PARIS, July 13, 2008 (AFP) - Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak called Sunday for Israelis and Palestinians to step up their efforts to reach a peace deal, at the opening of a Mediterranean summit in Paris.

CAIRO, May 4, 2008 (AFP) - President Hosni Mubarak celebrates his 80th birthday on Sunday amid a wave of popular discontent marked by a call for Egyptians to stay at home in protest at price hikes and curbs on freedom.

But the call for the nationwide strike -- the second in a month -- failed to draw any response as Egyptians went to work as normal and Cairo traffic was heavy.

CAIRO, May 4, 2008 (AFP) - A nationwide call for a day of protest against price hikes and curbs on freedom across Egypt on Sunday failed to draw any response, a security official said.

CAIRO, May 4, 2008 (AFP) - President Hosni Mubarak celebrates his 80th birthday on Sunday amid a wave of popular discontent marked by a call for Egyptians to stay at home in protest at price hikes and curbs on freedom.

CAIRO, May 1, 2008 (AFP) - Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak telephoned Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Thursday to discuss an Egyptian-brokered Palestinian truce offer, the state-run MENA news agency reported.

MADRID, Feb 5, 2008 (AFP) - Egypt will not allow its border with Gaza to be breached again by militants seeking to escape an Israeli blockade, President Hosni Mubarak said Tuesday in an interview published in Spain.

CAIRO, Jan 23, 2008 (AFP) - Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said on Wednesday that he authorised the crossing of Palestinians into Egypt to stock up on goods as long as they were not armed.

'I told (security forces) to allow them to buy their basic needs and go back to Gaza as long as they are not carrying arms or anything illegal,' he told reporters in Cairo.

CAIRO, Nov 6, 2007 (AFP) - Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has left open the question of his successor even as his son Gamal's progress towards inheriting power edged forward at the ruling party's national congress.

CAIRO, Nov 3, 2007 (AFP) - Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was elected chairman of the ruling National Democratic Party on Saturday at the opening session of the party's annual conference.

The veteran president's leadership was unchallenged by the party's 6,700 delegates, despite the post being put to a vote for the first time since he took office in 1981.

CAIRO, Nov 2, 2007 (AFP) - Egypt's ruling party meets on Saturday amid mounting speculation about the succession to President Hosni Mubarak, but analysts say they do not expect any new moves to groom his son Gamal for power.

CAIRO, Sept 12, 2007 (AFP) - Media rights groups on Wednesday charged that the rumours published in the independent press about Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's ill health have given the regime a pretext to curb press freedoms.

The latest round of speculation about the state of Mubarak's health began in late August, sparking an angry response from authorities who said the rumours were false and politically motivated.

CAIRO, Sept 11, 2007 (AFP) - The editor of an Egyptian daily is to face trial accused of damaging the 'public interest' by publishing rumours on President Hosni Mubarak's health, the public prosecutor said on Tuesday.

Ibrahim Eissa, the outspoken editor of Al-Destur, is to appear in court on October 1 'for publishing false information and rumours in bad faith about the president's illness causing harm to public interest,' the prosecutor's statement said.

CAIRO, Sept 3, 2007 (AFP) - The editor of an independent Egyptian daily is to face prosecution over his paper's coverage of the state of President Hosni Mubarak's health, the head of the journalists' union told AFP on Monday.

'The state security prosecutor has informed us that it has summoned Ibrahim Eissa for questioning,' Gamal Fahmy said, adding that judicial sources had told the syndicate that it was over rumours of Mubarak's ill-health.

DUBAI, Sept 2, 2007 (AFP) - The wife of Egypt's 79-year-old President Hosni Mubarak dismissed rumours of her husband's ill health in a television interview broadcast by the pan-Arab Al-Arabiya news channel on Sunday.

'His health is excellent and he is as active as ever. I'm bemused as to who would benefit from spreading these rumours that make the public confused,' Suzanne Mubarak said, calling for those responsible to be punished.

CAIRO, Aug 31, 2007 (AFP) - Egypt's 79-year-old President Hosni Mubarak urged people in an interview published on Friday to ignore recent rumours of his ill-health, saying they were politically motivated.

'These rumours do not interest me. I continue my work without paying attention to such rumours whose sources and goals we know,' Mubarak told the state-owned Al-Ahram daily, calling on Egyptians to 'ignore such talk.'