The Egyptian foreign ministry said Thursday it was in talks with Tripoli over a request to hand back members of slain leader Moammar Gadhafi’s regime seeking refuge in Egypt.

Libya's prosecutor had written to his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Meguid Mahmoud, providing a list of Libyans in Egypt belonging to the former regime who are wanted back home.

Armed Bedouin were besieging an international peacekeepers' camp in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula on Thursday to press for the release of jailed tribesmen, security officials told Agence France Presse.

The Bedouin maintaining the week-long siege have set up stone barricades around the camp in north Sinai and prevented soldiers with the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) from entering or leaving, the officials said.

The American University in Cairo said Wednesday that a team of its researchers has designed a faster and cheaper test for all types of hepatitis C, which it says affects about 10 million Egyptians.

The development "reduces the two-step testing process carried out over a number of days to a one-step process that takes less than an hour... at a fraction of the cost of traditional diagnostic protocols," the university said.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday vowed to press ahead with support for democracy promotion groups, saying that they play a critical role despite a crackdown in Egypt.

Clinton, addressing U.S. ambassadors from around the world who are back in Washington for a group conference, said that civil society groups are vital to encouraging U.S. goals such as advancing democracy and women's participation.

Israel and militants in Gaza agreed to cease hostilities Tuesday after Egypt brokered a "mutual truce" following four days of bloodletting which left 25 Gazans dead.

Under the agreement, which came into force at 1:00am (2300 GMT on Monday), both Israel and militants from Islamic Jihad, who have been responsible for the lion's share of the rockets lobbed at southern Israel, agreed to hold their fire, an Egyptian intelligence official told Agence France Presse.

An Egyptian military tribunal has acquitted an army doctor of an accusation of public obscenity filed by a protester who claimed she was forced to undergo a virginity test while in detention.

Samira Ibrahim won a civilian court ruling last year that affirmed the tests were taking place at military jails and ordered they be halted.

Egypt's presidential race kicked off on Saturday, with registration open for candidates to run the country after a popular uprising ousted veteran president Hosni Mubarak last year.

Hopefuls must be endorsed by at least 30 members of parliament or 30,000 eligible voters for the landmark election on May 23.

Around 100 protesters calling for an end to military rule in Egypt clashed with soldiers near the U.S. embassy in Cairo, an Agence France Presse correspondent reported.

Shouting "Down with military power!" the protesters lobbed stones at the soldiers, who responded by throwing them back and trying to disperse the crowd.

China said Friday it is sending an envoy to Saudi Arabia, Egypt and France to explain its position on Syria, after Beijing called for an end to the year-long conflict in the Middle East country.

China unveiled a six-point peace plan last Sunday, calling for an immediate end to the bloody violence and for dialogue between the regime of President Bashar Assad and the opposition.

Egypt's Foreign Minister Mohammed Amr on Thursday warned of regional consequences should the crisis in Syria "explode", during talks with U.N.-Arab League envoy to Syria Kofi Annan, his spokesman said.

Amr said that an "explosion" of the situation in Syria "would not only have internal consequences but will spread to the whole region," Amr Roshdy told reporters.