CAIRO, Oct 20, 2007 (AFP) - Egyptian police arrested 18 Eritreans travelling across the Sinai desert without legal documents on suspicion of planning to sneak into Israel, a security source told AFP on Saturday.

The group was detained on Friday at a police checkpoint after boarding a tourist bus and crossing the Suez Canal by ferry, the source said.

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 11, 2007 (AFP) - UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Thursday expressed concern about rising tension between Eritrea and Ethiopia, including recent shooting incidents and a buildup of military forces along their disputed border.

Ban called on the Horn of Africa's bitter archrivals 'to exercise utmost restraint, maintain their commitment to the Algiers agreement ...and facilitate the implementation of the delimitation decision of the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission (EEBC),' his press office said.

ASMARA, Oct 9, 2007 (AFP) - Eritrea on Tuesday accused its arch-rival Ethiopia of blocking broadcasts and web pages by its media in the latest round of accusations between the Horn of Africa foes.

'The (Ethiopian) regime is engaged in attempts not only to block the broadcasting of Eritrean media outlets but also websites,' Eritrean Information Minister Ali Abdu said in a statement posted on his ministry's website.

ASMARA, Oct 3, 2007 (AFP) - Eritrea has granted Chinese firms licences to explore for gold and other minerals, the government said Wednesday as the country boosts economic ties with Beijing.

Asmara authorised Beijing Donia Resources Co. and the Eritrea-China Exploration and Mining Share Co. to begin potentially lucrative exploration work as part of efforts to cement ties with a China which is searching the world for resources to power its booming economy.

ASMARA, Sept 28, 2007 (AFP) - Flames were leaping high on a giant bonfire in central Asmara Friday as crowds in white shawls chanted to the boom of a drum, the climax of celebrations to mark the ancient Christian festival of Meskel.

The colourful feast day in the Eritrean capital is a highlight of the Orthodox calendar, commemorating what local people hold to be the finding of Jesus' cross by Byzantine empress Saint Helena in the fourth century.

ASMARA, Sept 28, 2007 (AFP) - Eritrea urged the United Nations to force its arch-foe Ethiopia urgently to implement a border ruling, warning it feared Addis Ababa was preparing to resume war, in a letter published Friday.

In the letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Foreign Minister Osman Saleh said he believed that Ethiopian threats to scrap the Algiers peace deal that ended their bloody 1998-2000 border war were a precursor to an attack.

ASMARA, Sept 26, 2007 (AFP) - Eritrea on Wednesday reacted coolly to a threat by its arch-foe Ethiopia to abandon a peace agreement that ended their 1998-2000 war and whose implementation has stalled.

Eritrean Information Minister Ali Abdu insisted Ethiopia must implement the peace accord by accepting a 2002 ruling that awarded the flashpoint border town of Badme to Asmara.

'The Eritrea Ethiopia Boundary Commission (EEBC) is entitled and mandated to demarcate the border, but the Ethiopian regime is refusing to abide by the rule of law,' Ali told AFP.

ADDIS ABABA, Sept 25, 2007 (AFP) - Ethiopia threatened Tuesday to terminate a fragile peace accord that halted its 1998-2000 border war with Eritrea, charging its tiny neighbour with breaching the pact and supporting 'terrorism.'

In a letter to Asmara, Ethiopia's Foreign Affairs Minister Seyoum Mesfin said it would mull 'legal and peaceful options, including terminating the agreements or suspending their operation in whole or in part.'

Eritrea was not immediately reachable for comment.

ADDIS ABABA, Sept 17, 2007 (AFP) - Ethiopia's Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said Monday that Eritrea must change its stance if the protracted border dispute between the two countries is to be resolved.

Inflexible positions by the Horn of African foes, who fought a 1998-2000 war, have impeded implementation of a 2002 United Nations border ruling that granted the flashpoint town of Badme to Eritrea.

Addis Ababa wants the ruling revised, saying it splits families, while Asmara has insisted that it is final and binding.

EL-ARISH, Egypt, Sept 17, 2007 (AFP) - Egyptian police shot dead an Eritrean man as he tried to sneak across the border with Israel from the Sinai peninsula, a security source said on Monday.

Six Eritreans were trying to cross from central Sinai late Sunday when they were spotted by an Egyptian border patrol. Police ordered them to stop and opened fire when they refused, killing the man in his forties, the source told AFP. The fate of the others was not immediately known.