CAIRO - The annual conference of Egypt's ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) kicked off Saturday as opposition groups were to hold a parallel gathering to discuss accusations of fraud in the country's recent parliamentary elections.

CAIRO - Egypt is closely monitoring the recent accord signed between Israel and Cyprus demarcating their maritime borders, Egyptian newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm quoted a senior official at the Foreign Ministry as saying.

CAIRO - The new session of the People's Assembly (the Lower House of the Egyptian Parliament), which opened last week, includes a quota of 64 seats for women. One of these women MPs, Ekbal el-Samalouti, represents a constituency in Giza, south of Cairo. Originally from Samalout in the Upper Egyptian Governorate of el-Minya, about 250km south of Cairo, Ekbal is also the chairwoman of the board of directors of an NGO, as well as Dean of the Higher Institute for Social Work in Cairo.

CAIRO - In a rare meeting at the Heliopolis Presidential Palace, President Hosni Mubarak Wednesday met Pope Shenouda III, the patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Church, ahead of the Christmas, Egypt's official Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported.

CAIRO - Egypt's Foreign Ministry warned citizens Wednesday against fraudulent internet announcements advertising job vacancies and marriage opportunities in Europe in exchange for money.

CAIRO: The Egyptian pound fell to a five-year low against the greenback, dropping by 0.2 percent as it ended trading at 5.806 to the dollar on Monday.

Egypt and Ahly star Ahmed Hassan has been named CAF's African-based Player of the Year, while Pharaohs coach Hassan Shehata has missed out on the Coach of the Year award

KHARTOUM: The leaders of Egypt and Libya were in Khartoum Tuesday for talks with Sudanese leaders on the future of Africa's largest country ahead of a referendum that's likely to break it into two.

CAIRO: The announcement of the capture of an Egyptian man accused of spying for Israel was politically motivated, according to a former North Sinai MP candidate.

CAIRO - Egyptian State Security has uncovered a spy ring that included two Israelis and an Egyptian businessman, who helped them recruit operatives working for telecom companies, State Security Prosecutor Hisham Badawi said Monday.

CAIRO: The High Administrative Court accepted on Monday an appeal put forward by “Engineers against Guardianship” demanding that the head of the judicial committee responsible for syndicate elections implement a recent court ruling that will end the 15-year guardianship over the Engineers’ Syndicate.

CAIRO - President Hosni Mubarak and Libya's leader Muammar Gaddafi will visit Khartoum today for talks with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and his Vice President and head of the Southern Sudan's government Salva Kiir, ahead of a crucial referendum on southern independence, Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said Monday.

CAIRO: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak gave a speech to the newly elected parliament on Sunday, amid wide applause and praise from the parliament members; however, the opposition’s reaction to the speech from outside the parliament’s walls was entirely different.

CAIRO: Archaeologists have found fragments of a statue of an ancient god and a pharaoh in a site that once housed ancient Egypt's largest funerary temple, the antiquities council said on Thursday.

CAIRO: For the past two years, talk of the Egyptian economy being relatively shielded from the effects of the global economy crisis has been common among government officials, academia and the media.

CAIRO - A senior ruling party official dismissed the plans for forming an alternative legislature, which was announced last week by 20 opposition lawmakers defeated in the November legislative polls, as illegal and illegitimate.

CAIRO - Two groups of activists with sympathy for democracy lobbyist Mohamed ElBaradei Saturday agreed to form a joint board of trustees to be responsible for coordinating their own activities and advising them on the best measures to put pressure on the Egyptian government to consider their political reform demands.

CAIRO: After being expelled from the Muslim Brotherhood, Magdy Ashour said he will resume his duties as an independent MP due to pressure from his district, whose constituent demanded that he represent them in parliament.

CAIRO: Mohamed Sarhan, deputy president of the opposition Al-Wafd, said that the party has no right to freeze the memberships of its candidates who have — against the party’s will— registered as independents in the new People’s Assembly (PA).

Egypt's main index was in the black on Sunday as non-Arabs were driven by a bullish sentiment, traders said. Non-Arabs made net purchases worth LE154.6 million ($26.7 million), they added.

CAIRO: The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) has filed a case with the African Commission against the Egyptian government for its administrative detention policy.