A Chinese teenager has come under fire at home for defacing an ancient temple in the Egyptian city of Luxor.

Hot air balloon pilots in the Egyptian city of Luxor have defended their colleague who survived this week’s crash in which 19 tourists were killed.

Egypt’s lead investigator says he is trying to interview Briton Michael Rennie, the only tourist to survive the hot air balloon crash which killed 19 people, including his wife.

Nineteen tourists died following a horror balloon crash in Egypt — thought to be the biggest of its kind in history.

Nineteen tourists - including three people from Britain - have died in a balloon crash in Egypt.

A hot air balloon flying over Egypt’s ancient city of Luxor caught fire and crashed into a sugar cane field today, killing at least 18 foreign tourists.

A hot air balloon flying over Egypt’s ancient city of Luxor has caught fire and crashed into a sugar cane field today, killing at least 19 tourists.

Bah, humbug! Can’t stand the stress, jingle bells and commercialism of Christmas? Pól Ó Conghaile has suggestions for escaping it entirely.

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood is leading in initial, partial parliamentary election results but faces stiff competition from more hard-line Islamic groups and a liberal-secular alliance.

Egypt’s long-banned fundamental Islamic rivals to the deposed president today declared they would seek power as a political party in the wake of the country’s revolution.

Mubarak lasted three decades as president but as the crowds in Tahrir Square chanted ‘Leave! Leave!’, he ended his tenure as a symbol of all that is wrong with Egypt, says Lee Keath

He survived assassination attempts and wave after wave of Mideast crises, a solid ally of the West whose stable image reassured many Egyptians.

British tour operator Thomas Cook warned today that political unrest in travel hotspots Egypt and Tunisia would hit second-quarter profits by around £20m (€23.65m).

More than 250,000 people joined a mass protest in Cairo's main square today in the largest protest yet in a week of unrelenting demands for Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to leave after nearly 30 years in power.

A coalition of opposition groups have called for a million people to take to Cairo’s streets tomorrow to demand the removal of President Hosni Mubarak, the clearest sign yet that a unified leadership was trying to emerge for Egypt’s protest movement.

Travel firms slumped into the red today as fears over political unrest in Egypt hit blue chip stocks.

London’s FTSE 100 Index sunk into the red today as political unrest in Egypt hit sentiment and sent travel stocks lower.

A coalition of Egyptian opposition groups have called for a million people to take to Cairo’s streets to ratchet up pressure for President Hosni Mubarak to leave.

The escalating political unrest in Egypt took its toll on global markets today as oil prices pushed higher and shares in the travel sector slumped.

Hundreds of people packed into Cairo’s main airport today hoping for a flight out of Egypt but Western carriers were cancelling, delaying or suspending services after days of violent unrest.

ARCHAEOLOGISTS found what may be a trove of 3,400-year-old statues on the west bank of the ancient temple city, Luxor, said the head of Egypt’s antiquities department yesterday.

EGYPT’S antiquities department says archaeologists have unearthed 12 more sphinx statues along the ancient avenue connecting Luxor and Karnak temples.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York will return 19 artefacts taken from the tomb of the famed boy-pharaoh Tutankhamun, Egypt’s antiquities authority and the museum said today.

ACTOR Tony Curtis was buried on Monday with some of his prized possessions – a Stetson hat, an Armani scarf, driving gloves, an iPhone and a copy of his favourite novel, Anthony Adverse, a book that inspired his celebrity name and launched a robust film career that spanned decades and genres.

Archaeologists have unearthed the upper part of a double limestone statue of a powerful pharaoh who ruled nearly 3,400 years ago, Egypt’s Ministry of Culture said today.

Kate Pullinger

ARCHAEOLOGISTS have unearthed the massive head of one Egypt’s most famous pharaohs who ruled nearly 3,400 years ago, the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities announced.

Three men in a car sprayed automatic gunfire into a crowd of churchgoers in southern Egypt as they left a midnight Mass for Coptic Christmas, killing at least seven people.

Egypt’s antiquities czar took his campaign to recover the nation’s lost treasures to a new level today by cutting ties with one of the world’s premier museums, the Louvre, over disputed artefacts.

The victim of a terrorist bombing in a crowded Cairo tourist spot was a French teenage girl on a school trip, it emerged today.

An explosion ripped into a famous bazaar in Cairo, killing a French woman and wounding at least 21 people, most of them foreigners.

OFF the back of one of the wettest summers on record, the momentum for those booking a short break in the sun this winter is as strong as ever.

Two mummified foetuses found in the tomb of King Tutankhamun are to be DNA tested to determine their link to the young pharaoh, Egypt announced today.

Hundreds of people in the ancient Egyptian city of Luxor clashed with riot police today during a protest against government attempts to move them to make room for an open-air museum.

Sporting dark sunglasses and holding hands, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his model-turned-singer girlfriend Carla Bruni arrived in Luxor today for a private visit to Egypt.

Lindsay Lohan has pulled the plug on a Las Vegas New Year's Eve party - because she no longer wants to appear to be a party girl.

STENA Line has launched a campaign designed to boost the Donegal Tourism industry by encouraging visitors from Britain into the North West.

Archaeologists today fully unveiled the first tomb discovered in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings in over 80 years, and cracked open the last of seven sarcophagi inside to reveal embalming materials and jewellery.

AN Egyptian-German archaeological team has discovered 17 statues of Sekhmet, an ancient Egyptian goddess with the head of a lioness and the body of a woman.

American archaeologists have made the first discovery of a new tomb in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings since King Tutankhamun’s was uncovered in 1922, Egypt’s antiquities chief announced.

Hundreds of relatives of passengers on a ferry that sank in the Red Sea attacked the offices of the ship’s owners in Safaga, Egypt, day, throwing furniture into the street and burning the company’s sign. Riot police fired tear gas to restore order.

RESCUERS pulled only a handful more survivors from the Red Sea yesterday, dashing hopes of survival for 1,000 people still missing after the sinking of a ferry.

A tourist bus overturned on a highway in southern Egypt early today, killing 14 tourists from Hong Kong and injuring 30 more, some critically, Egypt’s news agency reported.