Cairo  - A confrontation over freedom of expression is brewing in the UN Human Rights Council after Egypt began circulating a draft resolution that Western countries and human-rights groups fear could circumscribe free speech.

Egypt began passing a resolution Friday among delegations from the 47 countries currently serving on the UN Human Rights Council that reportedly calls for further "limitations" on speech that could be construed as defaming religions.

Cairo - A Cairo criminal court Wednesday sentenced the owner of the ferry which sank in the Red Sea three years ago, killing over 1,000 Egyptians, to seven years in prison in a case which caused political controversy in Egypt.

Mamdouh Ismail, owner of al-Salam Ferry 98 and former member of the parliament, was sentenced in absentia. Ismail went to Britain at the time of the sinking in February
2006 and has not returned.

Cairo  - Nine paintings were stolen from Mohammed Ali Pasha's palace, a museum that lies on the Nile banks in northern Cairo, the Egyptian Ministry of Culture said on Tuesday.

"Officials at the palace say the paintings were last seen Monday afternoon just before the palace was closed," Egypt's Minister of Culture Farouq Hosni said when he went to inspect the crime scene on Tuesday along with head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), Zahi Hawas.

Cairo- A Sudanese man was rescued on Tuesday as Egyptian authorities continue to search for survivors a day after a Cypriot-registered cargo ship capsized in the Red Sea, police have told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

The Sudanese survivor raises the number of people rescued to 10 of the 26 men on board the Ibn Battuta. On Monday, the bodies of two crew members were pulled from the water.

Police say those rescued from the vessel include four Somalis, two Iraqis, a Bangladeshi, a Yemeni and an Ethiopian.

Cairo - Rival Palestinian factions opened talks on forming a unity government on Tuesday at the start of 10 days of negotiations in Cairo.

The unity talks between Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank's Fatah, come after 75 donor countries pledged last week som 4.48 billion dollars to help rebuild warn-torn Gaza.

However most Western nations, like Israel, refuse to deal directly with Hamas.

Cairo - Egyptian authorities are searching for survivors from a Cypriot-registered cargo ship that capsized in the Red Sea on Monday, police have told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

The bodies of two crew members have been pulled from the water, and 11 of the 26 men on board have been rescued. A search is underway for the remaining 13, police said.

The vessel capsized near Egypt's Red Sea port of Safaga, apparently in adverse weather conditions.