Latest in Politics Highlight
Latest in Politics
Egyptian program "anti-America," says Israel media watch group
CAIRO: An Israeli media watch group is accusing Egyptian television of promoting anti-American messages on its airwaves. Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), a right wing organization based in Jerusalem, is reporting that the Egyptian Channel 1 program Man in the Era of Globalization, starring Egyptian actor Salah El-Saadani, carries anti-American hate propaganda. In its advisory, PMW …
Government rethinks food subsidies in light of rising sugar prices
CAIRO: The dramatic rise in global sugar prices in recent months has been a mixed blessing for Egypt. Sugar is one of a handful of food products supported by the government under its subsidies regime and the price rise has caused a budgetary predicament, prompting the government to reconsider its approach to food subsidies. Meanwhile, …
Median overnight interbank rate ticks up to 8.3 percent
CAIRO: The median overnight interbank rate on the pound rose slightly to 8.3 percent on Tuesday from Sunday s 8.247 percent with banks seeking to place funds in a central bank auction. Bankers said they expected rates to be better for the seven-day certificates of deposits offered by the central bank than on the interbank …
State targets opposition amid calls to extend emergency law, say activists
CAIRO: The state has recently upped the ante in its attempt to thwart the political opposition, say observers and activists. “Over the past few days, we’ve witnessed a resurgence of the campaign against opposition activists across the board, said Moataz Billah Osman, director of the Cairo-based Arab Organization for Human Rights. This week, for example, …
Muslim Brotherhood leader criticizes Sinai blasts, supports Palestinian bombings
CAIRO: The Muslim Brotherhood condemns the terror bombings in Sinai this week, but it supports Palestinian attacks against Israel, the group s leader said Friday. Speaking in an interview with the Saudi-owned satellite channel MBC, Mohammed Mahdi Akef deplored the triple bomb attack that killed 18 people and wounded 90 others in the Sinai resort …
Calling with one voice
CAIRO: The Minister of Religious Endowments Mahmoud Hamdi Zaqzouq announced at a press conference on Sunday that the government, with the support of the Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa, has approved a project to synchronize the call to prayer in Cairo. The minister also said that the government might next ban the use of amplifiers by …
Three killed as police sweep Sinai for bomb suspects
CAIRO: Three Egyptians were killed Sunday in clashes that broke out when police raided northern Sinai to hunt down the group responsible for the deadly bombings in Dahab, security sources said. State-owned newspapers also reported that one of the three suicide bombers who blew themselves up in the Red Sea resort of Dahab on April …
Forty-five injured in train crash
CAIRO: Two trains collided at a station in northern Egypt Monday, derailing four carriages and injuring 45 people, police said. None of the injured was in serious condition and all were treated at a local hospital, a police official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press. …
Nour's top lawyer missing: wife
CAIRO: Jailed opposition leader Ayman Nour s top lawyer and a colleague have gone missing, Nour s wife and spokeswoman, Gamila Ismail, told AFP Saturday. Amir Salem, the lead defense lawyer in Nour s forgery trial, and Ihab Al-Khouly, also a Nour lawyer and one of five vice presidents for Nour s El-Ghad (Tomorrow) party, …
Press Round-up
CAIRO: After the upper house agreed to President Hosni Mubarak’s proposal to extend the Emergency Law for two years, criticism of the decision has been non-stop. National newspapers published few reactions, focusing instead on Mubarak’s announcements, while the independent press launched a campaign against the much-criticized law. According to Al Ahram, “the Emergency Law would …
Behind the lines
CAIRO: For most, life, with its continuous struggles, is hard enough as it is. Living in a war zone makes it even more of a challenge. “Absent unravels the story of Dalal, a young Iraqi woman, and her neighbors struggling with their day-to-day lives as they dodge allied bombings and international sanctions following the first …
Zoning industry
CAIRO: The theory of comparative advantage is entrenched in modern economic dogma. Countries specialize in the few goods that they can produce more efficiently relative to other goods and procure their remaining needs from other nations. While critics of globalization may dispute the social and political implications of the idea, few will deny its material …
Egypt and Jordan push for revival of peace talks
AMMAN: Jordan s King Abdullah and President Hosni Mubarak have agreed to ask major powers to revive Middle East peace talks next month to pre-empt Israeli unilateral moves, their foreign ministers said on Saturday. Both countries are worried about the prospects for Arab-Israeli peace after the election of a new Israeli government under Ehud Olmert …
Opposition voices anger over renewal of Emergency Laws
CAIRO: With only days to go until the expiration of Egypt’s highly controversial Emergency Law, the Parliament Sunday passed a measure to extend the legislation for another two years. Condemned for its authorization of sweeping arrests and detentions by Egyptian national security, the Emergency Law is viewed by critics as a tool to stifle any …
Qatari woman imprisoned by family for marrying Egyptian
DOHA: Inside a luxurious compound, a Qatari woman has been made a prisoner in her bedroom and sometimes starved and beaten for shaming her family by fleeing Doha in 2002 to marry an Egyptian man. My parents tricked me back and threatened to send me to prison unless I asked for a divorce and renounced …
Woof
“I like pigs, Winston Churchill is supposed to have said on what must have been a rainy day. “Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals. Well, I don’t know about pigs, but he certainly had cats and dogs figured out. Which doesn’t reflect very well on the …
An affordable goal
CAIRO: Shisha first found its way into the land of the Nile with the Ottoman conquest in the early 19th Century. It is the modern shisha, however, that is uniquely Egyptian. With the addition of molasses into the tobacco first taking place in the early days of the 20th Century in order to move away …
Look who's watching?
An explosion has already been heard in Iran. Not the nuclear kind the world is dreading. This one is softer, curvier (some makes come with an unusually short fuse) and just as loud. The bang belongs to Iranian women who will now be allowed to attend major sporting events, soccer included, ending a ban that …
Present and Tense
My wife calls me a mule. I call her Forty Acres. Together we’re the perfect couple, a dream of emancipation running across oceans of color, creed, and common sense. Last week, Sinai came between us, as it always does. Forty Acres got in her car and drove all the way to the coast. Mule stayed …
Emergency law fails to quell terror, say activists
CAIRO: Activists say that a triple bomb attack in the Red Sea resort town of Dahab on Monday is proof that a long-standing emergency law is ineffective in combating terror. The state of emergency has consistently failed to protect anyone, Egyptian or foreign, from terrorism, said director of the Cairo-based South Center for Human Rights …
Reform, before it is too late
CAIRO: It wasn’t long into the aftermath of the latest Sinai bombing that the people in Dahab, and the rest of the country, began anxiously pondering who was responsible for the recent string of violence that has plagued the country. Suffice it to say, this haven has, in many ways, been isolated from the mayhem …
Mubarak arrives in Jordan for talks with king
AQABA, Jordan: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak arrived in Aqaba for talks with King Abdullah II on aiding the Palestinians amid a growing Western boycott, an official with Jordan s royal court told AFP. As soon as he landed, Mubarak went immediately from Aqaba s airport to Abdullah s palace for talks on the situation in …
Egypt detains two in bomb attack investigations
CAIRO: Egyptian police have detained two men they said drove people suspected of involvement in bomb attacks in the resort of Dahab and north Sinai, the state MENA news agency reported. In a report published late on Friday, MENA quoted security forces as saying they were questioning two drivers whose passengers could have been involved …
Activists, journalists condemn Al-Jazeera reporter's arrest
CAIRO: Press freedom activists and journalists condemned the arrest of satellite TV news station Al-Jazeera s Cairo bureau chief Hussein Abdel Ghani on Wednesday, calling it an attack on journalists everywhere and a violation of freedom of expression. This constitutes an attack on journalists right to broadcast information in a transparent, unbiased way to the …
One killed as Egypt sweeps Sinai for bomb suspects
CAIRO: An Egyptian was killed Sunday in clashes that broke out when police raided northern Sinai to hunt down the group responsible for the deadly bombings in Dahab, the interior ministry said. The armed clashes erupted at dawn in the Jabal Al-Maghara region in northern Sinai as police encircled an area where they believed suspects …
UCLA Egyptologists launching online encyclopedia
WASHINGTON: Frustrated with the poor quality of many Web sites dealing with ancient Egypt, a professor at the University of California has decided to create a massive online encyclopedia devoted solely to Egyptology. Willemina Wendrich, a professor of Egyptian archeology, had watched in dismay as the best resource for her subject, a seven-volume encyclopedia in …
Rights activists cry foul after arrest of protesters
CAIRO: Human rights activists condemned the arrest of at least 30 protesters at demonstrations held on 26 and 27 April, held in support of pro-reform judges. Among other groups, the South Centre for Human Rights Studies called in a press statement for the immediate release of all those detained for supporting independence . According to …
Egypt renews state of emergency for two years
CAIRO: Egypt s parliament approved the renewal of the state of emergency for two years Sunday, a controversial measure the country s premier justified with a recent wave of bombings and communal clashes. The opposition Muslim Brotherhood swiftly condemned the government request, arguing that emergency laws were ineffective and that its justification was tantamount to …
Word on the Street
CAIRO: On Monday, Egypt and the entire region were rocked by the triple bombings that struck Dahab in the Sinai and claimed the lives of 24 people, while injuring dozens of others. The following day, two suicide bombers attacked again in the North Sinai, although the second day of attacks resulted in no deaths other …
Mubarak vows to defeat terrorism
CAIRO: President Hosni Mubarak on Thursday vowed to defeat terror as investigators probed whether a fugitive suspected in previous Sinai resort bombings may have carried out this week s blasts in Dahab. We are chased by a blind terror and no one is immune from its evils, Mubarak said in an annual nationally televised speech …