cairo - The African Mirror

Jun

16

2024

How a family in Cairo is keeping a 600-year-old tradition alive

NEWS

MUHAMMAD El-Baset jumps up from his chair to meet a customer who has walked into his shop. They exchange a few words before Mohammed takes the man’s fez, the flat-topped, conical red hat that was once ubiquitous in Egypt, across North Africa and in the Middle East. Even though the fez gets its name from the Moroccan city of Fez, home to a crimson-coloured berry used to create the dye that gives fezzes their vivid red colour, the hat has been a part of Cairo's identity and culture for generations. El-Baset is determined to keep it that way. “This is…

Jun

06

2024

By LERATO MOGOATLHE, BIRD STORY AGENCY

How a family in Cairo is keeping a 600-year-old tradition alive

BEAUTY AND FASHION

MUHAMMAD El-Baset jumps up from his chair to meet a customer who has walked into his shop. They exchange a few words before Mohammed takes the man’s fez, the flat-topped, conical red hat that was once ubiquitous in Egypt, across North Africa and in the Middle East. Even though the fez gets its name from the Moroccan city of Fez, home to a crimson-coloured berry used to create the dye that gives fezzes their vivid red colour, the hat has been a part of Cairo's identity and culture for generations. El-Baset is determined to keep it that way. “This is…

May

05

2024

By NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI and AHMED MOHAMED HASSAN

Hamas negotiators arrive in Cairo for Gaza truce talks

WORLD

HAMAS negotiators began intensified talks on a possible Gaza truce that would see a halt to the fighting and the return to Israel of some hostages, a Hamas official told Reuters, with the CIA director already present in Cairo for the indirect diplomacy. The Hamas delegation arrived from the Palestinian Islamist movement's political office in Qatar, which, along with Egypt, has tried to mediate a follow-up to a brief November ceasefire amid mounting international dismay over the soaring death toll in Gaza and the plight of its 2.3 million inhabitants. Taher Al-Nono, a Hamas official and advisor to Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh,…

May

01

2024

By The African Mirror

Egypt hopeful on Gaza talks, waiting for response, foreign minister says

NEWS

EGYPT is hopeful about a proposal for a truce and the release of hostages in the Gaza Strip but is waiting for a final response on the plan from Israel and Hamas, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said. A Hamas delegation left the Egyptian capital Cairo late on Monday to consult with the group's leadership on the latest, tweaked proposal and was expected to report back within two days, two Egyptian security sources said. Egypt, alarmed by the prospect of an Israeli ground operation in Rafah where more than one million people took shelter near its border, has made a renewed…

Apr

24

2024

By SETH ONYANGO, BIRD STORY AGENCY

African cities with the most millionaires

NEWS

GROWING private wealth in Africa is transforming the continent's major cities into hubs for millionaires and billionaires, according to the latest Henley & Partners Africa Wealth Report. Collectively, these urban centres are home to 135,200 millionaires, 342 centi-millionaires with fortunes exceeding US$100 million, and 21 billionaires. With the number of high-net-worth individuals projected to jump by 65% over the next decade, these cities are not only expanding economically but are also setting the stage for a new era of prosperity and influence. bird TenX lists the top ten cities and regions for private wealth in Africa:1. Johannesburg, South Africa: 12,300…

Apr

23

2024

By The African Mirror

Egypt reclaims 3,400-year-old stolen statue of King Ramses II

NEWS

EGYPT welcomed home a 3,400-year-old statue depicting the head of King Ramses II after it was stolen and smuggled out of the country more than three decades ago, the country's antiquities ministry said. The statue is now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo but not on display. The artefact will be restored, the ministry said in a statement. The statue was stolen from the Ramses II temple in the ancient city of Abydos in Southern Egypt more than three decades ago. The exact date is not known, but Shaaban Abdel Gawad, who heads Egypt's antiquities repatriation department, said the piece…

Mar

20

2024

By CRISPIAN BALMER

Egyptians thought Regeni was British spy, Italian court told

NEWS

EGYPTIAN police detained an Italian student in Cairo because they thought he was a British spy, taking him to a security facility where he was tortured and murdered, an Italian prosecutor told a Rome court on Monday. Italy has charged four Egyptian security agents with kidnapping and killing Giulio Regeni, a postgraduate student at Britain's Cambridge University, in Cairo in 2016. The four men are being tried in absentia and have never responded publicly to the accusations. The Egyptian authorities have repeatedly denied any state involvement in Regeni's disappearance and death. "The overall picture that has emerged is that of a web…

Mar

04

2024

By NIDAL AL-MUGHRABI and BASSAM MASOUD

Israel reported to boycott ceasefire talks in Cairo over Hamas’ rejection of hostage list

WORLD

ISRAEL boycotted Gaza ceasefire talks in Cairo after Hamas rejected its demand for a complete list naming hostages that are still alive, an Israeli newspaper reported. A Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo for the talks, billed as a possible final hurdle before an agreement that would halt the fighting for six weeks. But by early evening there was no sign of the Israelis. "There is no Israeli delegation in Cairo," Ynet, the online version of Israel's Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, quoted unidentified Israeli officials as saying. "Hamas refuses to provide clear answers and therefore there is no reason to dispatch the Israeli delegation."…

Jan

05

2024

By PATRICK WERR

Egypt plans expansion of new capital as first residents trickle in

NEWS

EGYPT is preparing to spend billions doubling the size of a lavish new capital it is building in the desert 45 km (28 miles) east of Cairo, where the first residents are trickling in, the head of the company overseeing the project said. The city is the biggest of a series of mega-projects that President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi says are needed for economic development and to accommodate a growing population of 105 million, but critics say diverts resources and increases Egypt's debt burden. Government employees transferred in July to ministries and offices built in the new city's first phase, eight…

Dec

01

2023

By BONFACE ORUCHO, BIRD STORY AGENCY

NBA Africa expands in the East

BASKETBALL

NBA Africa has established a subsidiary in Nairobi, adding a fifth office to a network that includes Cairo, Johannesburg, Dakar, and Lagos. According to NBA Africa/s new CEO, Victor Williams, the NBA Kenya office will bolster basketball within the country, especially in the school curriculum. “We want to train more teachers and coaches in the game to strengthen the administration of the game by also offering clinics to referees. We also want to work with prospective partners who see the game as a vehicle to engage young people,” Williams explained. The NBA launch event on November 29th included a junior…