Egypt Live Blog

Citizens line up to vote at the Egyptian Embassy in Doha, Qatar.

A week before the presidential election opens in Egypt, thousands of Egyptians living aboard are casting their ballots at one of 166 diplomatic missions worldwide.

They will have until May 17 to choose from between 13 candidates.

[Photo: Sara Hassan/Al Jazeera] 

An Egyptian presidential candidate has lashed out at a politician who accused him of fraud, further raising the tempo in an already unprecedentedly heated presidential campaign.

Ahmed Shafiq responded angrily on Monday to accusations by Essam Soltan that are currently being investigated by the public prosecutor.

Speaking to reporters, Shafiq accused Soltan of being an agent for Egypt's security forces prior to last year's overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak.

Both men dismiss the other's allegations.

The frontrunners in the election due to begin May 23 include both former regime officials and Islamist party members that once were the main targets of Mubarak security crackdowns.

Shafiq was Mubarak's last prime minister and is among the top four contenders.

[Source: AP]

Two men were killed and 29 other people were injured after their convoy that was illegally crossing from Egypt into Libya entered a minefield, a medical source said. 

Mahmoud Zahran, a Health Ministry official in the northern Egyptian city of Marsa Matrouh, said an Egyptian and a Sudanese man died when their vehicle, which was travelling in a convoy with two others, hit landmines inside Libya on Sunday.

Health officials and Egypt's state news agency said all the injured were Egyptians, except for two Sudanese. Reports had earlier said the two dead were both Egyptian. 

Egyptians have traditionally sought work in Libya, but the conflict that toppled Muammar Gaddafi last year forced many to leave. 

A recovery in Libyan oil output to near pre-war levels is luring many back, however, at a time when Egypt's economy has been hammered by the uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak. 

Egypt's state news agency said the injured were brought to a hospital in Salloum, an Egyptian town near the border. 

The north coast of Egypt and Libya is littered with landmines laid during World War Two by Germany and Britain and their respective allies. [Reuters]