Egypt frees Al-Jazeera bureau chief, journalist

DOHA: The Al-Jazeera bureau chief in Cairo and one of its journalists were freed on Saturday several hours after being arrested, the Doha-based television channel said amid anti-government protests in Egypt.

Abdel Fattah Fayed and journalist Ahmed Yousef were released hours after their arrest, the pan-Arab channel, banned since last Sunday from operating in Egypt, reported.

They were detained a day after the satellite channel said that its offices in the Egyptian capital had been burned by a "gang of thugs" and its website had been hacked by "opponents of the pro-democracy movement in Egypt."

"As with all the other obstacles that have been put in our path, whether that be the detention of journalists, confiscation of equipment, or having our broadcast signal interfered with, we will continue doing our job of reporting on events in Egypt," an Al-Jazeera spokesman said on Friday.

The Qatar-based channel also reported nine of its journalists were briefly detained on Friday -- dubbed by protesters as the "day of departure" for President Hosni Mubarak -- while its broadcast signal faced "unprecedented levels of interference."

Last Sunday, the Egyptian information ministry ordered Al-Jazeera -- which has given saturation coverage to the ongoing protests in Cairo -- to halt its operations and stripped its staff of their credentials.