CAIRO – 11 January 2022: President Abdel Fattah El Sisi affirmed Egypt's support to all efforts to revive the stalled peace process during his meeting Tuesday with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Sharm el Sheikh. President Sisi also stressed Egypt's continued support to the Palestinian cause in accordance with international legitimacy, Presidential Spokesman Ambassador Bassam Radi said. Abbas, for his part, hailed Egypt's support to the Palestinian cause and efforts aiming to help the Palestinian people to confront challenges besetting their cause. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas arrived in Egypt on Sunday to participate in the fourth edition of Egypt’s World Youth Forum (WYF) in Sharm El Sheikh city. President Abbas’ two day-visit comes at President Abdel Fattah El Sisi’s invitation to attend the forum activities.

BEIJING (AP) — A third Chinese city has locked down its residents because of a COVID-19 outbreak, raising the number confined to their homes in China to about 20 million people. The lockdown of Anyang, home to 5.5 million people, was announced late Monday after two cases of the omicron variant were reported. The semiautonomous Chinese city has tightened pandemic-related restrictions in recent days after discovering the omicron variant had spread beyond people arriving from overseas. The Anyang omicron cases are believed to be linked to two other cases found Saturday in Tianjin. The city reported 13 new cases in the latest 24 hour period, down from more than a hundred a day at the peak of the outbreak.

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI), one of Egypt’s last independent human rights organizations, closed Monday. ANHRI made the announcement in a statement posted to its website, citing government pressure as the reason for its closure. As part of its mission, ANHRI provided legal defenses to victims of human rights violations. In a statement, ANHRI described political instability and expansion of arrests against human rights defenders, journalists and political activists as reasons for the organization’s closure. ANHRI’s executive director, Gamal Eid, said: “We are suspending our institutional work and activities today, but we continue to be lawyers who have a conscience, and as individual, independent human rights defenders will work side by side with the few remaining independent human rights organizations, independent human rights defenders and the entire movement.”ANHRI’s closure comes amid an increasingly severe crackdown on journalists and human rights organizations.

Carlos Queiroz, coach of the Egyptian national team, settled on pushing Trezeguet and Omar Marmoush in the starting line-up of the Egyptian team against Nigeria today, Tuesday, at the opening of the two teams’ campaign in the African Nations 2021. Queiroz’s intention is to push a formation that includes Mohamed El-Shennawy in goalkeeping, Akram Tawfiq and Mahmoud El-Wensh Ahmed Hegazy and Ahmed Fattouh in defense, Mohamed Elneny, Hamdi Fathi and Mahmoud Trezeguet in the middle, and Mohamed Salah, Omar Marmoush and Mustafa Mohamed in the attack. The draw for the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations put the Egyptian team in Group D, which includes Nigeria, Sudan and Guinea Bissau. The dates of the Egyptian national team matches in the group stage are as follows:Nigeria x Egypt at 6 pm on January 11,Egypt × Guinea-Bissau at 9 pm on January 15,Egypt × Sudan at 9 pm on January 19, 2022. Mohamed Salah, the national team player in the ranks of Liverpool, confirmed that the players will do their best during the African Nations Cup to bring the African trophy to Egypt.

CAIRO – 11 January 2022: President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi said Tuesday that the coming eight years are crucial to combat climate change, stressing salience of cooperation between governments and the private sector. The president was commenting on the panelists' talk in the discussion titled “The Pathway from Glasgow to Sharm El Sheikh: Combating Climate Change,” held on the second day of the fourth edition of the World Youth Forum (WYF). With regard to pollution, UNEP Director-General Inger Anderson stressed that to optimally combat climate change, countries where emissions originate the most, must take tougher measures in a fast pace. On another level, Ambassdor Amr Nasr, head of Climate Change and Sustainable Development Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, lamented that developing countries face a shortage in funding needed to mitigate climate change impact. It is noted that Sharm El Sheikh will also host COP27 later in 2022.

Egyptian actress Yousra has begun filming on her latest role in the drama series “Ahlam Saaeda” (Happy Dreams), set for the upcoming Ramadan drama season. The series is written by Hala Khalil and directed by Amr Arafa, who previously collaborated with Yousra in the series “Saraya Abdeen”. Youstra stars alongside Ghada Adel, May Kassab, Nour Mahmoud and Nabil Nour Eddine, in addition to a group of other actors who will be announced later. in 2002, then “Malak Rohi” in 2003, Yousra is known for performing television series that discuss the most important societal issues. Last season, Yousra presented “Harb Ahlia” (Civil War) with Basil Khayat and Jamila Awad.

MOSCOW (AP) — The authorities in Kazakhstan said Monday that nearly 8,000 people were detained by police during protests that descended into violence last week and marked the worst unrest the former Soviet nation has faced since gaining independence 30 years ago. The country’s Health Ministry said Sunday that 164 people, including three children, were killed in the unrest. As the unrest mounted, the ministerial cabinet resigned and President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev replaced Nursultan Nazarbayev, former longtime leader of Kazakhstan, as head of the National Security Council. Speaking at an extraordinary virtual summit of CSTO on Monday, Tokayev promised to reveal to the world “additional evidence” of a “terrorist aggression” against Kazakhstan. Russian President Vladimir Putin echoed his sentiment and called the unrest “an attack on the country” and “an act of aggression” masterminded from abroad.

CAIRO - 10 January 2022: Egyptian 14 Egyptian companies obtained a permit from an international company to manufacture medicines that help reduce the severity of the COVID-19 in simple cases, said Presidential Advisor for Health Affairs, Mohamed Awad Tageldin on Monday. In Media comments to state-owned Channel 1, he added that Egypt would start producing COVID-19 drug this month, stressing that these drugs, with adopting preventive measures and vaccines that represent the main and basic prevention in limiting the disease. Four days ago, a source at the Ministry of Health and Population told Al Watan newspaper Thursday that consignments – whose size ranges between 20,000 and 50,000 doses - of anti-COVID-19 drugs will arrive in Egypt by the end of January. The source elaborated that those include "Baclofen" (20,000 doses); and "Evusheld" (50,000); and the Egypt-produced "Molnupiravir."

Another 20 people tested positive on Sunday, bringing the total to 40. Both were infected by the omicron variant. In subsequent testing of close contacts, 18 others tested positive and 767 tested negative as of Saturday night. China had reported about a dozen omicron cases previously, most among people who had arrived from abroad and were isolated. ___This story has been corrected to say the number of confirmed cases in Tianjin is 40, not 41.

CAIRO, 10 January 2022: The results of COVID-19 tests that the Egyptian team underwent by the African Confederation “CAF” came negative before the match between Egypt and Nigeria, scheduled for tomorrow evening, Tuesday, in the first round of the African Nations Cup. The Egyptian national team's Portuguese coach, Carlos Queiroz, will hold a press conference at 1:30 pm, Monday, to talk about Nigeria's match in the opening of the Pharaohs' African Cup of Nations campaign, in the presence of Mohamed Salah, the leader of the Pharaohs. The Portuguese coach, Carlos Queiroz, the coach of the Egyptian national team, included 26 players in the list of the Egyptian national team, to participate in the African Nations Cup. The duo, Khaled El Darandali, Vice-President of the Football Association, and Hazem Imam, a member of the Council, will join the delegation of the Egyptian team in Cameroon after the Pharaohs passed the first round of the African Nations Championship. Gamal Allam, head of the Football Association, traveled to Cameroon with the Egyptian national team as head of the mission, accompanied by Major General Helmy Mashhour, a member of the Gabaliya Board of Directors.

CAIRO – 10 January 2022: Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al Sisi said that Egypt was one of the few countries around the word that achieved a growth rate amidst the Corona pandemic. ‘Several and complete sectors shutdown completely all around the world’, Sisi said. According to President Sisi, Egypt also supported irregular employment during the pandemic with financial aids. “In Egypt, we were never afraid of COVID-19, yes we sticked to the precautionary measures, but work never stopped” President Sisi affirmed. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas arrived in Egypt on Sunday to participate in the he fourth edition of Egypt’s World Youth Forum.

BANGKOK (AP) — A court in Myanmar sentenced ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi to four more years in prison on Monday after finding her guilty of illegally importing and possessing walkie-talkies and violating coronavirus restrictions, a legal official said. Suu Kyi was convicted last month on two other charges and given a four-year prison sentence, which was then halved by the head of the military-installed government. Suu Kyi was convicted last month on two other charges — incitement and breaching COVID-19 restrictions — and sentenced to four years’ imprisonment. Since her first guilty verdict, Suu Kyi has been attending court hearings in prison clothes — a white top and a brown longyi skirt provided by the authorities. Additional charges were also added by Myanmar’s election commission against Suu Kyi and 15 other politicians in November for alleged fraud in the 2020 election.

(Reuters) – After a turbulent build-up, and still under a cloud of doubt, the Africa Cup of Nations finals gets underway in Cameroon on Sunday but with the tournament’s long-term future in doubt. Africa’s support for FIFA president Gianni Infantino’s proposal to change the frequency of the World Cup to every two years threatens the Cup of Nations, which is already biennial. Africa’s 54 member associations voted unanimously at last year’s congress to back the idea of a more frequent World Cup, but without discussing how it would affect their own tournament on a packed international calendar. Now expanding to 24-teams, the Cup of Nations is proving to be a strain on resources. The Cup of Nations is being played in January because of the heavy mid-year rainy season in Cameroon but will revert back to a June-July slot when Ivory Coast host the next finals in 2023.

MOSCOW (AP) — Kazakhstan’s health ministry said Sunday that 164 people have been killed in protests that have rocked the country over the past week. It is not clear if the deaths refer only to civilians or if law-enforcement deaths are included. Kazakh authorities said earlier Sunday that 16 police or national guard had been killed. the country’s ombudswoman for children’s rights said that three of those killed were minors, including a 4-year-old girl. The ministry earlier reported more than 2,200 people sought treatment for injuries from the protests, and the Interior Ministry said about 1,300 security officers were injured.

U.S. officials on Saturday unveiled some details of the administration’s stance, which seem to fall well short of Russian demands. But they also said Russia will be hit hard with economic sanctions should it intervene in Ukraine. Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused Russia of “gaslighting” and mounting a full-scale disinformation campaign designed to blame Ukraine, NATO and particularly the United States for the current tensions and undercut Western unity. Thus, the intensified U.S. and allied effort to forge common positions on both the warnings and the “severe costs” to Russia if it moves against Ukraine. While expressions of unity have been forthcoming, Blinken was not optimistic about prospects for success in the talks.