The Indian Embassy in Cairo has hosted its annual ‘Iftar’ party to mark the holy month of Ramadan. The party on Wednesday was attended by a large number of Egyptian ministers, politicians, diplomats, intellectuals and well-known artists as well as ambassadors of other countries. 

On the occasion, Speaker of the House of People's Representatives, Honorable Abadula Gemeda said, "Ethiopia and Egypt have very long standing historical, religious, cultural and social relations." (...) He stressed the point that Ethiopia and Egypt need to foster cooperation in areas including education, trade, tourism and investment.

The British Embassy in Cairo re-opened on Tuesday after suspending public services nine days ago for security reasons, the embassy said in a statement.

Long before the official gathering time of 8am, people of all ages poured into Zamalek in Cairo on Friday to participate in the Dutch embassy’s third annual Orange Bike initiative, a cycling tour of the island.

There were constant reminders of Egypt’s volatile political situation throughout the sixth Cairo International Women’s Film Festival. The entrance to Falaki Theatre, which hosted many of the festival’s screenings and its closing ceremony, is unmarked, well secured and directly in front of a high concrete wall abruptly blocking the road—one of many erected by security forces in downtown Cairo to restrict access by protesters to various government buildings and foreign embassies.

In the heat of a Cairo summer, the battle lines have been drawn. In the tense standoff, Abdelazim Fahmy, better known as Zizo Abdo, finds no room on the street for revolutionaries like himself. I met with Zizo at a downtown Cairo café called Hikayitna—Arabic for “our stories.” We’re a stone’s throw away from Tahrir Square, which has been cordoned off by the military with barbed wire, tanks, and armored personnel carriers. Soldiers man checkpoints into the square, searching bags and requesting identification.

As the Egyptian military consolidates control by murdering pro-Muslim Brotherhood protesters and declaring a state of emergency, we may be witnessing the most dangerous potential for Arab radicalization since the two Palestinian intifadas. Despite the resignation Wednesday of Mohamed ElBaradei, the vice president, in opposition to the Egyptian junta's action, the discomfiting fact is that most of Egypt's liberal "democrats"--along with the United States--have never looked more hypocritical.