Reuters, Cairo
China signed investment and aid deals worth billions of dollars with Egypt during a visit by President Xi Jinping on Thursday and expressed support for Cairo’s efforts to maintain stability, which have included a crackdown on dissent.
Xi arrived in Egypt on Wednesday on the second leg of a Middle East tour that signals China’s push for greater influence in a region that provides vital oil supplies.
Indo-Pak secy-level talks likely soon
APP, Islamabad
Secretary-level talks between Pakistan and India will be held in the near future, said Foreign Office spokesman Qazi Khalilullah on Thursday, adding that deliberations between the two countries were going on in this regard.
The secretary-level talks were expected to start in mid-January, but were put off in the wake of the attack on the Indian air base in Pathankot. Islamabad condemned the strike and has offered to help in the investigations.
Bomb kills nine in Cairo suburb
Reuters, Cairo
Nine people, including six policemen, were killed on Thursday in a Cairo suburb near the pyramids when a makeshift bomb went off as police prepared to raid a militant hideout, security sources said.
The Interior Ministry said in a statement that its security forces had arrived in their vehicles to raid an apartment and found the building booby-trapped. The device off when they tried to defuse it. Ten people were wounded, the sources said.
US to sell Iraq huge arsenal of attack jet, munitions
AFP, Washington
The United States has approved the sale of almost $2 billion worth of bombs and missiles to equip Iraq’s squadron of F-16 attack jets in their battle against jihadist rebels.
The Defense Security Cooperation Agency said 400 American government staff and contractors would work in Iraq until at least 2020 to maintain the arsenal and train Iraqi pilots and ground crew.
