Al-Arish, Egypt - Egyptian security forces on Friday discovered a
massive cache of arms in the Sinai desert, near the country's border
with Israel, police said.

Security forces discovered more than 3,000 weapons, including remnants
from previous wars on the peninsula, in the al-Qasima district of
Sinai, not far from Egypt's border with Israel, a security source
speaking on condition of anonymity told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Police said the weapons were discovered as part of a campaign to
improve the security of the Egyptian-Israeli border. No one was

Cairo  - Egypt will not accept any conditions on US aid, the country's minister of international cooperation said in remarks published Thursday, after the US Senate approved cuts in economic assistance to Cairo.

In remarks published in the government-owned al-Gomhuriya newspaper, Egyptian Minister of International Cooperation Fayza Abul- Naga said Cairo rejected any conditions being placed on US assistance to Egypt, the Arab world's most populous country.

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  - Saudi Arabian King Abdullah is to host a summit Wednesday in Riyadh with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, in a bid to strengthen relations between the Arab states.

"The summit is seen as preparation for the Arab League summit in Doha," expected to be held on March 30, the official MENA news agency quoted Egyptian foreign ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki as saying.

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.