Latest in Politics Highlight
Latest in Politics
Zamalek invites Palestinian PM to football match
CAIRO: Zamalek football club has invited Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya to attend the upcoming clash with city rivals Ahly and promised to donate part of the proceeds to the Palestinian people, club officials said Wednesday. The Zamalek club has invited Prime Minister Haniya to attend Sunday s match between Ahly and Zamalek, club official …
French and Egyptian tourism ministers, families commemorate victims of 2004 plane crash
SHARM EL-SHEIKH: Mourners on Wednesday sailed into the Red Sea to throw flowers, photos and, in some cases, the cremated ashes of their relatives lost in a 2004 plane crash that killed all 148 passengers and crew off the coast of this Egyptian resort. Earlier, French Transport and Tourism Minister Dominique Perben and his Egyptian …
Poultry industry in supply crunch after bird flu
CAIRO: After five human deaths and 20 million culled birds, Egyptians are returning to chicken as their main source of animal protein, creating a supply crunch as slaughter houses struggle to meet the resurgent demand. Egyptians turned away from poultry when the deadly bird flu virus hit the country in February, but the panic which …
Braving the farce
CAIRO: Battling to regain their homeland and a national identity is, in all likeliness, at the top of Palestinians’ list of priorities, but smaller battles dominate their day-to-day lives. They are tackling the complex labyrinth of Israeli travel permits, passes and checkpoints, simply to get to and from the workplace. They have to fight the …
Venezuelan Carlos Coste takes free-dive world record with 140 meter plunge
SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt: Venezuelan Carlos Coste set a world record in free-diving on Tuesday, reaching a depth of 140 meters and returning to the surface without scuba equipment in the waters off this Sinai resort. Coste took the record in the variable weight category of free-diving, in which the diver rides a weight down a …
Resort bombings death toll rises to 20
CAIRO: The death toll from the recent bombings in the Red Sea resort of Dahab has risen to 20 after an Egyptian died of his injuries, a security official told AFP Wednesday. Mohammed Farag Menufi Abdallah, the owner of a travel company in Dahab, was wounded in one of the three suicide attacks that rocked …
Welcome to the magnificent world of "Wallace & Gromit"
CAIRO: One of the most discussed topics in film circuits these days is the current sorry state of American animated films. Many film analysts foresaw a big surge in Animation production after the massive success of the Pixar films in the late nineties and the emergence of other players like DreamWorks, most notably with the …
Digitalizing homes
CAIRO: The home entertainment industry is in the throes of its most dynamic period of change, due to today’s “digitalization trend in homes of the future. Thanks to the currently heavily touted concept of digitalization bringing the notion that all home entertainment and consumer technology, from television, Internet and music to lighting and window shades …
Mufti favors wiping out militants
CAIRO: Egypt s top authority on Islamic law has said extremists who kill Muslims should be wiped out. They must be liquidated physically and struck with all force … We must not sympathize with people who have polluted their hands with the blood of Muslims, Ali Gomaa, the chief mufti of Egypt, told a seminar …
Emergency Law leading to more instability
CAIRO: Opposition forces claim that following the extension of the Emergency Law security forces have been “harsher and “stricter in their policy. In response, some political and judicial blocs have organized a conference to combat the law’s “hegemony. Following the renewal of the Emergency Law, at least 70 political and human rights activists were arrested; …
Refugee advocate awarded British honor
CAIRO: After decades of hard work for refugees, the woman who coined the term “forced migration, the highly impressive Barbara Harrell-Bond, was given the title of Officer of the Order of the British Empire, and was awarded a badge by the British Ambassador in Egypt Sir Derek Plumbly at the British Embassy in Cairo, on …
Human bird-flu deaths prevalent among breeders, says health ministry
CAIRO: Human deaths caused by the potentially pathogenic avian virus H5N1 have resulted mostly from exposure to infected fowl kept domestically, according to a health ministry statement issued following a meeting of the Supreme National Committee to Combat Bird Flu. “There were 11 cases that resulted from domestic breeding, read the statement. “Only two cases …
Police kill mastermind of Sinai bombings
AL-ARISH, Egypt: Police killed Tuesday the leader of an Islamist militant group blamed for a spate of attacks in tourist resorts in the Sinai Peninsula over the past 18 months, security sources said. Nasser Khamis Al-Mallahi, the mastermind of the group, was killed this morning in clashes between police and members of the group, a …
Chinese government commits $10 million for investor center in Northwest Suez
CAIRO: Minister of International Cooperation Fayza Abul Naga signed agreements with China s Ambassador to Egypt Wu Sike yesterday to build a one-stop shop for investors in the industrial zone northwest of the Gulf of Suez as well as a school in 6th of October City. The Chinese government will contribute $10 million toward the …
Police detain four Islamists in Alexandria
CAIRO: Police detained four Muslim Brotherhood members in Alexandria, bringing to 70 the number of members of the Islamist movement being held behind bars, a spokesman told AFP on Tuesday. Four members of the Brotherhood were arrested at dawn yesterday (Monday) for their continuing campaign against the Emergency Law, said Ali Abdel Fattah, the Islamist …
EFG Q1 net income rises five-fold
CAIRO: Egypt-based investment bank EFG-Hermes said on Tuesday its net income rose five-fold to LE 208 million ($36.1 million) in the first quarter of 2006. The income figure was about in line with the lower expectations of analysts, who had predicted variously LE 200 million, LE 212 million and LE 300 million. It compares with …
Israelis urged to leave Sinai after kidnap threat
JERUSALEM: Israel on Monday warned its citizens to leave Egypt s Sinai resort area immediately, saying there was a threat of kidnapping by militant groups. A message circulated to media and issued on the Web site of Israel s Prime Minister s Office counter-terrorism unit said the danger was imminent and called on its citizens …
In the making
ŠΘ # # # Ola Ghanim, Amer Moneib and Hala Sheiha # # Amy and Ahmed Said Abdel Ghany
Median overnight interbank rate rises to 8.275 percent
CAIRO: The median overnight interbank rate on the pound rose to 8.275 percent on Tuesday from 8.074 percent on Monday at the start of a new two-week period for calculating bank reserves. Bankers said most banks were more interested in auctions at the central bank, which is offering 7-day certificates worth LE 10 billion ($1.74 …
Kuwait's Aref, KGL sign $1 billion Egypt pier deal
KUWAIT: Aref Investment Group and Kuwait Gulf Link Transport Co. said on Tuesday they signed a deal to build and operate container docks at Egypt s Damietta port. The firms, in a statement posted on the bourse Web site, did not give the value of the deal, signed with Egypt s ministry of transport. But …
Demands for judiciary independence dominate the news
CAIRO: The Judges Syndicate has decided to discuss the independence of the judiciary in a conference slated for May 17, reported Al-Masry Al-Youm. The conference is scheduled to include Egyptian journalists, parliamentarians, thinkers and law experts. The judges said they will plan ways to make the judiciary independent from the state, in an attempt to …
All charges dropped against reporter
CAIRO: A criminal court has dropped the case against an Egyptian journalist sued by a judge for libel, a court official said Monday. The Giza Criminal Court on Monday dropped charges against Amira Malash, a reporter for the independent weekly Al-Fagr, and canceled the one-year prison sentence it handed her in March. Malash wrote in …
Activists detained for 15 more days
CAIRO: As the detainees exited the courtroom Monday, they were heading toward a further 15 days in prison, when their cases will again be reviewed. The eleven activists had been arrested two weeks ago in the early morning at one of the demonstrations in support for the beleaguered judges. Over the past few days they …
Desert village Pushes to become lush farmland
ALI MUBARAK, Egypt: It’s 11 am and Omayna Yousseff Abdel Aziz has already had a full days work. The bananas have been picked and left to soak up water from a running hose. The grapes are purple, not green and have been washed. She has visited the nearby supermarket which her friend Samia owns and …
Egyptian abattoirs accused of animal mistreatment
DUBAI: Radical animal rights group PETA is set to launch for the first time Monday a Middle East campaign to highlight alleged abuses in slaughterhouses in Egypt and several Gulf countries. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), best known for its aggressive stunts against celebrities who wear or promote fur, was to hold …
Government continues appeal of Bahai recognition
CAIRO: After years of oppression, the Bahai community in Egypt struck gold a few weeks ago after a court decision was handed down granting them full citizenship rights in the country. However, last week saw the Egyptian government say that they were appealing the case. “We were ecstatic about the case that allowed our community …
Dispute between telecom bigwigs
CAIRO: Orascom Telecom Holding S.A.E. (OTH) announced on May 4 that it will file a request for arbitration against Kuwaiti operator Wataniya Telecom (WT) regarding a material breach of a shareholder s agreement between the two operators. According to a press release issued by OTH, the Egyptian mobile operator will commence arbitration to enforce its …
Police work to identify Dahab suicide bombers
ISMAILIA, Egypt: Police are working to identify the remains of three men they suspect of carrying out suicide bombings in the Sinai resort of Dahab that killed 19 people last month, security sources said on Sunday. The men were part of a group of 25 people, including farmers and religious leaders, the sources said, adding …
Egypt median overnight interbank rate slips
CAIRO: The median overnight interbank rate on the Egyptian pound slipped to 8.075 percent on Monday from Sunday s 8.118 percent with demand for pounds low at the end of a period over which the central bank measures reserves. Bankers said they had met the central bank reserve requirement, which is measured over a two-week …
Islamists galvanize political scene
CAIRO: Six months after shock electoral gains, the Muslim Brotherhood has injected new life into parliament, but some argue they have failed to propose a program beyond a systematic opposition to the government. On Nov. 9 last year, the Islamist movement electrified a political landscape atrophied by decades of one-party rule by inflicting stinging defeats …