Archive: egypt

28th February 2010
By: Brian Whitaker
From the Egyptian daily, al-Masry al-Youm: "The Public Funds Prosecution has uncovered that 11 MPs and 27 of their supporters in seven governorates accepted bribes from patients to receive state-financed medical treatment. According to investigators, the bribes ranged from LE1,000 to LE10,000" [$… Read more
27th February 2010
By: Brian Whitaker
Stories are circulating on the internet that a young Egyptian named Ahmed Mustafa is about to be court-martialled for remarks he posted in a blog. There are not many details but it seems that he complained about someone being removed from a military college so that a rich kid could take his place.… Read more
26th February 2010
By: Brian Whitaker
No apologies for returning once again to the topic of Mohamed ElBaradei. A week after the former IAEA chief arrived in Cairo as a possible presidential candidate, Egyptian politics has become more interesting than at any time since the 1952 revolution. I have said before that opposition parties –… Read more
26th February 2010
By: Brian Whitaker
Back in November I cautioned readers of this blog not to believe what they read on el-Koshary Today, which bills itself as "Egypt's most reliable news source". Its stories about crocodiles attackingthe Aswan Dam, the  construction of a new Disneyland in Ramallah to "improve the quality of life for… Read more
23rd February 2010
By: Brian Whitaker
It's intriguing that the first public figure Mohamed ElBaradei met after returning to Egypt was Amr Moussa, secretary-general of the Arab League, who has also been mooted as a possible candidate in next year's presidential election. What did they talk about? Well, neither man is saying very much,… Read more
20th February 2010
By: Brian Whitaker
Despite warnings that they were breaking the law, hundreds of Egyptians – perhaps more than 1,000 – turned up yesterday to greet Mohamed ElBaradei on his arrival at Cairo airport. Reports from al-Masry al-Youm and DPA describe the scenes, while the Egyptian Chronicles blog links to several video… Read more
19th February 2010
By: Brian Whitaker
Following its review of human rights in Egypt on Wednesday, the UN Human Rights Council will be issuing recommendations this afternoon. By an ironic coincidence, this comes as Mohamed ElBaradei, former head of the IAEA, winner of the Nobel peace prize and – of more immediate significance – a … Read more
17th February 2010
By: Brian Whitaker
Egypt's human rights record is facing scrutiny at the UN in Geneva today. Though the meeting is scheduled to last only three hours, this is the first time Egypt has been in the spotlight at the Human Rights Council under a process that reviews the performance of each member state in turn. Human… Read more
8th February 2010
By: Brian Whitaker
Saturday was the UN-sponsored International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation. In Egypt, about 1,000 girls took part in a protest in Minya province calling on the government to implement its law against the practice. According to statistics cited by al-Masry al-Youm newspaper,… Read more
19th January 2010
By: Brian Whitaker
A 22-year-old Jordanian man has been arrested for uttering "an insult against an Arab head of state". The head of state in question was Hosni Mubarak and the incident occurred outside the Egyptian embassy in Amman during a demonstration protesting against he construction of the border wall between… Read more