The reverberations from last month’s demonstrations is still topping coverage of Egypt in the foreign press, with NPR terming the detention of some 3,000 people a “major escalation” against dissent. The story comes as Agence France-Presse reports that two activists who played significant roles in the events of 2011 (Esraa Abdel Fattah, a blogger and journalist who co-founded the 6 April movement, and Abdallah Said, a Bread and Freedom party official) were both arrested yesterday,

Russia wants to set up a freetrade zone with Egypt and Israel, President Vladimir Putin told media ahead of his visit to Saudi Arabia, Reuters reported. No further details were provided.

Other stories worth a skim this morning:

• Independent film is growing in popularity in Egypt, and offers a space to tackle thorny social issues often avoided by mainstream cinema, the Arab Weekly says.
• E-commerce startup MaxAB talks to Forbes about how it wants to use tech to solve issues in the B2B grocery sector, which CEO Belal El Megharbel describes asEgypt’s “most complex” problem.
• Will the real Mo Salah please stand up? It turns out that the world-famous footballer has a lookalike who sometimes fills in for him in adverts, Arab News reports.
• Set to be held in Heliopolis next week, Cairo’s first honey festival is meant to encourage Egyptians to substitute saturated sugar with honey, Al Monitor reports.