A court ordered the detention of the runner-up in Egypt’s presidential elections, Ayman Nour, and his five fellow defendants as their trial on forgery charges approached its end today.

Officials are counting votes today after Egypt’s first contested presidential election, a landmark ballot seen as a test of the government’s commitment to reform and America's push for greater democracy across the Middle East.

Egypt’s leading opposition candidate for president went on trial today as hundreds of his supporters swarmed the court building denouncing the charges against him as a government attempt to eliminate him as a rival.

EGYPTIAN police yesterday detained about 200 people from the home villages of the three attackers responsible for a bomb blast and tour bus shooting near Cairo tourist sites the day before, authorities said.