Latest in Politics Highlight
Latest in Politics
Britain's Prince Charles to tour Egypt, Saudi Arabia, India
LONDON: Britain s Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, will visit Egypt, Saudi Arabia and India during a two-week official tour later this month, Charles office said Thursday. The trip will be the second the he and his second wife have made since their marriage in April 2005, having visited the …
Artifacts from ancient Egypt show influence of pioneering archaeologist
ALBANY, New York: The 27-year-old British archaeologist was making his first trip to Egypt, on a mission to uncover the truth about the Great Pyramid. When he moved into an abandoned tomb at Giza and slept on a hammock, everyone noticed the unconventional William Matthew Flinders Petrie. Petrie became even harder to ignore after his …
Armed robbery investigation underway
CAIRO: A massive investigation is underway after an armed robbery that took place last Friday at Aramex International Egypt’s Maghrabi offices ended in the murder of a security guard and a loss of approximately LE 1.5 million in stolen cash. According to a highly placed executive at the company, the robbery took place at around …
Word on the Street
CAIRO: Although the parliamentary elections concluded months ago, their effect is still being felt today. The Supreme Judiciary Council has withdrawn the immunity of four senior judges: Mahmoud El-Khodeiri, Hesham Bastawisi, Mahmoud Mekki and Ahmed Mekki. The four now face charges of damaging the image of the judiciary by accusing fellow judges of involvement in …
Press round up
CAIRO: The economic repercussions of bird flu still dominate the news. President Hosni Mubarak’s visit to the Arabian Gulf and Libya has also received a considerable share of coverage, especially since some of the president’s announcements during the tour struck many chords at home. While Al-Masry Al-Youm reported on Tuesday that the ban on selling …
Human rights lawyers hail U.S. detainee settlement
NEW YORK: Human rights lawyers on Wednesday took heart from the U.S. government s $300,000 settlement with an Egyptian man rounded up after Sept. 11, saying it boded well for hundreds of other former detainees. The government on Monday agreed to pay $300,000 to Ehab El Maghraby, its first settlement out of hundreds of claims, …
Beyond free trade
CAIRO: U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sealed the fate of free trade with Egypt after her visit last week. Negotiations on any agreement on the matter are now unlikely to commence before 2009. Despite attempts to pass off the postponement of free trade talks to internal political conditions within the U.S. Congress, the topic …
Poultry reparations insufficient say rights groups
CAIRO: Rights groups in Egypt criticized a government strategy to compensate poultry farmers and sellers, hard hit by the H5N1 avian virus two weeks ago, for fowl destroyed in a recent prevention drive. Cases of the virus have emerged among birds in 14 of 26 Egyptian governorates, although there have been no-incidences reported among humans …
Playing the waiting game at the Rafah border
RAFAH: It is hard to imagine that a gravel road is all that leads to one of the most difficult border crossings on the planet, but that is the reality of the Gaza-Egypt crossing at Rafah. Although construction is underway to pave the road, gravel is all that stands between hundreds of Palestinians and home. …
Britons freed from Egypt claim torture
LONDON: Three Britons who spent nearly four years in prison in Egypt for membership of a banned Islamic group said Wednesday they had been repeatedly tortured for their political beliefs. The allegations came after Reza Pankhurst, Ian Nisbet and Maajid Nawaz were freed by the Egyptian authorities and returned to London s main Heathrow Airport …
Cooperation between private sector and ministry vital
CAIRO: The Egyptian ministry of communication and information technology (MCIT) has praised the partnership between the government and private sector, stating that it has proven to be a successful formula for the implementation of a number of communication information technology (CIT) projects. We are always concerned to strengthen our relations with the business community and …
Egypt median o/n interbank rate steady at 8.5 percent
CAIRO: The median overnight interbank rate on the Egyptian pound was 8.5 percent on Wednesday, little changed from Tuesday s 8.534 percent, as bankers awaited the result of a central bank note auction. The central bank was auctioning LE 7 billion ($1.2 billion) of 42-day notes. We don t see a lot of action (in …
Bridge connecting Egypt, Saudi Arabia considered
CAIRO: The Egyptian government is considering building a $3 billion, 9.3-mile-long bridge between Saudi and Egypt in the aftermath of the sinking of the Egyptian ferry Salam Boccaccio 98 in the Red Sea on Feb. 3, 2006. According to a media report referred to by the ministry of investment, the tragic incident that garnered massive …
Government modifies meat-importing standards
CAIRO: With the news of the spread of bird flu throughout the country the demand for chicken has plummeted. Meat prices have gone through the roof. In response, the government has announced its plans to import more frozen meat, to the dismay of local poultry traders. It has issued new modifications on importing laws to …
Islamist trio, freed in Egypt, due back home in Britain
LONDON: Egypt deported to London three Britons released from jail where they had served almost four years of their five-year sentences for spreading propaganda for an Islamist group, officials said on Wednesday. The Britons were among a group of 26 men jailed for between one and five years for spreading propaganda of the Hizbut Al-Tahrir …
Journalists rally for freedom of the press
CAIRO: Journalists and political activists gathered at Cairo s Journalists Syndicate to discuss the detainment of Al-Masry Al-Youm reporters one year ago for what the government called irresponsible, false attacks against a public figure. Abdel-Nasser Al-Zoheiry was sentenced earlier this week to one year imprisonment for allegedly slandering Egypt s former housing minister, Ibrahim Suleiman. …
Mubarak says Egypt won over Rice on democracy
CAIRO: President Hosni Mubarak said Egypt had won over U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to its views on democracy in the Arab world and quoted her as saying it would take a generation for democracy to take hold. She was very polite as she was listening to Egyptian opinions and points of view. She …
Teaching hospitality
CAIRO: The Egypt Tourism Workforce Development Program celebrated the graduation of 119 hotel and restaurant professionals on Tuesday. The program, which is funded by the United States Agency for International Development, is in its second phase. The first phase provided training for approximately 10,000 workers in the tourism industry. The second phase started in October …
Mubarak sees Egypt's forex reserves rising
CAIRO: President Hosni Mubarak said in remarks published on Wednesday he expected his country s foreign exchange reserves to keep climbing. The Egyptian central bank s foreign reserves grew 33.6 percent in the year to January to $22.13 billion. I want the central bank to have $100 billion, and this hope is not far away …
Egyptian, Libyan leaders meet in Libya to discuss supporting Iraqis and Palestinians
TRIPOLI, Libya: Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and President Hosni Mubarak on Tuesday discussed the conflicts in Iraq and Sudan, the Iranian nuclear standoff and the situation in the Palestinian territories, an Egyptian envoy said. & Mubarak held talks with Gadhafi in the Libyan Mediterranean port city of Misratah on Tuesday before returning to Egypt later …
Quenching the audience's thirst
CAIRO: “I will paint wings on my back. Colorful wings and fly into a painting of Odilon Redon, says Yara Goubran as she enters onto the Howard Theater’s stage. The first play written by Shems Friedlander was in fact designed with this young actress in mind, who managed to take 22 minutes of dialogue and …
Mubarak warns U.S. against hitting Iran
CAIRO: President Hosni Mubarak said he had advised the United States against attacking Iran, predicting that Tehran would react through its influence over Shi ite Muslim communities in Arab countries in the Gulf. In remarks to Egyptian newspaper editors published on Wednesday, Mubarak also said an Israeli attack on Iran was most unlikely because Tehran …
Rulers restore grip on power, U.S. distracted
CAIRO: Egypt s government is cracking down on pro-reform activists, calculating that Washington s drive to democratize the Middle East has flagged after Islamist successes in Egyptian and Palestinian elections, analysts say. The prospect of civil war in Iraq has also distracted the United States and dampened its enthusiasm for rapid change in countries ruled …
Beyond the alphabet
CAIRO: New in the country? Troubled by the fact that you still can’t put together an Arabic sentence? Don’t be too frustrated; most Egyptians can’t do it either. “There is no more than one percent of Egyptians who can put together a correct Arabic sentence, says Mohamed El Sawy, founder of the Zamalek-based El Sawy …
Tanker spills fuel after Suez accident
ISMAILIYA, Egypt: A Liberian-flagged tanker lost 3,000 tons of heavy fuel in the Suez Canal on Monday after a collision with a quay caused a leak, an official at the canal authority told AFP. The Grigoroussa 1 which was headed south from the Mediterranean suffered a technical failure and drifted before hitting a quay on …
Trains collide, 20 injured
CAIRO: A train ran into the back of another one in the Nile Delta on Tuesday because of a signal failure and mist, injuring 20 people, officials said. The accident took place near the town of Abu Hummus, which lies on the main line between Cairo and Alexandria and about 150 km (95 miles) northwest …
British Islamists leave Egyptian jail
CAIRO: Three Britons left an Egyptian jail on Tuesday after serving almost four years of their five-year sentences for spreading propaganda for an Islamist group, the mother of one of Britons said. Officials said they would be deported to Britain within 24 hours. The Britons Reza Pankhurst, Maajid Nawaz and Ian Nisbett, were among a …
Protecting ideas
CAIRO: Protecting intellectual property is an intricate challenge. In the world of copyrights and patents, stealing is not a direct physical action involving an object or an individual; it is a simple, unobtrusive process in which, with the push of a button, zeros and ones are transferred and within moments the culprit has the latest …
For the love a flower
CAIRO: Following frequent visits to a friend’s flower shop, Sally El Torgoman decided to take on this friend’s offer and combined her interest in art and her background in sales and public relations into a partnership in a small scale flower business. El Torgoman, who used to help her friends furnish their houses as a …
U.S. settles with Sept. 11 detainees for $300,000, lawyer says
NEW YORK: The U.S. government has agreed to pay $300,000 to an Egyptian man who was detained for nearly a year following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks but was never linked to terrorism, his lawyer said. Attorney Haeyoung Yoon, who represents Ehab El Maghraby, said she believed it was the first settlement involving the claims …