Italian President Sergio Mattarella on Monday urged Egypt to cooperate with prosecutors seeking to try four Egyptian security officers over the torture and murder of an Italian student in Cairo.

The board of the International Monetary Fund on Friday approved the release of a second tranche of aid valued at $1.67 billion for Egypt, saying public debt and Covid-19 threatened its economic recovery.

In June, the board approved a one-year, $5.2 billion financing package for Egypt. With the latest disbursement, more than $3.6 billion will have been released.

Human Rights Watch accused Egypt Thursday of imposing punitive conditions on hundreds of inmates at one of its most notorious prisons in collective punishment for a foiled September escape attempt.

Residents of Egypt's restive North Sinai region ran for their lives when an Islamic State group affiliate occupied their villages. Now, they are returning to find their homes booby-trapped.

Social media and smartphones briefly gave youthful Arab Spring protesters a technological edge that helped topple ageing dictatorships a decade ago as their revolutionary spirit went viral.

Polling stations opened Saturday in Egypt for parliamentary elections in which there was little doubt of a sweeping victory for supporters of hardline President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi.

Egypt, which holds first round legislative elections at the weekend, has been ruled with an iron fist by Abdel Fattah al-Sisi since 2014.

Egypt's prosecutor-general has ordered the release of a journalist days after she was arrested in the country's south, amid outcry from international press freedom advocates.

Egyptian police have arrested a journalist who had been covering a crackdown in the aftermath of small-scale protests near the southern city of Luxor, her employer and lawyer said.

Mohamed Fathi, an Egyptian man who has recovered from Covid-19, winced as he watched tubes running down his arm to donate blood plasma, but insisted: "if I can help just one person, that's a very good thing".