Cairo- The death toll from a rockslide in Cairo earlier this
month has risen to 101 after rescuers pulled five more bodies from the
rubble, local media reported on Friday.

Rescuers have started to break a rock exceeding 1,000 tonnes to
free 17 victims of one house crushed under it, Egyptian daily al-Masri
al-Youm reported.

The rockslide, in which several massive boulders separated from a
cliff face on September 6 and crashed down on houses in a shanty town
on the edge of the Egyptian capital, has prompted criticism of the
Egyptian government for being too slow to respond.

At least two months will be needed to retrieve all the trapped
bodies from under the debris, the paper quoted an Egyptian official as
saying.

Cairo - The trial of Egyptian tycoon Hisham Talaat Moustafa, who is charged with hiring a man to kill Lebanese pop singer Suzan Tamim in Dubai, has been set for October 18, the official MENA news agency reported.

Tamim was found dead in her flat on July 28. She had been stabbed several times with a knife in her face and body.

Moustafa, the former chairman of Egypt's largest publicly traded real estate company, is accused of paying former police officer Mohsen al-Sokary 2 million dollars to kill Tamim at her flat in Dubai.

Cairo  - Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit briefed his Italian counterpart Franco Frattini on Egypt's role as France's main partner in the Euro-Mediterranean union, an Egyptian spokesman said Thursday.

Egypt's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki said that Thursday's talks, held during Frattini's visit to Cairo, focused on the most recent developments in the Middle East, particularly regarding the peace process.

Cairo  - Many Egyptians are perplexed as fierce debate erupts among scholars on whether smokers and people with insatiable appetites should be able to use therapy patches during fasting hours of Ramadan.

Nicotine and diet patches have spread widely in the Arab world, where they find lively use during the Islamic holy month that sees Muslims abstain from eating, drinking and sex from dawn until sunset, to promote self-discipline, sacrifice and empathy for the poor.

Cairo -

Cairo  - As Egyptian shares continued to fall tumble Tuesday, analysts were expressing concern about a domino effect from the sharp fall in global markets triggered by the Lehman Brothers failure.

The Egyptian Stock Exchange Tuesday took losses on key stocks to more than 10 per cent over the past two trading sessions. The benchmark index CASE30 shed a further 4.73 per cent to reach its lowest point in 17 months, in the wake of Monday's 5.52 per cent drop.

The index of 30 key stocks on the stock exchange ended the day at 7,184 points, having plunged almost 1,500 points in the past week amid turmoil on Wall Street and other world exchanges.