CAIRO, Sept. 17 (UPI) -- Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak Saturday asked his culture minister to remain in office after he resigned from his post last week.
The official Egyptian Middle East News Agency said that on Mubarak's instructions, Prime Minister Ahmad Natheef asked Culture Minister Farouk Hosni to continue in his job.
The agency did not say whether Mubarak looked into Hosni's resignation, which came after a fire in a government theater killed 46 people, mostly artists, in Bani Soueif, 93 miles (150 kilometers) south of Cairo.
Hosni, an abstract artist and culture minister since 1987, said he resigned to avoid further pressure after the opposition blamed him for the fire.
The entire Egyptian government is due to resign at the end of the month after Mubarak takes the oath of office following his re-election for a fifth six-year term.
