PROTESTERS in Egypt tried yesterday to disrupt shipping on the Suez Canal after a court confirmed death sentences for 21 football fans from the canal city of Port Said.

However, authorities said shipping on the canal had been unaffected by the protests in the city.

In Cairo, fans of a rival team set fire to a police social club and the offices of the Egyptian Soccer Federation. They were enraged by the same court clearing 28 others of blame over a riot at a football stadium in Port Said last February after a game between Cairo's Al-Ahly team and Port Said's Al-Masr, in which more than 70 people died.

■egypt