French Rafale jets have arrived at an Egyptian air base to conduct a joint military exercise with Egyptian air forces, the Egyptian Armed Forces announced. According to the Egyptian Armed Forces statement on the drill, the joint exercise is the first of its kind involving Rafale jets to bolster security and stability in the region.

Security forces in Menoufiya arrested the fugitive driver of the train that caused the accident at the Ramses Station on Wednesday, killing and wounding dozens of citizens. A security source said that the driver, Alaa Salah, was arrested at an apartment owned by one of his relatives in the city of Shebin al-Kom in Menoufiya.

On Thursday morning, Health Minister Hala Zayed visited the victims of the Ramses Station train accident at Dar al-Shifaa Hospital to ensure that all medical care was provided to them. Two injured had died on Thursday morning, including the driver of an ambulance, bringing the total death toll to 22, she added, noting that all the bodies of the deceased are under the authority of the public prosecutors.

Egyptian state television reported that 20 people were killed and 40 others wounded when a fire broke out in Cairo’s Ramses Station after a train collided with the station’s pavement at the end of the line, causing an explosion. Top prosecutor Nabil Sadeq opened an urgent investigation into the incident, ordering the formation of a committee to find out the cause of the accident.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry stressed on Tuesday Egypt s keenness on boosting international cooperation in the field of human rights and the resolution of conflicts. Addressing the high-level segment of the 40th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Shoukry said that President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi launched an initiative last year to achieve development in transparency. Shoukry also highlighted the inauguration of the country s largest mosque and cathedral in the New Administrative Capital last month to prove that there is no religious discrimination in Egypt.

Flights from Russia to Egypt s popular Red Sea resorts of Sharm El-Sheikh and Hurghada may be fully resumed soon, a Russian Federation Council official said on Tuesday. Russia suspended air traffic with Egypt in October 2015 after the crash of a Russian passenger flight from Egypt s popular tourist resort of Sharm El-Sheikh killed all 224 people on board. However, flights were resumed from and to the capital Cairo in April 2018, ending a more than two-and-a-half-year suspension.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry announced that during the sidelines of the EU-Arab League summit, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi met with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte on Monday to discuss the latest updates in the Giulio Regeni murder case, alongside reviewing economic and diplomatic relations between the two countries. He added that the meeting was a good opportunity to enhance ties between Italy and Egypt, especially after controversy brought on by the murder case.

Egypt s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi called on Arab and European nations to “overcome what could divide us” at the closing session of the first-ever EU-Arab League summit, which has been taking place in Sharm El-Sheikh. "We have successfully convened; yet our successful cooperation is pending your work, because you will be the ones who will reap the benefits of this mutual cooperation," El-Sisi said in his speech to the summit on Sunday, as he praised the Arab-European partnership.

The Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) announced on Sunday that Egyptian cotton exports in the period between September and November 2018 reached 128,300 metric quintals compared to the same period last year, representing around 45.1 percent increase. The Agency said in its quarterly newsletter for the first quarter of the 2018-2019 agricultural year that total consumption rates of domestic cotton reached 25,700 metric quintals, compared to 5,440 metric quintals during the same period of the previous year, recording a decrease of 42.2 percent due to the production suspension by some textile factories.

Egypt’s government will construct eight international universities in the New Administrative Capital by 2020, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Khaled Abdel Ghaffar announced during his visit to the University of Canada in Egypt (UCE) on Sunday. President of the UCE, Debbie MacLellan, and Chief of the Engineering Authority of the Armed Forces Kamel Waziri accompanied Abdel Ghafar during his inspection of the university’s course of study, which will serve as a likely model for the future universities.

Egypt s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi will inaugurate Sunday the first ever European Union-Arab League Summit scheduled 24-25 February in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Shiekh. The summit will be chaired jointly by European Council President Donald Tusk and El-Sisi. With the participation of more than 50 European Union and Arab League (AL) member states, the EU-AL Summit is the first ever to bring together heads of states and government from both sides.

EU Delegate to Egypt Ivan Surkos said that 24 presidents and prime ministers out of 28 European Union member states will come to Sharm El-Sheikh this week to attend first ever EU-Arab League Summit scheduled 24-25 February. The summit will be chaired jointly by European Council President Donald Tusk and Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi.

The left-leaning 25-30 parliamentary bloc was the most vociferous opposition group opposed to proposed changes to the constitution and its ire was directed mainly at amendments increasing the presidential term from four to six years Ahmed Al-Tantawi, a member of the bloc, said the proposals were “a setback, and clearly tailored to benefit a figure whose name we all know”.

The daughter of Egypt s late chief prosecutor Hisham Barakat, who was killed in a 2015 bomb attack, has denied claiming that those executed over the killing were innocent. Barakat s daughter, Marwa, said on Wednesday afternoon that her official Facebook account had been hacked, hours after a post shared from her account said that those executed earlier on Wednesday had been unfairly convicted.

Egypt has issued $4 billion in dollar denominated bonds with maturities of five, 10 and 30 years in a sale that was five times oversubscribed, the Finance Ministry said on Wednesday. The issue included $750 million in five-year bonds with a return of 6.2 percent, $1.75 billion in 10-year bonds with a return of 7.6 percent and 1.5 billion in 30-year bonds, with a return of 8.7 percent, the ministry said.

The head of Egypt s State Information Service (SIS) Diaa Rashwan has dismissed rumours that he was handpicked by the state to run for head of the country s Journalists Syndicate. Rashwan, who headed the syndicate from 2013 to 2015, has said that he will be running for the post of syndicate head in the upcoming elections, set to be held in March.

Egypt s interior ministry said on Tuesday that the suicide bomber who blew himself up behind Al-Azhar Mosque on Monday had been planning further attacks. Upon searching the 37-year-old man s apartment in Cairo s Darb Al-Ahmar, police found a number of explosive devices and raw materials used in making explosives.

Minister of Communications Amr Talaat and top judge of the Supreme Constitutional Court Hanafi Ali al-Gebali on Sunday launched the first online judicial platform in Africa, during African Higher and Constitutional Courts’ Top Judges conference in Cairo. The platform will publish court verdicts of African courts and share experiences between the African judges. Gebali said that the platform would also present explanation on contents of the African constitutional court’s verdicts.

Three people are dead and one injured in the Monday collapse of a residential building in Ibn Masoud alley at Youssef al-Hakem street in Alexandria, Ahram’s Arabic online gate reported. Civil Protection Forces (CPF) has recovered the dead bodies and transferred them to the al-Issaf morgue in Kom al-Deka at Beheira governorate, while the injured person was transferred into the Public al-Gomhorya Hospital.

Egypts President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi held a meeting on Sunday with the Supreme Council of Armed Forces following his return from Germany.

Mohamed ELBaradei, former Egyptian vice president for foreign affairs and former Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency has criticized the recent constitutional amendments passed by Egypt’s House of Representatives, describing them as “null”, CNN reported. “The constitutional amendments are null, whether it is rejected as it should be or approved, because it undermines the most important principles of constitutional legitimacy, such as the separation of powers and the transfer of power,” he said in a tweet on his official Twitter account.