Egypt to extend state of emergency for two months

    
Hamas rejected on Thursday an allegation aired on Egyptian state television that it has been involved in teaching Islamists in Egypt how to plant bombs in cars and that it had given them landmines.
  
"This is completely incorrect," Fawzi Barhoum, spokesman for the Islamist group that controls the Gaza Strip territory bordering Egypt. He said that the report was an "attempt to demonize Hamas".

Earlier, Egyptian state television said that the Hamas Islamist group ruling Gaza has been teaching Egyptian Islamists how to plant bombs in cars, .
   
Hamas also gave 400 landmines to Egyptian militant groups, said the television.

Hamas is an offshoot of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood.

This as Egypt will extend a state of emergency for two months because of the security situation, the presidency said.           

The extension, which applies to all of Egypt, starts on Thursday, the presidency said in a statement.             

The most populous Arab state has been gripped by political turmoil since the army overthrew President Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood on July 3.

A week ago the interior minister survived an assassination attempt in Cairo.            


REUTERS