A 12-car train carrying hundreds of Central Security Forces conscripts left Upper Egypt for Cairo on Monday afternoon. Before midnight, the train derailed in Giza, leaving 19 of its passengers dead and another 120 wounded.
This is not an unusual (...)
Outside a courthouse built to resemble an ancient Egyptian sun temple, a group of protestors chants against their “Pharaoh.” Cairo's Supreme Constitutional Court is scheduled to announce today its ruling in two highly contentious cases, determining (...)
After a week of tumultuous polarization, Egyptians headed to the ballot boxes in what would be their eighth election since the 25 January revolution.
Like a chorus to a turbulent transition, the voting process became a recurrent scene to Egyptians (...)
“Shave your beard and show us your face, so we can see your true disgrace: you look just like Mubarak!”
It didn't take long on Tuesday for protesters to fill Tahrir Square, or the air above it with similar chants aimed at Mohamed Morsy. When the (...)
LUXOR — Despite the fact that it now hosts two international film festivals, the city of Luxor hadn't seen a working movie theater in almost three decades. So when Mokhlis Mikhael opened the doors to the City Mall Cinema in June, residents were (...)
They didn't set anything on fire, and nobody got arrested — both signs of commendable restraint by a band known for the type of onstage antics likely to get them kicked out of most venues and, as was the case in 2009, India. But things were (...)
Sunday's Al-Ahram leads with President Mohamed Morsy in New York preparing for his first General Assembly at the United Nations. The state-owned paper reports that Morsy has scheduled 15 separate meetings with various heads of state, including (...)
As protests erupted in the vicinity of the US Embassy in Cairo against an anti-Islam film last week, Egypt Independent had reporters on the ground every day. Their assignment was to come back at the end of the day and write an account of what they (...)
At this very moment, Americans are piling into movie theaters, cheering through their popcorn at the notion of the Islamic prophet as a goat-romancing child-molester, and sending “The Innocence of Muslims” to the top of the box office charts. It's (...)
Offering no introduction, Alaa Saad marches up to an elderly street vendor and says, “let's say you and I have conflicting viewpoints regarding a sensitive issue. Shouldn't we try to talk our differences over, instead of reaching for each other's (...)
Despite the balloons incorporated into its logo, the privately owned daily Al-Tahrir finds little to celebrate on the first day of Eid al-Fitr, with the majority of the independent daily's headlines revolving around last Sunday's shooting in Sinai, (...)
“I don't usually watch these types of shows,” Abu Ahmed said, frowning as he flipped through television channels. “But I need to know which one of these jackasses is soon going to be riding me.”
The first half of the 51-year-old's statement is a (...)
While state-owned papers keep their focus on the ongoing “presidential election shenanigans” — according to Al-Akhbar's front page — independent publications seem more concerned with other issues; namely, the state security agent apprehended by a (...)
In what appears to be an unprecedented move, the Ministry of Religious Endowments has refused to issue a permit that would allow a film crew to shoot a scene inside Sayeda Nefeesa mosque, on the grounds that doing so would violate Sharia.
In a press (...)
Amid a controversial case against NGOs charged with receiving illegal funding, a new bill regulating the work of civil society is causing widespread criticism among the field's experts.
The draft law proposed by the government earlier this year is (...)
Continuing to showcase an outright disregard for all things orderly and restrained, parliamentary sessions plowed through the week, with members attempting to juggle the nation's top issues, and essentially fumbling every single one of them.
This (...)
With Wednesday's headlines reading more like a series of ominous and unrelated cliffhangers, Al-Shorouk vies for attention by placing a thick red frame around its own: “Calm in the streets, flames in Parliament, and a nation on the brink of civil (...)
Even within the context of the past 13 months, the events of Wednesday's soccer match confound. Port Said's home team enjoys a rare victory, and fans celebrate by raiding the pitch and murdering scores of Ahly supporters.
Reports of decapitations, (...)
Any disaster movie worth its body count needs an alarming score to complement the onscreen carnage and convince audiences that the end is not only near, it's also as inescapable as it is expensive-looking. And when it comes, sometimes it sounds (...)
Like most of us, Mohamed Saad did not see the revolution coming. The actor, known for his inexplicably popular “comedic” portrayals of cross-eyed, slinky-waisted degenerates, kept a low profile during the earlier, chaotic days of the uprising. He (...)
“The Fox Hotel” is a great title for a children's book, implying all sorts of amusing possibilities. Is it a hotel for foxes, or is it just managed by them? Is it a real hotel - does it have room service and a swimming pool, do they serve alcohol, (...)
A man walks into a hospital, asking to be admitted as a patient into the neurology department. The receptionist apologizes and politely informs the man that this particular hospital does not have a neurology department. The man responds by pulling (...)
The fourth day of Eid proves to be somewhat of a slow news day, as indicated by the lack of focus in the headlines of the nation's leading publications, several of which feature soccer and film stories on their front pages.
State-owned Al-Ahram (...)
At first thought, it may seem odd that the Egyptian film industry rarely produces horror movies. The ingredients are all there: the public is, for the most part, superstitious enough to lend credence to any number of hokey, exploitative story lines, (...)
History is rife with instances in which art was used to deliver a specific message or set of beliefs; one of the most fascinating examples is Coptic iconography - an art form that first came to life in ancient Egypt.
“The Eternal Eye,” an exhibition (...)