Egyptian border guard forces prevented more than 12,000 people of various nationalities from illegally entering or leaving the country in 2016, the military said on Wednesday.

Forbes magazine reported Tuesday that business mogul Naguib Sawiris is Egypt's biggest winner in 2016 as his net fortune increased by US$700 million to reach US$3.7 billion in total.

President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi spoke by phone on Wednesday with French president François Hollande, a presidential statement said.

Egypt President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said Tuesday that the cost of fighting terrorism is “very high,” but that Egyptians have chosen “the difficult path". In a phone-in with Amr Adib’s show Kol Youm (Everyday) on a privately owned satellite channel, Sisi said “I would like to remind you Egyptians and myself of July 24 (2013) I asked for a mandate from the people to counter terrorism and would-be violence, and people took to the streets. I was telling the Egyptians that you will see a huge amount of challenges, not just over one day, or a month or a year, but over years.”

The Ministry of Health announced on Tuesday that it has increased the prices of 3,000 drugs, of which about 300 drugs are against chronic diseases. Minister of Health Ahmed Emad El-Din said in a statement that the ministry has agreed with pharmaceutical companies to move up the prices of 15% of local drugs and 20% of foreign drugs (totaling 3,000 drugs), out of 12,000 drugs in the market.

The prices of poultry, meat and rabbits have witnessed high increases across the country, that people have described as ‘crazy’. In Luxor, Ahmed Saber, a merchant, said prices of poultry jumped high during the past period of time due to the increase in prices of fodder, workforce and fuel used for heating the chicken coops. One kilo of chicken has now reached LE33.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi said in a TV phone interview on Monday that Egypt’s ongoing fight against terrorism in Sinai is taking a heavy toll on the state’s resources. In a phone interview with TV host Amr Adib on his late night show Kol Youm on ONTV channel, El-Sisi said that the cost of fighting terrorism has been “huge” over the last three-and-a-half years, not only in “sacrifices made through the blood of our children, but also in the monetary cost.”

Ministry of Planning Monitoring and Administrative Reform (MPMAR) is preparing a study to raise the minimum wage limit for state civil servants in the fiscal year 2017/ 2018 to LE1,500. An official source with the ministry said that the study recommends an increase in the minimum salary to LE1,500 instead of the current LE1200, to ease the burden on the low-income employees.

Political parties grouped under the Democratic Current decided to postpone their protest scheduled for Wednesday against the Egyptian-Saudi maritime demarcation deal to Saturday for legal reasons, lawyer Tarek Nagida told Daily News Egypt on Tuesday.

South Sudan's President Silva Kiir arrived in Cairo on Monday on a three-day visit for talks with the Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, state's news agency MENA reported. The two presidents will discuss bolstering bilateral relations and the latest developments in the Nile Basin and the Horn of Africa, according to MENA.

Wafd Party called on the parliament to postpone the discussions of Tiran and Sanafir agreement indefinitely, saying it is best to maintain unity among national powers and avoid disagreements during the "sensitive stage that Egypt is going through".

The Supreme Judicial Council ordered on Monday a gag on publishing news related to judges and the judiciary on websites and digital outlets, according to state media. The decision, which was published on several news outlets, stated that the council decided to ban any news that deals with the affairs of the judiciary on social media.

Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi met on Sunday with Finance Minister Amr El-Garhy in Cairo where they discussed recent economic reforms, their results and economic development, the presidency said in a statement.

Political parties grouped under the Democratic Current called for a demonstration to take place on 11 January in front of the cabinet in objection to the controversial Red Sea islands demarcation deal, still being disputed in court. However, Maasoum Marzouk, a representative of the Popular Current Party, said they will reach a final decision on Tuesday night. This comes as Marzouk said they were waiting for a response from the police.

The former vice president Mohamed ElBaradei has responded on Twitter to TV host Ahmed Moussa, who broadcast telephone calls of ElBaradei through his talk show aired on the privately-owned Sada Al-Balad satellite TV channel on Saturday.

Italian energy company Eni plans to increase its energy exploration investments in Egypt to $3.5 billion in 2017, the company’s CEO Claudio Descalzi said on Thursday after a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi. Descalzi briefed the Egyptian president on the latest developments regarding the massive Zohr gas field recently discovered off the Mediterranean coast, saying production is expected to start before the end of the year, a presidency statement read.

During its weekly meeting on Wednesday the cabinet approved the bankruptcy draft law, which aims to reduce litigation and encourage troubled companies to liquidate its business with streamlined procedures. Minister of Justice Hossam Abdul Rahim said that the new draft law stipulates that the economic courts would establish bankruptcy management and form a committee of experts to speed up the restructuring and settlement of troubled companies. The new law will depend on the compatibility between the creditor and the debtor.

The Interior Ministry released on Thursday 149 detainees who have been pardoned by a presidential decree.

Egypt is committed to establishing peace in Libya, whether through trilateral talks with Tunisia and Algeria, or in direct dialogue with Libya, its neighbouring countries, the United Nations, the African Union or the Arab League, Egypt’s foreign affairs ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid told Ahram Online on Wednesday.

The father of former Secretary General of the State Council Wael Shalaby questioned the death of his son in custody, allegedly saying he was likely killed and did not commit suicide. "I do not believe such a thing. [My son] has principles and is pious. I hate talking about that. He even performed Hajj last year," said the father on the privately-owned channel Dream on Tuesday. "My son knows that committing suicide is haram. After he resigned, he went to stay at a hotel belonging to the armed forces," he said.

The parliament has finally approved tightening the Criminal Procedure Law over raping children to a minimum of three years in prison and a fine not less than LE 50,000.