Egypt News By Asfory
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 Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak urged Europe on Monday to throw its weight behind U.S.-led efforts to secure a peace agreement between Palestinians and Israelis.

Mubarak, whose country in 1979 became the first Arab state to strike a peace deal with Israel, discussed the matter with French President Nicolas Sarkozy before heading to Washington this week for the first direct negotiations in 20 months.

“The American administration needs strong backing from the European Union for the peace process to continue,” he said.

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A television series about ancient Egypt’s Queen Cleopatra, broadcast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, has sparked the ire of the country’s antiquities supremo for being “unrealistic.”

“The series does not depict historical reality, and the events described have nothing to do with those that marked the time of Cleopatra in Egypt,” Zahi Hawass, head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, told AFP.

The first Arab-produced series to focus on the legendary queen had been highly awaited, with the title role played by Syrian actress Sulaf Fawakherji.

“The way of life depicted in the series does not correspond with that in Egypt after it merged with the Greco-Ptolemaic civilisation,” Hawass added, criticising the costumes and sets in the production.

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Cities across Egypt have been hit by daily blackouts during the past two weeks, sparking protests and calls for the electricity minister to be sacked.

The power cuts – the worst in decades – come amid sweltering temperatures during the fasting month of Ramadan.

The government has blamed the problem on higher consumption and says it is taking steps to restore the service.

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Egypt’s antiquities authority announced on Wednesday the discovery of an ancient trading settlement in one of its desert oases dating back more than 3,500 years, a millennium older than previous discoveries in the area.

The Yale University mission discovered the settlement while excavating in Kharga Oasis, more than 300 miles (500 kilometers) south of Cairo in the Western Desert.

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Egypt announced on Wednesday it would build its planned nuclear powerplant on the Mediterranean coast of el-Dabaa which it hopes will start production in 2019, the state news agency MENA reported.

Presidential spokesman Suleiman Awad said President Hosni Mubarak had decided in a meeting that the reactor would be located in el-Dabaa, on the coast west of the port city of Alexandria.

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قال مسؤولو الحزب الوطني الديمقراطي الحاكم في مصر ان هناك اجماعا من الحزب لترشيح الرئيس حسني مبارك (82 عاما) للرئاسة في الانتخابات التي تجرى في 2011 لكن ابنه الاصغر جمال يمكن ان يكون من المرشحين مستقبلا.

ولم يعلن بعد مبارك الذي تولى الرئاسة عام 1981 وتدور شائعات مستمرة حول صحته ما اذا كان سيسعى للفوز بفترة رئاسية جديدة. واذا لم يفعل فالرأي السائد هو ان نجله جمال (46 عاما) سيلقى تأييدا من المؤسسة الحاكمة لترشيح نفسه للمنصب.

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Egypt said on Monday it has informed Interpol and placed its police on alert at the country’s entry and exit points to try to recover a Van Gogh stolen from a museum with a broken-down security system.

“The search is ongoing. We still haven’t found the painting,” Culture Minister Faruq Hosni told AFP.

“Police are on alert at the borders and the airports,” he said, adding that the interior ministry had informed Interpol of Saturday’s theft of the Dutch master’s “Poppy Flowers.”

“The robber will not be able to sell the painting,” he said in an interview with Al-Ahram daily.
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Egypt said on Wednesday that “Palestinian factions” were behind this week’s rocket attacks on Israel and Jordan, apparently implying the rockets were fired from the Sinai peninsula.

“An official Egyptian source said Palestinian factions from the (Hamas-ruled) Gaza Strip were behind the launch of five rockets on Jordan’s Aqaba and on Eilat in Israel on Monday,” official MENA news agency reported.

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