Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi has given a "green light" to systematic torture inside detention facilities, allowing officers to act with "almost total impunity", an international rights group said.

The verdict in Ibrahim Halawa's trial in Egypt is expected next Monday.

Latest: At least 28 people have died and another 22 were injured after masked militants opened fire on a bus packed with Coptic Christians, including children, south of the Egyptian capital.

A leading Egyptian activist behind the 2011 uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak has been released from prison after serving a three-year sentence for violating a ban on unauthorised protests.

Six people, including two Al-Jazeera journalists, have been sentenced to death by an Egyptian court for allegedly passing documents relating to national security to Qatar and the Doha-based TV network during the rule of Mohammed Morsi.

Egypt’s president paid tribute to the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak, saying that protesters killed during the 18-day revolt had sought to revive “noble principles” and found a “new Egypt”.

Egyptian police have killed a top commander of a local so-called 'Islamic State' affiliate in a Cairo raid, according to the country’s interior ministry.

EGYPT went to the polls yesterday.

Human rights lawyer Amal Clooney has said she is “absolutely delighted” that the Egyptian president has pardoned two journalists for Al-Jazeera English.

At least 12 people have been killed and 10 others were injured in Egypt’s south-western desert after armed forces mistakenly opened fire on a group of Mexican tourists.

Dozens of Islamic militants unleashed a wave of simultaneous attacks, including suicide car bombs, on Egyptian army checkpoints in the restive northern Sinai Peninsula yesterday, killing at least 53 soldiers.

Egypt’s state prosecutor has died of wounds sustained in a bomb attack on his convoy in a Cairo suburb.

An Egyptian court has confirmed a death sentence handed to ousted Islamist president Mohammed Morsi for a mass prison break during the 2011 uprising that brought him to power.

A ’number of Irish’ are among five killed in a US balcony collapse; Liquidators at Clerys in Dublin have told laid-off workers there are no funds to pay redundancies; and primary education is not free, but would be for an extra €103m a year, says Fergus Finlay. Just some of the latest and most read stories on irishexaminer.com.

Gunmen on a speeding motorcycle opened fire outside the plateau of the famed Giza Pyramids on the outskirts of Cairo yesterday, killing two tourist police, Egypt’s state news agency reported.

Fianna Fail will focus on childcare policy ahead of the party’s Ard Fheis this week, Munster’s Anthony Foley has dismissed claims that Paul O’Connell has been linked to French side Toulon, and woman opens fire in a McDonald’s when staff failed to give her bacon in her burger.  These are some of the latest and most read news stories on irishexaminer.com this morning.

An Egyptian criminal court sentenced ousted Islamist president Mohammed Morsi to 20 years in prison on charges linked to the killing of protesters in 2012, the first verdict to be issued against the country’s first freely elected leader.

ENDA KENNY must pick up and phone and demand the release of Ibrahim Halawa. Call the release “extradition” if it makes it easier. Extradition to Ibrahim’s own country, which is Ireland.

An Egyptian court sentenced an icon of the 2011 uprising to five years in prison yesterday, in the latest sign of authorities’ determination to stifle dissent in spite of promises by the president to release “wrongly jailed youths”.

A court in Egypt has sentenced a leading figure in its 2011 revolt to five years in prison following a retrial.

The retrial of two Al-Jazeera English journalists who face terror-related charges in a case widely criticised by human rights organisations and media groups has been postponed until March 8.

The retrial of two Al-Jazeera English journalists who face terror-related charges in a case widely criticised by human rights groups is set to begin today in Egypt.

Two journalists with the Al-Jazeera English network have been released from an Egyptian prison after more than a year behind bars on terror-related charges in a case denounced as a sham by rights groups and the international community.

Canadian Al-Jazeera journalist Mohamed Fahmy has been released from an Egyptian prison, pending a retrial.

The retrial of two detained Al-Jazeera English journalists will begin on February 12, Egyptian court officials said, in a case widely dismissed by rights groups as a sham.

An Al-Jazeera reporter who spent more than a year in an Egyptian prison has returned home to Australia.

Muslim Brotherhood supporters accused of role in killing 16 police

The sister of Ibrahim Halawa, the Irish teenager held in an Egyptian jail, has said she has renewed hope that her brother will be freed after the sudden release of another foreign citizen who was his cellmate.

A freed Al-Jazeera English reporter and his family have called on Egypt to release his two colleagues who remain behind bars, in a case widely condemned as a sham by human rights groups.

Al-Jazeera English reporter Peter Greste has left Egypt after the president approved his deportation following more than a year behind bars in a case that was widely condemned by rights groups.

Sinn Féin MEP Lynn Boylan is demanding that the EU high representative for foreign affairs Federica Mogherini meet with her to discuss the case of the Irish teenager Ibrahim Halawa.

Human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, wife of actor George Clooney, has said she was threatened with arrest when trying to publish a report into Egypt's judicial system.

An appeals court in Egypt has ordered a retrial in the case of three imprisoned Al-Jazeera English journalists.

Around 200 Egyptian journalists have rejected a recent policy declaration by newspaper editors pledging near-blind support to the state and banning criticism of the police, army and judiciary in their publications.

A bomb has exploded outside Egypt’s largest and most prominent university in the country’s capital, wounding 10 people, including six policemen.

A roadside bomb has gone off on a busy Cairo street near the Nile-side Egyptian Foreign Ministry, killing two senior policemen.

A Dublin teenager who has spent over a year imprisoned without charge in Egypt has ended the hunger strike he began in his Cairo jail cell two weeks ago.

Egypt’s deposed president Hosni Mubarak denied he ordered protesters killed in the 2011 uprising that deposed him, his first lengthy statement to a court as his retrial draws to an end.

John Kerry flew into Israel’s main airport today despite a US ban in a sign of his determination to achieve a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip – despite little evidence of progress in negotiations.

Egypt’s president has acknowledged for the first time that the heavy sentences handed down to three Al Jazeera journalists had a “very negative” impact on his country’s reputation, saying he wished they were never put on trial.

Three homemade bombs have exploded near Egypt’s presidential palace in Cairo, killing two senior police officers and injuring 10 other people.

Four minor explosions have struck subway stations in the Egyptian capital Cairo, leaving two people injured and causing widespread panic among commuters.

An Egyptian court has sentenced three journalists to seven years in prison each on terrorism-related charges.