US cuts direct aid to unregistered Egyptian NGOs
CAIRO: The United States has cut from its budget $10 million in the aid it grants directly to Egyptian NGOs not officially registered with the Egyptian government, the America in…
Egypt car sales down 36 pct, says auto council
CAIRO: Egypt's car sales declined 36.3 percent year-on-year in June 2009, said officials at the Automotive Marketing Information Council (AMIC) in their bi-annual meeting last week. A total of 90,357…
Low steel prices, high cement consumption projected for August
CAIRO: Local steel and cement producers announced pricing policies for August, the local press reported Sunday. We expected a decline in steel prices and prices have been declining gradually over…
Cannes-honored Philippine film gets censors' nod
Censors here have belatedly approved a Philippine film honored at the Cannes festival that graphically depicts the rape, murder and dismemberment of a prostitute, officials said Friday. Kinatay , which…
China's Cosplay craze blurs fantasy and reality
The skeleton warriors briefly stumbled backward but kept lumbering toward 23-year-old Zhao Jing as she blasted them with two oversized six-shooters in a battle set to pounding music.Fantasy and reality…
Bahaa Taher returns with flying peacocks, domesticated dogs and a furtive palace
After an 11-year absence from the realm of short stories, Arabic Booker Prize winner Bahaa Taher makes a remarkable comeback with "Lam Aaref ina Al-Tawawes Tateer (I Didn't Know that…
Religious pluralism in today's Muslim world
PHILADELPHIA: In his June 4 speech to the Muslim world from Cairo, US President Barack Obama started his discussion of religious freedom by pointing out that "Islam has a proud…
Civil society unbound
MOSCOW: The challenges facing civil-society organizations are greater in Russia than in many parts of the world, but the challenges facing civil society itself are similar everywhere. Indeed, around the…
Fear: the underrated enabler
WASHINGTON, DC: In 1997, at a time when I travelled frequently from Israel, where I was living, to Jordan, I was invited to give a talk to the Amman World…
Egypt reports nine new H1N1 cases
CAIRO: Health Ministry official Mohamed Attah confirmed the discovery of nine cases of swine flu on Saturday, bringing the total number of cases in Egypt to 274. Undersecretary of the…