Egypt, North Africa | featured news

Ratings agency Standard & Poor's has pushed Egypt's sovereign credit ratings deeper into junk status, citing "continued pressure" on foreign reserves.

Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has been ordered back to prison from military hospital. Mr Mubarak's retrial will open on 11 May, a Cairo appeals court says.

John Kerry made his first trip to an Arab capital as secretary of state on Saturday, hoping to prod Egyptian politicians to show a measure of political peace and a commitment to economic change.

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi declares a state of emergency in the cities of Port Said, Suez and Ismalia after deadly rioting.

An Egyptian court dismissed cases against 379 people accused of involvement in clashes with police during protests near the Interior Ministry in November 2011 in which 42 demonstrators were killed, the state news agency reported.

President Mohamed Morsi appealed for unity after the bitter debate over the Constitution, and he pledged to respect the one-third of voters who cast ballots against it.

Egypt prepared to announce on Tuesday the result of a vote on a new constitution that Islamist President Mohamed Mursi hails as a step toward stability in a country beset by political and economic crisis.

President Mohamed Morsi apparently secured a victory at the polls Saturday for a new Egyptian constitution, locking the country into a bitter contest between his ascendant Islamist camp and his secular opponents.

Egypt's liberal and secular opposition has urged its supporters to vote down a divisive constitution put forward by Islamists, and set conditions for taking part in the referendum that will be hard for organizers to meet.

The freshly scrawled graffiti depicting Mohammed Morsi as a pharaonic Saddam Hussein tells the tale of high hopes dashed with record speed: Barely six months after becoming Egypt's first democratically elected president, the Islamist is widely accused of abandoning pledges of inclusive government for doctrinaire and authoritarian ways....