CAIRO

Confused Egyptian voters and officials tried on Wednesday to adjust to indelible ink, independent monitors, party delegates and multichoice ballots in the country’s first contested presidential poll. Activists from the ruling National Democratic Party were still actively campaigning on Wednesday.

The three suicide bombers who carried out the deadly July attacks at the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh were Bedouin members of an Islamist cell whose chief has been arrested, security sources said on Saturday. The three were identified through DNA tests and the confessions of 29 suspects.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, seeking re-election to a fifth term, has voiced confidence that voters will choose his ”serious platform” over his rivals’ ”hollow slogans” in the September 7 poll. The 77-year-old president also told the Al-Ahram Weekly he will reject any foreign interference in the electoral process.

A corruption scandal on Monday hit Egypt’s best-known media tycoon, also a long-time confidant of President Hosni Mubarak, a few days before the president runs for re-election in a landmark poll. The El-Osboa newspaper made allegations regarding massive salaries, hidden benefits and the siphoning of funds.

After more than a week of campaigning, the Egyptian people have been greeted with the unfamiliar sight of several different presidential candidates asking for their vote. This is the first time the country has ever had a multicandidate presidential campaign. Candidates have held several election events throughout the country.

Egypt said on Tuesday that most of the suspects behind a string of bomb attacks in the Sinai peninsula have been arrested after a series of raids in the area. ”The intensive efforts exerted recently have led to the capture of most suspects and yielded details on the terrorist attacks in the Sinai,” an interior ministry statement said.

Egyptian security forces launched a massive sweep of the Sinai peninsula on Monday to hunt down Bedouins suspected of involvement in recent attacks, security sources said. About 3 000 men backed by armoured vehicles are involved in the vast operation.

An Egyptian man charged over the deadly attacks in Sinai last October and suspected of links to last month’s multiple bombings in Sharm el-Sheikh was killed on Monday by security forces, police said. Mohammed Saleh Felifel was killed in the Ataqa Mountains, east of Cairo and across from the Sinai peninsula.

Egypt’s 77-year-old president, Hosni Mubarak, announced on Thursday that he would seek another six-year term in September, when the country holds presidential elections that for the first time permit more than one candidate. Mubarak promised to scrap the emergency laws and curb his own powers if re-elected.

A statement in the name of a group that claimed responsibility for the London bombings threatened to launch ”a bloody war” on the capitals of European countries that do not remove their troops from Iraq within a month.

Egypt says it is not prepared to hand over a biochemist detained in connection with the London bombings, Egyptian security officials said on Saturday, as British investigators attended sessions questioning him. British investigators reportedly found traces of explosives in a bathtub of the biochemist’s apartment in Leeds.

Although health awareness and the availability of sound nutritional guidance are increasing in Egypt, many women still find it difficult to overcome economic and cultural barriers to maintain a healthy weight. About 75% of overweight people in Egypt are women, says Dr Sherif Azmi, a nutritionist at the Nasser Health Institute.

An Egyptian playwright known for his controversial stance on normalising cultural ties with Israel said he was prevented from leaving Egypt to receive a prize at an awards ceremony in the Jewish state on Tuesday. Ali Salem, the author of over two dozen satirical plays, explained he was blocked at the Taba land border on Wednesday and Cairo airport on Sunday.

Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmad Nazeef admitted on Tuesday that ”mistakes” took place during last week’s constitutional referendum, according to the Middle East News Agency. Last week, 83% of Egyptian voters said yes to a constitutional change to allow more than one candidate to run for presidential elections.

Premier Soccer League champions Kaizer Chiefs were slapped with a lengthy three-year ban by the Confederation of African Football (Caf) on Saturday for refusing to play a Caf Cup match last weekend. The ban excludes Chiefs from participating in any African club competitions until 2009.

At a school in a popular district of Cairo, a man urges Egyptians to vote on a key electoral reform, crying ”Your vote matters! Say yes to democracy” — but many polling stations on Wednesday remained deserted amid opposition calls for a boycott of the referendum to allow for Egypt’s first-ever contested presidential race.

United States First Lady Laura Bush underscored the importance of literacy, especially for young women, while visiting Egypt on Monday for the last leg of a Middle East tour. She had arrived on Monday from Israel, where she encountered angry anti-American protests. ”I’m not surprised at all,” she said about the protests.

Archaeologists have uncovered a 5 000-year-old chamber believed to have been used for the burial rituals of Egypt’s first major pharaoh and found a cache of 200 rough ceramic beer and wine jars, Egyptian authorities said on Thursday. ”It is a very important discovery,” said Zahi Hawass, head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood opposition called on MPs on Sunday to reject a constitutional amendment that would allow for the first ever competitive presidential election. Egyptian lawmakers are due to discuss a draft amendment to article 76 of the Constitution relating to the election on Tuesday.

One demonstrator was killed and two injured on Friday when Egyptian police used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse a pro-reform rally in the Nile Delta city of Mansura, the Muslim Brotherhood said. The casualties came as the authorities launched a wave of arrests against the banned but normally tolerated Islamist opposition.

An American tourist died on Friday from wounds sustained in a bomb blast that rocked a Cairo bazaar popular with foreigners, a United States Embassy spokesperson said, taking the death toll in the Egyptian capital’s first such attack in seven years to three. Another three Americans were among the 18 people injured in Thursday’s explosion in a packed bazaar area.

Videos posted on the Internet on Tuesday showed militants purported to belong to al-Qaeda’s ally in Iraq beheading a man said to be an Iraqi security force member and another group carrying out the execution-style killing of a reported informer. The video also showed the black banner of the group, which is headed by wanted Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

The main rebel group in Darfur on Friday welcomed a United Nations Security Council resolution clearing the way for war crimes committed in the war-torn Sudanese region to be brought to the International Criminal Court. Sudanese troops and proxy militias known as Janjaweed, have been accused of widespread human rights abuses in Darfur.

A demonstration on Sunday to commemorate the second anniversary of the war on Iraq turned into a vocal stand-off between hundreds of supporters and opponents of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. It was the first appearance by pro-Mubarak demonstrators in months of anti-government protests.

A South African woman and owner of a piece of jewellery believed stolen from the tomb of King Tutankhamen has asked the government in Cairo for help in breaking King Tut’s curse after two members of her family suffered untimely deaths. Several people linked to the 1922 discovery of King Tut’s tomb have died mysteriously.