Egypt is planning to reduce its liquified natual gas (LNG) imports in the fiscal year 2017-18 thanks to expected production from the Zohr gas field, restricting LNG imports to 80 shipments worth $1.8 billion, an petroleum ministry source told Al-Ahram Arabic website on Monday. The official said that work on bringing Zohr online was now 86.5 percent complete, with the first production planned for late 2017.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi arrived in New York on Sunday for the 72nd session of the United Nations General Assembly, where he will hold talks with US President Donald Trump, the Egyptian presidents office said on Saturday.

Egypt s finance ministry has asked the cabinet to approve two new eurobond issuances, two ministry sources told Reuters.

Egypt s Prime Minister Sherif Ismail issued a decree on Saturday making 21 September a paid day off for both public and private sector workers on the occasion of the start of the Islamic new year 1439, Al-Ahram Arabic news website reported.

The world s "most important" forum on financial inclusion kicked off in Egypt s Sharm El-Sheikh on Thursday, with a keynote address by President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi. The two-day 9th Global Policy Forum, organised by the International Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI), brings together some 95 states and 119 international financial institutions.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shouky will fly to New York from London on Friday to take part in the UN General Assembly, the ministry said in a statement. Shoukry will take part in the assembly s high-level debate, which will begin on Tuesday 19 September, with a focus on the theme, “Focusing on People: Striving for Peace and a Decent Life for All on a Sustainable Planet.”

Technical experts from Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia will meet in Sudan on Thursday to discuss technical issues related to studies on the impact of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on downstream countries, an Egyptian foreign ministry spokesman told Al-Ahram Arabic news website The 15th round of the meetings in the north-eastern Sudanese city of Atbara will discuss a preliminary report about the technical methodology of the planned studies by French firms French firms BRL and Artelia, spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid told Al-Ahram Arabic website.

Egypt called on the UN Security Council to hold an emergency session on Wednesday to discuss the developments of the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar. In a statement, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Ahmed Abu Zeid said that both Sweden and Britain had joined Egypt in requesting the session, as well as the delegations of Kazakhstan and Senegal, which are members of both the Security Council and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

Egypt s foreign minister Sameh Shoukry heads to London on Wednesday to participate in a ministerial meeting on the Libyan crisis, the Egyptian foreign ministry announced Tuesday morning. According to a ministry statement, the foreign ministers of the United States, United Kingdom, France, Italy and the United Arab Emirates will attend the meeting, along with UN special envoy to Libya Ghassan Salame.

Egypt s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi met with the chief of US Central Command in Cairo on Monday for talks on combating terrorism and consolidating the bilateral partnership, the presidential spokesman said. During the meeting with General Joseph Votel, El-Sisi stressed the importance of military relations between Egypt and the United States, which are considered a main axis in the current cooperation between the two countries, according to the statement by spokesman Alaa Youssef.

The Ministry of Education approved the increase of tuition fees on Sunday, in 10 international schools in Egypt that filed grievances over a budget deficit and requested an increase in the tuition fees for the new academic year 2017/2018. The approval of the increase comes as an implementation of Article 5 of the Ministerial Resolution 422 of 2014, which ensures that international schools continue to provide services in accordance to the license granted to them by the Education Ministry, the Ministry said in a press statement.

The Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) announced on Monday that annual inflation rates receded to 33.2 percent in August, compared to 34.2 percent in July. Monthly inflation rates reduced to 1.2 percent, from 3.3 percent in June. Prices of food stuff and beverages increased by 42.4 percent in 2017 while the annual price rates of meat and chicken jumped to 47.2 percent, CAPMAS added.

Remittances from expatriate Egyptians have reached $14.5 billion in the period since Egypt floated its currency in November through July, a central bank statement said on Sunday. That figure is up from $12.6 billion during the same period the previous year, the statement said. Remittances for the month of July rose to $1.8 billion compared with $1.2 billion during July last year, it said.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi affirmed Sunday that Egypt is constantly working to uphold the principles of citizenship and equality among all its citizens without discrimination, state-run news agency MENA reported. El-Sisi added that Egypt is also keen on consolidating a culture of pluralism and acceptance, presidency spokesperson Alaa Youssef said in a statement.

Founder of al-Tayaar al-Shaabi (translated to popular current), Hamden Sabahi, announced that he will not run for the 2018 presidential elections. Sahbhi affirmed that he can still play his role as a revolutionary, just as he did in January 2011 and June 2013.

Russian passenger flights to Egypt could resume within one month once the two-year-old Russia s ban on flights to Egypt is lifted, Russian transport minister Maxim Sokolov said on Thursday, though he did not specify when flights may resume. "[Russian airlines] are already gearing up for this. I don t expect this period to last long," Sokolov said on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum, according to Sputnik News agency.

More than 14 million people above the age of 10 are illiterate in Egypt, the country s official statistics agency announced on Thursday. In an official statement, the Central Agency for Public ‎Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS) said that 14.3 million Egyptians could not read and write in the year 2016, with 9.1 million being females.

The Egyptian Parliament is considering a discussion of a suggested draft bill by the National Council for Women that puts punitive sanctions, reaching one year imprisonment, for fathers, brothers and husbands who are proven guilty of physically or verbally assaulting women in their family. MP Heba Hagras, a member of the parliamentary solidarity committee, told Egypt Independent that Egyptian women face one of the worst phenomena of verbal and physical violence, within and outside the family, pointing to the urgent need to activate constitutional text to criminalize violence against women by issuing a draft that includes deterrent sanctions.

Egypt has signed nine memorandums of understanding with Vietnam in various economic fields, a statement by the Egyptian presidency read. Presidential spokesman Alaa Youssef said the memos were signed during President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi s visit to Vietnam on Wednesday, where he met with Vietnam s President Tran Dai Quang.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that he plans to visit Egypt soon, responding to an invitation from Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi to attend the ground-breaking ceremony for the Dabaa nuclear power plant on Egypt s Mediterranean coast. Putin made his comments at the close of the BRICS summit in the Chinese city of Xiamen on Tuesday, according to Russia Today, which quoted the Russian leader.

Egypt is set to host the joint military exercise Operation Bright Star 2017 with US forces in western Alexandria s Mohamed Naguib military base, a statement by the Egyptian armed forces read on Tuesday. The joint exercise, set to take place from 10 to 20 September, is described by the Egyptian army as one of the most important joint military drills between the two countries.