Egypt

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s highest appeals court on Sunday upheld the life sentences of 10 leaders of Egypt’s outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, including the group’s head, the state-owned MENA news agency reported.

In 2019, a Cairo criminal court had convicted all 10, including the group’s leader, or supreme guide, Mohamed Badie, of charges related to killing policemen and organizing mass jail breaks during Egypt’s 2011 uprising. That revolt culminated in the ouster of longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

08 July 2021; MEMO: Italian activists have launched a campaign urging people not to go on holiday to Egypt in protest against the regime's unchecked, systematic forcible disappearance of dissidents.

In September last year the Egyptian Commission for Human Rights said that there had been some 2,723 forcible disappearances in just five years.

07 July 2021; MEMO: Diplomatic sources at the UN said on Tuesday that the Arab group within the Security Council is seeking to issue a resolution on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, Anadolu has reported. The draft resolution calls on the three countries involved in the Renaissance Dam crisis — Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan — to continue negotiations for a period of six months to reach an agreement on the rules for filling the reservoir and operating the dam.

CAIRO (AP) — An Egyptian court on Tuesday lifted a three-month long judicial seizure of a hulking shipping vessel that had blocked the Suez Canal for nearly a week earlier this year, paving the way for it to leave Egypt.

Following the decision by the court in the city of Ismailia, the Ever Given would be allowed to leave the canal on Wednesday, after a ceremony in the canal city of Ismailia.

06 July 2021; MEMO: Ethiopia has officially notified Egypt of the start of the second filling of the reservoir behind the Grand Renaissance Ethiopian Dam, the Ministry of Irrigation announced yesterday. In response, ministry spokesperson Mohamed Ghanem said that, "Addis Ababa is violating international laws and norms, and is treating the River Nile as its own property."

06 July 2021; MEMO: Egypt and Sudan's foreign ministers met today to agree on a position over Ethiopia's Renaissance Dam.

Sameh Shoukri and Maryam Sadiq Al-Mahdi reiterated their continued rejection of Ethiopia's announcement that it had started the next phase of filling the dam.

05 July 2021; MEMO: Egyptian authorities executed a defendant who was convicted of attempting to assassinate the former head of the Alexandria Security Directorate.

The family of 25-year-old, Moataz Mostafa Hassan, was notified of his execution yesterday and told that they can receive his body at the Zeinhom Morgue in Cairo.

CAIRO (AP) — The Suez Canal Authority on Sunday said it has reached an agreement to settle a financial dispute with the owners of a hulking container ship that blocked the crucial waterway for nearly a week earlier this year.

The authority did not reveal details on the settlement deal with the Shoei Kisen Kaisha Ltd., the Japanese owner of the Ever Given. It said the deal will be signed in a ceremony in the Suez Canal city of Ismailia on Wednesday.

The vessel would be also freed Wednesday, it said.

04 July 2021; MEMO: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi inaugurated a naval base on Saturday 135 km from the border with Libya, flanked by close ally Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan and Libya's unity president, reports Reuters.

Egypt says the July 3 base will help it protect strategic and economic interests as well as helping guard against irregular migration as it works to boost its naval presence on the Mediterranean and the Red Sea.

The renowned Al-Azhar University in Cairo has issued a warning about the multi-player video game called Fortnite which encourages players to demolish the Kaaba in order to advance to the next level. The warning was issued through the university's International Centre for Electronic Fatwas (faith-based rulings by Islamic jurists).