CAIRO: President Hosni Mubarak said during his speech in parliament Sunday that he will “do anything to support the establishment of a real Palestinian nation with Jerusalem as its capital, according to MP Aly Laban. “It is the first time he says he wants Jerusalem to be the capital of Palestine, Laban told Daily News …

CAIRO: Al-Qaeda s No. 2 slurred Barack Obama with a demeaning racial term for a black American who does the bidding of whites in a new Web message Wednesday intended to dent the president-elect s popularity among Arabs and Muslims and claim he will not change US policy. Ayman Al-Zawahri s speech was Al-Qaeda s …

CAIRO: President Hosni Mubarak s spokesman says the Egyptian leader spent two hours discussing the conflicts plaguing the Mideast with Argentina s president during her first visit to Egypt. Presidential spokesman Suleiman Awwad says Mubarak brought out a regional map to highlight the conflicts seriousness during talks with Cristina Fernandez. During their meeting Thursday, the …

CAIRO: Two officials from the Ministry of Agriculture were found guilty of importing cancerous pesticides into the Egyptian market, bribery, and squandering public money. One MP told Daily News Egypt the two should have received a death sentence. Last Thursday, the Cairo Criminal Court found agriculture officials Youssef Abdel-Rahman and Randa Al-Shamy guilty of 16 …

CAIRO: Egypt hosted an emergency meeting Thursday of six Arab countries trying to forge a joint strategy against piracy in the Gulf of Aden, which threatens a crucial international trade route through the Suez Canal in the Red Sea – Egypt s key source of revenue. The countries in the meeting were those who with …

CAIRO: The Cairo Court for Urgent Cases will hold a hearing on Dec. 15 to consider a motion filed by the State Judicial Authority to repeal the Cairo Administrative Court s verdict to halt Egypt’s gas exports to Israel. Thirty individual lawyers have also filed six motions to repeal the verdict, which was handed out …

CAIRO: President of the Egyptian National Council for Human Rights, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, strongly condemned lashing as a form of punishment, deeming it “a violation of international law. “We need to work harder on combating this sentence, the former United Nations Secretary General said at the opening of a workshop titled “Freedom from Torture in the …

DUBAI: The head of the UN s nuclear watchdog said Monday the agency needs more transparency from Syria and others to determine whether traces of uranium found at a site bombed by Israeli planes indicate Damascus was building a nuclear reactor there. International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed El-Baradei confirmed that the radioactive material was …

CAIRO: Arab ministers who met this week in Damascus, Syria approved a resolution aimed integrating media and information technology in the region, and another promoting the use of Arabic language on the Internet. The Damascus Resolution aims at spreading the use of applications which integrate media and communication in the Arab world in its strive …

CAIRO: The Cairo Administrative Court ruled Tuesday to freeze Egypt’s natural gas exports to Israel, saying that the export of natural resources requries parliamentary approval. Although the verdict called to end the exportation of gas to Israel, there is still an appeals process and it is expected that the government will pursue that course of …

CAIRO: After a year of silence, Sayed Imam will return to the spotlight with the publication of his new book, “Al-Taareya (The Exposure), which is expected to reveal new details about Jihad operations in Egypt and abroad. Considered the founder of the Egyptian Jihad Group, Imam’s writings will be printed in serial form in Al-Masry …

SANAA: Countries bordering the Red Sea will meet in Egypt this week for talks on the rampant piracy in the region, Yemeni Foreign Minister Abu Bakr Al-Kurbi said. Countries bordering the Red Sea have been invited to meet on Nov. 20 in Cairo to discuss the security of the Red Sea, Kurbi said, adding that …

CAIRO: The General Agency for Supply Commodities has refuted allegations that imported wheat intended for animal feed and unfit for human consumption has been used in making bread in Egypt. Members of parliament have claimed that a recent batch of wheat imported from European countries was found to be unfit for human consumption, and is …

CAIRO: Egypt has responded in kind to several European countries by denying their diplomats entry into the country if they have not obtained visas in advance, state-run news agency MENA reported on Thursday. An airport official told AFP that three diplomats – from Germany, Britain and The Netherlands – who were stationed elsewhere in the …

CAIRO: Fathi Sorour was re-elected Wednesday as the head of the People’s Assembly for the 19th consecutive time. In the PA’s internal elections, Sorour ran unopposed and won 335 out of a total 337 votes to act as chairman of the upcoming parliamentary round, as opposition MPs boycotted the elections. Zeinab Radwan and Abdel Aziz …

ALGIERS: Algeria s parliament overwhelmingly approved constitutional amendments that abolish presidential term limits, paving the way Wednesday for President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to seek a third term in spring elections. Critics said the reform was a step away from democracy and favored the political and military elite that have long held power in this oil- and …

CAIRO: Egypt called on Tuesday for the International Criminal Court to delay for a year any war crimes indictment against Sudanese President Omar Al-Beshir, while efforts are under way to end fighting in Darfur. Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit made the comments after a rare visit to Sudan by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Monday …

SHARM EL-SHEIKH: Arab diplomats complained on Sunday about a lack of dialogue with the West over Iran s nuclear ambitions during a briefing on the crisis by EU Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice attended the meeting in the Egyptian resort of Sharm El-Sheikh alongside French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner …

JUBA: President Hosni Mubarak flew to the southern Sudanese capital Juba for the first time on Monday after discussing the Darfur crisis with President Omar Al-Beshir in Khartoum. Mubarak met with former southern rebel leader and First Vice President Salva Kiir and discussed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement which in 2005 ended Africa s longest running …

CAIRO: The Muslim Brotherhood will boycott the upcoming People’s Assembly (PA) internal elections set to take place on Wednesday, Saad Al-Katatny, head of the brotherhood’s parliamentary bloc said. The MB’s decision came after they were denied the right to participate as chairpersons of the PA’s different internal committees, Al-Katatny said. “We will boycott the elections …

CHICAGO: President-elect Barack Obama spoke with six world leaders by phone Friday, as he continues to prepare for taking office Jan. 20, his office said. Obama, who also held his first post-election news conference Friday, spoke with President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy, President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan, President …

SHARM EL-SHEIKH: An Egyptian plan to reconcile rival Palestinian factions must remain the basis for unity talks, Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said on Sunday. His comments came a day after negotiations between Fatah, Hamas and other Palestinian factions, which were due to take place in Cairo this week, were cancelled after Hamas announced a …

CAIRO: Police have arrested 25 Muslim Brotherhood members at a meeting in the Nile Delta, the MB and a security official said on Saturday. The official said that “more than 20 Brotherhood members were arrested at a member’s home on Friday evening at Faous in the eastern Nile Delta. The Brotherhood website said that 25 …

MARSEILLE: Countries bordering the Mediterranean have edged closer to establishing their Euro-Med Union by finessing an Israeli-Arab dispute over the role of the Arab League. The union – a pet project of French President Nicolas Sarkozy that is more ambitious in symbolism than content – is envisaged primarily as a forum for cooperation and dialogue. …

AL-ARISH: Egypt has seized a ton of TNT in the Sinai peninsula that officials believe was probably destined for the Gaza Strip, a security source said on Friday. Boxes of the powerful explosive were found in an underground hideout in the center of peninsula after police were tipped off by local residents, the official said. …

CAIRO: Initial regional reactions to Barack Obama’s victory in the US presidential elections mirror those in the United States with much to be hopeful about. But all optimism is tinted with a note of caution; it is impossible to expect dramatic change in a region that has been simmering in turmoil for over half a …

TEL AVIV: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Thursday all but conceded that an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal by a year-end deadline is no longer possible. But she also said upon arriving here that it is important to maintain momentum and support for the negotiations so that new governments in both Israel and the United States …