LONDON: Britain was to press on with talks Friday with Sudan to resolve a spat over the jailing of a British teacher for allowing her pupils to name a teddy bear Mohammed, in a perceived insult to Islam s Prophet. Foreign Secretary David Miliband said he was extremely disappointed with the decision by a Khartoum …

EL ARISH, Egypt (AP) _ Police arrested a Bedouin woman Friday who had almost a half ton of explosives buried under her house in the eastern Sinai Peninsula, a security official said. The munitions seized in al-Takadom village included some 350 kilograms (770 pounds) of explosives and eight rockets, said the official, speaking on condition …

CAIRO: Cautious optimism over the Annapolis conference prevailed during the celebration of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People organized by the United Nations Association of Egypt in Cairo Thursday. The panel of speakers canvassed a broad spectrum of opinion from the Arab and international community including the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, the Arab …

CAIRO: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has declared that if a Palestinian state is not created soon it will cause a “South African-style apartheid struggle that would spell the end of the State of Israel and its Jewish identity. Speaking to Haaretz newspaper on Wednesday after the Annapolis peace conference had wrapped up, Olmert said, …

CAIRO: New York-based news agency Bloomberg ran an article Wednesday contending that President Hosni Mubarak is preparing for his son Gamal to take over as president. The article notes that four editors were sentenced to year-long prison terms in September for making similar claims in their papers, which the government called “false information . The …

CAIRO: While facing trouble at home, both Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert agreed to resume peace talks in Annapolis after a seven-year impasse.With US President George Bush between them, the two beleaguered leaders managed to shake hands before heading back home to face stiff opposition from shunned group Hamas and …

CAIRO: The Middle East peace talks sparked by Annapolis are a final attempt to save US President George W. Bush s reputation before his mandate runs out in 2009, the Egyptian press said in editorials Wednesday. Tuesday s talks at Annapolis outside Washington were an attempt to improve President Bush s reputation after the fatal …

CAIRO: Prime Minister of New Zealand Helen Clark is to officially inaugurate today her country s first embassy in North Africa. The opening of the new embassy in Cairo is an example of New Zealand’s desire to develop our relationship with Egypt … an important trading partner for New Zealand in the Middle East region, …

CAIRO: Education and eradication of adult illiteracy topped the agenda of the Egyptian-Cuban joint committee meetings. Held in Cairo, the talks explored the different areas of cooperation between the two countries. Education – a success story for Cuba where literacy rates are over 99 percent – was garnered as an integral part of prospect cooperation. …

CAIRO: As the Annapolis peace conference – or forum, as US officials are now calling it – kicked off Tuesday, the chief missive was to lower expectations, that this was not the be all and end all of the process, but rather the very first, tiny step.This might not bode well for the anticipated one-year …

ALEXANDRIA: Former Mozambique president Joachim Chissano will accept a $5 million prize for his role in helping end 16 years of civil war in one of the world’s poorest countries at a ceremony here Monday. Chissano, who was president from 1986 to 2005, will be the first recipient of the Mo Ibrahim Prize for African …

CAIRO: Egyptian security forces said Monday they discovered a cache containing 110 old landmines near the border with Israel in Sinai which they believe were going to be recycled by smugglers for explosives. The mines, remants of Israeli-Egyptian wars, had been hidden in an underground cave in the Abu Agila region in central Sinai, a …

CAIRO: The Annapolis Middle East peace conference kicks off today with the hope of revitalizing the long dormant peace process between the Palestinians and Israelis. The conference is the brainchild of the US administration, which has expended great diplomatic effort to make this conference the spark that will lead to the creation of a Palestinian …

WASHINGTON: As Arab nations prepared to sit down with Israel for the first time in more than a decade, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Sunday made it clear they should not expect to dictate the contours of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. Livni spoke days after Arab League members grudgingly agreed to send their foreign ministers to …

CAIRO: Egyptian journalists were prohibited from visiting a Canadian warship moored off the coast of Alexandria Sunday because the Ministry of Defense refused to grant permits for the visit. Journalists from numerous publications in Cairo were invited by the Canadian embassy to board the HMCS Charlottetown III in Alexandria but an embassy official had to …

CAIRO: Arab states are heading to a US-sponsored peace meeting on Tuesday in a show of support for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas against Hamas, which remains an unavoidable hurdle to success, analysts say. Arab states including regional powerhouse Saudi Arabia, agreed on Friday at an Arab League meeting in Cairo to attend the Annapolis conference …

CAIRO: The lawyers of imprisoned cyber dissident and now alleged torture victim Kareem Amer posed strong criticism to the general prosecutor on Sunday for not launching an immediate investigation into the abuse of the jailed blogger. Amer s lawyers from the Cairo-based rights group the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (HRInfo) filed a complaint …

RAFAH: Egyptian police discovered a ton of explosives hidden in an underground cache on the border with the Gaza Strip during a search for smuggling tunnels, a security official said Thursday. The cache was discovered behind a school in the sparsely populated Ahrash region near the border town of Rafah, the official added on condition …

CAIRO: Two of the Arab nations most friendly to the US, Egypt and Jordan held a three-way summit with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Sharm El-Sheikh Thursday to bolster support for the much vaunted Annapolis peace conference on Nov. 27. President Mubarak met first with Jordan’s King Abdullah to coordinate efforts for the Annapolis conference …

CAIRO: Arab ministers attending a ministerial meeting at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo Friday declared their agreement to attend the Annapolis Middle East peace conference Nov. 27. “The Arab peace follow-up group has decided to accept the invitation to attend the Annapolis Middle East peace conference at a ministerial level to discuss the peace …

CAIRO: Arab League Secretary General said early on Friday that Arab countries will not offer Israel “normalization for free during the upcoming US-sponsored Mideast peace conference. Amr Moussa remarks were made shortly after midnight at the end of an informal gathering of some 11 Arab foreign ministers at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo ahead …

CAIRO: An Arab mini-summit comprised of the Egyptian, Palestinian and Jordanian leaders will be held today in the resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh ahead of the long- awaited US-sponsored Middle East peace conference, finally scheduled to be held in Annapolis Nov. 27. President Hosni Mubarak will host Mahmoud Abbas and King Abdullah II in the …

CAIRO: A number of Egyptian human rights organizations released Wednesday a joint press release demanding an end to clampdowns on the Muslim Brotherhood by police authorities, urging the press and civil society to speak out. “Keeping silent about the continuous police campaign against hundreds of Egyptian citizens because of their membership in the Muslim Brotherhood …

WASHINGTON: Hillary Clinton Wednesday condemned the sentencing of a Saudi rape victim to 200 lashes and six months in jail as an “outrage and rebuked the White House for its response to the incident. Clinton recalled how she had spoken out on human rights violations at a global conference on women in Beijing in 1995. …

CAIRO: Another lawsuit was filed against human rights activist Saad Eddin Ibrahim requesting to strip him of Egyptian citizenship, bringing the total number of lawsuits to 13, said Ibrahim’s lawyer Fatma Rabie. Rabie, who is also a member of the Ibn Khaldun Center, told Daily News Egypt that the most recent lawsuit was filed on …

CAIRO: An international forum held in Istanbul ended with the release of a declaration reiterating support for the Arab, Muslim and Christian heritage of the city of Jerusalem, condemning Israeli attempts to erode this heritage. The declaration also reiterated the right of return of Palestinians exiled for more than five decades. Many attendees, however, weren’t …

SHARM EL-SHEIKH: President Hosni Mubarak said on Tuesday that he was ready to go to Israel if the visit would solve the Palestinian problem. “If my visit to Israel will solve the Palestinian problem, I’m ready to go, Mubarak said in response to a journalist’s question following talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in …

CAIRO: For the last five days, members of the Muslim Brotherhood detained in Borg El Arab prison have been on a limited hunger strike to protest what they say is mistreatment by prison wardens. Rights activists say this is a growing trend inside the notorious Alexandria jail. The strike began after a late-night search of …

CAIRO: Key Arab governments will announce Friday if they will attend a US-backed Mideast peace conference aimed at relaunching the stalled Palestinian-Israeli peace talks, said an Arab League official Sunday. The Arab position will be determined at the [Friday s] meeting, said Hesham Youssef, a senior aide to the League s Secretary-General Amr Moussa. Foreign …

GAZA CITY: Hamas security briefly detained on Saturday the father of iconic Palestinian boy Mohammed El-Dura, who became a national symbol when he was killed during intense fighting in Gaza seven years ago. Jamal Al-Dura, 44, said he was held for four hours in a central Gaza police station and interrogated for allegedly shooting in …