Egypt

“Opportunity in crisis” isn’t so much rhetoric in the first days of the Obama Administration. The financial meltdown that began in Wall Street and spread to America’s working class has knocked top-ranked financiers out of a comfortable context where risk was appropriately and indefinitely hedged. Most of middle class America is suffering and feeling the […]

The Associated Press has all but declared today’s much anticipated April 6 Youth Movement general strike a failure. The movement had been hoping to stage numerous protests and demonstrations in the wake of last year’s April 6 strike, which led to the death of three Egyptians, the wounding of dozens, and hundreds of arrests. As […]

A recent story in the independent newspaper Al-Masri Al-Youm has the American University in Cairo up in arms after it insinuated that AUC was providing the US Department of Defense with “information about Egypt,” i.e. “spying,” through the US Naval Medical Research Unit (NAMRU – 3) program. From the Daily News Egypt: NAMRU-3, which was […]

The independent Egyptian newspaper Al-Dustor is reporting that Egyptian supermarket Al-Kubri has been selling, accidentally of course, boxes of sweets with Stars of David and Menorahs printed on them for Al-Mawlid Al-Nabawi (The Birth of the Prophet), which is today. The supermarket claims it has no idea where the boxes came from (by the way, […]

Egypt has unsurprisingly rejected a recent Department of State report criticizing the country’s deteriorating human rights record. The report can be found on the DOS website here. An article on the report in the popular independent paper Al-Masri Al-Youm relates that: …in statements given to Al-Masri Al-Youm, [Egyptian] political experts warned against “dependence on the […]

This article from one of the leading English-language Egyptian papers highlights Egyptian forensic reports of the Hussein bomb. The reports indicate that the bomb which detonated had been left under a bench in Al-Hussein Square, and was not thrown from a overlooking window or rooftop. In addition, details are provided of the composition of the […]

Yesterday the acting spokesperson for the State Department emphatically stated what Dennis Ross will not be doing: Let me be clear, he’s not an envoy. He will not be negotiating. He’ll be working on regional issues. He will not be – in terms of negotiating, will not be involved in the peace process. But again, […]

The Egyptian Stock Exchange’s main index rose a bit over 1% today, one day after a terrorist attack targeted tourists in Cairo. Perhaps investors judge the attack an aberration and are confident that the government will stabilize the situation and reassure tourists. On the other hand, investors could be responding to a $10B bond purchase […]

(By Matthew Axelrod and Joseph Simons) Here’s a first-blush report on yesterday evening’s bombing in Cairo: The attack targeted a café in a tourist area and was clearly aimed at foreigners. The bombs were rudimentary, which means they were either manufactured by amateurs or perpetrators posing as amateurs. Mainstream Egyptian media and a number of […]

A bomb went off about an hour ago in downtown Cairo near the Hussein Mosque in the popular tourist area near the open air market Khan Al-Khalili. Major news sources have reported that at least one person, a French tourist, has been killed. The Egyptian Ministry of Health has only reported up to 15 injured, […]

Alexandria is truly something special. Egypt’s finest national museum is housed in a villa there, nearby a stunning opera house nestled almost imperceptibly between courtyards of the city’s streets. The seaside cafes serve the best cappuccinos in the country and the no-frills fish restaurants need no enhancement. Alexandria marks itself with tasteful elegance. Add to […]

Yesterday Ayman Nour was released from prison. Mr. Nour, Egypt’s most famous secular opposition politician, was imprisoned several years ago after performing a bit too well in the first multi-party presidential elections. Ostensibly jailed for forging a few hundred petition forms supporting his candidacy, Mr. Nour’s arrest effectively dampened a cautiously optimistic mood amongst established […]