JEDDAH: Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas urged Arab states during a meeting with Saudi King Abdullah to unite against Israeli plans to expand West Bank settlements, his spokesman said on Monday. The Palestinian Authority president “called for a unified Arab stance in face of Israel, Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP following the meeting late on Sunday. …

CAIRO: The ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) denied Monday a newspaper report which stated that a cabinet reshuffle was to take place before the party’s annual conference in November. Al-Wafd newspaper had reported Monday that a cabinet reshuffle was expected after the Eid holidays prior to the party conference and that the names being put …

CAIRO: Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal confirmed on Sunday that Germany is mediating an Israeli-Palestinian prisoner swap that would include Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit but stressed the bid is in its early stages. Concerning Shalit, as you know there is some development as a result of the Germany mediation bid in coordination with Egypt, Meshaal told …

CAIRO: The State Security Prosecution wrapped up its investigation Saturday of the bombing in Al-Hussein last February, which resulted in the death of a French teenager. The investigation report was forwarded to Prosecutor General Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud, who will announce the conclusions and outline what happens next. This is a similar process followed in the Hezbollah …

CAIRO: An Egyptian official says a Shia cleric and 12 others has been accused of receiving funds from Iran to promoting extremist Shia doctrine in Sunni-dominated Egypt. Shias form a small minority in Egypt, where Sunni Islam is the official state religion. The official said Thursday that prosecutors are accusing the group of insulting Sunni …

CAIRO: Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal will arrive in Cairo on Saturday for talks on Palestinian unity and on a prisoner exchange with Israel, Palestinian and Egyptian officials said on Friday. Meshaal’s trip will coincide with a visit by his rival, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who will meet with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Egypt is brokering …

CAIRO: The seventh meeting of the Arab League’s counter terrorism team of experts wrapped up Thursday at the headquarters of the Arab League in Cairo with the aim of combating internet websites used by terrorist groups. The meeting kicked off Wednesday with many items on the agenda, including exploring ways to combat the internet usage …

CAIRO: Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Wednesday he felt positive about his visits to Syria and Iraq aimed at defusing tensions between the neighbors after Iraqi claims that Damascus was sheltering insurgents. I felt a very positive approach in both Iraq and Syria, Davutoglu told reporters in Cairo after talks with Egyptian President …

JERUSALEM: A top European Union official said Monday that renewal of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks could be announced in late September. The EU s foreign policy chief Javier Solana said he expected a plan to reopen negotiations to emerge with the opening of the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 23. I sense…that we will have …

WASHINGTON: Mohamed ElBaradei, the outgoing head of the UN atomic watchdog, called the threat from Iran hyped and said there was no evidence that the Islamic republic will soon have nuclear weapons. In an interview released Tuesday, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) hit back at critics who accuse the Egyptian …

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama on Tuesday praised American Muslims for enriching the nation’s culture at a dinner to celebrate the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. “The contribution of Muslims to the United States are too long to catalog because Muslims are so interwoven into the fabric of our communities and our country, Obama said at …

CAIRO: The Israeli government has set a three-week deadline to decide on an Egyptian proposal to renegotiate the price of exported natural gas, according to Israeli press reports. The Israeli Electric Company (IEC), which imports Egyptian gas from the Egyptian-Israeli consortium EMG, announced Tuesday it would consider an Egyptian request to renegotiate the price of …

CAIRO: Egypt has denied that it is supporting or funding the Sunni “Jundallah (Soldiers of God) group in Iran, according to a local paper. A supposedly high-level though unnamed source refuted to Al-Shorouk newspaper Iranian reports that Egyptian intelligence officers were offering assistance to the Jundallah group. He added that the Egyptian intelligence services as …

TRIPOLI: African leaders gathered in Libya on Monday for a special summit to discuss the continent s trouble spots, on the eve of celebrations to mark 40 years of Moammar Qaddafi s rule. The conflicts in Somalia and Sudan are expected to top the agenda at the meeting, the third African Union summit so far …

CAIRO: Residents in Rafah and on the border with Gaza are to be compensated by the government for damage incurred while putting in place a new US surveillance system aimed at detecting tunnels. Due to the introduction of the new surveillance system, which included the insertion of underground cameras and radar scanners along the 13 …

STOCKHOLM: Egypt s foreign minister says east Jerusalem must be included in a freeze of Israeli settlement activity before Middle East peace talks can restart. Ahmed Aboul-Gheit told reporters in Stockholm on Friday that Jerusalem is Arab and it will continue to be so. He said the Arab world expects the area to be included …

PARIS: President Nicolas Sarkozy said Wednesday Paris would convene a new summit of the Mediterranean Union by year end on condition Israel freezes all settlement activity in the Palestinian territories. Sarkozy, whose country co-chairs the regional group with Egypt, said he hoped ongoing talks between Israel and Washington would help secure a precise and total …

CAIRO: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied Wednesday having any role in freeing the 34 fishermen kidnapped by pirates off the Somali coast. Hossam Zaki, foreign ministry spokesman, said, “The foreign ministry didn’t by any means attribute to itself any direct role in freeing the 34 Egyptian fishermen from their kidnappers. The ministry recently came …

WASHINGTON: The Justice Department has agreed to pay for a lawyer to help a former State Department official fight Italian charges that she participated in the alleged CIA kidnapping of a suspected terrorist in 2003. The approval of her long-standing request came as her trial, in absentia, has nearly finished, and she did not get …

RIYADH: Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, a Saudi royal family member who heads the kingdom’s anti-terror fight, escaped little harmed from a suicide bomb attack in Jeddah, official news agency SPA said on Friday. The deputy interior minister suffered only superficial injuries after the suicide bomber got close to him and detonated his explosives on Thursday …

GAZA CITY: Three Palestinian brothers were killed on Friday in the collapse of a smuggling tunnel along the Gaza Strip s border with Egypt, medics said. A fourth Palestinian, who was also working in the tunnel near Rafah, was seriously wounded, the sources said. Deadly cave-ins are common in the tunnels used to smuggle food, …

TOKYO: Japan expressed reservations Thursday against a plan by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to expand the G8 group of industrial powers into a G14 by including major emerging economies. Is this something that France can decide unilaterally? asked Japan s top spokesman Takeo Kawamura in his regular press conference. If the summit was to be …

CAIRO: The joint UN-African Union mediator for Darfur Djibril Bassole was in Cairo Thursday for talks with Egyptian officials in the wake of an impromptu Darfur meeting Egypt held earlier this week. Bassole met with Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit and Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa and discussed the results of the meeting that …

CAIRO: The Rafah border crossing will continue to be open Thursday for the second day running for Palestinians returning to the Gaza Strip, with the crossing not opened in the other direction for Gazans to come into Egypt. The crossing was opened Wednesday to allow for the return of Palestinians who had been seeking medical …

GAZA CITY: Three Palestinian brothers were killed and nine other people were wounded on Tuesday when Israel bombed smuggling tunnels between the Hamas-run Gaza Strip and Egypt, medics said. Rescue services were digging through the rubble to try to find another man who was reported missing after the first Israeli air strike against the tunnels …

CAIRO: A week after their historic summit President Hosni Mubarak returned to Egypt and US President Barack Obama is vacationing on a small island in New England. The world is left to wonder what the effect of their meeting will have on the Middle East peace process. Nabil Abdel Fattah, of Al-Ahram Center for Strategic …

CAIRO: The defense team for the 26 accused of forming a terrorist cell affiliated to Hezbollah has announced that it will formulate a defense strategy after perusing the case files, which they have not been allowed to see until now. The trial of what’s known as the ‘Hezbollah cell’ case began last Sunday at the …