The Vatican, engulfed in the worst crisis in Pope Benedict's papacy, on Monday denied Italian media reports that cardinals were suspects in an investigation into leaks of sensitive documents that led to the arrest of the pope's butler.

(AINA) -- The official results of the first round of the Egyptian presidential elections were announced today, the run-off will be between Mohamed Morsy, the Muslim Brotherhood candidate, and Air Marshal Ahmad Shafik, Mubarak's last PM, who served for less than one month during the revolution and before Mubarak was ousted.

The Freedom and Justice Party has formed a committee to monitor media performance, as well as the stance of the party and the Muslim Brotherhood toward issues people care about, said Mohamed Emad Eddin, a member of the FJP parliamentary bloc.

Abdel Rahman al-Barr, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood Guidance Bureau, said bringing down presidential candidate Ahmed Shafiq is a "religious obligation."

upporting Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsy in the presidential runoff election is not negotiable because it is a religious issue, not a political one, a leader of the Salafi-oriented Nour Party has said.

The Muslim Brotherhood’s mistakes have negatively affected its popularity, said Mahdi Akef, a former supreme guide of the group.

Religious figures and intellectuals are struggling to repudiate accusations against Copts that they were the electoral force behind the rise of former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq during the first round of the presidential election.

Mohamed Mursi, the Muslim Brotherhood's candidate in the ongoing presidential elections, tried to appeal to disgruntled revolutionaries in an enthusiastic speech on Saturday night.

The committee managing the papal election closed nominations Saturday afternoon and will announce the final list of nominees in a Holy Synod meeting Wednesday.

MP Amr Hamzawy called Saturday on the Muslim Brotherhood to withdraw its presidential candidate, Mohamed Morsy, from the run-off in order to protect the revolution.

Presidential hopefuls Hamdeen Sabbahi, Abdel-Moneim Abul-Fotouh and Amr Moussa did not attend Saturday's meeting called by the Muslim Brotherhood and the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) to co-ordinate support for Mohamed Mursi in June's presidential runoff, according to Yehia Hamed, a FJP spokesman.

The deputy head of Jama'a al-Islamiya's Development and Construction Party, Hassan Hamdy, called Saturday on Islamic movements to apologize to Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh for betraying him in the presidential election.

Security used teargas to break up a quarrel between retailers in the village of Deir Sayeda al-Azraa in Minya Governorate Wednesday. Bladed weapons and firearms were used in the altercation.

Hazem Salah Abu-Ismail, the Salafist former presidential candidate, has called on voters to back pro-revolution candidates in Egypt's presidential election to counteract what he claimed were efforts to restore old regime figures to power.

Al-Azhar's grand sheikh said he rejects any boycott of the first post-25 January uprising presidential election after casting his ballot Wednesday.

Many Egyptian Christians felt marginalized under former President Hosni Mubarak and are voting to keep an Islamist from replacing him, out of fear their community would be further sidelined.

Speaker of Egypt's Shura Council and leading Muslim Brotherhood member Ahmed Fahmi on Wednesday said he did not believe that presidential candidates associated with the ousted Mubarak regime stood a chance of being elected, but nevertheless stressed that the people's choice should be respected in the event that they were.

A former Muslim Brotherhood leader is seeking to establish an alternative organization since the Brotherhood “diverted from the path drawn up by the group’s founder, Hassan al-Banna.”

The campaign of presidential contender Abdel-Moneim Abul Fotouh, a former leading figure in the Muslim Brotherhood, presented a legal memorandum to the Supreme Presidential Election Commission (SPEC) on Monday requesting that legal measures be taken in response to violations that occurred in the Egypt Consulate in Saudi Arabia.

The Freedom and Justice Party and the Nour Party accused Interior Ministry officials of siding with presidential candidate Ahmed Shafiq on Monday.

Muslim Brotherhood presidential candidate Mohamed Mursi closed his campaign with a speech in front of thousands of supporters at Cairo's Abdeen Square Sunday night, after a whirlwind tour of Egypt.