RIYADH: Saudi Arabia and other nations in the Middle East on Monday joined France in condemning a deadly bombing at a famed Cairo bazaar that killed a French teenage tourist and wounded 24 people. Regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia, which had three nationals among those wounded in Sunday s attack, strongly condemned the bombing, the official …

JERUSALEM: Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has sacked his lead negotiator on a Gaza Strip truce for publicly criticizing the Israeli leader s handling of the talks, Olmert s office said Monday – a move that threatens to set back the already troubled contacts. The removal of Amos Gilad comes at a critical juncture. Olmert hopes …

CAIRO: Egyptian police have detained three suspects who were present at the scene of the Al-Hussein blast Sunday night which killed a 17-year-old French girl and wounded 25 others. The bomb went off in the tourist district of Al-Hussein, near the popular Khan Al Khalili market in the heart of Cairo. Amongst the wounded are …

CAIRO: Seventeen people were wounded, including 11 French tourists, three Germans and three Egyptians when a bomb went off in the tourist district of Al Hussein, near the popular Khan Al Khalili market in the heart of Cairo at around 7 pm. A conflicting report by Reuters, however, claims that four people had died, two …

CAIRO: The Rafah border crossing was opened Sunday to allow Palestinian students, patients and residents of other countries to cross through via Egypt, according to sources in the area. About 1,000 people were expected to pass through on Sunday, half students and the other half third-country residents, but the slow pace of the entry procedures …

CAIRO: Egypt warned on Sunday of dire repercussions if an international arrest warrant is issued for Sudanese President Omar Al-Beshir just as steps are being agreed towards ending the six-year conflict in Darfur. An arrest warrant for President Al-Beshir will have dangerous consequences for the situation in Darfur, in particular, and Sudan in general, presidential …

ASHKELON: European monitors are ready to resume their assignment on the Gaza-Egypt border at a moment s notice, following an involuntary 20-month break, the head of the mission said. In the past two weeks, 20 monitors returned to the region amid reports of progress on a Palestinian power-sharing agreement and an Israel-Hamas prisoner swap – …

CAIRO: Egypt s best-known political dissident Ayman Nour said on Thursday that the decision to release him from prison came as a surprise and that he hoped it was not the result of foreign pressure. I was surprised by my release, Nour, 44, told a news conference a day after the authorities ordered his release …

CAIRO: Egypt decided to recall a trade delegation that was visiting Israel Thursday in what was interpreted as a protest against tying the fate of captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit to the opening of the Rafah crossings into Gaza, the Israeli press reported. A delegation from the Egyptian foreign ministry in Israel to discuss commercial …

CAIRO: Iran has warned Egypt that any intention to shelter the group the Mojahedin e-Khalq Organization (MEK), which is dedicated to overthrowing the current Iranian regime, would not “bode well for Egypt. The group is currently stationed in Iraq, 100 km north of Baghdad in a place called Camp Ashraf, and according to the Tehran …

EL-ARISH: Two Egyptians were injured on Friday when contraband fuel destined to be smuggled into the besieged Gaza Strip burst into flames, a security official said. About 2,000 liters of fuel had been stored in a house in Sarsuriya, near Egypt’s border with the impoverished Palestinian territory, the official said. The fuel was to have …

JAKARTA: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton confirmed Thursday she would attend an international conference next month in Egypt to help rebuild Gaza after the Hamas-Israel war. I will go to Cairo next week to a conference sponsored by the Egyptians to try to get humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza, Clinton told the …

CAIRO: Egypt s foreign ministry spokesman says Israel s latest demand that a captured Israeli soldier be released before a long-term Gaza truce deal with Hamas is struck is a blow to Egyptian mediation efforts between the two sides. Hossam Zaki says linking Sgt. Gilad Schalit – captured in a 2006 raid by Hamas-linked militants …

CAIRO: Egyptian-brokered talks aimed at reconciling feuding Palestinian factions have been delayed, state news agency MENA quoted a senior Egyptian official as saying on Wednesday. Palestinian reconciliation talks scheduled for Feb. 22 have been delayed for a short period because more discussions are needed, the unnamed official said. The talks are part of an Egyptian-proposed …

CAIRO: Eight Jordanian artists who have been prevented from entering Gaza on a solidarity mission with Palestinians staged a protest at the Rafah Border Crossing Wednesday. Hisham Al Bustani is a writer, dentist and secretary of the Socialist Ideology Forum in Amman and the coordinator of the initiative, “Jordanian Intellectuals for Gaza which protested at …

CAIRO: The People’s Assembly (PA) approved Wednesday a request filed by several MPs blaming the government for inciting the nationwide strike staged by truck drivers. In the request, several MPs blame the government for “escalating the situation with truck drivers, Hassanein El-Shoura, member of the PA’s transport and communications committee, told Daily News Egypt. Truck …

CAIRO: The Pharmacists’ Syndicate ended its two-day strike after the Ministry of Finance agreed not to implement new tax regulations for pharmacies on a retroactive basis. Pharmacies were operating on normal work hours starting Wednesday morning. The finance ministry agreed to the demands of pharmacists, saying that new tax regulations will not be applied on …

CAIRO: Egypt announced on Tuesday that it plans to send troops and police to join the UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Egypt will send 1,325 soldiers and a police unit to reinforce the UN force, foreign ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki said in a statement. The country s participation in the UN …

JERUSALEM: Israel s pointman in talks with Egypt on a Gaza truce has lashed out at Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for linking the issue to the release of captive Israeli soldier, a report said on Wednesday. Amos Gilad, the senior defense ministry official who has been shuttling between Israel and Egypt for weeks, said requiring …

CAIRO: Egypt’s public prosecutor has freed the country’s best-known political dissident, Ayman Nour, on health grounds, a judicial official told AFP on Wednesday. “The public prosecutor decided to free Ayman Nour for health reasons, the official said, requesting anonymity. A security official said Nour, a 44-year-old diabetic, was already at his Cairo home with his …

CAIRO: The fate of an Israeli soldier captured in 2006 should not be linked to Cairo-mediated talks on a long-term truce with Hamas in Gaza, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was quoted as saying on Tuesday. Egypt will not change its position on the truce, the matter of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit is a separate …

CAIRO: Egypt s state news agency says the military has staged war games on the Sinai Peninsula designed to improve the army s combat capability. MENA says large numbers of infantry, armored and artillery units as well as air force warplanes have taken part in the ten-day exercise. It was not clear whether the war …

CAIRO: Israeli F-16s bombed the area on the Egypt-Gaza border Monday near the Rafah border crossing in a further aerial offensive on the purported smuggling tunnels running underneath. The strikes were conducted at 4 am local time and spanned a major part of the length of the border, witnesses in the area told Daily News …

AL-ARISH: A security official says an Egyptian border guard has been shot and wounded by suspected human traffickers in an area close to the Israeli border in the Sinai Peninsula. The official says the guard was shot in the shoulder early Monday when he tried to stop a party of Bedouins trying to sneak African …

LONDON: A convoy of more than 100 vehicles loaded with aid bound for the Gaza Strip left London on Saturday. The convoy, including 12 ambulances and a fire engine, is bearing more than £ 1 million ($1.4 million) worth of aid. The vehicles will travel 8,000 kilometers through France, Spain and North Africa, crossing from …

KHARTOUM: Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit held talks with Sudanese President Omar Al-Beshir on Saturday amid reports that the International Criminal Court has decided to issue a warrant for his arrest. The heads of the two countries powerful intelligence services – Omar Suleiman for Egypt and Salah Gosh for Sudan – also joined the two-hour …

CAIRO: Hamas has accepted an Egyptian-brokered 18-month truce with Israel in the Gaza Strip which Egypt will announce in 48 hours, state news agency MENA quoted a senior Hamas official as saying on Thursday. Mussa Abu Marzuk, the Islamist movement’s deputy leader, said after meeting with Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman that Hamas had accepted …

TEL AVIV: Arab parties have increased their representation in Israel’s newly elected parliament, juxtaposed against a notable increase in support for Jewish right-wing parties. According to the votes counted so far, the new Knesset (Israel’s parliament) will have one extra Arab member in the 18th assembly, compared to the previous parliament, and possibly an additional …

RAFAH: Egyptian police have arrested 40 suspected smugglers and seized contraband goods in a new crackdown on smuggling along the country s border with the Gaza Strip, an Egyptian security official said Thursday. The official said hundreds of security forces have been deployed in and around the town of Rafah, located along the sensitive border …