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In brief
It finally rains
It rained briefly in the early morning on Monday, finally clearing up the muggy, dusty haze that had covered Cairo nearly all of last week.
The heat wave that descended on the city got even worse on Saturday, as steamy, sauna-like winds cast everything in a gloom. Things were not helped much by the fact that the heat was accompanied by khamasseen dust storms, which made the city feel boxed in by the surrounding deserts. Luckily, meteorologists' predictions that temperatures would drop some 10 degrees on Sunday from their 40s weekend high, came true, albeit late in the day.
Now, with just a hint of dust still in the air, and the wind a little cooler, the weather has approached its nearly normal springtime flavor.
Politics/headline news
The view from here
President Hosni Mubarak is in Washington today for talks with US President George W Bush. An interview with Mubarak in the current issue of Newsweek is getting a lot of attention in light of the visit. Mubarak told the magazine that he wants the US to take a more active role in the peace process, and that he sent a note urging Bush not to allow a US veto of a UN resolution calling for an international peacekeeping force to be sent to Palestine. The US did veto the resolution, which results, Mubarak said, in last week's Arab summit hardening its stance towards Israel.
For links to stories on the Mubarak interview and a link to the full text, click here.
Meanwhile, another event has been added to President Mubarak's schedule in Washington this week; a meeting with top Arab American and Jewish leaders, where Mubarak will set forth his vision for the future of the Middle East region. The meeting will take place on Wednesday.
For details on Mubarak's agenda in Washington, click here.
Television
Kisses in the trees
The classic Abdel-Halim Hafez film "Abi Fowq Al-Shagara" will probably not be appearing on Egyptian TV anytime soon. The film's producer, Magdi El-Amroussy of Sowt Al-Fann, does not mind offering the TV Union the rights to broadcast the film, but on one condition, reports Akhbar Al-Youm: that the film's original director, Hussein Kamal, be the one to delicately censor the 40 or so hot kisses featured in the film. El-Amroussy seems sure that they would otherwise be edited out in a way that will ruin the film's dramatic momentum...
Don't miss cairolive.com's coverage commemorating Abdel-Halim Hafez:
• "What if Abdel-Halim had lived..." by Adel Hassanein
• Read about the American rapper who lifted a melody from one of Abdel-Halim's greatest hits and topped the US pop charts.
• Al-Zaieem provides a brief history of the singer and links to Abdel-Halim on the web
• Buy Ayamna Al-Helwa: an encyclopedia of Abdel-Halim Hafez
Shaarawi mini-series in the works
We may soon see a TV miniseries about the life and times of popular sheikh Mohamed Metwalli Shaarawi.According to Akhbar Al-Youm, plans are in the works for a TV drama to be made about the sheikh's life. Partly basing the dramatization on Shaarawi's own personal memoirs, script-writer Bahaaeddin Mohamed has been working on the script for a year. It is now being looked at by the late sheikh's family, just in case they have any suggestions or corrections, the paper says. The LE4 million production will feature quite a bit of action in Shaarawi's hometown of Daqados, as well as clips from Shaarawi's famous televised sermons. The producers, however, have yet to choose a director or stars for the project.
This is Soad Hosny, from London...
Radio station Al-Sharq Al-Awsat listeners will be pleased to discover that veteran actress Soad Hosny will be reporting for the station on a weekly basis from London, where she has been living while undergoing medical treatment. Hosny's dispatches will cover the latest cultural news from the British capital. Akhbar Al-Youm reports that broadcaster Inas Gohar is the one who convinced Hosny to do the show.
Did you like this article? Send your comments to comments@cairolive.com
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