Islamic-World

Egypt on Tuesday banned all poultry imports from France and Germany after the potentially fatal H5N1 strain of bird flu was discovered in birds there.

Egypt should receive record net foreign direct investment of more than $10 billion in the current fiscal year ending in June, according to the country’s primary governmental authority on investment.

Egypt agreed Monday to offer 80 percent of the country’s third-largest public sector bank, Banque du Caire, to a strategic investor, a cabinet spokesman said.

A special Israeli envoy gave Egypt last week a list of Hamas prisoners Israel is prepared to release in an exchange for abducted Israel Defense Forces Cpl. Gilad Shalit, the London-based newspaper Al-Hayat reported.

A delegation of Israel’s liberal Meretz party will on Sunday travel to Cairo to meet with Egyptian officials, the party said in a statement.

Dubai: Egypt is well on its way to establishing itself as an important player in the lucrative and fast-growing offshore outsourcing market. But it must take some steps to facilitate its ascendance in this market if it is to become the India of the Middle East, says a Yankee Group …

The EU is scaling back its monitoring mission at the Gaza-Egypt border, a spokeswoman said Saturday, suggesting that Gaza’s only gateway to the world won’t open again anytime soon.

Darija, the language Moroccans use in everyday life, is coming to the fore in media and music and prompting calls it be declared a national language as some in the North African country ask for the first time: “Who are we?” Morocco’s official language is standard Arabic.

Yemen remained on high alert Wednesday as security forces deployed to the capital to protect embassies, government buildings and top state officials two days after a suicide attack outside an ancient temple killed 10 people including the bomber and seven Spanish tourists.

BBC correspondent Alan Johnston was released early Wednesday after being held for 114 days, ending the longest-ever captivity of a journalist kidnapped in Gaza.