Egypt in the News on 16 September 2018
Driving the conversation on Egypt this morning: The arrest of Gamal and Alaa Mubarak in the ongoing (neverending) Al Watany Bank case. As we note in Speed Round, above, former EFG Hemes bosses Hassan Heikal and Yasser El Mallawany were also reportedly arrested yesterday and ordered detained until the next hearing in the case, presently scheduled for late October.
Lebanese insult-video tourist out of jail, leaves the country: The Lebanese tourist jailed for posting a crude video on Facebook deemed “insulting” to Egypt has left the country after she was released from custody. The Wall Street Journal and Reuters have coverage.
Other headlines worth a look this morning:
- Let’s grow soy: Egypt’s climate offers perfect conditions for growing soy, which requires four times less water than rice, Cargill says, according to Hellenic Shipping News.
- The latest in Holiday-gate: The UK will begin on Tuesday inquests into the death last month of a couple in Hurghada, BBC reports.
- 802 tombs located: A joint Egyptian-foreign expedition pinpointed the locations of 802 tombs under the desert in Lisht village, south of Al Ayyat, in Giza, according to National Geographic.
- We hide stuff from our families? Young Egyptian women are often forced to hide their true worldviews from their families, writes Eman El Sherbiny for Open Democracy.
- FGM: African countries, including Egypt, are failing to enforce laws that protect women from FGM, according to a report by the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
- Death sentences: An Egyptian court sentenced three men to death and another 41 to life on Thursday over a 2013 attack on a police station south of Cairo, AP said in a report.