Abdel fattah al sisi
Egypt starts voting in first stage of parliament elections
The elections will be held in two phases, with the first covering 14 provinces on Saturday and Sunday. The second, on November 7-8.
The dramatically scored video released last month was Egypt's latest attempt to project soft power globally by sending medical aid to countries that have included China, Italy, Sudan and the United Kingdom.
Now President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's government has loosened a strict curfew for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in an effort to kickstart North Africa's largest economy.
Egypt has been under a state of emergency since April 2017 when twin church bombings claimed by an Islamic State group affiliate killed dozens of people.
Osama Haikal, who served as information minister from 2011 to 2012, will return as Ministry of State for Information Affairs, according to the plans announced by Sisi’s office. Egypt had abolished its Information Ministry in 2014.
Egypt’s foreign minister said last week the Trump administration had invited the three countries to a meeting in Washington on 6 November to try to break the deadlock in the talks.
The forecasts were similar to a Reuters survey of economists released three months ago but fiscal 2019/20 growth was seen lower than the government’s target of 6%.
Thirty-two were sentenced to life in prison, which is 25 years in Egypt, while 264 were jailed for terms of between three and 15 years, the sources said.
Egypt’s parliament, stacked with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi loyalists, voted in favour of the amendments last week, giving voters just days to digest the changes to 20 articles.
African Union commission chair Moussa Faki will be there along with the Presidents of Chad, Djibouti, Rwanda, DRC and Somalia.
The leaders will focus on "the evolution of the situation in Sudan" and will also seek to "stem the current crisis" in Libya.
The proposed amendments were initially introduced in February by a parliamentary bloc supportive of Sisi and updated this week after several rounds of parliamentary debates.
Parliament Speaker Ali Abdelaal said that 485 MPs of the 596-seat assembly voted in favour of the changes.
The proposed changes also give President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi new powers over appointing judges and the public prosecutor.
The bill submitted to speaker Ali Abdel Aal calls for several amendments to the constitution, including on the duration of presidential mandates currently limited to two four-year terms.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi told reporters that rights should be taken in the context of regional turbulence and the fight against terrorism.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Saturday's explosion on the eastern edge of Cairo that killed a policeman who was trying to defuse the device and wounded two others.
Backers of the former military chief, re-elected in March with over 97% of the vote, want parliament to discuss repealing an article limiting presidents to two consecutive four-year terms.
The suspects were killed in separate raids in the Giza governorate, home to Egypt's famed pyramids and the scene of Friday's deadly bombing, and in the restive Sinai Peninsula, the interior ministry said.