Hurgada - Combing the Red Sea beach at an Egyptian luxury resort, workers find bagfuls of plastic garbage -- but the news isn't all bad, thanks to a new environmental initiative.

Saqqara - Egypt on Saturday unveiled a cache of 75 wooden and bronze statues and five lion cub mummies decorated with hieroglyphics at the Saqqara necropolis near the Giza pyramids in Cairo.

Ismailia - Since the Suez Canal was inaugurated amid pomp and ceremony 150 years ago, it has become one of the world's most important waterways. But its anniversary will only be discreetly marked in Egypt.

Cairo - Since ascending to power in 2014, Egypt's general turned president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has imposed himself as an uncontested leader, stamping out opposition despite criticism by human rights groups.

More than 500 people have been arrested in Egypt after recent protests against President Abdel al-Sisi according to the Egyptian Centre for Economic and Social Rights who published a list of those detained.

Rafah - A lioness is beaten with sticks while her cubs are dragged away -- a Gazan zoo closed after a long campaign has reopened, with conditions seemingly as bad as ever.

G - A bomb blast hit a tourist bus near Egypt's famed Giza pyramids on Sunday, wounding some of them, including South Africans, in the latest blow to the country's tourism industry.

Hurgada - In serene turquoise waters off Egypt's Red Sea coast, scuba divers ease among delicate pink jellyfish and admire coral -- yet a rebounding tourism sector threatens the fragile marine ecosystem.

Hurgada - Egypt's Red Sea Governorate is to introduce a ban on single-use plastics that are destroying marine life, the province's top official said Wednesday.

Minia - They are more than 2,000 years old but remain in "good condition": Egypt on Saturday unveiled over 40 mummies dating back to the Ptolemaic era at a burial site in the centre of the country.

Minya - Researchers in Egypt have discovered more than 40 mummies at a burial site in central Egypt dating to the Ptolemaic era, the antiquities ministry said Saturday.

Rafah - Hamas employees retook control of the border crossing between Gaza and Egypt on Monday after the Palestinian Authority withdrew its own staff, an AFP journalist and Hamas officials said.

Madinaty - Egypt inaugurated a massive cathedral under heavy security on Coptic Christmas Eve Sunday, a day after a deadly bomb blast near a church in the country where jihadists have repeatedly targeted Christians.

G - Egyptian police killed 40 suspects in a crackdown on Saturday after a roadside bomb hit a tour bus claiming the lives of three Vietnamese holidaymakers and an Egyptian guide.

G - Two Vietnamese holidaymakers and an Egyptian tour guide were killed Friday when a roadside bomb blast hit their bus as it travelled close to the Giza pyramids outside Cairo, officials said.

Washington - The United States military withdrawal from Syria has drawn universal condemnation from everyone but Vladimir Putin. The odd, mistimed strategy may have some very strange, and hideous, consequences.

Minya - Angry Coptic Christians on Saturday buried relatives shot dead on a bus carrying pilgrims south of the Egyptian capital, as security was tightened after the second such jihadist attack on the country's main religious minority in as many years.

Rafah - It's nearly 10:00 pm when young Palestinian men begin banging drums and chanting songs, while others attach incendiary devices to balloons -- all closely watched by Israeli snipers on the border.

Rafah - The opening of the Palestinians' first airport, in the presence of US president Bill Clinton, was a symbol of the hopes for independence and peace kindled by the Oslo accords.

Shamma - As a law student in Egypt's Menufiya province, Mustafa al-Agoury was simply looking for a job to get him through his last year of classes.