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Egypt former strong-man Hosni Mubarak dies at 91
Cairo, Feb 25, 2020 - Egypt's former president Hosni Mubarak ruled with an iron fist for 30 years before being deposed amid street protests, defending his chequered reign to the end. He died Tuesday aged 91. Once dubbed "the Pharaoh" for his long, autocratic rule, he...
Egypt: Doctor in court over deadly genital mutilation
Cairo, Feb 22, 2020 - Egypt's state prosecutor decided to re-arrest and put on trial a doctor for performing a genital mutilation operation on a 12-year-old girl who died, his office said Saturday. The procedure known as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) has been banned...
Egypt: Mubarak’s sons cleared by court in market manipulation case
Cairo, Feb 22, 2020 - An Egyptian court on Saturday acquitted two sons of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and six others in a case known in the Egyptian media as stock exchange manipulation. A judicial official told AFP that the Cairo criminal court decided to...
Egypt confronts Ethiopia over future access to Nile’s water
Addis Ababa, Feb 18, 2020 - US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tuesday that it could take "months" to resolve a dispute between Ethiopia and Egypt over a massive dam on the Nile River. Tensions have been high in the Nile basin ever since Ethiopia broke ground on...
Egypt: Cost of smuggling antiquities: brother of ex minister gets 30 years in prison
Cairo, Feb 15, 2020 - [Photo by Daniela Turcano] - A Cairo criminal court sentenced the brother of a former Egyptian finance minister to 30 years in jail on Saturday for smuggling antiquities out of the country, a judicial source said. Raouf Ghali, the sibling of...
North Africa’s first case of coronavirus confirmed in Egypt
Cairo, Feb 14, 2020 - Egypt's health ministry on Friday announced the first confirmed case of the novel coronavirus in Africa. The sufferer was not Egyptian, the ministry said in a statement, without specifying the nationality. "The ministry has taken preventative...
Demographic milestone: Egypt’s population exceeds 100 million
Cairo, Feb 11, 2020 - Egypt's population has passed 100 million, its statistics agency said Tuesday, highlighting the threat of overpopulation in a poverty-stricken country where many live in crowded megacities. The North African country retains its position as the...
Egypt: Cairo’s green lung razed for roads to new desert capital
Cairo, Feb 11, 2020 - By By Hager Harabech and Farid Farid: In the traffic-choked megacity of Cairo, the historic Heliopolis district has long stood out for its leafy boulevards, but now construction crews are cutting new highways through it and uprooting its...
Egypt: Scores killed during insurgent attempt to raid military site in Sinai
Cairo, Feb 9, 2020 - Militants killed and wounded seven Egyptian soldiers in restive North Sinai on Sunday, Egypt's military said. The army said it "foiled" an attack on security facilities, "killing 10 terrorists and destroying a four-wheel drive used by the...
Egypt: Islamic State claims attack on pipeline in Sinai
Cairo, Feb 3, 2020 - The Islamic State group said on Monday it blew up a gas pipeline in Egypt's restive Sinai Peninsula, claiming it was connected to Israel. Security sources earlier said the pipeline hit was a domestic one that connects to a power station in...
Egypt: Universities to ban niqab for female staff
Cairo, Jan 27, 2020 - A top Egyptian court has ruled in favour of banning female academic staff at Cairo University from wearing the Muslim face veil, known as the niqab, lawyer Ahmed Mahran said Monday. The decision taken by the Supreme Administrative Court last week...
Egypt: How to loot a country’s treasures
Cairo, Jan 21, 2020 - A Cairo criminal court sentenced a former honorary Italian consul to 15 years in jail in absentia on Tuesday for smuggling antiquities out of the country, a judicial source said. Ladislav Otakar Skakal, Italy's former honorary consul in Luxor,...
Egypt: Court shows unusual defiance to Sisi regime
Cairo, Jan 21, 2020 - An Egyptian court has ordered the country's interior minister to reveal the whereabouts of a missing former parliamentarian believed to be in state custody, his wife told AFP Tuesday. Mostafa al-Naggar, a former opposition lawmaker and key figure...
Egypt: More pressure on Sisi over death of US citizen in Egyptian prison
Berlin, Jan 19, 2020 - Secretary of State Mike Pompeo expressed US "outrage" in a meeting Sunday with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi over the death of an American national imprisoned in Egypt since 2013. Mustafa Kassem, a 54-year-old Egyptian-American who...
Egypt: Mustafa Kassem dies in Egyptian prison
Washington, Jan 14, 2020 - An American citizen whose case was raised by top US leaders died Monday after more than six years in custody in Egypt, his representatives said, drawing criticism by Washington of its authoritarian ally. Mustafa Kassem, a New York taxi...
Nile dam dispute between Ethiopia and Egypt simmers
Metekel, Ethiopia, Jan 7, 2020 - Cell phone batteries constantly dying, health centres bereft of modern equipment, a dependence on flashlights after sundown -- Kafule Yigzaw experienced all these struggles and more growing up without electricity in rural Ethiopia. So...
EgyptAir suspends service to Baghdad
Cairo, Jan 7, 2020 - Egypt's flag carrier has suspended flights to the Iraqi capital for three days for security reasons, the civil aviation ministry said Tuesday. The suspension takes effect Wednesday and comes after the killing of Iranian commander General Qasem...
The southern Mediterranean braces for war
Libya has long been a battleground pitting several regional powers against one another. That competition for influence and control of energy resources, is about to get even more intense. While warlord Haftar has been receiving virtually unlimited support from the...
Egypt: Bus accidents kill 28 people in Egypt
Cairo, Dec 28, 2019- At least 28 people including textile workers and several Asian tourists were killed Saturday in two separate road crashes in Egypt, official media and other sources said. The deadliest accident occurred when a bus transporting textile workers...
Egyptian opponent abroad, Mohamed Ali, sentenced by Sisi court to jail in absentia
Cairo, Dec 10, 2019 - A self-exiled Egyptian businessman and dissident who has accused President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of corruption has been sentenced in absentia to five years in jail for tax evasion, a judicial source said Tuesday. Mohamed Ali, a construction...
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