The national unemployment rate rose to 12.6 per cent in the second quarter of 2012 up from 11.8 per cent for the same quarter last year, Egypt's official statistics agency CAPMAS reported on Tuesday.

Gunmen reportedly attacked the Sheikh Zuwayed power station in North Sinai on Tuesday, tried to kidnap two employees and exchanged fire with the armed forces before they fled the scene.

President Mohamed Morsy asked Defense Minister Abdel Fatah al-Sisi to explore raising the wages of armed forces personnel and officers, a source within the presidential office told state-run MENA news agency Tuesday.

Power cuts continued across governorates Monday, with little sign of swift solutions in the making. Facing mounting pressure, the Electricity Ministry issued orders to increase the load on the grid, a ministry source said. But he added that this would lead to a total blackout in the national power network if a breakdown takes place.

Of Egypt's soaring 80-million-strong population, more than 30 million are children, accounting for 38 per cent of society. Accordingly, children's rights are set to become an important issue for Egypt's Constituent Assembly, tasked with drafting a new constitution.

Justice Minister Ahmed Mekky is drafting a law that would transfer some judicial authority from the executive branch to a judicial body, in an apparent effort toward granting the judiciary more independence, judicial sources said Monday.

The Egyptian Current Party announced its support of the decrees issued by President Mohamed Morsy to cancel the Constitutional Declaration supplement and to send Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi and his deputy, Lieutenant General Sami Anan, to retirement.

Islamist oriented Judge Tarek El-Bishri, who headed the committee that drafted the March 2011 Constitutional Declaration, came out against President Mohamed Morsi's recent constitutional decisions, stressing that "Morsi holds no authority to issue constitutional decrees."

Hundreds of Egyptians converged on the iconic Tahrir Square and the Presidential Palace, which is located in Heliopolis suburb in Cairo, to support President Mohamed Morsi after he sacked the defence minister and the army's chief of staff on Sunday.

The army and the media have been celebrating the recent arrests of apparent terrorists in connection with the attack at the Rafah border last week which killed 16 Egyptian border guards. But those arrested, according to their relatives, are not the real culprits.

Supporters of Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi gathered late Sunday in front of the gates of the Ministry of Defense in the Abbasseya area in East Cairo, after he was sent into retirement along with Chief of Staff Sami Anan by President Mohamed Morsy.

Qatar should deposit $500 million in Egypt's central bank within a week, the Egyptian finance minister said, as the country battles to pull its economy out of a tailspin after 18 months of political turmoil.

The Union of Revolutionary Youth has filed a lawsuit before the Administrative Court demanding that the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel in 1979 be amended in light of the meager security presence in Sinai.

President Morsi made a bundle of sweeping decisions on Sunday afternoon, announced by the presidential spokesperson in a televised statement.

Editions of Al-Dustour, a privately owned daily, were seized after several individuals filed lawsuits

Qatar has decided to give $2bn in financial support to Egypt, which is plagued by serious economic challenges, Egyptian state news agency Mena reported yesterday

“In short, the new Egypt is so unwilling to cooperate with Israel that it wouldn’t even act on Israeli intelligence about a threat to its own security,”

New issues of privately-owned daily Al-Dostour were confiscated from the paper's offices following a decision by the head of Giza primary court on Saturday.

A delegation from the National Council for Human Rights visited Tora Prison Hospital Saturday to investigate the detention conditions of former President Hosni Mubarak.

Dozens of supporters of the controversial TV host Tawfik Okasha staged a demonstration on Saturday outside the office of the public prosecutor and the High Court. They protested the suspension of Okasha's Faraeen Channel and his being interrogated on charges of inciting violence against President Mohamed Morsy.

Egyptian military sources revealed that "Operation Eagle" which was originally aimed at securing vital establishments in the Sinai Peninsula, has been developed early Wednesday into combat engagements with militants that will not stop until "all terrorist and criminal activity is quashed."