Amid increased living costs, a parliamentary proposal to allow Egyptian citizens to pay electricity bills in installments was submitted by MP Mohamed Abdel Aziz al-Ghoul to the Prime Minister, and the Minister of Electricity and Energy. Ghoul said that the proposal, which includes installments over several months, aims at reducing the financial burden placed on citizens across different governorates, out of sympathy on the part of the state with them – especially in light of the daily cost of living (which has climbed relative to real wages in 2016).

Egyptian prosecutors have rejected a request made by Italian prosecutors during a Wednesday meeting that a number of Egyptian national security agents be named as suspects in the murder of Italian student Giulio Regeni in 2016. In exclusive statements to MENA news agency, an Egyptian judicial source has said that Italy had made a similar request in December 2017, which Egyptian prosecutors had also turned down.

Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly held a meeting with the Minister of Planning and Administrative Reform Hala al-Saed, and Executive Director of the National Academy for Youth Training and Rehabilitation Rasha Ragheb to discuss outlines for a presidential initiative to train African youth. Madbouly said that the government would organize several training programs within the initiative, aiming to reinforce the prestige of Egypt in Africa before taking over presidency of the African Union in 2019.

Egypt s cabinet approved on Wednesday measures that go in line with the World Health Organization s (WHO) protocol to combat the illicit trade in tobacco products, MENA reported. The objective of the protocol is the elimination of all forms of illicit trade in tobacco. The protocol was developed in response to the growing illegal trade in tobacco products, often across borders.

The defence ministers of Egypt, Greece and Cyprus have attended joint military drills between the three countries near the Greek island of Crete, the Egyptian army said late on Wednesday. The Medusa-7 training exercise, which involves air and naval forces from the three countries, began earlier this week west of Crete.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić discussed on Wednesday with Egypt s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry boosting cooperation between the two countries, a statement by Shoukry s spokesperson Ahmed Hafez said. Shoukry is on a three-day visit to Serbia to discuss bilateral cooperation with Serbian officials. During the meeting with Vučić, Shoukry expressed Egypt s appreciation for a decision adopted by the two sides to upgrade the level of representation of a higher joint committee between the two countries. The decision reflects the keenness of the two countries to promote cooperation, the spokesman quoted Shoukry as saying.

Damietta Public Prosecution ordered the arrest of Sami Diab, an Arabic language teacher at the Martyr Mohamed Gamal Saber School in Damietta, on Tuesday evening for four days pending investigation on charges of bullying a dark-skinned student, Basmala Ali Abdallah, in the second preparatory grade. He said during interrogations he did not mean to bully or ridicule the student.

Egypt s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry will head to Sudan on Wednesday to participate in the ministerial meeting of Libya s neighbouring countries, a statement by the Egyptian foreign ministry said. The meeting is scheduled to take place in the Sudanese capital on 29 November.

Egypt will launch the first international tender for oil and gas exploration in the Red Sea next month, a petroleum official has said. The government is now conducting a seismic study off the country s eastern coast to identify areas of prospective resources, Mohamed Abdel-Azim, head of the state-owned South Valley Egyptian Petroleum Holding Company, was quoted as saying by state news agency MENA.

Egypt s Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Tarek El-Molla said on Monday that Egypt will shed light on the threats and challenges of informal mining in the Arab world at the 15th International Arab Mineral Resources Conference in Cairo this week. The Egyptian minister s comments came during his speech at the opening of the conference. President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi opened the event.

The General Organisation for Import and Export Control (GOEIC) said that the imports of strategic goods such as poultry and sugar have declined over the past 10 months. Poultry imports in this period recorded $61 million compared to $153 million in the same period in 2017; a 60 percent drop, MENA quoted a GOEIC report as saying.

In a meeting held on Sunday, the Egyptian parliament s defence and national security committee recommended that strict measures be taken on all state levels to stem the runaway population growth in Egypt. "The population of Egypt is increasing at a fast pace, and all measures should be taken to contain this phenomenon in order for the country to be able to face economic challenges in the years ahead," said the head of the committee Kamal Amer.

Egypt sees increasing interest from U.S. energy companies in developing its offshore oil and natural gas resources and expects them to participate in two bidding rounds due before year-end, Petroleum Minister Tarek El Molla said. Egypt has emerged as an attractive destination for foreign energy firms following a string of major discoveries in recent years including the giant Zohr offshore field, which holds an estimated 30 trillion cubic feet of gas.

Egypt’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Mohamed Edris called for lifting the historic injustices on Africa, by allocating two permanent seats in the Security Council to the continent. The northeast African state participated in the plenary session of the UN General Assembly on equitable representation in the Security Council, which was widely attended in a spirit of the council’s reform and expansion.

The government reached an agreement to settle the international arbitration case filed by the Israel Electric Company against Egypt. The Egyptian Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) and the Egyptian Gas Holding Company (EGAS) were fined $1.75bn due to the suspension of gas exports in 2012. A government source told Daily News Egypt that the agreement included a reduction in the value of the fine, which was decided by the International Chamber of Commerce in Geneva in 2015, in addition to the scheduling of payment to begin with the operation of the gas pipeline between Egypt and Israel.

The Egyptian cabinet approved on Wednesday a 214 million euro deal with the European Investment Bank (EIB) aimed at improving sanitation services and the environment for the people living in the Nile Delta region. The deal will be used to finance the depollution of the 69 km-long Kitchener Drain, the main agriculture drainage canal spanning across the governorates of Kafr El-Sheikh, Gharbiya and Daqahliya in the Nile Delta region, and which is known to be one of the country s most severely polluted canals.

Egypt will host mid-April 2019 the 12th round of the Egyptian-Russian joint committee for trade, economic, scientific and technical cooperation, Minister of Trade and Industry Amr Nassar said during extended talks with Russian Minister of Trade and Industry Denis Manturov in Moscow. The meetings will be held under the auspices of the trade ministers of both countries and will take up means of bolstering cooperation between Egypt and Russia in the fields of trade, industry, health, tourism, education, information technology, customs, agriculture, transportation, energy and investment.

Egypt s Minister of Military Production Mohamed El-Assar attended on Tuesday in Cairo the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Egypt s National Organisation for Military Production and the Slovenian company Iskra to cooperate in the field of developing infrastructure to distribute energy. The ambassador of Slovenia Mateja Prevolsek also attended the event.

Egypt s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry will visit Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, on Wednesday to discuss bilateral and regional issues of mutual interest in light of the importance Egypt attaches to strengthening relations with its partners in Eastern Europe, according to a statement by Egyptian foreign ministry spokesperson Ahmed Hafez. Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov visited Egypt last October, when the two countries agreed to form a joint committee headed by the foreign ministers of the two nations.

Egypt s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has called on scholars and intellectuals to "defend the reputations of Muslims worldwide by spreading the tolerant teachings of Islam." In a speech, El-Sisi said that the "building up of human beings" and the enlightening of minds is the main pillar of progress and development.

Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly discussed with his Ethiopian counterpart Abiy Ahmed ways to develop bilateral relations to the level of an integrated partnership and to activate mechanisms to achieve this target, along with issues relating to GERD. Madbouly held talks with Ahmed on Sunday during their meeting on the sidelines of the Extraordinary African Summit in Addis Ababa.