Egypt has approved a draft law to allow sovereign Islamic bonds, the country's finance minister said on Wednesday, as the government searches for new ways to finance an unsustainable budget deficit.

CAIRO — U.S. Sen. John McCain said Wednesday he has expressed strong disapproval to Egypt's Islamist president about his past comments about Jews. Despite an uproar in Washington over the remarks, he said he and other congressmen will press for more aid to Egypt's ailing economy.

Two of Islamist political parties in Egypt, the Reform and Development Party and Al-Wasat party, have called for the dismissal of Egypt's Prime Minister, citing poor government manageability following the deadly Badrashin train accident.

Eight opposition political parties and prominent figures have formed an alliance to contest the upcoming House of Representatives elections.

Outside a courthouse built to resemble an ancient Egyptian sun temple, a group of protestors chants against their “Pharaoh.” Cairo’s Supreme Constitutional Court is scheduled to announce today its ruling in two highly contentious cases, determining the legality — or lack thereof — of the election laws outlining the formation of the Shura Council currently in session, as well as that of the assembly responsible for drafting the constitution recently passed through referendum.

Saad El-Katatni, head of the Freedom and Justice Party and former speaker of parliament, has extended his condolences to the families of 19 soldiers who died in a train accident in Giza on Monday.

The suggested quota for Coptic participation in the upcoming parliamentary elections triggered intense controversy during the Shura Council’s Legislative Committee meeting on Monday.

A recently drafted law on how the government will issue sukuk (Islamic-sanctioned bonds) has drawn criticism from religious figures and financial scholars alike, state officials tout the bonds as the way out of the nation's financial crisis.

Egypt's Administrative Court ordered Saturday that the Fi Al-Mizan TV show hosted by controversial Sheikh Abdullah Badr on Al-Hafez religious channel be taken off air for 30 days.

Newly appointed Salafist Nour Party chairman, Younes Makhioun, has confirmed the party is in disagreement with the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), saying an electoral alliance between the two is unlikely.

An Egyptian father sent a letter to President Mohamed Morsi last week urging him to open an investigation into the alleged torture befallen his provisionally detained son, who according to the father is near death after his health condition has greatly deteriorated.

Reverend Father Antonious Thabet, the parish priest of St Mark's Coptic Orthodox Church in London, says that Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood has changed.

A group of former Muslim Brotherhood members who resigned or were disaffiliated from the group plan to set up a new 'parallel' association to the Brotherhood, the group from which Egypt's President Mohamed Morsi hails. The new association will focus primarily on education and Islamic preaching rather than political activism.

Hussein Ibrahim became the new secretary-general of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) in internal party elections held Thursday.

After losing some of its most prominent members to a new political party, the Salafi-oriented Nour Party chose Younis Makhyoun as its new president Wednesday.

The Salafist Nour Party is mulling a possible electoral alliance with several Islamist forces ahead of upcoming parliamentary elections, including with the Watan (homeland) Party which was newly founded and joined by breakaway members of the Nour Party itself.

Former presidential candidate Hazem Salah Abu Ismail said Monday that violence in Egypt appeared with the formation of the National Salvation Front, an alliance of at least 20 secular leaning political groups.

The reported failed attack on a church in Rafah on Monday, coinciding with Coptic Christmas, is not the kind of news that Father Mikhail wanted to wake up to.

Islamist forces did not attend Monday evening's vigil commemorating the death of Sayed Bilal, a victim of police torture.

Abdel-Gawad Yassin, vehemently criticised what he called ‘religious thinking’

President Mohamed Morsi did not describe the Coptic population in Egypt as a "minority", presidential spokesperson Yasser Ali said at a press conference on Tuesday.