REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, Police detained the supreme leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohammed Badie, according to security officials and state television on early Tuesday. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

They said Badie was captured in an apartment in the eastern Cairo district of Nasr City. That's where Mohammaed Mursi's supporters held a six-week sit-in protest that was cleared by security forces last Wednesday.

The private ONTV network showed footage of a man the network said was Badie after his arrest. In the footage, a somber looking Badie in an off-white Arab robe, or galabiyah, sits motionless on a sofa as a man in civilian clothes and carrying an assault rifle stands nearby.

Badie and his powerful deputy Khairat el-Shater, who is in custody, go on trial later this month for their alleged role in the killing of eight protesters outside the Brotherhood's Cairo headquarters in June. His arrest is a serious blow to the group at a time when authorities are cracking down on its leaders and mid-ranking officials, detaining scores of them across the country. 

In a separate development,  two minibuses carrying off-duty policemen in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula were ambushed on Monday. The attacker forced the men to lie on the sand and shooting 25 of them dead.

"They were marked in advance by the attackers," said Ashraf Abdullah, who heads the police branch the victims belonged to. 

He said the assailants checked the IDs of the men, who were not in uniform, to ensure they were policemen before opening fire. The 25 slain police officers were given a funeral with full military honors presided over by Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim, who is in charge of the police, and the army's chief of staff, Gen. Sedki Sobhi. The brazen daylight attack raised fears that the strategic desert region bordering Israel and the Gaza Strip could be plunged into a full-fledged insurgency. 

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