Politics/headline news
Al-Jazeera selling sweet potatoes?
(cairolive.com, March 26, 2002)
The papers are filled with extensive coverage of the pre Arab summit preparations in Beirut.
It's interesting to note that two of the pieces of front page summit news in Tuesday's Al-Ahram originated with the Al-Jazeera satellite channel. The first, a tiny item about Libyan leader Muammar Al-Qaddhafi being upset that his own peace proposal, presented at last year's summit, was not fully discussed, is reported from comments Qaddhafi  made on an Al-Jazeera interview. There is also an item about Yasser Arafat speaking to Arab leaders in Beirut via Saudi Prince Saud Al-Faisal's mobile phone, also credited to Al-Jazeera.
In other summit related news, Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa telling Arafat that "all 22 Arab countries will be representing Palestine" at the summit if he chose not to attend, got a lot of attention, as did the full-page ad placed by a group of prominent Jewish-Americans in the New York Times last week, which was highly critical of Israel and its Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's policies.
Al-Jazeera also made the front page of Al-Akhbar on Tuesday, with Editor-in-Chief Galal Dweidar's column skewering the satellite channel for continually repeating the unsubstantiated claims that President Hosni Mubarak would not be attending the Beirut summit. Dweidar says Al-Jazeera must have been getting their news from "batata (sweet potato) sellers".

New developments
Lots of entries and a few days left
(cairolive.com, March 26, 2002) The Culture Ministry has received 420 proposals so far in its competition to select the best design for the new Grand Egyptian museum to be built near the Pyramids on the Giza-Fayoum highway. The entries have been coming in from all around the world, with 377 of them from non-Egyptian firms, report the papers.
Set to be the largest in the world, the new museum aims to showcase some 150,000 pieces of ancient Egyptian art on 117 acres of high-tech display space.
The papers also report that 11 nations have offered financial support for the project. Design and architecture firms still have till April 7 to submit their proposals.

Inventions
Patent pending
(cairolive.com, March 26, 2002) A startling figure revealed by the papers recently shows that 86 per cent of the patents given by the Egyptian patent office last year went to non-Egyptian patent seekers. Of the 430 patents awarded, 373 belong to foreigners.

Events
Papyrus boat arrives for Bibliotheca opening
(cairolive.com, March 26, 2002) A German-made boat built in Pharaonic style will be part of the gala opening ceremony next month of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. A photo of the boat -- which has just arrived in Egypt -- is on the back page of Tuesday's Al-Ahram. 
Made by German youth out of papyrus reeds, the plans are for the ancient Egyptian watercraft replica to sail from Alexandria's Eastern  port to the waters in front of the new library in a symbolic metaphor for the continuation of civilization.

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