Egyptian armed forces and riot police moved into Cairo's Tahrir Square on Monday to disperse several dozen protesters who refused to leave the area after most groups had suspended a sit-in.

Military police shot into the air to disperse the protesters, and proceeded to beat them with batons when they refused to leave the square, a security official said.

From Syria to Libya and Egypt, the uprisings and unrest gripping the Arab world have cast a pall on the start of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month when the traditional focus on piety will likely be eclipsed by more unrest.

Food prices — part of the economic hardships that catalyzed the ouster of the Egyptian and Tunisian leaders — are still climbing. And protesters have shown little patience for conciliatory gestures by governments after decades of empty promises.

The head of the Cairo Criminal Court has vowed a speedy trial for ousted president Hosni Mubarak, the official MENA news agency reported on Sunday.

Judge Ahmed Refaat said Mubarak's trial, which starts on Wednesday, would be aired live on Egyptian television to "reassure people of the (credibility of the) process".

Egypt turned back 450 travelers seeking to cross at the Rafah border point after an attack on a Sinai police station, Hamas officials said on Sunday.

The Hamas-run interior ministry said that the 450 would-be travelers, some of them patients seeking medical treatment, were turned back at the border on Saturday.

Ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, who faces trial next week accused ordering troops to fire on protesters, will appear in court at the Cairo Police Academy, the appeals court said Saturday.

The trial would open on Wednesday and be held "inside the Police Academy in Masr el-Gedida" in northern Cairo for security reasons, said the court's president, Abdel Aziz Omar.

Egypt's military has arrested five people in connection with clashes in the north Sinai city of El-Arish that left four people dead, the official MENA news agency said on Saturday.

Armed forces arrested four men suspected of involvement in an attack on an El-Arish police station, while another man was arrested driving close to the police station with two machine guns in his possession, MENA said.

Tens of thousands of Egyptians rallied in Cairo's central Tahrir Square on Friday seeking to unify their demands despite rifts over key issues between liberal activists and Islamist groups.

Protesters carrying banners, flags and umbrellas to shield them from the punishing Cairo sun filled the square in one of the largest demonstrations since the popular uprising pushed President Hosni Mubarak from power in February.

Lebanon's few remaining Arabic calligraphers, whose elegant script and interweaving words transport one to another era, are working to preserve an art form struggling to compete with new technology.

"The computer is a wonderful tool but in no way can it replace an artist or produce masterpieces," says Mahmoud Bayoun, one of the country's best-known calligraphers, whose works have been displayed in the United States and Iran.

Egypt's ex-president Hosni Mubarak's murder trial on August 3 will take place in Cairo, the official news agency MENA quoted a justice ministry official as saying on Thursday.

"It has been decided that the trial of ex-president Hosni Mubarak and his two sons Alaa and Gamal ... will be held in the building of the General Authority for Investment and the free trade areas in the Cairo Expo grounds," it quoted him as saying.

The top commander of U.S. special operations forces said Wednesday that Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida is bloodied and "nearing its end," but he warned the next generation of militants could keep special operations fighting for a decade to come.

Navy SEAL Adm. Eric T. Olson described the killing of bin Laden by a special operations raid on May 2 as a near-killing blow for what he called "al-Qaida 1.0," as created by bin Laden and led from his hideout in Pakistan.