The foreign ministers of Jordan, Egypt and Israel have met in Cairo to discuss an Arab initiative for Middle East peace. It is the first meeting between Tel Aviv and the members of the Arab League "working group" tasked with negotiating with Israel. VOA Correspondent Challiss McDonough has more from Cairo.

Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) has been selected by Telecom Egypt, the largest fixed operator in the Middle East and Africa, to expand its transport network in the Nile delta area.

Nine military personnel including eight French from the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) peacekeeping mission has been killed when a military plane crashed in Egypt's northern Sinai region.

A two-day international conference on Iraq opened today in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, with talks to focus on ways to end sectarian violence as well as a five-year plan offering Iraq financial and political support.

Top diplomats from around the world are arriving in Egypt for a conference on stabilizing Iraq. The representatives from Iraq's neighbors and other countries will discuss relieving Iraq's debt and bringing peace to the country during their meetings at the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice leaves Washington late Tuesday for Egypt and two critical international meetings on Iraq's future, to be attended by, among others Iran and Syria. U.S. officials do not rule out interaction between Rice and her Iranian and Syrian counterparts. VOA's David Gollust reports from the State Department.

Egyptian authorities say they have arrested an engineer from the country's nuclear energy agency on charges of spying for Israel. The Egyptian government Tuesday announced that the engineer was arrested on February 18 for taking important documents from the Atomic Energy Agency. Authorities accuse the Egyptian worker of selling the documents to Israeli intelligence contacts for thousands of dollars.

An international rights group has accused Egyptian authorities of committing regular abuses of human rights in the name of national security. Amnesty International issued a report Wednesday that describes arbitrary arrests, prolonged detention without trial, torture and other ill-treatment by security officials in Egypt.

A day before Egyptians are to vote in a controversial referendum on constitutional changes, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice says she told Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak about her concerns over the progress of democratic reform in Egypt.

Egyptologists Join Together At Penn Museum the University of Pennsylvania Museum to Share Insight into Newest Research and Understandings about the Amarna Period at Public Symposium Saturday, March 31, 2007.