UNITED NATIONS: The Security Council held emergency talks late Saturday to weigh an Arab call to condemn the deadly Israeli incursion in the Gaza Strip as UN boss Ban Ki-moon pleaded for an end to the violence. Acting at the request of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas after the Israeli air and land assault on besieged …

AL-ARISH: Egyptian police on Saturday arrested 12 African migrants, including a seven-year-old child, as they tried to cross the border illegally into Israel, a security source said. Five Sudanese, four Eritreans and three Nigerians arrested in separate swoops in the Sinai peninsula included two women and a seven-year-old girl, the source said. The 250-km Egyptian-Israeli …

CAIRO: Palestinians wounded in the Israeli assault on Gaza were allowed entry into Egypt to seek treatment Sunday through the Salahuddin gate at the Rafah border crossing. Sources in the area confirmed that 20 Egyptian ambulances had entered into Gaza through the gate to transport the wounded back into Egypt where they were sent to …

CAIRO: Doctors, university professors and trade union activists called Thursday for an increase in the minimum wage. During the seminar organized by the Freedoms Committee of the Journalists’ Syndicate, and held in the Syndicate’s Cairo headquarters, speakers said that current wage rates cannot keep up with the increasing prices of commodities. Prices of food products …

CAIRO: Member of Parliament Aly Laban, who is affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, says a police officer threatened to arrest his office manager if Laban runs in the upcoming local council elections. Laban filed a complaint with the People’s Assembly Chairman Fathi Sorour against Ayman Shahin, a police officer in Gharbeya, accusing him of threatening …

WASHINGTON: The US Navy is sending at least three ships, including at least one amphibious assault ship, to the eastern Mediterranean Sea in a show of strength during a period of tensions with Syria and political uncertainty in Lebanon. Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters Thursday the deployment …

AL-ARISH: Egypt is working on a plan with the Palestinians to supply all the besieged Gaza Strip s electricity needs and wean off its reliance on Israel for power, an Egyptian energy official said Thursday. Under the plan, Egypt – which already supplies a small part of Gaza s electricity- would increase the number of …

CAIRO: The lead up to the Arab Summit concerning Lebanon to be held in Syria next month has taken a familiar tack as regional powers are once again at loggerheads over who is to blame and who can solve the Lebanese deadlock. The summit is scheduled to take place in Damascus March 29-30 and will …

AL-ARISH: Fourteen Palestinian patients from the volatile Gaza Strip crossed into Egypt on Wednesday through an Israeli border crossing point used by vehicles, a Palestinian official said. The Palestinian patients first crossed into Israel at the main Erez checkpoint with northern Gaza, then through the Al-Oja cargo border crossing between Israel and Egypt, where buses …

CAIRO: Police on Wednesday arrested 25 members of the country s largest opposition movement, the banned Muslim Brotherhood, police officials and the Brotherhood said. The dawn arrests in nine provinces were the latest in an ongoing crackdown on the Brotherhood and came one day after 17 other members were arrested in sweeps elsewhere in Egypt, …

CAIRO: Two Sudanese men who have been held without charge for nine months have been refused the right to appoint a lawyer to challenge their detention. Nezar Hammad and Salah Eddin Moussa were part of a group of 11 Sudanese nationals arrested outside the United Nations High Commission for Refugees’ (UNHCR) Mohandiseen office on the …

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) _ Secretary-General of the Arab League Amr Moussa was chosen Tuesday to head the newly formed Yasser Arafat Foundation, charged with preserving the former Palestinian leader s legacy and carrying out humanitarian activities. Some 50 Palestinian leaders, Arab politicians and intellectuals, including Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, gathered in Cairo to launch the …

UNITED NATIONS: Israel, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority must develop a new strategy to secure the lifting of the blockade of the Gaza Strip and an end to rocket firing into southern Israel, a top UN official said Tuesday. After concluding his first briefing of the Security Council, UN special coordinator for the Middle East …

CAIRO: Egypt began exporting gas to Israel last week under the proviso of a 2005 memorandum of understanding signed between the two countries, a decision which has led to outrage from various opposition groups in the country. “Egyptian gas has been flowing to Israel since last week but it has not yet been integrated into …

RAMALLAH: The Palestinian government plans to connect more areas of the Gaza Strip to the Egyptian electricity grid, the head of the Palestinian Energy Authority said Tuesday, a move that would reduce the area s reliance on Israel for power. The proposal also would bolster Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas claim to represent Gaza, which was …

MANAMA: Egypt and Gulf states fear an upcoming Arab summit could be scuppered if Lebanon fails to begin resolving its political crisis by naming a new president, a senior Bahraini official said on Monday. Egypt and the Gulf states see it necessary to resolve the question of the empty presidential post in Lebanon before the …

CAIRO: The verdict in the military trial of 40 members of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) due to be heard Tuesday was delayed by the court until March 25. The members are in the dock for financing a banned organization, as the Brotherhood is legally outlawed as a group. There were further charges against the defendants …

RIYADH: President Hosni Mubarak discussed with Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah on Sunday ways to solve Lebanon’s political crisis, state media reported. They held talks in Riyadh on “the current crisis in Lebanon and the Arab efforts to solve it, the official SPA news agency said. SPA added the pair also discussed the “continuing Israeli attacks …

CAIRO: The Hisham Mubarak Law Center, an Egyptian NGO which monitors legal violations, held a mock “public trial on Sunday for steel mogul and MP Ahmed Ezz, head of the logistics committee of the ruling National Democratic Party. The trial, which lasted one hour, was staged at center’s Downtown headquarters. The trial’s panel of judges …

EL-ARISH: Egyptian border police on Monday shot and wounded a Sudanese and a man from Ivory Coast in two separate incidents as they tried to illegally cross into Israel, a security official and medics said. The first incident took place less than 10 km to the south of Rafah border crossing, when the guards shot …

CAIRO: In a visit to Cairo, President of the European Parliament (EP) Hans-Gert Pottering said that while he is against the publishing of the cartoons depicting Prophet Mohamed, he cannot dictate what the European media can or cannot do. Pottering was speaking at a press conference held at the People’s Assembly Sunday night as he …

CAIRO: Over 1,000 students demonstrated at Cairo University Monday demanding the release of eight university professors who will hear the verdict of their military tribunals today. The professors, who are all members of the Muslim Brotherhood, are among 40 charged with belonging to a forbidden organization, alleged money-laundering and terrorism. In a trail of multi-colored …

CAIRO: President Hosni Mubarak traveled to Saudi Arabia Sunday for talks with King Abdullah on an Arab summit due to take place in Syria next month, his office said on Saturday. Oil powerhouse Saudi Arabia, which hosted the annual summit in 2007, has not yet received a formal invitation from Syria to attend the March …

Port-au-Prince, Haiti: Eleven Egyptian police officers serving in the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSATAH) were awarded the United Nations peacekeeping medal at a ceremony in Port-au-Prince on Feb. 19. “This team of professionals has contributed enormously to the success and progress that we see on the security situation in Haiti today, said Peters …

CAIRO: Egypt has agreed to release 115 Palestinians taken into custody after the breach of the border with Gaza last month, Hamas spokesman Ayman Taha said Sunday. The agreement to release the prisoners came after the third meeting in 10 days between Hamas and Egyptian officials when they sat down to two separate meetings in …

CAIRO: In a protest outside the People’s Assembly Sunday doctors said they will launch strike action on March 15 if their demands for improved pay were not met. This is the second protest in a fortnight to be organized by the Doctors’ Syndicate. Ahmed Imam, a member of the Syndicate, told Daily News Egypt that …

CAIRO: Events in Kosovo seem to have repercussions in the region as Palestinians are considering the idea of declaring statehood for themselves without securing it through an agreement first. Yasser Abd Rabbo who is a member of the Palestinian negotiating team in the peace process as well as the PLO’s executive committee declared on Thursday …

LONDON: An Islamic preacher accused of trying to establish a terrorist training camp in Oregon asked a British court on Wednesday to block his extradition to the US. Earlier this month, Britain s Home Office approved the extradition of Abu Hamza Al-Masri, who once led London s Finsbury Park Mosque. A top British counterterrorism official …

CAIRO: The Muslim Brotherhood has announced its intention to field candidates in the upcoming local council elections, despite a recent spate of arrests of its members, the group announced at a press conference at its headquarters in Manial Thursday. In the press conference, which was attended by the group’s leader Mohamed Mahdy Akef, its deputy …