WASHINGTON: Israel s security chief said Tuesday that Egypt has the power to immediately stop smuggling into the Gaza Strip. Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter made the comments after a meeting with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. His visit comes ahead of Rice s planned trip this weekend to the Middle East and a …

CAIRO: With Egypt on the verge of announcing the rebirth of its nuclear energy program, many support the nuclear choice to compensate for dwindling non-renewable sources despite environmental concerns. President Hosni Mubarak announced on Monday that Egypt intends to build several nuclear power stations, kick-starting a dormant nuclear program stagnant since the Chernobyl power plant …

CAIRO: Egypt has deported Sudanese refugees who were returned from Israel on the understanding they would not be expelled to Sudan where they face torture or imprisonment, a security source said on Monday. Some of the refugees returned from Israel were expelled to Sudan, the source told AFP, referring to 48 Sudanese refugees that Israel …

CAIRO: Last week Gamil Fayed became the newest addition to the Egyptian diplomatic corps when he presented his credentials to Robert Mugabe, the president of Zimbabwe, in a run-of-the-mill ceremony in Harare, the capital. In his new role, Fayed will oversee an embassy staff of only two. He represents Cairo to a country coming apart …

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Monday announced that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer that would require surgery to remove, but declared his intention to stay in office. Following the results of a regular check-up, I was diagnosed with initial signs of prostate cancer, he told a news conference in Jerusalem. According …

CAIRO: Mahmoud Ahmed Abaza, president of Al-Wafd Party, Anwar Al-Hawary, chief editor of the party’s daily newspaper, and Younis Darwish, the newspaper’s reporter in Assiut, were sentenced in absentia to one month in jail by a Cairo court. According to Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour, secretary general of Al-Wafd, the sentences came after Darwish allegedly published …

CAIRO: President Hosni Mubarak said on Monday that Egypt is to build several nuclear power stations, relaunching a nuclear program frozen more than 20 years ago. Mubarak said during the inauguration of a Cairo power station that a decree would be issued in a few days time to establish a higher council for the peaceful …

CAIRO: Talks at the Darfur peace conference taking place in Sirte, Libya have hit a snag over the absence of major rebel leaders who boycotted the conference in protest over government violence and international refusal to delay talks until rebel factions formed a unified bloc. On Sunday, the second day of the UN-AU sponsored conference, …

CAIRO: The Democratic Front Party is down 51 members after a series of resignations that was prompted by Ali Salmy, one of four vice presidents of the party, and Mohamed Shoukry, the chairman of the party’s branch in Alexandria, according to the party’s media spokesperson Ramy Azaz. Azaz told Daily News Egypt that “the resignation …

CAIRO: Coptic human rights activist and blogger Hala El-Masry, also known as Hala Helmy Botros, was reportedly arrested in Qena governorate over the weekend following alleged harassment by state security. El-Masry maintains that the harassment is directly related to a report on religious freedom in Egypt issued by the US Congress in which there is …

CAIRO: American officials are due to visit both sides of the Egyptian-Israeli border next week to inspect the situation on the ground concerning continued smuggling through tunnels beneath the border. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice recently told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that senior officials would be sent to the area to assess the …

CAIRO: Al-Qaeda sympathizers have unleashed a torrent of anger against Al-Jazeera television, accusing it of misrepresenting Osama bin Laden s latest audiotape by airing excerpts in which he criticizes mistakes by insurgents in Iraq. Users of a leading Islamic militant Web forum posted thousands of insults against the pan-Arab station for focusing on excerpts in …

BEIRUT: Egypt s foreign minister called on Thursday for an end to foreign interference in Lebanon and urged feuding politicians to elect a president on time. Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said he was carrying no specific initiative to help Lebanese leaders overcome their differences, but would offer ideas. We seek to help by conveying …

BEIRUT: Lebanese troops opened fire Thursday on Israeli warplanes flying low over southern Lebanon, but no hits were reported, Lebanese officials said. Lebanese soldiers opened up with machine guns and light anti-aircraft weapons mounted on armored vehicles at two planes that flew by just east of Marjayoun town near the border at midmorning, a Lebanese …

CAIRO: State security forces arrested 13 students at Ain Shams University affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) on Wednesday after violent clashes between student groups and uniformed and plainclothes security forces during a protest against alleged vote rigging on Monday’s student elections. Students complain that university officials disqualified candidates not aligned with the ruling National …

CAIRO: Egypt s prosecutor general has set the dates for four lawsuits against prominent Egyptian-American rights activists Saad Eddin Ibrahim on charges of harming Egypt s economy by calling for cuts in US aid, a judicial official said Thursday. The private law suits have all been filed by politicians and lawyers with links to the …

CAIRO: Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit travels to Beirut today to meet with Lebanese political leaders as part of a concerted Egyptian effort to reach some headway in the crisis surrounding the upcoming presidential elections. Aboul Gheit’s visit “aims at asserting Egypt s great concern about the events on the Lebanese arena, and offering political …

CAIRO: Reports from Israel reveal a concern over the apparent closeness of Egypt-Hamas ties recently and what that means for the problem of weapons smuggling on the border between Egypt and Gaza. Israeli newspaper Haaretz claims that there are concerns in Israeli political circles that because of the closer relationship, Egypt is turning a blind …

CAIRO/LONDON: Heightened political violence between the Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah has claimed the lives of up to 300 civilians in the first half of 2007 leading to serious human rights abuses by the factions in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, leaving residents of the Occupied Territories in despair, Amnesty International stressed in …

CAIRO: Recent news that the Middle East peace conference is to be postponed to January is to ensure that the conference is more successful than the Camp David II meeting in 2000, an expert said. “If the postponement is true, then that means more time is needed for preparation and efforts to create a document …

COPENHAGEN: CIA renditions in Europe date back as far as the mid-1990s, with US agents allegedly seizing an Egyptian terror suspect in Croatia in 1995 and sending him to Egypt, a Danish newspaper reported Sunday. The man, known as Abu Talal, was a high-ranking member of the Egyptian terrorist organization Al-Gama a Al-Islamiya who had …

VIENNA: The refusal by most EU countries to back Egypt s call for a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East at a UN conference last month appears to be causing friction between Cairo and Europe. Egypt has been asking the countries to explain their opposition, diplomatic sources in Vienna, where the conference was held, told …

CAIRO: Visiting Austrian President Heinz Fischer is to meet with President Hosni Mubarak today at the Presidential Palace. Talks between the two presidents will focus on bilateral issues, the situation in the Middle East, the Iranian nuclear program, developments in Iraq and matters related to economics and culture, Fischer’s spokesman Bruno Aigner said. Fischer will …

CAIRO: The US-sponsored Middle East peace conference has been postponed until January, a US State Department official told the Universal Press Agency on condition of anonymity. Originally scheduled for the fall, negotiations seem to have hit a snag over differing Palestinian and Israeli intentions for the specificity of the document to be released at the …

EL-ARISH, Egypt: A Turkish man shot by Egyptian border police as he tried to illegally cross into Israel died of his wounds Friday, a hospital official said. The Turkish national was attempting to cross into Israel on Thursday along with six members of his family when guards called on him to stop, according to security …

CAIRO: US diplomatic endeavors in the Middle East seem set to continue with the visit of National Security Advisor Stephen J. Hadley to the region next week on the heels of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice who will also return to the region the week following Hadley’s visit. Hadley’s visit was disclosed by officials traveling …

CAIRO: Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit announced that his trip to Sudan yielded promising results after the latest political crisis hit Egypt’s neighbor. Aboul Gheit, who was accompanied by Chief of General Intelligence Omar Suleiman, said that he was assured by both sides of the conflict that peaceful negotiations, not violence, were the only path …

CAIRO: Turkey s foreign minister held talks with the Egyptian president on Thursday to explain his government s plan to send troops into northern Iraq to fight Kurdish guerrilla groups. Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said his country was drawing up the plan after long attempting to work with the US and Iraqi governments to resolve …

CAIRO: Prominent Muslim Brotherhood (MB) member Essam El-Erian denied telling the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper that the group would recognize the state of Israel and cooperate with it once the MB reaches power, raising the ire of leading members of the Islamist group. El-Erian, who belongs to the Brotherhood’s political bureau and is the group’s spokesman, …