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For more than 4,000 years, the Phyramids of Giza have been regarded as one of the wonders of the world. Perhaps the greatest wonders of all is how the builders managed to erect them with only the simpliest tools-  not even the wheel which  came into use in Egypt several of hundreds  years  after the Pyramids of Giza were finished.

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There are three major Phyramids of Giza, near Cairo, and they were built as the tombs of the three Egyptian Pharoahs, who had the statue of gods on earth. The first and largest, was the monument of Pharaoh Khufu, also known as the great Phyramid, who reigned from about 2,590 B.C to 2,567 B.C.  The Phyramid is 480 feet tall. It’s base covers over 13 acres and is 750 feet square. The Phyramid is built of about 2,300,000  blocks of stones, weighing an average of  of more than 2-1/2 tons each. Some weight more than 15 tons and the granite roof slabs of Khufu’s burial chamber weigh 50 tons.

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The Phyramids are built on the slight hill on foundations of solid rocks. A nearby outcrop of rocks form the lower part of the Great Sphinx. Today, the outskirts of the city of Cairo reach virtually to the foot of the phyramids, but when the phyramids were built, the site was out in the dessert.

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It is also the ancient Egyptian temples that the visual arts – painting, sculpture, and achitectue – found fullest expression. The temples shared the  massive quality of Hatshepsut and the temple at Abu Sembel. Others, such as those of Lukor and Kamak were of the pylon type.    

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  Fo those Brilliant minds. Discover yourself how good you are in History. Answer the 10 Questions below.

TRUE or FALSE.

1.———–The art of Egypt exemplified by the phyramid used as tomb of the Pharaoh

2————Woksmanship in Egypt was highly developed, particularly in the royal workshops

3————The Kings of ancient Egypt were known as Pharaohs

4.———–The religion of Egypt monotheistic in theory but polytheistic in practice

5————Phyramids of Kalakh have been regarded as one of the wonders of the world.

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6.———–The first and largest was the monument of Pharaoh Ikhnaton, also known as the Great Pyramid, who reigned from about 2,590 B.C to 2,567 B.CC

7.———–For thousands of years, the phyramids have remindes us that a great ancient society once flourised in the Nile River Valley

8.———–The Egyptian achitecture developed the use of the post and lintel system.

9.———–The Egyptian art is pimarily religious in nature.

Good luck

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House announced on Monday plans to offer more than 800 million dollars in economic aid to countries “Arab spring” in the time that keeps it on the U.S. military aid to Egypt in spite of the crisis caused by the Egyptian campaign against militants American Defenders of Democracy .

In a year of strong discussions about the budget cuts sought U.S. President Barack Obama to preserve the basic U.S. spending on foreign aid and development while reducing the expenses of existing programs and reduce the proposals to build new embassies and hire more diplomats.

He asked Obama in his annual message on the budget to Congress to maintain military aid to Egypt at the same level of recent years, amounting to $ 1.3 billion per year and sought to provide $ 250 million in the form of economic aid normal for Egypt as it seeks to shift from tyranny after the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak last year.

These proposals are part of the budget request submitted by Obama for the financial year 2013 which begins on the first of October. Must be approved by Congress on the budget.And preferably some U.S. lawmakers cut spending to address the external budget deficit.

Obama’s request and $ 51.6 billion for the State Department and foreign aid generally includes $ 8.2 billion in aid to war zones.

The White House has sought to increase of 1.6 percent in the budget of the Ministry of Foreign excluding spending on Iraq and Afghanistan, which is estimated separately.

Obama said in his budget that most of the new economic aid to countries of the Arab Spring -770 million – will go to “Incentive Fund Middle East and North Africa.”

Officials said the bulk of that money will be spent on new initiatives to support economic reforms, political and commercial long-range states where a shift such as Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen.

Said Tom Nadez Deputy U.S. Secretary of State, “We are in a new world. Arab spring solution.

“We have to make sure that we have the tools and flexibility to fund these initiatives .. the world is evolving as we see it and feel that a fund is important.”

Obama continued in his style on the development of the proposed foreign aid to war zones in a special account. This account includes $ 8.2 billion of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Aid.

This includes $ 3.3 billion for Afghanistan and Pakistan billion and four billion dollars for Iraq, which U.S. forces departed, but the Ministry of Foreign Affairs took over some functions such as police training.

The decline in public spending for Iraq by almost ten percent from fiscal 2012 to $ 4.8 billion.

Continued aid to Israel steady at about 3.1 billion dollars.

She said the budget document that the new initiative to fund the Middle East in the other programs include up to two billion dollars in financing the private investment outside and up to two billion dollars in the form of exchange of debt for Egypt and nearly $ 500 million in funds current was re-allocated to respond to the region last year .

It did not say how the document will be divided Incentive Fund Middle East and North Africa between the countries did not give any further details of the plan.

Source: Reuters

Suggested that U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday, military aid to Egypt $ 1.3 billionin fiscal year 2013, to ask this Congress to keep the size of annual aid at the same level during the past years, despite the crisis that still exists after the crisis of American organizations.

The U.S. State Department that Obama made ​​the proposal in his budget for fiscal year2013 which begins in early October, and must be approved by Congress on aid, and somelawmakers have called to cut off aid to Egypt if did not fall charges for some American activists and lift a travel ban imposed on them.

Source: Seventh Day

            Injustice foments and revolution is imminent. The series of protests and demonstrations collectively known as the “Arab Spring” or “Arab Awakening” was predetermined. The oppression of dictators and unyielding governments seemed inescapable, and slowly but surely the populace accepted their predicament and yielded to their social and economic erosion. However, as the years progressed three factors gave hope for renewal and prompted this enlightened revolution of today. The dawn of the new millennium saw a rapid increase in Arab literacy, a falling birthrate, and a significant decline in the widespread custom of endogamy, or marriage between first cousins. This shows that Arab societies were on a path toward mental and cultural modernization in the course that the individual became more important than an autonomous entity.  The transformation of the political system, the spreading wave of democratization and the conversion of subjects into citizens are the products of this liberal movement, and the ensuing revolution was well under way.

            As the people became more educated and informed they became less complacent and unrest soon sat heavy on the shoulders of each nation. Though progressive reformists sought a national enlightenment, the political injustices and crimes of range of tyrants continued.  As a result, a decrease of nationalism and an increase in emigration sent up a red flag to the Western world. A new class of Western Arabs was born, and in due time, their homeland economies diminished further. Governments had begun to sense this growing unrest and they attempted to placate the poor and unemployed with bread and money but it was too late; the time for change had come.

            First went Tunisia, then Algeria. These leading cases of insurrection prompted the tidal wave of change, and the revolts of December 2010 shattered the dams holding them back. With the success of the protests in Tunisia, this wave of unrest sparked by the self-immolation of a Tunisian man struck Algeria, Jordan, Egypt, and Yemen and then spread to other countries. The largest, most organized demonstrations have often occurred on “days of rage”, usually after Friday afternoon prayers. Demonstrations of epic proportions shook the Middle East, and the governments of Tunisia, Egypt, and then Libya were overthrown. These uprisings took many lives, signifying the relentless determination of the people. Even some of the better off nations, like Lebanon and Morocco sought reform and an end to corruption. The geopolitical implications of these protests have drawn global attention, prompting further protests in Europe and Asia. Even the “occupy” movements were influenced by the Egyptian revolution. This tidal wave of change had far reaching repercussions which, in hindsight, was the result of decades of injustice with little to no change.

            King was right; change is inevitable. It only took a Tunisian spark to ignite people’s suppression and it all went up in flames. The Civil Rights movement of the 50’s and 60’s shared the same principles and desires of the Arab Spring; conformation is eventually succeeded by unrest and revolution. Voters are taking part in free and fair elections, newly elected lawmakers are issuing progressive legislation, and the morale is generally high in these post dictatorial nations. Though much work is left in the name of transition, the Spring was a success and it will surely influence multitudes of revolutions to come.

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This may be one of the Caped Crusader’s most peculiar adventures, taking him to a booby-trapped Egyptian pyramid with an escapologist from outer space, called Mister Miracle.

Team up stories are not easy to write as each of the heroes has to get a balance of the action and readers don’t want to see their favourite hero reduced to playing second fiddle to the guest star. Unfortunately, that is exactly what does happen to Batman here.

When Egyptian suicide bombers attack the Gotham museum, Batman uncovers a plot involving relics relating to an Egyptian God, Hotep, and a campaign by Egyptian radicals to have relics relating to him returned to Cairo.

Batman sets out to Egypt to investigate, discovers a forgotten pyramid, and finds himself locked in when trap doors slam down round him.

Intercut with this is the story of escapologist extra-ordinare – Mister Miracle. He is performing extreme Houdini stunts and we first see him tied to the top of the Eiffel Tower in a lightning storm, trying to escape before he gets struck by lightning. That he has a suit filled with gadgets and appears to be able to fly and defy gravity helps.

A young lady who is really one of the fanatical terrorists talks Mister miracle into going to Cairo. Like Batman, the magician finds himself trapped in the pre-Indiana Jones tomb, where he soon finds himself attacked by the apparently living Hotep.

Batman seems conspicuously absent at this point, but Mister Miracle knows that he is actually the man in the Hotep costume, which has him hypnotically possessed – once freed from mind control by Mister Miracle, the hero who’s comic this is, has little to do but watch and marvel as Miracle uses various gismos to break them free from the collapsing pyramid tomb.

All the stuff about Egyptian rights to their own relics is abandoned in the chase. Mister Miracle is rather a boring hero, given that he just has an infinite range of gadgets to fall back on – whatever the writers decide he needs to use in any given mess.

The closing panel has Hotep, out in space, deciding not to ever return to Earth, and that is that.

Arthur Chappell

Comic, graphic, Batman, Miracle, Mister Miracle, escapology, Houdini, suicide bombers, Egypt, Hotep, gods, Eiffel Tower, Arthur, Chappell, hypnotism,

Arthur Chappell

Renewed clashes in the vicinity of the Egyptian Interior Ministry

Zaki Anas – Cairo

The Tahrir Square in Cairo, the heart of the January 25 revolution in Egypt, of which, triggered and it toppled the ousted Hosni Mubarak after thirty years of rule, under the pressure of the millions who gathered there and in other fields in the major Egyptian cities Kalaxanderah and Suez, and others.

However many of the emotions is good for many of the Egyptians toward the State Security Service, and Police Tgault in the Mubarak era, it was the headquarters of the device and the number of police stations within the sites intent demonstrators to express their anger, and perhaps they feel that the fall speed at the end of the system that fell already after 18 days of the start of the revolution Mubarak step down power on February 11 last year.

The transitional period experienced by Egypt since stepped down Mubarak and handed over power to the junta, not without clashes between security forces and demonstrators feel that the police has not changed much and that has a lot of leadership and behaviors that must change, as well as Nqmthm what they saw as an absence intentional or at least failure to is not justified by the police led to the alarming state of lawlessness.

There were major confrontations in the street Mohammed Mahmoud, off Tahrir Square to the Ministry of Interior, after police broke up by force a sit-field on November 19 last, to end up in clashes that lasted several days and killed more than forty people, in addition to the thousands of people, mostly gas bombs and bullets rubber

A different position
In all the past events is not difficult to follow the events that touch the sympathy on the part of many Egyptians with the demonstrators, who insisted on the face of the police, whether stones or cheering, but it is as appropriated by Alice may change during the current events that erupted after the disaster Stadium Port Said and rallied impact on thousands of protesters to besiege the building of the Ministry of Interior.

Over the last three days, it has not been without ambiguity, Security forces retreated until it became the interdependence in front of the ministry, however, insisted the protesters to come forward and attack the ministry and the security forces with stones indifferent gas bombs used by the security to try to disperse them.

No one knows precisely the identity of most of the participants in the siege of the ministry, especially that none of the political forces and revolutionary – that used to organize demonstrations or call it – did not participate in these events, but most of them said not to support her, calling the demonstrators to return to the field of editing and display demands there.

Remarkably as appropriated by the island revealed that the faces of the surrounding interior look different from those that have been used to demonstrate in Tahrir Square since the beginning of the revolution and even now, as most of them seem angry and agitated and refuses to enter into any discussion about their goals or their demands, which call them to what they are doing.

Calls for calm
On the other hand, hundreds of young revolutionary, backed by public figures tried repeatedly during the past few days to form human shields to try to prevent these young people progress to the ministry building and convince them of the futility of a clash with security, and Tahrir Square is a natural place to demonstrate or protest in order to express their legitimate demands, But they have not achieved little success, despite the continued attempts over the past three days.

Sheikh appearance Shaheen Khatib Mosque of Omar Makram is located in one of the parties to the field of liberation led one of these marches, which was attended by hundreds from the mosque to the streets leading to the building interior, and tried to persuade the demonstrators to return, as the public figures, including lawmakers, and soccer stars former similar attempts.

Alice was a witness to many of the debates between those who call for calm and angry demonstrators, and tried to advocates of truce to inquire of them what Segnouna from attacking the building of the Interior did not find an answer or even the desire for dialogue, but they found a determination to go about building the ministry accused the Security using rubber bullets against them, a insists that the Minister of the Interior so far to deny its occurrence.

Advocates of appeasement base their logic that the Board of the people chosen by the Egyptians shall now deal with it, and there are investigations and commissions of inquiry to make sure that inaction or even complicity of security in the event Stadium Port Said, which sparked the recent events, given that Parliament decided to implement the law of trial of Ministers and Minister of the Interior on these events.

Many of the Egyptian media and even some lawmakers who described those who insist on the siege of the Interior now that they are thugs, not the rebels, and they in turn say they are determined to take revenge of the Interior, who they hold responsible for disaster, Port Said, which killed hundreds of people dead and injured after a football match.

With the failure of all the initiatives, and the renewed clashes, which produces the victims were killed or wounded question remains what will end the existing vicinity of the events of the Ministry of Interior, and before that all of you are behind the rebels, as some believe or thugs backed by the remnants of the Mubarak regime, as others believe.

Source: Al Jazeera

Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr said in an interview alone with Clinton on the sidelines of the Munich Conference (French)

Entered into the relations between the ruling military junta in Egypt and the United States a new phase of tension on the back of the U.S. financial support for civil society organizations that have had an active role in the revolution of Jan. 25.
 
Egyptian authorities have referred the 19 Americans and 24 of the Egyptian civil society organizations to eliminate charges of illegal exploitation of foreign funds in order to generate chaos in the country, ignoring the threat to the United States cut off aid.
 
Received U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the Egyptian position, warns the Cairo of the consequences of failure to resolve this controversial issue and results ranked on the Annual U.S. aid to Egypt, worth $ 1.3 billion, as well as $ 250 million Washington has announced the allocation of Egypt in the year.
 
However, the Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Mohammed response to U.S. Secretary of Sunday on the sidelines of the Munich Conference on Security by saying that the government can not interfere in the work of the judiciary, but he promised that the Egyptian authorities what can be done to contain the crisis.

State of turmoil
It is noteworthy that the investigations in the work of the Egyptian civil society organizations are closely linked to the situation of political turmoil experienced by Egypt since the outbreak of the revolution of January 25 protests that forced the deposed Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to step down from power.
 
It also confirmed the Minister of International Cooperation Faiza Abu Naga – a survivor of the Mubarak era – continue to pursue those associations, organizations and follow up the issue of “American money” until the end, noting that the investigations revealed the existence of “a plot to destabilize the country.”
 
It is noteworthy that among the Americans who were transferred to eliminate the Office of the President of the International Republican Institute in Cairo, Sam Lahoud, a son of the Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood U.S..
 
He criticized the decision to institute the Egyptian authorities to refer to Lahoud and his colleagues to eliminate, describing the move as “reflect the escalation of attacks on Egyptian democracy organizations and international .. by the remnants of the Mubarak regime.”
 
Beyond the Crisis
It is noteworthy that the Egyptian authorities banned 43 people from traveling to the center of the case pending the possibility that face seven years in prison if convicted of the charges against them such as “use of foreign funds to destabilize the country.”
 
Observers believe that the whole issue involving several considerations, the first being that the mere assignment of such NGOs to eliminate the charge of “use of foreign funds” means in the culture of the Egyptian street and brand them dye, “akin to treason,” and the reference to the existence of “external elements” in the field developments recently.

At the other end, reflecting the U.S. position and his threats to cut aid to Washington’s displeasure of the ruling military junta in Egypt and his efforts “to block democracy”, and his attempt – as activists say Egyptians – the search for a “scapegoat” for the failures of the Council in achieving stability since he seized power in February 2011 .

Source: Associated Press

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 Interior Ministry official said in Egypt on Sunday that he will be equipped with Tora prison hospital for a possible transfer of deposed President Hosni Mubarak to him in the Declaration can help to calm the protesters.

Said Assistant Secretary of the Interior for the prison sector, Major General Muhammad Naguib, told television channel, Egyptian life, the ministry will equip hospital Tora prison in southern Cairo during the two months to transfer Mubarak to him if it agreed to the Cairo Criminal Court trying him and the Public Prosecutor, who referred him to trial.

Mubarak and down in the International Medical Center, a hospital of the armed forces outside the capital and protesters say that the former president and find special treatment is not encountered by other prisoners.

An official at the Interior Ministry, told Reuters that the Minister of Interior, Major General Mohammed Yusuf Ibrahim, “he held a meeting with some members of Parliament … in this meeting, issued a decree to the processing of Tora prison as soon as possible for the transfer of the former president.”

Earlier, Al Jazeera television said that Joseph had decided to equip the prison hospital.

Security sources said that Joseph decided to also distribute the symbols of the former regime imprisoned in Tora prison on the five prisons in the capital. The news agency said the Middle East, said the decision to the distribution of prisoners came in response to the demand of the protesters.

The official at the Interior Ministry, told Reuters that the distribution of prisoners in the Tora will be within 48 hours.

Among the most prominent prisoners in the Tora Alaa and Gamal son Mubarak, former People’s Assembly Fathi Sorour, Shura Council Speaker former Safwat al-Sharif and the President Office of the Prime Algmehworih former Zakaria Azmi and Minister of the Interior, former Habib el-Adli and responsible parliamentary and party senior former businessman Ahmed Ezz, the Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Previous Sameh Fahmi.

Seven protesters were killed in clashes in the streets leading to the Interior Ministry near Tahrir Square.Also killed five demonstrators in the city of Suez east of Cairo in clashes with security forces in demonstrations protesting also killed more than 70 fans after a football match in the coastal city of Port Said.

Unidentified gunmen blew up Saturday night line to export natural gas to Israel and Jordan for the twelfth time in a single year, according to security sources.
The sources confirmed that the masked gunmen blew up the line in the area near the town of El Arish Almsaid in the north of the Sinai Peninsula, using improvised explosive devices that have been developed down the line.
Witnesses said they heard loud explosions followed by a large fire. They said the firemen rushed to the scene in an attempt to extinguish the fire without registration of injuries.
The sources said that the bombing of the line came a day after the death of a Muslim leader from the region, in prison in Cairo. Officials at the Ministry of Defense that his death resulted from natural causes.
One source said that the fire service were sent to the possibility to try to put out the fire, adding that he does not have the information now for the damages.
Ten is the second time since the revolution that led to the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak from power, which is the bombing of the pipeline that transports gas to Jordan and Israel, despite the announcement by the Egyptian authorities have repeatedly taken new security measures.
No one has claimed responsibility for the actions of the bombing.
Sale agreement and deliver natural gas to Israel, which struck during the reign of Hosni Mubarak, with strong opposition in public opinion and the political class in Egypt because of the Jewish state for the Egyptian gas at a lower price than the market price.
Israel’s imports and 43 percent of its needs for natural gas from Egypt and produces 40 percent of electricity from imported Egyptian gas.
As well as Jordan imports 80 percent of the needs of Egyptian gas to produce electricity, a 6.8 million cubic meters of imported gas a day.
The desert of Sinai, a sensitive area, particularly in the field of security because of tensions with some of the Bedouin tribes. And pass through many of the smuggling operations with the besieged Palestinian Gaza Strip.

Source: French

Clashes between police and protesters left six people dead and more than 2500 injured (French)

Cairo is true today on the cautious calm after violent clashes between protesters and police forces, the Egyptians against the backdrop of the bloody events in Port Said last Wednesday, also included other provinces, killing six people including one army officer.

According to reporter Al Jazeera Net, quoting medical sources that the number of injuredhas reached about 2,500, mostly gas bombs lacrimal.

The clashes erupted after the killing of 74 people and injuring about a thousand others,after a soccer match on Wednesday evening in the city of Port Said, in the worst disasterspherical taking place in Egypt, and gave many blamed for the occurrence of deaths on the government and some said it is an attempt by the remnants of the former regime tospread chaos in the country.

He warned the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces said in a statement, which called itsedition seeking her internal and external parties did not identify. He said that Egypt isundergoing the most serious and most importantly in its history.

Protesters said they were trying to provoke the police to respond by encouraging more people to join them (French)

Provoking and stimulating
A number of protesters who are in the vicinity of the Interior Ministry that they are studying ways to build momentum in their campaign to overthrow the military council which administers the affairs of the country since the overthrow of former President Hosni Mubarak.

Reuters quoted them as saying they do not aim for the invasion of the ministry, but to provoke the authorities to carry out the reaction of encouraging more people to join them.

Said Mohamed Fahmy – which is one of the protesters, and adopt socialist ideas – that most Egyptians do not want to protest or demonstrate, saying they are working to motivate them and that this will happen gradually.

In contrast, a security source said that Interior Ministry forces to deal with the situation were not deploy the army yet, and that he was informed by the military to be ready for deployment later in the day Saturday to protect government buildings, but not yet issued such orders.

In the Suez defended the police building, the Security Directorate of Suez and the compound of the Ministry of Justice with barbed wire and tear gas.

While witnesses said the police in the city of Suez fired live bullets at the demonstrators, said the director of security Suez Major General Adel Rifaat The outlaws are the ones who shot at the demonstrators, and added that outlaws infiltrated the center of the demonstrators, who estimated two thousand people are fighting hit- with the security forces.

In Alexandria (220 kilometers north of Cairo), five protesters were injured late Friday in clashes between demonstrators and security forces surrounding the PSD, according to medical sources.

And safety, Dr. Abdel-Moneim, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Health in Alexandria, said that five people were injured and bottlenecks were taken to University Hospital for treatment.

The protesters tried to storm the building of the Directorate of Security and threw Molotov cocktails and stones at the soldiers, who responded by throwing bombs Madmah in an attempt to disperse them.

A senior officer in the city, said his forces exposed to fire live bullets, and the witness said that three armored vehicles chasing protesters in the street demonstrators shut.

Demands of the April 6
In the meantime, issued April 6 Youth Movement, issued a statement calling on theformation of a commission of inquiry into the events of Port Said, assume the character ofjudicial officers and required to be under the supervision of the People’s Assemblyheaded by the Counselor Zakaria Abdul Aziz.

He called the movement a statement dismissing the Government of Kamal Ganzouri and assign the People’s Assembly (Parliament) to form a government of national salvation.

Also called for accelerating the movement to open the door to stand for election to the presidency after the completion of the Shura Council elections directly, with theamendment of the law a presidential election, which fortifies the committee supervising theelections of any appeals.

The statement stressed the Movement’s commitment Bslmah demonstrations, pointing out that it was part of initiatives to stop the violence, which failed ”because of the excessive use of force by security forces.”

Source: Al Jazeera + agencies