CAIRO:-  Egypt’s top administrative court ordered authorities Saturday to block video-sharing website YouTube in the country for a month, after a years-long appeals process over a blasphemous film, a judicial official said. A lower court had ordered the video sharing site be blocked in 2013 after it carried the video, but the case was appealed by Egypt’s National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority and its ruling was stayed. The ruling is considered final and cannot be appealed. As of Saturday afternoon, YouTube was still accessible in Cairo. Washington sought to keep a lid on the demonstrations by saying the controversial film was made privately with no official backing.–AFP

US officials said freedom of speech laws prevented them from stopping the production of inflammatory material.