International media attention on Friday was focused on several Egyptian issues including Morsi's information minister who was sentenced 10 years in jail, and Egypt's Central Bank's move to boost the Egyptian pound. Bloomberg Egypt steps up dollar sales as pound weakens in black market Egypt's central bank will boost foreign-currency sales to lenders by a third after a dollar shortage pushed the local currency to its weakest level in 20 months on black markets. The regulator will offer $40 million four times a week, up from the current three, it said in an e-mailed statement today. The change takes effect next week. The statement didn't address the value of the Egyptian pound at the sales. The official exchange rate has been unchanged for almost six months at 7.1401 per dollar, while on the black market it fell to 7.71 per dollar on Dec. 9, according to the average of four dealers surveyed by Bloomberg. Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-11/egypt-steps-up-dollar-sales-as-pound-weakens-in-black-market.html Press TV Egypt sentences Morsi aide to 10 years in prison Press TV reported that a court in Egypt has handed down a 10-year jail term to Salah Abdel Maqsud, the former information minister of Morsi's regime, for giving state television equipment to a satellite channel broadcasting protests in support of the ousted president, Mohamed Morsi. Not only that, Maqsud, along with another official from state television, was sentenced on Thursday, according to a court official, the two should also pay 3.5 million Egyptian pounds (USD 500,000, 400,000 euros) in fine as they are convicted of illegally benefitting from state funds and offering the state television equipment for use to the satellite channel on July 3, 2013, when Morsi was ousted. Egyptian media reported that the equipment was given to Qatar's al-Jazeera television channel, which the authorities in the North African country accuse of taking sides with Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood. Read more: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/12/11/389785/morsi-aide-gets-10year-jail-term/
