Lebanese singer possibly murdered by VIP: paper

Sunday's edition of Egyptian daily Al-Dostour was seized after it alleged an "important Egyptian figure" was involved in the brutal death of a Lebanese pop singer, the paper's editor said.

The seizure came amid reports that a man suspected of murdering Lebanese singer Suzanne Tamim in Dubai by stabbing her several times had been arrested in an Arab country.

"The newspaper has been withdrawn from the market. It is nowhere, be it in Cairo or the rest of Egypt's governorates," said Ibrahim Mansour, the editor-in-chief of the independent newspaper.

"We have not been officially informed that the newspaper was seized but copies have been withdrawn from the market," he told AFP.

An interior ministry official, who asked not to be named, insisted that there had been no official decision on the subject.

But Mansour insisted that the sudden disappearance of the newspaper was linked to its front-page article on Sunday about Tamim's death in her upmarket Dubai apartment last month.

Mansour said it was clear that the seizure was linked to the article, which was headlined: "Is an important Egyptian figure implicated in the murder of a Lebanese singer?"

The identity of the Egyptian figure was not specified by the daily, which said the person was "highly influential" and "close to power" and Egyptian business circles.

Tamim rose to fame after winning a Lebanese talent show in 1996 but her life had been marred by domestic disputes, including a rocky marriage with her second husband and agent who had accused her in 2004 of being behind an attempt on his life.