Egypt is pushing to educate people in rural areas on birth control and family planning in a bid to slow a population growth rate that President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said poses a threat to national development. The country is already the most populous in the Arab world with 93 million citizens and is set to grow to 128 million by 2030 if fertility rates of 4.0 births per thousand women continue, according to government figures.

The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) called on the government to review its decision to block certain websites. The group believes the ban should be made only after proving the activity of the blocked sites indeed points to terroristic activity, and the judiciary should be the body that issues such a verdict as it is responsible for protecting the basic rights and freedoms of the citizens. EOHR said in a report on Tuesday that the authorities had to distinguish between websites that promote violence and terrorism and the news websites that transmit news to citizens. They pointed out there is a differentiation between governmental opposition and support of terrorism, as not all websites opposed to government policies incite acts of terror.

Egypt s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has issued a decree ordering the formation of the National Academy to Train and Qualify Youth, state-news agency MENA reported on Monday. The academy, which is scheduled to start operating in October, will aim to train young people for public service, as well as improve their abilities and skills, MENA added.

Misdemeanor Court in Cairo has put Deputy Governor of Alexandria, Soad al- Kholy, and four others for 15 days in custody pending investigations, on charges of offering and receiving bribes, causing damage to the public money. Administrative Control Authority (ACA) officers recorded calls between the deputy governor and the other defendants, providing evidence of corruption crime, the state public prosecution announced.

Egypt s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi plans to visit Belarus in the near future, said Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry on Monday. The dates of the visit are still to be defined, Egypt s top deplomat told the media after a meeting with Belarusian counterpart Vladimir Makei in Minsk, where they discussed bilateral relations and regional developments in the Middle East.

Egyptian security forces are attempting to trace two detainees who escaped from a prisoner transport vehicle on Sunday evening. The men were being transferred from the Police Academy in New Cairo to Tora prison in Maadi following a court session, Al-Arabic Ahram website reported.

Egypt s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi received on Sunday the new head of the Russian State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom, Alexei Likhachev, expressing Egypt s keenness to finalise contracts and start work on the El-Dabaa nuclear power plant as soon as possible. The meeting, which was attended by Egypt s Minister of Electricity Mohamed Shaker, saw a final review of the contract to execute the project, according presidency spokesperson Alaa Youssef.

Deputy Governor of Alexandria, Soad al Kholy, was arrested Sunday morning by the Administrative Control Authority ‘ACA’ on charges of bribery from five different businessmen, state-run newspaper of Al-Ahram reported. Kholy was arrested with the businessmen, accused of doling out bribes that exceeded one million EGP. The arrest took place inside the headquarters of the Alexandria government.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said Sunday that the US administration notified Egypt with the decision to reduce USA aid provided to Egypt, briefly before announcing it officially. The Foreign Ministry spokesman, Ahmed Abo Zaid, said that Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry received the phone call from his American counterpart Rex Tillerson on the evening of Tuesday August 22, while he was in Vilnius Airport of Lithuania returning to Cairo.

A regional aviation security conference which is due to conclude in the Red Sea resort city of Sharm El-Sheikh on Thursday has come up with a roadmap to foster aviation security in Africa and the Middle East. The ministerial conference adopted a list of measures to be taken by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), governments and aviation authorities in participating countries to ensure global aviation security and apply international standards of air transport security, according to the document obtained by Al-Ahram Arabic news website.

Egypt is scheduled to receive 15 Ka-52 Alligator attack helicopters by the end of this ongoing year, said CEO of Russian Helicopters holding company, Andrey Boginsky, according to Russian state-run news agency Sputnik. Boginsky’s statements came during the international military-technical forum Army-2017, going on in Russia as a demonstration of the successes of Russia’s military-industrial complex and strength of the Russian armed forces.

Egypt has expressed its “regret” at a decision by the US to reduce aid allocated to the country, a statement by the country s foreign ministry on Wednesday read. The decision to reduce “some components of the economic portion [of US aid]” and to “postpone the disbursement of some military components" reflects a “misjudgement about the nature of strategic relations” which have bound the two countries for two decades, the statement read.

A US delegation headed by senior advisor to President Donald Trump Jared Kushner arrived in Cairo for a brief visit to discuss bilateral ties, Egypt s official news agency MENA said on Wednesday The two-day visit is aimed at discussing "bilateral relations and developments in the region." The visit comes on the same day Egypt expressed its regret over a decision by Trump s administration to reduce US aid to Cairo.

Ministers and aviation experts from Africa and the Middle East gathered in Sharm El-Sheikh on Tuesday at the start of a three-day conference on aviation security. The Regional Ministerial Conference on Aviation Security in Africa and the Middle East runs from 22 to 24 August, with the participation of some 400 officials involved in aviation and security issues.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi met with Sudanese Defense Minister, Awad Mohamed Ahmed bin Auf, in Cairo on Monday. During the meeting, Sisi stressed that his country is not conspiring against or interfering in the internal affairs of any country, Sudan in particular.

The Egyptian and Russian foreign ministers made comments in Moscow on Monday indicating "progress" on the issue of resuming Russian flights to Egypt, which have been suspended since 2015. The two officials also affirmed the necessity of continuing cooperation between the two countries, including protocols on air navigation security, while the Egyptian foreign minister expressed expectations that Russia would resume air flights and touristic activity to Egypt as soon as possible.

Developments in Egypt s giant gas field Zohr reached 83.5 percent as of August, the county s petroleum ministry said in a Monday emailed statement. Work on developing the field, which was discovered by Italian oil company Eni, aims to link the wells of the first stage to produce the targeted gas on time, the head of Petro Shourouk, which is working on the developments, told the petroleum minister in a meeting.

Egypt’s Foreign Affairs Minister Sameh Shoukry left Cairo Saturday night for a three-day European tour that include visits to Russia, Estonia and Lithuania that would discuss bolstering economic, political and trade ties with Egypt, state news agency MENA reported.

The US dollar maintained its rates against the Egyptian pound within banking dealings Sunday. According to the last price updates, the US dollar exchange rate settled at LE17.73 for purchase and LE17.83 for sale in the National Bank of Greece, to mark the highest price among the all the banks.

Moody’s Investors Service has asserted that Egypt’s credit rating for the issuer and senior unsecured bond is at B3 and maintained their view of stable outlook, according to a report published on Friday. Moreover, the rating affirmation is based on Moody’s view that the B3 rating is a fair representation of Egypt’s credit risk profile. Very weak government finances will continue to compel the rating pending further clarity on the sustainability and impact of the reform programme.

Egypt s Minister of Investment and International Cooperation Sahar Nasr will meet on Sunday with a delegation from the World Bank to discuss final procedures before giving Egypt the final $1 billion tranche of a $3 billion loan, the ministry announced Wednesday. Nasr met on Wednesday in Cairo with the regional director of the International Bank in Egypt Assad Allam, where they discussed preparations for the upcoming visit by World Bank representatives.