Egypt s air forces halted an arms smuggling operation to Egypt through the Western Desert, the Egyptian armed forces announced on Tuesday. According to a statement published on the army spokesperson s official Facebook page, air forces acting on intelligence reports launched a mission on the Egyptian-Libyan border and destroyed 12 (4x4) vehicles carrying weapons, ammunition and explosives.

The semi-governmental National Council for Women (NCW) issued a report on Monday saying that 35 cases of harassment against women were documented on the first day of Eid El-Fitr, with several resulting in legal complaints. The NCW said that 13 cases of verbal harrassment were documented in Fustat Park in south Cairo, while 22 cases of physical harrassment were documented at Giza Zoo. Meanwhile, Reda El-Danbouky, the executive director of the Women s Center for Guidance and Legal Awareness (WCGLA), told Ahram Online that the independent group s hotline had received 19 complaints of verbal harassment and 12 of physical harassment in downtown Cairo on the first day of Eid.

Governmental sources said that the maritime border demarcation agreement with Saudi Arabia, which located the two Red Sea islands within Saudi territories, will be enforced once President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi approves it on Saturday. Parliament already ratified it on June 14. It’s expected to be published in the official gazette and thus be immunized against appeal. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the sources ruled out any ceremonies for the handover of the islands to Saudi Arabia, during which the Saudi flag will be hoisted. They denied that any new measures are to take place between Egypt and the kingdom regarding Egyptians’ access to the islands, saying there will be no visas required.

Egyptian Minister of Social Solidarity Ghada Waly met with the World Bank mission Saturday in Cairo to follow up on the progress of social safety net programme Takaful and Karama. The World Bank mission, which was on a five-day visit to Cairo ending today, made field visits in Fayoum and Beni Suef governorates, where the programme is implemented. The mission met with local authorities and beneficiaries of the five-year $400 million project financed by the World Bank.

Egypt s exports totalled $5.1 billion in the second quarter of the fiscal year 2016/17, an increase on the $4.3 billion recorded during the same period of 2015/16, according to a Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) report published on Sunday.

The Ministry of the Interior’s Prison Sector pardoned and released 1,011 inmates on Sunday on Eid al-Fitr occasion in accordance to Presidential Decree No. 280/2017.

The Administrative Court nullified on Tuesday the Court of Urgent Matters decision to annul the former s annulment of the Egyptian-Saudi maritime demarcation agreement, reported local media.

Egypt s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi arrived in Uganda Thursday morning to participate in the Nile Basin Summit, state news agency MENA reported. El-Sisi is set to join closed meetings for the heads of states of Nile Basin countries. He is also expected to give a speech in front of the summit.

Egypt’s health ministry has announced a comprehensive plan to ensure medical service during celebrations of Eid al-Fitr, expected to take place on Sunday. Health Minister Ahmed Emad decided to increase the number of ambulances to 2,240 which will be deployed to public gatherings, parks, gardens, mosques and prayer places in all governorates around Egypt. In addition to 10 ambulance boats for emergency services in the River Nile, two air ambulances will fly over highways and major traffic hubs.

Egypt is set to undertake several measures to “lift burdens off the average Egyptian citizen,” President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi announced Tuesday evening. In an iftar ceremony hosted by the Family House organisation, El-Sisi said he has decided on several procedures to be executed by the government aiming to ease austerity.

Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court on Wednesday temporarily halted all courts rulings on the Red Sea islands agreement between Egypt and Saudi Arabia, to allow more room to study the case and issue a final and decisive verdict on it. A statement for the court said the Commissioners Authority of the court has recommended this suspension, as two different courts made different rulings on the case.

Egypt s Suez Canal revenues rose to $439.8 million in May from $427.9 million the previous month, a cabinet statement said on Tuesday.

The Doctors Syndicate has said security services arrested Ahmed abul-Qassem, a former member of the syndicate board in Luxor. Abul-Qassem was referred to Luxor prosecution over charges of joining the banned 6 April movement and provoking the public regarding the maritime border agreement between Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Prosecution decided to detain abul-Qassem for 15 days pending investigations.

Promundo, a Brazilian organization that campaigns for gender equality, recently released a study examining sexual harassment and gender inequality from men’s point of view. By interviewing people in Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco and Palestine, they tried to figure out the reasons why men like to cat-call and yell out insults at women passing by. In collaboration with UN Women, researchers surveyed about 10,000 people – men and women – and published a report with their findings.

The decision of the Ministry of Education to delete the revolutions of January 25 and June 30 from the history book for the next year’s high school caused great controversy within the ministry, as some considered it a continuation of politicization for curricula for political reasons. According to the Head of the ministry’s general education sector Reda Hegazy, the two events were omitted because the new curriculum has a global approach rather than a local one.

Egypt’s Supreme Administrative Court ruled on Saturday that peaceful strikes over work complaints are not punishable offence, even in the absence of a legislative law regulating the action(s), as long as the demands of the strike are legitimate and represent the rights of workers.

Egypt rejected a request filed by Italian prosecutors asking permission to attend the interrogations of seven police officers who investigated researcher Giulio Regeni before his death, Italian news agency Ansa reported. Egyptian law forbids the presence of foreign magistrates during judicial activity, a judicial source told Ansa. Although Italian prosecutors were not permitted to attend the questioning, Rome officials received a summary of the officers’ testimonies, without given the full details, judicial sources said.

Egypts Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry is to fly to Entebbe, Uganda, on Monday for ministerial meetings involving the Nile Basin countries, the ministry said in a statement on Sunday. Senior government officials, including ministers of foreign affairs and water, are due to attend two-day preparatory meetings on 20-21 June in the run-up to a presidential summit scheduled a day later. The presidential gathering, which Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi will attend, is the first such summit to bring together all Nile Basin countries, with a population of over 500 million. The ministry says the "historical" gathering will "open the way to exploring broad areas of cooperation in many development areas beyond the field of water," according to spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid. During this weeks meetings, Egypt aims to "work towards bringing the views and positions on the Nile water closer by focusing on prospects for cooperation and achieving common goals, as well as expanding the scope of cooperation ... to include cultural and security cooperation and political coordination," the ministry statement read. Last week, Sisi and his Ugandan counterpart Yoweri Musevini discussed preparations for the summit in a phone call. Officials had said earlier that the upcoming summit would look at the results of earlier meetings as well as points of contention on the Entebbe agreement. Uganda is the current chair of the Nile Council of Ministers of Water Affairs of the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI). Egypt froze its NBI membership in 2010 over disagreements about the Cooperative Framework Agreement, more commonly known as the Entebbe agreement. Spokesman Abu Zeid said Egypt hopes the upcoming summit will "come up with a common vision to re-launch the initiative based on the principle of the mutual interests of all countries." In July, Egyptian irrigation minister Mohamed Abdel-Ati attended the 24th annual meeting of the NBIs Nile Council of Ministers (Nile-Com) in Uganda after an absence of several years, a move seen as a partial return of the North African nation to active participation in the group. The NBI comprises 10 permanent members: Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. Eritrea has observer status. In March, Egypts water resources Minister Mohamed Abdel took part in talks held by NBIs council of ministers in Ugandas Entebbe that addressed Cairos concerns over the Nile Basin Initiative and the Entebbe agreement. By 2011, six Nile Basin nations had signed the agreement, which was developed over more than a decade: Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. Egypt and Sudan have declined to sign the treaty -- which sets out the principles and obligations of member states regarding the use of the basins water resources -- citing concerns about its reallocation of water quotas and other provisions. Historic water-sharing pacts between Egypt and Sudan continue to govern the distribution of Nile water between the two countries.

The crisis of the arrest of a number of journalists and activists who were protesting the demarcation agreement with Saudi Arabia at the Journalists Syndicate escalated on Wednesday evening, as Qasr al-Nil prosecutors started interrogating eight of those arrested, including three journalists.

Russia will supply Ka-52K shipboard helicopters to Egypt, according to a policy decision yet to be signed, Director for International Cooperation at Russia’s Rostec Corporation Viktor Kladov told Russian agency TASS on Tuesday. “We were just in Egypt to discuss this issue,” said Kladov. “Since a policy decision has been made, signing a contract is only a technical matter.”

Egypt s House of Representatives is expected to give a final vote on Wednesday on the controversial maritime border demarcation deal which places the Red Sea islands of Tiran and Sanafir, currently administered by Egypt, in Saudi Arabia s territorial waters. The vote comes after the legislative and constitutional affairs committee and the national security and defence committee approved the deal on Tuesday and Wednesday.