Contaminated water sparks protest

Villagers in Egypt briefly locked the country’s health minister and a provincial governor inside a hospital room today after allegedly contaminated water caused hundreds of residents to fall ill, officials said.

A hospital in the Nile Delta province of Menoufia, 40 miles north of Cairo, admitted dozens of people with severe cases of diarrhoea, vomiting and high fevers, Health Ministry official Amr Kandil said.