Apparently undeterred by scores of recent arrests and the threat of expulsion, Egyptian students continued to protest Tuesday against the military-backed government that seized power last year, according to Aswat Masriya, an Egyptian news site sponsored by the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
After the last few years of economic instability which Egypt has experienced—including an exodus of foreign money, rising inflation, unemployment and a ballooning public debt, among others—things are at last beginning to look on the up. Egypt finally took the step in July to slash subsidies on fuel, a move many had been calling for for years. The government also recently raised 8.5 billion US dollars in under a week for the Suez Canal development project via a highly successful public offering. And at this year’s IMF and World Bank fall meetings in Washington, the country’s recent reforms received positive reactions, most notably from IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde, previously scathing in her assessment of some of Egypt’s economic policies.
Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab has ordered the formation of a committee affiliated with the Ministry of Transitional Justice to write the law organizing parliamentary elections constituencies, according to a press statement reported by Youm7 Tuesday.
Egyptian authorities should release more than 110 university students arrested since the start of the school year on October 11, 2014. The arrests were apparently aimed at preventing a revival of campus protests that have erupted repeatedly since the overthrow of the former president, Mohamed Morsy, in July 2013. The arrests and subsequent activities appear to be solely directed at the students’ peaceful exercise of the right to free assembly.
Twenty-seven people died and 18 others were wounded when three microbuses collided on the desert road in Edfu, Aswan, early Monday.
Commander of the Egyptian Air Force Younes Al-Masry revealed that President Abdel Fattah Sisi, the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, has wrapped up, during his recent visit to the US, a suspended Apache deal.
The Foreign Ministry confirmed that 62 Egyptian fishermen were seized in Yemen after entering its territorial waters.
By now the spectacle of Secretary of State John F. Kerry fawning over the Egyptian regime of Abdel Fatah al-Sissi and ignoring its massive violations of human rights has become familiar, if no less disturbing. On Sunday Mr. Kerry was at it again in Cairo, saying at a news conference that he had “reiterated . . . our strong support for Egypt as it undertakes significant reforms.” He said that he had discussed with Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry “the essential role of a vibrant civil society, a free press, due process under the law.” But he made no mention of the regime’s ongoing campaign to crush all remnants of those institutions — which, according to numerous human rights monitors, amounts to the worst repression Egypt has seen in more than a half-century.
She locks the door of the high-rise apartment building where she works and heads home. Her street is a far cry from the ostentatious neighborhoods where she cleans. The low-slung buildings made of cinder-block bricks crowd the narrow and unpaved road. Laundry is strung from balconies. Her neighbors sit on the stoops and greet her.
A huge fire has destroyed four factories in the Borg Al-Arab district of Alexandria, Al-Ahram Arabic news website reported.
More than a dozen were also injured when two buses collided on a desert highway outside the town of Edfu, North of Aswan, the sources said. A third bus then smashed into the wreckage, the sources added, Reuters reported.
Egypt's Article IV consultations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will take place in November, IMF Director for the Middle East and Central Asia Masood Ahmed said.
Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry discussed ties with European Union (EU) High Representative Catherine Ashton, also holding talks with Italian counterpart, Federica Mogherini, on the sidelines of the Gaza Reconstruction Conference.
Minister of Interior Mohamed Ibrahim ordered on Monday the "heavy presence" of security forces on al-Azhar University's campus.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi urged Israel on Sunday to consider launching new peace efforts based on an Arab initiative first presented in 2002 and rejected by the Jewish state.
Egyptian universities have resumed the second day of the new semester amid a tense atmosphere marked by condemnation and calls for protests.
Washington will allocate $212 million to Gaza reconstruction program, US Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday.
The Irish Government has pledged another €2.5m in aid to the Palestinians as part of an international effort to rebuild the Gaza Strip after this summer’s 50-day war.
The Alexandria Criminal Court postponed on Saturday the retrial of Al-Masry Al-Youm photojournalist Mahmoud Nasr and five other defendants to 3 November.
A child was killed and five people were injured after a two-storey house built with bricks collapsed in Qena governorate.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton will visit Cairo Sunday to take part in the Gaza reconstruction conference, state-run MENA reported Thursday.
Others
An Arabic language teacher from the Qabaa school in the Nozha district flogged a Coptic pupil ten years old named Bibawi Faragallah 40 times with an electric wire last week.