The Monte Toledo oil tanker covered the uneventful voyage from Iran to Europe with a haul of one million barrels of crude in just 17 days, but its journey has been four years in the making.

With much pomp and fanfare, Egypt yesterday unveiled a major extension of the Suez Canal billed by its patron, President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi as a historic achievement needed to boost the country’s ailing economy after years of unrest.

It may be the slowest crash ever.

Criminal gangs are earning profits equal to almost a thousand times the fines imposed on smugglers by the courts, according to the tobacco industry.

An Egyptian court has sentenced 26 people to death for forming a terrorist group and planning attacks on the Suez Canal.

Former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon has died, his son has confirmed.

Riot police have clashed with supporters of Egypt’s former Islamist president across the country, leaving two dead as the Muslim Brotherhood renewed calls to protest ahead of a key referendum later this month.

A string of attacks has killed nine members of Egypt’s security and military forces in an apparent retaliation by Islamic militants a day after more than 50 supporters of the ousted president were killed in clashes with police.

The last illusions about what was called, until recently, the Arab Spring may have vanished.

Islamist protests descended into a bloodbath across Egypt yesterday, with around 60 killed in Cairo alone on a “Day of Rage” called by followers of ousted president Mohamed Morsi to denounce a crackdown by the army-backed government.

Thousands of supporters of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood are demonstrating in a Cairo square, waving pictures of ousted president Mohammed Morsi.

Prosecutors will investigate allegations that Egypt’s ousted president escaped from prison during the 2011 revolution with help from the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague has welcomed the surprise declaration by the top leader of the Syrian opposition that he would negotiate with members of President Bashar Assad's regime in an effort to end the civil war.

Looters broke into a Nile-side luxury hotel in the Egyptian capital today, taking advantage of clashes in the streets outside to wreck shops and the lobby before police and demonstrators alerted via social media drove them out.

Police fired tear gas at rock-throwing protesters in Cairo today, a day after Egypt’s president declared a state of emergency in three provinces hit hardest by political violence.

Egypt’s president last night declared a 30-day state of emergency and night curfew in the three Suez Canal provinces hit hardest by the wave of violence that has left more than 50 dead in the past four days.

Egypt’s president tonight declared a 30-day state of emergency and night curfew in the three Suez Canal provinces hit hardest by the wave of violence that has left more than 50 dead in three days.

Four people were shot dead in the Egyptian city of Suez during nationwide protests against president Mohamed Mursi yesterday, the second anniversary of the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak.

Egypt’s official news agency said the death toll has risen to four in clashes in the city of Suez between police and protesters on the second anniversary of the revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak.

More than 110 people have been injured in clashes between Egyptian police and protesters during rallies marking the second anniversary of the revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak’s regime.

Opponents of President Mohammed Morsi have set fire to offices of his Muslim Brotherhood in several Egyptian cities, clashing with his supporters after the Islamist leader assumed sweeping new powers.

An air strike killed al Qaida’s second in command in Yemen along with six others travelling with him in a car, US and Yemeni officials said.

Volleys of tear gas left a white cloud over Cairo’s Tahrir Square and streets surrounding Egypt’s Interior Ministry, in the fourth day of clashes between security forces and rock-throwing youths protesting after a deadly football riot.

Egyptians in nine provinces have started voting in the second round of the first parliamentary elections since a popular uprising ousted president Hosni Mubarak in February.

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.

EGYPTIANS voted in droves in the first election since the fall of longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak, giving Islamists a chance to make political gains even as the army generals who replaced him cling to power.

SATURDAY

The media chief for al-Qaida’s Yemeni branch has been killed along with six other people in an airstrike, Yemen’s Defence Ministry said today.

SATURDAY

Henrik Stenson, who ended last month’s US Open with a cut hand after breaking a club in anger, today ran up the highest score of this week’s Open – a sextuple bogey 11 on the long 14th.

The US is tempering its tough talk on Libya with a dose of reality, explaining that even a no-fly zone over the country would require a military attack on Muammar Gaddafi’s regime.

A town in the rebel-held east of Libya has come under air attack and forces loyal to leader Muammar Gaddafi have retaken a nearby oil facility.

Pirates holding three children and their parents have said they will kill them if any rescue attempt is made.

Israel said Iran’s decision to send two navy ships through the Suez Canal today was part of a campaign to gain spreading influence over the Middle East.

Two Iranian naval ships entered the Suez Canal today, the first time in 30 years that Tehran has sent military ships through the strategic waterway.

Two Iranian naval vessels have entered the Suez Canal, officials have said.

SUEZ CANAL officials say two Iranian naval vessels are expected to start their passage through the strategic waterway early today.

CAIRO airport workers protesting for better pay, textile workers on strike to demand a corruption investigation and residents living by the Suez Canal pressing for the closure of a chemical factory allegedly dumping toxic waste into a lake shows the wave of unrest shaking Egypt has continued.

The military council in Egypt has issued its second statement in three days calling for an immediate halt to all labour unrest.

Industrial unrest unleashed by the turmoil in Egypt continued today despite a warning by the ruling military that protests and strikes were hampering efforts to improve the economy and return life to normal.

Doctors in white coats and lawyers in black robes have streamed into Cairo’s Tahrir Square as strikes across the country give powerful momentum to Egypt’s wave of anti-government protests.

Bus drivers and other public transport workers went on strike in Egypt today as mass protests continued in an attempt to remove President Hosni Mubarak.

EGYPTIANS counted the economic cost of more than two weeks of turmoil yesterday as protesters on Cairo’s Tahrir Square looked ahead to their next big push to oust President Hosni Mubarak tomorrow.