Latest in Lifestyle Highlight
Latest in Lifestyle
Buttered Up: Salmon and zucchini in the rush of the city
By Sarah Khanna For years, my phone would not ring. It would rest beside me, disturbing nothing, a simple prop in the room. To Cairo, Kuala Lumpur was at the farthest corner of our Earth and needed no attention paid except for the dreamy package deal honeymoon of a once in a lifetime experience, “Malaysia, truly …
BMW, Guggenheim salvage Berlin ‘lab’ after threats
By AFP German automaker BMW and New York’s Guggenheim Museum said Tuesday they have found a new site in Berlin for an urban design “laboratory” after irate residents of a trendy district forced them out. The BMW Guggenheim Lab, which is on a tour of cities around the globe, had been scheduled to arrive on …
Young Gulf Arabs question tradition of cousin marriages
By Regan Doherty / Reuters DOHA: Noor was not the first in her Qatari family to marry a close relative, but she may be one of the last. Throughout the Middle East, Africa and parts of South Asia, marriage between family members has been widely practiced for thousands of years, largely as a means of securing …
Bob’s Your Uncle
By David Blanks Foodism is here. I mean, when you can dial a hotline and have delivered to your home an Australian wagyu beef fillet, an entire salmon, a kilo of sushi grade tuna, or a dozen Clevedon Coast oysters on the half shell, you know that Cairo is changing. New, hip restaurants and clubs are …
Facebook fans get to play out celebrity fantasies
By Glenn Chapman / AFP SAN FRANCISCO: A trio of console videogame stars joined the online social play revolution with a free-to-play title that lets folks at Facebook virtually live out celebrity fantasies. CelebrityMe was available at the world’s leading social network on Monday as the first offering from Seismic Games, a startup launched by …
One in three Arab women participates in workforce, says study
CAIRO: Only one in three Arab young women participates in their country’s labor force as opposed to eight in 10 Arab men, a recent poll showed. Only 32 percent of Arab women between the ages of 23 and 29 participate in the workforce compared to 81 percent of men in the same age group. Gallup …
Egypt to commemorate World Autism Awareness Day
By Safaa Abdoun CAIRO: On April 2 iconic landmarks around Egypt will be lit in blue to mark the “Light it Up Blue” campaign on World Autism Awareness Day, a global initiative aimed at shedding light on the disorder. Around the world, April 2 is dedicated to celebrating the talents and skills of people with autism …
Lights go off around globe for Earth Hour
By AFP NEW YORK: New York’s Empire State Building, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, and the Sydney Opera House were plunged into darkness on Saturday for the annual Earth Hour campaign, leading a global effort to raise awareness about climate change. In a twist to this year’s Earth Hour, Dutch astronaut Andre Kuipers was to …
Buttered Up: A slow-roasted duck pasta for the sensible
By Sarah Khanna I pressed a thin veil of tissue against my wounded knuckle, watching it absorb the red seeping out. “Stupid grater,” I mumbled as my husband laughed, reasoning with me that it was in reality a simple gadget, incapable of stupidity and that I was what my squash coach once called me — butter …
100,000 Egypt cattle hit by foot-and-mouth: vets
By AFP CAIRO: Nearly 100,000 head of cattle are believed to have been struck by foot-and-mouth disease in Egypt, where a major new outbreak is threatening the entire region, veterinary sources warned on Tuesday. Essam Abdel-Shakour, the head of Egypt’s central quarantine service, said 93,734 head of cattle are believed to have been hit by …
Egypt’s Amr Mohamed wins global Space Lab competition
CAIRO: Egyptian high school student Amr Mohamed won the global YouTube Space Lab competition, which will see the experiment he presented taken to space through the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Mohamed was declared the winner on Thursday for the 17-18 age group, along with Dorothy Chen And Sara Ma from the US for …
Police arrest sex swingers: security
By AFP CAIRO: Police have arrested a married couple who advertised on Facebook to sexually swap spouses and to host orgies at their Cairo apartment, a security official said on Saturday. The case involving a 30-year-old accountant and his wife of the same age had been referred to prosecutors, the official said, adding that their Facebook …
Drowning killed Houston but drugs took high toll
By Anthony McCartney / AP Drugs took many things from Whitney Houston — her pristine voice, clean image and her career — and coroner’s officials revealed Thursday that cocaine also played a role in the Grammy winner’s death in the bathtub of a luxury hotel nearly six weeks ago. Houston drowned accidentally at the Beverly Hilton …
Buttered Up: Branching out with a makeshift dal makhni
By Sarah Khanna I never thought I would miss Malaysia but I find myself regressing, filling myself with nostalgic desires, hoping to smell the salty stench of tandoori chicken as I lower my window to Cairo’s smog. For close to four years, I stalked the streets of Kuala Lumpur, comparing the dated and the new of …
UN: Egypt’s foot and mouth outbreak could spread
By AP ROME: A UN agency is warning that an outbreak of foot and mouth disease in Egypt could spread and threaten livestock in North Africa and the Middle East, leading to possible food shortages. The disease is not a direct threat to humans but meat and milk from sick animals are unsafe for consumption. …
Egypt begins local production of FMD vaccine
By Safaa Abdoun CAIRO: Egypt began local production of the vaccine to combat foot and mouth disease (FMD) as the rate of infection has significantly decelerated, said Agriculture Minister Mohamed Reda. The minister was updating the cabinet of ministers with the latest in the combat the spreading disease. The rate of the disease increase has significantly …
Intelligent urban design
By Esther Dyson NEW YORK: Two months ago, I was introduced to a start-up called CityMart, a for-profit marketplace dedicated to helping vendors and city managers to find one another — and to spreading municipal innovations outside of their home turf. This month, in Thailand, I met Jonathan Hursh, who runs Compassion for Migrant Children (soon …
Meshwary celebrates preparing 45,000 for the job market
By Safaa Abdoun CAIRO: After her graduation, Hoda Mohamed Youssef spent months looking for a job but could not find a suitable opportunity. It was then that she learned of Meshwary (My Journey), a social and economic empowerment project, which works on youth aged 13 to 24 to increase their knowledge, skills and experience and provide …
Campaign aims to issue national IDs for 2 million Egyptian women
By Safaa Abdoun CAIRO: A national campaign to issue national IDs for 2 million Egyptian women kicked off in Qaliubiya, dubbed “Your National ID: Your Rights.” “Our objective is to issue IDs for women so they can practice their political rights and have access to a variety of services such as education, healthcare and other social …
Buttered Up: Fears, regrets and crust-less quiches
By Sarah Khanna I stretched, laying flat, fingers flopping around my side table in search of something to pull my hair up and away from my pillow-creased face. Happy to see some sun moving stealthily into the farthest corner, my corner of our room, I turned to find our bed empty — my husband already stirring …
State radio struggles to find own voice
By Dina Zayed / Reuters CAIRO: Despite the bigger margin of freedom facilitated to state radio by the 2011 uprising, especially when discussing previous taboos such as politics, censorship remains an ever present warning, even when it comes to the song selections. “Soot fel-Zahma” (A Voice in the Crowd), however, presents an example of defiance and …
Social entrepreneurs find needed guidance at Ashoka
By Amir Makar CAIRO: Individuals with transformative solutions who are willing to take the next step are the type of social entrepreneurs sought by international non-profit organization Ashoka, selected after having displayed enough commitment and dedication to their ideas. “Ashoka is a platform for social innovation … for individuals who are always trying to think of …
Agriculture ministry to order FMD vaccinations
By Safaa Abdoun CAIRO: Minister of Agriculture Mohamed Reda Ismail said that all financial resources needed to import the necessary vaccinations to combat Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) are available, and the order will be made once results are delivered from the Institute for Animal Health in London. An outbreak of foot and mouth disease (FMD) …
Sarah Curran on finding the niche in online fashion retail
By Heba Elkayal As the power and reach of fashion extends to consumers beyond the pages of monthly magazines by way of the internet and social media websites, fashion today can be all-consuming and admittedly, overwhelming. Major fashion magazines such as Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar have understood the power of viral media. Fashion brands and established …
Hospital staff pose risk to patients in developing countries, says study
By Heather Moore CAIRO: A new study published by the British Medical Journal suggests hospital patients in developing countries are harmed most often by the mistakes of the hospital’s clinical staff and by the failure to follow protocols and policies. All data was collected from medical records in Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Jordan, Yemen, Sudan, Kenya and …
Egyptians design ‘faster, cheaper’ hepatitis C test
By AFP CAIRO: The American University in Cairo said Wednesday that a team of its researchers has designed a faster and cheaper test for all types of hepatitis C, which it says affects about 10 million Egyptians. The development “reduces the two-step testing process carried out over a number of days to a one-step process …
When it comes to sharia, can knowledge trump fear?
KINGSVILLE, Ontario: Recently, Florida’s House of Representatives passed a bill (which later died in the state Senate) to ban the use of “foreign law” in domestic courtrooms. Such a bill may seem innocuous but according to the Miami Herald, flyers have circulated in Senate offices describing sharia — Islamic principles which are part of …
Whose sovereignty?
MADRID: Despite the huge sums expended to write down Greece’s foreign debt, there has been an outcry of censure against “interference” with the country’s national sovereignty. True, in exchange for considerable European aid, Greece’s ability to maneuver independently will be limited. But are complaints that Greek sovereignty has been severely impaired justified? The idea of …
Egyptian women honored for overcoming obstacles, barriers
By Mennatallah Fouad Youssef CAIRO: Mo’mena Badawy is a middle-aged woman who has been her family’s sole breadwinner since her husband was left crippled from an accident in 1993. Despite the social and financial hardships she faces daily, she manages to support her family, offering her children an education and providing them will all their needs. …
Agriculture minister downplays concerns about FMD outbreak
By Safaa Abdoun CAIRO: Minister of Agriculture Saad Nassar said Monday that all precautionary and preventive measures are being taken to control the current outbreak of food and mouth disease (FMD) in Egypt. An outbreak of foot and mouth disease (FMD) among cattle in Egypt has been a concern for the past few weeks, with the …