Prime Minister Sherif Ismail has directed government agencies to give their employees a half-day leave on Wednesday, as a means of offsetting low voter turnout on the last day of runoff polls for the first round of the Egyptian parliamentary elections.

Former Vice President Mohamed ElBaradei has renewed his criticisms of the detention and prosecution of Egyptian political activists under the current government of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry will attend international talks on the Syrian crisis taking place in Vienna on Friday, the state news agency said.

Hitting a record since the beginning of 2015, Egypt’s trade deficit widened in July to reach EGP 34.7 billion, up 38.8% compared to the same month last year.

Antiquities Minister Mamdouh al Damaty will inaugurate Thursday the 2,500-year-old Temple of Hibis in Al Kharga Oasis after the completion of its 10-year-old renovation project, Youm7 reported.

Low voting rates continued throughout the runoff period during the first round of polls for the 569-seat House of Representatives' elections on Tuesday, hours after Egyptian diplomatic missions reported a similar moderate turnout on Monday.

EgyptAir, the state-owned flag carrier, is in final stages of launching an overhaul and expansion plan that will reverse its downturn and propel it towards growth, its chairman said on Tuesday.

Egypt’s pound held steady at 7.93 per dollar in a central bank foreign exchange (FX) auction on Tuesday, Youm7 reported.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi landed in the Emirati capital Abu Dhabi on Tuesday at the beginning of a three-stop tour which will include India and Bahrain, state run television reported.

Two Al-Dostour newspaper journalists, Shaimaa Hussein and Mohamed Alaa, were arrested on Tuesday while covering the runoff parliamentary elections in one of the polling stations in Giza.

Egypt's journalists’ syndicate filed a report on Sunday accusing the interior ministry of being behind the disappearance of journalist Mahmoud Mostafa Saad, a syndicate statement read.

Egypt's Suez Canal revenues fell 4.4 percent in September for the seventh consecutive month, reaching US$448.8 million, compared to $469.7million in the same month last year, according to the Suez Canal Authority.

Egyptian expatriates from 139 different countries are voting today in runoffs for the first phase of elections for the 596-seat House of Representatives.

The United States embassy in Egypt celebrated Sunday the resumption of the US-Egypt joint production of military tanks M1A1 in the Egyptian Tank Plant 200, a military factory located in Helwan's industrial zone, south of Cairo.

President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi met with Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir Sunday, where bilateral relations and the Syrian crisis were discussed, along with proposed plans to hold more frequent meetings to enhance coordination.

Five people were killed in accidents related to the bad weather that struck the coastal governorate of Alexandria on Sunday, the health ministry said.

An electoral alliance has announced it is withdrawing its candidates from the second phase of the House of Representatives' elections slated for November 23, citing several breaches and media biases.

Chief of Staff Mahmoud Hegazy and a high-level delegation left to Madrid Sunday to hold “many fruitful discussions” on military cooperation between Egypt and Spain, according to a statement by military spokesperson Mohamed Samir.

The chairman of Mada Foundation NGO Hesham Gaafar is being investigated for receiving "international" funds "to harm Egypt's national security" and for belonging to a banned organisation, a lawyer involved in his case told Aswat Masriya on Sunday.

A press conference was organised Sunday between the Egyptian and the Saudi Foreign Ministers at the Egyptian Foreign Ministry in Cairo, following a private meeting between them.

A political alliance loyal to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has scooped all 60 list seats up for grabs in the first round of a parliamentary election in which opposition parties were all but absent, official results showed on Wednesday.