The tables below show the gold prices per gram on early Saturday in Egypt and the Arab states:

Egyptians are getting gloomier about their country's future more than two years after an uprising toppled Hosni Mubarak, but most retain a favorable view of the ruling Muslim Brotherhood, according to a poll released on Thursday. Egypt's economy has been hammered by political turmoil and spasms of violence since the long-ruling autocrat's downfall, and has continued to deteriorate since President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood was elected last June. Facing currency and budget crises, the government has been struggling to secure a $4.8 billion International Monetary Fund loan. The poll by the Washington-based Pew Research Center shed light on a fast-evolving political landscape before a parliamentary election due later in 2013. It was based on 1,000 face-to-face interviews conducted from March 3 to March 23. The poll showed 30 percent of Egyptians think their country is headed in the right direction, down from 53 percent last year and 65 percent in 2011. Just 39 percent believe things are better off now than they were under Mubarak.

Police forces used teargas Friday while confronting dozens of civilians in front of the Semiramis InterContinental hotel just off Tahrir Square, which has witnessed frequent clashes over the past few months. Crowds mainly consist of young teenagers threw rocks and Molotov cocktails at security forces as two police vehicles pursued them. Rioters also set tyres on fire and burned wood in the middle of the road to block it. They also blocked the nearby Kasr El-Nile bridge for a while. There have been intermittent scuffles between unknown civilians and security forces outside the Semiramis hotel, which is located in a street adjacent to the famous square, for the past few months. Thousands of protesters converged on Cairo's Tahrir Square on Friday to join a rally in solidarity with the recently-launched "Rebel" campaign, which aims at "withdrawing confidence" from Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi and bringing about early presidential elections. Some minor scuffles took place in Tahrir but did not involve security forces. Traffic returned to normal in Tahrir Square by late evening.

Operations at Egypt’s North Cairo Electricity Distribution Company (NCEDC) have been on hold for the fifth day in row due to a sit-in by workers demanding the release of 17 of their colleagues who are currently under arrest. The workers are threatening to escalate their protest by cutting off electricity to districts of Cairo supplied by the state-run company, protesting worker Ahmed Adel told Ahram Online on Friday. The company serves more than 3.8 million Egyptians. Last week, around a thousand workers gathered at the main headquarters of the company in Cairo to protest the management’s decision to remove a 50 percent bonus from their monthly pay cheques. Security forces attempted to stop the protests, arresting 15 of the workers on charges of blocking the street and damaging public property. “It was a peaceful protest, and there wasn’t any need for the security forces' violence against us,” Adel said.

One person died and dozens were wounded during clashes between Muslims and Christians late Friday night outside a Coptic church in Egypt's second city, state newspaper al-Ahram reported, in the latest violent sectarian row in the Muslim-majority country. A quarrel between two young men, one Christian and one Muslim, morphed into a family feud that sparked clashes in a western district of Alexandria. The two sides threw firebombs at each other before security forces intervened and cordoned off the area around the church. Police arrested eight people after about two hours of fighting, a security source told Reuters. In addition to the political and economic turmoil Egypt has endured since Hosni Mubarak was overthrown in February 2011, tensions have risen between Muslims and Christians, especially since the election of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in June.