Calm returns to Rafah border after violence leaves Egyptian dead
CAIRO: Calm returned to the Egypt-Gaza border Thursday after clashes between Palestinian protesters and Egyptian border guards left one guard, 22-year-old Ahmed Shaaban dead, and nine injured from both sides.…
Foreign ministers meet to revive Mediterranean Union
CAIRO/MADRID: The nascent Mediterranean Union is very close to naming its first secretary general, who will be from an Arab country, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said Tuesday.He was…
Egypt ups third stimulus package to LE 11.2 bln
CAIRO: Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif announced this week a third stimulus package to the People's Assembly, amounting to LE 11.2 billion (over $2 billion). In October, the government said that…
A digested record of art history in 'Alexandria'
One of the most tantalizing things about Cairo is the little surprises it always manages to tuck away in its street corners. Of those surprises are the tiny galleries that…
A far-off museum to save an Ethiopian tribe's soul
Women jump up in their fluffy orange cotton skirts, waggling their shoulders at men who are swift to join the dance, sporting white feathers in their hair and shepherd s…
"Blood Wedding" and the Suite Flamenca
Only art can make of tragedy an enjoyable occasion. "Bodas de Sangre (Blood Wedding), a tragedy written by renowned Spanish poet and writer Federico Garcia Lorca, opened at the Cairo…
Islamic limits to fighting oppression
PESHAWAR, Pakistan: Whenever terrorism strikes in Pakistan and innocent lives are lost, people wonder which Islamic injunctions the perpetrators abused to justify their acts. The North West Frontier Province of…
Israel and NATO: Between membership and partnership
MADRID: The idea of integrating Israel into NATO has frequently been advanced as bait to encourage the Jewish state to make the necessary concessions for an Arab-Israeli peace settlement. And…
Overcoming the Copenhagen failure
NEW YORK: Pretty speeches can take you only so far. A month after the Copenhagen climate conference, it is clear that the world's leaders were unable to translate rhetoric about…
Coptic protestors clash with security forces following Qena shooting
CAIRO: Security forces clashed with over 2,000 Egyptian Copts Thursday enraged by the murder of six Copts in a drive-by shooting Wednesday night in Nagaa Hammadi, a city in the…