Cairo - Egyptian security forces on Wednesday morning released a German-Egyptian graduate student and blogger held incommunicado since Friday night, his friends and family reported.

Late on Friday night, officers from Egypt's domestic intelligence agency, State Security Investigations, detained Philip Rizk, a German-Egyptian graduate student, blogger, and film-maker, after he completed a symbolic march in Egypt's Qalubiya province north of Cairo to protest the blockade of Gaza.

"It's true. Philip is at home. We are very happy," Rizk's sister, Jeannette, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa on Wednesday.

Cairo - Egyptian archaeologists have discovered roughly 30 mummies in a previously unknown tomb in an ancient, sprawling cemetery south of Cairo, the government announced in a statement Monday.

Archaeologists discovered the tomb near the 4,650-year-old step pyramid at Saqqara, approximately 30 kilometres south of Cairo.

Scientists believe the tomb may have been used over the course of more than 1,700 years.

Cairo - A Hamas delegation was expected to return to Cairo Monday amid fresh signs the group may be prepared to agree within 48 hours to a long-term truce with Israel to end fighting in the gaza Strip.

Cairo's government-owned daily al-Gumhoriya on Monday cited unnamed "informed Egyptian sources" as saying that they expected Israel and Hamas could sign a truce agreement within the next two days.

Cairo - Officers from Egypt's domestic intelligence agency searched the home of detained German-Egyptian student activist Philip Rizk in the early hours of Monday, his sister and human rights lawyers lawyers said.

Rizk has been held at an unknown location since late Friday night after he and 14 activists finished a symbolic, 10-kilometre march in Cairo to protest against the blockade of Gaza.

Cairo - Egyptian security forces on Friday arrested 60 members of the Muslim Brotherhood group as the banned opposition movement prepared to protest across the country, according to a security source.

The source said the arrests took place in five of Egypt's governorates ahead of the planned public action in solidarity in the eastern district of Nasr City, in solidarity with the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.

Cairo, Feb 4 : In excavations at the Karnak temple complex in Egypt, archaeologists have discovered a 250-metre-long embankment used to protect Karnak from the Nile flood, along with a quay, baths and a settlement.

According to a report in Al-Ahram Weekly, the findings were made during routine excavation work carried out by an Egyptian archaeological mission in the front courtyard at Karnak, part of the Karnak Temples site management project for the area enclosed between the temples and the Nile.