Archive: egypt

23rd August 2023
By: Brian Whitaker
More information is gradually emerging about the mysterious private jet impounded at Lusaka airport in Zambia after a flight from Cairo, and enough is now known to suggest a possible explanation of what was going on. It appears that the Egyptians on board the jet had flown to Lusaka to buy gold… Read more
21st August 2023
By: Brian Whitaker
Centre of suspicion: the impounded Bombardier business jet, registration T7-WSS, on the tarmac at Lusaka airportLast week Zambian drug enforcement officers searched and impounded a private jet after it landed at Lusaka airport on a flight from Cairo. It turned out there were no drugs on board but… Read more
25th August 2022
By: Brian Whitaker
The Egyptian authorities have got themselves in a tangle over photography. They want the country to be seen as an attractive tourist destination and if photographers would just focus on nice things, like feluccas sailing on the Nile and sunsets over the pyramids, all would be well. The problem,… Read more
22nd September 2021
Patrick George Zaki: detained as a "security threat"Patrick George Zaki, a 27-year-old Egyptian, was studying for a postgraduate degree at Bologna University in Italy. In February 2020 he returned to Egypt for a family visit – only to be arrested on arrival at Cairo airport. Zaki has been in… Read more
16th June 2020
On Sunday Egypt announced that it will be ready to receive foreign tourists again in a couple of weeks. On Monday it announced a record number of new coronavirus cases and a record number of related deaths. While many countries have waited for the Covid-19 epidemic to pass its peak before… Read more
29th May 2020
Egypt's official tally of new Covid-19 infections rose above 1,000 for the first time on Thursday as President Sisi warned that his regime's handling of the crisis must not be questioned. According to Sisi, hostile campaigns by “lurking enemies of the homeland” are seeking to discredit the regime… Read more
24th May 2020
Ramadan is over and now it's holiday time. As Muslims enjoy the three-day Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr, hotels in Egypt – previously closed because of the coronavirus pandemic – are beginning to receive guests again. On Friday, for the first time since March, 68 visitors checked into hotels in… Read more
21st May 2020
Faced with a shortage of places for quarantining Egyptians who return from abroad, the authorities have adopted an original – if dangerous – solution. To create more space, they have reduced the mandatory quarantine period from 14 days to seven. Egyptian citizens who test negative for Covid-19… Read more
4th May 2020
By: Brian Whitaker
At the end of March, President Sisi hailed Egypt's efforts to combat the coronavirus epidemic as "good and reassuring". Amid such confidence, his regime even made a show of sending medical aid to worse-hit countries such as Italy and the United States. Now, little more than a month later, the… Read more
12th April 2020
By: Brian Whitaker
Police in Egypt used tear gas on Saturday to disperse protesters who were trying to prevent the burial of a doctor who died after being infected by coronavirus. Ahram Online reports that 23 people were arrested. It was the second attempt to bury the 64-year-old female doctor. Residents in her home… Read more