Egypt | featured news

The housewives and breadwinners stepping out of a Cairo supermarket with bags of groceries agreed on one thing. “The prices are very high,” said Sabah Fehmi, 58. “The economy has been very bad after the revolution.”

Egyptian voters are awaiting results of the first stage of landmark parliamentary elections to be released Thursday, a day later than originally planned. The Freedom and Justice Party, a front for Egypt's powerful Muslim Brotherhood, said the bloc was in the lead following largely peaceful voting on Monday and Tuesday. But the party faces new competition from the al-Nur Party, an ultra-conservative group whose members follow the strict Salafi brand of Islam, as well as from a host of smaller parties.

"I was not sure I was going to live," says Derrik Sweeney after arriving in St. Louis. He and two others had been arrested in Cairo and accused of throwing firebombs. Three American college students detained for several days in Egypt as deadly protests swept Cairo have flown home to freedom, one describing an ordeal so terrifying he wasn't sure he would survive it.

The killing of an unarmed demonstrator by the security police on Saturday threatened to stir up new protests here as Egypt’s military rulers and political parties raced to prepare for potential chaos surrounding the parliamentary elections scheduled to start on Monday.

Clashes erupted between riot police and protesters in Cairo's Tahrir square Saturday after police dispersed a sit-in by demonstrators demanding the ruling military transfer power swiftly to a civilian government.

Egypt's military rulers have rejected the resignation of Hazen Beblawi, a top official who served as both the deputy prime minister and finance minister.

Egypt's government has frozen a decision requiring tourists and other visitors to apply for visas before arrival in the country, an Egyptian tourism official said Sunday.

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Hundreds of Egyptians stormed the building housing Israel's mission in Cairo and threw embassy documents and its national flag from windows, while airport sources said on Saturday that Israel's envoy was set to fly out of the country.

Thousands of Egyptians converged on Cairo's Tahrir Square on Friday to demand reforms in a turnout dubbed "correcting the path of the revolution."

Egypt welcomed a joint investigation with Israel on the killing of five Egyptian security personnel during an Israeli border operation, but said on Sunday the response was insufficient given the gravity of the situation.