Still no decision
on whether Da Vinci Code will be shown...
Meanwhile,
much more on Egyptian
Christian reactions
from Gulf News... Plus, thousands of bootlegged Da Vinci Code film copies seized...
Summary of Mubarak
Olmert
summit
in Sharm El-Sheikh... Yahoo has lots of photos
from the meeting... Meanwhile, joint committee formed to investigate
border shooting deaths incident... Plus, a brief look
at how the official Egyptian news agency covered the incident...
And the story from the Israeli side...
(Earlier:
Egypt says Israelis shot dead two of its policemen on
Egyptian soil and dragged
their bodies across the border... the incident "could
overshadow the first summit between the two countries'
leaders," AFP says...)
Looking at Bedouin anger...
A US journalist's
impressionistic depiction
of dinner in a working-class Egypt home.
CS Monitor is impressed
by the new yellow cabs...
More highway
accidents...
Antiquities
chief Zahi Hawass stars in a high-profile
showdown to get a Chicago CEO to give up an ancient sarcophagus.
Meanwhile,
an exquisitely tiny liver
coffin and much more wows
Chicago during the King Tut show... Plus, a photo...
Architects have been busy adding a
pharoanic style
to buildings...
At Christie's first
Middle East art auction, "works by Egyptian artist
Ahmed Moustafa included Orbits of Praise, selling for $240,000,
and Where Two Oceans Meet, which sold for double the expected
price; going for $285,000 after a flurry of rising bids...."
Emad
Adeeb at Cannes
-- being feted for Yacoubian and big plans for a film about bin
Laden...
Spain tops Egypt 2-0 in friendly...
Looks like Mido might not
be staying with Tottenham..
Champions Anderlecht signed Egyptian captain
Ahmed
Hassan to
a four-year deal expected be in the region of 750,000 euros ($962,000)...
Ahly unbeaten
for second season in a row...
Khaleej
Times tries to figure out what's
going on at the stock exchange.
Orascom planning major
tourism project in Oman...
NY Times mini
profile
of legendary rebel poet Ahmed Fouad Negm...
Court rules
that Ahmed El-Fishawy is the father of Hend El-Hennawy's
daughter...
Palestinians involved
in Sinai bombings, Egypt says... Bedouin extremism
in Sinai? Another militant allegedly responsible for the
Sinai blasts turns self
in... More from AP..
The nation's top prosecutor said that a Red Sea
ferry disaster that killed more than 1,000 people was caused by
the negligence
of its four top officers, who also perished... Meanwhile, Egypt
asks Interpol
to arrest sunken ferry owner..
Crossover global Egyptian musician Hamza El-Din dies...
More results from a recent media
survey..
Tiny Egyptian baby tortoises at UK
zoo..
An IOL look
at the new yellow cabs...
Eight senior Culture
Ministry officials sentenced
to 10 years in prison each for negligence in last September's Beni
Suef theater fire that killed 50 people...
A
recently discovered Luxor chamber is still
yielding mysteries...
Big plans to excavate
a Roman city submerged by the sea near Suez...
Final Egypt team selection
for Sunday soccer friendly with Spain...
Egypt's lineup
for next month's friendly against Spain... National
team is 17
in new FIFA ranking...
New -- visa
on arrival for Indians visiting Egypt... Plus, riding
a camel
called Michael Jackson by the Pyramids of Giza...
Islamic
endowments minister Hamdi Zakzouk recently "advised
the prayer leaders of mosques to smarten up their appearance and
shorten their sermons so as not to bore the faithful..."
FT tries its hand at the time-worn "rise
of fatwa culture" story. Meanwhile, IRIN does
the standard "poor forced to sell organs"
feature...
FOREIGN
Egypt and Saudi called on Hamas to recognize
an Arab peace initiative that envisages normalising Israel ties...
Mubarak-Olmert
talks planned
for Sharm El-Sheikh... More here...
"Businessmen
in Gaza, facing steadily worsening economic conditions since
Israel limited trade in and out of the poor coastal strip, are
trying to move
their operations across the border into Egypt..."
Palestinian gas
a big deal for Egypt...
Huge, still vague plans
to build a second Alexandria on the Northern coast...
Egypt
has invited
the world's major oil and gas producers and consumers to a
roundtable in November to discuss supply security...
Where
is the poultry industry heading now...
More
whimsical musings from Sharm Davos, including excessive
praise for Nazif...
(For
much more on Davos, click here...)
ECONOMY
Egypt
to consider
open skies policy giving foreign airlines access to all its
airports... UK's EasyJet hopes
to be one of them...
Officials drumming
up investments and dodging disasters in LA...
Dubai's Emaar to build
near the Bibliotheca.
Plan is to reshape
the library's share of the Alexandria corniche..
FOREIGN
Top presidential adviser
defends
Iran...
Azhar
Sheikh Tantawi praises
Singapore...
EU to fund 200
girl-friendly schools...
King Tut
in Chicago now...
Heikal on FT's list
of world's top commentators...
Sawiris
planning 24-hour news channel... Preview
of story on FT...
There may soon
be a Carrefour
in Tanta -- read this story about an interesting
new railways/ private sector joint venture plan...
Discussing plans for the expansion
of an Arab gas pipeline that would deliver gas from Egypt
to European markets via Turkey...
Telecom Egypt going VOIP
in a big way... Plus, Egypt is 12th
in global contact center outsourcing...
Wall Street
Journal story on the tribulations
being faced by Iraqna, the Orascom-owned Iraqi cellular
operator... Plus, Egypt
prepared to lend its support
for Orascom's Indian telecom bid...
Egyptian
squash player doing well
at Princeton...
Free dive world
record set in Sharm El-Sheikh with 140 metre plunge...
Egyptian geologist backs
amateur archaeologist's Bosnian
pyramid claim...
Egypt to sue
St Louis museum for not giving mummy mask back...
Studying ancient
Egyptian colonialism...
Director
Inas El-Degheidi is feted
by Time...
Pittsburgh
paper predicts that Da Vinci code won't
show in Egypt...
Yacoubian Building film gets
an award and a special mention at Robert de Niro's Tribeca
festival in NY...
New
bird flu case...
FOREIGN
Egypt says Iran has right to peaceful
atomic energy..
Egyptian diplomats in NY have "about
17,000 unpaid
tickets worth nearly $2 million." A little more from
UPI...
Sheep costume stunt
used by Australian activists to protest what they call improper
slaughtering of animals in Egypt... Here's an AFP photo...
More from Reuters,
plus another photo...
Mufti tries to melt
the ice... Mufti
Ali Gomaa speaks
up
to a group of
American reporters: "Islam, he said, has
certain immutable tenets, such as abstinence from alcohol.
"We cannot change that," he said. But on other matters,
such as the statues, there is room for nuance. "We would not
destroy our Pharaonic monuments," he said. "We find it
really funny that the media now focus attention on a fatwa that
has been there for 14 centuries. And why are you so concerned
about this issue? When the Taliban destroyed statutes, we were the
first to speak out against them. "When people open a museum
and put statues in them, I respect that. But why would you not
respect me if I were to think in another way?"... Meanwhile,
National Geographic provides the most recent example of media
trying to
fan
the flames of fear
over the mufti's anti-statue fatwa...
Earlier: BBC looked at the rise
of fatwa-based religious culture... and the mufti himself went hardline on
Islamic militants, saying they all
need to be
wiped
out...
ECONOMY
UAE
phone company Etisalet confident
about winning Egypt 3rd mobile license bid...
Egypt-German
joint
venture for
car parts...
ARCHAEOLOGY
St Louis museum not
returning Egyptian mummy mask for now...
BBC photos
of the sunken treasures exhibit...
Japan loans Egypt a
lot of money
for new museum...
VOA looks at improvements
to the nation's emergency care system...
Egypt's Zamalek football club has invited
Palestinian prime minister Ismail Haniya to attend tonight's
clash with city rivals Ahly and promised to donate part of the
proceeds to the Palestinian people...
Now
Mido might
not
get a permanent Tottenham deal because of an injury...
DAHAB
UPDATE:
Four
men wanted in connection with bombings that killed 20 people in
the Sinai resort of Dahab last month have turned
themselves in...
Another Sinai
terror mastermind
killed by police...
MISC
Preview of next week's World Economic Forum meeting
in Sharm...
2 tourists drown
while diving in Hurghada...
Washington
Post re-visits
Alexandria a month after the church attacks...
UN praises
Egypt's bird flu response...
Bus crash
kills 21...
The
Egyptian imam kidnapped from Milan by the CIA tells
his story from a Cairo jail...
A few months after the fact, a more indepth
account of what it was like to watch the Salloum eclipse appears...
Scandanavian tourists'
antics offend
locals in Hurghada... More
from a Swedish site...
Big problems as people go back to eating chicken...
Plus the latest bird flu report
and the fifth
fatality...
FOREIGN
Egypt not
satisfied with the Roadmap...
Hundreds
of millions of dollars in major gas explorations
on the way... Plus, a look into how an actual
drilling operation is going...
It's looking like a race between eleven
bidders for the 3rd mobile license...
Deadline for US museum to return
mummy mask...
Pyramids
among new short list
of revised world's wonders... Was
Bosnia's pyramid larger
than ours?
New
professional
Egyptology site in the works...
Meanwhile, the
film's star, superstar Adel Imam, finds
his way onto the pages of the Washington Post... as
well as a glowing
Daily Star review...
Egyptian artist part of Christie's
first
Mideast auction...
Squash
world open returns
to Egypt... Amr Shabana is #
1 in the latest squash world rankings...
CNN notices
Egyptian TV's newly candid coverage of things like the Dahab
terror attacks... Next day's bomber identified...
North
Sinai residents fear
arrest...
Bahais still not
being recognized by courts...
The sad story of the
Egyptian who went on a US vacation and lost
everything.
Two
Egyptians on Time's 100 most influential list: Zahi
Hawass and... Ayman
El-Zawahiri...
In a Pakistani paper, Rumsfeld recalls
a 1970 visit to Egypt...
Big new
UNDP deal...
Interesting
Oxford article on taxes...
Surprise,
surprise...
Egyptians like
Jazeera...
Long CS Monitor feature on new
Islamic satellite channels...
Telecom Egypt links
up with Italian telecom to bid for 3rd mobile license...
IMF's latest
analysis of the economy...
Thousands
of angry people blocked
a highway north of Cairo on Wednesday, burning tires and debris,
after a speeding car struck a cyclist
Another
bird flu case...
Train collision injures
45...
Strange?
Washington Post goes to a Cairo barbershop at midnight...
Washington Post covers
the unified call to prayer plan... Plan moves
on...
FOREIGN
Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman's
translator shouldn't be in trouble, CBS says...
Does Egypt want Palestinian and Isreali leaders to
meet,
or not?
Egypt
is an example
of a low-income country that has credible evidence of a decline in
stillbirth rates...
A Chinese-speaking
contest
was held to promote language skills of Egyptian college students.
CS Monitor
takes a closer
look at the mufti's anti-statue fatwa... Plus, a writer
considers the potential impact...
New
French James Bond spoof
film takes place in Egypt...
Another friendly for
African champs Egypt -- this time against Spain...
Plus, big Egypt-Greece
friendly soccer match being proposed for CAF golden jubilee...
Meanwhile, Egypt manager Hassan
Shehata has declared he will never invite Germany- based
striker Mohamed
Zidan to join the national side...
Latest
Dahab news...
An Egyptian police
officer and three suspects were killed
in clashes in the north of the Sinai peninsula amid a manhunt for
the perpetrators of last month's deadly resort bombings...
Meanwhile, Dahab death toll rises to 19...
Official tourism
confidence despite
Dahab... Three killed
as police search for bombers...
Egypt
reiterates
its UN terror conference call... Two arrests...
Brits face big penalty
for cancelling their Egypt trip.. Mubarak
vows
to crush terror... Uncertainty
about the future of tourism in Dahab... A diving insider speaks
up...
Swedish couple go ahead with Dahab wedding...
Meanwhile, still blaming
the Bedouins...
More
explosions... This
time the target
appears to be the Multinational Forces in Sinai... Reuters
has the story,
as well as a denial that the Interior Minister resigned...
A little
analysis... Knight Ridder quote: "The
striking thing is that whoever is doing these is not
fully explaining why they are doing it" Plus,
Egypt is too "financially dependent
on tourism to allow the bombers to win," another article
says... Meanwhile, Sharm
Davos meeting
to go on...
ROUNDUPS:
30 arrests...
Mubarak visits
injured who were transferred to Cairo hospitals... CS Monitor:
Mood in Dahab grim,
but hopeful...
QUESTIONS:
FT says attacks were meant
to humiliate, and explores the possibility of an organized Sinai
terror faction...
INVESTIGATIONS:
BBC looks at a few security
issues... Times looks at some others...
Blaming the Bedouins
again? Guardian's version...
COVERAGE:
An interesting glance at the difference
between print and TV...
MONEY: Times explores potential effects
on the tour business...
Terror in Dahab
Here's a quick round-up
First arrests
made... BBC looks at the hunt
for clues... Tourists say they plan to stay...
Blair comments...
British Red Cross sends help...
UK royal cousin hurt
in blasts...
Trying to make
a Bin Laden link...
French foreign minister happy
that Hamas condemned the bombings...
How some of
the papers
reacted... AP timeline of recent
attacks...
Terror
strikes again
The
target this time was the cozy resort of Dahab. At least 21
dead and 60 injured in what appear to have been three seperate
blasts. The casualties are mostly Egyptians. AP
provides a comprehensive story. There are also eyewitness accounts
from BBC,
and gruesome details from the Sydney
Morning Herald (plus
images
from Yahoo via AP and Egyptian TV.) There have already been
condemnations from Bush
and Straw.
Two
other Sinai resorts -- Sharm El-Sheikh and Taba -- were targets
for similar triple bombings over the past two years... Taba
was hit on 6 October 2004, a national holiday commemorating
Egypt's 1973 War against Israel. Sharm El-Sheikh was struck on 23
July 2005, Egypt's Independence Day. Monday's Dahab bombings
coincide with Sinai Liberation Day (Tuesday, April 25), which is
also a national holiday.
The discovery of gold cartouches dating back to 1400 BC
sheds new
light
on the relationship between two ancient Egyptian rulers...
Back home...
The only known copy of the Gospel of Judas, which
portrays the apostle Judas as Jesus's faithful servant not his
betrayer, was returned
to Egypt for public display.. More details
on the document's strange journey... Meanwhile, a small town is very proud of having unknowingly
hosted it...
Examining
the effectiveness
of the social fund for development...
A look at
Egypt's volunteerism
movement...
MISC
Woman tries to
save rare
breed of ancient Egyptian cat... Plus,
another Egyptian cat lover speaks
up...
Latest
WHO: A total of 12
people have now contracted the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu
in Egypt and four have died of the disease...
Investigation into sinking of Red Sea ferry
says wicked
collaboration between ship's owners and
corrupt safety inspectors caused the disaster that killed some 1,000
people... Still, some "wouldn't dare
to call it a step toward accountability..."
Mubarak
invites
Israeli prime minister-designate Ehud Olmert to visit Cairo... Foreign
Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit promised
Egypt would support the Palestinian government led by Hamas
though it had reservations about some of the group's policies. Meanwhile,
Hamas is asking
supporters to deposit money into an Egyptian bank linked to one of
France's biggest financial institutions...
Major IP
conference
set to take place...
Alex
still tense... Trying
to find blame
for the sectarian violence in Alex.. Calling for calm...
More
than 100
people have been detained for questioning over Muslim-Christian
clashes... Plus, a blogger's take
helps to put things in perspective...
Chirac in town...talks
to Ahram about Iran...
The
Iranian foreign minister called
his Egyptian counterpart, about next week's report to the UN
Security Council on Iran's nuclear programme...
Backtrack...
Mubarak says he did
not mean to insult Shiite Muslims nor doubt
their national allegiance when he accused them of being more loyal
to Iran...
New Egypt
tourism slogan
to be launched....
How to
determine the success
of a development project...
Are more people
actually paying taxes...
US diplomat in
Egypt is a major bird explorer...
Plus, zoo to
finally re-open tomorrow...
No human bird flu cases
for more
than a week now...
Nile
couture? "Executives from four prominent Italian fashion
houses – Valentino,
Marzotto, Ferragamo and Ermenegildo Zegna – visited Egypt to investigate the possibility of manufacturing their
brands with local producers..."
Risky
nose jobs for as low as $300...
A discovery in Fayoum may hold secrets
to how a Middle Kingdom temple 
was
built..
Wrinkled mummy looks more like a
"grandmummy"...
Alexandria
strife continues:
"One Muslim man reportedly died Sunday of his wounds. Police
said 40 people had been wounded in clashes and 80 had been
arrested over the weekend..."
Alex
sectarian ... again?
22 people injured and
15 arrested in clashes following the funeral of the Christian
victim of Friday's Alexandria church attack... Here's the
latest story from AFP
and a longer piece featuring lots of commentary...
Meanwhile, security at
churches
stepped
up... Here's
AP's report on what happened: "A man with a knife attacked
worshippers at two Coptic churches in Alexandria during
Mass on Friday, killing 1 person and wounding 5 before he was
arrested..."
Publisher ins and outs...
Independent Egyptian publisher wins
major international prize... Meanwhile,
Reuters looks
at children
who work in quarries...
FOREIGN
Plus, see how the Arabic press is
still covering it
on zahma.com...
Palestine seriously
considering an Egypt telecom link...
MISC
An 18-year-old girl
died of bird flu, the fourth
fatal case... Meanwhile, check out this IHT/New
York Times headline...
Another fatal road
accident...
Security
alert as QE2
docks in Alex?
Ferry
owner's assets frozen,
to blame...
Court
rules in favour of Baha'i
rights...
Angry words...
Iraq
to boycott
Arab foreign ministers meeting in Cairo in protest of Mubarak's
comments regarding civil war and shias... US says it doesn't
agree with Mubarak's assessment of civil war in Iraq... Daily Star
is pretty upset
about it too... Earlier:
Kuwaiti
Shias are extremely
angry about Mubarak's questioning of their
loyalty... Iraq's Shias are very
upset as well... Earlier:
Mubarak declares civil
war in Iraq...
First
Nile Delta oil discovery..
Fighting a
reputation:
Image problem
affects outsourcing plans...
Cairo's low
score in the worldwide quality of living
survey...
Egyptian exchange
student having alot of fun
in Maine...
CNN anchor marvels
about having a hip sushi meal in Cairo...
Egyptian diplomat celebrates
NY's new water museum...
World's first soft pillow
found...
Luxor temple complex is the
top item on Newsweek's list of the "7 most endangered
wonders
of the world"...
A
writer sees wider
implications in Mido's rant...
MISC
11th human bird flu
case and 3rd death... Coverage from Reuters,
Reuters
again, and AFP...
Earlier:
A
toddler has been infected with the virulent strain of bird flu,
bringing the number of human cases in the country to nine...
FOREIGN
Egypt
has agreed to link the Gaza
Strip to its energy
grid...
A Muslim cleric allegedly kidnapped by the CIA in Milan in
2003 has asked authorities in Egypt, where he is incarcerated, to
be allowed to return
to Italy...
Israel claims Qaida terrorists have infiltrated
Gaza from Egypt...
Will new Sharm
headquarters for Arab summit solve
the body's woes?
Egypt was Israel's fastest
growing export market in February 2006... Plus, complications
surrounding Orascom's ownership
of an Israeli mobile operator...
MISC
Illegal
organ trade thrives on poverty...
A look at food
intake levels amongst Egypt's poorest...
Catholic Copts elect
new patriarch...
Flurry of rulings:
Al-Azhar tries to clear up missionary
approval mess... Plus, Mufti's anti-statues fatwa
wreaks havoc...
No
problem: Vodafone not worried
about 3rd mobile operator...
Egypt among 29 countries that hosted more than $1 billion
worth of stock
market IPOs last year...
Latest bird flu numbers confirmed
by the WHO... (Earlier:
Egyptian is Jordan's first
bird-flu case...)
Egypt is among "9
riparian countries to set up a permanent commission
to coordinate the use of transboundary water resources from the Nile
River basin." Meanwhile, explorer
team claims to have found Nile river's "true
source"
deep in Rwanda's lush Nyungwe rainforest.
Captian
being officially
blamed for the ferry disaster?
Changing
roles:
CS Monitor looks at interesting
jobs held by
women in Egypt... Meanwhile, women are still marginalized
in the judiciary, Reuters says...
Egypt is
US state Maryland's
biggest growth market for
exports... Exported goods
to Egypt increased from $66 million $780 million from 2001 to
2005. The bulk of growth was in aviation and aerospace equipment.
Brazilian ambassador takes part in Aswan
sculpture
symposium
Re-interpreting the exodus...
Interesting
history:
Did you know that ancient Egypt plays an important part in one of
the most popular and oldest customs among girls: playing
with dolls?
"It was in Egypt, around 5000 years ago, that dolls started
being used as toys..."
An Australian travel writer learns how to make felafel
in Luxor...
How
a meteorite
that fell in Egypt nearly 95 years ago may offer clues to the
search for possible life on Mars...
SHOWBIZ
Al-Azhar
rejects
depiction of Jesus in film due to be shot in Egypt, while producer says
it has no right to intervene...
Sad story: More
on the Egyptian who volunteered to be a guinea
pig for a UK drug test that went horribly wrong..
Next stop: Sharm
Saudi Arabia asked that the next
Arab Summit be in Egypt, a request approved by
the current Arab League meeting in Khartoum... The press is saying
that the next round may take place in the Red Sea resort of Sharm
El-Sheikh. Plus, Amr Moussa re-elected
to the Arab League's top post...
All about pressure?
Washington Post columnist tries to figure out why there's
relatively more
press freedom in Egypt these days...
NY Times profiles
leading Muslim Brotherhood figure Essam El-Erian...
Emergency
law to finally go...
Did you see
it?
Al-Salloum on the Egyptian-Libyan border witnessed
a full eclipse of the sun on Wednesday... The eclipse also prompts meditation
at the pyramids...
WHO's Avian
influenza situation in Egypt update...
Egypt is close to
eliminating elephantiasis
-- one of the world's most disfiguring diseases -- which has
plagued the country since the time of the pharaohs...
Manar -- the
girl who had an operation more than a year ago to remove her
underdeveloped twin -- has died
following an infection in her brain...
Three Arab
states have promised to donate
two ferries each to Egypt, nearly two months after the Red
Sea ferry tragedy that left 1,000 people dead...
Egypt
is the world's 6th
top weapons buyer...
Looking for the sun
For Wednesday's 
eclipse, "the best conditions
are right near the Egyptian/ Libyan border, where the sun
will be gone from view for ... over four minutes.”
A fifth
person has caught what appears to be bird flu but her
condition is good, the health minister said on Sunday...
(Earlier: Looking for
renegade poultry sellers: Bird flu fears have destroyed
a previously buzzing industry...)
13
people charged in last year's Sinai bombings...
French
investigator suggests pilot had lack
of sleep... (Earlier:
Parallel press conferences: "How can the French accuse the pilot when you
just said it was not his fault?" -- a look at the media's
behavior as a dispute erupts
between France and Egypt over the 2004 Flash airlines crash in
Sharm El-Sheikh... )
FOREIGN
Mubarak won't
be going to the Arab summit in Sudan... Lots
of summit coverage in Arabic on zahma.com...
Plus: Telecom
Egypt putting in a new billing
system... and: Is
the 3rd mobile operator license going to end up being way too
expensive?
Interesting: "In
3 of the last 5 years, Egypt has been the top
U.S. wheat customer, with purchases approaching --
or exceeding -- 4 million metric tons. Last year, however,
they came in 5th, importing 1.9 MMT of U.S. wheat."
PRINCE
CHARLES IN EGYPT
Selective
itineraries
Charles and Camilla
end
their Egypt trip with a visit to the Commonwealth cemetary in
Al-Alamein... The Times continues its bemused coverage of the
Prince Charles trip, this time focusing on Camilla's buying
embroidered jeans for her daughter from Siwa... The Telegraph
provides a photo
and the Mirror compares
Charles's outfit to Hercules Poirot...
Earlier: Much more on the
Prince Charles visit from the Times
and
the Telegraph...
Also: the royal couple spend the night at an eco-lodge in Siwa,
and open the new British University in Sherouk...
And
a photo of
Camilla
with a horse
at the Brooke hospital... Media
has a field day with UK Prince Charles
criticizing
the Danish cartoons while at Al-Azhar... Meanwhile, the
British papers concentrate on Camillia: "The Duchess is not
the box office draw of
her husband’s first wife,
but she
is developing her
own elegant, understated style."
They also try to figure out why the royal couple won't be visiting
the pyramids...
There was a Nile TV interview
with Charles, and a Camilla photo
at the Egyptian museum... Meanwhile, not everyone
at Al-Azhar is happy
about Charles receiving an honorary doctorate... Plus:
Al-Arabiya suggests an alternative reason for some of the anger at
Al-Azhar over Charles' honorary doctorate, and looks into a new
Inas El-Deghiedi film that fantasizes about Diana becoming a
Muslim...
Stranger
things have happened: Local US news report tracks
teenager who went to Egypt with a friend and now wants to come
back...
NY city responds
to Zahi Hawass's request that an obelisk be returned...
Oldest
wooden statues found...
SPORTS
Why Egypt might be a good
place for African player Jabu Pule to be...
Mubarak enters Syria/Lebanon
crisis...
4
confirmed human bird flu infections,
plus reports on
the possibility
of 3 more...
FT story on complications
surrounding the Omar Effendi department store sale...
Nazif and
economic team's US tour gets pretty
good press from USA Today...
Egypt among
safest
Islamic countries...
Brazilian
based cosmetics
factory opens.
Negotiations
to market Egyptian natural
gas to Europe via Turkey are underway...
Marcel
Khalife coming to Egypt for concerts
in April...
Restoration
is done on an
old Greek church in Alexandria...
The
headline says it all: In
all caps a Bosnian site announces:
EGYPTIAN
EXPERTS TO VISIT THE BOSNIAN PYRAMID OF SUN
(I was not aware there were pyramids in Bosnia.
This could be a nice potential revenue source for Egypt...)
Coptic Pope
Shenouda is not
happy about outsiders meddling with chruch divorce
rules...
Third
case:
A woman from
Qaliubiya, north of Cairo, was hospitalised
after showing initial bird flu symptoms... Meanwhile,
people are heading to hospitals
fearing they might be the next victim of the deadly H5N1 strain of
bird flu. Plus, foot
and mouth disease in cattle appearing more
frequently... More on this from Reuters...
And: Egyptian traveller to the UAE gets in
trouble for bringing frozen
pigeons with him...
Latest census figures:
Baby born every 23.4
seconds...
Odd mix of
people cross the Egyptian desert
in search of peace... Plus photo...
Let
the fair begin: China
happy
about its major presence at the Cairo International Trade Fair...
Blogger
Tomanbay's astute analysis of
Al-Hussein pigeon restaurant Farahat's
success...
Investigating
how a country can do so much good and bad at the same time:
The Washington Post takes a look
at The Night Baghdad Fell...
Yacoubian Building going
to Robert De Niro's Tribeca film festival...
Sphinx is
getting a facelift...
Soccer on
the mend: African
club champions Ahly defeated
Tusker FC of Kenya 2-0 on Saturday in a winning start to defending
their title...
Bird
flu update
A 30-year-old who
worked on a Qalyoubiya chicken farm was the second
person infected by the virus... Thanks
to early detection and treatment, the
man, identified as Mohammed Bahaaeddin Abdel-Menem, was recovering
in the hospital after being admitted Thursday with a fever...
MISC
First human burd flu
death
reported... More from AFP..
Shocking news:
One of the UK drug test victims is Egyptian...
ECONOMY
Big luxury,
home grown: BMW
7 series to be built
in Cairo....
Bank of Alexandria sale
to close by August...
New US theme restuarants opening
in Cairo this year... Plus, a
fast food diversion:
Are Egypt's Big Macs really the cheapest
in the world? (Only if you're a traveller...)
FOREIGN
Earlier: Details on
Charles and his wife Camilla's Egypt visit from This
is London and BBC...
Egypt nominates Amr Moussa for another
term as Arab League chief...
Iraqis vacationing
in Cairo lament lack of security back home...
DANISH
CARTOON CONTROVERSY
Has the cartoon
crisis affected the
all-important flow of European tourists to Egypt...
MORE CARTOON CONTROVERSY
COVERAGE
in Arabic on
zahma.com
and English on SHRINKINGGLOBE
Reuters and AP
have the latest stories on the first human bird flu
case...
Was
it just a correction?
FT:
"The Cairo and Alexandria stock exchange bounced back
yesterday after institutional investors from Egypt and Europe
bought now-cheaper stocks."
Bloomberg:
"Egypt's CASE 30 rebounded 6.4 percent today, its biggest
gain since April, after the government announced yesterday it
plans to buy shares to prop up the market. It tumbled 5.9 percent
yesterday, its steepest decline in a year."
Plus:
Telecom Egypt announces some solid
revenue figures...
Meanwhile,
Arab investments to Egypt still growing...
ARCHAEOLOGY
Discovery Channel given exclusive
rights to film new Luxor Valley of the Kings
archaeological finds...
Egyptian
music video channels make international
bouquet...
SPORTS
Marked
for life?
National team coach Hassan Shehata's contract is extended
for two years... (But notice how the African Nations Cup spat with
Mido has become an integral part of any Shehata coverage now...)
Meanwhile,
Mido is really helping
Tottenham out...
Mubarak meets
the new Pope...
Egypt says an
economic blockade
of Hamas would not be good...
BBC wonders if
British victims of the Sharm bombings could sue
the bombers?
Officials
being investigated
in food for oil scandal...
Bad day for
stock exchange...
Bloomberg: "The CASE 30 fell 5.9 percent
today, its steepest drop in a year and the biggest move among
equity markets included in global benchmarks. It earlier sank as
much as 12 percent. Egypt's index has lost 27 percent since its
Feb. 1 peak... Egypt's government bought local stocks today,
easing the index's slide, said Hani Sarie-El Din, chairman of the
nation's Capital Market Authority... Trading on the Cairo bourse
was stopped for half an hour today because of an ``unreasonable''
drop in the market, El Din said..."
AFP:
"Analysts said a correction in the market was inevitable
given the 148 percent gain in 2005 and the speculative bubble it
fueled... "A correction was not only necessary but
inevitable," said Ahmed Hefnawi, analyst with investment bank
EFG-Hermes.... "There were people in Egypt that quit their
jobs to play the stock market, today they will pay the
price."
And more Bloomberg:
"EFG-Hermes fell 25 percent to 33 Egyptian pounds. Arab
Cotton Ginning, the largest publicly traded cotton maker in Egypt
by market value, fell 24 percent to 10.5 pounds."
Bus driver involved in a crash on a wet desert
highway near Cairo which killed six Australians has been given a three-year
jail sentence and a $365 fine... Australian families angry
at what they call lenient sentence...
14 people accused of involvement in a series of
attacks on tourists last year go
to trial.. Meanwhile, Qatar has extradited
to Egypt an Egyptian suspected of financing the attacks...
In
the Guardian Ahdaf Soueif rails against the hypocrisy
of torture
-- in light of the three British Islamists who were
recently released from an Egyptian prison...
Serious
steps? The government
is currently deciding which international
firm will carry out a study
for the stock exchange sale of 20% of EgyptAir...
Plus, a little PR...
Egypt "open
for business" conference taking place in
NY.
EDUCATION
An interesting new USAID program provides 700
books to every single one of Egypt's 38,000 public
schools...
Reuters
look at illiteracy
& rural women.
New
find may reveal more
about mummification... More,
with photo...
Earlier: Even
more
Sekhmet statues are found...
New Chicago gallery devoted to ancient Nubia...
More on the Egyptian Gospel
of Judas from CS Monitor... Earlier:
Doubts
about the soon-to-be-released
Egyptian-based
Gospel of Judas papyrus. Plus more here...
More amazing
finds: This time
it's Sekhmet
and very
old ships in a wadi... Earlier: It was Farouk El-Baz
discovering the world's
largest crater... (includes fascinating picture...)
MISC
Egyptian wives who beat
their husbands are part of a recent study on changing trends
amongst the region's women...
A Pittsburgh paper
takes an in-depth
look at bloggers Sandmonkey and Big
Pharoah... Plus: an
earlier Al-Ahram Weekly look at the Egyptian blog
scene and the idea of anonymity...
A deep look into the woes
of migrant workers...
AP attends a Sami Youssef concert...
Another ship sinks...
More..
An AFP visit to the Abu
Zaabal leper
colony...
Egypt tries damage
control: Foreign minister claims he warned
Denmark about the cartoons turning into a major issue...
Earlier: Tottenham might still want Mido
on a permanent
basis. Meanwhile, Hossam Hassan wants to replace
national team coach Hassan Shehata with a foreigner...
Sheikh Omar
Abdel-Rahman's US lawyer's conviction delayed
because she has cancer...
Photos
from
the Sharm air show... Earlier:
Flying high: A
big international aviation exhibition is kicking
off in Sharm El-Sheikh...
LE36
thousand announced as the compensation for the sunken
ferry victims' families... Meanwhile, experts
examining how an Egyptian ferry sank, killing more than
1,000 people, will submit their findings to prosecutors in about four
months...
Earlier:
Sunk ferry report points
to serious saftey violations...
Bird flu update:
At least 600
Egyptian poultry industry workers blocked traffic as they marched
through central Cairo on Wednesday, accusing the government of
spreading panic about bird flu and demanding it let them re-open
their shops.
Kenya
critical of its Egypt sugar
imports...Malaysia buys into
Egyptian power
plants... Plus,
concerns about an Orascom acquisition
in India... And a quick look at
Arab investment
levels in Egypt...
The
countdown...
ITP
reports that 18
interested parties have bought tender documents for the third
mobile license auction, which is set for April 17... (Plus
lots of other details as well...)
King Tut's case
is closed, top Egyptologist Dr. Zahi Hawass has
told Discovery News
Payback...
Human rights lawyers happy
about Egyptian's $300,000 9-11 settlement... Earlier: An Egyptian man who was wrongly detained after 911
gets a big
cash settlement from the US government...
Egypt
rejects
UN idea for Darfur troops ...
British
Islamists released from Egypt detained
upon entering UK... They say they were tortured
during their time in jail... Earlier: Three Britons
left
an Egyptian jail after serving almost 4 years of
their 5-year sentences for spreading propaganda for an Islamist
group...
Prince Charles is on
his way to Egypt later this month...
Heikal
in Gulf for first
time in 35 years...
Big
market
Property investment
in Egypt is becoming increasingly
appealing to UK investors...
US official in town
to encourage trade...
Over troubled waters: Ferry
sinking revives interest in Egypt
Saudi Red Sea bridge idea...
Meanwhile, an oil spill
caused by a leaking tanker in the Suez Canal has caused at
least $12
million in environmental damage..
All kinds
of cars... This
article talks about how Russia is eager to sell cheap
cars to Egypt... Nissan, meanwhile, is
planning on building more
expensive ones...
Aiming for
several major hotel furniture export deals...
Egyptair
may be offering 20%
of its shares to the public... Will you buy in?
Trade Minister
Rashid speaks up, says he's angry
that Washington is tying an FTA to democracy...
Treasures in
a
crowded market:
Amazing
new archaeological finds in the Cairo district of Ain Shams... here's
the story from AP
and Reuters...
One of Egypt's African Cup of Nations heroes Amr Zaki has
joined Lokomotiv Moscow from local club ENPPI, reports BBC. "The
deal for the 22-year-old, who is currently the top scorer in
Egypt, is reported to be worth around $2
million."
Lifesaving study:
The
results of an Egypt-based study that could save the lives of 1000s
of women in poor countries who die each year during childbirth
were released this week, as reported by Reuters,
UPI,
BBC
and the Guardian.
The
study of 364 women found that a re-usable, lightweight suit cut
death and illnesses by two thirds.
Big news? News
agencies report that
Gamal Mubarak is getting engaged...
More here...
Press in flux:
A
look at Al-Masri Al-Youm, which is called "the most dangerous
paper in the country..."... Plus, one of the paper's
reporters jailed
for defamation on the anniversary of Mubarak's call for an end to
prison sentences for
publishing offenses...
All kinds
of accidents
Experts
used booms
and spread foam
to try to absorb an oil slick in the Suez Canal after a
Liberian-flagged tanker lost 3,000 tons of heavy fuel... Earlier:
a tanker lost 3,000
tons of heavy fuel in the Suez Canal after a
collision with a quay caused a leak...
Meanwhile,
17 people were injured on Tuesday when two trains collided
in the northern Nile Delta region...
More meat
being imported
to make
up for chicken lossses.
Not
that bad after all: Farmers
have challenged the authenticity of a television report allegedly
depicting the inhumane
slaughter of Australian cattle in an
Egyptian abattoir.
Fog and dust have
blanketed
Cairo...
The Post looks at the public's bird
flu panic
... Govt claims
to have contained
the flu... Reuters
story says disease had spread...
Health activists not
happy about
government's response... Earlier:
Government will buy
all healthy chickens offered for sale by farmers until late March
in a bid to support farms hard hit by the outbreak...
ECONOMY
More and more Indians
visiting Egypt...
Plus,
questions arise
about Egypt's natural gas export plans..
Is this a photo
of Gamal Mubarak's fiance? (Found on a site that tracks elite parties,
where Miss Khadiga El Gammal is pictured at a wedding in 2003)... Earlier:
SPORTS
Ahly wins Super
Cup...
Plus,
preparations for next African Cup already underway...
Crazy: Two weeks after the 25th African Cup of
Nations ended, members of the Nigeria Football Supporters
Club are still stranded
in Cairo...
Egypt has
agreed to release three Britons sentenced to five years in jail in
March 2004 for promoting the aims of the Hizb
ut-Tahrir al-Islami (Islamic Liberation Party)...
ANTIQUITIES
Egypt has asked a US
museum to return a pharaoh's golden
mask which disappeared from the Egyptian Museum...
Lost Egyptian pottery
discovered in storeroom of British Museum...
British paper pens long, highly
critical feature on Zahi Hawass...
SHOWBIZ
The
NYT
article on the Sayed Darwich tour...
Sayed
Darwich's music being celebrated in the US -- here's the schedule...
The Yacoubian Building premieres in Berlin, getting a glowing
review from Hollywood Reporter in the
process...
ECONOMY
New Lada car
factory opening
up...
Big
bank interest:
HSBC and Barclays, two of Britain’s biggest banks, are weighing
up possible bids
for Bank of Alexandria, one of Egypt’s most prominent
banks.
Condi: "The
time is not
right for the United States and Egypt to begin
negotiations on a free- trade agreement..."
FOREIGN
Brotherhood tries to encourage
Hamas donations... Egypt wants US to give Hamas time...
Earlier:
Egyptian
Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said Egypt would continue to support
the Palestinians after Hamas won the legislative election...
MISC
Authorities have found the so-called "black
box" of the Egyptian ferry that sank in
the Red Sea earlier this month, killing more than 1,000 people...
Conclusion in Flash
airlines case: technical
failure...
Big Ahly
game on Friday...
Flu
talk everywhere...
Earlier:
All
poultry kept in homes must go...
News examines the efect on bird trade...
Saudi Arabia bans
Egyptian birds... Zoo's closed...
Nazif urges public not
to panic... Meanwhile, panicky stories from AFP
and Reuters...
Full
coverage in Arabic on zahma.com
...
An
eye- opening Daily Star 
