Thousands of college and high school students took to the streets around Egypt on Saturday to protest the country's hosting of an Israeli-Palestinian summit.
In Miniya, about 250 kilometers (180 miles) south of Cairo, some 8,000 students protested against the Sharm el-Sheikh summit and called for "war against Israel."
Security forces used clubs to break up the demonstration after blocking the students from taking their protest from campus into the city. At least one student was injured and hospitalized, a hospital source said.
In Alexandria, thousands of students chanted against the summit, saying it would lead to an Arab summit scheduled for Cairo later this month being aborted.
Other protests were reported Saturday in Cairo, the Delta and Upper Egypt.
On Friday night, a group of cinematographers, musicians and actors, including several film stars, held a sit-in at their professional club in Cairo to protest Egypt's sponsorship of the talks.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak assured Saturday that the peace summit was not at odds with the Arab summit, as "both have the same goal: saving the Palestinian people from aggression and obtaining guarantees assuring that what Israel did will not happen again."
Egypt offered to host the summit only "after consultations with the Palestinian Authority and Arab leaders," Mubarak said, as cited by Egypt's official MENA news agency.
The decision "was not without conditions," Mubarak said, without being more specific – CAIRO (AFP)
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