Oct. 24 Al-Ayyat train crash that claimed 18 lives and injured 36 people. At around 6:45 pm on Oct. 24 two …

Unlike previous years, the 2008/2009 People’s Assembly kept making headlines even after the June recess, with MP scandals overshadowing a largely uneventful term. Scandalous skirmishes In October, MP Ahmed Shobair, who is also a sports TV anchor and former goalkeeper of Al-Ahly football team, was stripped of his immunity when lawyer Mortada Mansour, the ex-chairman …

Despite a series of setbacks in Egypt’s courts in 2009, the Popular Campaign to Prevent the Export of Egyptian Natural Gas vowed to continue its opposition to the sale of gas, especially to Israel. The campaign had claimed a victory at the tail end of 2008 when the Cairo Administrative Court ruled in November of …

The onset of 2009 came hot on the heels of Operation Cast Lead, the Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip which began with airstrikes on Dec. 27, 2008 before Israeli ground troops moved in on Jan. 3 this year. A six-month ceasefire had ended Dec. 18, 2008 between Hamas and Israel, and on Dec. 24 …

While US President Barack Obama won the American presidential election on a platform of hope and change, it was more of the same when it came to his administration’s dealings with the Egyptian regime. In fact, the change that Obama introduced vis-à-vis the Egyptian regime was considered by opposition groups and human rights activists as …

After a calm 2008, this year saw the reemergence of terrorist incidents and alleged terror cells operating on Egyptian soil, but to a much lesser extent than the mid-1990s. Al-Hussein bombing The most tragic incident occurred Feb. 22 when a rudimentary device exploded in the tourist area of Khan El-Khalili near Al-Hussein Mosque that caused …

Opposition groups in Egypt had arrows slung on them from all sides in a year marked, not only by criticism and crackdowns from the ruling regime, but by differences within themselves and between each other. The Muslim Brotherhood The Muslim Brotherhood, the largest opposition group, though not officially recognized, received heavy blows from the regime …

CAIRO: Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari called on Monday for a stronger Egyptian presence in Iraq to create balance in his country, which has been plagued by a recent spate of deadly attacks. Iraq welcomes Egypt s strong return to Iraq through its embassy in Baghdad, Zebari told reporters after talks between Egyptian President Hosni …

CAIRO: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held talks on Monday with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on the second day of a visit to boost ties with his country s main trade partner in the region, the state-run MENA news agency reported. The two discussed international and regional issues of joint interest, the Middle East developments, …

CAIRO: The Muslim Brotherhood elected 16 new members to its Guidance Office who will lead the group for a four-year term, Supreme Guide Mohamed Mahdi Akef said. “There has been a complete change in the Guidance Office, the election process went smoothly and successfully despite the current circumstances, Akef said in a press statement. The …

CAIRO: The Gaza Freedom March will move forward with plans to march into Gaza on Dec. 31 despite having its request rejected by Egypt’s foreign ministry Monday. “Our efforts and plans will not be altered at this point, Ann Wright of the Gaza Freedom March Steering Committee said in a statement. “We have set out …

CAIRO: Iraq’s prime minister is in Egypt on a two-day trip to improve relations with one of the Middle East’s power players. Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki’s last visit to Egypt was in 2007 as part of an international conference to discuss his war-ravaged country’s future. He arrived in Cairo on Sunday. Ties between the two …

CAIRO: President Hosni Mubarak said yesterday that he is vigilant about the independence of the judicial system in Egypt and that it should be protected from any threats to its impartiality and neutrality or any action doubting the credibility of its judges. Mubarak’s words addressed a group of judges during a speech at the Court …

CAIRO: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak met Sunday with Iranian parliament speaker Ali Larijani in the first high-level talks between both countries since relations were strained after Israel’s war on Gaza. Larijani, who met Mubarak and Egyptian parliament speaker Ahmed Fathi Surour for two hours, described the meeting as “very good and constructive. “The two countries’ …

CAIRO: Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit implicitly confirmed on Saturday that his country was building an underground barrier with the Gaza Strip, saying it was Cairo’s right to protect itself. “Be it a wall or detection hardware, the important thing is that Egypt’s territory must be protected; it must not be violated in any …

CAIRO: Egypt’s most powerful opposition group the Muslim Brotherhood is currently in the process of appointing new members to its Guidance Office as well as a new Supreme Guide, the current Guide Mohamed Mahdi Akef told Daily News Egypt Sunday. “We are in the process right now of selecting new members to the Guidance Office …

JERUSALEM: Egypt’s intelligence chief Omar Suleiman was in Israel on Sunday to meet with top officials during a low-profile visit to the Jewish state, an Israeli official said. Suleiman met Defence Minister Ehud Barak in his Tel Aviv office and was also due to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as the head of …

CAIRO: A state-owned Cairo daily confirmed on Thursday that Egypt is building an underground barrier with Gaza and said it was a sovereign right that would increase pressure on the enclave s Hamas rulers. The barrier… is the same barrier that currently exists but with the addition of underground foundations, Al-Gomhuria said in a front-page …