A gunman killed during a police raid on an apartment in northern Cairo is suspected of involvement in a deadly attack last month on the U.S. consulate in the Libyan city of Benghazi, police said Thursday.

Various media reports meanwhile suggested that the man who died in Wednesday's raid was a Libyan citizen who is believed to be an Al-Qaida militant.

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi's Freedom and Justice Party elected former parliament chief Saed al-Katatni on Friday to replace Morsi, who stepped down on taking over the presidency.

Katatni, who headed the Islamist-dominated parliament dissolved shortly before Morsi's election in June, beat his rival Essam al-Erian with roughly 67 percent of the vote by party delegates.

A spokesman for Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi confirmed on Thursday the authenticity of a controversial letter describing his Israeli counterpart as a "great" friend, saying it followed protocol.

The letter, sent for the confirmation of Egypt's new ambassador to Tel Aviv, was leaked to the Israeli press and sparked criticism at home for the Islamist Morsi, who has so far refused to mention Israel by name in his speeches.

Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi sought on Thursday to reassure the military after a state-owned newspaper reported corruption charges against the two army chiefs he sacked in August.

On Wednesday, the editor of Gomhuria newspaper was suspended after publishing a report saying ex-military chief Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi and chief of staff Sami Enan were barred from traveling because of a corruption probe.

In 1952, just a few months before a coup toppled Egypt's monarchy, members of the country's royal family made a home movie called "Oil and Sand" -- about a king being overthrown.

The reels were forgotten for some 60 years before being found and used in a nostalgic documentary entitled "In Search of Oil and Sand," the story of the making of the film, which premiered this week at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival.

Egypt's Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that it has asked Syria to clarify circumstances in which three Egyptians were killed in fighting in Aleppo and Homs.

The ministry said it sent an "urgent message" to Damascus demanding an explanation for the death of the men, after Syria said one of them headed an armed group in rural Aleppo.

Egypt's state prosecutor has asked the general intelligence service and Interior Ministry to provide possible evidence in a probe of Islamists over clashes with liberals last week, state media said Tuesday.

The prosecutor was acting on 53 complaints, some against senior members of President Mohammed Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood movement, of orchestrating Friday's unrest in which dozens of people were injured, Al-Akhbar newspaper reported.

Egypt is launching a civilian investigation of the country's former military rulers for their alleged role in the killing of protesters during their 18 months in power, a court official and the state news agency reported Monday.

International and local rights groups have pressed Egypt's newly elected president and other authorities to probe the council of military officers who ruled the country from the February 2011 overthrow of Hosni Mubarak to this summer. At least 120 protesters died in clashes with security forces and soldiers during this time.

Egypt's state prosecutor Abdel Meguid Mahmoud and President Mohammed Morsi agreed on Saturday that Mahmoud will stay, ending a crisis over his refusal to quit after being dismissed, an aide to the prosecutor said.

State television reported that the two met and sealed an agreement under which "the state prosecutor will stay on in his post," said deputy state prosecutor Adel Said, citing a "misunderstanding over his nomination as ambassador to the Vatican."

Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi pledged on Friday to bring to justice Mubarak-era officials, a day after his bid to sack the top prosecutor infuriated a judiciary wary of its new Islamist leader.

Morsi reopened a rift with the judges on Thursday after trying to remove the state prosecutor following acquittals of ex-regime men accused of organizing an attack on protesters during last year's uprising against Hosni Mubarak.