Residents in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula said they found a beheaded corpse of a young man on Friday.

POLITICS

Head of Free Egyptians Party resigns
The head of the Free Egyptians Party, Ahmed Saeed, has resigned for unspecified personal and professional reasons, the party said in a statement on Friday. The liberal party’s board of trustees delegated Osama Ghazali Harb to act as a charge d’affaires until a new party head is elected. A new head should be elected within three months of the former leader’s resignation.  The party’s secretary-general is preoccupied with preparations for the party’s bid for the upcoming parliamentary elections. [Ahram Online, Aswat Masriya (Arabic), EGYNews (Arabic), Gateway (Arabic), 9/19/2014]

Also of Interest:
Sisi directs Al-Ahram to hold youth political participation conference | Ahram Online
Egypt’s Sisi ratifies two agricultural and health insurance laws | Ahram Online
Nour party: No decision on electoral alliance until issuance of district law | Gateway (Arabic)
Party payments squeeze out Egypt’s youth candidates | Al-Monitor

COURTS

Adly trial over illegal gains adjourned
Giza Criminal Court adjourned the trial of Mubarak-era Interior Minister Habib al-Adly over EGP181 million in illegal gains to December 18, 2014. The Illicit Gains Authority referred Adly to trial over forming a fortune in a manner not commensurate with the sources of his income and by taking advantage of his ministerial position. The referral order said Adly achieved wealth during the period from August 1961 until the end of January 2011 in the Cairo governorate, taking advantage of his powers as head of the State Security Investigation Service and then as Interior Minister. [Egypt Independent, 9/19/2014]

Also of Interest:

ECONOMY

Egypt must cut red tape to win investors in second Suez canal, says law firm
Egypt must strip back bureaucracy to attract investment in its planned second Suez canal and bring in new laws making it easier for companies to get licenses and land, a legal firm linked to the project said. Hani Sarie-Eldin, head of Sarie-Eldin & Partners, part of a consortium advising the government on the Suez Canal project, said, “If we want this project to work, and attract investors, we need to escape bureaucracy and make the licensing process easier.” [Reuters, 9/18/2014]

Also of Interest:
Cyprus official: Egypt, Jordan interested in gas | Ahram Online
Egypt awards oil and gas exploration blocks | Reuters
Presidential decree to set up agricultural solidarity fund | SIS
Mamish: New Suez Canal project based on advanced technology | EGYNews (Arabic)

SOCIETY & MEDIA

Azhar launches inquiry into Islamic scholar’s visit to Iran
Islamic scholar Ahmed Kerima will be referred to investigations following his visit to a Shia seminary in Iran, Al-Azhar University said in a strongly worded statement issued Thursday. The Islamic university refuted media reports that Kerima went to Iran heading an official delegation from Al-Azhar. The university has sent no delegations to Iran, the statement declared, expressing its “deep dissatisfaction” with Kerima’s actions, which it called “a stark infringement of Al-Azhar and a violation of its bylaws.” The Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs will temporarily suspend Kerima’s membership until the results of the investigation are released, the council said in an official statement, as per Al-Azhar Grand Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayyeb’s orders. [Mada Masr, 9/18/2014]

Egyptian TV presenter Reem Maged joins hunger strike campaign
Egyptian journalist and television presenter Reem Maged announced on Friday that she will go on a temporary hunger strike in solidarity with detainees and prisoners who are also on hunger strike. A hunger strike campaign was launched two weeks ago in solidarity with a number of political detainees, most of whom are detained for violating provisions of a controversial protest law. Maged said via her official Twitter account that she will go on a hunger strike for 48 hours. The television host used an Arabic hashtag in her tweet, popular among the hunger strike campaigners, that translates to “We’ve had enough.” [Ahram Online, 9/19/2014]

Also of Interest:
ANHRI: Eleven journalists killed in Egypt over past forty months | Egypt Independent
PM: Strict law enforcement to prevent violence at universities | SIS
UN rights chief: Migrant deaths may be mass murder | AP
NASL calls for weeklong protests | Aswat Masriya (Arabic)
Education minister discussed with protesters against increasing school expenditure | Ahram (Arabic)
Security forces clash with pro-Brotherhood protesters in Minya | EGYNews (Arabic), AMAY (Arabic)

SECURITY

Sixteen prisoners escape from police station in Gharbeya
Sixteen detainees escaped from a police station in the city of Mahalla on Friday. Colonel Haitham Atta said that police have re-arrested six of the escapees in different parts of the Nile Delta city and are searching for the rest, while Gharbeya Security Director General Osama Bedeir said at least five of the escapees have been apprehended. [Ahram Online, Aswat Masriya, EGYNews (Arabic), 9/19/2014]

Ninth decapitated body found in Sinai
Residents in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula said they found a beheaded corpse of a young man on Friday.  The prosecution started its investigation after the corpse was moved to Arish’s Public Hospital, a security source from the police told Aswat Masriya. The residents from a village south of the town of Sheikh Zuweid in northern Sinai recognized the body and said it belonged young tribesman who disappeared over a week ago. [Aswat Masriya, 9/19/2014]

Also of Interest:
Two mortar shells fired at security camp in Sinai | Aswat Masriya
Unidentified assailants torch police car in Damanhour | EGYNews (Arabic)
Interior ministry arrests members of terrorist cell targeting police installations in Daqahliyya | EGYNews (Arabic)

INTERNATIONAL

Egypt warns against traveling to Libya’s Tobruk
Egypt’s Foreign Ministry has asked truck drivers who travel to Libya to avoid Tobruk city by all means because of its deteriorating security situation, reported the state-owned news agency MENA.  Ali al-Ashiri, Foreign Ministry Aide for Egyptians Abroad, said that those who do not abide by these instructions should bear the full responsibility of being exposed to risk. Meanwhile, an Egyptian man was killed in the city of Benghazi in eastern Libya late on Thursday. The man was killed by unknown assailants in a tailor’s shop in Benghazi’s Al-Berka district, where he was working. [Aswat Masriya, SIS, 9/19/2014]

Also of Interest:
Sisi to meet world leaders during visit to New York | Ahram Gateway (Arabic)
Mahlab meets Swiss ambassador to discuss smuggled money | DNE
Saudi King hopes to carry out restoration of Al-Azhar Mosque | Aswat Masriya
Youth Muslim association praises Saudi King’s initiative of mosque restoration | AMAY (Arabic)
Russia to carry out projects in Suez Canal corridor | SIS
Shoukry to participate in UN General Assembly | EGYNews (Arabic)