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Politics/headline news
Sacrifice of plenty
Public parks and gardens have been jam-packed with revelers over the past few days, celebrating the Eid el-adha holidays. The extended break began on Monday and was accompanied by summer-like weather all across the country.
On Monday, after dawn prayers, sheep were slaughtered and much of their meat distributed to family, friends and the needy.
According to an item on the front page of Al-Wafd, Egyptians spend some LE405 million annually on eid sacrifices. The figures come from research done by the General Trade Union, which divided up the amount between sheep (39 per cent), cattle (28 per cent), buffalo (21 per cent), and camel (just over 1 per cent. The research also revealed that per capita meat consumption during eid increases from 28 grams per person to 86...
The paper's article is accompanied by a picture of a camel being slaughtered, supposedly, Al-Wafd says, because so many people are afraid of mad cow disease.Inside, the paper also claims that members of the Egyptian delegation currently attending the Berlin tourism trade show ordered special deliveries of lamb "fatta" from back home, brought over on charter flights to Berlin, because they were scared of getting mad cow from European meat...
Meanwhile, a cartoon on the back page of Al-Wafd on eid morning takes a poke at the global frenzy over "mad cow" disease. The cartoon shows a cow pretending to be crazy - smiling wildly and swatting itself with a fly swatter - while watching a sheep being led to slaughter. "So what if I'm crazy, at least I'm going to live," the cow is saying...
Ad watch
Pokemon warnings
In the past few months the global Pokemon craze has hit Egypt's shores, courtesy of a potato chip company that gives away free Pokemon cards with its bags of chips. School-children everywhere now play Pokemon, and nearly every kid has a bunch of the cards in his or her pocket and is ready to play at any time. At the same time, it seems there have been several attempts to produce unlicensed copies of the game, according to the company that owns the license to distribute Pokemon, which placed a front page ad in Al-Ahram warning all those who attempt to produce or sell fake Pokemons that it will take legal action against them. It's also worth noting here that Rose El-Youssef magazine did a investigative piece on the rabid popularity of the game in schools a few months ago, claiming it was keeping children away from their homework and teaching them gambling. We probably have yet to see much of the hullabaloo over Pokemon, which caused a similar sensation in the US and in other countries a few years ago.
Tourism
Cheaper water for Red Sea resorts
Al-Akhbar reports that the cost of water being delivered to hotels and resorts along the Red Sea is set to go down from LE5 to LE2.5 per cubic meter. The price cut will be a boon for the resorts. The paper also says that the Red Sea governorate has begun a 15-month project which aims to increase the production capacity of the Hurghada water line from 45,000 to 80,0000 cubic meters per day. The project will cost some LE172 million.
New developments
On-line library of Islam
Sheikh Maktoum bin Rashid Al-Maktoum has given $5 million to Al-Azhar to put together the world's largest on-line library of Islamic literature, reports Al-Akhbar. The ruler of Dubai is considered one of the world's most net-savvy leaders, having founded an Internet City in his home country. Al-Azhar possesses one of the world's largest collections of Islamic manuscripts, some 35,000, amongst which are many rare items. 9,000 of these are the only known copies in the world. Putting these works of fiqh, sunna and jurisprudence on the net will be beneficial to scholars of Islam around the world, and will help to re-establish the world's oldest university as a global leader of education, it is hoped. The article also says that Al-Azhar's 6000 schools nationwide will also be equipped with computers in the very near future.
Telephone news
Land to mobile rates to go down
You can expect a vast increase in telephone calls between standard land lines and mobile phones in the near future, now that a deal has been worked out between Egypt Telecom, the national phone company, and the nation's two mobile phone operators, Mobinil and Click, to bring the prices of such calls down 10 per cent. Peak-time calls will now cost 45 piasters per minute, while non-peak rates will be 35 piasters. The price change is effective next month, according to a front page item in Al-Ahram.
Miscellaneous
A rather unique dowry
An Alexandria man presented his wife-to-be with a one-of-a-kind dowry, according to an item on the back page of Al-Ahram. The dowry is an antique Qur'an about the size of a fingernail. The priceless item dates back to the Ottoman empire.
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Wednesday 21/2--Friday 23/2--Tuesday 27/2--Saturday 3/3
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