CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt’s Christians feel sidelined, ignored and neglected by Muslim Brotherhood-led authorities, who proffer assurances but have taken little or no action to protect them from violence, Coptic Pope Tawadros II said.

In his first interview since emerging from seclusion after eight people were killed in sectarian violence between Muslims and Christians this month, the pope called official accounts of clashes at Cairo’s Coptic cathedral on April 7 “a pack of lies”.

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi held crisis talks with the country’s top judges on Monday after the justice minister resigned over demands by the ruling Muslim Brotherhood for a “purification” of the judiciary.

The secular, liberal and left-wing opposition denounced what it called a planned “Brotherhoodisation” of the judiciary and called for demonstrations outside parliament.

MINYA, Egypt, April 15 (Reuters) – Egypt’s Islamist-led
government must be dreaming if it expects a bumper wheat
harvest over the next six weeks that will save the country
billions of dollars in imports, says farmer Farid Boshra Abdel
Malek.

“How can they expect any increase in wheat production when
they are not providing us with water, fuel for our machines or
much-needed enrichment seeds?” said the wheat grower in Matay
village, near the city of Minya in the lush but slender Nile
valley that is this desert nation’s granary.

CAIRO, March 27 (Reuters) – Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi
said on Wednesday parliamentary elections could be delayed until
October, a postponement which could give his cash-strapped
administration breathing space to negotiate an IMF deal.

Mursi’s original plan was for a four-stage election that
would start in late April and put a parliament in place by July.

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi said on Wednesday parliamentary elections could be delayed until October, a postponement that would give his cash-strapped government breathing room to negotiate an IMF deal.

Mursi’s original plan was for a four-stage election that would start in late April and put a parliament in place by July.

CAIRO, March 13 (Reuters) – Egypt’s strategic stocks of
wheat have fallen to 2.207 million tonnes, enough to last 89
days, a cabinet report said on Wednesday, as the top global
importer struggles to ensure supply through an economic and
political crisis.

Economic turmoil in the North African country has made it
harder it to arrange payments for wheat imports, with the pace
of purchases having tumbled since the start of the year.

CAIRO, March 11 (Reuters) – Egypt is studying an IMF offer
of a bridging loan, a finance ministry source said on Monday, as
Cairo tries to weather a currency and budget crisis deepened by
political uncertainty and violence on the streets of its cities.

In Washington, the International Monetary Fund said Egypt
needed bold and ambitious action to tackle its economic problems
urgently and it could get temporary IMF funding while it
negotiated a long-delayed full loan programme.

DOHA/CAIRO, March 11 (Reuters) – Egypt’s wealthy benefactor
Qatar dampened speculation on Monday of rapid extra funding to
help Cairo through a currency and budget crisis, as pressure
grows at home on the Islamist government to come clean about the
state of the economy.

With public anger rising over shortages of diesel fuel, the
Cairo government dismissed two top energy industry officials
over distribution problems, but sceptical Egyptians say they
think the state no longer has the money to import enough oil.

CAIRO, March 11 (Reuters) – Telecom Egypt reported
a 12.8 percent fall in full-year net profit, hit by economic
turmoil in the north African country and a further decline in
its fixed-line business as customers switch to mobile phones.

The company, which is hoping growth in data services will
offset lower fixed-line income, said on Monday it made a net
profit of 2.61 billion Egyptian pounds ($386 million) last year,
compared with 2.99 billion in 2011.

CAIRO, March 10 (Reuters) – Egypt on Sunday rejected any
suggestion of stop-gap IMF funding to help it through a
political and economic crisis, saying only broad structural
measures as part of a package agreed with the Fund can tackle
the country’s soaring budget deficit.

With Islamist President Mohamed Mursi struggling to contain
violent protests, new figures released on Sunday showed a jump
in inflation, which will hurt the poor hardest and is likely to
stir yet more social unrest.