The head of Supreme Council of the Armed Forces' (SCAF) Advisory Council, Mansour Hassan, announced his intention Wednesday to join the presidential race that officially kicks off Saturday. Hassan, 75, is a veteran politician who served in key executive posts under late president Anwar El-Sadat — including as minister of state affairs for information and culture — and was considered by the late president as a replacement for Hosni Mubarak as vice president days before Sadat was killed by Islamists on 6 October 1981.

The Ain Shams Misdemeanor Court on Wednesday postponed the trial of Asmaa Mahfouz, an activist accused of assaulting a citizen, to 17 April. Mahfouz was sentenced in absentia to one year in prison and fined LE2,000 for physically assaulting one of the witnesses in the Maspero case, the incident in which 27 mostly-Coptic protestors were killed when the army brutally dispersed a peaceful protest last October.

International Cooperation Minister Fayza Aboul-Naga has declared that Egypt's Parliament is not legally entitled to issue a vote of no-confidence in the current interim government. Nor, she said, was it entitled to appoint a new government.

The public prosecution has referred a report accusing several activists, public figures, MPs and media professionals of insulting the armed forces to the military prosecution, a judicial source said. The same source said the report, filed by a citizen named Mohamed Salah Zaghloul, accuses certain public figures of seeking to bring down the state.

A joint parliamentary committee will meet Saturday to discuss proposals submitted by MPs, institutions and citizens regarding criteria for the formation of the constituent assembly that will write Egypt’s new constitution, MENA reported. In a statement issued Tuesday, the joint committee — which includes members from the general committees of both houses of Parliament — complained about not receiving any proposals from citizens or the Judges Club. The committee said it has received 55 proposals in two days, all of which were submitted by MPs and party members.

Dozens of April 6 Youth Movement members and ultras football group members organized a protest Wednesday morning outside the Abdeen prosecution building in downtown Cairo to demand the release of April 6 movement member George Ramzy.

The role and position of the army after the ruling military council hands over power to a civilian president is one of the main areas of debate between presidential candidates, political parties and revolutionaries as Egyptians talk about writing a new constitution, electing a new president and putting an end to the military-governed transitional period.

Former Vice President Omar Suleiman has not yet decided whether he will run for president, but his decision is expected to be announced soon, the Facebook page campaigning for him has said. The page said it is planning a big conference for Friday to call on Egyptians to support Suleiman for president.

WASHINGTON, DC — Egypt supported Israel’s escalation of violence against the Gaza Strip during Operation Cast Lead in 2008 to 2009, a retired Israeli general said at a conference on Monday. The operation resulted in more than a thousand Palestinian deaths, and many say Israel committed war crimes during the assault.

Egyptian Prime Minister Kamal El-Ganzouri held a meeting on Monday with a ministerial security committee to discuss the latest developments in the foreign-funded NGO case. The meeting comes in the wake of the Thursday departure of several foreign NGO workers indicted in the case from the country.

(AINA) -- A court in Edfu has sentenced Reverend Makarios Bolous, pastor of St. George's Church in the village of Elmarinab, Edfu, in the Aswan province, to six months prison and a fine of 300 pounds for violations in the height of the church building. The court also ordered the removal of the excess height.

The dissolution and purging of the State Security Investigations Services by the government last year was a “lie,” the April 6 Youth Movement Democratic Front in Alexandria said Monday. In a statement marking the first anniversary of the dissolution, it accused the service that replaced State Security, the National Security Agency, of practicing the same “shameful acts” against activists.

Voter registration for Egyptians living abroad who will cast ballots for the upcoming presidential election began Monday, the Foreign Ministry announced. Ministry spokesperson Amr Roshdy said the ministry, in coordination with the Presidential Elections Commission, overcame severe time constraints in opening registration.

A cross-party women’s alliance has been launched in Bern to campaign for equal pay for women for equal work. Women still earn on average 18.4 per cent less than men doing exactly the same job despite the fact that the law on sex equality has been in force since 1981, and wage discrimination has been illegal for 15 years.

CANBERRA, Australia — Muslim women in Australia’s most populous state will have to remove veils to have their signatures officially witnessed under the latest laws giving New South Wales officials authority to look under religious face coverings. New South Wales state Attorney General Greg Smith said in a statement on Monday that beginning 30 April, officials such as justices of the peace and lawyers who witness statutory declarations or affidavits without making identity checks will be fined 220 Australian dollars (US$236).

Last week’s lifting of a travel ban on a handful of US nationals accused of carrying out unlicensed NGO activities – and their subsequent departure from the country – triggered sharp reactions from parliamentarians on Sunday. A large number of members of the People’s Assembly – the lower house of Egypt's parliament – used scheduled meetings of parliamentary committees to vent their anger at the lifting of the travel ban and for what they called "the double standards" inherent in US policy.

Cairo Criminal Court adjourned to 1 April the third session of the trial of Ahmed Ezz, the country's top steel magnate, state news agency MENA reported on Saturday. In Saturday’s session prominent lawyer Farid al-Deeb, who represents ousted leader Hosni Mubarak, told the court that he will head Ezz's defense team.

Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, on Sunday said that the armed forces consider the interests of the country above all else, and that the army is not a substitute for legitimacy. He also said that the armed forces are impartial to all political parties.

Group of "Egyptians Against Religious Discrimination" has launched signatures campaign to support the MP "Ziad al-Alimi" and adressed all honorable Egyptians: members and organizations of civil society and parties; to support the MP," Ziad al-Alimi" against the forces of darkness by signing a statement by name and job.

A plane carrying 17 foreign NGO workers took off for Cyprus at 7pm (17:00 GMT) Thursday after a travel ban was lifted Wednesday evening, according to Ahram's Arabic language portal. Sam LaHood, son of US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, is among the handful of Americans onboard the plane, official news agency MENA reported.

Two Chinese workers, kidnapped for ransom in Cairo on Thursday in a sign of growing insecurity a year after the ouster of Hosni Mubarak, were released after several hours, an embassy official said. "They are free," embassy spokesperson Lu Jingchun told AFP, without providing details of how the pair's release had been secured. Earlier, another embassy official told AFP the kidnappers were seeking a ransom payment.