Egypt's highest Muslim authority has said he will issue a religious edict against the growing trend for full women's veils, known as the niqab. Sheikh Mohamed Tantawi, dean of al-Azhar university, called full-face veiling a custom that has nothing to do with the Islamic faith.

For months, rumors of major real-estate acquisitions in Cairo's downtown district have been rife, raising fears that the city center -- long renowned for its hustle, bustle and local color --

AFTER winning their fight for recognising their religion in official documents and on identification cards (IDs), Baha'is, a minority in Egypt, are now seeking the recognition of theirmarriagecontracts,

President Mubarak called on Israel to reconsider its policies and the way it treats Palestinians and Arabs in general and cited the Egyptian-Israel peace treaty as an inspiration for such

"Look, that's where the swine flu is going to come from," said a weary Marzouka Beshir, pointing to a pile of rubbish rotting under the blazing sun in Imbaba, a working class neighbourhood in Cairo.

LONDON - Egypt yesterday signed an anti-piracy memorandum in London, insisting defence of the crucial Red Sea waterway was the "primary responsi- bility" of littoral states, the official Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported.

Ahmed Marwan, grandson of late Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, said he is "certain" that his father, famous political personality Ashraf Marwan, was killed two years ago in his London

KAMPALA (AFP) - Egypt's Minister for Water Resources and Irrigation Nasr Eddin Allam denied claims that the Egyptian Government was a roadblock to talks aimed at renegotiating colonial agreements over

AN Egyptian private equity firm is invest-ing in 500,000 feddans (210,000 hectares) of farmland in Sudan, an executive of the company said yesterday.

Drivers for the Public Transport Authority are threatening to strike on 3 October. They say the government has failed to follow through on promises made during the negotiations that ended a two-day strike

In an unprecedented ruling, a Cairo court of appeal Sunday ordered Israel to pay $10 million in compensation to heirs of an Egyptian soldier killed by Israeli tank fire on the Egypt-Israel border five

A leading Egyptian scholar has demanded that people caught importing a female virginity-faking device into the country should face the death penalty.

Egypt's Minister of Education Youssri el-Gamal yesterday asked parents not to prevent their children from attending classrooms for fear of catching swine flu, stressing that schools will reopen on

A Cairo criminal court yesterday delayed until November 21 the retrial of an Egyptian woman, known as the 'Iron Lady', who swindled Egyptians of LE587 million ($100 million)

Egyptian security agencies released 25 members of Egyptian Jihad, Jundullah, and other salafist groups in recent weeks. They are the first hard-line Islamists to be released from detention in several

Farouk Hosni's losing bid to head UNESCO combined with swine flu and the beginning of a new academic year have pushed the Egyptian political leadership to postpone a ministerial and gubernatorial

A heated dispute between Egyptian scientists and wealthy tourist investors over the proposed site for Egypt's first nuclear plant has taken a dramatic turn, after ten famous scientists vowed to pursue

Coordinator of the pro-democracy Kefaya movement Abdel Halim Kandil has challenged recent assertions by his predecessor, George Isaac, that the movement would not raise questions about the financial

The Egyptian Council of Ministers will discuss in its meeting next week a new bill prepared by the Ministry of Water Resources and

A mini-buS carrying holidaysmakers flipped over late Monday in the Upper Egyptian Governorate of Minya, killing at least four people and injuring 17, the police said yesterday.

CAIRO — It is unlikely anyone has ever come to this city and commented on how clean the streets are. But this litter-strewn metropolis is now wrestling with a garbage problem so severe it has managed to incite its weary residents and command the attention of the president.