There have been promising developments in the case against judge Abdel Fatah Murad, who has filed multiple fabricated charges against the Hisham Mubarak Law Center and HRinfo, as well as bloggers and human rights and news websites, report the law center and HRinfo.

Egypt's ruling party won 69 out of 88 seats outright in Monday's parliamentary election while the opposition Muslim Brotherhood got none, a government statement said on Wednesday. The Brotherhood, rights groups and journalists reported many voting irregularities, including multiple voting and ballot stuffing. In some places where the Islamists hold a strong popular base, police denied voters access to polling stations.

For over a month now, workers have been staging a sit-in at a textile factory in rural Egypt, according to a report form Al Jazeera. The majority of them are female. They're sleeping on the factory floors, leaving behind families and children, in their demands for better pay. Why? Because the average wages for these women is a lowly 30 dollars a month, not enough to feed and clothe their families. And since 1999, they haven't even been paid the bonuses and grants to which they're entitled.

Around 300 mainly female workers at the Mansoura Spanish Garment Factory in the Nile delta have occupied the plant since April 21. The workers are staging a sit-in on the firm’s shop floor after a dispute with management over missed pay and the contested sale of the company.

Hrinfo has expressed dismay that Egypt's Judge Abdel Fatah Murad has asked the Administrative Judiciary Court to block 29 websites, in addition to the 21 he had previously requested be made inaccessible. The judge amended his original list of websites following a 5 May 2007 investigation of the case by the court, resulting in a total of 50 websites presently vulnerable to closure as a result of the judge's request.

One of Egypt's most prominent political bloggers has decided to call it a day, citing harassment by security services as his main reason to quit. The Egypt-based blogger, known only as "Sandmonkey" - a derogatory term for people of Arab descent - posted his last entry Saturday.

Like many people living in countries where expressing unorthodox views can be difficult, Egyptians have turned to the Internet. The recent surge in blogging has given many Egyptians the opportunity to voice opinions about a range of subjects. Women in particular have tapped into the blogosphere.

Egyptian security forces broke up an opposition protest in Cairo on Sunday, on the eve of a referendum on constitutional changes which opponents fear will strengthen the ruling party's grip on power.

This course will introduce participants to the primary elements of the refugee definition and its application and to the rights guaranteed to refugees by International law. The course will take place from Monday June 25- Saturday June 30 (excluding Friday) everyday from 9 am to 5 pm. Deadline for applications is May 11th, 2007.

The course will present an overview of different theoretical approaches to notions of “nationalism” and “ethnicity” from a sociological anthropological perspective. It will also consider questions regarding the relation between national and ethnic identity, and state formation, national consciousness and ethnic consciousness. The course will be held 18 - 23 June, 2007. the Deadline for applications is May 11, 2007

In this course, participants will increase their understanding of the psychosocial and mental health issues of refugees and learn how to implement effective interventions. The course will take place June 11- Saturday June 16 (excluding Friday) everyday from 9 am to 5 pm.

The Egyptian authorities have evicted hundreds of peasants from a village in southern Egypt because their mud-brick houses, which have sat atop some of the world's most treasured and ancient tombs for centuries, were leaking sewage onto priceless antiquities. The families have been resettled in a nearby planned community with running water and telephones.

The Egyptian government's quest to push through constitutional laws expected to entrench the ruling party National Democratic Party (NDP) of President Hosni Mubarak to cling to power caused annoyance among the opposition deputies. Over 100 of them walked out of parliament in protest on Sunday.

International campaign for freedom of thought and creativity and for solidarity with the Egyptian novelist and writer Nawal El Saadawi.

The Egyptian writer and novelist Nawal El Saadawi, well known both in the Arab world and internationally, is facing a political and religious campaign mounted against her by the authorities of Al-Azhar. Basing themselves on her play entitled God resigns at the Summit Meeting published during January 2007 in Cairo, they are accusing her of apostasy and disrespect for the principles of Islam.

The stage play is a work of fiction and should be judged by the men and women who read works destined for the theatre and not by religious dignitaries whose areas of concern are totally different. To bring a writer to trial before a court relying on dangerous accusations of this kind is a license for her assassination and can encourage any mad man who might cross her path to kill her.

Accusations such as this which remind us of the era of slavery and the Middle Ages, and which hardly correspond to the values which should hold sway in the 21st century are being levelled against a woman of letters, a woman from the medical profession who has given to the Arab world 45 works ranging from novels, plays, short stories, autobiography to scientific and intellectual studies, which have served the cause of women's liberation and that of men, and have been translated into 30 languages covering different regions of our globe.

This is not the first time that Nawal El Saadawi has had to face campaigns of this kind. A case was raised against her, attempting to separate her forcibly from her husband. The accusation here also was that of apostasy and her name figured for many years on a death list.

We the signatories of this petition demand that this repressive campaign come to an end immediately. We call upon all men and women of conscience all over the world, in the Arab countries and in Egypt, to take the action they see fit in order to defend freedom of thought and creativity. We call upon all the associations and organisations of civil society, unions of workers, journalists, all free women and men in the different countries, on the associations and organisations of women and on democratic progressive political parties to join us in our efforts to defend freedom.

To support our action you can:

-sign this petition and distribute it as widely as possible;
-send messages of protest to the Egyptian embassies in your country, to Sheikh Al Azhar, to the President of the Republic, the President of the Peoples Assembly, and the Prosecutor General in Egypt.

Egyptian security forces broke up a demonstration by an anti-government group on Thursday, beating activists protesting against planned constitutional amendments they see as ushering in a police state.

The Alexandria Appeals Court ruled against an appeal filed by the attorney of Egypt's first convicted blogger, Abdel Kareem Suleiman, who was sentenced to four years in prison for "insulting Islam and the President of Egypt". His lawyers said they would appeal the judgment at the court of cessation.

The Egyptian Minister of Education, Dr Yousry Al-Gamal, has officially launched the NEPAD e-Schools Demonstration (Demo) Project at Al-Haddain Secondary School in El Behaira Governate, Egypt. The project is a joint venture of the Egyptian Government, HP Consortium, ORACLE Consortium and NEPAD e-Africa Commission.
Egypt is the sixth country to launch the project after Uganda, Ghana, Lesotho, Kenya and Rwanda. It is also the first North African country to launch the NEPAD e-Schools.

In a rare show of unity, parties from across the political spectrum have condemned reported Israeli violations against Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque. They have warned of "dire consequences" if the site -- the third holiest in Islam -- were to be damaged.

An appeals court in Cairo has overturned a prison sentence for an Egyptian journalist convicted of defaming President Hosni Mubarak. Ibrahim Eissa, the editor of the weekly newspaper al-Dustour, had been sentenced to one year in prison for criticizing Mr. Mubarak. The appeals court overturned the jail term but substituted a fine of almost four thousand dollars.

An Alexandria court convicted an Egyptian blogger on Thursday for insulting both Islam and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and sentenced him to four years in jail over his writings on the Internet. Reuters reports that rights groups and opposition bloggers have watched Suleiman's case closely, and said they feared a conviction could set a legal precedent limiting Internet freedom in Egypt.