Egypt s foreign ministry spokesman has said Qatar s first-round win in voting for a new UNESCO director-general raises "many question marks", after the Gulf nation s candidate took a surprising lead following Monday s secret ballot. In comments to Egyptian state TV, ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid said Cairo had not expected the Qatari candidate to emerge in lead position in the voting, which will continue through the week until a winner emerges.

Egypt s parliament approved on Tuesday amendments to the law regulating the Administrative Watchdog Authority (AWA), which is in charge of fighting corruption. MPs, who approved the law in principle on Monday evening, finally voted in favour of the new amendments in a plenary session on Tuesday morning. Parliament speaker Ali Abdel-Aal decided on Monday that the final approval of the law be postponed to Tuesday morning "because it needs the endorsement of two thirds of MPs."

Egypt s Candidate for the UNESCO position of director-general, Moshira Khattab, will be a second round finalist for the post after she came in third out of seven candidates in the first round of secret-ballot voting by the organization s 58-member-state executive board in Paris on Monday. Qatar s candidate Abdulaziz Al-Kawari came in first with 19 votes while France s candidate Audrey Azoulay finished second with 13, Egyptian state TV s UNESCO correspondent reported. A second round of secret-ballot voting to elect the new chief among the three contenders will be held on Tuesday.

Egypt s parliament approved amendments of the law regulating the performance of the Administrative Watchdog Authority (AWA) on Monday. The law, approved by parliament s legislative and constitutional affairs committee on Sunday, aims to amend AWA s law (law no.54/1964) to go in line with Egypt s 2014 constitution and to reinforce its role in combating corruption.

Remittances from Egyptian expats were 40 percent higher in August than in the same month last year, registering $1.7 billion this year compared to $1.2 billion in August 2016, the Egyptian Central Bank said Sunday.

Moshira Khattab, acclaimed Egyptian diplomat, human rights advocate and the official nominee for director-general of the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), is campaigning to be the organisation s first African leader. Permanent delegates of the African group countries met with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry last Friday in Paris, where they expressed their support for Egypt s candidate.

Egypt s Minister of Education Tarek Shawky said on Saturday that doing away with the country s decades-old Thanaweya Amma (high school) system is inevitable, Al-Ahram Arabic news website reported. The minister said during a speech at the EduVation summit at the privately owned Nile University that the 2018 academic year will see an overhaul of the current educational system, which focuses on tests and memorisation.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry held talks with Brett McGurk, the US special envoy to the coalition against Islamic State, in Cairo on Wednesday, to discuss US-Egyptian coordination on counter-terrorism. Shoukry and McGurk discussed efforts to defeat Daesh in Iraq, the post-defeat phase and how authorities can continue to hold ground, foreign ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid said in a statement on Wednesday.

Egypt s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi gave a short speech commemorating the 44th anniversary of Egypt s 6 October victory against Israel on Wednesday, saluting the Egyptian people for their sacrifices in maintaining the capabilities of their great nation. President El-Sisi gave the speech ahead of a meeting of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF). "The October victory was not just a military triumph to liberate our lands, but also a victory over despair and frustration to restore dignity and peace," El-Sisi said.

Total tax revenues for fiscal year 2016/17 increased by 31.8 percent year-on-year to EGP 464.4 billion, compared to EGP 352.3 billion the year before, finance minister Amr El-Garhy announced at a press conference on Tuesday, according to Al-Ahram Arabic website. The increase in tax collections was mainly driven by the value-added tax, which was set at 13 percent last fiscal year.

Egypt s national airline EgyptAir announced on Tuesday that it is cutting ticket prices up to 40 percent for a limited period for certain international flights. The special prices, which have been posted on the company s official Facebook page, are for flights to the United States, several European cities, North African countries, as well as Beirut, Dammam, and Riyadh.

In a statement at the opening meeting of the Egyptian parliament s third session on Monday morning, house speaker Ali Abdel-Aal made an announcement warning against defamation of the legislative body. "I have a message to all those [MPs] who intend to defame the image of parliament," said Abdel-Aal, adding that he "would like to remind them that this parliament has proved immune to all previous defamation campaigns, and that it was able to discipline violators and wrongdoers, and inflict tough penalties on them."

Egypt has secretly ordered weapons from North Korea in breach of United Nations (UN) sanctions, with the shipment exposed by the US, the Washington Post According to the report, a bulk freighter named Jie Shun, flying Cambodian colors, had sailed from North Korea in July 2016, and was noticed by US intelligence in the Suez Canal in August. Egypt was notified about the suspicious vessel, but it turns out the vessel was intended for them, the article explained.

Egypt s Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said in a press statement his government is not considering any cabinet reshuffle for the upcoming parliamentary session, Al-Ahram Arabic website reported. Ismail is set to speak on Monday before the House of Representatives to showcase his government s agenda during the upcoming period. Ismail s speech before the parliament will mark the opening of the third parliamentary session of his government s five-year term.

Egypt aims to raise its revenues from taxes imposed on tobacco by EGP 7 billion ($397.50 million) in the 2017-18 fiscal year which ends in July 2018, a government document said. The country is targeting around EGP 54.545 billion ($3.10 billion) in revenues from tobacco taxes, according to a document released by the finance ministry on Monday.

Following a three-month summer recess, Egypt s parliament – the House of Representatives – will begin Monday the third session of its five-year term. Article 115 of the 2014 Constitution obliges the president to invite parliament to convene before the first Thursday of the month of October every year.

The head of Palestinian group Hamas Ismail Haniyeh received an Egyptian delegation Sunday to oversee national reconciliation efforts between the movement and its rival group Fatah. The Egyptian delegation consists of Egypt s Ambassador to Israel Hazem Khairat and generals Hamam Abu-Zeid and Sameh Kamel, said the media director of the Palestinian Civil Affairs Authority Mohamed El-Makadma, according to the Palestinian Maan News Agency.

Egypt s Ministry of Health dismissed reports of Dengue fever cases in both the Red Sea city of Qusair and in Upper Egypt s Qena governorate, saying that all the cases received by hospitals on Saturday varied between normal fever, headaches and muscle pain unrelated to the mosquito-borne disease. All the suspected cases were properly treated and sent home from hospital, Al-Ahram Arabic website reported on Sunday.

Egypt s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has approved an agreement on cooperation in peaceful uses of nuclear energy with Saudi Arabia, official state news agency MENA reported. The agreement, which was initially signed in April 2016 during a visit to Cairo by Saudi King Salman, involves cooperation on peaceful uses of nuclear power, nuclear security and an exchange of information on nuclear safety.

Finance Minister Amr al-Garhy denied that the government plans an increase in fuel prices during the current fiscal year, adding that the government is moving in accordance with a specific timeline between three to five years to decrease fuel subsidies. The government is implementing a package of measures designed to protect the poor and lower income class as part of a subsidy reform plan, the minister added in a press conference at the Cabinet headquarters on Wednesday.

Mercedes-Benz will acquire a 96,000 square-metre piece of land to build a new factory in Suez Canal s Industrial Zone, the zone s head, Mohab Mamish, announced on Tuesday. In 2014, the German carmaker announced that it would move its car assembly line from Egypt to Algeria to take advantage of a number of facilities and privileges offered by Algeria.