Egypt

The mother of a renowned Egyptian activist who recently gained British citizenship says she fears she may not see him alive again as he approaches the end of the sixth week of a hunger strike over prison conditions.

CAIRO (Reuters) -Five Egyptian soldiers were killed by militants on Wednesday in northern Sinai, the second deadly strike against security forces on the peninsula in less than a week, and the military said it had carried out air strikes in response.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi expressed hopes for deeper U.S. counter-terrorism ties during talks with a top American general on Monday, following a deadly weekend attack by militants in the Sinai peninsula, a U.S. military official said on Monday.

Islamic State on Sunday claimed responsibility for a deadly attack that killed an officer and 10 Egyptian soldiers in Egypt's Sinai peninsula, the group said on its Telegram channel.

CAIRO (Reuters) -One officer and 10 Egyptian soldiers were killed on Saturday in Egypt's Sinai peninsula when militants attacked a checkpoint at a water pumping station, an army spokesman and security sources said.

Brazil's new agriculture minister Marcos Montes will visit Jordan, Egypt and Morocco in a tour starting this week to discuss increasing fertilizer imports from those countries.

The death of Egyptian economic researcher Ayman Hadhoud requires a "thorough, transparent and credible" investigation, the U.S. State Department said on Monday, after Hadhoud died in a Cairo psychiatric hospital where he was sent by the security services that detained him.

Jordan's King Abdullah headed to Cairo on Sunday for trilateral talks with Egyptian and Emirati leaders that were not previously scheduled, the royal palace said.

Egypt's public prosecution says it has found no evidence of criminal violence in the death of an economic researcher after concluding investigations based on an autopsy report, despite concerns from human rights groups and the researcher's family.