Egypt's Health Minister Mohamed Hamed said that salmonella bacteria was behind the second mass poisoning incident in Al-Azhar University in Cairo. Hamed said in a press statement on Friday that the final report on the incident revealed that the bacteria contaminated the food, which left 180 students hospitalized on 29 April after eating in the dormitory. The minister also stressed the importance of the personal hygiene of staff members involved in food preparation. Earlier, on 1 April, over 500 students were hospitalized with food poisoning after eating on campus, which sparked protests. Both incidents sparked anger amongst Al-Azhar students who staged demonstrations against what they described as negligence and deteriorating conditions of the university's dormitories. Prime Minister Hisham Kandil, in conjunction with Al-Azhar Grand Imam Ahmed El-Tayyeb, ordered that a committee be formed to look into the incidents and reveal their findings in a report. Ten officials are currently standing trial on charges of culpability in the 1 April mass outbreak of food poisoning. More»

A security source has revealed that the kidnappers of seven Egyptian security personnel in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula have demanded the release of Islamist militants detained for almost two years. The militants, who allegedly belong to the Tawhid wal-Jihad group, were convicted of killing five security officers and one civilian during a string of attacks in June/July 2011 on an Al-Arish city police station and a North Sinai branch of the Bank of Alexandria. Twenty-five individuals were charged in the case. The security source, who asked not to be named, added that the kidnappers had accused Egyptian security forces of torturing one of the detained men. The security source added that there was "no evidence" that the kidnappers were either jihadists or non-Egyptians. The seven Egyptian security personnel were kidnapped by unknown assailants early on Thursday in Sinai. According to state news agency MENA, the seven abductees include one member of the Egyptian army, four port security officers and two state security officers. More»

Former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamed arrived in Cairo Saturday afternoon for a two-day visit. Mohamed will meet with Egypt's President Mohamed Morsi during his visit and hold talks with a number of economists and political figures, Malaysian ambassador in Cairo tells the state news agency, MENA. Egyptian Civil Aviation Minister Wael El-Maadawi and Presidential Advisor for Economic Affairs Ashraf Serri received Mohamed at the Cairo airport. Mohamed is also expected to give a speech at a conference organized by the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), according to a post on the Brotherhood's official site Ikhwanonline on Saturday. The conference will focus on the FJP's Renaissance Project, which President Morsi – who hails from the Islamist group – adopted as his presidential program upon taking office in June 2012. Mohamed was the longest-serving prime minister of the largely-Muslim state, occupying the post from 1981 - 2003. His tenure was most defined by carrying out substantial infrastructure projects. More»

An Alexandria court will issue its verdict in the appeal case against jailed activist Hassan Mostafa on 15 June, reported Al-Ahram Arabic website Saturday. Mostafa is serving a two-year sentence in prison in Alexandria charged with physically attacking and verbally abusing a prosecutor. He was arrested 21 January after attempting to file a complaint with Alexandria's prosecutor-general regarding the absence of legal representation for dozens of people arrested during a protest held the previous day. Since his arrest, activists have been strongly campaigning for Mostafa’s release, claiming the charges are fabricated. During the court trial Saturday, several witnesses changed their accounts, reported Al-Ahram Arabic website. They refuted what they had earlier claimed that Mostafa slapped the prosecutor. More»

Egyptian police angered by the kidnapping of seven colleagues by Islamist gunmen kept a crossing into the Gaza Strip closed again on Saturday, stranding hundreds of Palestinian travellers, witnesses said. The protest began on Friday when police strung barbed wire across the Rafah border post and chained up the gates, local residents said, a day after the abductions. Gunmen demanding the release of jailed Islamist militants had seized seven policemen and soldiers on a road between the Sinai towns of el-Arish and Rafah. Three of those abducted had worked at the Rafah border crossing, locals said. "We will not open the crossing until the kidnapped soldiers are freed and the interior minister arrives to listen to our demands so that these attacks on us are not repeated," one of the protesting policemen said on Saturday. Hardline Islamist groups in North Sinai have exploited the collapse of state authority after the overthrow of former President Hosni Mubarak in 2011 to launch attacks across the border into Israel and on Egyptian targets. The protesting policemen called on Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, who belongs to the Muslim Brotherhood, to help free their colleagues. More»

A five-year-old British girl has died after drowning in the pool of a holiday resort in Egypt, the Foreign Office has said. Chloe Johnson, from Forest Hill in south east London, was on holiday with her parents in the city Sharm el-Sheikh, a popular tourist destination overlooking the Red Sea. The incident happened at the Coral Sea Waterworld hotel on Friday, described as a ‘perfect setting for complete relaxation’ on its official website. Her grandmother told Sky News that the family was ‘devastated’ by her death. ‘We are aware of the death of a British national in Sharm el-Sheikh on 17 May. We are providing consular assistance to the family at this difficult time,’ said a Foreign Office spokesman. Travel company First Choice arranged the trip and has issued a statement promising ‘a full and thorough investigation’. ‘First Choice can sadly confirm that a child has died while staying at the Coral Sea Waterworld hotel in Egypt,’ it said. ‘The incident occurred in a pool in the hotel’s waterpark. More»

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. More»

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. More»

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. More»

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. More»