Headline news
Party on the Nile
(cairolive.com, July 24, 2002) Thousands of people turned up for the downtown celebrations commemorating the 50th anniversary of the July 23 Revolution

READ MORE ABOUT THE PARTY

GO STRAIGHT TO THE PHOTO ALBUM

READ MORE ABOUT THE REVOLUTION

In brief
No end to heat-wave?
(cairolive.com, July 18, 2002) Yes, it's still very hot, so hot that Thursday's Al-Ahram dedicates a half page to a feature called "Al-Gaw Narr" (The Weather's On Fire)...
In this article, instead of making predictions as to when the heat wave will break, as meteorologists have been doing for the past few weeks, the weather experts say the heat is going to be with us for a long time yet.
Highs are currently in the low 40s for Cairo and the high 40s in Aswan.

Education
Testing the press
(cairolive.com, July 18, 2002) The results of this year's Thanawiyya amma secondary school exams have appeared. The grueling series of tests that are the prime determinant of high schoolers' future careers always attract a great deal of press attention, and this year was no exception.
This year, more service providers have decided to feature the scores on their web sites. In the week leading up to today's official announcement of the scores, the papers were filled with ads for these services. Press giants Al-hram and Al-Akhbar both offer the service on their web sites, as well as via their free internet "07" number. The most creative online results service name goes to http://control.yalla.com which is named after the "control" room where the tests are graded. 
Another consortium of companies offers test scores via a per minute "09" telephone service -- 0900 0780.
Looking for scores online is clearly a popular activity, as some of the recent traffic results for cairolive.com show. Our story on last year's failed attempts to bring the scores to the web attracted a lot of traffic, probably via people using search engines to look for sites that featured the word "thanawiyya amma". Unfortunately, all we were able to offer last year was a guess regarding the web site address printed in the papers, all of whose variations turned out not to be working.
"Tears and joy" seems to take first place as the most popular headline accompanying stories in the paper this year about students dropping by their schools to see how they did. The articles -- part of the papers' annual extensive coverage -- all feature photos of students alternately crying, smiling, and fainting, depending on how well or poorly they have done.
Al-Wafd editor in chief Magdi Mehanna -- who says that he rarely writes about religious matters -- says he couldn't help noticing that all of the top 7 female students in this year's thanawiyya amma class wear the hijab. Mehanna says this reveals that wearing the hijab has truly become a widespread phenomenon, and that there may be some link between wearing hijab and being a success in school. Mehanna says he doesn't want to generalize about this being true at all levels of the educational ladder, but in this particular case it appears to be true, and thus deserves some further study.

TO TAKE A LOOK AT LAST YEAR'S COVERAGE OF THANAWIYYA AMMA AND ITS CONFUSING ON-LINE NON-PRESENCE, CLICK HERE

Television
Battling for the crown
(cairolive.com, July 18, 2002) It looks like yet another blockbuster TV series starring Nour El-Sherif is in the works. The personalities played by El-Sherif have literally dominated the TV watching public's fare over the past decade. The actor's most recent success was in last Ramadan's A'ilat Al-Hagg Metwalli, where, as a man with four wives, he shined in yet another rags to riches story of a good guy with problems. El-Sherif has played similar roles in Al-Ragul El-Akher (The Other Man) and Lan A'ish fi gilbab Abi (I Will Not Live in My Father's Galabiya). 
Al-Attar wal Sabaa Banaat (The spice dealer and the seven girls) is the name of Nour's latest effort, which co-stars Raghda, and will also attempt to recreate the romantic magic between El-Sherif and actress Magda Zaky. It deals with the family struggles between two sons of a wealthy trader, a struggle that becomes a battle after he dies. El-Sherif plays both the elder Hagg Salah and one of the younger sons.
Al-Attar is set to grace our screens next Ramadan.

TO READ MORE ABOUT HAGG METWALLI, HIS FOUR WIVES AND WHAT THEY MIGHT REPRESENT, CLICK HERE

Events
Family man
(cairolive.com, July 18, 2002) A photo caption in one of Al-Ahram's July Revolution 50th jubilee series of special sections, shows President Gamal Abdel-Nasser cruising through Cairo in his convertible Cadillac during a parade, with the crowds waving.
"Hasib!" he yells out -- Watch out! -- as a young child runs across the street in front of the car.
The photo is taken at just the perfect moment, capturing Abdel-Nasser's stern and compassionate warning. The caption doesn't say who the talented photographer is, but features quite a bit of poetry on how fatherly Abdel-Naseer was.

CLICK HERE FOR THE PHOTO AND ARTICLE

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