The Greek Community of Alexandria

Category: EGYPT

News about Egypt

  • Gunmen Kill Police in Attack Near Egypt’s Iconic St. Catherine’s Monastery

    Gunmen Kill Police in Attack Near Egypt’s Iconic St. Catherine’s Monastery

    Gunmen attacked security forces near St. Catherine’s Monastery in Egypt’s south Sinai on Tuesday, killing at least one police officer and injuring four others, the Health Ministry said, just a week after two deadly church bombings killed 45.

    Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack on a police checkpoint about 800 meters (yards) from the entrance to the monastery, one of the world’s most important Christian sites.

    The attack comes just 10 days before Pope Francis is scheduled to visit Egypt and just over a week after two deadly suicide bombings on Christian churches, also claimed by Islamic State, plunged the country into mourning and marked one of the bloodiest days for the country’s Christian minority in decades.

    St . Catherine’s, founded in the 6th century and located at the foot of Mount Sinai, is one of the oldest Christian monasteries in the world and a UNESCO world heritage site. It is part of the Eastern Orthodox church.

    Egypt’s Christian minority, which makes up about 10% of the country’s 92 million people, has increasingly been targeted by Islamist militants, with three deadly church attacks in the span of four months.

    In February, scores of Christian families and students fled North Sinai province after a spate of targeted killings.

    A successful assault on St. Catherine’s would be the latest challenge to President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who has pledged to protect the religious minority as part of his campaign against extremism.

    Egypt has for years been battling an Islamist insurgency in the rugged and thinly populated northern Sinai, which gained pace after the military overthrew President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013 following mass protests against his rule.

    Attack s in Egypt’s southern Sinai, a popular destination for tourists dotted with Red Sea resorts, are by contrast rare.

    Security sources told Reuters that security had been put on high alert at tourist facilities across southern Sinai after the attack .

    The attack in southern Sinai comes as Russia is expected to make a long-awaited decision on whether to restore flights to the Sharm el-Sheikh resort after a Russian airliner was downed in 2015, dealing a serious blow to the area’s tourism industry, which relies heavily on Russian visitors.

    Egypt’s tourism industry, a crucial source of hard currency, has suffered in the years of turmoil that followed the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak in 2011, as well as from the suspected bombing of the Russian plane, which killed all 224 on board.

    Israel took the unusual step earlier this month of barring its citizens from crossing into the Sinai peninsula, saying the threat of attack s in the area inspired by Islamic State and other jihadi groups was high.

    (time.com)

  • 21 Killed in Church Bomb Attack in Egypt’s Tanta

    21 Killed in Church Bomb Attack in Egypt’s Tanta

    A bomb exploded Sunday at St. George’s church in Egypt’s Al Gharbeyya governorate, killing and injuring dozens.

    The explosion in Tanta left 21 dead and 42 injured, according to state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper. According to preliminary reports in state media, a bomb had been placed inside the church underneath a seat.

    In response to the attack, an emergency room has been set up by Egypt’s security departments. Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi also issued an order for military hospitals to treat all those injured.

    Meanwhile, Egypt’s Al-Azhar, the highest Sunni Islamic authority in Egypt, issued a strongly worded statement condemning the attack.

    This is the second attack to strike Tanta in less than 10 days. On 31 March, at least 16 people were injured when a bomb exploded outside a police training centre.

    The explosion comes as Coptic Christians started celebrations for Palm Sunday.

    This is the second church bombing to strike Egypt in six months. In December, dozens were killed after a bomb struck a chap connected to St Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Cairo. ISIS claimed responsibility for the December 2016 attack.

    The story is still developing.

    (egyptianstreets.com)

  • Egypt, EU launch new phase of strategic partnership: Foreign ministry

    Egypt, EU launch new phase of strategic partnership: Foreign ministry

    The Egyptian foreign minister’s visit to Brussels has launched a new phase of strategic partnership between Egypt and the European Union, paving the way for an EU-Egypt association agreement in the upcoming period, the ministry said on Tuesday.

    The agreement — which has been under negotiation since February 2016 — would frame the country’s relationship with European institutions over the next three years.

    In an official statement, foreign ministry spokesperson Ahmed Abu Zeid said Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and his European counterparts have compiled a document of each side’s priorities, to guide further negotiations on the agreement.

    On his visit, Shoukry met with 28 European foreign ministers, making it “the first meeting of its kind with a non-EU minister this year,” the statement read.

    The meetings tackled EU-Egyptian relations. Shoukry discussed ways the EU could support Egypt economically and politically, given that the country’s stability is an essential European interest, the statement read.

    Shoukry also discussed economic, social and political developments in Egypt and the challenges the country faces in each of these sectors.

    “Egyptian national institutions bear the responsibility of safeguarding human rights in Egypt,” Shoukry told his EU counterparts, according to the statement, adding that “human rights include social and economic rights; they are not restricted to political rights.”

    The minister arrived in Brussels Sunday for an official visit, on which he met with EU officials including the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the Vice President of the European Commission and the EU Commissioner for Home and Migration Affairs, along with the foreign ministers of 28 EU countries.

    “The visit was successful because Egyptian diplomats built a bloc of Egypt supporters within the EU, represented by countries that have made remarkable progress in cooperation with Egypt such as Greece, Cyprus, and Hungary,” the statement read.

    At a meeting with the EU Commissioner for Home and Migration Affairs and the German and Austrian foreign ministers in Brussels, Shoukry reiterated Cairo’s refusal to establish camps to house irregular migrants attempting to travel to Europe, saying “refugees and migrants live freely and enjoy the services provided to Egyptian citizens.”

    During his visit, Egypt’s FM also met with Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary General of NATO, to discuss political and security challenges in the Middle East.

    An EU delegation is set to visit Egypt mid-March to continue talks on the association agreement.

    During negotiations, Cairo has assured the EU that the agreement would be based on Egypt’s 2030 development plan.  

    (english.ahram.org.eg)

  • Searching for Life Quality? Cairo, Alexandria Just Made It to Africa’s Top 10 Cities

    Searching for Life Quality? Cairo, Alexandria Just Made It to Africa’s Top 10 Cities

    According to a Swiss study published Tuesday, Egypt’s Mediterranean city of Alexandria comes third while the capital Cairo ranks seventh when it comes to quality of life in Africa.

    Surveying 100 capitals and major urban centres in Africa, the research body Communaute d’Etudes pour l’Amenagement du Territoire at the Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) looked at seven categories: society, housing, spatial development, infrastructure, environment, governance and economy.

    “I wish this was true, but it’s difficult to understand how Cairo that has been, for example, reputed for its toxic air and chronic noise pollution in numerous global studies in the past comes at seven,” said Amro Ali, an Alexandrian researcher who currently lives in Cairo.

    “Also were they able to access data and independent studies on the informal settlements and housing crisis faced by the poor that plagues Cairo and Alexandria? As official statistics provided by the authorities would often give a skewed picture,” Ali added, wondering what the methodology was for measuring the seven categories.

    Swiss urban sociologist, Jerome Chenal, told Afrique Mediterranee Business, the Paris-based magazine that commissioned the study that “until now, rankings for Africa were done for investors and expatriates”.

    “We never asked how people lived, whether young or old, rich or poor,” Chental told AFP.

    Morocco’s Marrakesh held first place, and three of its other cities also made it to the top 10 on the list, while South Africa’s economic capital Johannesburg came second.

    (egyptianstreets.com)

  • Egyptian researchers turn shrimp shells into biodegradable plastic

    Egyptian researchers turn shrimp shells into biodegradable plastic

    Researchers at Egypt’s Nile University are developing a way to turn dried shrimp shells that would otherwise be thrown away into thin films of biodegradable plastic they hope will be used to make eco-friendly grocery bags and packaging.

    Six months into their two-year project, the research team has managed to create a thin, clear prototype using chitosan, a material found in the shells of many crustaceans.

    “If commercialised, this could really help us decrease our waste… and it could help us improve our food exports because the plastic has antimicrobial and antibacterial properties,” Irene Samy, a professor overseeing the project, told Reuters.

    The researchers buy unwanted shrimp shells from restaurants, supermarkets and local fishermen at cheap prices.

    Using shrimp shells is more sustainable because it could replace synthetic materials used in plastics and cut the amount of biowaste produced by the Egyptian food industry, Samy said.

    The shells are cleaned, chemically treated, ground and dissolved into a solution that dries into thin films of plastic, a technique the team says has potential for large-scale industrial production.

    “Egypt imports around 3,500 tonnes of shrimp, which produce 1,000 tonnes of shells as waste… Instead of throwing the shells away, we can make biodegradable plastic bags,” Hani Chbib, a researcher on the project, told Reuters.

    The project is a collaboration between the Nile University team of four and another research group at the University of Nottingham in Britain, where Samy conducted her post-doctoral research and first started experimenting with the idea.

    The team has only produced small samples and the project is not yet ready to go into commercial production but the team is working hard to develop properties that would allow the material to go into widespread use.

    “We are continuing to work on enhancing its properties, like thermal stability and durability,” Samy said.

    (www.reuters.com)

  • Mostafa el-Abbadi, Champion of Alexandria’s Resurrected Library, Dies at 88

    Mostafa el-Abbadi, Champion of Alexandria’s Resurrected Library, Dies at 88

    Mostafa A. H. el-Abbadi, a Cambridge-educated historian of Greco-Roman antiquity and the soft-spoken visionary behind the revival of the Great Library of Alexandria in Egypt, died on Feb. 13 in Alexandria. He was 88.

    His daughter, Dr. Mohga el-Abbadi, said the cause was heart failure.

    Professor Abbadi’s dream of a new library — a modern version of the magnificent center of learning of ancient times — could be traced to 1972, when, as a scholar at the University of Alexandria, he concluded a lecture with an impassioned challenge.

    “At the end, I said, ‘It is sad to see the new University of Alexandria without a library, without a proper library,’” he recalled in 2010. “‘And if we want to justify our claim to be connected spiritually with the ancient tradition, we must follow the ancient example by starting a great universal library.’”

    It was President Richard M. Nixon who blew wind into the sails of Professor Abbadi’s ambitious proposal. When Nixon visited Egypt in 1974, he and President Anwar el-Sadat rode by train to Alexandria’s ancient ruins to observe their faded grandeur. When Nixon asked about the ancient library’s location and history, no one in the Egyptian entourage had an answer.

    That night, the rector of the University of Alexandria called the professor and asked him to prepare a memo about the Great Library’s rise and fall.

    The task, he said later, made him realize how deeply the ancient library resonated, not only with Egyptians but also with many around the world who shared his scholarly thirst.

    Backed by the university, Professor Abbadi began developing plans for a new research institution and ultimately persuaded the governor of Alexandria, the Egyptian government and Unesco, the United Nations educational and cultural organization, to lend their support.

    In 1988, President Hosni Mubarak laid the foundation stone for what would become the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, a $220 million seaside cylindrical complex. Designed by the Norwegian firm Snohetta, it comprises a 220,000-square-foot reading room, four museums, several galleries, a conference center, a planetarium and gift shops.

    It opened in 2002, hailed as a revitalization of intellectual culture in Egypt’s former ancient capital, which is now its often neglected second-largest city.

    “With the founding of the new Bibliotheca Alexandrina,” Professor Abbadi wrote in 2004, “the ancient experiment has come full circle.”

    The professor did not share fully in the glory. He, like other scholars, had been critical of some aspects of the finished library and maintained that the builders had been careless during the excavation, unmindful of the site’s archaeological value.

    When the library was officially opened, in a ceremony attended by heads of state, royalty and other luminaries, he was nowhere to be seen. He had not been invited.

    Mostafa Abdel Hamid el-Abbadi was born on Oct. 10, 1928, in Cairo. His father, Abdel-Hamid el-Abbadi, was a founder of the College of Letters and Arts of the University of Alexandria in 1942 and its first dean.

    Mostafa el-Abbadi earned a bachelor’s degree with honors there in 1951. A year later, he enrolled at the University of Cambridge on an Egyptian government scholarship. He studied at Jesus College under A. H. M. Jones, the pre-eminent historian of the Roman Empire, and earned a doctorate in ancient history there in 1960.

    Two years before, in Britain, he had married Azza Kararah, a professor of English literature at the University of Alexandria, who had earned her doctorate at Cambridge in 1955. She died in 2015.

    Besides his daughter, Professor el-Abbadi is survived by a son, Amr, a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara; a sister, Saneya el-Abbadi; three brothers — Hassan, a former Egyptian ambassador to Thailand and Cuba; Hani, a former Egyptian ambassador to Sri Lanka; and Hisham — and five grandchildren.

    Professor Abbadi and Professor Kararah returned to Egypt in the 1960s to be lecturers at the University of Alexandria. They held many visiting fellowships and appointments throughout their careers. From 1966 to 1969, they taught at Beirut Arab University in Lebanon.

    (mobile.nytimes.com)

  • An ancient Egyptian mystery draws tourists to King Ramses II statue

    An ancient Egyptian mystery draws tourists to King Ramses II statue

    Ancient Egyptians were known for their scientific excellence and genius, especially in the fields of astronomy, sculpture and construction. For instance, the three pyramids are considered among the Seven Wonders of the World. Pharaonic arts and antiquities still hide secrets that no scientists have managed to explain or understand.

    Every year, a Pharaonic miracle has been happening for 33 centuries.

    At the main entrance of the Great Temple of Ramses II at Abu Simbel in Aswan governorate, a solar alignment is witnessed on the face of the King Ramses II statue twice a year, once on his birthday, Oct. 22, and again on his coronation day, Feb. 22.

    Ramses II built his temple, which took 19 years to complete, in 1275 B.C. At the same time, the king inaugurated another temple for his wife, Queen Nefertari, who was said to be the most beautiful among Pharaonic queens. He ordered her shrine to be located near his own, on a mountain overlooking the Nile.

    King Ramses II, of the ninth Pharaonic family, was born in 1315 B.C. He came to power in 1290 B.C. and gained wide popularity for several reasons. For one, he acceded to the throne when he was a young, ambitious and enthusiastic man and remained king for 67 years. He also inherited a strong and rich country from his father who taught him the arts of war, rule and politics.

    Civilians and soldiers supported him, and he defeated the Hittites, the largest military power at the time. He was passionate about immortalizing his memory and honoring himself. For that purpose, he built more shrines, palaces, statues and obelisks than any other ruler before him. During his reign, Egypt built a new capital called Pi-Ramesses, which became one of the most important capitals of the ancient Near East.

    When the sun shines, its rays creep into his deep shrine, which is about 60 meters (197 feet) from the entrance, to illuminate it. The aim is for the sun’s rays to fall on Ramses II’s face from the east from a narrow opening.

    British explorer Amelia Edwards and her team detected this phenomenon in 1848, and she recorded it in her book “A Thousand Miles Up the Nile.” She wrote, “The statues of Abu Simbel Temple gain huge influence and are surrounded by an aura of praise and respect when the sunrays shine and set on them.”

    Al-Monitor attended the Aswan governorate’s celebration of the phenomenon. According to Aswan Gov. Magdy Hijazi, the governorate holds several artistic and cultural events for the occasion.

    “This year, the celebration was more organized, given the development of the work and performance to suit its grandiosity,” Hijazi told Al-Monitor. He noted that the event was made possible in coordination with the Ministry of Tourism, Antiquities and Culture in Aswan. “The governorate was spending large sums of money on the celebrations of solar alignment in the past, but it is currently agreeing with other parties to support and improve the celebrations as part of the expenditure rationalization policy,” he said.

    The celebration marked the beginning of the fifth Aswan International Festival for Arts and Culture, in which 17 folk art troupes participated, including ones from China, India, Greece, Sudan, Nigeria, Armenia, South Korea and Thailand.

    Among those who participated in the event were Minister of Antiquities Khaled El-Enany, Minister of Culture Helmy al-Namnam and Minister of Tourism Yehia Rashed. About 4,000 people attended the solar alignment event, including 1,500 tourists.

    The first Aswan International Women’s Film Festival coincided with the solar alignment and was launched over six days under the patronage of the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Tourism. The festival’s prize statue comes in the shape of the ancient Egyptian goddess of the moon and motherhood, Isis.

    Mohammad Idriss, the general manager of the Ministry of Culture in Aswan, told Al-Monitor, “The festival program includes performances from the participating troupes. It took place in several cultural locations and youth centers in the governorate.”

    In a Feb. 6 press statement, Houssam Abboud, the director general of Abu Simbel antiquities at the Ministry of Antiquities, said the ministry took great efforts to prepare the celebrations for the occasion, which is a boon for tourism.

    He added that the solar alignment phenomenon stems from the ancient Egyptian belief that King Ramses II was intricately connected to the sun god Ra.

    Residents of Abu Simbel also participated in the celebration and promoted their city. They held an exhibition to display their antiquities and city folklore, as well as handicrafts from the families of tribes in Abu Simbel to reflect their culture to foreigners and Egyptians.

    Aswan University participated in this global event by sending students from the Faculty of Linguistics to help guide foreign tourists who attended the celebrations.

    (www.al-monitor.com)

  • Egypt Heads Project to Connect 10 African Countries through Nile Shipping Line

    Egypt Heads Project to Connect 10 African Countries through Nile Shipping Line

    By 2024, a 4,000 kilometers waterway will connect ten African countries, stretching between Lake Victoria and the Mediterranean Sea. An Egypt-led project, the navigational shipping line is to be established along the Nile River for small and medium-size commercial vessels to boost bilateral trade.

    Egyptian Minister of Water and Irrigation Moahmed Abdel Aty announced the completion of an annual report which highlights the results of the early stages of the feasibility studies. Egypt signed a feasibility studies contract with a German-Belgian international consultancy office, using $650,000 in funding from the African Development Bank, after having completed a pre-feasibility study in May 2015, which cost $500,000.

    The 12 billion USD line originally incorporated nine countries: Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Sudan and Egypt. Despite political strife with Egypt over its Renaissance Dam, Ethiopia decided in January to jump aboard the project.

    The Egyptian government and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEDPAD), the technical body of the African Union, launched the project in June 2013, with the idea to promote “intermodal” transport by integrating river, rail and road transport facilities along the Nile Corridor and to develop river management capacity.

    “This project will boost economic development in the Nile Corridor by increasing trade and regional integration, as well as the transport of goods and people,” NEPAD states.

    Intermodal transport integration will include sections along the Trans-Africa Highway (Cape Town–Cairo, Lagos-Mombasa, Dakar-Ndjamena-Djibouti and Cairo-Dakar), various railway lines, as well as the big harbours in Alexandria, Suez Canal, Mombasa and Dar es Salaam, indicates the NEPAD website.

    Egypt has listed a number of potential project components, including supporting economic development in the Nile Basin by raising the level of trade and transport of goods and people, constructing a navigational line connecting Lake Victoria and the Mediterranean Sea through the Nile River, and establishing river navigation management training centres in some of the footprint states “based on the Egyptian experience”.

    Phase one of the project will comprise the section from Lake Albert in Uganda to Khartoum in Sudan, the section from Gambeila in Ethiopia to the White Nile in South Sudan, and the section from Khartoum in Sudan to Aswan in Egypt. Phase two will comprise the section from Lake Victoria to Lake Albert, both in Uganda, and the section between the Blue Nile Basin in Ethiopia and the Main Nile in Sudan.

    (egyptianstreets.com)

  • The Statue of Liberty was modeled after an Arab woman

    The Statue of Liberty was modeled after an Arab woman

    As Americans grapple with Donald Trump’s ban on travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries, it’s a good time to point out a little-known irony. The Statue of Liberty — that symbol of American freedom and diversity that has greeted immigrants for generations — was originally modeled after an Arab woman.

    The statue’s designer, Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi, was enamored with Egyptian pyramids and monumental sculpture. According to historian Edward Berenson, in the 1860s, Bartholdi decided to build a monument to commemorate the opening of Egypt’s Suez Canal.

    “And that monument was going to be a woman in the southern opening of the canal holding up a torch over her head and that woman was dressed in Arab peasant garb,” Berenson says. But when the ruler of Egypt, Khedewi Ismail Pasha, went bankrupt, the colossal Suez sculpture project was jettisoned.

    But the artist soon found a way to recycle his design. “A couple of years earlier, Bartholdi and his friends decided they were going to give a gift to the United States that was going to celebrate the centennial of the American Revolution,” Berenson explains. “And then, Bartholdi thought, ‘Ah! I’ve got a great idea! I can reuse this image but change it to fit the American Revolution.’”

    Bartholdi changed the woman that was originally dressed in Arab garb into a Greco-Roman goddess of liberty. And the Statue of Liberty, as we know her today, was born.

    (www.pri.org)

  • Egyptian army chief of staff discusses military cooperation with Greece’s navy chief

    Egyptian army chief of staff discusses military cooperation with Greece’s navy chief

    Egypt’s army Chief of Staff Mahmoud Hegazi met on Monday in Cairo with the Chief of Greece’s Navy General Staff Nikolaos Tsounis for talks over means of expanding joint military cooperation, a statement by the Egyptian Armed Forces read.

    Egyptian army spokesman Tamer El-Rifaei said that the talks involved several issues of common interest, including an exchange of viewpoints towards developments taking place in the MENA region and their impact on the regional and international arenas.

    Hejazi affirmed the depth of the ongoing partnership and cooperation between the Egyptian and Greek armed forces to support the efforts of security and stability in the Middle East.

    Egyptian and Greek Armed Forces concluded in December the Medusa 2016 joint military drills in Greece.

    During the training, Egyptian air and naval forces participated in the drills with Greek forces, which were held in the southeastern Aegean Sea and on the island of Crete. 

    (english.ahram.org.eg)