LATEST: Bombs Disrupt Major Iraq-Turkey Oil Pipeline?

UPDATE 1230 GMT: An Egyptian court has ordered the release of former President Hosni Mubarak, according to a judicial and a security source said.

Mubarak could now leave prison later on Wednesday as there are no longer any legal grounds for his detention.

On Monday, a court quashed a charge of corruption against Mubarak, overthrown in February 2011 by a popular uprising. He is being retried on charges of ordering the killing of protesters during that revolution, he has already served out the maximum amount of pre-trial detention permitted in the case.

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An Egyptian court is scheduled to review a petition for the release of former President Hosni Mubarak, overthrown by the 2011 uprising.

The court will convene on Wednesday at the Cairo prison where Mubarak is being held.

If the court upholds the petition, no legal grounds would remain for Mubarak’s detention, although he is still being retried on charges of complicity in the killing of protesters in January-February 2011.

On Monday, a court dropped a charge of corruption — over the illegal use of State funds for the refurbishment of the Presidential Palace — against Mubarak. That led his lawyer, Fareed el-Deeb, to file the petition for release.

Mubarak was sentenced to life in prison in 2012 for failing to stop the killing of the protesters, but a retrial was ordered earlier this year.

The retrial resumed in May.

Meanwhile, another Cairo court set a September trial date for Mohamed ElBaradei, who resigned last Wednesday as interim Vice President for Foreign Affairs, on charges of “breaching national trust”.

The charges, filed by a law professor at Cairo’s Helwan University, accused ElBaradei of “betraying” the public with the resignation. He faces a $1,430 fine if he is convicted.

ElBaradei quit his post amid the deaths of hundreds of Egyptians in last week’s crackdown by security forces on protests for deposed President Mohamed Morsi.

Bombs Disrupt Major Iraq-Turkey Oil Pipeline?

A “senior Turkish official has insisted that the flow of crude oil through a pipeline running from Iraq’s Kirkuk oil fields to Turkey’s Mediterranean port of Ceyhan will resume on Wednesday night.

The Turkish official said the flow was halted for maintanance work, denying there was any bomb attack on the pipeline.

Two Iraqi oil officials said earlier Wednesday that two bomb attacks halted the oil flow, causing severe damage to the pipeline.