Rafah, Egypt  - A senior Hamas member trying to return to Gaza Thursday after talks with Egyptian mediators was turned back at the Rafah crossing by border guards who found cash in his bags totalling nearly 12 million dollars.

But Senior Hamas member Ayman Taha was allowed back into the strip late Thursday after Egyptian authorities insisted he put the money in a bank in the north Sinai town of Arish, al-Arabiya news channel reported.

New Delhi, Feb. 5, : Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests Namo Narain Meena in a meeting with his Egyptian counterpart Maged George on Thursday said both the countries would intensify their interacion and maintain the unity in action on climate change and other areas.

Meena appealed during the meeting, to developed countries to come forward to help developing countries in research and give deeper and longer commitments in the field of environment.

Cairo- Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak has said that Egypt is not bound by a US-Israeli deal to end weapons smuggling into the Gaza Strip, in remarks published in Egypt's leading government dailies Thursday.

"I say that the smuggling of goods is the result of the blockade, and that Egypt is not bound by the Israeli-American agreement on monitoring arms smuggling into Gaza," Mubarak said in an address televised on Wednesday night and extensively quoted in the government-owned dailies al-Ahram and al-Akhbar Thursday.

Cairo - Chief Israeli negotiator Amos Gilad is expected in Cairo for high-level talks with Egyptian authorities Thursday, Egypt's official MENA news agency reported.

His visit comes after talks between Hamas and Egypt ended on Wednesday without a final agreement on a truce.

Egypt had originally set Thursday as the deadline for Hamas to agree to a truce in Gaza, but on Thursday morning an unnamed Egyptian official told MENA that Hamas would give its response on Saturday.

The official said that Hamas was seeking clarification from the Israelis on questions regarding the opening of border crossings into the Gaza Strip.

Cairo  - As Egypt's Thursday deadline for negotiating a truce in the Gaza Strip approaches, a Hamas representative said an agreement was unlikely by the end of Wednesday's negotiations.

"There is still a huge gap between Hamas and Israel concerning a truce. Thus, more time is needed," Mohammed Nizzal, a member of Hamas' political bureau in Damascus, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa on Wednesday.

Egypt is brokering a long-term, sustainable ceasefire between Israel and Hamas to continue the fragile calm in the enclave that went into effect on January 18 after the end of a 22-day offensive by Israel. Egypt has set February 5 as a deadline for Hamas to accept a truce.

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.