Egypt’s leader orders government to move to new capital

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s president has ordered his administration to start moving its offices next month to a sprawling new administrative capital in the desert outside Cairo. President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi has directed the government to begin working from the new complex starting Dec. 1. The $45 billion city is biggest of the mega-projects el-Sissi has launched since taking office in 2014. It is being built on 170,000 acres about 28 miles (about 45 kilometers) east of Cairo and nearly twice its size. Critics have called the new capital a vanity project, arguing its cost could have been better put to rebuilding the wrecked economy and refurbishing Cairo.