E-coli a factor in death of British couple on holiday in Hurghada: Holiday-gate may be entering its denoument after Public Prosecutor Nabil Sadek said that an e-coli infection helped precipitate a heart attack that killed John Cooper, 69, according to a statement from the Tourism Ministry. His wife, Susan, a Thomas Cook employee, was also infected and is believed to have died of gastroenteritis.

The news tops coverage of Egypt in the international press, with this Reuters story getting heavy pickup. The story has been picked up by the AP and BBC, which will give it legs well into our weekend. The UK tabloid press reports that the couple’s family doesn’t believe the official report. Tour operator Thomas Cook responded shortly after that it did not see Egypt’s full report and will need some time to review the final results, Reuters reports. The company had announced earlier this week that poor hygiene standards were the likely cause of a rise in illness amongst its guests at the hotel.

Elsewhere: Rami Malek plays Freddie Mercury. Egyptian-American actor Rami Malek, of Mr. Robot fame, never worked as hard for a role as he did to play Freddie Mercury in the upcoming biopic of the iconic 1970s and 1980s rock band Queen, he tells the New York Times in an interview. You can catch the trailer for Bohemian Rhapsody here (watch, runtime: 2:38). The film is set to be released on 24 October in the UK and 2 November in the US.

Other headlines worth noting in brief:

• The UN has placed Egypt on a list of 38 countries it said have “shameful” human rights records, Reuters says.
• The Trump administration’s refugee policies is hitting refugees in Egypt and 10 other countries “particularly hard,” according to a Reuters’ special report, as these countries “had been identified as potential threats as far back as the early 2000s.”
• Egyptian producer Mohamed Hefzy tells the National he wants to steer the course of Egyptian cinema with more human stories.