On Tuesday, March 27, Justice Minister Mamdouh Marei announced that 75.9 percent of Egyptians who voted in the referendum were in favor of the 34 constitutional amendments that were approved by the People’s Assembly (PA) after three months of deliberations. A total of 109 members from the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) group as well as Karama, …

The year 2007 was a bumpy ride for Egyptian media professionals, marking a significant upsurge in clampdowns on freedom of expression, with editors, bloggers, and activists paying a high price for voicing their views on sensitive political and religious issues. Ironically, the broader margin of freedom given to the independent press had led to hostile …

While the past year has witnessed several rare convictions in cases of torture and police abuse, leading analysts and international media argue a potential heightened government intolerance of police brutality. Rights groups urge the authorities to take “more systematic steps to rid the country of its alleged torture practices.Once considered a taboo issue, hardly tapped …

If 2005 was a landmark year for the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) as they succeeded in becoming the biggest opposition bloc in parliament, 2007 is a year the group might like to forget in a hurry.The MB end the year in much the same way they started it, with senior members facing numerous charges before a …

CAIRO: A number of draft laws were proposed in 2007, and some of the most controversial pertained to judges. Changes to teachers’ salaries, the government’s medical insurance system and abortion also caused a stir this year. Judges were in the spotlight once again in 2007, most recently in November when Justice Minister Mamdouh Marei backtracked …

CAIRO: Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s visit to Sharm El-Sheikh Wednesday to discuss border security with Egyptian officials ended with him trying to quell a series of Egyptian accusations of undermining Annapolis, creating a smokescreen to build more settlements and harming Egypt’s relationship with the US. Initially Barak was making the visit to discuss border …

AL-ARISH: Some 60 Palestinians, mostly Fatah loyalists who escaped Gaza Strip after Hamas seized of power, protested on Tuesday their living conditions in Egyptian army camps. Egyptian police assert the men broke out of their camps located near the border town of El-Arish and Rafah at dawn and had to be re-captured, but the Palestinians …

LUXOR: Dressed in casual clothes and riding in a 26-car motorcade, French President Nicolas Sarkozy toured the archeological sites of Luxor with his new girlfriend ex-supermodel Carla Bruni. Hordes of photographers and cameramen followed the motorcade at a distance as it wended its way from the historic Winter Palace Hotel through the town before arriving …

CAIRO: Egypt on Tuesday strongly rejected criticism by Israel’s top diplomat that Cairo is doing a “terrible job of securing its border with the Gaza Strip against smugglers, saying Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni did not understand the issues and should have remained silent. ”It is better for the Israeli minister to concentrate on negotiation efforts …

LUXOR: Sporting dark sunglasses and holding hands, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his topmodel-turned-singer girlfriend Carla Bruni, arrived in Luxor Tuesday, kicking off a private visit to Egypt. As the couple touched down in Luxor, heavy security prevented media from approaching Sarkozy’s entourage. Sameer Farag, head of Luxor’s Supreme Local Council of antiquities, greeted them …

CAIRO: Egypt s foreign minister and a visiting Palestinian official on Monday said Israel s construction plans for a contested east Jerusalem neighborhood and West Bank endanger the Mideast peace process. The building has enraged Palestinians who say such construction undermines nascent peace talks in the wake of last month s Israeli-Palestinian summit in Annapolis, …

CAIRO: French President Nicolas Sarkozy was flying to Luxor on Tuesday aboard a private jet accompanied by his new love, ex-supermodel Carla Bruni, to spend Christmas on the banks of the Nile. French billionaire Vincent Bollore provided the plane that flew Sarkozy, Bruni and nine others from Paris to the pharaonic splendor of Luxor, where …

CAIRO: News reports quoted security sources as saying that an Egyptian policeman was shot on the border with Israel by traffickers attempting to smuggle in African immigrants, but sources from Al-Arish told Daily News Egypt that the smuggled party also included Russian prostitutes. Initial news reports stated that an Egyptian policeman, Mohammed Abdel-Mohsen Al-Guindi, 21, …

CAIRO: French President Nicolas Sarkozy is to spend Christmas on the banks of the Nile amid tight security and a swarm of paparazzi seeking intimate shots of his new companion, former supermodel Carla Bruni. Sarkozy, 52, will arrive in Luxor on Christmas Day with a female companion and some family members, an Egyptian security source …

JERUSALEM: Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak is to meet Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo in the coming days, as tensions rise in the Gaza Strip, a senior Israeli official said on Saturday. “The minister will travel to Cairo in the next few days and hold talks with President Mubarak, reservist General Amos Gilad, a …

PARIS: French President Nicolas Sarkozy will make a pitch for his proposed Mediterranean Union when he pays an official visit to Egypt on Dec. 30 and 31, his spokesman said. Sarkozy will hold talks with President Hosni Mubarak, “whose experience has made him one of the most enlightened observers in the region and on its …

CAIRO: The military court trying 40 senior members of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) received a list of modified charges in the trial they are currently facing, General Secretary of the MB Mahmoud Ezzat confirmed to Daily News Egypt. Reports which appeared last week claiming that the terrorism charges would be dropped were true, but the …

CAIRO: Bloggers belonging to an online forum called Arab Bloggers Union have launched a campaign to draw attention to the case of detained Brotherhood-affiliated blogger and activist Ahmed Mohsen. Mohsen was arrested in Fayoum three weeks ago during a crackdown on members of the banned organization. The initiative, titled “1000 Bloggers, calls on bloggers in …

CAIRO: Al-Qaeda has invited journalists to send questions to its No. 2 figure, Ayman Al-Zawahri, in the first such offer by the increasingly media-savvy terror network to interview one of its leaders since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. The invitation is a new twist in Al-Qaeda s campaign to reach a broader audience, and represents …

EL-ARISH: Egyptian authorities have discovered two underground tunnels used for smuggling weapons into the Gaza Strip from the Sinai Peninsula, a security source told AFP on Sunday. The two tunnels were found on Saturday near a school in the border town of Rafah, the source said, adding that security forces were immediately deployed to the …

CAIRO: An Egyptian military court trying 40 members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood group announced Sunday that it was dropping some of the charges against the group, but declined to give further details. The charges that have been dropped are those of terrorism and money laundering, yet members still face charges of belonging to a …

MOSCOW: Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit welcomed Moscow hosting a follow-up Middle East peace conference, saying in an interview published Friday that Russia plays in an important role in the peace process. “Egypt welcomes the holding of the meeting in Moscow, Aboul Gheit, who arrived in Russia on Thursday, was quoted as saying in the …

WASHINGTON: Nabil Fahmy, Egypt’s ambassador to Washington, said the Bush administration has only months to show real progress toward Mideast peace and will be judged harshly if peace talks fall apart again. “You’re the arbiter now, Fahmy said Thursday. “If it fails, it’s your failure. Fahmy said last month’s US-hosted peace conference at Annapolis, Maryland, …

CAIRO: Over 1000 rioters in Qalyubia attacked on Thursday the home of Ramadan Al-Zeini, a member of parliament for the ruling National Democratic Party, suspecting him of having connections with pyramid scheme mastermind Rayan Al-Qalyubia. He was dubbed “Rayan Al-Qalyubia by the media in reference to the infamous 1980s’ scam hatched by Ahmed El Rayan, …

JERUSALEM: The World Bank on Thursday endorsed a Palestinian reform plan that requires $5.6 billion in international aid over three years, but warned that the money will not stem economic decline in the West Bank and Gaza unless Israel also eases Palestinian movement and trade. The Palestinians will ask for the aid at a conference …

CAIRO: Egypt has welcomed American and European statements condemning the building of more Israeli settlements in the area of the Abu Ghoneim Mountain in East Jerusalem. A ministry statement declared that Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said, “Such clear American statements reflect the stance supported by Egypt, aiming at building confidence between both sides and …

CAIRO: The Arab League condemned Wednesday’s “terrorist bombing in Lebanon that killed a top army officer and his bodyguard, hoping it would not further delay the election of a new president. Arab League secretary general Amr Moussa “vigorously condemned the terrorist explosion which targeted General Francois El-Hajj, Egypt’s official Mena news agency reported. Moussa stressed …

CAIRO: Egypt refuses to sign additional measures allowing more stringent inspections of its nuclear program, especially since Israel has not even signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, the Foreign Ministry said according to newspapers Wednesday. Egypt has no intention of signing the Additional Protocol of the International Atomic Energy Association giving greater access to information and …