|
|
register now
for site updates
(type your email here)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Politics/headline news
Cairo provides its view
Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel began his "study tour" of the Middle East in Cairo on Thursday, meeting with Foreign Minister Amr Moussa in an attempt to sound out Egypt's perspective on the heightening tensions in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Michel, whose tour will take him to Palestine, Israel, Lebanon and Syria, has been critical of Israel's treatment of the Palestinians in the past.
For more of today's headline stories, click here.
Dual nationals in the news again
Parliamentary speaker Fathi Surour was quoted in most of the papers recently as saying that nothing in the constitution would explicitly deny any dual national from running for office. His comments come in the midst of a continuing controversy surrounding various members of parliament.
Surour also explained that recent court rulings rejecting the legitimacy of several candidates' victorious runs' for office in last year's parliamentary elections, had their basis in an interpretation of a variety of different laws on the issue of dual nationality . Surour ceded, however, that the issue is still up for debate.
Miscellaneous
Sara is this year's Miss Egypt
This year's Miss Egypt is 18-year-old Sara Shaheen. Shaheen beat out 173 other young women for the title, which was awarded earlier this week at a gala event at the Cairo International Conference Center. Shaheen is on her way to Puerto Rico on May 11th to compete for the title of Miss Universe. The judges for the Miss Egypt pageant included actress Mervat Amin and writer Mohamed Salmawy.
Health
No sheesha coffee shop?
A longtime Alexandria coffee shop, located near the city's main train station downtown, has decided to do something fairly revolutionary. Called "Qahwa Alyaa Um Salalam" (roughly, "The high coffee shop with stairs"), the "qahwa" has decided to stop serving sheesha, that coffee shop staple.
In an age where people are opening coffee shops specifically to serve sheesha, banking on its growing popularity, this old-time sheesha hangout has gone in another direction altogether. Hanging on its walls these days are posters informing patrons of the dangers of sheesha smoke.
According to Al-Akhbar, the coffe eshop owners took their cure from Grand Mufti Nasr Fareed Wassel , who issued a fatwa saying that sheesha was haram (illegal) since its was harmful to the health. The are urging other coffee shops to follow suit, and hope for the support of Environment Minister Nadia Makram Ebeid in promoting the idea.
The paper says the owners are aware that most of their business comes from sheesha, but claim they will remain steadfast to their decision no matter how low revenues go.
Sheesha has become extremely popular over the past few years. What used to be the smoke of choice for the common man, mainly associated with shaabi, or more popular districts, has become high fashion everywhere, and especially amongst teenagers and twenty-somethings, who relish a night out at the "qahwa", usually an upscale place filled with trendy guys and girls enjoying the smoke, which now also comes in a multitude of flavors.
Movies
Major cutting going on
Nearly half of an unnamed American film directed by Robert Altman was spliced away by the censor's office, head censor Madkour Thabet told Al-Akhbar. Thabet, who would not provide the paper with the film's name so as not to unwittingly advertise for it for free, says the film, rated "lil kubar faqat" (adults only), suffered the most cuts of any in the history of the Egyptian censor's office.
Tourism
Tour leaders to host world event in town
A major global hotel and tour resorts organization is planning on holding its annual conference in Egypt this October. Al-Akhbar reports that the association is set to sign a contract with the Ministry of Tourism this weekend.
Nearly 1000 members of the association are expected to attend the event, which will be held at the International Conference Center in Nasr City. Though good for the growing field of conference tourism in Egypt, this particular event is doubly important since its participants are the very people the tourism industry needs to impress.
Music
Commemorating a great team
April 21 marks the commemoration of the deaths of both Sayed Mekkawi and Salah Jahin, two giants of folklore, whose most famous collaboration, Al-Leila Al-Kabira, a rollicking musical puppet show adventure about the wonderful world of mulids, is etched onto the hearts of most Egyptians.
The two men, who worked together for decades, passed away on the same day, 11 years apart: Mekkawi, the blind singer and oud master, on April 21, 1997, and Jahin, the colloquial poet extraordinaire, on April 21, 1986.
Amongst the pairs other famous collaborations are "Al-Ard Bitikalim aBabi "(The ground speaks Arabic), and the music for the film Khali Balak Min Zoozoo (Take care of Zoozoo).
Did you like this article? Send your comments to comments@cairolive.com
|
|
|
|
Browse previous news items by day
Wednesday Feb. 21
Friday February 23
Tuesday February 27
Saturday March 3
Wednesday March 7
Friday March 9
Tuesday March 13
Friday March 16
Wednesday Mar. 21
Wednesday Mar. 28
Monday April 2
Friday April 6
Monday April 9
Friday April 13
Monday April 17
Monday April 20
|
