Egypt 'baby trafficking ring' broken up in Cairo 
 
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 A child-trafficking ring that sold 300 babies over three years has been broken up in Cairo, Egyptian police say. 
 
 Two nurses and a doctor at a Cairo hospital are among five people arrested and police say they are still searching for the hospital manager. 
 
 The babies were reportedly sold to childless couples after Caesarean sections were performed on women carrying unwanted children. 
 
 Babies were said to have been sold for up to 3,500 Egyptian pounds($570;£360). 
 
 According to Egyptian media reports, women who had come forward too late for an abortion were offered a Caesarean section and their babies were then sold on, apparently at a profit. 
 
 Abortions are lawful in Egypt if the mother's health is at risk. 
 
 Only a limited form of adoption is allowed, to the extent that children cannot take the name of their adoptive families. 
 
 Trade in such a black market in babies would have enabled couples to avoid Egypt's legal restrictions, the BBC's Kevin Connolly in Cairo reports. 
 
 Although the details of the case provided by police are sketchy, it appears they have disrupted an extensive child-trafficking ring, our correspondent says. ||||| Egypt police bust baby trafficking ring 
 
 (AFP) – Nov 11, 2012 
 
 CAIRO — Egyptian police said on Sunday they had broken up a child trafficking ring that sold almost 300 babies for 570 dollars each or less. 
 
 A police official said they arrested five suspects, including two nurses and a doctor working at the Cairo hospital where the babies were sold for almost three years. Police are searching for the hospital manager who escaped arrest. 
 
 The official said the network also performed caesarian operations on women who had left it too late for an abortion of an unwanted child in exchange for allowing the doctors to sell the babies, usually to couples who could not have their own children. 
 
 Adoption is illegal in Egypt, which adheres to Islamic law in some family matters. Some couples have sought to bypass the ban by buying children. 
 
 In 2009, an American couple received a two year jail sentence after a court convicted them of buying a child from an orphanage. 
 
 Abortion is legal where it is deemed necessary for the health of the mother. 
 
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– Egyptian authorities have arrested five people in a baby-trafficking ring that helped nearly 300 adoptive parents skirt the nation's Islamic laws, AFP reports. Members of the ring allegedly removed unwanted babies by C-section from mothers who had waited too long to get an abortion. The ring then sold babies for up to $570 each to adoptive parents, who could give each child their family name—a practice normally forbidden by Islamic law when children are adopted, reports the BBC. Among the suspects are a doctor and two nurses who allegedly aided the baby-trafficking ring at a Cairo hospital for three years. Police are also seeking the hospital's manager, who evaded arrest. An interesting aside in the story: Abortion is only permitted in Egypt when the mother's health is at stake.