The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) said on Sunday that it will not allow third parties to access bank account data belonging to companies or individuals, referring to a proposal by the country s Tax Authority to amend the law to allow access to account data by the finance ministry. In an official statement, CBE governor Tarek Amer said that the bank will not accept amendments to the income tax act that would allow the finance ministry access to company accounts. The statements by Amer came a few hours after the head of the country s Tax Authority Emad Samy told Enterprise on Sunday that the finance ministry is seeking access to corporate bank data under proposed amendments to the income tax act to help combat tax evasion.

Former vice president of the Egyptian Petroleum Authority Medhat Youssef told Ahram Online that Egypt has nothing to fear over the ongoing renegotiations of the Cyprus natural gas deal, noting that it is a normal procedure that should be undertaken if there is a change in the market, including oil prices. Youssef added that the changes in the agreement that may happen will only guarantee benefits for every side involved including Egypt, Cyprus, and foreign investors.

Egypt s Minister of Planning Hala El-Saeed said on Thursday that a specialised committee of legal and economic experts has been formed to create the statutes of the newly introduced EGP 200 billion sovereign wealth fund known as the Egypt Fund. On Monday, President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi ratified Law 177 of 2018 for the establishment of the Egypt Fund, which involves funding for utilising natural sources and attracting investments.

Egypt s Defence Minister Mohamed Zaki has concluded a two-day visit to Russia following high-level military meetings, according to a statement by Armed Forces spokesperson Tamer El-Refai. General Zaki and Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoygu held a meeting to discuss several issues of mutual interest as well as the development of military relations and technical cooperation and exchanging expertise between the armed forces of both countries.

Egyptian Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Tarek El-Molla held on Wednesday talks with president of the US Apex International Energy company Thomas Maher over the West Badr El-Din and South East Meleiha concessions in Egypt s Western Desert. APEX won a seismic exploration tender at the West Badr El-Din (4,180 sq km) and South East Meleiha (2,535 sq km) concessions as part of the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) 2016 bidding round. The company will drill nine exploratory wells at investments of $51.1 million.

Investors are looking forward to the announcement of the winning company for the tender to construct a 250 MW wind-power plant in the Gulf of Suez. The company that will execute the project will be selected from a short list of three including the German energy giant Siemens, the Danish Vestas Wind Systems Company, and Senvion, a wind-turbine manufacturer founded in Germany in 2001.

Egypt released 2,376 prisoners, including 627 debt defaulters, by a presidential pardon decree on Tuesday, the first day of the Eid al-Adha holiday, according to a statement by the Egyptian Ministry of Interior. The decree comes weeks after President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi launched the initiative "Prisons Without Debt Defaulters", which aims to help some of the many people - disproportianetly women - who have been imprisoned because they failed to repay loans borrowed for family expenses.

Egyptian Muslims celebrated the first day of the annual four-day Eid Al-Adha holiday on Tuesday with prayers and animal sacrifices. Muslims across the country crowded mosques and prayer grounds in the early morning to recite prayers for the religious holiday, which runs from 21 August to 24 August this year, after which the sacrifice of goats and cows took place.

The Egyptian navy has carried out training exercises with their Italian, South Korean, and Greek counterparts in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, a statement by the Egyptian military said on Monday. In an official statement, Egyptian armed forces spokesman Tamer El-Refaie said a number of Egyptian naval vessels participated in training with Italian and Greek vessels, carrying out joint exercises in the Mediterranean.

Egyptian Defense Minister Mohamed Zaki and a high-level military delegation left Cairo on Sunday, commencing an official visit to Russia. The delegation is scheduled to attend the fifth meeting of the joint Egyptian-Russian Military Committee and the International Military-Technical Forum “ARMY-2018”, which the regional power will host from August 21 to 26.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi ratified on Saturday a 45-article law combating extremist and terrorist organisations using the internet to carry out terrorist attacks. ADVERTISING inRead invented by Teads Law 175 in the year 2018, titled "Anti-Cyber and Information Technology Crimes," was published on Saturday by the official Egyptian Gazette. It prohibits "the dissemination of information on the movements of the army or police, the promotion of the ideas of terrorist organisations." The law s first chapter on penalties, from article 14 to 22, covers crimes of hacking information systems. Article 20 imposes a fine ranging from EGP 50,000 to EGP 200,000 and a two-year prison sentence on individuals convicted of hacking state information systems. The second chapter, from article 24 to 25, tackles crimes committed via information systems and technologies, and crimes related to emails. Those found guilty of creating an email, a private account or a website using the name of another person or institution can be sentenced to three months in prison and fined between EGP 10,000 and EGP 30,000. According to artical 7 of the new law, websites that publish material posing a threat to the country s security or economy can be blocked through a judicial process. The newly passed law was originally approved by the Egyptian parliament in May 2018.

Many upper Egyptian families are suffering from the destruction brought on by termites in Luxor and Aswan eating through everything with wood, such as floors or furniture, to the point that some houses are at the brink of collapse. Abdel Wahab Fakhry, a Nubian resident told Al-Masry Al-Youm that the termites usually spread in hot places, and the real danger is that they rely on wood for their food, pointing out that most Nubian houses use natural materials such as palm trunks and leaves.

Egypt s, the world s largest wheat importer, has strategic reserves of wheat to cover four months of consumption, Supply and Internal Trade Minister Ali el-Moselhi said on Thursday. Egypt has sufficient sugar and cooking oil reserves for around three months, Moselhi added in a press conference, according to state news agency MENA.

Ethiopian ambassador to Egypt H.E Taye Atske-Selassie hailed bi-lateral relations between both countries, upon announcing on Wednesday that he will leave Cairo by the end of August. The ambassador has concluded 18 months of work in Egypt, and will be flying to New York to represent Ethiopia in the United Nations, he said in a press conference.

Egypt s unemployment rate dropped to 9.9 percent in the second quarter of 2018 compared to 10.6 percent in the first quarter and 12 percent for the same period in the previous year, state statistics agency CAPMAS announced on Wednesday. CAPMAS estimated the labour force in the second quarter at 29.03 million, which is 150,000 workers (0.5 percent) less than in the first quarter as a result of changes in seasonal work, and 147,000 less workers than the same period in the previous year.

On Tuesday, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi met on Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud in the new city of Neom, in northern Saudi Arabia, upon the king’s invitation. The meeting was attended by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, and Abbas Kamel, head of Egypt’s General Intelligence.

Egypts President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi arrived in the new Saudi megacity Neom on Tuesday and held talks with King Salman bin Abdulaziz according to the Saudi Press Agency. The two leaders discussed Egyptian-Saudi bilateral relations during the unannounced visit.

Egypt s minister of petroleum and mineral resources Tarek El-Molla signed three agreements on Tuesday for the exploration of oil and natural gas in the Mediterranean, Western Sahara and Nile Delta regions with investments worth $139.2 million (EGP 2.5 billion) The first agreement, worth $105 million, was signed between the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS), Egypt s Tharwa Petroleum, and Italy s multinational gas and oil giant Eni to drill two new wells at Noor Al-Bahareya in Egypt s Mediterranean Sea.

Egypt and China signed a $45 million grant to implement the new satellite "Egypt Sat 2 on Monday, according to an official statement by the Ministry of Investment and International Cooperation. The agreement was signed by Sahar Nasr, Egypt s minister of investment and international cooperation, and the Chinese ambassador to Egypt, Song Aiguo.

Egypt rejects non-Arab forces having a foothold in Yemen, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi said in a joint presser with Yemeni counterpart Abd Rabo Hadi after the two leaders held a meeting in Cairo on Monday. "Yemen s security and stability is a top priority not only for Egypt s national security, but the security and stability of the entire region, and we therefore reject Yemen becoming a stronghold for non-Arab forces, a threat to the security and stability of brotherly Arab states, or [endanger] freedom of navigation in the Red Sea and the Strait of Bab Al-Mandab," said El-Sisi.