The International Monetary Fund (IMF) this week released its staff report on the second review of Egypt s economic reform programme. Egypt is receiving three-year funding of $12 billion from the IMF s Extended Fund Facility (EFF). Half that sum has already been disbursed, and the EFF ends in fiscal year 2018-19. The outlook for the Egyptian economy according to the report is largely positive, and it commended the government for its taking ownership of the reform programme and for “their strong track record in policy implementation since the start of the programme and political support at the highest level”.

President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi honoured the families of Egypt s martyrs, including some officers, in a ceremony held at the Police Academy on Wednesday on the occasion of the 66th National Police Day, which also coincides the 7th anniversary of 25 January revolution. Alongside Interior Ministery Magdy Abdel-Ghaffar and senior state officials, the Egyptian president saluted the sacrifices of policemen who lost their lives to terrorism, laying a wreath of flowers at the police martyrs memorial.

Egypt s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry will head to Addis Ababa on Wednesday evening to participate in a number of meetings preceding the 30th summit of the Africa Union, the Egyptian foreign ministry announced. According to the statement, Minister Shoukry will participate in a number of sideline events, including the African Committee for Commerce meeting and the African Committee for Libya meeting.

Egypt s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi took on Tuesday the medical examination that is required for candidates in the nation s presidential elections scheduled for March, state-owned agency MENA reported.

Presidential hopeful Sami Anan s official campaign coordinator, Mahmoud Refaat, wrote on his Twitter on Tuesday that Anan has been arrested after a statement was released by Armed Forces, in which it said that Anan will be investigated over “forgery” charges.

Reports have claimed potential presidential candidate Kahled Ali will not run for the 2018 Presidential election due in March.

The presidential election is set to begin in 120 days before the end of the current presidential term in March, according to the constitution, raising many questions among Egyptians on candidates that might run for the next presidential election.

Egypt s Minister of Immigration and Expatriate Affairs Nabila Makram Ebeid said on Monday that Egyptians living abroad will be able to cast their votes in the presidential elections on 16, 17 and 18 March, announcing that all Egyptian expats, including violators of legal status in host countries, will be allowed to vote.

The Cairo Appeal Court set February 15 to start the trial of two policemen over charges of beating to death Mohamed Abdel Hakim Mahmoud, aka Afroto, while being held at Cairo s Mokattam Police Station on suspicion in a drug-related case.

The Egyptian House of Representatives has intensified its activities lately, following a negative opinion poll conducted by the Baseera Center which showed dissatisfaction of roughly 37 percent of Egyptians with the performance of Egypt s Parliament in the period from March 2016 to April 2017.

Former presidential candidate and leftist figure Hamdeen Sabahi has signed an election endorsement in favour of lawyer and labour activist Khaled Ali, supporting his bid to run in Egypt s upcoming presidential elections, Ali s campaign said in a brief statement on Sunday.

The National Elections Authority (NEA) received requests from 48 organizations- four of them are international- seek to monitor the upcoming Egyptian Presidential elections, said NEA Spokesperson Mahmoud Helmy.

President Abdel Fattah El Sisi will hold on Thursday key talks with Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn.

Sudan and Ethiopia have agreed recently to deploy joint military forces to provide protection to their borders and the Ethiopian Grand Renaissance Dam (GERD).

President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi appointed his chief of staff, Major-General Abbas Kamel as acting director of General Intelligence Service (GIS) on Thursday, until appointing a new director to succeed Major-General Khaled Fawzy.

The Dekheila Prosecution in Alexandria arrested 9 men on Monday, who were believed to be engaging in “debauchery” and homosexual activity, after the Head of the Alexandria Security Directorate, Mustafa al-Nimr, deemed their behavior a threat to public security.

Egypt s Minister of Manpower and Immigration Mohamed Safaan said that January 25 is a fully paid vacation day for private sector workers on occasion of January 25 Revolution anniversary.

Egypt is expected to record the highest growth in the Levant and North Africa region, accelerating from 4.2% in 2017 to around 5.0% by 2019 and 5.5% by 2021, according to a report published by Moody s Investors Service on Tuesday.

Egypt’s pro-government media is vilifying neighboring Sudan over its expanding ties with Turkey and Qatar, Cairo’s regional nemesis, saying the three are conspiring against Egypt. While the government has publicly remained silent, the media seized on a visit this week to Sudan by Turkey’ president, a meeting between the chiefs of staff of Sudan, Turkey and Qatar and renewed efforts by Khartoum to revive a border dispute with Egypt.

Egypt is set to inaugurate a new wharf for natural gas and petroleum product tankers on the Gulf of Suez in the coming days, another step in its plan to become a regional energy hub. The new 2.5 km wharf is being built by SUMED, which for decades has operated two pipelines from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean. The wharf will have three berths to receive natural gas and petroleum products carriers. It is due to be completed by the end of the month, Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper quoted SUMED chairman Mohamed Abdel-Hafez as saying. Abdel-Hafez confirmed the remarks in a text message to Reuters. The country has been building fuelling depots for ships along the Suez Canal and expanding its refining capacity. It has an extensive pipeline network and two idle gas liquefaction plants ready to export new gas as it arrives. SUMED, owned 50 percent by the Egyptian government and the rest by Arab oil exporters in the Gulf, is spending $415 million to expand its facilities, mainly at the Red Sea end. It is also building nine 300,000 cubic meter petroleum storage tanks and loading and offloading facilities. The tanks are due to be completed by the end of 2018, Abdel-Hafez said. NBK-Egypt provided $300 million in financing for the project, the bank said in May. The country believes its strategic location straddling the Suez Canal and the land bridge between Asia and Africa and its well developed infrastructure will help turn it a trading and distribution center for countries in the region and beyond. A slew of announcements of new gas production and the expansion of its infrastructure have helped advance the plan. Italy’s Eni (ENI.MI) this month delivered the first gas from Egypt’s giant offshore Zohr field, whose estimated 30 trillion cubic feet (tfc) makes it the biggest gas field in the Mediterranean, and BP (BP.L) delivered the first gas from another offshore field, Atoll, north of Port Said. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s government has announced the hub approach part of its energy policy, but still faces logistical and political obstacles to its goal. “By the beginning of 2021, Egypt will be a main regional hub for gas and crude oil,” Petroleum Minister Tarek El Molla told a press conference last month. CHEAP SUPPLY ROUTE Energy analysts say the cheapest way for Egypt’s neighbors to send their gas supplies abroad would be through Egypt’s two unused liquefaction plants, but this is complicated by legal and logistical problems or by financial constraints. “The lack of a political framework between all these countries is still an obstacle,” said Riccardo Fabiani, a Middle East and North Africa analyst at Eurasia Group. Sisi on Nov. 20 also visited Cyprus, where he discussed construction of a pipeline to deliver gas to Egypt from Cyprus’s Aphrodite field, and a delegation representing Israel’s Tamar gas field came to Cairo to discuss possible imports into Egypt. Officials from Exxon Mobil (XOM.N) have also recently held talks with Egypt to discuss investments in oil and gas. One plan now is to reverse the flow on the pipeline to send gas from Israel’s 7 trillion cubic feet Tamar field and the roughly 20 tcf Leviathan field to Egyptian liquefaction plants. But this has been stymied by a dispute over gas that Egypt failed to deliver after 2012. The late-November visit to Cairo by Tamar field negotiators was their second in as many months. The Israelis may prefer to build a new undersea pipeline that would bypass Sinai to avoid sabotage or use a separate pipeline that Egypt has built to Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, analysts said. The challenge with Cyprus’s 4.5 tcf Aphrodite field is mainly economic. At current gas prices, it is not big enough to justify an undersea pipeline to Egypt unless more discoveries are made elsewhere in Cyprus, analysts say. Alternative routes for Egypt’s neighbors, such as direct pipelines to Turkey, Greece or Italy, could be prohibitively expensive because of the depth of the seabed. “Egypt is the least bad candidate. And it is also going very fast, which gives it a head start,” Fabiani said.