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DAKAHLIA Violent clashes occurred between citizens in Dakahlia governorate between citizens of the village of Besat and Salafi Muslims.

The mosque s door, pulpit, and the interior of the Tawheed Mosque was damaged. Villagers had built the mosque themselves.

Abdel Aziz Ibrahim Hassan Nassar, the mosque s Muezzein, filed a report accusing 23, mostly Salafis, of damaging the mosque while trying to coerce the mosque s board of directors to join Ansar al-Sunna.

A muezzein is the position that calls Muslims to prayer.

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Egyptian actress and political activist Taiseer Fahmi and the deputy organizers of the Equality and Developing Party today presented the first list of party candidates for parliamentary elections to the general committee for receiving candidates applications.

The Party list includes some youth, including Copts, and Fahmi s name heads the list.

The Party does not bet on winning the upcoming elections, but it will build on the leaders of the future, she said.

She also announced that she will not compete in all governorates. The Party will just run for elections in vital governorates.

The Equality and Developing Party recently joined the Alliance of the Revolution Continuing with members like the Revolution Youth, The People s Alliance, Egyptian Freedom Party, Egyptian Trend, Social Egyptian Party and Dr. Amr Hamzawi.

Israeli PM Netanyahu praised Egypts efforts

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Egyptian efforts in the prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas at a press conference Tuesday, saying that approving the agreement was difficult but necessary to release Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

Netanyahu said the deal was to protect the security of the Israeli people, so he refused to release the leaders of Hamas detained in Israeli prisons.

He described the return of Shalit to Israel as exciting, adding that Israel managed to achieve the best agreement under the current conditions.

The Israeli Defense Minister, Ehud Barak, said that the agreement needed a lot of efforts to return Shalit to his home, which forced the Israeli government to offer precious concessions.

Egyptian private equity firm Citadel Capital has completed a $175.6 million capital increase, adding $120 million in fresh capital to its balance sheet, the company said in a statement on Wednesday.

The rights issue, which was approved by shareholders and the Egyptian regulators in August, is the first of several steps the company is taking to add $200 million to its coffers, Chairman Ahmed Heikal said.

He said the extra capital will help the company weather an expected 12 to 18 months of turbulence ahead, and can be used for growth once the business climate improves.

Earlier this month, Citadel raised 438 million Egyptian pounds ($73.5 million) in a rights issue that was 41.72 percent subscribed.

Citadels portfolio includes companies like Nile Valley Petroleum, an oil and gas exploration company in Sudan, and Taqa Arabia, a Middle Eastern energy distribution group.

Private sector minimum wage to be set soon, says minister

Minister of Manpower Ahmed Hassan al-Borai has said that he would meet with the National Council for Wages in a few days to set a new minimum wage for private sector workers to guarantee them a decent standard of living.

“The 25 January revolution was the culmination of a revolt for social justice that started a long time ago,” Borai said at a conference on the social responsibility of the private sector in the Arab world on Tuesday.

“The fate of the Arab countries depends on the achievement of social justice,” he said, adding that the Arab Spring must attain social justice lest it become an Arab autumn.

“Globalization and capitalism have devoured social considerations and the rights of the poor for the benefit of a few,” he said. “We must set an appropriate wage that preserves social harmony.”

A lawyer has filed a lawsuit demanding that former President Hosni Mubarak be denied various privileges while in detention, including visits and telephone calls, and that he be moved from his current accommodation at a Cairo medical center to a normal prison cell.

Mubarak faces charges of ordering the killing of demonstrators during the uprising, as well as various charges of corruption.

The lawsuit claims that allowing Mubarak to stay in conditions of relative luxury while on trial is a violation of both the constitution and the standard procedures for detention during trial or investigation. The lawyer bringing the case also requested that the medical center be required to reveal the cost of Mubarak’s stay and of his phone bills.

The Administrative Judicial Court met on Tuesday for the first time to hear the lawsuit, but the case was adjourned until 13 December.

Rod al-Farag police station was attacked by two families, who opened fire on police officers.

Policemen tried to break up a violent altercation between the two families that injured two policemen, Ahmed Abdel Wahab and Ahmed Abdel Moaty. The incident broke out after a family member passed away.

Mohsen Morad, Cairo Security Manager, called policemen to go to the incident after the families exchanged gunfire.
Investigations said that the altercation was over a land dispute.

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Egypt expects to swap U.S.-Israeli dual national Ilan Grapel, detained in June on spying charges, for Egyptian prisoners held in Israel, an Egyptian security source said on Monday.

The swap would take place after Israel completes a separate prisoner exchange with Hamas involving Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, but the two cases are not linked, the source told Reuters.

“After the Shalit deal is done, there will be an arrangement to swap Grapel for a number of Egyptian prisoners in Israeli prisons,” the source said. “But the two deals are separate and not linked.”

The United States embassy in Cairo had no immediate comment on the Grapel case.

Grapel, 27, was arrested in Egypt on accusations he was a spy out to recruit agents and monitor events in the revolt that overthrew President Hosni Mubarak.

He has not faced trial yet. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta called on Egypt this month to release Grapel but denied he was involved in direct negotiations over the matter. Egyptian security at the time also denied there were any negotiations over his release.

Grapels mother said at the time that her son, a law student in the United States, was working for Saint Andrews Refugee Services, a non-governmental organization, in Cairo.

Grapel emigrated to Israel in 2005 from New York and served in its military in the 2006 Lebanon war.

Over the years, Egypt has arrested a number of people accused of spying for Israel.

In 2007, Egypt convicted a 31-year-old Egyptian-Canadian dual nation of spying for Israel. Three Israelis were charged in absentia. Israel dismissed the case as a fabrication.

In 1996, Egypt sentenced Azzam Azzam, an Israeli Arab textile worker, to 15 years in jail for spying for Israel. Egypt said Azzam had passed messages in womens underwear using invisible ink.

Both Azzam and Israel denied the charges. He was released after serving eight years as part of a deal that included the release of six Egyptian students in Israel.

Damascus-based Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal will welcome 40 exiled Palestinians to Egypt on Tuesday in exchange for the release of captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, the Islamist movement said.

“The movement decided to send a high-level delegation headed by Meshaal to welcome the prisoners in Egypt,” Hamas spokesman Izzat al-Rishq, a member of the movement’s political bureau, told AFP on Monday.

“Shalit will stay (in our hands) until we make sure the Palestinian prisoners are delivered to Egypt, in coordination with Egyptian intelligence,” he added.

Under the landmark deal, which was mediated by Egypt, a first group of 477 Palestinian prisoners will be set free at the same time as Shalit.

Of that number, 163 prisoners from the West Bank and east Jerusalem, will be exiled to Gaza, as well as one Arab Israeli woman prisoner.

Another 40 prisoners are to be exiled abroad in an operation to be handled by Egypt, which will ensure they are flown to host countries including Turkey, Syria or Qatar.

“The celebrations in Gaza and the West Bank will be a national holiday,” Rishq said.

The Palestinian Authority has welcomed the deal but said it was disappointed Hamas had agreed to allow Israel to exile more than 200 of the prisoners, a condition previously rejected by the Islamist movement.