Cairo  - An Egyptian opposition politician will face military trial on Thursday in the Suez Canal town of Ismailiya on charges of crossing into the Gaza Strip illegally, sources told Deutsche Presse- Agentur dpa on Tuesday.

Magdi Hussein, a fiery orator from Egypt's suspended Labour Party, was detained last Saturday when he came back to Egypt after spending a week in the Strip.

Cairo  - A Cairo court on Monday suspended a November verdict from a lower court barring Egypt from exporting gas to Israel.

In suspending the ruling, judges from Cairo's Supreme Administrative Court found that the lower court did not have jurisdiction over the case and ruled that decisions on exports to countries to the east of the Mediterranean, including Israel, were within the government's purview, Egypt's official Middle East News Agency reported.

Cairo  - At a time when newspapers around the world are falling on hard times, Egypt's august al-Shorouq publishing house did something few would have expected: it launched a new, independent daily.

"When the first issue of al-Shorouq newspaper is circulated, the reader will get a different taste of modern journalism," Salama Ahmad Salama, a respected Egyptian columnist and now head of al-Shorouq's editorial board, promised the readers in his opening editorial on Sunday.

Rafah, Egypt  - An Egyptian opposition politician will face military prosecutors on Monday for going to the Gaza Strip in a highly publicized trip last week, his lawyer told Deutsche Presse- Agentur dpa on Sunday.

The Egyptian military detained Magdi Hussein, a fiery orator from Egypt's suspended Labour Party, on Saturday on charges of crossing Egypt's borders illegally, Hussein's lawyer, Hassan Ali, told dpa on Sunday.

Military prosecutors will interrogate Hussein on Monday before deciding whether to try him before a military tribunal, Ali said.

Hussein chronicled his trip in daily entries posted to the Labour Party's website after he crossed into the Gaza Strip through a hole in the border fence on January 23.

Cairo  - Egypt will host an international conference on March 2 to raise funds for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip recovering from the destruction caused by a
22-day Israeli offensive, Egypt's foreign ministry said Friday.

"The ministry has started intensive diplomatic contacts to convene the conference," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki said.

The foreign ministers meeting will tackle means to secure funds for rebuilding the enclave, as well as securing urgent humanitarian aid for the Palestinian territory.

Cairo  - Egypt Friday accused the Hezbollah leader in lebanon, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, of being "an agent of Iran" after he attacked Egypt in statements on Thursday.

"Hassan Nasrallah's criticism of Egypt confirms once more that he is nothing more than an agent of the Iranian regime and takes his orders from Tehran," said an unnamed Egyptian official.