Shortly before he passed away, veteran Marxist lawyer Ahmad Nabil el-Hilaly wrote a paper calling for the establishment for a new united front among leftists in Egypt, to confront the current questions of change, politically and socially, and to try and coordinate action on the ground between the current existing leftist groups, most importantly: [...]

Well, it’s about time these cases come into the open. I’d like to see other issues also investigated, including the treatment of foreign labor in the UAE (Egyptian, Arab and Asian workers), the right to unionize in workplaces where such associations are virtually non-existent, the enslavement of domestic servants… Shall I go on?

UAE royals face [...]

From IRIN…

EGYPT: Preponderance of corruption leads to poverty, say experts
10 Sep 2006 14:59:19 GMT

CAIRO, 10 September (IRIN) - While Egypt faces a number of social dilemmas, including rampant unemployment and high levels of illiteracy, many analysts say that official corruption, more than any other factor, represents the root cause of poverty.
Corruption is rampant in many [...]

Woke up to the news about another transportation disaster….

Egyptian dredger sinks in Suez
Wednesday 13 September 2006 4:22 AM GMT
An Egyptian dredger has sunk in the Suez Canal, leaving two people dead and up to six others missing, Aljazeera says.
Aljazeera’s correspondent in Cairo said the dredger sank early morning on Wednesday near Ismailiya, north east of [...]

My friend SP sent me this cool website that has political paintings by Pakistani artist Saira Wasim.

Check out her gallery when you get the time….

Kefaya has announced it will organize an anti-Mubarak protest, in Tahrir Square, 6pm on 18 September–on the same day Mubarak’s National Democratic Party will be holding its annual congress.
إعتصام بميدان التحرير ردا على مؤتمر الحزب الوطني
تدعوكم  الحركة المصرية من أجل التغيير - كفاية- إلى إعتصام بميدان التحرير يسبق عقد الحزب الحاكم لمؤتمره  العام الذي ستتم فيه [...]

I’ve been following Al-Jazeera and BBC since the morning, and there seems to be several conflicting stories about the attack, which has ended few minutes ago, according to the news outlets.
Eyewitnesses are talking about two attackers who approached the embassy and then detonated a Lebanese-licenseplated car; others talk about exchange of gun fire and grenades.
But [...]

رمضان على الأبواب… كل عام وأنتم بخير
الصديق العزيز والمصور البارع عبد الناصر النوري رصد بعدسته بعض مظاهر استقبال الشهر الكريم

Preparations for Ramadan are underway in Cairo…most important of which is the Fanouss Ramadan (Ramadan’s lamp). Originally a Fatimid tradition, Egyptians celebrate the arrival of the holy month by Islamically decorated lamps from all sizes. These [...]

On the fifth anniversary of 9/11, Dr. Ayman al-Zawahri released a new video statement, aired by Al-Jazeera, where he warned of coming attacks in Palestine and the Arab Gulf countries…
Here’s a report from Al-Jazeera website…

On 9-11 al-Qaeda issues new threat
Monday 11 September 2006
Al-Qaeda is to shift its operations to the Gulf and Israel, says [...]

US president Bush has given an interview to The Wall Street Journal, where he showered Egypt’s “young reformers” with praise. He doesn’t mean of course the Youth For Change secular activists who brave police beatings, torture, and sexual abuse, demanding an end to Mubarak’s autocratic rule, and calling for freedom of expression and association. Neither [...]

I’ve known Summer Said since 2002, when she, at the age of 19, joined the now-deceased Cairo Times, where I and most of the Arabist posse worked. Summer was, has been, and is one hell of a good reporter, ambitious, hardworking. She started working for the first few months on the Cairo Times “listings,” that [...]