Days of unrest and protests forced a temporary suspension of trading in Egypt's stock market on Thursday, as the nation's index EGX30 hit its lowest level in more than six months.

"The situation is a direct result of the ongoing protests, as retailers panic and start reacting to political unrest," Wael Ziada, head of research at EFG-Hermes for Investment banking and securities brokerage, told the Los Angeles Times. "These type of events spread in the market like a contagion, and the situation is most likely to stay the same as long as the situation remains influx."

The index had already fallen by 6% to reach 6,138 points when trading ended Wednesday before closing at a 10.52% slide Thursday, a decrease which is the lowest since last July.

The uprising in Tunisia and the toppling of President Zine al Abidine ben Ali dominated the annual Arab Economic Summit, which opened Wednesday in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el Sheikh amid fears that unrest could ripple across the Middle East.

Arab League chief Amr Moussa said the economic, poverty and development problems in Tunisia echo throughout the region: "The recent events in Tunisia are an example of big social shocks that many Arab societies are exposed to," Moussa said. "It is on everyone's mind that the Arab soul is broken by poverty, unemployment and a general slide in indicators."

A string of suicide attempts in North African nations continued Tuesday as an unemployed Egyptian laborer set himself on fire in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria.

Alexandria's public health office confirmed that Ahmed Hashem Al Sayed, 25, died in a hospital as a result of third-degree burns suffered after he set himself ablaze using fuel on the roof of his house. Officials said an investigation was underway.

Al Sayed's mother told Egyptian media that it was the second time her son tried to commit suicide after becoming distraught over a lack of job opportunities. "My son worked as a builder for 10 Egyptian pounds [less than $2] a day, but he wasn't able to find steady work. He got depressed after realizing that he is 25 and is yet to afford getting married," she told independent news website Al Youm Al Sabee.

"He tried looking for a better job, but no one would hire him because he didn't continue education beyond preschool, which led to his first suicide attempt when he cut his wrist veins with a razor," she said.

On Monday, a 50-year-old man set himself on fire outside the Egyptian parliament's headquarters in Cairo, reportedly after growing frustrated with tough living conditions.

Abdou Abdul Monem was said to have tried to kill himself following a dispute with authorities in the city of Ismailia concerning his monthly coupons for subsidized bread. He remains in a hospital as he is treated for first-degree burns.

Both incidents coincide with recent suicide attempts in Algeria and Mauritania.

Self-immolation attempts have spread across North African countries after the suicide attempt of an unemployed man in Tunisia led to angry demonstrations against unemployment and poverty and ended with the ousting of Tunisian President Zine el Abidine ben Ali.

-- Amro Hassan in Cairo

Photo: Abdou Abdul Monem, who tried to commit suicide outside Egypt's parliament on Monday. Credit: Agence France-Presse

The depressed fruit seller in Tunisia who set himself on fire and touched off protests that toppled former President Zine el Abidine ben Ali has inspired copycats in recent days in Egypt, Algeria and Mauritania.

On Monday, a 50-year-old man frustrated by tough economic times set himself on fire outside the Egyptian parliament. Abdou Abdul Monem, a father of four who owns a stand near Ismailia, Egypt, for selling fast food, was said to have grown desperate after a dispute with local authorities over receiving his monthly coupons for subsidized bread.

Abdul Monem traveled to the capital and stood outside parliament shouting anti-government slogans before dousing himself with fuel and setting himself on fire. A nearby taxi driver intervened with a fire extinguisher. Egyptian Health Minister Hatem El Gabali said Abdul Monem suffered first-degree burns on 15% of his body and should be discharged from a hospital within 48 hours.

The self-immolation comes a day after four similar incidents were reported in Algeria, where protests against high prices for food and commodities have been going on for the last two weeks. Algerian media reported that the men were angry and depressed.

In Mauritania, Foreign Ministry official Abdou Ould Sidi said that police rushed a man to hospital in Nouakchott on Monday. Yacoub Ould Dahoud, 43, drove to a capital building before torching himself in his car to voice his resentment toward Mauritania's government.

The self-immolation in December of Mohamed Bouazizi in Tunisia is cited as the starting point that spurred nationwide anger and dismay over Ben Ali's authoritarian rule. After weeks of violent protests that led to the shooting of scores of demonstrators, Ben Ali fled the country.

-- Amro Hassan in Cairo

Photo: Abdou Abdul Monem, the Egyptian man who set himself ablaze, lies on the ground after the fire is extinguished, Jan. 17, 2011. Credit: Reuters

An Egyptian state security court sentenced a Muslim man to death Sunday for killing six Coptic Christians in a drive-by shooting outside a church in southern Egypt last year that jolted the nation and touched off a spate of sectarian violence. 

The verdict against Hamam Kamouny, 39, who was also charged with killing a Muslim security guard at the church, was handed down two weeks after 25 Christian worshippers were killed in a New Year's Day bombing of a church in the coastal city of Alexandria.

The Egyptian government has been under immense pressure from Copts, who feel targeted by local militants and a burgeoning Islamic extremism, much of it emanating from an Al Qaeda-linked group in Iraq. Egypt has attempted to play down the recent violence, which to many Christians, who make up 10% of the population, points up the nation's widening sectarian divide.

An off-duty police officer who killed one Copt and wounded five others on board a train Tuesday didn't intentionally target Christians, Egypt's state news agency quoted an eyewitness as saying.

"The attacker boarded the train with his face to the passengers' backs, before pulling out his gun, turning and firing randomly without saying anything or seeming to know any of the people he aimed at," Hossam Abd El Aal, who entered the train when it stopped at Samalut station, where the assault occurred, told MENA.

Officials said a 71-year-old Copt was killed and his wife and four other Christians were seriously wounded when Amer Ashour Abdel Zaher fired at passengers heading from the southern city of Assyut to Cairo. According to the Health Ministry, two of the wounded remain in critical condition.

The death in police custody of a suspect in the New Year's Eve bombings that left 25 Coptic Christians dead and scores injured in Alexandria, Egypt, has triggered demonstrations in the most populous Arab country. Protesters have criticized  Interior Minister Habib Adli over what they called the ministry's "brutal treatment and torture" of suspects.

Led by opposition Democratic Front and Tagammu parties, as well as Kefaya and April 6th Youth movements, protesters in Alexandria and Mansoura blamed security officers for the death of suspect Mohamed Sayed Belal.

"While we strongly condemn the Alexandria bombings and wish to unveil those behind such deadly attacks through legal means, we believe that Belal's death -- regardless of his political or religious orientation -– proves that authorities once again want to frame random suspects with the church bombings through torture," read a joint statement issued and handed out by demonstrators at a recent protest.

Christian Orthodox Christmas has long been a nettlesome holiday for Egypt's Muslims: Some have taken to extending kind wishes to their Coptic neighbors while others have gone as far as forbidding any celebration of the birth of Christ.

This year's Christmas was a different story, however. The church bombing that left 25 dead and at least 80 injured in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria on New Year's Eve seems to have finally made millions of Muslims aware of the nation's Islamic extremism and dangerous sectarian divide.

In a sign of goodwill, thousands of Muslims attended Christmas masses on Thursday and Friday alongside Christians. "I'm here to tell all my Coptic brothers that Muslims and Christians are an inseparable pillar of Egypt's texture," Mohab Zayed, a Muslim attendee at a Mass in a church in the Heliopolis district of Cairo, told The Times. "Copts have to know that we will share any pains or threats they go through."

While calling on his fellow Copts to maintain calm despite their frustration and grief over a church bombing that left 25 dead on New Year's Eve, Coptic Pope Shenouda III asked the Egyptian government to address Christians' main complaints.

"We believe in the rule of the law and order but we want equality, and if certain laws can't bring us such equality, then they should be amended," the patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Church told Egyptian state television on Monday. "I believe that the state has a duty to solve Copts' problems." 

Riots have spread across Egypt over the last three days, with thousands of Coptic protesters demanding an end to what they call religious discrimination. Scores of demonstrators and police officers were injured in violent clashes.

"I plead with our sons to calm down," Shenouda said. "We can't prevent people from expressing their sorrow, yet I ask them to express it without violence."

Hundreds of Egyptians took part in a demonstration Sunday morning to condemn the church explosion that took the lives of 21 Coptic Christians in the coastal city of Alexandria in the early hours of 2011. 

In the suburb of Shubra, downtown Cairo, some 500 Muslim and Coptic activists, politicians and other civil society leaders led a protest to show solidarity with the Egyptian Coptic minority and to denounce Saturday's deady assault.
 
Marchers shouted the slogans, "A Muslim and a Copt hand in hand to create a new dawn," and "Not a police state, not a religious state, we want Egypt to be a secular state," as they carried banners showing the crescent along with the cross, which has been a historical symbol of unity between Egyptian Muslims and Copts.
 
Protesters were swiftly surrounded by police officers,  who feared that clashes might erupt between the protesters and bitter Coptic inhabitants of the area.

The neighborhood of Shubra is one of few suburbs in the capital where large communities of Christians live alongside Muslims.

Following political protest that swept across the nation for the last two weeks,Tunisian President Zine al Abidine Ben Ali began hurriedly shuffling his Cabinet in an apparent attempt to stave off anger over his autocratic rule and failed economic policies. 

In a televised speech on Tuesday, Ben Ali promised more jobs for university degree holders but at the same time threatened to punish those taking part in the demonstrations.

"The use of violence in the streets by a minority of extremists against the interests of their country is not acceptable," the 74-year-old president said. "The law will be applied firmly against anyone resorting to violence and disorder."

The moves are part of Ben Ali's attempts to cool down national tempers and stave off further demonstrations against rampant unemployment and poor living conditions in the North African country.

Gamal Mubarak, the son of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and head of the ruling National Democratic Party's policies committee, said his stance on running in next year's presidential elections remains the same as it was in 2005: He's noncommittal.

Answering a reporter on whether his party's winning of an absolute majority in the new parliament would encourage him to be the NDP candidate come 2011, the younger Mubarak said that he "gave an answer to this question five years ago and I've already replied to this question three, four times a year since then. My answer is still unchanged."