#Ramadan Arabian Nights 2017 : Princess Sea Pearl "Ep.4,5"

First of all, I must present my condolences and pay my respect to the 4 Egyptian armed forces personnel who have been killed early Wednesday in a campaign against militants in the Western desert.

May God bless their souls and bring patience to their beloved ones.

Second, it is our daily Ramadan date with the original Egyptian State Radio's Arabian nights.
We continue our tale for this year, the Princess Sea Pearl.

To refresh your memories, you can listen to the previous episodes here.

Tonight we will hear two episodes and continue that tale of Djinn Sea mermaid that turned into a human after loving a man from the earth.
Her father, the King of the Sea got her back from the surface of the earth but with no memories what so ever and he will not stop doing the impossible to return her Djinn Sea mermaid.

With no further delay, here are the two episodes in Arabic.
Please enjoy and share.

#Ramadan Arabian Nights 2017 : Princess Sea Pearl "Ep.1,2,3"

And the time has come to our annual date with our Egyptian Chronicles' Ramadan Arabian Nights.
It should have started from three nights but honestly, I could not post anything when my country Egypt and my fellow Egyptians are mourning.

On Saturday, at least 28 Egyptian Christians were killed in a massacre in Minya governorate by a Daesh-affiliated group in Egypt.

As a respect to the victims and their families, I decided to have an Egyptian Chronicle' National mourning for three days. This was the least thing I can do to the victims and their families.
Up till this moment, the Egyptian State has not official declared a national mourning for reasons beyond me.

Anyhow despite the grief, we will return back to the Egyptian Radio Arabian Nights to escape the dull present and find hope and solace in fantasy.

This year our tale will speak again mighty kings of the sea and their mermaid daughters who fall love as usual with a human being.

Make no mistake that our tale written by legendary Taher Abu Fasha is not the same like our tale "The Cursed lady's wall" in 2015 which was inspired by the famous Hans Christian Andersen's Little Mermaid.

So no further delay I am to present to you the tale of Princess Sea Pearl produced by the Egyptian State Radio service decades ago.

The tale was written by Taher Abu Fasha and directed by legendary Mohamed Mahmoud Shaaban. our first radio Arabian night for this year was the 373rd episode of that show.
Tonight I will share with you the first, second and third episodes.

Episode 373rd - First night

Minya Massacre : blood on sand "A recap"

Again it is one of those mornings, one of those Fridays that you woke up to find a massacre taken place in the south of the country and you want to go back to the bed again praying that this is an awful nightmare.

At 11 AM Cairo Local time "CLT" at that the same time millions of Egyptian Muslims were on their way to Friday prayers , a group of masked militants came on three 4x4 Cars and opened their fire randomly on a bus carrying Christian citizens at the desert western of Minya governorate' Idwa city according to the first official statement issued by Egypt's Ministry of Interior "MOI" at 1:28 PM CLT.

The MOI added that as security forces reached the attack's scene, it turned out that it happened at one of the desert sub-routes heading to Saint Samuel the Confessor monastery, which is 60 km away from the city of Maghagha , North of Minya in the heart of the Western Desert.

Two monks watching the attack scene "Reuters" 

It also stated up till then 26 Egyptian Christians were killed and other were injured.
Already we have known before that at least 26 people were killed while 25 others were injured. The victims included lots of children.

It turned out that it was not a bus but rather a convoy of Egyptian Christians heading to the 7th-century monastery.

A bus carrying worshipers from neighbor Bani Suef governorate as well a microbus carrying worshipers from Minya's villages headed were in their way when they were stopped by the militants.
According to eyewitnesses accounts that I have been reading all day and the MOI's statement, militants came on three 4x4 Cars and hell started.

Khaled Ali heads to trial cover over "the finger" : Presidential Elections or Tiran and Sanafir isles

Egypt's prosecution ordered on Wednesday the release of famous Egyptian human rights lawyer and former presidential candidate Khaled Ali on LE 1,000 bail. It also referred him at the same time to misdemeanor court to be tried next 29 May on "making an obscene act on a public street" !!

Ali in custody on Tuesday by Mohamed El-Raai 

The potential presidential candidate spent the night in custody at Dokki police station after the order of the prosecution ordered to detain him for 24 hours pending further investigations in an unprecedented move when it comes to misdemeanor according to lawyers.

The famous lawyer and founder of leftist "Bread and Liberty Party" is accused by famous lawyer Samir Sabry of giving the middle finger to his opponents in the street in January during celebrating his victory in Tiran and Sanafir lawsuit in front of State Council.

Following the historical Supreme AdministraCourtcourt verdict to reject the current Egyptian government's appeal appeal against the administrative court ruling annulling the Egyptian-Saudi deal to redraw maritime deal,a photo emerged online showing the famous lawyer giving the middle finger "the Egyptian style" to his opponents while he was being held on the shoulders of his protesters.
Some say the photo was genuine and it was one for a less than a second.

Others say it was a "photoshopped" fake photo and he did not give the middle finger to anyone.
Needless to say, the Pro-regime media went mad and used that alleged photo to smear Khaled Ali who won huge popularity following the verdict.

21 Websites blocked in Egypt and it is not good at all "Updated : 23 and increasing"

Once again I was planning to write something about certain that happened in Egypt then another thing more outrageous happened and made me change my mind.

A familiar scene now 

From a couple of hours ago, Egypt's State news agency "MENA" announced that 21 websites were blocked in Egypt.

Quoting an unnamed source in a very short news on its wire service, MENA added that those were blocked because their content supported terrorism and radicalism as well deliberately spread lies.

The source added that among those blocked websites: Al-Jazeera.net, Al-Sharq TV channel, Misr Al-Arabia, Al-Shaab newspaper, Arabi 21, RSSD and Hamas Online.

He also said that the legal procedures were being followed regarding those websites.
The decision was taken in Egypt in less than 24 hours of blocking Al-Jazeera and Qatari news websites in Emirates, Saudi Arabia following their fake news media war in the midnight on Tuesday.

Now we discovered the rest of the Websites are Ikhwan Online, Egypt's Window,  Al-Mesryoon, Huffington Post Arabic, Cairo Portal, Klmty , Hasam militant group official website,  Horriya Post,  Aswat Masriya and Mada  Qatari Al-Watan, Qatari Al-Arab , Qatari Al-Sharq, Qatari El-Raya, Masr. (Yes , MADA MASR !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
Yes, Mada Masr; one of the finest Egyptian online independent English and Arabic news websites in Egypt and the Arab world is banned in its own country !!!!!!

Updated on 27 May: Daily News Egypt , Nabd news aggregator and Tor project website are blocked also in Egypt.

Seen in Cairo : Once a Credit Foncier Egyptien

The Credit Foncier Egyptien bank

A new Downtown Cairo building discovery for me: The Credit Foncier Egyptien bank building or as it is known now as Arab international bank "AIB".

Built in 1903 in its current location, the Credit Foncier Egyptian or the Egyptian Credit Foncier bank was active till its nationalization in the 1950s.

Originally Founded by Karl Heinrich and Raphael Suares in 1880 in Alexandria, it predated the National Bank of Egypt "NBE" so yes it was the oldest and first bank in Egypt. Reading more about it the Credit Foncier Egyptien Banque represented the French interests whereas the NBE represented the British interest for dominance on the Egyptian economy then.

Kodak Agfa presents : Egypt's Spring Flowers Fair 2017

And it is our annual time with Egypt's Spring Flowers Fair.
On 21st March , Egypt's minister of Agriculture and the Governor of Giza inaugurated the 83rd Springs Flowers fair in Al-Orman Botanical garden as usual on the start of Spring officially.
You know I could not resist going there. I went there before in 2015 and 2016.
I went to the fair this year but I did not stay long enough in the fair to take too many photos as I used to do.
But I still managed to take a couple of beautiful photos 'I guess'.

Beautiful orange daisies "I guess"

Beautiful flowers everywhere 

According to the ministry of agriculture , not less than 155 Egyptian and foreign companies participated in the fair this year.
The space of the fair also extended 25% more than its usual space in Al-Orman botanical garden.

Flowers at a landscape company in partition 

Seen in Cairo : A Talaat Harb building

Another very beautiful building in Downtown Cairo.
This time it is at Talaat Harb street. I think it was renovated.
Via : Instagram 

Where is El-Adly !!!???

"Where is Habib El-Adly ??" A question that was raised in Egypt since early May about Mubarak's notorious minister of interior.

It started on 6 May when suddenly we found Pro-regime TV host Lamis El-Hadidy asking that question and wondering why the police had not arrested the former interior yet.
She also wondered if he ran away.

Former minister Habib El-Adly during the killing of the
protesters trial in 2011 "Reuters"

El-Adly was sentenced in April by a Cairo criminal court 7 years in prison for illicit gains of LE 2 billion from the ministry of interior from the year 2000 to 2011 in a famous trial known in the media as "The interior ministry corruption case".

Already in November 2016 , he was placed under house arrest in the same trial by the orders of the Cairo criminal court in his villa in 6th of October city.
I think that Villa is at the Police compound in the Upscale Sheikh Zaid district if I am not mistaken.

It was the first time in the mainstream media someone brought up this subject which most people actually forget.
The following days you would hear the people asking openly on social media "where is El-Adly !?" whereas there was a complete silence from the ministry of interior.
Soon on 10 May, we found security sources telling Al-Masry Al-Youm Daily that the security forces went to the notorious minister's house to arrest him according to the court ruling and they could not find him !!!

On the same day ,Youm 7 quoted unnamed sources allegedly close to El-Adly himself saying that he did not run away.
The sources added that he was still at his house holding on to his right to appeal against the court's verdict without handing himself over to the authorities.
On Monday, the interior ministry officially reported to the prosecution that Habib El-Adly escaped.
This was the first official announcement that El-Adly is a fugitive.
On Tuesday, Habib El-Adly lost the appeal against the 7-year prison sentence.
He must surrender to be sent to jail accordingly.

Seen in Alexandria : Inside Sidi Gaber railway station

Inside Alexandria's Sidi Gaber Railway Station with its Art Deco vibes and style.

Constructed in 1850s , it is one of the main two railway stations in the famous Mediterranean city and governorate. Taken in May 2016

See more photos from Alexandria last year here and there. 

What happened to the The Polish girl ?

It feels like ages for real but it is good to return back home to my blog.
I have been away from my blog but I kept an eye on what is happening in the news especially in Egypt.

God knows how much I wanted to write about certain issues past two weeks especially the incident of the Polish girl.

On 30 April, a young Polish tourist died in Egypt's resort city of Marsa Alam in Red Sea governorate.
According to local authorities, 27-years-old Polish Magdalena Zuk committed suicide wPort Ghalib hospital.

Magdalena Zuk's last Facebook account profile
photo

hen she plunged to her death from Marsa Alam's

The Egyptian authorities added that Zuk was suffering from deep depression and that she was going to be deported back to Poland two days after arrival but was not allowed to board the airplane due to her "erratic behavior".

She was admitted to the hospital in the resort city where she tried to commit suicide at least once but was saved by the staff.

I am sure that that news passed as familiar news in Egypt as every now and then you find a news report about a tourist who decides to take her or her own life in our country.

Then after a week or more, we found out that Magdalena's death is creating controversy back in her home in Poland as her family feels that there was something fishy about her death.

Magdalena's family is saying that the young tourist who arrived Marsa Alam on the 25th April did not suffer from any depression or mental problems. It did not stop at there.

Her family and her boyfriend fear that she was raped and killed by locals in the resort where she was staying
Originally, Magdalena should have come the Southern Egyptian resort with her boyfriend but it turned out that his passport was expired and so the Polish girl went to that vacation alone.

The question marks raised when her boyfriend published a video of a FaceTime call between him and her where she seemed troubled telling him that she would not return back home. "I do not understand Polish to know what the boyfriend says"

Seen in Alexandria : The Spahi Palace on the go

First of all, I apologize for the lack of updates on the blog in the past couple of weeks. My mother had a surgery last week and I did not have time for anything else. 
Thank God, she is doing fine in her recovery now and I can take some time to update the blog. 
Tonight I share two very poor quality photos of the famous Spahi Palace of Alexandria I took while I was on the go in that Spring Break of last year. 

The Spahi palace in Alexandria

Spahi Palace is probably from the last few standing palaces and villas along with Aziz Fahmy that overlook the Alexandrian corniche and the Mediterranean. 

Built in the late 1930s , that palace was the residence of the famous Egyptian-Syrian Spahi family. Originally that palace was owned by businessman and industrialist Syria-born Fadel Spahi who built the first and the biggest textile factory in Alexandria. 

Needless the Spahi family was nationalized in the 1960s. Soon enough the family packed their bags and some of them headed to the U.S and some to Switzerland. 

It seems that the palace was sold to several owners. 

The current owners want to demolish it and sell the land which worths billions now. 

Seen in Alexandria : The Bibliotheca's Planetarium on the go

Seen in Alexandria on the go:  Bibliotheca Alexandria's Planetarium in one fine May 2016 Afternoon.
The Planetarium is one of the main attractions in the New Bibliotheca Alexandria.
Sadly, I had not been able to visit it nor visit Bibliotheca Alexandria in my last visit to Alexandria last year. 
Now as I am speaking about Bibliotheca Alexandria briefly, I must pay my respect to the man who revived it who passed away in silence last February.