RAMALLAH: International donors will meet at a conference in Egypt next month to raise funds to rebuild the devastated Gaza Strip, the Palestinian prime minister said Thursday. “A donors conference will be held in mid-February in Egypt, Salam Fayyad told a press conference in Ramallah. Norwegian deputy foreign minister Raymond Johansen said: “Norway wants to …

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama phoned Arab and Israeli leaders on his first full day in office Wednesday and picked a top Middle East envoy, showing he plans to act quickly to push for peace. Obama, who took office Tuesday, had promised speedy action in the wake of a three-week Israeli military offensive in the …

RAFAH: In the past weeks the families living in Egyptian Rafah have faced similar fears as their neighbors and relatives on the other side of the border. Although they have been out of the direct line of fire, many families fled the border areas due to the ongoing bombing and occasional shrapnel that landed near …

EL-ARISH: Three Palestinians were injured when a tunnel used by smugglers collapsed on the border between Egypt and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, an Egyptian security official said on Thursday. The incident occurred on Wednesday on the Rafah border and the three Palestinians were hospitalized in Egypt for respiratory problems, the official said. The trio, aged …

CAIRO: Despite Israeli warnings that there could be further bombing on the Egypt-Gaza border to destroy smuggling tunnels, people on the Egyptian side whose houses had been destroyed in the bombing remained near their damaged homes. Democratic Front Party member Mohammed El Menei’ told Daily News Egypt from Rafah that people on the Egyptian side …

CAIRO: Israeli envoy Amos Gilad held talks on Thursday with Egyptian officials on clinching a lasting truce with Hamas expected to focus on stemming arms smuggling across the porous Gaza-Egypt border. The defence ministry negotiator was to head home after spending several hours in Cairo, where the state news agency MENA said he was to …

CAIRO: Neither Egypt nor Israel knows whether an Israeli soldier captured by Hamas in Gaza more than two years ago is alive, Egypt Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said on Wednesday. Egypt had tried to broker a deal between Israel and Hamas to release Gilad Shalit in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners before the …

GAZA CITY: In destroyed Gaza, Hamas spokesman Ihab Al-Ghusain conveyed what he believed to be the prevalent feeling towards Egypt in the aftermath of Israel’s 22-day assault. Al-Ghusain told Daily News Egypt that Hamas blames the Egyptian state for what they see as the nation’s role in Gaza’s latest round of misery. Speaking in the …

CAIRO: President Hosni Mubarak, hoping to negotiate a lasting truce between Israel and Hamas, has urged US President Barack Obama to make the Middle East his urgent priority. This region is looking forward to your handling of the Palestinian cause from the first day of your tenure because it is an urgent priority and the …

CAIRO: Opposition movement Kefaya introduced its newly-elected coordinator Abdel Halim Qandeel in a press conference held on Tuesday. Qandeel, editor of the independent Sout El-Umma newspaper who was elected in December, described changes within Kefaya including the formation of the Coalition of Egyptians for Change, which the group is currently in the process of organizing. …

CAIRO: The inauguration of Barack Obama as the first black American president was a historic moment for the United States, but disparate political forces in Egypt are more interested in what he will do rather than what he says or symbolizes. In his inauguration speech the new President did sound words of warning to dictatorships …

WASHIGTON DC: Two days before Barack Obama is sworn in as the 44th president of the United States, Washington D.C. was already teeming with people who have come to be part of this historic event. Hotels were booked, train tickets into the city were sold out and over 2 million visitors were expected to pack …

CAIRO: Egypt is inviting Palestinian and Israeli officials to Cairo Thursday for talks on seeking a more permanent truce in the Gaza conflict, foreign ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki said in a statement. The meetings should entail deliberation “on the necessary steps to consolidate [a] ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and to agree upon the package …

CAIRO: Egypt denied late on Monday that it signed an anti-smuggling deal with Israel prior to the ceasefire of the offensive on the Gaza strip. Asked by AFP about the existence of such an agreement, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki replied, “Absolutely not. An Israeli government official had told the news agency that “Israel and …

CAIRO: Egypt’s powerful intelligence chief Omar Suleiman is the one man who, discreetly and behind the scenes, can speak to both Israel and Hamas and eventually broker an to end the fighting in Gaza. It is inside an impersonal reception room in Egypt’s vast intelligence complex just outside Cairo that he has been weaving the …

SHARM EL-SHEIKH: European and Arab leaders meeting in Egypt on Sunday ratcheted up calls for an Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and announced plans for an international aid conference. The leaders, as well as UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and including Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, also issued a rallying call to the world to …

WASHINGTON: Barack Obama will enter the White House Tuesday with a crushing burden of expectations both at home and abroad. How he manages those expectations will go a long way to defining his presidency. Incoming White House press secretary Robert Gibbs pleaded for time, as new polls showed that America’s first black commander-in-chief is the …

KUWAIT CITY: Arab leaders meeting in Kuwait on Monday appeared to have healed a rift in ties exposed by Israel’s deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip as they pledged aid to the war-battered territory. A reconciliation has been achieved between Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Syria, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem Al-Thani told …

CAIRO: Egypt and Israel signed an agreement to prevent arms smuggling into the Gaza Strip before Israel announced its ceasefire last Saturday, an Israeli official told AFP. A senior Israeli government official told the news agency that “Israel and Egypt have reached written understandings on security arrangements to prevent arms smuggling along the Gaza-Egypt border …

GAZA CITY: A tenuous ceasefire held Monday in Gaza, where Palestinians dug out from the rubble and Hamas put on a show of defiance vowing to fight on after the Jewish state s deadliest war on the strip. No air strikes, rockets or fighting was reported by either side for the first time since Israel …

CAIRO: Even before Israel had announced its ceasefire in Gaza on Saturday night, which took effect at 2 am local time Sunday, Egypt had already called for a conference on Gaza to take place in Sharm El-Sheikh. And on Sunday European and other world leaders headed to the Red Sea resort to show support for …

TEHRAN: The wife of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has urged Egypt s first lady to use her influence to secure help for Palestinians in Gaza, in a letter to Suzanne Mubarak carried by the state news agency IRNA on Sunday. You could guide your husband and ask him to open the way to help Palestinian …

CAIRO: Egypt’s foreign minister on Saturday dismissed a US-Israeli agreement aimed at cutting off weapons smuggling into the Gaza Strip, raising questions about how effective it would be in preventing arms from reaching Hamas. The deal signed in Washington on Friday helped pave the way for Israeli leaders to approve an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire Saturday, since …

GAZA CITY: Israeli troops and Palestinian fighters exchanged their first shots on Sunday in Gaza, where dozens of bodies were pulled from the rubble after Israel ended a deadly war on Gaza. As Israeli air strikes and Hamas rocket fire punctured the tenuous truce in the territory, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned the unilateral ceasefire …

JERUSALEM: Amnesty International called for an arms embargo to stem the tide of blood in the Gaza Strip, urging the United States to scrap plans to ship consignments of weapons to its ally Israel. “The last thing that is needed now is more weapons and munitions in the region, which is awash with arms that …

CAIRO: Head of the Diplomatic-Security Bureau of the IDF Amos Gilad returned to Cairo Friday a day after his preceding visit reportedly to seek further clarifications on an attempt to reach a ceasefire with Hamas. Gilad had briefed Israeli officials on the results of talks between Egypt and Hamas on a ceasefire and it was …

KUWAIT CITY/DOHA: Arab League chief Amr Moussa acknowledged chaos in Arab ranks over the Gaza crisis on Friday as foreign ministers gathered in Kuwait for a meeting overshadowed by an unofficial summit in Qatar. Qatar pressed ahead with the summit Friday on Israel s deadly offensive against Gaza over the objections of the Palestinian leadership …

GAZA CITY: Israeli troops again pounded Gaza on Friday after killing a top Hamas leader, as the group offered a conditional truce amid a diplomatic push to end the war that has killed more than 1,100 people. At least 1,145 Palestinians have been killed and another 5,160 wounded in the Israeli onslaught. Some 600 civilians …

ATLANTA: Thirty years after engineering the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt, former President Jimmy Carter is still doggedly seeking peace in the Middle East. The 84-year-old Carter may never realize his elusive goal, but he hopes that under a new president, the United States will resume a leadership role he views as lost …