The local-currency deposit ratings of five Egyptian banks have been downgraded by Moody’s Investors Service, Ahram Online reported Wednesday. The National Bank of Egypt was downgraded to Caa1 from B3, Banque du Caire to Caa1 from B3, Banque Misr to Caa1 from B3, Commercial International Bank to Caa1 from B3, and Bank of Alexandria
A Syrian Sunni cleric who was killed last week in a suicide bomb attack on a central Damascus mosque has in the past expressed support for Hizbullah and advocated for bombing American and Israeli targets around the world. The cleric, Mohamed al-Bouti, was one of 42 people who were killed when a suicide bomber
Men running, women pleading for God’s mercy, children screaming out of fear, older women trapped under rubble and thick dust rising in the air. This has been a recurring scene in Iraqi cities for close to a decade. Since June 26, 2004, Assyrian (also known as Chaldean and Syriac) churches have come under attack
The Arab summit in Doha on Tuesday gave member states the “right” to offer Syrians all means of self-defense including arms, in a resolution on Syria. The Arab Summit affirms the “right” of every state to offer all forms of self-defence, including military, to support the resistance of the Syrian people and the Free
Mohamed al-Gendy, a popular Egyptian activist and multilingual tourism guide, was last seen alive at around 2:30 a.m. January 28, after saying good night to a journalist friend. When Gendy didn’t attend a planned march the next day, his cellphone switched off, his friends became increasingly concerned, especially due to the fact that he had
Property prices in Cairo’s two large satellite cities rose by 8 percent at the beginning of 2013, amid wider economic turmoil and Egypt's ongoing battle with high inflation. Sale-price rises in New Cairo and 6th of October City are “largely due to developers seeking to pass on increases in construction costs to end buyers,”
A picture of President Mohammed Mursi and other members of the Egyptian delegation falling asleep in the opening session of the Arab League summit held Doha on Tuesday is being circulated by Egyptian activists online with a touch of satire. President Mursi, Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr, the president's aide on foreign affairs Essam
Kidnappers released a Norwegian woman and an Israeli man held in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula following negotiations mediated by Bedouin leaders between authorities and the group that seized the tourists four days ago, security sources said on Tuesday. The tourists had been kidnapped on Friday while driving between the resort towns of Dahab and Taba
The United States is training secular Syrian fighters in Jordan in a bid to bolster forces battling President Bashar al-Assad’s regime and stem the influence of Islamist radicals among the country’s persistently splintered opposition, American and foreign officials said. The training has been conducted for several months now in an unspecified location, concentrating largely
Egypt’s government has allocated$235 million of funds to pay for imported fuel cargoes and “along queue of tankers” are waiting off the coast to discharge badly needed diesel, the oil minister said in remarks published on Tuesday. Shortages of subsidized diesel have paralyzed transport in parts of Egypt, as the cash-strapped government faces pressure
