Latest Cairo Stories

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said Egypt had won over U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to its views on democracy in the Arab world and quoted her as saying it would take a generation for democracy to take hold. "She was very polite as she was listening to Egyptian opinions and points of view. She didn't bring up difficult issues or ask to change anything or to intervene in political reform, as some people say," he told newspaper editors. Mubarak, who met...

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said he had advised the United States against attacking Iran, predicting that Tehran would react through its influence over Shi'ite Muslim communities in Arab countries in the Gulf. In remarks to Egyptian newspaper editors published on Wednesday, Mubarak also said an Israeli attack on Iran was most unlikely because Tehran would respond by launching ballistic missiles at the Jewish state. The United States has declined to rule out...

CAIRO, Egypt -- Archaeologists discovered a pharaonic sun temple with large statues believed to be of King Ramses II under an outdoor marketplace in Cairo, Egypt's antiquities chief said Sunday. The partially uncovered site is the largest sun temple ever found in the capital's Aim Shams and Matariya districts, where the ancient city of Heliopolis - the center of pharaonic sun worship - was located, Zahi Hawass told The Associated Press. Among the artifacts was a pink granite statue weighing 4...

CAIRO -- Statues weighing up to five tonnes and thought to be of one of ancient Egypt's greatest pharaohs, Ramses II, have been found northeast of Cairo, Egypt's Supreme Antiquities Council said in a statement on Sunday.Ramses II ruled Egypt from 1304 to 1237 BC, and presided over an era of great military expansion, erecting statues and temples to himself all over Egypt. He is traditionally believed to be the pharaoh mentioned in the biblical story of Moses."Many parts of red granite...

By Abdel Latif Wahba CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt has found its first cases of H5N1 bird flu and is working with the World Health Organization (WHO) to prevent the deadly virus spreading, the government said on Friday. The virus was found in seven sick and dead chickens in three areas -- four birds in Cairo, two in Giza next to the capital and one in Minya about 220 km (135 miles) to the south, a statement from the prime minister's office said. "The central operations room for following...

By Zeeshan Haider ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Security guards shot dead two men, police used teargas on students in Islamabad's diplomatic enclave and protesters attacked Western businesses on Tuesday in Pakistan's most violent reaction yet to cartoons of the Prophet. In Iran, scores of demonstrators hurled petrol bombs at the British embassy in renewed protests against the cartoons and Western opposition to Tehran's nuclear ambitions. The dispute should not be allowed to divide Europe and...

By Zeeshan Haider ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Security guards shot dead two men, police used teargas on students in Islamabad's diplomatic enclave and protesters attacked Western businesses on Tuesday in Pakistan's most violent reaction yet to cartoons of the Prophet. In Iran, scores of demonstrators hurled petrol bombs at the British embassy in renewed protests against the cartoons and Western opposition to Tehran's nuclear ambitions. The dispute should not be allowed to divide Europe and...

By Tom Perry CAIRO (Reuters) - Hamas said on Wednesday it would not bow to pressure to recognize Israel despite international threats to cut aid to any government run by the Palestinian militant group. "Hamas does not recognize Israel and we won't accept anybody in the world forcing us into a corner," Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshaal told journalists in Cairo. Meshaal, in Egypt for talks involving Hamas leaders from the Palestinian territories and those in exile on forming a...

SAFAGA, Egypt (Reuters) - Angry Egyptians seeking news of relatives lost aboard the ferry which sank in the Red Sea last week ransacked the office of the vessel's owners on Monday and set fire to the furniture, witnesses said. A crowd of men hurled chairs, filing cabinets and air-conditioning units out of the first floor office, piling them up in front of the building and setting fire to them, Reuters Television footage showed. Police fired tear gas to drive away the chanting crowd and...

By Tom Perry SAFAGA, Egypt (Reuters) - Hopes of finding nearly 900 missing people after the sinking of an Egyptian ferry faded on Saturday as the search for them entered a second day. Rescuers have already found at least 185 bodies and pulled 314 survivors from the sea where the 35-year-old ferry Al Salam 98 sank on its journey to Safaga from Duba in northwest Saudi Arabia, one official said. The ferry was carrying 1,272 passengers, mainly Egyptians, and 100 crew when it lost contact...