CAIRO—Hundreds of Egyptians protested outside the Saudi Embassy on Tuesday demanding the release of an Egyptian human-rights lawyer detained in Saudi Arabia for allegedly insulting the kingdom's monarch.

Egypt's ruling military council has received another international setback after Interpol rejected its request to put a dozen American pro-democracy workers on arrest notices.

Egypt's de facto leader has ratified a law that prevents certain officials who served under former President Hosni Mubarak from running in the presidential election slated for May, MENA state news agency reported.

Egypt's foreign ministry, according to spokesman Amr Rushdy, is following up with authorities in Saudi Arabia on the case of the Egyptian lawyer, Ahmed El-Gizawy, who is currently in Saudi custody facing one year in prison and 20 lashes.

Egypt said on Monday it formally requested that Israel look into a statement attributed to Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman in which he described Egypt as more "worrying" than Israel's arch-enemesis Iran.

The Egyptian company that cancelled gas exports to Israel has hired an international law firm after the Israel Electric Corporation announced Monday that it would take the case to international arbitration.

The People’s Assembly's Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee on Sunday approved a proposal submitted by a member of the ruling military council that says the military judiciary should be the only authority to decide on whether the cases submitted to it are under its jurisdiction

Egypt has unilaterally terminated its natural gas export contract with Israel, a shareholder in the export operating company, East Mediterranean Gas Company (EMG), said Sunday night.

Presidential candidate Amr Moussa is noncommittal on the future role of the Supreme Council of Armed Forces, saying it is not the right time to discuss the future powers of the generals that have been running Egypt for the past 14 months.

Supreme Presidential Electoral Commission (SPEC) Secretary-General Hatem Bagato announced Sunday that Egyptian civil society organisations registered by the Ministry of Social Solidarity would be able to monitor the upcoming presidential election, while the role of foreign groups is still under discussion.

Parliament Speaker Saad al-Katatny on Sunday called on the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to ratify the political isolation law to be issued on the same day.

The governor of South Sinai, Major General Khaled Foada, said Saturday that Israel's warning to its citizens not to travel to Sinai "are mere rumors that Israel launch from time to time, especially as tourism in Sharm el-Sheikh recovers."

According to the Ministry of Interior official Facebook page, police started a clampdown on "unlicensed street vendors" in the Imbaba district of Ard Ellewa. Several kiosks were forcefully removed because they lacked proper licenses.

Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC) rejected on Saturday the military council request to determine the constitutionality of the drafted Disenfranchisement Law before proposed legislation becomes law. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) had referred the proposed Disenfranchisement Law to the SCC on Thursday.

The Foreign Ministry has said it has a neutral position on all presidential candidates, denying claims on some websites that a number of its officials signed a statement asking former spy chief and Vice President Omar Suleiman to put himself forward for presidency.

Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, head of the ruling Supreme Council of Armed Forces, said Saturday that the armed forces will hand over power to an elected civilian president and guarantee the drafting of a constitution that pleases all Egyptians.

As others have fallen by the wayside, Amr Moussa stepped up his campaign for the Egyptian presidency on Wednesday, going to a informal area of Cairo to launch his platform in a bid to win over voters, whose choices have been narrowed down in only a few days.

Hatem Bagato, head commissioner of the Supreme Constitutional Court, has told Al-Masry Al-Youm that the Commissioners Department in the court hasn’t yet finished its report about the constitutionality of the voting system that elected the current Parliament.

Thirty-four different political movements and parties have appealed for all Egyptians to join the Friday 20 April demonstrations against former regime remnants and continued military rule, in a statement released Wednesday. The document also adopted a critical tone against the Muslim Brotherhood, asserting they were "dividing revolutionary lines" and should reconsider their stands.

The list of candidates for Egypt’s next president was finalized on Tuesday evening when the Presidential Elections Commission (PEC) announced that the appeals against disqualification of 10 potential candidates, including several possible frontrunners, had been rejected. As Egypt moves towards the first round of elections on 23 and 24 May, 13 candidates remain.

Egypt’s Finance Minister Momtaz El-Saeed announced on Wednesday that the country's external debt shrank by 1.5 per cent to represent 13.3 per cent of GDP in December 2011, down to $33.7 billion against $35 billion in the same month the year before.