Terrorist groups' assets to be confiscated, new law ratified
FILE - President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi signs documents in his office at the Presidential Palace- press photoCAIRO - 22 April 2018: The government-drafted law to regulate the legal procedures to seize, manage and dispose of terrorist organizations' assets, comes into force on Monday, after it was ratified by President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi.The President's ratification was published in the official gazette 'Al-Waqa'i' al-Misriyya' on Sunday. As per the Egyptian code, any law or presidential decree comes into force on the day following its publication in the official gazette.On April 14, the law was enacted by the House of Representatives.The 18-article law aims to regulate the legal procedures to confiscating and disposing of terrorist groups’ assets, including property, bonds and national or foreign cash, as per the rulings of the Cairo Court for Urgent Matters.The law stipulates that all state institutions, including private and public banks, shall cooperate with a judicial ad hoc committee to implement its resolution, and those who will not provide the committee with the necessary information will be punished with a year in prison and a fine not less than LE 10,000 and not more than LE 50,000.
Source:Egypt Today
April 22, 2018 10:56 UTC
Kazakhstan to resume flights to Hurghada in May
Flights will be resumed between Hurghada and Kazakhstan in May, according to the results of negotiations between Red Sea Governor Ahmed Abdallah and the Minister of Culture and Tourism of Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan will operate direct flights from Astana to Hurghada airport starting in May, and will start other flights from Shymkent to Hurghada in June, which is expected to lead to the influx of more Kazakh tourists to the Red Sea and other governorates, according to Abdallah. Besides the flight resumption, the two officials also discussed cooperation in the fields of environment, culture, among others, Abdallah added. Other European and Asian countries suspended flights to Egypt following the incident, including Kazakhstan. According to Russian state media outlet Russia Today, at least three million tourists are expected to visit Egypt following Russia’s decision to lift a ban on direct flights to Cairo.
Source:Egypt Independent
April 22, 2018 10:30 UTC
Foreign currency inflows to banks reach $77B
Foreign Currencies – FlickrCAIRO – 22 April 2018: Foreign currency inflows to banks operating in Egypt have risen to more than $77 billion since the flotation of the Egyptian currency in November 2016, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Egypt, Ramy Abul-Naga, told Egypt Today Sunday.The central bank announced earlier that Egypt’s foreign reserves had increased by $100 million by the end of March 2018 to reach $42.6 billion, as compared to $42.5 billion a month before.Egypt clinched a $12-billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) after the flotation.The IMF loan helped the state’s foreign reserves to rebound by receiving the first three tranches of the loan with a total value of $6.08 billion.The $2 billion fourth tranche will be received by Cairo after the program’s third review in June.The current average of foreign reserves covers about eight months of Egypt's commodity imports, which is higher than the global average of about three months of commodity imports.Egypt spends an average of $5 billion monthly on imports with an annual total of more than $60 billion.Foreign currencies of Egypt’s foreign reserves include the U.S. dollar, Euro, Australian dollar, Japanese yen and Chinese yuan.The main function of the foreign exchange reserve, including its gold and various international currencies, is to provide commodities, repay the installments on interest rates of external debt, and to cope with economic crises.
Source:Egypt Today
April 22, 2018 10:07 UTC
Al Azhar medical mission in Chad conducts 375 surgeries
Egypt’s Grand Imam of Al Azhar Ahmed el Tayyeb, Mufti Shawki Allam and Minister of Religious Endowments (Awqaf) Mohamed Mokhtar Gomaa visiting al-Rawdah’s terrorist attack victims at the hospital in Ismailia governorate, Friday December 1, 2017 - Press PhCAIRO - 22 April 2018: Al Azhar's medical convoy conducted 375 surgeries in Chad and checked more than 24,000 patients for free.Fifteen cases that need complicated surgeries were referred to Al Azhar University hospitals in line with directives of Grand Imam of Al Azhar Ahmed el Tayyeb, according to a statement by Al Azhar Sheikdom on Sunday.Tayyeb has promised that Al Azhar will pay for the treatment of all critical cases, the statement said.The mission which stayed for one week in Chad is the third to be sent by Al Azhar to the African country, the statement said, noting that medicine was distributed for free among the patients.This falls within the framework of the Al Azhar's humanitarian and social role.
Source:Egypt Today
April 22, 2018 09:56 UTC
Islamic State suicide bomber kills 31 in Afghan capital
A suicide bomber struck a voter registration center in the Afghan capital on Sunday, killing at least 31 people in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group. The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility in a statement carried by its Aamaq news agency, saying it had targeted Shiite “apostates.”Afghanistan will hold parliamentary elections in October. Both groups regularly launch attacks, with the Taliban usually targeting the government and security forces, and IS targeting the country’s Shiite minority. The Taliban routinely target security forces and government officials with roadside bombs, which often end up killing civilians. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the killing.
Source:Egypt Independent
April 22, 2018 09:45 UTC
Uber launches food delivery app UberEats in Egypt
Ride-hailing service Uber will on Monday launch the application UberEats in Egypt, which will allow users to order food and get it delivered to them. Uber said that restaurants and cafes can send requests for the home delivery service through the application, which uses a similar interface as Uber’s ride-hailing car app. Uber clients can easily browse the application as it depends on the same technology as the ride-hailing app. UberEats aims to change the style of food delivery, raising it to a new and developed level of service, the company said. Cairo court of urgent matters decided on April 8 that Uber and Careem can resume their work in Egypt.
Source:Egypt Independent
April 22, 2018 09:45 UTC
Criminal court places 2,833 MB leaders and supporters on terrorism list
Cairo Criminal Court has placed 2,833 Muslim Brotherhood (MB) leaders and supporters on the terrorism list of terrorists for a period of three years. The names were published in the official gazette amd included toppled president Mohamed Morsi and his sons, Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohamed Badei, MB Deputy Supreme Guide Khairat al-Shater and his sons, and Guidance Bureau senior leaders Mahmoud Hussein, Mahmoud Ezzat, Rashad al-Bayoumy, Mahmoud Ghazlan, and Yehia Hamed. Others placed on the list include preacher Youssef al-Qaradawy, Ibrahim al-Zayat, and Ibrahim Mounir who currently live outside Egypt, retired football player Mohamed Abutrika, former assistant to the president under Morsi, Pakinam al-Sharkawy, former judge Walid al-Sharaby and vice president of Wasat Party Essam Sultan. The Terrorist Entities Law, first applied in February 2015, states that the public prosecution should prepare two lists, including one on terrorist entities and another on defendants labeled as terrorists. A Cairo Court of Appeal should issue a verdict that labels the entity or the defendants as terrorists, or another court issues a final verdict with terrorism charges against the person or the entity in order to be placed on either list.
Source:Egypt Independent
April 22, 2018 09:45 UTC
Blast at election center in Afghan capital, dozens of casualties
Afghan security forces keep watch at a check point close to the compound of Afghanistan's national intelligence agency in Kabul, Afghanistan. December 25, 2017. REUTERS/Omar SobhaniKABUL - 22 April 2018: A suicide bomber blew himself up outside a voter registration center in the Afghan capital Kabul on Sunday, killing at least 31 people and wounding more than 50, most of them waiting in line to receive identity cards, officials said.Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack on a project of key importance to the credibility of President Ashraf Ghani’s Western-backed government, which has pledged to hold parliamentary elections this year.Interior Ministry spokesman Najib Danesh said a bomber on foot approached the center where officials had been issuing identity cards as part of the registration process for voters for the election scheduled for October.A spokesman for the ministry of public health said at least 31 people were confirmed dead and 54 wounded. The explosion destroyed cars and shattered windows in nearby buildings, leaving rubble strewn across the street.It was the most serious attack in Kabul since about 100 people were killed in January by a bomb concealed in an ambulance.After weeks of relative calm, the blast took place in Dasht-e Barchi, an area of western Kabul inhabited by many members of the mainly Shi’ite Hazara minority, which has been repeatedly hit by attacks claimed by Islamic State.“There were women, children. Everyone had come to get their identity cards,” said Bashir Ahmad who had been nearby the blast, which occurred despite heightened security measures following the January attack.Voter registration centers have been set up across Afghanistan ahead of long-delayed parliamentary and district council elections due to be held in October and there have been serious concerns that militants might attack them.President Ghani has been under heavy pressure from his international partners to ensure the elections are held this year, ahead of a presidential election due in 2019 although there has been widespread scepticism that they will take place.“They should be keeping the country safe, if they can’t, someone else should be in their place,” said Sajeda, who was wounded in the blast along with three other members of her family as they lined up for their cards.Voter registration began this month but there have already been a number of attacks apparently aimed at disrupting the preparations.Also on Sunday, a roadside bomb near a voter registration center in the northern city of Pul-i Khumri killed six members of a family and wounded three as they drove past the site although there was no indication the attacks were linked.Unless the process of registering millions of voters, many of whom do not have national identity cards, can be completed before winter sets, the vote would almost certainly have to be postponed until next year.According to U.N. figures, more than 750 people have been killed or maimed in suicide attacks and bombings by militant groups during the three months to March.
Source:Egypt Today
April 22, 2018 09:22 UTC
Unveiling restored King Ramses II colossus
Unveiling restored King Ramses II colossus - Egypt Today. The largest two pieces were the head of the statue and the base, representing 40 percent of the colossus.The colossus, which weighs 65 tons at a height of 11.7 meters, is carved of black granite. It depicts Ramses II standing wearing the double crown, his left leg in front of him. Before unveiling the colossus, Enany and Badr launched a new display of 186 artifacts at Luxor Museum after the transfer of 122 artifacts from the King Tutankhamun collection to the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza.The 186 artifacts were recently discovered by an Egyptian archaeological mission at the Draa Abul Naga necropolis on Luxor’s west bank. The collection contains ushabti figurines, painted mummy masks, anthropoid sarcophagi jewelry and a beautifully carved statuette of Isis Nefret, the singer of the god Amun.
Source:Egypt Today
April 22, 2018 09:11 UTC
Armenia’s protest leader to meet PM Serzh Sargsyan to talk ‘transfer of power’
Armenian opposition lawmaker and protest leader Nikol Pashinian said he would meet on Sunday with Serzh Sargsyan, the president-turned-prime minister who has been the focus of mass protests in the former Soviet country . “I will meet Serzh Sargsyan to discuss the conditions of his resignation and of a peaceful transfer of power,” said Pashinian in a video published to his Facebook page. The meeting is expected to take place at the Marriott hotel in the Armenian capital, Yerevan. Parliament on Tuesday swore in Sargsyan as prime minister under a new parliamentary system, effectively making him Armenia’s most powerful official. Serzh Sargsyan, modesty, even in politics, is not a weakness,” said Khanjian.
Source:Egypt Independent
April 22, 2018 09:11 UTC
World's 'oldest person' dies in Japan aged 117
Nabi Tajima, born in 1900, holds a bouquet in Japanese southwestern island of Kikaijima, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan, in this photo taken in 2015 - ReutersTOKYO - 22 April 2018: A Japanese woman born in the final year of the 19th century and believed to have been the world’s oldest person died on Saturday, Kyodo news agency said. She was 117.Nabi Tajima, born in 1900, died from old age at a hospital on her native southwestern island of Kikaijima, Kyodo said.Guinness World Records had been conducting research with a view to certifying Tajima as the oldest person alive after the previous record holder, Violet Brown of Jamaica, died last year at 117, Kyodo said.The organization recognized a 112-year-old Japanese man, Masazo Nonaka, as the world’s oldest man earlier this month.In Japan, the number of centenarians totaled 67,824 last year, government data shows, up sharply from 153 in 1963.
Source:Egypt Today
April 22, 2018 08:26 UTC
North Korea's nuclear pledge adds momentum to South's preparations for summit
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un claps with military officers at the Command of the Strategic Force of the Korean People's Army (KPA) in an unknown location in North Korea in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) onSEOUL - 22 April 2018: South Korea’s preparations for its first summit with North Korea in more than a decade are in full swing this week, officials said on Sunday, a day after the North’s pledge to end its nuclear tests raised hopes but also scepticism.North Korea said on Saturday it was suspending nuclear and missile tests and scrapping its nuclear test site, and instead pursuing economic growth and peace ahead of planned summits with South Korea and the United States.The announcement was welcomed by leaders around the world including U.S. President Donald Trump.But some have expressed doubts about the North’s intentions and South Korean President Moon Jae-in will be under intense international scrutiny when he meets North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Friday.“North Korea has a long history of raising the issue of denuclearization and has committed to freeze its nuclear weapons programs in the past. We all remember how those pledges and commitments went down over past decades,” said Nam Sung-wook, a professor of North Korean Studies at Korea University in Seoul.“Although the North’s announcement is quite dramatic, it’s natural for the world to be extra sensitive to every word spoken by Kim.”Kim’s announcement did not include a commitment to scrap existing nuclear weapons and missiles, and there are doubts he would ever give up the nuclear arsenal his country has been developing for decades.Kim said North Korea no longer needed to test nuclear bombs or intercontinental ballistic missiles now that his country had the weapons, and he would gear all efforts toward economic development.Moon, who welcomed Kim’s announcement as a “major” step toward denuclearization, is making the summit his sole focus this week, staying in the presidential Blue House to prepare with no outside engagements, a Blue House official said on Sunday.South Korea’s presidential security service met officials from the military as well as the U.N. Command on Saturday to discuss security at the border truce village of Panmunjom, where the inter-Korean summit will take place, the official said.For the past few weeks, South Korea has been renovating Peace House, on its side of Panmunjom, to prepare for the summit with Kim, who will be the first North Korean leader to set foot in the South since the 1950-1953 Korean War.On Monday, the two Koreas will hold another round of working-level talks at the Tongil Pavilion on the North Korean side of Panmumjom to discuss protocol, security and media coverage of the summit.‘BIG PROGRESS’Moon now has a direct phone link with Kim on his office desk, instead of having to communicate through a hotline at the Joint Security Area in Panmunjom, which had been the main channel between the two sides over the Winter Olympics in February.The two leaders are expected to talk over the newly installed phone for the first time this week, before the summit, South Korea said on Friday.A senior U.S. diplomat for East Asia, Susan Thornton, arrives in Seoul later on Sunday to meet South Korea’s foreign minister as well as its top nuclear negotiator.Trump called North Korea’s offer to freeze testing and close its only known nuclear testing site “very good news” and “big progress”, while South Korea said it signified “meaningful” progress that would create good conditions for successful summits with it and later with the United States.Kim is expected to meet Trump in late May or early June, the first meeting between sitting leaders of the two countries.U.S. officials say North Korea had in the past repeatedly reneged on denuclearization agreements, the latest in 2012 when the North launched a long-range rocket after agreeing to a moratorium on missile testing.Experts also say that North Korea’s offer not to test or transfer nuclear weapons appeared a statement of an aim to be a “responsible” nuclear weapons state, rather than an intention to denuclearize.Cheong Seong-chang, senior research fellow at the Sejong Institute think-tank, said a firm commitment to denuclearize could not be expected before negotiations with the United States began.“Kim cannot give up everything at once. What is clear is that he is showing his earnest willingness to pave the way for smooth negotiations,” Cheong said.
Source:Egypt Today
April 22, 2018 08:26 UTC
Badry announces his list for Petrojet game
Hossam Al-Badry Al-Ahly’s head coach – Press image courtesy of Al-Ahly’s official websiteCAIRO – 22 April 2018: Al-Ahly head coach Hossam el-Badry has announced the squad list for the team’s match against Petrojet scheduled for Sunday at 5:45 p.m. (CLT) at Suez Stadium.Al-Ahly, which leads the standing table of the Egyptian Premier League, will face Petrojet in the 33rd round of the tournament. Al-Ahly is officially the winner of the current edition of the Egyptian PL, as the difference between it and the second-placed Ismaily is 19 points.Badry continued excluding Ahmed Al-Shennawy from goalkeeping, but the list witnesses the return of right back Ahmed Fathy. The full squad list is as follows:Sherif Ekramy, Ali Lotfy, Ramadan Mostafa, Basem Ali, Walid Solaiman, Islam Muhareb, Mohamed Hany, Hossam Ghaly, Marwan Mohsen, Mohamed Sherif, Karim Ramadan, Walid Azarou, Mido Gaber, Ahmed Hamdy, Amr El-Sulaya, Hesham Mohamed, Sabry Rahil, Mohamed Naguib, Saad Samir and Ahmed Fathy.
Source:Egypt Today
April 22, 2018 07:52 UTC
Mohamed Salah among 20 fastest Premier League players
The Opta Sports network revealed on Saturday its list of the top 20 players in the English Premier League this season, which included the Egyptian football wonder and Liverpool star Mohamed Salah. Salah was on the list with 18 points at the fastest running pace of 34.93 km/h, ahead of Senegalese Liverpool player Sadio Mane, who scored 34.84 km/h. He is also on the top scorers list of the Premier League, with 30 goals, four goals ahead of his top challenger, Tottenham Hotspur star Harry Kane. Salah and Mani, who together with Roberto Firmino, were the only representatives of the Reds on the list, while Manchester City and Arsenal were represented by three players each. Manchester City’s Leroy Sane was named the fastest player of the Premier League, with a maximum speed of 35.48 km/h, just 00.04 ahead of Patrick Van Anholt, the Crystal Palace star.
Source:Egypt Independent
April 22, 2018 07:52 UTC
Egyptian market promising, has significant potential for Crédit Agricole Group: CEO - Daily News Egypt
Philippe Brassac, CEO of Crédit Agricole Group, said that the Egyptian market is promising and has significant potential for the group, anticipating an improvement in the Egyptian economy and stressing the group’s support for the continued growth of Crédit Agricole Egypt (CAE). He also met with the CAE team and inaugurated the CAE Foundation for Development. “This visit is a tribute from Crédit Agricole Group to the importance of CAE, by providing support for growth and global expertise that will enable us to serve our customers in Egypt better,” Brassac said. He confirmed that CAE is one of the leading banks of the group, which manages operations in over 50 countries. During his visit to Egypt, Brassac opened the CAE Foundation for Development to support and expand the bank’s corporate social responsibility activities.
Source:Daily News Egypt
April 22, 2018 07:18 UTC