Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and King Abdullah II of Jordan agreed Tuesday there could be no concessions on establishing a Palestinian state, the presidency said after talks in Cairo.

Tourists are slowly returning to Egypt, easing pressure on a key sector battered by years of turmoil and the 2015 bombing of a plane carrying Russian holidaymakers.

Rival powers in Libya have agreed to form a committee to explore amending a U.N.-backed deal to end the country's political turmoil, Egypt announced on Wednesday after hosting talks.

The Egyptian government has given the military the go-ahead to establish a pharmaceuticals company in a market hit by shortages and a dollar crunch that has driven up prices.

Egypt's High Administrative Court upheld on Monday a ruling voiding a government agreement to hand over two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia in a deal that sparked protests.

The government had appealed against a lower court ruling in June that found the controversial border demarcation agreement was illegal.

Egypt's annual inflation rate rose to 24.3 percent in December, official figures showed on Tuesday, two months after the government floated the pound sparking the biggest price hikes in years.

With a shaky economy following years of unrest and a huge drop in tourists, Egypt is struggling to preserve its fabled archaeological heritage. 

Egypt targets a five percent economic growth rate in the year to June 2018, the finance ministry said Sunday as the government seeks to revive an economy battered by political turmoil.

A bomb blast tore through a church near Cairo's Coptic cathedral during a service Sunday, killing at least 25 people in the deadliest attack in recent memory on Egypt's Christian minority.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing but Coptic Christians, who make up about 10 percent of Egypt's population, have been previously targeted in jihadist attacks.

Egyptian authorities announced Tuesday the arrest of 25 members of an international network allegedly trafficking in human organs, including university professors and doctors.