An Egyptian court on Saturday handed a five-year jail sentence to prominent photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid, widely known as Shawkan, who earlier this year received UNESCO's World Freedom Prize.

Global rights groups have slammed Egyptian authorities for failing to prosecute members of the security forces over a bloody 2013 crackdown on protesters that left hundreds dead.

Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Thursday tasked his housing minister to form a new government after the resignation of prime minister Sherif Ismail, a spokesman for the presidency said.

Egyptian authorities have warned people to vote or risk paying a fine, as they look to boost turnout in a lackluster election that is virtually guaranteed to hand President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi a second four-year term.

El-Sissi faces only a token opponent in the vote, which resembles the referendums held by autocrats for decades before the Arab Spring uprisings of 2011 briefly raised hopes of democratic change.

In Cairo's El-Gamaleya neighborhood where Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi grew up, residents reeling from rising prices plan to support the incumbent in this month's presidential election despite economic woes.

Egyptian police arrested on Wednesday a leading government critic and party leader Abdel Moneim Abul Fotouh, security officials said, while prosecutors remanded into custody another leading dissident.

Egyptian presidential elections expected to be dominated by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi next month will be "neither free nor fair", more than a dozen human rights groups said Tuesday.

Egypt is building a major water treatment and desalination plant, the president said Monday, as the Nile-dependent nation plans for any fallout from an upstream dam being built by Ethiopia.

Former Egyptian premier and presidential hopeful Ahmed Shafiq said on Sunday he was reconsidering his intention to run in the 2018 presidential elections, after relatives said his whereabouts were unknown for around 24 hours.

Egypt's public prosecutor ordered 29 people to be detained for 15 days pending an investigation into accusations they spied for Turkey and joined a "terrorist" group, his office said Wednesday.