Egypt's Islamist President-elect Mohammed Mursi said in an interview with Iran's Fars news agency published on Monday that he wanted to expand ties with Tehran to create a strategic "balance" in the region.

CAIRO — Egypt's currency, the pound, weakened to its lowest against the US dollar in more than seven years on Sunday as the country waited to see if a former military officer or a member of the Muslim Brotherhood would be its next president.

Ahmed Shafiq’s campaigners were shocked, dismayed and in utter disbelief after the Presidential Elections Commission’s announcement that the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsy had won the runoff in the presidential election.

The Gaza Strip erupted in into celebration on Sunday after news that the Muslim Brotherhood's candidate won the presidency in neighboring Egypt, with one person killed by celebratory gunfire.

Reports have emerged that a series of negotiations were held on Friday and Saturday between reformer campaigner and Constitution Party founder Mohamed El-Baradei and eliminated presidential contenders Abdel-Moneim Abul-Fotouh and Hamdeen Sabbahi over the formation of a proposed 'national salvation' government.

JERUSALEM — Israel voiced respect on Sunday for the victory of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt's presidential election, calling on the new administration in Cairo to maintain the countries' peace accord.

The Egyptian presidential election results mean that Egypt’s seat at the table of democracy and its accession to the family of democratic nations await, said the Turkish Ambassador in Cairo, Huseyin Avni Botsali, in the first reaction by a foreign ambassador to the Presidential Elections Commission’s announcement naming Mohamed Morsy as Egypt’s new president.

The Egyptian presidential election results mean that Egypt’s seat at the table of democracy and its accession to the family of democratic nations await, said the Turkish Ambassador in Cairo, Huseyin Avni Botsali, in the first reaction by a foreign ambassador to the Presidential Elections Commission’s announcement naming Mohamed Morsy as Egypt’s new president.

The 2012/13 budget was expected to be the first in Egypt’s history that would be approved and implemented by a democratically elected Parliament. On Thursday, the Cabinet sent the budget to the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) for approval, Planning and International Cooperation Minister Fayza Abouelnaga told Al-Masry Al-Youm.

Mohamed ElBaradei, Egyptian reform campaigner and founder of newly-established Constitution Party, suggested Thursday via Twitter the immediate formation of a mediation committee to find political and legal solutions to Egypt's current crisis.

The final results of the presidential runoff will be announced on Sunday, said Presidential Elections Commission (PEC) Secretary General Hatem Bagato.

A lawyer filed another lawsuit on Thursday calling for the disbandment of the Shura Council following a constitutional court ruling that dissolved the People’s Assembly. Two other lawyers had filed a similar suit on Monday.

The Egyptian government’s responses to the UN Special Rapporteur’s report on the right of peaceful demonstration and the freedom to form associations “were weak, had flimsy arguments and logic, and were deliberately misleading to the international public opinion,” said the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) in a statement released Thursday.

Egypt's jailed former president Hosni Mubarak is not in a deep coma, an official medical source has told Ahram Online.

Complaints filed on Tuesday by presidential candidates Mohamed Morsy and Ahmed Shafiq against the electoral process would not affect the outcome of the runoff held last Saturday and Sunday, said Abdel Aziz Salman, the deputy secretary general of the Presidential Elections Commission (PEC).

The Judges for Egypt movement has declared Freedom and Justice Party Mohamed Morsy candidate as the winner of the presidential election runoff that took place Saturday and Sunday, according to the movement’s vote count.

Egypt’s Supreme Presidential Elections Commission (SPEC) is expected to announce results of appeals filed by the Mohamed Mursi and Ahmed Shafiq presidential campaigns on Wednesday, only 24 hours before announcing final results of Egypt’s hotly-contested presidential runoff on Thursday.

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces is set to approve the state budget for the fiscal year 2012/2013 within a few days.

Former presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabbahi has said he is working to form a large, organized political group that might include his Karama Party and Mohamed ElBaradei’s Constitution Party.

Revolutionary groups will participate in Tuesday's planned nationwide protests against the military junta's recent moves to strip the incoming president of real power via an addendum to the country's temporary constitution.

A legal expert has described the attempt by two MPs to enter the Parliament building after a court ruling ordered Parliament’s dissolution as “a grave mistake and an insult to the state and law.”