Traffic through the Suez Canal was halted briefly on Sunday after a collision between a Panamanian cargo ship and an Egyptian passenger ferry, a canal official told AFP.

There were no injuries reported in the accident, which happened near the Red Sea entrance of the waterway and closed the canal for just half an hour.

CAIRO, Oct 21, 2007 (AFP) - At least 2,000 civil servants demonstrated in Cairo on Sunday to demand increased wages, a security source said, in the latest protest by public sector employees to challenge the government.

'Over 2,000 employees from the Real Estate Tax Office gathered outside the finance ministry to demand an increase in salaries,' the source told AFP.

Sunday's demonstration is the latest in a series of protests which are seen as a potentially serious challenge to President Hosni Mubarak's regime.

VIENNA, Oct 21, 2007 (AFP) - The refusal by most EU countries to back Egypt's call for a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East at a UN conference last month appears to be causing friction between Cairo and Europe.

Egypt has asking the countries to explain their opposition, diplomatic sources in Vienna, where the conference was held, told AFP.

In a letter, Cairo expressed 'surprise and regret' at the decision by 25 EU countries not to endorse its call for a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East at the UN nuclear watchdog's annual conference in September, diplomats said.

BAYAD AL-ARAB, Egypt, Oct 21, 2007 (AFP) - Twice circumcised, Wafaa Helmy swore her own daughters would never suffer the same fate.

But one night her own mother secretly took her first-born to go under the knife in their Upper Egypt village.

Despite pronouncements to the contrary by both Muslim and Christian clerics, she believes, as do many Egyptians, that this 'purification' is a religious duty that helps preserve a girl's virtue and honour.

The social stigma of not having her granddaughter's labia and/or clitoris cut off was just too strong for her.

CAIRO, Oct 20, 2007 (AFP) - An Egyptian judge in the appeal of an Al-Jazeera television producer sentenced over a film that highlighted torture stepped down on Saturday because of a conflict of interest, a judicial source said.

Judge Mahmud Hamza told the court he would not be able to hear the case of Howayda Taha, sentenced in absentia in May to six months in jail and fined 20,000 Egyptian pounds (5,600 dollars) for working on a film about torture in police stations.

CAIRO, Oct 20, 2007 (AFP) - Twelve people were killed south of Cairo on Saturday when their minibus was in collision with a truck on one of Egypt's most dangerous roads, a police official told AFP.

The minibus driver and 11 passengers on board were killed when they crashed head-on with the truck which was coming in the opposite direction, the official said.

Seven people were also injured in the crash.

The narrow Assyut desert road linking Cairo to southern Egypt is pitted with potholes and the scene of regular accidents.

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.

EL-ARISH, egypt, Oct 19, 2007 (AFP) - A Turkish man who was shot by Egyptian police as he tried to sneak across the border into Israel died of his wounds on Friday, a security source said.

The 35-year-old, whose name was not released, was hit in the head in Egypt's Sinai peninsula on Thursday after he and seven others ignored police calls to stop.

He was taken to hostpial in the nearby town of El-Arish where he died of his wounds on Friday, the source told AFP.

EL-ARISH, Egypt, Oct 18, 2007 (AFP) - Around 300 Palestinians rallied in northern Egypt on Thursday demanding the reopening of the Rafah border crossing so they can return home to the Gaza Strip.

The Palestinians, including women and children, gathered in the town of El-Arish and waved banners calling for Rafah to be reopened after it was shut in June following Hamas' takeover of the Gaza Strip.

'Give us back to our families, to our children!' read one demonstrator's banner, amid a strong police presence.

EL-ARISH, Egypt, Oct 18, 2007 (AFP) - Egyptian police shot and seriously wounded a Turkish man as he tried to sneak across the border into Israel from the Sinai peninsula early on Thursday, a security source said.

The unnamed 35-year-old was hit in the head after he and a group of seven others failed to obey police calls to stop in the desert area between Egypt and Israel.

He was taken to hospital in the nearby town of El-Arish where he told police the others in his party were also Turks, the source said.