Egypt detained 48 in Muslim Brotherhood raids

Egyptian police detained 48 members of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood on Thursday in a crackdown ahead of parliamentary elections, a security source said on Friday. In one of the largest single-day tolls against the movement since February, police arrested members of Egypt's most powerful opposition group in raids in Giza, Menoufiya and Beni Suef, the security source said.

The crackdown has drawn criticism from rights groups like US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), who called on the Egyptian government to legalise the Brotherhood and stop arresting people for membership. (Reuters)