CAIRO: Egypt's decision to raise the minimum wage for the first time since 1984 has been sharply opposed by the very activists who demanded it, because at LE 400 ($69) a month, it skirts close to the poverty line.

CAIRO - The countdown to the blocking of Facebook has allegedly begun. Growing rumours claim that this influential online platform could be the Government's new battlefront against its opponents ahead of the Parliament elections this month.

CAIRO - Male self-appointed preachers have invaded the Cairo Underground Metro, where they give sermons emphasising a myriad of virtues that range from prayers to the advantage of wearing the veil.

CAIRO - Anybody who walks about Cairo in particular will notice how anarchy dominates the streets, it's exactly like watching a soap opera or a movie on satellite or TV.

ALEXANDRIA: The family of a 20-year-old man found dead in the Mahmoudia Canal

CAIRO — Egyptian police have rounded up about 600 Muslim Brotherhood members ahead of this month's parliamentary election and some 250 are still detained, a senior Brotherhood official said on Tuesday.

CAIRO (UPDATED)- President Hosni Mubarak Tuesday led the funeral of MP Kamal el-Shazli, Egypt's long-serving lawmaker, who had died earlier in the day, according to the official Middle East News Agency. Mubarak joined a funeral prayer in a mosque in Nasr City in Cairo and offered condolences to el-Shazli's two sons, added the agency.

CAIRO - The Higher Election Commission (HEC), an independent body tasked with organising the upcoming

A chief executive officer and managing director of Telecom Egypt Tarek Tantawy said that the company is seeking to increase its investment in the mobile-phone market

CAIRO: Sixty-three civil society organizations have applied to the National Council for Human Rights Council (NCHR) for authorization to monitor the upcoming parliamentary elections on Nov. 28, NHRC vice chairman said on Wednesday.

CAIRO — Egypt's Coptic church scrapped a celebration on Saturday to mark Pope Shenuda III ordination in solidarity with the Christians of Iraq after the Baghdad church bloodbath, Egypt's official Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported Saturday.

CAIRO - Grand Mufti of Egypt Sheikh Ali Gomma Saturday issued a fatwa (a religious edict) ordering Egyptian Muslims, who celebrate Eid el-Adha on Tuesday by slaughtering a ram, goat, or sheep, to follow hygienic procedures and refrain from leaving their waste or blood in the street.

CAIRO: On the outskirts of Cairo, across the street from gated compounds where residents play golf on an 18-hole course, plush apartments sit vacant without buyers. As their luxury fittings gather sand blown in from the surrounding desert, many Egyptians say they cannot afford a home in the city of 20 million, where buildings are huddled so close together the only view is often of their neighbor's kitchen.

Two human rights groups said on Wednesday that an Egypt's blogger who served his prison term is still under detention and being beaten by Egyptian security officers

CAIRO: Sixty-three civil society organizations have applied to the National Council for Human Rights Council (NCHR) for authorization to monitor the upcoming parliamentary elections on Nov. 28, NHRC vice chairman said on Wednesday.

Egypt's antiquities authority and New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art announced that the museum will return 19 artefacts taken from the tomb of the famed boy-pharaoh Tutankhamen

CAIRO: Egyptian Copts and Muslims held a candlelight vigil Monday night in memory of the victims of the horrific Oct. 31 attack on a Catholic church in Baghdad that killed 58 people.

CAIRO: Five supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) were attacked by security forces in Alexandria late Monday while hanging posters of MB-affiliated independent candidate Mahmoud Attia, the group said.

CAIRO: Information Center for Local Development (ICLD) workers are entitled to receive the recently set LE 400 minimum monthly wage, according to the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights (ECESR).

CAIRO: Just a few hours before the nomination application deadline on Sunday

CAIRO: A number of labor activists said they would resort to “political blackmail” using the parliamentary and presidential elections as pressure to push for a higher minimum wages.