Latest in Politics Highlight
Latest in Politics
Vodafone acquire 51 percent of Raya Telecommunications shares
Prospects increase for wining international calls license, says Raya official CAIRO: Raya Holdings announced its acceptance of the principle of Vodafone Egypt acquiring 51 percent of Raya Telecommunications’ shares for LE 104 million yesterday, after the board of directors gave it the green light on Monday. Officials said the contract would be finalized within the …
Intelligence officer under investigation for Egyptian cleric kidnapping dies
ROME: A top Italian intelligence officer under investigation over the 2003 alleged CIA kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric has died, his lawyer said Tuesday. Gen. Gustavo Pignero died of cancer in a Rome hospital on Monday, lawyer Giulia Buongiorno said. She declined to say what kind of cancer the 58-year-old Pignero had suffered from. Pignero, …
EOHR says government not doing enough to protect citizens in the West and Gulf
CAIRO: In its latest humanitarian report, the Cairo-based Egyptian Organization for Human Rights (EOHR) has examined the complicated cases of Egyptians working abroad and illegal immigration to the West. The organization also shed light on what it perceives as the government’s failure to secure its citizens’ rights. Egyptians working and living abroad number around 3.5 …
Make your own TV schedule
New Showbox digital video recorder puts programs at the mercy of the viewer CAIRO: “It will change the way each of you watch TV forever. You now decide what to watch, when to watch it and where to watch it, says Steve MacDiarmid, vice president for regional operations and customer management for Showtime. What he …
Preserving Egypt's heritage – but at what price?
CAIRO: Protruding from the corner of a torn up, dirty street in the Gamaliya neighborhood of Islamic Cairo is the clean and imposing, freshly restored Old Cairo Wall. The ancient gateway to the early city currently embraces one of the poorer parts of Cairo. Residents trek through the mud caused by exposed water pipes to …
Literary debuts
CAIRO: The American University in Cairo Press hosted a reception to celebrate the new publications Sunday evening at the Falaki Campus. AUC Press Director Mark Linz introduced the authors of the new publications: AUC professor and author Galal Amin published The Illusion of Progress in the Arab World which analyzes the Western concepts of progress …
Heart examinations mandatory for players – EFA
CAIRO: No player will be registered in any Egyptian club s squad next season unless he passes a heart examination, the Egyptian Football Association announced on Sunday. The decision was taken in the aftermath of Mohamed Abdul Wahab s shocking recent death during an Al Ahli training session due to heart failure, an incident that …
Love gone wrong
A screen study of why men just don’t get women CAIRO: A romantic comedy staring Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn sounds like a perfect lighthearted date flick, but actually “The Break-up explores the darker side of love, so it might be best to avoid it on a first date. The film opens with Garry (Vaughn) …
MPs protest detainment of Palestinian officials
Protests demand that government get serious in demands for Hamas officials release CAIRO: Sunday’s parliament session saw heavy protests as a large number of opposition MPs decided to bring the issue of captured Palestinian government officials to the top of the assembly’s agenda. The protests, however, went largely uncovered by national newspapers. Opposition, independent and …
Bush says impressed by Egypt's "young reformers"
CAIRO: U.S. President George W. Bush has praised a group of young reformers close to an influential son of the Egyptian president, including the trade and industry minister who local press have mooted as the next prime minister. Bush also said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal published on Monday that President Hosni …
Increasing cement and steel prices hampering economic growth
CAIRO: High-priced cement and steel are slowing the growth of the Egyptian construction industry. The Egyptian government is working with cement and steel rebar manufacturers in an attempt to keep prices from soaring any further. HC Brokerage research department figures track the rising price of cement over the past two years from a market average …
Ministers defend reform policies in Euromoney Egypt conference
Ghali suggests more customs cuts; Moheiddin to accelerate privatization CAIRO: Minister of Finance Youssef Boutros Ghali announced the economy has achieved 6.9 percent growth rate, adding he expects the number to reach 7.4 percent by year s end with more reforms in the pipeline, possibly including more customs cuts. The minister s remarks came at …
Police officer and constables suspended and scheduled for trial following investigation of abuse
CAIRO: On August 1, Amgad Mukhtar Hussein was en route to vacation in Quesseir on a Gouna-bound bus with his wife Shereen Hussein and friend Dr. Mostafa Mahmoud Aboul Fotouh. Following a routine police inspection, Hussein was verbally and physically abused by one police officer and five constables. While Minister of Interior Habib Al-Adly personally …
Preponderance of corruption leads to poverty, say experts
CAIRO: While Egypt faces a number of social dilemmas, including rampant unemployment and high levels of illiteracy, many analysts say that official corruption, more than any other factor, represents the root cause of poverty. Corruption is rampant in many areas of Egyptian society – from young people’s dependence on wasta (meaning “connections in Arabic) in …
Bani Mazar and train accidents illustrate government inefficiency
Local press argues over right to criticize president and censures U.S. war on terrorism on the fifth anniversary of 9/11 CAIRO: While writers were busy reporting and analyzing the recent onslaught of train accidents and the acquittal of the defendant in the gruesome Bani Mazar mass murder, they also found the time and space to …
CMA licenses four brokers to provide online trading
CAIRO: The Capital Market Authority has licensed another four brokerage firms to provide online trading services in the Cairo and Alexandria Stock Exchanges (CASE), according to CMA head Hany Sarie El Din. In special remarks to NOOZZ, Sarie El Din said the companies include Delta, CIBC, EFG-Hermes and Nile One Brokers. Earlier in July, the …
Median interbank rate falls to 8.075 percent
CAIRO: The median overnight interbank rate on the pound fell to 8.075 percent on Monday from 8.257 on Sunday at the end of the two-week period for calculating bank reserves, bankers said. Some banks even dealt overnight money at 8 percent, the minimum level maintained by the central bank, which offers to take overnight deposits …
Israel dismisses Egyptian call for fixed borders for Palestinian state
Spanish Foreign Minister calls for return to peace talks following meeting with Mubarak JERUSALEM: Israel on Monday dismissed an Egyptian call to fix a border for a Palestinian state before resolving other issues, saying the sides should first take confidence-building measures under a U.S.-backed plan. There are no magical quick fixes, Mark Regev, a Foreign …
Poor now need certificates to receive rations
Government cuts subsidized products and clamps down on recipients CAIRO: Millions of people in low and limited-income brackets depend on what ration cards (subsidized food supplies vouchers offered by the government) provide them to cover a small part of their basic needs. The Ministry of Social Affairs has recently announced that in order to acquire …
Stocks slip in low-volume trade
CAIRO: Stock indexes rose 0.8 percent in light trade on Monday despite a lack of market-moving news from a big investment conference attended by the key economic ministers. Brokers said they were taken by surprise when the market rebounded from an initial slump driven by falls in the prices of London-listed GDRs. We were looking …
Egypt and Jordan back renewed Arab peace drive
AMMAN: President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan s King Abdullah on Sunday urged the international community to work for a speedy resumption of Middle East peace talks, officials said. They said both leaders agreed at a brief summit talks in Amman that an end to the Arab-Israeli conflict could only come about by a comprehensive settlement …
Al Ahli into African Champions League semi-final
CAIRO: Holders Al Ahli of Egypt became the first team to book a place in the African Champions League semi-finals after holding on for a 2-1 win over CS Sfaxien of Tunisia in Cairo on Saturday. The win took Al Ahli to 10 points at the top of the Group A standings and still left …
Series celebrates great film director
Ingmar Bergman film tribute opens at AUC I shall remember this moment: the silence, the twilight, the bowl of strawberries, the bowl of milk. Your faces in the evening light, Mikael asleep, Jof with his lyre, the forlorn, baffled knight Antonius Block says to the ingenuous Mia in Ingmar Bergman s “The Seventh Seal. I …
Wars of civilization
The Egyptian Museum came up with a wonderful idea some years ago. They launched a summer art class for children on the museum’s premises. The children would be taken on a tour of a particular wing of the museum, helped to appreciate the ancient Egyptian artifacts on exhibit, given a bit of the history of …
9/11: Savage birth of a new world order
Once upon a time a disgruntled millionaire troglodyte plotted with his ideological cohorts in his Afghan mountain fastness to teach the superpower a lesson. As a result, 19 volunteers, including several trainee pilots, were dispatched to the U.S. to engender a cataclysmic event that would shake America to its core. The rest is history, or …
Euromoney Conference kicks off tonight
CAIRO: The consortium of who s who in Egypt s financial affairs will all be found at the 11th annual Euromoney Egypt Conference opening tonight at the Semiramis InterContinental in Cairo. The 2-day conference attempts to bolster the host country s GDP and investments by targeting both business leaders and decision makers in a series …
Minister sees China overtaking U.S. as Egypt's largest trading partner
BEIJING: Egypt is reaching out to China to help develop a range of heavy industries as part of a rapid blossoming of trade and investment ties, Trade and Industry Minister Rachid Mohamed Rachid said on Sunday. He told a meeting of the World Economic Forum that he expected China to overtake the United States and …
Ministry of Finance to construct 50 schools under PPP arrangement
Noozz CAIRO: The Minister of Finance has announced that the government will launch Egypt s first tender for construction of 50 schools under the Public-Private-Partnership arrangement (PPP contracts) before the end of this month. The Ministry of Finance has already taken practical measures to construct 3,500 schools over the coming six years. The Minister of …
Renovating an old favorite Renovating an old favorite
Privatization of Biscomisr has led to product improvement CAIRO: The Egyptian company for foods, Biscomisr, which has recently undergone full privatization, is ready to launch new products and expand on its exports after it has reclaimed its old fame, says Samir Sabet, chairman and managing director. “New products are, and will be, formulated but the …
Egyptian freighter stranded in South Carolina to set sail
CHARLESTON, South Carolina: An Egyptian freighter stranded for more than two months because of its owner s legal problems may get to set sail in just a few days, according to a media report Saturday. The owner of the Edco has arranged for a $2 million letter of credit to cover claims of a lawsuit …