Cairo

Al-Zawahiri urges Hamas to continue fight

Al-Zawahiri urges Hamas to continue fight Cairo - Deputy al-Qaeda leader Amyan al-Zawahiri urged Hamas not to accept a truce to end fighting in the Gaza Strip in a new video message distributed over the Internet.

"Israel's Arab aides are attempting to impose on the people of Gaza a truce which will stop their Jihad in exchange for the lifting of the embargo (on the Gaza Strip)," al-Zawahiri said, according to a transcript of the tape posted to Islamist websites alongside the video on Sunday.

Suspects arrested in Cairo bombing investigation

Suspects arrested in Cairo bombing investigation Cairo - Egyptian police arrested five suspects in connection with a bomb attack on a popular tourist destination in Cairo that killed one person and injured 21 others, the Egyptian Ministry of Interior announced on Monday.

According to a security official who spoke to Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, three of the suspects, two women and one man, were then released on Monday morning. Two suspects remain in custody.

Dozens of mummies unearthed from ancient Egyptian burial ground Saqqara

Cairo, February 23 : The Supreme Council of Antiquities, part of the Egyptian Ministry of Culture, has announced the discovery of an intact wooden and limestone sarcophagi housing dozens of mummies inside the Sixth-Dynasty tomb of Sennedjem in the Saqqara necropolis.

Members of the public were given the first glimpse of the latest discovery of ancient Egyptian treasure to be found in Saqqara on Wednesday.

SCA Secretary-General Zahi Hawass revealed that two weeks ago, during a routine excavation work at the mastaba of the Sixth-Dynasty lector-priest Sennedjem, their archaeologists stumbled upon a cache of mummies of the 26th Dynasty, Egypt''s last independent Kingdom before it was overrun by a succession of foreign conquerors.

Egyptian pharmacists and truck drivers end strikes

Cairo - Egyptian pharmacists and truck drivers went back to work on Wednesday, ending their separate strikes after both reached compromises with the government.

Pharmacists in privately-owned drugstores suspended their two-day- old strike against a new tax law following talks between the Ministry of Finance and the Pharmacists' Syndicate, Mahmoud Abdel-Maqsoud, secretary-general of the syndicate, announced late on Tuesday.

Abdel-Maqsoud told reporters the syndicate had agreed to suspend its strike after the government agreed "it would not require the pharmacists to pay the new taxes retroactively for the period between 2005 and 2008."

Construction sector in Egypt paralyzed after trailer drivers strike

Construction sector in Egypt paralyzed after trailer drivers strike Cairo  - Trailer drivers in Egypt struck for a fourth straight day on Monday to protest a draft law that would ban the use of large trailers for safety reasons.

Violence escalated in al-Gharbiya governorate as the strike continued. Angry drivers threw heavy rocks at trailer drivers who refused to strike. At the same time, police detained 11 drivers for investigation.

On Sunday, 18 people were injured, including three policemen.

Hamas official: no time frame for reaching truce with Israel

Hamas official: no time frame for reaching truce with IsraelCairo  - Hamas official Mohamed Nasr said on Saturday the militant group had no time frame for reaching a truce with Israel.

"A truce could be announced after an hour or after tomorrow," Nasr told Deutsche Presse-Agentur, dpa in a phone interview.

Earlier reports from Egypt stated that a truce could be reached on Saturday. Nasr, who is part of a Hamas delegation in Egypt, said his group would not link any truce to the fate of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was captured by Hamas in 2007.

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