In the course of the visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to Egypt on January 20-22, 2016, Egypt and China announced a five-year, multi-sector cooperation agreement. [...] On a symbolic level, Egypt and China also declared 2016 as “the Egyptian-Chinese cultural year.”

This dearth of policy stands in stark contrast to the role played by an influential State Department policy maker turned Google executive, Jared Cohen, in formulating and facilitating a form of "soft" regime change policy in Egypt during the "January 25 Revolution" known as "digital democracy." 

Closer economic ties will top the agenda during Chinese President Xi Jinping's visits to Egypt, Iran and Saudi Arabia this week. However, Chinese mediation in the feud between Tehran and Riyadh is unlikely, say experts.

Ethiopia, Egypt, and Sudan signed a technical agreement Tuesday about the Grand Renaissance Dam, which is being constructed at the source of the Blue Nile in Ethiopia. The Ministers of Irrigation and Foreign Affairs of the three countries signed the accord after two days of deliberations in the Sudanese capital.

In most other countries, you might be forgiven for wondering what possible link there might be between an archaeological discovery and the national economy […] In Egypt, however, archaeology and tourism are intimately connected [...] the economy is maintained by the pharaoh's gold standard. Egypt has two great tourism assets: its hundreds of miles of Red Sea beaches and the great monuments from its long history.

Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi has described claims that militants linked to Islamic State brought down a Russian airliner as "propaganda" […] "When there is propaganda that it crashed because of Isis (IS), this is one way to damage the stability and security of Egypt and the image of Egypt. Believe me, the situation in Sinai - especially in this limited area - is under our full control."

A new Palestinian PR campaign attempts to recast the conflict by comparing Israeli violence against Palestinians to methods used by Islamic State.  [...] Palestinian public diplomacy increasingly contests the interchangeability of terms in the media for the Haram al Sherif (Noble Sanctuary) and the Temple Mount, which is the Jewish term for the site.