Tarek Atia's web log
Find
out how
the world media sees Egypt...
Mummification
rules
A little bit too
much gory detail in this article about mummification in
Australian media entity The Age.
Meanwhile, in the States, a guy called Corky Ra is
actually offering
people the chance to be mummified after they die. The process
costs $74,000. "Mummification seems a more civilized way to go
than burning or burying," said Donna Gray, 60, of Salt Lake
City, who has agreed to do it. While he hasn't yet mummified any
real people "Corky" has conducted extensive experiments with the process
on animals.
And... here's a
look at the embalming
-- partly inspired by ancient Egyptian mummification -- that
was done to deceased soldiers in the US civil war.
Flashback...
US television audience uncovers
a mummy -- live!
Strange
request?
Did the US ask for Egyptian peacekeeping troops in Iraq? This article
claims it did, but also posits that that would be a very
difficult proposition for Egypt to accept, since it would appear
to legitimize the US occupation of Iraq.
Case to become
more high profile?
Another Brit
arrested in Hizb U-Tahrir case
Web
posted by Tarek Atia Saturday, July 19, 2003 19:00 CAIRO
Who's
money is it?
The strange case of the $600,000
that an Egyptian American tried to smuggle out of the US.
5 million
expected
Tourism drop for 2003 not as
bad as expected, minister announces.
PA Blessing
Arafat says "without the efforts of Egypt, the Palestinians would
never reach a Hudna
(ceasefire) with Israel"
Another road
tragedy
Bus and truck collide, killing
15. When will the river of blood stop flowing on Egypt's roads...
Meanwhile...
A Japan-Egypt medical research mission was involved in a
minor collision with an Iraqi on Sunday night...
Web
posted by Tarek Atia Thursday, July 17, 2003 22:00 CAIRO
Tea to the
rescue
Egypt makes the headlines again as an African-Indian tea war heats
up...
In this article
from an African paper, Egypt is heavily feted for being a top
Mombasa tea buyer.
Meanwhile, another
very specialized article makes clear that India
is looking to Egypt as a potentially big tea customer for its own
market.
In fact, India is
actively trying to grab a share of the tea business Egypt is doing
with Africa (as celebrated in the article above) for itself -- by
offering perks that would compete with inter-African trade's COMESA-based
benefits.
Error-prone
item on Egypt's reaction to the new Iraq council
El-Akhbar's
editor is called Jalal Duridar instead of Galal Dweidar. The item
also obviously appeared before Egypt released an official statement on
the council, as it says no statement had yet appeared.
More
Mido... BBC says Marseilles deal makes Mido "the
most expensive Egyptian player ever."
Web
posted by Tarek Atia Wednesday, July 16, 2003 5:00 CAIRO
How do you say that?
Here's a very interesting tidbit, that will seem familiar to any
Egyptian who has had trouble getting people in the West to pronounce
their name correctly: Hoda Kutb, a famous media personality of Egyptian origin
in the United States, discusses the travails she faced in getting people to pronounce
her last name properly.
In a bid to make
it easier for people, she actually officially changed the spelling of
her name for a while, but even that didn't work, so she has now changed it
back to the original spelling...
Heart trouble
Mamdouh Mahran, the man responsible for the scandalous monk story in
the paper Al-Nabaa, died
while serving a three year prison term for publishing the story.
Inked deals
Mido signs a five year deal with Marseilles, and -- interestingly
enough -- says one of the main
reasons he chose the French club was because of how popular it is
in Cairo...
Meanwhile,
according to Soccer Way, "Antonio Oliveira, who led Portugal at
last year's World Cup, was named the
new coach of Al-Ahli." Whether or not he will make a
difference in the team's performance remains to be seen.
No clash
Islamic nations should "wholeheartedly
open our arms to the people who want peace with us, and
reject violence against the innocent, says Al-Azhar's Tantawi at an
Islamic conference in Malaysia.
Web
posted by Tarek Atia Monday, July 14, 2003 18:00 CAIRO
Not likely
Finally,
an interesting and figure-rich take -- courtesy of Gulf News and the Arab
Advisors Group -- on the mixed up situation with mobile operators.
An
advisory report draws a
link between the weaker pound and the viability of a third GSM
operator -- the would-be Wataniya network from national phone
company Telecom Egypt -- actually being able to
do business in the current economic climate.
Luxor resolved?
AP reports that "a suspected
planner of the 1997 Luxor massacre that killed 62 people ... was
handed over by Uruguayan authorities to Egyptian police
Thursday."
Tragedy in
Brooklyn
Tiny Egyptian baby dies
in tub
Web
posted by Tarek Atia Thursday, July 12, 2003 14:00 CAIRO
Cross-cultural soccer
business
Egyptian Ajax star Mido's price tag to move to Marseilles is 12
million Euros,
according to Middle East Online.
Meanwhile, Rami
Shaaban does good work for his European team -- soccer giants Arsenal
-- at Egypt's Wadi Degla Children's Football Club.
Heavy
involvement
Although
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said he hoped the peace process was successful,
he also admitted -- on Monday -- to having many serious
doubts about its viability. "I don't want to be pessimistic,
because I want peace to be established in the region. But I have many
doubts, and I hope that the Israeli government follows and frees
prisoners and settles all these problems," he said.
AFP calls Syrian
President Bashar El-Assad's Cairo meeting with Mubarak a "lightening
visit". Including Syria in the steadily growing peace process
seems to have been the main item on the agenda.
Egypt, meanwhile,
is still actively involved in the Palestinian track of the peace
process. By Wednesday Palestinian officials were telling the press
that "the
Egyptians are here to calm things down and help the truce endure."
One of the items under contention is Palestinian prisoners, an issue
Egypt is helping negotiate, although this
article does not provide much other detail.
The title says
it all
Egypt to Put Ancient Mummified
Pets on Show
Another Egyptian cross-continental child custody
case...
This one involves an Egyptian father and an American mother. The
father took the kids and has led the mother on a global goose chase
that has somehow ended
up in Cuba, as this story in a Cuban newspaper recounts.
Web
posted by Tarek Atia Thursday, July 10, 2003 16:00 CAIRO
African champion
With Bush off on an African tour, the
Associated Press takes a look at US presidential visits to Africa
over the past 60 years or so. Interestingly -- Egypt has hosted the
lion's share of these visits -- 10 since 1943.
Web
posted by Tarek Atia Wednesday, July 9, 2003 5:00 CAIRO
Major music
piracy bust
Some 2
million illegally copied tapes are confiscated from an apartment
in Giza.
The raid is considered a major step forward for Egypt's
struggle to implement the rigorous standards of international Intellectual Property
Rights law.
Police, to be sure, have their work set out for them, since the
culture in general does not necessarily see copyright infringement as something
all that bad. Illegal tapes are routinely traded, and even more
popular are unauthorized mixes featuring the best songs from all the
popular tapes, all in one package, usually sold by tape kiosks to
special customers under the table.
Meanwhile...
AFP concludes -- based on a pop music festival in
Alexandria -- that Lebanese
hotties like Nancy Agram and Haifa Wahba have replaced Egyptian
singers -- mainly thanks to sexy videos -- as Arab pop music's
top draws...
Wrong way
tragedy
10 people killed in truck which tried
to cross railroad tracks at a place where there was no official
crossing. Train slammed into truck, resulting in the tragedy.
Web
posted by Tarek Atia Monday, July 7, 2003 13:00 CAIRO
Checkmate
Details of a major
Egyptian chess tournament make the New York Times!
They'd love to
do it in Egypt
How serving in the Sinai MFOs can affect a couple's
wedding plans...
June 30
Annan praises re-opening
of Ibn Khaldun Centre in Egypt
Web
posted by Tarek Atia Sunday, July 6, 2003 12:00 CAIRO
Too much of a good thing?
Groundbreaking research being done in Egypt... This is from a
ScienceDaily.com news release about a University of Rhode Island
project, which aimed to discover how
Mediterranean Sea fisheries were affected by the closure of the
Aswan High Dam and the end of the annual Nile flood in Egypt.
After a brief period of decline, and thanks to a burgeoning
population, the fisheries are back. Why? The results speaks for themselves:
"...Human sewage and agricultural drainage now
support the fertility once provided by the Nile"
Here's more:
"Based on population estimates, the potential release of
man-made phosphorus from Cairo and Alexandria may now equal or
exceed that of the historical Nile flood, and the excretion of
dietary nitrogen is much larger than that delivered by the
river."
Compelling, to be sure, but still hypothetical, for now. The article
gets pretty scientific, but is still relatively easy to follow if
you want more details.
Egypt not one
of 35
""We made a commitment that Americans accused of such
crimes will
only be tried in an American court," Foreign Minister Ahmed
Maher told reporters on Thursday.
Mido now
heading for Marseille
The Ajax star keeps looking elsewhere...
Web
posted by Tarek Atia Saturday, July 5, 2003 4:00 CAIRO
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