CAIRO: It could have been a historic occasion. Mohamed El-Baradei, the Nobel laureate who had just been anointed leader of the coalition trying to bring down Egypt's government, arrived on Sunday night to address thousands of demonstrators at the epicenter of the rebellion, Cairo's Tahrir Square.
WASHINGTON: US Ambassador to Egypt Margaret Scobey has spoken to Egyptian diplomat Mohamed El-Baradei, the State Department said on Tuesday in its first acknowledgment of any recent direct contact with the opposition figure.
BAGHDAD: An Iraqi government official says Iran has handed over the remains of 38 Iraqi soldiers killed during the 1980s war between the two nations.
TEL AVIV: Israel should not let the chaos in Egypt halt efforts to reach a peace deal with the Palestinians, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday.
RAMALLAH: Senior Palestinian officials on Tuesday called for holding general elections in Palestinian territories to pave the way to overcome the internal split.
TEHRAN: Iran has summoned an American woman to return to the country and stand trial on Feb. 6 along with two other Americans still in custody and accused of spying after crossing the border from Iraq, a judiciary spokesman said Monday.
DAMASCUS: Syria will not grant International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors unrestricted access to possible nuclear sites because it would amount to a violation of sovereignty, President Bashar Assad said.
CAIRO: Egyptians on the streets of Cairo said Monday they had reservations about opposition leader Mohamed El-Baradei, who has offered to act as transitional leader to prepare Egypt for elections.
CAIRO: The army said on Monday it would not use force against Egyptians staging protests demanding President Hosni Mubarak step down, a statement said.
BRUSSELS: Egypt needs to build a peaceful transition to democracy, European Union governments said Monday, urging President Hosni Mubarak’s government to listen to demonstrators and allow an open dialogue on the country’s future.
BRUSSELS: The European Union plans to impose an asset freeze on former Tunisian autocratic President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and his wife.
JERUSALEM: Egypt has moved about 800 troops into the Sinai Peninsula with Israel’s consent to beef up security as protests aimed at toppling President Hosni Mubarak spread across Egypt, Israeli officials said on Monday.
ADDIS ABABA: Sudan called Monday on the United States to lift sanctions, a day after provisional results showed south Sudan voted almost unanimously to secede in a referendum.
CAIRO: Qatar-based satellite channel Al Jazeera said six of its English service journalists were freed in Egypt on Monday after being detained, a day after the news network was told to shut down its operations in the country.
CAIRO: Cairo’s international airport was a scene of chaos and confusion Monday as thousands of foreigners sought to flee the unrest in Egypt and countries around the world scrambled to send in planes to fly their citizens out.
CAIRO: Egyptian protesters were camped out in central Cairo on Monday and vowed to stay until they had toppled President Hosni Mubarak, whose fate appeared to hang on the military as pressure mounted from the street and abroad.
WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Sunday called on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to hold free and fair elections and said Washington was not considering a cutoff of aid to Cairo for now.
TUNIS: The leader of a long-outlawed Tunisian Islamic party was welcomed at the airport by thousands of cheering supporters on Sunday as he returned to his homeland after more than two decades in exile.
BAGHDAD: Without more help — and quickly — Iraqi security forces may not be able to protect the fragile nation from insurgents and invaders after American troops leave at the end of the year, according to a US report released Sunday.
JERUSALEM: An Israeli court on Sunday sentenced an Arab-Israeli activist who confessed to spying for Lebanon’s Hezbollah militants to nine years in prison.
SUEZ, Egypt: When Hossam watches ships carrying the wealth of the world pass through the Suez Canal running alongside this industrial city, it fills him with frustration.
KHARTOUM: Sudanese police beat and arrested students on Sunday as hundreds protested throughout the capital demanding the government resign, inspired by a popular uprising in neighboring Egypt.
TEHRAN: Iran's Parliament narrowly approved President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's close ally Ali Akbar Salehi as foreign minister on Sunday.
RAMALLAH: The Hamas movements said that it has canceled a meeting to discuss the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners due to the situation in Egypt.
GAZA CITY: Egypt is maintaining its closure of the border with Gaza Strip until further notice, a border official told reporters on Sunday. Rafah Crossing had been rescheduled to open on Sunday following its routine weekend (Friday and Saturday) closure.
MUSCAT: Oman said it had uncovered a UAE spy network in the Gulf Arab state that targeted its government and military, the state news agency of the US ally reported on Sunday.
RAMALLAH: Israeli forces on Saturday attacked the funeral of Palestinian teen in the West Bank town of Beit Ommar leaving 40 mourners wounded. Palestinian security sources said that the Israeli fired live ammunition, rubber-coated metal bullets, stun grenades and tear gas to disperse the participants in the funeral of 17-year-old Yousef Ikhleil.
BANJA LUKA, Bosnia-Herzegovina: Turkish Foreign Minister says the Balkans needs a stabile Bosnia and Turkey is ready to help the ethnic and religious groups here overcome
CAIRO: More than 100 people have been killed during anti-government protests that have swept Egypt, according to a Reuters tally of reports from medical sources, hospitals and witnesses.
TUNIS, Tunisia: Tunisia’s new foreign minister says his country isn’t going to lecture Egyptians on what path their country should take, following this week’s anti-government protests.
CAIRO: Cairo airport officials say several Arab nations have organized additional flights to take their nationals and families of diplomats out of Egypt because of the violence and unrest roiling the country.
CAIRO: Mobile phone services started to resume across the Egyptian capital on Saturday, after being shut down a day earlier during unprecedented demonstrations calling for President Hosni Mubarak to step down.
AMMAN: Jordanian activists rallied outside government offices on Saturday as they tried to step up their campaign to force Prime Minister Samir Rifai to step down.
TEHRAN: An Iranian-Dutch woman detained after participating in protests against Iran’s disputed presidential election in 2009 has been hanged.
CAIRO: Ancient artifacts at Cairo’s famed Egyptian Museum are safe from looters but could still be damaged by the potential collapse of a neighboring building gutted by fire, the head of the country’s antiquities chief said Saturday.
JERUSALEM: Israel’s national airline has whisked some 200 Israelis, including families of Israeli diplomats, out of Egypt on board an emergency flight to escape the chaos engulfing the Arab country.
CAIRO: Police have opened fire on a massive crowd of protesters in downtown Cairo, killing at least one demonstrator.
CAIRO: The Egyptian military has closed tourist access to the pyramids after a day of anti-government riots in the capital and other cities around the country.
CAIRO: Hundreds of anti-government protesters returned Saturday to the streets of central Cairo, chanting slogans against Hosni Mubarak just hours after the Egyptian president fired his Cabinet and promised reforms but refused to step down.
CAIRO: The Egyptian army secured Cairo’s famed antiquities museum early Saturday, protecting thousands of priceless artifacts, including the gold mask of King Tutankhamun, from looters.
JERUSALEM: An Israeli settler shot and critically wounded a Palestinian teenager in the West Bank on Friday, Palestinian medical personnel said, in the second such shooting in two days.
SUEZ, Egypt: Egyptians carried the body of a demonstrator on Friday through Suez, an industrial city that has endured some of the most violent clashes in four days of anti-government protests fueled by poverty and unemployment.
ANKARA: A Turkish action movie that opened in cinemas across the country Friday begins with Israeli soldiers raiding a Turkish aid ship and shooting at unarmed activists on deck. A Turkish undercover agent then appears in Jerusalem vowing to hunt down and kill the Israeli commander who ordered the attack.
BAGHDAD: The flow of Iraqi refugees back to their homes dropped sharply last year, largely due to the political deadlock surrounding the formation of a new government, the UN refugee agency said Friday.
KHARTOUM: Sudan has charged two journalists with trying to overthrow the government, a crime punishable by death, for publishing an article saying the impoverished east of Africa's largest country may secede.
GAZA CITY: The international Red Cross has expanded the only artificial limb center in the Gaza Strip — greatly increasing the territory’s capacity to serve residents who have been wounded during decades of conflict with Israel.
(Update) BAGHDAD: Iraqi police and hospital officials say the death toll has reached 51 a day after the bombing of a Shiite funeral that triggered a near riot by Baghdad residents seething over security lapses.
MANAMA: Judicial officials ended a nearly two-month legal impasse Thursday to resume the trial of 25 activists accused of plotting against Bahrain’s rulers, but faced protests from the suspects over allegation of torture and forced confessions. The case is closely watched by rights groups and Western governments after sectarian clashes last year in the strategic Gulf kingdom, which hosts the US Navy’s 5th Fleet.
AMMAN: Jordan’s King Abdallah on Thursday urged the government and the parliament to speed up "comprehensive" political, economic and social reforms.
RAMALLAH, West Bank: A senior Palestinian official said Thursday that he has asked the US, Britain and France to help bring three of their nationals for questioning about the massive leak of confidential Palestinian documents.
JERUSALEM: An Israeli military court on Thursday sentenced two soldiers convicted in the close-range shooting of a bound and blindfolded Palestinian man, but spared them jail time.
JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia has urged its citizens not to travel to Lebanon these days because of unstable political condition in the country.
MUKALLA, Yemen: Four Yemeni soldiers and the financial manger of Hadramout Post were killed and others injured when armed men attacked their security vehicle Wednesday afternoon in Hadramout, a local security source told Arab News.
BAGHDAD: More than eight years after arriving in the country, American troops are readying to leave Iraq by the end of December, but defense analysts say the US Air Force will likely be staying for years to come.
RAMALLAH: Israel’s internal intelligence agency Shin Bet announced on Wednesday the arrest of a Palestinian cell allegedly responsible for killing of American tourist Kristine Luken in a forest near Jerusalem late last year.
DUBAI: Dubai authorities plan to deport more than 50 workers from Bangladesh who took part in a rare strike to demand higher wages in another sign of growing labor unrest in the former Gulf boomtown, a diplomat said Wednesday.
RAMALLAH: The Israeli Antiquities Authority (IAA) on Tuesday said it has completed an archaeological dig of a tunnel under the walls of Jerusalem's Old City, not far from the Al-Aqsa Mosque Complex.
CAIRO: Egyptian authorities have arrested 19 Arabs suspected of having links to Al-Qaeda en route to Iraq, the interior minister said Tuesday.
SANA'A: Yemeni security forces in the rebellious city of Lawadr in Abyan province arrested five Al-Qaeda suspects, the Ministry of Interior said.
AMMAN: Three suspected extremists pleaded not guilty as they went on trial before the State Security Court (SSC) on Tuesday, sources said.
ABUJA: Nigerian lawmakers have passed a bill that would extend the oil-rich nation's voter registration by another two weeks.
BAGHDAD: The head of the UN refugee agency expressed hope that the end was in sight for Iraq's refugee crisis but called on the new government to develop a plan to tackle sensitive issues like property rights for those who return.
JERUSALEM: Israeli negotiators proposed the transfer of a number of Arab Israelis into a Palestinian state, a suggestion firmly rejected by Palestinian officials, leaked documents showed Tuesday.
CAIRO: Thousands of Egyptian security forces are deploying across Cairo ahead of the country’s first Tunisian-inspired protests. Egypt’s top security official has warned no disturbances would be tolerated.
RAMALLAH, West Bank: The Palestinians now have their own version of a WikiLeaks scandal. President Mahmoud Abbas and his aides went on the attack Monday, accusing Al-Jazeera television of lies and distortions in publishing the so-called “Palestine Papers,”
JERUSALEM: Israel’s foreign minister is confirming that he has drawn up a plan that seeks to create an interim Palestinian state with temporary borders in the absence of a full peace agreement. Avigdor Lieberman told Israel Radio on Monday that “there is no other way” because the Palestinians have turned down previous Israeli offers. He says a full peace deal remains impossible. A government official said Sunday the plan would turn over up to 50 percent of the West Bank to the Palestinians.
BAGHDAD: A car bomb killed six pilgrims Monday in the latest deadly attack on Shiites headed to mark religious rituals in a holy Iraqi city, police and hospital officials said. Authorities said 13 people were wounded in the morning blast in a parking lot where the car exploded near busloads of pilgrims on the outskirts of Karbala.
BEIRUT: Hezbollah secured the support from a majority of Parliament Monday to nominate its candidate for prime minister, putting the militant group in position to control Lebanon’s new government.
RAMALLAH: An Israeli human rights organization on Monday said that the Israeli soldiers manning a checkpoint in the Jordan Valley detain Palestinians for hours without reason.
BEIRUT: Sunni lawmakers have called for a "day of rage" throughout Lebanon Tuesday to protest gains by the Shiite group Hezbollah.
BAGHDAD: The head of the UN refugee agency says the resettlement of Palestinian refugees stranded on the Iraq-Syria border is nearly complete.
JERUSALEM: Israel’s foreign minister confirmed Monday that he has drawn up a plan for the creation of an interim Palestinian state with temporary borders in the absence of a full peace agreement.
ISTANBUL: Iran said it had no fresh offer to make to revive a nuclear fuel swap proposal but was ready to discuss it in talks with world powers on Friday, and Russia said ways of easing sanctions on Tehran should be addressed too.
SANAA: Yemen’s president blasted opposition claims of a planned handover of power to his son, describing such talk as “utmost rudeness” and insisting there will be no father-to-son succession in his country.
CAIRO: Egypt’s newly appointed vice president says President Hosni Mubarak has asked him to immediately begin dialogue with “political forces” for constititional and legislative reforms.
JERUSALEM: Israel’s prime minister said Monday his country’s primary concern in Egypt is that the current crisis could create a void in which Islamic militants step in and endanger decades of peaceful relations between the two countries.
VIENNA: The control systems of Iran’s Bushehr nuclear plant have been penetrated by a computer worm unleashed last year, according to a foreign intelligence report that warns of a possible Chernobyl-like disaster once the site becomes fully operational.
DAMASCUS: President Bashar Assad said there was no chance the political upheaval shaking Tunisia and Egypt might spread to Syria, which has been controlled by his Baath Party for the last five decades.
SANAA: Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh announced a new package of incentives to the young Yemeni people. In an attempt to defuse the angry unemployed graduates, Saleh instructed the government to expand social security network and adopt additional 500,000 needy families.
CAIRO: Egypt’s armed forces pledged not to fire on peaceful demonstrators on Monday as thousands of people, freed from fear after decades of oppression, tried to press home their campaign to oust President Hosni Mubarak.
CAIRO: A coalition of opposition groups called for a million people to take to Cairo's streets Tuesday to demand the removal of President Hosni Mubarak, the clearest sign yet that a unified leadership was trying to emerge for Egypt's powerful but disparate protest movement.
Egypt’s opposition calls for 1 million on streets
EU urges Egypt: Seek peaceful shift to democracy
Egypt army says it will not use violence against citizens
Mubarak shuffles Cabinet but protesters say ‘Go!’
FRANKFURT: Governments, airlines and tour operators worked together on Monday to fly their nationals out of Egypt where protesters pressed their campaign to topple President Hosni Mubarak.
CAIRO: After 24 years in Canada, Rafik and Leila Baladi moved back to Cairo two weeks ago to settle down.
Now, like many other residents of the Egyptian capital, they’re stocking up on bottled water and essential foodstuffs as chaos engulfs this sprawling city of some 18 million.
CAIRO: Egypt named a new government on Monday, appointing new finance and interior ministers as part of a revamped Cabinet designed to defuse the most serious challenge to President Hosni Mubarak's rule in three decades.
Egyptians stock up on food, water as protests rage
Cairo airport a scene of chaos as foreigners flee
Protesters say army must choose Egypt or Mubarak
CAIRO: Egypt named a new government on Monday, appointing new finance and interior ministers while other key names such as the defense minister stayed the same, state television said.
CAIRO: Top dissident Mohamed El-Baradei told a sea of angry protesters in Cairo on Sunday that they were beginning a new era after six days of a deadly revolt against President Hosni Mubarak. Nobel peace laureate El-Baradei, mandated by Egyptian opposition groups including the banned Muslim Brotherhood to negotiate with Mubarak's government, hailed "a new Egypt in which every Egyptian lives in freedom and dignity."
JUBA, Sudan: Southern Sudan’s referendum commission said Sunday that more than 99 percent of voters in the south opted to secede from the country’s north in a vote held earlier this month.
CAIRO: Egyptians woke up to a dawn of uncertainty Sunday with several key buildings still smoldering in the capital and thousands of anti-regime protesters remaining camped out at the city’s main square in defiance of an extended nighttime curfew.
Egypt’s uprising unites society in rage
Egypt protesters welcome army as it projects power
Mubarak names VP, raising succession talk
CAIRO: For Gamal Hassanein, it began with a slap.
The unemployed 24-year-old was arguing with a police officer when the man struck him across the face — a blow that seemed to sting for months.
CAIRO: Anti-government protesters embraced troops sent out to the streets to restore order — an outpouring of affection and faith that the soldiers are on their side.
SANAA: Yemen’s ruling party has called for dialogue with the opposition, the country’s state news agency said late on Friday, in a bid to stem anti-government protests fueled by popular unrest in its neighbors.
CAIRO: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak named a vice president Saturday for the first time since coming to power nearly 30 years ago — a clear step toward setting up a successor in the midst of the biggest anti-government protests of his regime.
Death toll in Egypt’s protests tops 100 — sources
EU calls on Mubarak to end crackdown
Obama to Mubarak: Halt violence, 'real reform' needed
CAIRO: Unfazed by dozens of deaths in Friday’s clashes and spurning President Hosni Mubarak's call for a dialogue, Egyptians turned out in the streets on Saturday and said they would carry on protesting until Mubarak quits.
Death toll in Egypt’s protests tops 100 — sources
Protesters return to Cairo’s Tahrir Square
Egyptian military closes pyramids after riots
CAIRO: In his first response to the unrest sweeping his nation, Egypt’s president fired his Cabinet Saturday and promised reforms but refused to step down, setting the stage for perhaps even heavier street battles with protesters calling for an end to his nearly 30 years in power.
Angry, jobless Egyptians carry dead victim in Suez
World markets sink as protests escalate in Egypt
President Mubarak rejects "resign" calls, saying he was sacking his Cabinet instead and asserted that Egypt needed dialogue not violence to end its problems. At least 13 have been reported killed and 1,030 wounded in clashes between police and protesters on Friday.
Angry, jobless Egyptians carry dead victim in Suez
World markets sink as protests escalate in Egypt
AMMAN: Islamists, leftists and trade unionists gathered in central Amman on Friday for the latest protest to demand political change and wider freedoms. A crowd of at least 3,000 chanted: “We want change.”
RAMALLAH: Thousands of Palestinians rallied in the West Bank cities Al-Beireh on Friday in support of President Mahmoud Abbas and against Al-Jazeera network for publishing confidential papers detailing concessions made during peace talks with Israel.
CAIRO: Egypt's military deployed on the streets of Cairo to enforce a nighttime curfew as the sun set Friday on a day of rioting and chaos that was a major escalation in the challenge to President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule.
CAIRO: Egypt's ruling party said Thursday it was ready for a dialogue with the public but offered no concessions on the third day of anti-government protests in the country. Mohammed El-Baradei, a Nobel peace laureate and the country's top pro-democracy advocate, was returning to the country and declared he was ready to lead the protests.
SANAA: Tens of thousands of people called for the Yemeni president’s ouster in protests across the capital on Thursday inspired by the popular revolt in Tunisia. The demonstrations led by opposition members and youth activists are a significant expansion of the unrest sparked by the Tunisian uprising, which also inspired Egypt’s largest protests in a generation.
CAIRO: Egyptian anti-government activists tried to stage a second day of protests around Cairo Wednesday in defiance of an official ban on any gatherings, but police quickly moved in and used tear gas and beatings to disperse the demonstrators.
TUNIS: Tunisia issued an international arrest warrant for ousted President Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali on Wednesday, accusing him of taking money out of the North African nation illegally.
