Economy Free trade on the way?
Economy Minister Youssef Boutros Ghali has come home triumphant after
a visit to the States that resulted in what Ghali termed were American
promises to help restore Egypt's economy from the losses suffered as a
result of the September 11 terror attacks on ther US.
Amongst these measures are serious talk of establishing the
long-expected US-Egyptian Free Trade Agreement, which would open up
each country's markets to the other's goods.
Traffic Al-Azhar bridge to reappear in Nasr City?
A very interesting item on the front page of Al-Akhbar claims that the
Al-Azhar bridge, soon to be out of service thanks to the new Al-Azhar
tunnel, may be reconstructed in Nasr City after it is dismantled
from its current location.
The paper says the bridge will connect Nozha Street to Makram Ebeid --
one of the suburb's worst congested areas. Although the move seems to
have come out of nowhere, it seems appropriate when one considers how
badly motorists there have been hoping for any sort of a saviour.
Cairo governor Abdel-Rehim Shehata, who is quoted by the paper, says
the flip flop will cost LE8 milllion.
Crime Fifi Abdo maniac
The story of the 50-year-old tailor from Beni Suef who tried to rush
the stage where belly dancer Fifi Abdu was performing has been
reported heavily in the papers over the past week. More than just an
over-enthusiastic fan, this man had a mystery to solve. The man says
he received a letter from a stranger containing news that he had
married belly dancer Fifi Abdu. The stranger also allegedly gave him a
check from Fifi Abdu for LE10,000. In a burst of what the papers
called happiness, the man immediately made his way to Cairo to
confront Abdu and ask her whether or not she had married him without
his knowledge. When security personnel at the theater stopped him, he
went into an insane rage, the police say. He has been sent to the
psychiatric ward for examination, the papers report, while his case is
investigated.
Movies Mahfouz film festival in Amsterdam
A Naguib Mahfouz Film Festival will begin in the Dutch capital of
Amsterdam next Thursday. The four-week festival will feature dozens of
films either based on Mahfouz books, or else actually scripted by
Mahfouz, including the famous Cairo Trilogy and Sarsara fowq Al-Neel
(Whispers on the Nile). Mervat Amin and Nour El-Sherif -- famous for
playing lead roles in Mahfouz films -- are amongst those expected to
attend the festival's various discussions, lectures, forums and
screenings, many of which will be tributes to Mahfouz's ability to
transcend time with characters steeped in the Egyptian personality.
The festival is expected to garner much attention in Holland, where,
the Festival's director told Al-Wafd, it hopes to give a positive spin
to the war on terrorism. Mahfouz, after all, was a victim of terrorism
(the Nobel winner was stabbed in the neck in the 90s), but has managed
to continue writing to this day.
