Cairo - Forty-five people were killed and ten were injured, many critically, Sunday when their bus overturned and plunged into a stream at al-Ibrahimeya in Upper Egypt, police said.

Cairo - Egypt's leading Muslim cleric Mohammed Tantawi said on Tuesday that preventing Muslims from doing their hajj pilgrimage is a "heinous crime," even as tensions brewed over moves by a Palestinian group that are making the Saudi Arabian pilgrimage difficult for many.

"Nobody should prevent a Muslim from doing his pilgrimage, and whoever does that commits a heinous crime," Tantawi was quoted by the state news agency MENA as saying.

Cairo - Egyptians are hoping that President Hosni Mubarak will seek a royal pardon for two Egyptian doctors sentenced to whippings and jail time in Saudi Arabia when Mubarak visits the kingdom Friday.

A Saudi court in October sentenced Egyptian doctors Rauof Amin and Shawki Abd Rabuh to 15 years in prison and 1,500 lashes each.

Amin was accused of causing the wife of a Saudi prince to get addicted to the painkiller morphine during two years of medical treatment.

Abd Rabuh was convicted of illegally dealing in drugs and of having illicit affairs with female patients.

Cairo - Oil ministers of the Arab petroleum exporting organization OAPEC held a behind-closed-doors meeting Saturday in Cairo to discuss strategies to cope with declining prices.

The 81st OAPEC ministers session preceded consultations to be held with the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

"These two meetings come at a decisive time for the Oil industry amid the decline of world oil prices," Egyptian Oil Minister Sameh Fahmy told reporters after the OAPEC meeting ended.

Cairo- Hundreds of farmers demonstrated near the southern Egyptia

Cairo - A clash between Muslims, Christians and the police in the Egyptian capital of Cairo late Sunday resulted in injuries and multiple arrests of members of both groups, eyewitnesses and authorities said.

Hundreds of Muslims gathered after evening prayers in a Cairo neighbourhood to protest that Christians in the area had gathered to pray in a parish hall. Violence broke out between the group and police then intervened, eyewitnesses said.

Security sources said eight people were injured, while eyewitnesses spoke of dozens hurt.