BREAKING NEWS

Egypt denies entry to US analyst, with no reason given

CAIRO - A US think tank analyst and former diplomat who has written articles critical of Egypt's government was blocked from entering the country to attend a conference on Saturday.
Michele Dunne, a former diplomat once posted to Cairo and a senior associate at the Washington, D.C.-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said she was given no reason when she was turned back at Cairo International Airport.
"I come into the country two to four times a year, for the past 10 years at least," Dunne told Reuters from Frankfurt's airport, where she was waiting for a flight to return to the United States on Saturday after leaving Cairo that morning.
A foreign ministry spokesperson declined to comment and referred questions to the interior ministry. Calls to the ministry and its spokesperson were not answered.
Dunne, who served in the US foreign service for 17 years, including a posting at the US embassy in Cairo, was coming to Egypt for a conference of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs, she said.