CAIRO: The European Union made their latest installment in the effort to support and work alongside the developments occurring the Middle East and North Africa region by implementing the EU Special Representative for the Southern Mediterranean Region, Bernardino León. León, who has assumed several roles in countries undergoing transitional governments as well as published several books and articles on the Arab Muslim world, was quick to issue his commitment to Egypt by saying, “This mandate is intended to spur more dialogue, more understanding and more efficiency. The goal is to achieve cohesion between countries like Egypt and the EU. My intention is not only to visit Egypt but to stay in this country as well.”

CAIRO: Dozens of protesters holding an open sit-in at the State TV building Maspero demanding affordable government housing denied media reports claiming they met government officials to discuss their demands. "Security officials told us that we can talk to government officials about our demands only after we end the open sit-in," Mamdouh Khairy, 32, member of the delegation that represents the protesters, told Daily News Egypt.

CAIRO: A number of lawyers representing martyrs’ families threatened to take measures towards referring ousted president Hosni Mubarak's case to an international tribunal if the court refuses to allow them to attend the trial. Twenty-eight of the lawyers who met at the supreme court on Tuesday, were denied entry in the opening Aug. 3 session. Others who just recently joined the case, said that the court is not being fair and warned of an escalation if it fails to respond to their demands.

CAIRO: Clashes between families in the Upper Egyptian governorate Sohag escalated Tuesday as Central Security Forces dispersed residents with tear gas and rubber bullets, according to eyewitnesses. Clashes between a family from the town of Gerga and another from Naga' Owais village left three dead and 21 severely injured. They are now receiving treatment in Sohag General Hospital, and the Educational and University Hospitals.

CAIRO – Egypt's Prime Minister Essam Sharaf has agreed in principle to launch a million-man march "For the sake of Egypt' in the iconic Tahrir Square on Friday 12 provided that work would not be intercepted in any way, Al-Youm Al-Sabea website reported on Tuesday. Sharaf emphasised that Egyptians have the right to demonstrate and protest without halting production as Egypt now is in dire need of every second to boost its economy.

CAIRO: Presidential hopeful Mohamed ElBaradei criticized Sunday evening the way the ruling army council and the caretaker government have been running the country over the past six months. ElBaradei, also the former director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said during the event hosted by El-Adl political party that "bad management" is apparent on different levels.

CAIRO: The lawyer representing Egypt’s ex-interior minister Habib El-Adly for his involvement in killing protesters will ask the court to order a ballistics test to compare the bullet shells retrieved after the clashes with the Interior Ministry’s weapons. Lawyer Essam El-Batawy told Daily News Egypt Monday that the court, as the only authority with that jurisdiction, must order a full examination into the compatibility of the bullets and guns to prove whether police really attacked peaceful protesters during the January 25 uprising.

CAIRO – Egyptian reserves of natural gas, which account for about 1 per cent of the global reserves, could run out by 2017. Despite this, we export gas to a number of countries, including Israel. If we run out of gas, we’ll have to start importing it, paying global prices for it in hard currency. In the meantime, Egypt has made huge losses by exporting gas to countries like Israel for shockingly low prices.

CAIRO – Former Egyptian minister of agriculture Youssef Wali was detained on Monday for a further 15 days, pending investigations into charges that he allowed carcinogenic pesticides into Egypt when he was in office, the official Middle East News Agency reports.

CAIRO – Life is going to back normal in the City of Girga in the Upper Egyptian Governorate in Sohag, about 650km

CAIRO: A number of prominent lawyers from across the political spectrum set up Saturday a new team to represent martyrs' families in the case of killing protestors in which ousted president Hosni Mubarak, ex-Minister of Interior Habib Al-Adly and six of his aides are charged.

CAIRO: During its annual iftar Saturday, the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) called for political unity between all national currents in order to go through the transitional period “peacefully and safely”. The group also demanded the swift transfer of power from the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) to a civilian authority according to the time schedule set out in the SCAF’s constitutional decree, respecting people’s will and using democratic means to manage ideological and political conflicts.

CAIRO - Egypt's finance minister said on Sunday the government would not sell any more state firms but also reassured investors that the state had no intention of nationalising companies, the state news agency MENA reported.

TEL AVIV - An aide to Israel’s prime minister on Wednesday denied a claim that Israel offered asylum to Egypt’s deposed President Hosni Mubarak several months ago.

CAIRO: Head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) Field Marshal Hussein Tantawy should appear in court to testify in the case against former president Hosni Mubarak, legal experts said Wednesday. Both the defense team and civil society lawyers called on the court to summon Tantawy along with Chief of Staff Sami Anan and former ex-vice president Omar Suleiman to testify on who gave orders to shoot peaceful protesters during the January 25 Revolution.

CAIRO/SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt - Egyptians and their fellow Arabs were enthralled on Wednesday by the unprecedented sight of ousted president Hosni Mubarak, a leader of the region for three decades and the Arab Spring’s biggest scalp, being wheeled into court to face trial. Outside the courtroom in Cairo, they watched on a big screen as the octogenarian, who ruled Egypt for 30 years, lay on a hospital bed connected to a drip and denied involvement in the killing of protesters who ousted him.

CAIRO (Updated 6) - A lawyer acting for families of those killed in Egypt's uprising said on Wednesday the former interior minister was ordered by Hosni Mubarak to kill demonstrators and demanded execution for the ex-minister.

CAIRO: Human rights organizations condemned Tuesday the army's raid on the open sit-in in Tahrir Square on Monday, which left dozens injured and 111 detained. "The continuation of oppression and violence after a revolution toppling a dictatorship is very sad, in addition to remarks by the ruling military council members accusing the protesters of being thugs, saboteurs and agitators causing rifts between the army and the people," said the Arab Network of Human Rights Information (ANHRI) in a statement released Tuesday.

CAIRO (Updated 8) - The lawyer representing former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak called on Wednesday for the military ruler of Egypt to be summoned as a witness in the trial. Mubarak's lawyer Farid al-Deeb asked to "hear the testimony of Field Marshal (Mohamed Hussein) Tantawi" among a list of more than 1600 people he requested as witnesses, including former and current governors in the region of South Sinai.

CAIRO: Members of the armed forces and central security police raided Tahrir Square on Monday afternoon, bringing down the tents, forcing protesters to end their open sit-in, and allowing the flow of traffic in the square. Protesters said that members of the armed forces accompanied by riot police attacked them with batons. The army fired gun shots in the air to intimidate protesters, according to eyewitnesses.

CAIRO - For the second day in a row, Egypt's benchmark index EGX 30 gained 0.74 per cent to 5,073.07 points on Monday, traders said.