Egypt

CAIRO (AP) — Yemen’s leading separatist group will abandon its aspirations for self-rule to implement a stalled peace deal brokered by Saudi Arabia, the group announced early Wednesday in a step toward closing a dangerous rift between nominal allies in the five-year war.

Nizar Haitham, a spokesman for the separatists’ Southern Transitional Council, an umbrella group of militias backed by the United Arab Emirates, said the separatists would give up their dreams of self-administration over southern Yemen to pursue the Riyadh agreement.

28 July 2020; MEMO: The Egyptian army is set to receive its first Sukhoi Su-35 air-superiority fighters as pictures were captured of the Russian jets on a flight on their way to Egypt.

Five of the Sukhoi Su-35 Flankers, which are now owned by the Egyptian Air Force, were seen headed to Egypt. They are given numbers between 9210 and 9214, according to the RT’s Arabic-language news site.

28 July 2020; MEMO: Journalist Adel Sabry has been released from jail after more than two years in pre-trial detention.

Sabry, who is editor-in-chief of Masr Al-Arabia and a journalist and member of the Egyptian Press Syndicate, returned home after Egypt’s state security prosecution ordered his release.

Adel Sabry was arrested in April 2018 for allegedly operating a news website without a licence and joining the now outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.

28 July 2020; MEMO: A Cairo court yesterday sentenced two female TikTok influencers to two years in prison and fined them 300,000 Egyptian pounds ($19,000) each for “violating the values” of the country, Anadolu Agency reported.

CAIRO, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Iran on Monday reported 2,434 new COVID-19 cases while Saudi Arabia confirmed 1,993 new infections, as the Middle East states are tightening anti-coronavirus precautions for the upcoming Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha to curb the spread of the deadly virus.

CAIRO (AP) — Sudanese authorities have found a mass grave believed to contain the bodies of 28 army officers shot in a foiled coup attempt against former President Omar al-Bashir in 1990, the public prosecutor said late Thursday.

It was the second Bashir-era mass grave uncovered in as many months.

Al-Bashir’s repressive rule collapsed last year, when the military ousted him after months of street protests.

23 July 2020; MEMO: Egyptians yesterday launched the Arabic hashtag “I did not delegate” to express their rejection of Parliament’s decision to authorise President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi to send forces outside the country under the pretext of “preserving national security”.

22 July 2020; MEMO: Egypt’s economic growth will slow to 3.1 per cent in the 2020/2021 fiscal year, according to a Reuters poll.

Growth is down due to the country’s coronavirus pandemic, which has negatively affected tourism revenues.

As the price of gas has fallen, expat Egyptians living in the oil rich Gulf states have sent fewer remittances back home.

CAIRO, July 22 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Egypt’s parliament gave President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi the green light for possible military intervention in Libya by approving the deployment of armed forces abroad to fight “terrorist groups” and “militias”.

21 July 2020; MEMO: Egypt’s House of Representatives yesterday approved a presidential decree to extend the state of emergency across the country for another three months, effective on 27 July, the state-run Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported.