Latest in Politics Highlight
Latest in Politics
Corporate governance in the spotlight
CAIRO: Having recently published its voluntary guidelines for corporate governance, the Egyptian Institute of Directors (EIoD) will begin a training program for corporate board members next month in cooperation with the International Finance Corporation. The training course includes 24 modules covering methods for implementing the guidelines and leads to a certification for directors. Corporate governance …
Naeem joins consortium for mobile license
CAIRO: Egypt s Naeem Holding has joined Qatar Telecom and Singapore s ST Telemedia in a consortium to bid for Egypt s third mobile license, Naeem and Qtel said in a statement published on Thursday. Qtel has a majority stake in the consortium, said the statement, and published in full in the state newspaper Al …
Egyptian-Indian company to launch $950 million investment project in Edfu
CAIRO: An Indian-Egyptian company has won the 2005 Investor of the Year Award, given out by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), for selecting Egypt as the location for a multi-million dollar investment project. Indo Egyptian Fertilizer Company, which was launched as a result of a joint venture between Indian Fertilizer Company, Indian …
Life in rural Egypt
CAIRO: Abdel Hakim Kasem s Ayam El Ensan EL Sabaa (The Seven Days of Man) paints a unique and detailed picture of life in a small village in Egypt. The novel tells the story of Abdel Aziz, the son of a respected mystic village leader who could not be physically closer, yet at the same …
Public sector to sell 50 percent of AMOC
CAIRO: Public sector shareholders in Egypt s Alexandria Mineral Oils Company (AMOC) plan to sell shares worth half the firm s capital, the firm told the Egyptian bourse in a statement on Thursday. Bidders for the 43,050,000 shares on offer will also be committed to purchasing all shares offered for sale by private sector shareholders, …
UK's Melrose to buy Egyptian partner for $265 million
LONDON: Britain s Melrose Resources Plc said on Thursday it was buying partner Merlon Petroleum Company for $265 million in cash to gain full control of the pair s oil and gas discoveries in Egypt, boosting its shares. Melrose s shares rose as much as 16 percent to 403 pence. We believe that this deal …
Cornerstone laid for education campus in El-Marg
EL MARG, Egypt: In this shanty northern Cairo town, children can be seen at all hours of the day running barefoot through the dusty streets playing football. Alongside one match, a narrow branch of the Nile is overflowing with garbage. Some 350,000 people call El-Marg home and, of those, a great majority are children. Due …
2 Egyptians and Polish tourist killed, 19 hurt in Egypt bus crash
A Polish woman was killed and 19 other Poles injured when a tourist bus collided with a truck in Egypt s Sinai peninsula, police said. Two Egyptians were also killed. The bus, traveling from the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh to Cairo, was speeding when it collided with a truck parked on the side …
Egypt freezes assets of sunken ferry owner
CAIRO: An Egyptian prosecutor on Thursday froze the assets of the businessman who owned the ferry which sank in the Red Sea in February that killed more than 1,000 people, the state news agency MENA said. Socialist Prosecutor Gaber Reihan, whose post dates from the nationalization period of the 1960s, said he was freezing the …
Government launches anti-bird flu training program
CAIRO: The government launched a training program this week to prepare professionals and volunteers involved in combating the spread of the potentially pathogenic H5N1 avian virus. Faced with a deepening crisis, the government has launched a new program to train personnel dealing with bird flu, said health ministry spokesman Abdel Rahman Shahine. Those partaking in …
Egypt wants diplomatic solution to Iran crisis
CAIRO: Egypt said on Thursday it wanted a diplomatic solution to the dispute over Iran s nuclear program and could not accept the emergence of a new nuclear-armed power in the region. In a statement after a meeting with the U.S. State Department s senior arms control official, it also said that failure to persuade …
Dow Jones launches Egyptian index
CAIRO: A new blue-chip index for top-performing Egyptian stocks has been established by Dow Jones Indexes. The creator of the renowned Dow Jones Industrial Average unveiled its latest index yesterday. The Dow Jones CASE Titans 20 Index will track the 20 leading companies on the Cairo and Alexandria Stock Exchanges (CASE) based on a common …
New tax laws sees more Egyptians filing
CAIRO: Thanks to a national campaign launched to garner awareness of the new tax law, Egyptians are beginning to pay their taxes, according to Minister of Finance Yousef Boutrous Ghali. During a press conference held at the ministry yesterday, the minister presented the results of the first phase of the advertising campaign, which was launched …
Al-Sadr: Comments serve the enemy
BAGHDAD: The Egyptian president s claim that Shiite Muslims in Iraq and the Middle East are more loyal to Iran than their own countries serve only the enemy, Iraq s radical Shiite cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr said Wednesday. Such remarks serve only the enemy, and try to ignite civil and sectarian war, Al-Sadr said in a …
The place I call home
CAIRO: Tamer Ezzat suddenly realized that most of his family and friends have immigrated or are thinking about leaving the country. An uncle in New Zealand; a cousin in the United States and another in Canada are but a few examples. Stepping out and looking at the bigger picture, he realized his case is not …
Egypt frees 950 former militants
CAIRO: Egyptian authorities have released some 950 detained former members of the militant Gamaa Al-Islamiya (Islamic Group) in the past six weeks, including 300 on Tuesday, police sources said on Wednesday. The Egyptian government detained many thousands of Gamaa members or sympathizers in the 1990s, when the group was waging a low-level guerrilla war against …
Better sanitation for Upper Egypt schools
CAIRO: “I am a toothbrush! yells a 10-year old girl role-playing before her classmates in the Upper Egypt village of Farshout. “I protect my teeth from cavities and I keep my breath smelling fresh! “I wash my hands, I wash my face, I wash my head and I wash my body, yells another girl, the …
Bargain plastic surgery flourishes in Egypt, but at a price
CAIRO: Had Cleopatra s nose been shorter, the whole face of the world would have changed, French philosopher Blaise Pascal famously said three and half centuries ago. Today, it would cost Egypt s ancient queen and beauty as little as $300 to get a nose job in her native country, but specialists and disfigured patients …
Activists accuse government of fabricating cases against opposition
CAIRO: Activists accused the state of fabricating evidence to support criminal charges against members of the political opposition. In spite of their relative infrequency, these operations have wide and long term effects in spreading fear among ordinary citizens and amongst some activists who fear their turn will come, read a recent report issued by the …
Iraqi delegation absent as Arab foreign ministers meet in Cairo
CAIRO: Arab foreign ministers began meeting Wednesday at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo to discuss Iraq, without the presence of their Iraqi counterpart, an AFP photographer reported. Earlier, Saudi Foreign Minister Saud Al-Faisal said Iraq would be present at the meeting even though Baghdad announced a boycott in response to President Hosni Mubarak s …
Leading Italian designers consider producing in Egypt
CAIRO: Executives of the four prominent Italian fashion houses Valentino, Marzotto, Ferragamo and Ermenegildo Zegna, visited Egypt yesterday to investigate the possibility of manufacturing their brands with local producers. A cautious Michele Norsa, Valentino s chief executive officer, described his company s plans to produce over 100,000 suits annually in Egypt at a press conference …
Piraeus Bank dismisses rights issue report
ATHENS: Piraeus Bank, Greece s fifth largest lender, on Tuesday dismissed a press report that it is planning a large rights issue to fund the acquisition of banks in Egypt and Greece. At this moment, there is no deal or negotiations to buy a bank in Greece or in Egypt, as the press report claims. …
Hijab double standards too often strikes home
CAIRO: Every now and then news comes along that a government outside the Middle East decides to ban the hijab (Islamic veil) in some form or another. Protesting such decisions on the streets in Middle Eastern cities has become a regular reaction to such news. Gradually, the anger over the hijab ban has grown to …
New cement plant to be built in Aswan
CAIRO: The Egyptian General Authority for Industrial Development (GAID) has approved a proposal by Qena Cement Company to build a new cement plant in Aswan with an investment worth LE 570 million. The authority has allocated one million square meters for the construction of the plant. Misr Cement Company (Qena), founded in 1997 by the …
Administration scolds Mubarak, says Iraq is not in a civil war
WASHINGTON: The Bush administration rejected Monday assertions by President Hosni Mubarak, a close Arab ally; Iraq is descending into civil war. That s not our assessment, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. We don t share that assessment. Mubarak said in a television interview Saturday that civil war has almost started in Iraq and an …
UAE court cancels flogging sentence for Estonian soldier for alleged attempt to rape Egyptian woman
TALLINN: A court in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has cancelled a sentence of 80 lashes handed down to an Estonian soldier and has decided that he is to a face a new trial, a defense official in Estonia said Monday. An Islamic court in the UAE last week sentenced Andrei Korol, an Estonian soldier …
Love, war and redemption in the European Film Caravan
CAIRO: Film festivals have become a haven for us, the film fans, from the mediocre commercial films shown for the most part throughout the year on Egypt s big screens. The number of film festivals has been on the rise in recent years, and the unexpected and overwhelming success of the European Film Festival in …
Twelfth case of bird flu in humans reported
CAIRO: Egypt has found its 12th case of human bird flu, Health and Population Minister Hatem El-Gabaly said in comments published late on Monday. The latest case was an 18-year-old woman from a province north of Cairo who caught the virus after handling infected birds, the state MENA news agency quoted Gabaly and ministry officials …
Iraq says no to Cairo following Mubarak's comments
BAGHDAD: Iraq has decided not to participate in a meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo because of comments by the Egyptian president questioning the loyalty of Shiites, Prime Minister Ibrahim Al-Jaafari said Tuesday. We have taken a decision not to participate in the conference Wednesday, Al-Jaafari said after criticizing President Hosni Mubarak s comments …
Saudi Shiite clerics slam remarks by Mubarak
DUBAI: A group of Saudi Shiite clerics and intellectuals have criticized remarks by President Hosni Mubarak about the loyalty of Shiite Muslims to their countries, saying they inflame sectarian strife. Mubarak said Shiites in Arab states, in most of which they are outnumbered by Sunni Muslims, were more loyal to Iran than their own countries. …