Hosni Mubarak News

The cockpit voice recorder from EgyptAir flight MS804 has been retrieved by search teams in a breakthrough for investigators seeking to explain what caused the plane to crash into the sea killing all 66 people on board. The Airbus A320 plunged into the Mediterranean early on May 19 on its way from Paris to Cairo. Since then, search teams have worked against the clock to recover the two black box recorders crucial to explaining what went wrong, before they stop emitting signals in about a week.

A global grain glut should make purchasing wheat cheap and easy for Egypt, the world's biggest importer, but traders say one bureaucrat has made it anything but. Saad Moussa, the head of the agricultural quarantine agency, refuses to let in a single grain of wheat infected with ergot, a common fungus that can lead to hallucinations and irrational behaviour in large quantities but at trace levels is of no harm to humans. Confusion over Egypt's position on ergot levels has disrupted wheat tenders, raising the possibility of a shortage of grain which could pose a political problem for President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi as the impoverished population relies on highly subsidised bread.

Egypt staged a show of international support on Thursday as it inaugurated a major extension of the Suez Canal which President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi hopes will power an economic turnaround in the Arab world's most populous country. The former armed forces chief, who led a military takeover two years ago but ran for president as a civilian last year, told a ceremony attended by leaders of France, Russia, Arab and African states that Egypt would defeat terrorism. The $8 billion New Suez Canal project was completed in just one year instead of three on Sisi's orders…

Egypt's supply minister said on Wednesday a plan was being studied to cut the offloading period for wheat cargoes in ports from the current 12 days to five or six days in an effort to save on fees paid in foreign currency. The plan includes efforts to decrease the time it takes for paperwork to be processed and upgrade offloading equipment, Khaled Hanafi said in a statement. A slump in tourism and investment since a popular uprising ended the rule of Hosni Mubarak in 2011 has limited supplies of hard currency in Egypt, the world's largest importer of wheat. Difficulty in repatriating profits from business activity in Egypt is one of the main obstacles cited by investors since 2011. To restore foreign exchange liquidity in the long run, Egypt will need sustained economic growth.

The World Bank's development arm plans to invest between $1.2 billion and $2 billion in Egypt over the next four years, including around the Suez Canal, its regional director told Reuters. The International Finance Corporation is looking at ports and logistics projects, Mouayed Makhlouf, the IFC's director of Middle East and North Africa, said in an interview. The government is building a second waterway to accelerate trade flows through the canal, already one of Egypt's major sources of foreign currency. Besides infrastructure and energy projects, IFC is working with United Arab Emirates' renewable energy company Masdar and Saudi Arabia-based power and water project developer ACWA Power…

Fifteen tonnes of a material used to make explosives have been seized in a town straddling the Suez Canal, the Egyptian army said on Wednesday, one of the biggest such hauls since the start of a campaign against Islamist militants in the nearby Sinai. Five tonnes of the material were seized in a truck in Al Qantara East on the eastern bank of the canal, leading to a second seizure of 10 tonnes of the same material held in storage at an undisclosed location in Al Qantara West, on the opposite bank. In a short statement, the army said the truck was being driven by two men from the town of El-Arish, which borders the Palestinian Gaza Strip at the eastern edge of the Sinai Peninsula. The army gave no further details.

Egypt is enhancing exploration terms and striving to repay nearly $5 billion it owes to foreign oil and gas producers as it struggles to prevent them fleeing to more promising prospects elsewhere in Africa. Cairo needs them to expand exploration and bring new finds to production if it is to keep the lights on and avoid more civil unrest. But investors are hesitant - Egypt pays them barely enough to cover investment costs. The costing issue has been compounded since the 2011 overthrow of Hosni Mubarak by Egypt's inability to pay foreign firms for existing output and its decision to divert for domestic use the share of gas they normally get to export. The crisis has left BG Group, a major investor which relies on Egypt for almost a fifth of its output, unable to meet export commitments.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia welcomed the delivery of its two Austal-built 289 ft high speed vehicle-passenger catamarans, “Riyadh” and “Cairo” during a handover ceremony in Jeddah attended by King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and the Egyptian President Mohammed Hosni Mubarak. Ordered by the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Finance in 2007, the vessels are a gift to the Egyptian Government, and will assist in improving the standard of ferry services across the Red Sea. Operating on a 100 nautical mile route between Dibba in Saudi Arabia and Safaga in Egypt…