ISTANBUL: Dontations given from all over the world to the Palestinians of Jerusalem are not actually materializing, according to the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Sheikh Mohammed Hussein. Speaking at Al-Quds International Forum in Istanbul late Thursday, Hussein said “money is collected everywhere as donations for Al-Quds, but we know nothing about it; we don’t receive …

CAIRO: Joe Stork is the Deputy Director of the Middle East and North Africa Division of Human Rights Watch, and former editor-in-chief and founder of the Middle East Research and Information Project. He was in Cairo last week for the release of a new HRW report on religious freedom in Egypt, which criticizes the government …

RAMALLAH: Hundreds of Palestinian business people and professionals, led by an influential billionaire, launched a new political movement, reflecting growing disillusionment with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Fatah party. Fatah dominated Palestinian politics for decades, but failed to reform or clean up its corrupt image, even after a painful loss to Hamas in parliament elections nearly …

ISTANBUL: A mass outpouring of condemntaion over the fate of Jerusalem marked the opening of Al-Quds International Forum in Istanbul Thursday where a plethora of organizations gathered to discuss the fate of the city. Organized by Al-Quds International Instituion, around 2,000 delegates from community-based organizations the world over gathered to attend the forum, organized at …

CAIRO: President Hosni Mubarak stressed the importance of achieving “social justice and securing a better life for the lower-income bracket in his keynote speech at the parliament’s inauguration Wednesday. Maintaining the current economic growth, sustaining investment and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) levels should create the foundation for the government’s “social justice plan. “Economic growth is …

RAFAH: Egypt has uncovered 60 tunnels along its borders with the Gaza Strip and seized about 20 tons of explosives in the Sinai Peninsula over the past 10 months, said a security report obtained by the Associated Press on Tuesday. The report, which provides details about tunnels, weapons smuggling and arrests of would-be suicide bombers, …

WASHINGTON: Just two weeks before an international Middle East conference in Annapolis, Washington has the world guessing about a gathering aimed at jumpstarting the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Officials have not yet announced the conference s exact date, its duration, described the level of representation or released an agenda, sowing doubts about its prospects and causing …

CAIRO: Despite a highly marketed effort at modernization, Egypt s ruling party is still centered on one man and draws much of its loyalty from its function as a patronage machine, analysts say. A stylish image revamp and the emergence of a reform-minded camp in the last five years have done little more than add …

CAIRO: Egypt renewed its skepticism over a US-proposed Mideast peace conference on Monday, and its chief diplomat hinted that the heavyweight Arab nation may even not attend the gathering expected later this month. The remarks by Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit came after talks between President Hosni Mubarak and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas as diplomatic …

CAIRO: Bayonets fixed, the soldiers scrambled onto the island in the middle of Cairo, rolled out barbed wire and set up camp. The reasons why they did so are as murky as the Nile waters that flow around them. Al-Qursaya island is home to 5,000 people, mostly farmers who have lived there for generations. It …

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh flew to Cairo Saturday to attend a four-way summit with the leaders of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Iraq, the official Saba news agency reported. The summit focuses on the situation in Palestine, Iraq, Lebanon and Somalia… and an international conference on the Middle East, that Washington is due to host …

CAIRO: This year’s Edward Said memorial lecture at the American University in Cairo was delivered by Dr Cornel West: a philosopher, activist, cultural icon, occasional film actor and professor of religion and African American studies at Princeton University. He has won critical praise for his work on race, democracy and imperialism, and his books have …

CAIRO: “We are asking the journalists not to eat our flesh. Those were the words uttered by Tunisian journalist and activist Naziha Ragiba, also known as “Um Ziad, at an event in celebration of the International Day of Press Freedom at the Egyptian Syndicate Union last year. On her trip to Egypt, Um Ziad claims …

JERUSALEM: Egyptian and Saudi nuclear ambitions, on top of Iran’s atomic drive, will lead to an “apocalyptic scenario, a senior Israeli cabinet minister said in comments published on Friday. “If Egypt and Saudi Arabia begin nuclear programs, this can bring an apocalyptic scenario upon us, Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman told the English-language Jerusalem Post …

CAIRO: Twenty-two Muslim Brotherhood members were arrested Thursday after clashing with police in a northern Nile Delta village, police officials said. The clash erupted in Old Salhiya village after police tried to detain some Brotherhood members wanted for questioning on a rioting incident last month, the officials said. ”They fought police back with sticks and …

CAIRO: Ramsey Clark, the former attorney general of the United States, is visiting Cairo this week to denounce the military trial of Khayrat El Shater and 39 other leaders of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. In a wide reaching speech delivered at the Lawyer’s Syndicate, Clark drew parallels between the Brotherhood case and the Israeli occupation …

CAIRO: After a long holiday, the Shoura Council and the People’s Assembly (PA) reconvened, and preliminary sessions set a full agenda of new laws and proposed amendments expected to keep them busy through the year. During the first of the Shoura Council’s meetings Wednesday, Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif said that while price hikes coincide with …

CAIRO: London-based rights group Amnesty International called on Egypt to implement stronger measures against torture practices. The statement was a reaction to Monday’s sentencing of two police officers from Giza Governorate to three-year prison terms for torturing and sodomizing microbus driver Emad El-Kabir in January 2006. The organization welcomed the decision, but wanted the government …

CAIRO: Former terrorist suspect and ghost detainee turned blogger, Abo Omar El-Masri, claims that state security has shut down two of his Internet blogs. The Alexandria-based cleric, also known as Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, joined Egypt’s vibrant blogosphere in July this year, airing his thoughts on life, politics and religion on his weblog “aboomarelmasri. When …

CAIRO: Egypt is in a transitional process towards a civil state, President and head of the National Democratic Party (NDP) Hosni Mubarak said in the closing speech of the party’s annual conference Tuesday. “We are passing through a transitional phase on the road to reform and development, Mubarak said, “and it is a civil state …

CAIRO: The son of the President and head of the policy secretariat at the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) Gamal Mubarak underplayed talk of the inheritance of power after his inclusion in the newly-formed Supreme Committee, which contained a pool of new presidential candidates. In a press conference Monday afternoon, Mubarak played down the question …

CAIRO: Members of the Kefaya Movement for Change demonstrated on the steps of the Press Syndicate on Sunday afternoon against the annual conference of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), which Kefaya accuses of corruption and human rights abuses. But few activists showed up to the short protest. Those that did were herded inside a …

CAIRO: Egypt s plans to build nuclear plants led experts to believe it s stepping up its regional role. President Hosni Mubarak announced last week that Egypt planned to construct a series of nuclear power plants, relaunching a program shelved 20 years ago following the Chernobyl disaster. Egypt s move follows similar announcements by other …

CAIRO: Political opposition have been heavily critical of the ruling National Democratic Party’s (NDP) conference and the decisions that have been taken in this year’s annual party bonanza. At the opening of the conference Saturday, President Hosni Mubarak was re-elected as the chairman of the NDP with 99 percent of the vote. Mubarak was the …

EL-ARISH: Border guards arrested six Eritrean refugees trying to cross illegally into Israel on Thursday, shooting one of the individuals in the process, security and medical officials said. The Eritreans were part of a larger group of about a dozen Africans, but the others managed to make it into Israel, said a security official, speaking …

CAIRO: The United States has halved its troop numbers to take part in the multinational Bright Star war games in Egypt, an Egyptian general announced on Wednesday. Two thousand, four hundred American soldiers will be there, compared to 5,000 at the last Bright Star, Major General Abdul Fatah Farag, who is in charge of the …

CAIRO: European Union members might be willing to assist Egypt in the area of nuclear security, but will not fund the building of nuclear plants, according to Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy Benita Ferrero-Waldner. “We might be able to assist Egypt in the safety of nuclear energy, that is our area of …

CAIRO: Arab League Secretary Amr Moussa has cast fresh doubts on the proposed US-sponsored Middle East peace conference weeks after stating his assurance over the seriousness of American intent. Speaking after a luncheon with EU Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy Benita Ferrero-Waldner in Cairo Wednesday Moussa said: “This conference has a question …

CAIRO: The country s ruling party meets on today amid mounting speculation about the succession to President Hosni Mubarak, but analysts say they do not expect any new moves to groom his son Gamal for power. Mubarak, who turns 80 next year and has ruled the country for more than a quarter of a century, …

MADRID: Three lead defendants in the 2004 Madrid train bombings were convicted of mass murder and other charges Wednesday, but another accused ringleader was acquitted in the culmination of a politically divisive trial over Europe s worst Islamic terror attack. Four other prime suspects received lesser sentences as Judge Javier Gomez Bermudez read out the …