CAIRO: President Hosni Mubarak has made his first televised appearance since the death of his beloved grandson and the cancellation of his US trip. State TV aired brief footage Sunday of President Hosni Mubarak meeting with top ministers, including his foreign minister and intelligence chief who will be visiting the US in his stead. The …

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama continues to break new ground in his quest for Arab-Israeli peace as he finishes up his meetings with key players before a landmark speech in Cairo, analysts say. After talks here earlier this month with Israel s premier Benjamin Netanyahu and Jordan s King Abdullah II, Obama is to meet …

CAIRO: Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit is to visit Washington next week after President Hosni Mubarak called off a meeting with his US counterpart Barack Obama, state news agency MENA said on Friday. Mubarak has canceled a planned May 26 visit to Washington after his grandson died. A source at the presidency said the …

CAIRO: Nine European doctors and nurses refused entry into Gaza at the Rafah border crossing continued their hunger strike for the fourth day. The medics have been going to the crossing every day – some since May 5, others for 50 days – to see if they will be granetd entry into Gaza. They began …

CAIRO: Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit laid the blame for the impasse in the peace process squarely at the door of Israel during a visit to Russia, the MENA news agency reported. Speaking to the Russian newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta Aboul Gheit said that Israel refused to take any concrete steps towards moving the process forward …

CAIRO: President Hosni Mubarak’s trip to the US scheduled for May 25 has been postponed indefinitely due to the death of his grandson. Both White House spokesman Robert Gibbs and ambassador to the US Sameh Shoukry confirmed that the trip had been cancelled. It would have been Mubarak’s first visit to the US since April …

CAIRO: In the latest bout of the public relations war between Hezbollah and the Egyptian regime since the discovery of an alleged terror cell in Egypt, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah praised the Egyptian army for its “heroic history in wars against Israel. On the anniversary of El-Nakba of 1948, the Hezbollah leader spoke of the …

CAIRO: The People’s Assembly (PA) approved Tuesday the government’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2009/10, with plans to increase spending on the health sector and water management. Mohamed Khalil Kwaitah, PA member affiliated with the National Democratic Party (NDP), told Daily News Egypt that the majority in the PA voted for the amendments that were …

CAIRO: President Hosni Mubarak’s eldest grandson, Mohamed, passed away Monday night after suffering severe health complications for two days, according to an official statement made on state-run television. Twelve-year-old Mohamed, the son of Mubarak’s eldest son Alaa, was transferred for treatment to a hospital in Paris, France where he passed away Monday night. The official …

CAIRO: Political group Al-Wasat applied to be recognized as an official party at the Shoura Council’s political parties committee. This is the fourth time the group applies for official party status. This is the fruit of a long struggle with the political parties committee, Aboul Ela Madi, the party’s elected chairperson and founder, told Daily …

CAIRO: US embassy spokesperson Margaret White refuted local press reports that Cairo University was the most likely venue for President Barack Obama’s address to the Muslim world on June 4. “No decision has been made yet, White said, adding that the embassy was not making any press statements about the venues under consideration. The local …

CAIRO: Security forces have acquired important information on the perpetrators of the bombing in Al-Hussein last February, Mufid Shehab, minister of legal and parliamentary affairs, told the Shoura Council Monday. Shehab told the members of the council that he had received a phone call from Interior Minister Habib Al-Adly who had provided him with significant …

CAIRO: A series of explosions occurred in a military weapons depot near Ismailia Sunday night, the Al-Arabiya television channel reported. The report said an explosion occurred at a military base in Abu Sultan, 20 km south of Ismailia, which was followed by a series of smaller explosions. The channel said there were injuries as a …

CAIRO: Rival Palestinian factions adjourned unity talks in Cairo on Monday without reaching agreement on key issues, notably the make-up of a new security force in Hamas-ruled Gaza, participants said. Representatives of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas s Fatah party and the Islamist Hamas movement were in the Egyptian capital for a fifth round of talks …

CAIRO: When President Barack Obama addresses the Muslim world from Cairo next month, Egyptian officials hope he will choose 1,000-year-old Al-Azhar mosque, the heart of a revered institution for Islamic study, as his backdrop to convey US respect for Islam. The American Embassy in Cairo said no decision has been made yet on a venue …

CAIRO: The Rafah border crossing was opened Saturday and Sunday, allowing for the transport of stranded Palestinians as well as aid supplies to the Gaza strip. The MENA news agency reported that around 520 tons of supplies were transported to Gaza Sunday, donated by Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Organization for the …

CAIRO: President Hosni Mubarak has asked the government to grant public sector employees a 10 percent social raise, up from the 5 percent announced two weeks ago. Employees will also receive the 11 percent annual salary increase announced by Minister of Finance Youssef Boutros-Ghali last week. “This shows that the president empathizes with what Egyptian …

RAFAH: Delegations from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party and the Hamas movement that controls the Gaza Strip arrived in Egypt on Friday for a new round of unity talks, a security official said. The delegations entered Egypt through the divided town of Rafah, which straddles the border with Gaza. The Hamas delegation is headed …

CAIRO: A member of the People’s Assembly (PA) filed a request to annul the law that permits khol’, or a women’s right to divorce. Nine years after its introduction, the law is once again the subject of debate with Independent MP Mohamed Al-Omdah arguing that it contradicts with Islamic teachings. On Thursday, Al-Omdah asked the …

LONDON: Between 10 and 20 countries will likely soon develop the capacity to build nuclear weapons unless major powers take steps to disarm, the head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog said Friday. In an interview with the Guardian newspaper, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei predicted a surge in the number of “virtual nuclear weapons states who …

CAIRO: Israel has begun renovating and raising the barbed wire fence on its side of the Egyptian-Israeli border in a possible effort to curb attempts by African refugees to enter Israel. There are three barbed wire fences that separate the border, one on the Egyptian side, one in the middle and one on the Israeli …

CAIRO: Egyptian security forces arrested 14 members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood in dawn raids at their homes on Thursday, a judicial official told AFP. The men, members of Egypt s main opposition group, were seized at their homes in Cairo and in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria. They have been ordered detained for 15 …

CAIRO: Egyptian groups in the US urged Barack Obama to tackle issues such as political reform as well as the continuation of the emergency law with counterpart Hosni Mubarak when he visits the US on May 26. The America in Arabic news service reported that the Egyptian groups in the US urged Obama “to bring …

CAIRO: Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu met with President Hosni Mubarak in Sharm El-Sheikh Monday ahead of upcoming visits by both leaders to the United States later this month. It is these visits that saw the two leaders talk of their unerring commitment to the peace process, regardless that talks between the Palestinians and Israelis …

CAIRO: Amending a proposed Arab peace initiative to win Israeli support for the plan is not a viable option, Egypt s president said, stressing that Arab nations recognition of the Jewish state will only come after peace negotiations. Hosni Mubarak s firm rejection of what some Arab diplomats have said is an American suggestion to …

CAIRO: Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit indicated that US President Barack Obama will address the Muslim world on June 4 from the city of Cairo. In an interview on the Al-Arabiya news channel Tuesday, Aboul Gheit said that the United States has chosen Cairo to host Obama’s long-awaited speech. The United States announced last week …

TEL AVIV: Israel and Egypt agreed on Monday to renew Cairo-led efforts to broker a prisoner swap between the Jewish state and the Islamist Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip, senior officials said. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will next week name a pointman to coordinate the indirect talks on the release of Gilad Shalit, who …

CAIRO: President Hosni Mubarak will make a two-day visit to Washington for talks with President Barack Obama on May 26, local press reported on Tuesday. President Mubarak will be in Washington on May 26 and 27 after an invitation from US President Barack Obama, Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said, quoted by the state-owned Al-Akhbar. …

SHARM EL-SHEIKH: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Tuesday urged rival Palestinian factions to unite in order to achieve the creation of a Palestinian state. If they want two states, Palestinians must unite, Mubarak said during a joint news conference with visiting Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Being two separate states (in Gaza and the West …