CAIRO - There are growing fears that the workers' strikes, launched in the wake of the recent revolution, have badly affected the national economy. Despite appeals from the caretaker Government of Prime Minister Essam Sharaf and the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, the striking workers are stubbornly refusing to disperse and go back to work.

CAIRO - Egypt's Ministry of Telecommunications is ready to provide electronic balloting in the forthcoming parliamentary, presidential and municipal polls to help ease the process of democratic change in the country and reduce the chances of rigging.

CAIRO - First groups of Russian tourists will go to Egypt’s resorts of Hurghada and Sharm el-Sheikh Saturday after a break caused by the situation in that country, sources from the Association of Russian Tour Operators reported.

CAIRO: Prosecutor General Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud referred 100 police officers to a criminal court on charges of killing and injuring protesters in the early days of the uprising that ousted former president Hosni Mubarak, press reports said Tuesday.

CAIRO: The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces decided in its 30th communique issued on Tuesday to reinvestigate the detention of Amr Eissa, an artist and student who was detained on March 9 during a Tahrir Square sit-in that was violently dispersed by military police.

CAIRO: The Giza Archbishopric halted the activities of an unlicensed services center in the Bashtil district of Imbaba until it is licensed after a group of Salafis and other Muslim inhabitants protested in front of it, holding a number of Copts and children inside.

CAIRO - Egypt will hold a parliamentary election in September, its military rulers said on Monday, setting a date that analysts said would suit well-organised Islamists and remnants of former leader Hosni Mubarak's party. The ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces said emergency laws that have helped crush political life for decades would be lifted before elections, but did not say when, and approved a law easing restrictions on political party formation.

CAIRO: The Al-Wafd, Al-Tagammu and Nasserist parties said Sunday that they didn't receive invitations to participate in an anticipated national dialogue called upon by the government. In a joint statement, the parties said that they did not receive any agenda that will be included in this dialogue and that no one from the government contacted them in this regard.

CAIRO: Egypt is due to amend the controversial real estate tax law and delay its enactment, the finance minister told a state-run daily.

KHARTOUM: Egypt will make the completion of a partially-built canal spanning an un-navigable section of the river Nile in south Sudan a top priority, a cabinet spokesman said on Sunday. As Prime Minister Essam Sharaf visited Egypt's soon-to-be partitioned southern neighbor, cabinet spokesman Magdi Radi told a news conference in Khartoum: "We want to start the building of the Jonglei Canal, because it is a top priority. It offers to provide four billion cubic meters of Nile water (annually)."

CAIRO: The emergency law will be lifted before the parliamentary elections which are scheduled for September, the Supreme Military Council of the Armed Forces said on Monday. General Mamdouh Shahin, member of the council and assistant to minister of defense for legal affairs, said in a press conference that elections won’t be held under emergency laws.

CAIRO - Egypt's military on Monday denied using violence on demonstrators and said it was taking steps to address accusations of torture and that women protesters were forced to undergo virginity tests. "We do not use violence and thuggery," General Mamduh Shahin, of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, told a press conference.

CAIRO - Egypt's Prime Minister Essam Sharaf vowed to press a fight against corruption, responding to public pressure to speed up investigations into alleged graft by allies of ousted President Hosni Mubarak.

JOHANNESBURG - South Africa striker Katlego Mphela struck with the last kick of the match to secure a 1-0 win over Egypt that leaves the defending champions on the verge of elimination from the African Nations Cup qualifiers.

DAMASCUS - Syrian authorities have accused an Egyptian man of spying for Israel State Syrian TV reported Saturday night.

CAIRO - An Egyptian court has decided that it is unable to try a former minister and businessman for embezzlement of public funds, the official MENA state news agency said Saturday.

VIENNA - Washington's differences with Mohamed ElBaradei over his Middle East views and his handling of nuclear investigations in Iran and Syria persisted into the last months of his tenure as head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, according to a US diplomatic cable released late Friday on the WikiLeaks website.

CAIRO - Egypt's stock market could resume normal four-hour trading this week following talks to cancel emergency procedures, state news agency MENA cited an official as saying on Saturday.

CAIRO:A fire broke out Tuesday around 4 pm in at least seven floors of the communication buildings in the west wing of the Ministry of Interior complex in Downtown Cairo.

CAIRO - Egypt's ruling military council will announce a constitutional decree within the next two days that will chart the path towards elections and civilian rule, a security source said on Tuesday. The decree will set a timeframe for parliamentary elections, expected in September of this year, and the presidential polls that will follow them, the source said.

CAIRO - An Egyptian committee set up to investigate violence during demonstrations that toppled Hosni Mubarak has laid charges against the former president and interior minister for intentional murder of protesters, a state newspaper said, Reuters reported yesterday.