Egypt released 2,376 prisoners, including 627 debt defaulters, by a presidential pardon decree on Tuesday, the first day of the Eid al-Adha holiday, according to a statement by the Egyptian Ministry of Interior. The decree comes weeks after President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi launched the initiative "Prisons Without Debt Defaulters", which aims to help some of the many people - disproportianetly women - who have been imprisoned because they failed to repay loans borrowed for family expenses.

Egyptian Muslims celebrated the first day of the annual four-day Eid Al-Adha holiday on Tuesday with prayers and animal sacrifices. Muslims across the country crowded mosques and prayer grounds in the early morning to recite prayers for the religious holiday, which runs from 21 August to 24 August this year, after which the sacrifice of goats and cows took place.

The Egyptian navy has carried out training exercises with their Italian, South Korean, and Greek counterparts in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, a statement by the Egyptian military said on Monday. In an official statement, Egyptian armed forces spokesman Tamer El-Refaie said a number of Egyptian naval vessels participated in training with Italian and Greek vessels, carrying out joint exercises in the Mediterranean.

Egyptian Defense Minister Mohamed Zaki and a high-level military delegation left Cairo on Sunday, commencing an official visit to Russia. The delegation is scheduled to attend the fifth meeting of the joint Egyptian-Russian Military Committee and the International Military-Technical Forum “ARMY-2018”, which the regional power will host from August 21 to 26.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi ratified on Saturday a 45-article law combating extremist and terrorist organisations using the internet to carry out terrorist attacks. ADVERTISING inRead invented by Teads Law 175 in the year 2018, titled "Anti-Cyber and Information Technology Crimes," was published on Saturday by the official Egyptian Gazette. It prohibits "the dissemination of information on the movements of the army or police, the promotion of the ideas of terrorist organisations." The law s first chapter on penalties, from article 14 to 22, covers crimes of hacking information systems. Article 20 imposes a fine ranging from EGP 50,000 to EGP 200,000 and a two-year prison sentence on individuals convicted of hacking state information systems. The second chapter, from article 24 to 25, tackles crimes committed via information systems and technologies, and crimes related to emails. Those found guilty of creating an email, a private account or a website using the name of another person or institution can be sentenced to three months in prison and fined between EGP 10,000 and EGP 30,000. According to artical 7 of the new law, websites that publish material posing a threat to the country s security or economy can be blocked through a judicial process. The newly passed law was originally approved by the Egyptian parliament in May 2018.

Many upper Egyptian families are suffering from the destruction brought on by termites in Luxor and Aswan eating through everything with wood, such as floors or furniture, to the point that some houses are at the brink of collapse. Abdel Wahab Fakhry, a Nubian resident told Al-Masry Al-Youm that the termites usually spread in hot places, and the real danger is that they rely on wood for their food, pointing out that most Nubian houses use natural materials such as palm trunks and leaves.

Egypt s, the world s largest wheat importer, has strategic reserves of wheat to cover four months of consumption, Supply and Internal Trade Minister Ali el-Moselhi said on Thursday. Egypt has sufficient sugar and cooking oil reserves for around three months, Moselhi added in a press conference, according to state news agency MENA.

Ethiopian ambassador to Egypt H.E Taye Atske-Selassie hailed bi-lateral relations between both countries, upon announcing on Wednesday that he will leave Cairo by the end of August. The ambassador has concluded 18 months of work in Egypt, and will be flying to New York to represent Ethiopia in the United Nations, he said in a press conference.

Egypt s unemployment rate dropped to 9.9 percent in the second quarter of 2018 compared to 10.6 percent in the first quarter and 12 percent for the same period in the previous year, state statistics agency CAPMAS announced on Wednesday. CAPMAS estimated the labour force in the second quarter at 29.03 million, which is 150,000 workers (0.5 percent) less than in the first quarter as a result of changes in seasonal work, and 147,000 less workers than the same period in the previous year.

On Tuesday, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi met on Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud in the new city of Neom, in northern Saudi Arabia, upon the king’s invitation. The meeting was attended by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, and Abbas Kamel, head of Egypt’s General Intelligence.

Egypts President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi arrived in the new Saudi megacity Neom on Tuesday and held talks with King Salman bin Abdulaziz according to the Saudi Press Agency. The two leaders discussed Egyptian-Saudi bilateral relations during the unannounced visit.

Egypt s minister of petroleum and mineral resources Tarek El-Molla signed three agreements on Tuesday for the exploration of oil and natural gas in the Mediterranean, Western Sahara and Nile Delta regions with investments worth $139.2 million (EGP 2.5 billion) The first agreement, worth $105 million, was signed between the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS), Egypt s Tharwa Petroleum, and Italy s multinational gas and oil giant Eni to drill two new wells at Noor Al-Bahareya in Egypt s Mediterranean Sea.

Egypt and China signed a $45 million grant to implement the new satellite "Egypt Sat 2 on Monday, according to an official statement by the Ministry of Investment and International Cooperation. The agreement was signed by Sahar Nasr, Egypt s minister of investment and international cooperation, and the Chinese ambassador to Egypt, Song Aiguo.

Egypt rejects non-Arab forces having a foothold in Yemen, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi said in a joint presser with Yemeni counterpart Abd Rabo Hadi after the two leaders held a meeting in Cairo on Monday. "Yemen s security and stability is a top priority not only for Egypt s national security, but the security and stability of the entire region, and we therefore reject Yemen becoming a stronghold for non-Arab forces, a threat to the security and stability of brotherly Arab states, or [endanger] freedom of navigation in the Red Sea and the Strait of Bab Al-Mandab," said El-Sisi.

Egypt s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has inaugurated in Upper Egypt s Assiut a new barrage and hydroelectric plant as part of a number of mega development projects set to open during the upcoming days. El-Sisi has also inaugurated the first and long-awaited 6,500-square-metre national museum in Upper Egypt s Sohag governorate.

Giza Prosecution office on Sunday has ended investigations of the murder of two Copts at liquor shop in al-Omraniya during the start of the year. The prosecution issued the notice of discontinuance after investigations failed to bring the perpetrators to justice.

Egypt is set to renovate the first and oldest line of Cairo s metro system with a fund of 205 million euros, the cabinet said on Wednesday after a deal was signed between the government and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). The cabinet said that the signing in Cairo was attended by PM Mostafa Madbouly, Transportation Minister Hisham Arafat and Investment and International Cooperation Minister Sahar Nasr.

The Supreme State Security Prosecution arrested a tax officer on Tuesday evening, accusing him of receiving bribes alongside Customs Authority head Gamal Abdel Azim, who was arrested on Monday. Alaa al-Mansoury, arrested last month, recently admitted to mediating between the two officials during interrogations. He reportedly confessed that he would send bribes to the suspected tax officer, and collaborate with him to bribe Azim to facilitate the import of prohibited goods – illegally admitting them into the country.

Egypt s total government debt service hit EGP 406.2 billion for the year 2017/18, up from EGP 370.7 billion in 2016/17, a report by the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS) showed on Wednesday. According to the report, the government debt service went up by EGP 35.5 billion for 2017/18, hitting the EGP 400 billion benchmark.

Transport Ministry Spokesperson Mohamed Ezz denied media conjecture that an unknown person deliberately caused Sunday’s train accident that injured six near Aswan, by removing the railway bars’ nails. While early reports attributed this claim to Transport Minister Hisham Arafat, Ezz stressed on Tuesday that Arafat made no such statement. He maintained that the Ministry is still awaiting final reports from specialized committees on the incident, as well as the results of investigations carried out by the public prosecution.