Egypt

5 Sep 2019; MEMO: The youngest son of late Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi died of an alleged heart attack Wednesday at a hospital in Cairo.

A Morsi family sourced confirmed Abdullah Morsi’s death to news agencies. However, the Egyptian Health Ministry has yet to comment on his death.

Abdallah Morsi, 24, began to feel spasms while driving in Cairo with a friend and died shortly afterwards, his brother Ahmed told Reuters.

30 Aug 2019; MEMO: On Tuesday 17-year-old Alaa Yasser Farouk told lawyers that whilst detained she heard officers electrocuting her father and then was threatened with torture if she did not confess to joining and funding the Muslim Brotherhood.

In December 2013 the military-backed government in Egypt labelled the Brotherhood a terrorist group after a suicide bomb hit the police headquarters in Mansoura killing 16 people.

ALEXANDRIA, Egypt (AP) — Egypt’s coastal city of Alexandria, which has survived invasions, fires and earthquakes since it was founded by Alexander the Great more than 2,000 years ago, now faces a new menace in the form of climate change.

Rising sea levels threaten to inundate poorer neighborhoods and archaeological sites, prompting authorities to erect concrete barriers out at sea to break the tide. A severe storm in 2015 flooded large parts of the city, causing at least six deaths and the collapse of some two dozen homes, exposing weaknesses in the local infrastructure.

CAIRO (AP) — For the first time in three decades, Sudan has charted a path out of military rule following the formation of a power-sharing government by the pro-democracy movement and the generals who overthrew longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir.

But the fragile transition will be tested as leaders confront a daunting array of challenges. Decades of war and corruption have left the economy in shambles, and a U.S. terror designation has hindered Sudan’s return from its longtime status as a global pariah.

24 Aug 2019; MEMO: Egypt’s Agricultural Ministry has said that the country lost 53,000 acres of farm land between January 2011 and August 2019, Alraimedia.com reported yesterday.

Citing a report by the Central Administration for Land Protection, the ministry said that it registered 1.9 million violations against fertile land.

Though the ministry regained control of some of this land, some 53,592 acres of fertile land remain out of the ministry’s control.

22 Aug 2019; MEMO: The family of the Egyptian-Palestinian politician Ramy Shaath who has previously worked as a political and strategic advisor to Yasser Arafat has released a statement on his arrest by Egyptian authorities last month in which they call for his prompt release.

CAIRO (AP) — Sudan’s pro-democracy movement and the army announced a joint ruling body on Tuesday, formally disbanding the military council that took power after the ouster of longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir in April.

The new, 11-member body — called the Sovereign Council — is to rule Sudan for a little over three years until elections can be held. An announcement about the council was delayed by two days because of last-minute, internal disputes over the opposition appointees.

20 Aug 2019; MEMO: An Egyptian court has sentenced six people to death on charges of establishing a terror group between 2013 and 2015 and killing three people, Al-Khaleej Online reported yesterday.

The Giza Criminal Court also sentenced 41 defendants, including 28 in absentia, to life in prison on similar charges, including possession of weapons and explosives.

20 Aug 2019; MEMO: Egyptian authorities have enforced a presidential decree to demolish a Sufi mosque in Mahmoudiyah Road in Alexandria because it was allegedly built on state owned land without a license.

President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi complained that the Abu Al-Ikhlas Al-Zarqani Mosque was obstructing the five billion Egyptian pounds ($302 million) Mahmoudiyah corridor project development in Alexandria which will see the construction of four new bridges and a 6-8 lane road.

18 August 2019; AFP: Abdulmalik Abdulaziz, an Uighur student, was arrested and handcuffed by Egyptian police and when they removed his blindfold he was surprised to see Chinese officials questioning him in custody.

He was picked up in broad daylight with friends, and taken to a Cairo police station where Chinese officials grilled him about what he was doing in Egypt.

The three officials spoke to him in Chinese, addressing him using his Chinese name not his Uighur one.