SHARM EL-SHEIKH: A sharp slump in the posh Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh's tourism sector has left industry professionals and workers living there with anxieties about the upcoming season that kicks off in April.
"The November-January season (...)
CAIRO: Why has the prevalence of democratic rule staggered - if not failed - in the Arab world?
It's a question that continues to puzzle many analysts, some of whom attribute that kind of failure to the reluctance of successive regimes that had (...)
SHARM El-SHEIKH: Essam Gamil, who has been operating a diving center in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh for 15 years, is now ready to sell off his house, pack up and move away.
Gamil lives in El-Rowaisat, 4 km west of Sharm's town center, (...)
CAIRO: With her bulky rusty metal cart, Om Tofaha has been trudging around Mosky and Khan El-Khalili in Old Cairo for the past 23 years. But unlike other vendors in the capital's historic bazaar, she's not touting papyrus scrolls or Pharoanic (...)
CAIRO: While stunning archaeological revelations are expected to make headlines by the beginning of 2009, archaeology-enthusiasts were let down by unfulfilled promises of exciting excavations made in 2008.
What marked the year 2008, however, were (...)
CAIRO: By hook or by crook, Egyptians always manage to slither out of adversity. Who would have thought that the greenery we lack in the heart of the stifling, dusty city, would flourish on the rooftops of some of its most destitute areas. Once (...)
CAIRO: Apart from a 1933 Arabic manuscript by Prince Omar Tosson "The Heroic Acts of the Sudanese-Egyptian Orta [Battalion] in the Mexico War and a novel published in 2004 by Egyptian author Salwa Bakr titled "Kuku Sudan Kabashi, very little is (...)
CAIRO: When Aida, 45 (not her real name), who has been happily married for 24 years found some red underwear in her husband's drawer, she never imagined that it belonged to him. After following him like a private eye for days, she got the shock of (...)
CAIRO: When Rudolf Diesel first invented the diesel engine, he used peanut oil to operate it, which was an unpopular choice at the time. While the world has since switched to using petroleum byproduct diesel to operate these types of engines (...)
CAIRO: Adel Abdel Maguid, 27, an accountant at an oil company, never imagined that he would ever need a gun to defend himself.
What had started off as a vehement dispute with his landlord who wanted to evict him, gradually evolved into a (...)
CAIRO: At 47 Amer Naeem, a civil engineer, has never been married.
Although Naeem and a growing number of others his age can afford the increasingly exorbitant cost of marriage, they have chosen bachelorhood despite the societal pressures on both (...)
CAIRO: The Nubian repatriation saga, which dates back to over one century when the inhabitants of what was then known as Nubia in Upper Egypt were first asked to leave their homes in 1889 with the building of the first Aswan Dam, continues to this (...)
CAIRO: In June 2008 the fate of the Azbakia second-hand book vendors was sealed when they were told to evacuate their decades-old stalls to make way for the Imbaba-Abassiya metro line. Their lives were going to change forever.
Despite the fact (...)
CAIRO: An Egyptology researcher has called for the display of another original version of the Rosetta Stone at the entrance of the Egyptian Antiquities Museum, dismissing the official request by Egypt to repatriate the stone from the UK as mere (...)
CAIRO: As the sale of prayer beads - known in Egypt as 'sibha' - reaches its first, albeit lesser, peak in the holy fasting month of Ramadan, dealers prepare for their big boom season in three months during the Hajj.
The sibha, like the Christian (...)
CAIRO: The ancient Egyptian custom of offering a virgin as a sacrifice to the river Nile every year to instigate a flood is a big historical error, Egyptology researcher Bassam El Shammaa told Daily News Egypt.
"The myth of Arous El Nil (Bride of (...)
CAIRO: Twenty years ago journalist Nawal Mostafa set a goal for herself after visiting Egypt's Qanater prison for women: to do everything in her power to help the children of inmates who were not only born behind bars, but grew up in confinement (...)
As throngs of visitors invaded El Hussein Square, opposite the shrine of the reputed Imam, one would have expected to run into a piper, a lute player, a munshid (a religious vocalist) or other oriental musicians these Islamic areas are known for - (...)
CAIRO: For the majority of new converts to Islam, abstention from food and drink in the Muslim fashion is one of their biggest challenges as they set out to observe the five pillars of Islam.
According to Yahia Maqurerran, a Dubai-based Serbian (...)
CAIRO: Bringing together an estimated 11 million followers in Egypt, Sufism today is undergoing a transformation: the ages old religious practice which has thus far remained apolitical is fast-delving into the political equation.
Despite the fact (...)
CAIRO: Though few people know it, abstention from eating and drinking is not restricted to humans.
Vets and wildlife experts say that animals, trees and many other creatures fast. But unlike the deliberate human act of fasting, animals do it (...)
CAIRO: Since water sports are not generally included on the Holy Month's roster of activities, the remaining highlights of the summer season seem to be shifting back to Cairo which attracts hoards of local and foreign tourists to its Ramadan (...)
BORG EL ARAB: As the winds of urbanization sweep through the great expanse of land on Egypt's North Coast, the Bedouin inhabiting the area between Borg El Arab and Marsah Matrouh face the trepidation of being uprooted, with their cultural identity (...)
CAIRO: Is the issue of sex selection that has recently captured public attention simply a media flash in the pan, or does it warrant serious debate because the science meant to determine sex in the conception stage is likely to disturb social (...)
ALEXANDRIA/CAIRO: Essam, an Alexandria-based mechanic, runs a workshop that's always abuzz with clients' boisterous questions, the hammering and thrashing of tools and the noise of cars moving in and out.
But in spite of the clamorous (...)