Finance Minister Ahmed Galal has said Egypt does not need a loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) at the current time, Al-Ahram reported on Wednesday.

GOVERNMENT & OPPOSITION

Sisi: Army faces ‘rumors and lies’
Defense minister General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi met with the officers and conscripts of the western military area in celebration of Eid. Al-Sisi asserted his conviction to implement the transitional roadmap in cooperation with other state institutions despite rumors and lies faced by the army. Al-Sisi also highlighted the readiness of the armed force to assume its assigned responsibilities. After the gathering, the defense minister met with leaders of Martrouh’s tribes. He said that “ousted president Mohamed Morsi was a kind man, but he was not the real ruler of the country.” [Cairo Post, Ahram Gate (Arabic), Tahrir (Arabic), Shorouk (Arabic), 10/17/2013]

Troubled Constitution Party hit with fifty-four resignations in Egypt’s Alexandria
Fifty-four members of Egypt’s liberal Dostour (Constitution) Party office in Alexandria submitted their resignations in protest at the troubled party’s internal policies, the state-owned daily Al-Ahram reported Wednesday. Those resigning include deputy secretary-general and head of the Alexandria office Mostafa Said, as well as the treasurer and heads of several committees in the Alexandria office. Resigning media head Hazem Arafa told Al-Ahram that the members’ action came in protest at the party’s concentration on its political project while lacking a “realistic economic programme” and also lacking a “large popular base” that could support the party in upcoming elections. [Ahram Online, 10/16/2013]

Also of Interest:
Egyptians Abroad calls for simultaneous parliamentary and presidential elections | Cairo Post
Tamarod says Egypt draft protest law is unjust | Ahram Online, Shorouk (Arabic), Ahram Gate (Arabic), Tahrir (Arabic)
Salafist leader criticizes draft protest law | Ahram Online
Nour Party: list system allows representation of Egypt’s different groups | Cairo Post
Shafiq about to return to Egypt and considering bid for presidency | Cairo Post
Al-Jama’a al-Islamiya rejects protest law | Ahram Gate  (Arabic)
Lawyers’ Syndicate Freedoms Committee rejects protest law | Shorouk (Arabic), Ahram Gate (Arabic)  

COURTS & CONSTITUTION

Egypt constitution not drafted with specific people in mind: Amr Moussa
The head of Egypt’s Constituent Assembly, Amr Moussa, has said the charter will not protect specific individuals, but will define the status of the country’s institutions. Controversy was sparked when the pro-Muslim Brotherhood Rasd news outlet published a purported conversation between army chief Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi and Yasser Rizk, editor-in-chief of Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper. During the recording a voice, allegedly belonging to al-Sisi, said he wanted his position as defence minister safeguarded in the constitution. [Ahram Online, SIS, 10/17/2013]

Also of Interest:
Nineteen members of Ultras Ahlawy released on bail | Tahrir (Arabic)  

ECONOMY

Egypt doesn’t need IMF loan at current time: Finance minister
Finance Minister Ahmed Galal has said Egypt does not need a loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) at the current time, Al-Ahram reported on Wednesday. His comments came after IMF managing director Christine Lagarde said last week that IMF was strongly committed to working with the new Egyptian authorities and proposed to send a mission to Cairo if requested. Galal explained that Egypt did not need the loan because the need for cash and to assert its credibility among international investors through an IMF agreement no longer existed. Two years of negotiations over a $4.8 billion loan have passed without an agreement between the two sides, mainly because of the reluctance of successive Egyptian governments to impose reforms that would squeeze living standards, such as lifting fuel subsidies and raising taxes. [Ahram Online, Ahram Gate (Arabic), 10/16/2013]

Electricity Minister: EGP 2.2 billion allocated for investing in power transforming projects
Minister of Electricity Ahmed Imam said on Wednesday that the ministry has allocated EGP 2.2 billion for investing in a number of proposed projects in the power transforming field to be implemented during the current five-year plan 2012-2017. The plan includes the establishment of eleven transformer stations of high voltage with capacities of 4,600 megavolt to be operated within 2014-2017 as well as the replacement and renovation of conductors on 220 kilovolt voltage with other thermal conductors. [SIS, 10/17/2013]

Supermarkets to sell subsidized products
Supermarkets and grocers will soon be allowed to sell subsidized products like cooking oil and rice, Supply Minister Mohamed Abu-Shadi said. “The experiment will be trialed in one governorate before it is rolled out across the country,” he said. There will be an extended range of subsidized products available, Abu-Shadi added. Egypt provides a limited amount of subsidized rice, sugar, cooking oil and tea. According to the 2013/14 budget, 17.6 million ration cards have been issued, benefiting 66.6 million people. [Ahram Online, 10/16/2013]

Also of Interest:
New Toshka city to be built | AMAY (Arabic)
36,000 tourists visit Hurghada | AMAY (Arabic)
13.8 percent increase in food price and inflation rate reached 10.9 percent | AMAY (Arabic)

SOCIETY & MEDIA

Amnesty says Egypt should stop arresting, deporting Syrian refugees 
The international human rights group Amnesty International accused Egypt Thursday of “unlawfully detaining and deporting hundreds of Syrian refugees, many of them women and children fleeing civil war at home.” “Egypt should be helping Syrians get back on their feet, not hindering them at every turn,” Sherif Elsayed Ali, Amnesty’s head of refugee and migrants’ rights, said in a published statement. Hundreds of refugees who fled Syria, including scores of children, many of them without their parents, face ongoing detention in poor conditions, or deportation, according to Amnesty, which said that during a visit to a police station in Alexandria last week it found approximately forty refugees from Syria unlawfully and indefinitely detained there, including ten children. The youngest of these were two one-year-old twins who had been held there since September 17. [AP, Ahram Online, Shorouk (Arabic), 10/17/2013]

Pro-Morsi Coalition calls on protests
As one hundreds days passed since the removal of President Mohamed Morsi from office, the National Coalition to Support Legitimacy has called for massive protest to be held on Friday across the country. [Shorouk (Arabic), AMAY (Arabic), Ahram Gate (Arabic), 10/17/2013]

Also of Interest:
Army hands out food supplies in Beni Suef | Shorouk (Arabic)
Radio and TV chairman asks Arabs and Africans to stand against Al-Jazeera | Cairo Post
April 6 condemns attack on Alaa al-Aswany in Paris | Cairo Post, Shorouk (Arabic)
Amid new attacks, Egypt’s Copts preserve heritage | AP

SECURITY

Militants killed in northern Sinai
Six armed men were killed on Thursday morning during their preparations to attack a checkpoint near the Arish Airport in the Sinai Peninsula. Two local residents were injured amid the attack and transferred to al-Arish General Hospital, MENA said. Eyewitnesses said that a vehicle carrying six men stopped to launch an attack on security forces at a checkpoint in al-Arish but the targeted personnel opened fire on them, killing them immediately. [Ahram Online, Aswat Masriya, 10/17/2013]

Also of Interest:
Security campaigns underway | Cairo Post
Military source denies Air Forces’ penetration of Gaza border | Cairo Post

REGIONAL & INTERNATIONAL

Nineteen Egyptian fishermen detained in Tunisia
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Wednesday that it is negotiating with its Tunisian counterpart the release of nineteen Egyptian fishermen boarded on a fishing vessel that entered Tunisian territorial waters. The ministry’s spokesperson Badr Abdel-Aaty said that the Egyptian embassy hired a lawyer to file an appeal for the fishermen’s case on Thursday. [Cairo Post, 10/17/2013]

Egypt to compensate Jordan for the cut of gas supplies
Egypt will recompense Jordan for the cut of gas supplies and will meet all the demands of the local market, said chairman of state-owned Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) Taher Abdel Rahim on Monday. “Egypt is determined to resume the natural gas supplies to Jordan as soon as possible,” Rahim said. The pipeline supplying Jordan with natural gas has been bombed sixteen times since the overthrow of former President Hosni Mubarak in February 2011. [Cairo Post, 10/17/2013]

Also of Interest:
Egypt to participate in the Arab-African summit in Kuwait in November | Shorouk  (Arabic)