CAIRO: Egypt called in Iran s envoy in Cairo on Monday to lodge a formal protest over the airing in the Islamic republic of a documentary about the 1981 assassination of President Anwar Sadat. Assistant Foreign Minister for Asian affairs Tamer Khalil summoned the head of Iran s interests section in Egypt to make the …

DUBLIN: Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin is visiting Egypt, Israel and the West Bank this week to support the Gaza Strip ceasefire and wider Middle East peacemaking work. Martin’s office announced details Tuesday of his three-day trip – his first to the Middle East since he became foreign minister in a Cabinet shakeup last month. …

GAZA CITY: A Hamas delegation was due in Cairo on Tuesday for talks on a fragile three-week-old Gaza truce as Israel said it would reopen its borders with the territory at the Egyptian mediator’s request. The delegation was to discuss details of the truce and what Hamas says are Israeli violations, as well as proposals …

KUALA LUMPUR: Leaders from the D8 group of developing nations Tuesday adopted an ambitious 10-year blueprint to substantially increase trade between their countries, an official said. “The leaders have agreed to the roadmap, a Malaysian foreign ministry official involved in the negotiations told AFP. The so-called “D8 comprises Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan …

AL-ARISH: Human traffickers shot dead an officer in Egypt’s border police on Monday as they tried to smuggle a group of African immigrants into Israel, security officials said. “The officer and his colleagues were on patrol at Bir Mouin (south of the Gaza border post at Rafah) and tried to intercept illegal immigrants seeking to …

CAIRO: The United States should make a distinction between the state and the government when criticizing Egypt’s human rights record, MP and member of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs Anwar Esmat El-Sadat said. Sadat released a statement in response to a US Congress report – number 1303 – released last week regarding human rights …

CAIRO: Three detainees held since April in connection with clashes which occurred between demonstrators and security forces in Mahalla, have been released. Defence lawyer Ahmed Ezzat of the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression told Daily News Egypt that Mohamed Salah Marei, Mostafa Bedeir El-Sayyed and Rageb Gaber El-Mahdy, who were being held in …

GAZA CITY: Hamas said on Friday it had suspended negotiations on the release of a captured Israeli soldier because the Jewish state was not respecting the terms of a truce with the Islamist movement. Hamas has suspended indirect negotiations with the enemy over [Corporal Gilad] Shalit because of the non-respect by the enemy of the …

CAIRO: Egypt’s water is being wasted on tourist resorts and golf courses while those most in need cannot access it, opposition MP Anwar Esmat El-Sadat said. The spokesman for the popular campaign to prevent Egyptian gas exports to Israel has widened the scope of his campaigning to encompass water issues and human rights. Sadat sent …

CAIRO: Egypt will soon host inter-Palestinian talks between rival Fatah and Hamas as well as other factions, Palestinian ambassador to Egypt Nabil Amr was quoted as saying on Thursday. The talks are aimed at bringing together, under a Yemeni plan, the factions, which have been divided since Hamas violently removed Fatah forces loyal to Palestinian …

CAIRO: Egypt opened the Rafah border crossing Thursday to allow some 300 Palestinians to return to Gaza. The 300 were stranded on the wrong side of the border after clashes the day before led to the closure of the crossing. Despite an agreement to keep it open, Egypt had closed the crossing on Wednesday after …

ROME: Italy has sent 35 illegal migrants back to Egypt, part of the government’s tough measures on illegal immigration. The Interior Ministry says the Egyptians were put on a Cairo-bound flight departing from Sicily before dawn Thursday. Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s government has vowed to step up the fight against illegal immigrants, who many Italians link …

CAIRO: The Interior Ministry reportedly summoned Islamic scholars to lecture state security investigation officers on Shia Islam, according to an article in Al-Masry Al-Youm s Thursday edition. The report, entitled “Interior Ministry summons clerics to train state security officers on fighting Shia thought, quotes Dr Abdel Moneim El-Berry, head of the Front of Al-Azhar Scholars, …

CAIRO: Assistant Secretary-General and Secretary of the National Democratic Party’s (NDP) Policy Secretariat Gamal Mubarak admitted that the incumbent government has made mistakes while implementing certain policies. “The government has problems and mistakes like any other government, he said, “especially at a time of great transition, which involves difficult issues, there will not be satisfaction …

SHARM EL-SHEIKH: African leaders on Tuesday called for dialogue between Zimbabwe s political foes and a national unity government following President Robert Mugabe s widely discredited re-election. A two-day African Union summit agreed to encourage President Robert Mugabe and the Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai to initiate dialogue with a view to promoting …

JERUSALEM: A Palestinian bulldozer driver went on a deadly rampage on a busy Jerusalem street Wednesday, plowing into a string of vehicles and pedestrians, killing at least two people and wounding dozens of others before he was shot dead by police. The attack wreaked havoc and left a large swath of damage in the heart …

SHARM EL-SHEIKH: A spokesman for Egypt’s Foreign Ministry says the president of Zambia has been taken to France for further treatment after a successful surgery in Egypt. President Levy Mwanawasa did not attend the African Union summit in the Egyptian resort of Sharm El-Sheikh after he was rushed to a local hospital on Sunday. His …

CAIRO: Palestinian perceptions of favoritism over who was chosen in the limited number allowed to enter Egypt through the Rafah border crossing led to clashes Wednesday. Egyptian authorities again sealed the crossing and other border points completely, sources in the area told Daily News Egypt. Thousands amassed at the border after Egypt reopened the crossing …

SHARM EL-SHEIKH: Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe did not object to an African Union resolution on Tuesday that called for a power-sharing deal with the opposition, Egypt’s Foreign Ministry said. “We didn’t hear Zimbabwe say ‘no’ to the resolution. They did not object to the resolution, ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki told reporters in the Red Sea …

CAIRO: Despite a few glitches, the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) parliamentary bloc has done what it can at the parliament, the group concluded during a conference evaluating the performance of its MPs. The majority of the attendees – a gathering of political analysts, journalists and MB MPs – agreed that the overall performance was more positive …

SHARM EL-SHEIKH: Crown Prince Willem-Alexander of The Netherlands raised eyebrows at the African Union summit in Egypt on Monday after broaching what he called the deadly taboo of toilets. The Prince of Orange told leaders from 53 African nations that perhaps you, like many others, will find it difficult to go home and speak passionately …

PHILADELPHIA: A US court should get to review the information that has assured federal officials that an Egyptian man will not be tortured if he is sent back to his homeland, his lawyers told an appeals court Monday. Sameh Khouzam, a Coptic Christian who was convicted of murder in absentia in 1998, says he was …

CAIRO: Security forces allowed 20 people to demonstrate near the Israeli embassy in protest at Egypt exporting natural gas to the Jewish state. This demonstration is the first of its kind since 2000, when security forces clashed with demonstrators who tried to approach the embassy during a wave of protests at the onset of the …

SHARM EL-SHEIKH: Egyptian security has ramped up restrictions on journalists covering the African Union summit after a British TV crew got into a verbal scuffle with Robert Mugabe. Many reporters were not allowed to leave the press area at Sharm El-Sheikh on Tuesday. The British network ITN approached Mugabe outside the conference hall on Monday …

SHARM EL-SHEIKH: Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe was welcomed by his peers Monday at an African summit, hoping for a boost of political legitimacy after a widely discredited re-election. His fellow African leaders appeared unlikely to strongly criticize him, despite Western calls for them to condemn the longtime leader. The United States has vowed to bring …

SHARM EL-SHEIKH: Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa has suffered a stroke, his deputy said Monday, as the leader remained in intensive care in Egypt where he was due to attend an African Union summit. “I wish to inform the nation that the president has suffered a stroke, said Rupiah Banda, Zambia’s vice president. The Zambian president …

CAIRO: Egypt is to reopen the Rafah border crossing with the Hamas-run Gaza Strip for two days to allow hundreds of stranded on both sides to cross, a Palestinian diplomat in Cairo said on Monday. According to Nabil Amr, the diplomat, the opening will begin on Tuesday. All Palestinians who need medical treatment would be …

CAIRO: Democracy advocate Saad El Din Ibrahim is no longer welcome in Egypt, his lawyer Fatma Rabei told Daily News Egypt. If he comes back he will be taken to court, she said, especially after the response he got from the foreign minister s assistant that if Ibrahim comes back, he will be subject to …

EL-ARISH: Egyptian police shot dead two Africans, one a seven-year-old girl, in Sinai on Saturday as they tried to cross the border illegally into Israel, a security official said. Officers opened fire on a group that included the child, a Sudanese, and a man in his thirties whose nationality was not immediately known, killing both …