Downtown Cairo retail in a recession?
CAIRO: As 2009 slinks into its second month, the pulsing streets of downtown Cairo and the stores that line them are hurting - badly.Downtown Cairo was once the epicenter of…
Pinocchio joins Shakespeare at new ballet performance
This week the Cairo Opera Ballet Company presents two back-to-back performances of "Pinocchio and "Jeu d'echecs (Shakespeare Suite).Contrasting lively flamboyance with a moodier sophistication - both works contrast on technical…
Meek at work
Writing is hard work, acclaimed British writer James Meek assures me. A journalist of 20 years, and a writer with two short story collections and four novels to his credit,…
The vanished beauty of Gaza
So much of what we hear about Gaza today is too morbid and disheartening for words to describe. Yet, everyday we see the state of Gaza in gruesome full color:…
From dust to dance
Fifteen Sesostris Street, Downtown Alexandria may appear as an unlikely location for a dance center. Smack in the heart of the city's financial district, it is more accustomed to pinstripe…
Report reignites debate on Pharaoh bust in Germany
CAIRO: Egypt will demand Germany return an ancient bust of Queen Nefertiti if a document suggesting it was fraudulently spirited out of the country is authentic, antiquities chief Zahi Hawass…
In Focus: The Old Middle East
CAIRO: The United States didn't need the Pearl Harbor crisis in 1941 to break its isolation and end the state of uncertainty that prevailed in the international order throughout the…
Coming Soon: Capitalism 3.0
CAMBRIDGE: Capitalism is in the throes of its most severe crisis in many decades. A combination of deep recession, global economic dislocations, and effective nationalization of large swathes of the…
The night "Bibi" won and my Balkan nightmare
During the 1996 Israeli election, I was in the Channel 4 Television studios in London. I still remember the surrealistic atmosphere sitting in the editing room, putting the final touches…
German-Egyptian activist wants attention given to Gaza, not to his detention
CAIRO: Activist Philip Rizk described his four-day detention by state security on Thursday in a press conference held in his Maadi apartment in Cairo.Rizk, who turned 27 yesterday, was abducted…
