YEAREND SPECIAL: Mansour: The second transport minister to step down this decade
In a move rarely seen in Egypt, President Hosni Mubarak accepted the resignation of Transportation Minister Mohamed Lotfy Mansour on Monday Oct. 26, following a tragic railway accident.Mansour took full…
YEAREND SPECIAL: Despite setbacks, gas campaign vows to go on
Despite a series of setbacks in Egypt's courts in 2009, the Popular Campaign to Prevent the Export of Egyptian Natural Gas vowed to continue its opposition to the sale of…
YEAREND SPECIAL: Gaza remains under siege, more delays in Palestinian truce
The onset of 2009 came hot on the heels of Operation Cast Lead, the Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip which began with airstrikes on Dec. 27, 2008 before Israeli…
YEAREND SPECIAL: Obama admin makes rapprochement with Egyptian regime after Bush freeze
While US President Barack Obama won the American presidential election on a platform of hope and change, it was more of the same when it came to his administration's dealings…
YEAREND SPECIAL: Egypt's opposition groups blighted by internal divisions
Opposition groups in Egypt had arrows slung on them from all sides in a year marked, not only by criticism and crackdowns from the ruling regime, but by differences within…
YEAREND SPECIAL: Sinai Bedouins suffer repeated crackdowns in a year of tension
Residents of Sinai and Bedouin tribe members continued to bemoan their treatment at the hands of security forces in 2009, prolonging a crackdown meted out since Sinai was rocked by…
YEAREND SPECIAL: MP scandals overshadow 2008/2009 PA session laws
Unlike previous years, the 2008/2009 People's Assembly kept making headlines even after the June recess, with MP scandals overshadowing a largely uneventful term. Scandalous skirmishesIn October, MP Ahmed Shobair, who…
YEAREND SPECIAL: New gem rises from the rubble
On the road of Muiz li-Din Illah, that famed thoroughfare of Fatimid and Mamluk Cairo, is a new gem of a hotel. A small boutique hotel named Le Riad Hotel…
YEAREND SPECIAL: Damascus: A little bit Cairo, a lot of Shaami
As a foreigner numbed by Cairo's constant pace, clatter and change, I had forgotten some of my romanticized images of the changeless East. Souks filled with ancient trinkets, shopkeepers proffering…
YEAREND SPECIAL: Jumping on the eco-friendly bandwagon
All eyes were on the world's decision-makers who gathered at the United Nations' Climate Change summit in Copenhagen this month hoping to reach a viable climate treaty. In Egypt, a…