Egypt approves organ transplant law

Egypt’s parliament has given its backing to a law regulating organ transplants in a bid to curb organ trafficking and transplant tourism in the country. The legislation introduces the need for official authorisation for organ removal from a three-member panel overseen...

Amenhotep III’s head discovered in Egypt

A team of Egyptian and European archaeologists has found a massive red granite head of Amenhotep III, who ruled Egypt nearly 3,400 years ago. The sculpture is part of a bigger statue of the pharaoh, most of which was found...

Egypt still short of cooking gas

The shortage of butane gas continued into its fourth week in Egypt at the end of February with households in the poorer areas sometimes having to pay LE70 for a cylinder, or ambooba as it is called, that usually costs...

King Tutankhamun death mystery solved?

The boy-king Tutankhamun may have died from malaria according to the results of new scientific research carried out using DNA tests and CT scans. Speculation has surrounded the death of the young pharaoh, who reigned around 3,000 years ago from...

Egyptian court revokes ban on niqabs

Egypt’s Supreme Administrative Court has overturned a ban on women students wearing the niqab during exams. The ruling, which came on 20 January as mid-term university exams were underway, said that the ban on wearing the niqab infringes women’s...

Saudi BinLaden Group gets Cairo airport hotel contract

The Saudi Arabia-based BinLaden group has won the contract to build a new 330-room five-star hotel at Cairo International Airport. Egypt’s Civil Aviation Ministry said that the cost for the new complex is expected to be LE 500 million. Adjacent...

Egyptian property tax reforms

A group of professors from Ulster University in the United Kingdom is assessing possible reforms to Egypt’s present system for taxing property. The purpose of the research is to find ways to value property and then assess how the tax...

Stolen antiquities conference

Egypt is to host a conference on the return of antiquities in Cairo in the spring. It is estimated that about 30 countries, including Greece, Mexico, Peru, Afghanistan, Iraq, Cambodia and China, will attend. No date has yet been set...

Sakkara tombs reveal new discoveries

The discovery of two tombs at the Sakkara necropolis site south of Cairo could reveal new information about the burial and religious rites of ordinary Egyptians, rather than of royalty according to Egypt’s chief archaeologist, Zahi Hawass. The tombs, one...

Taxis for women only

Cairo may soon get a taxi service run by women and for women only, according to a recent report in the Jerusalem Post, Israel’s main English language newspaper. The success of an all-women taxi service in Beirut has sparked similar...