Russian Plane Crashes in Middle of Sinai #7K9268 “Updated”

This is the sort of news you do not want to wake up on !!!!
A Russian airliner carrying 224 passengers and crew crashed in Sinai peninsula earlier Saturday.
According to Egypt’s cabinet, the Airbus A-321, operated by Russian airline Kogalymavia with registration number KGL-9268, was flying from Sharm El-Sheikh in Sinai to St.Petersburg earlier this morning when it crashed in Central Sinai after 23 minutes of taking off.
Exactly the airplane took off from Sharm El-Sheikh airport at 5.58 AM Cairo Local time “CLT” in its way to St.Petersburg. The flight number was 7K9268

The wreckage of the plane at the crash site , a photo released
by Egypt's PM office after his visit this afternoon

At 6:20 AM “04:13 UTC”, it disappeared from the radars after nearly 23 minutes of taking off due to technical malfunctions.
Unfortunately, there were 200 adults and 17 children on the board of the plane in addition to 7-crew members.

Relatives of the victims waiting at Pulkovo airport in St. Petersburg

The cabinet also said in its official statement that the Egyptian armed forces’ radars spotted the missing airplane crash site at a mountainous area near the city of El-Hassana.

At 1:41 PM CLT

The Egyptian government announced that the airplane’s black box was found  and that more than 100 bodies were found.
Despite the Egyptian officials hinted at first that a technical malfunction was behind the crash, now they are saying that it was early to determine the reason behind it.
Russia’s President Putin declared Sunday as a national day of mourning.
According to Russian L!ve News website, this photo could be from the last photos taken at the Plane by one of the victims who sent to his family back to Russia.

"L!ve News website"

The Russian embassy in Cairo is saying that there were no survivors in the crash unfortunately.

К сожалению, все пассажиры рейса 9268 Когалымавиа Шарм-эш-Шейх - Петербург погибли. Выражаем соболезнования родным и близким.

— RussianEmbassy EGYPT (@Rusembegypt) October 31, 2015

The Russian embassy in Cairo says that there were 212 passengers and 7 crew members on board.

Russian Sputnik news agency says that when the Egyptian cabinet gave slightly different figures in its statement, saying the plane was carrying 214 Russian citizens and three Ukrainians, including 138 women, 62 men and 17 children.

When Riham Saeed meets Karma

Do you remember what tabloid Egyptian TV host Riham Saeed did to the Syrian refugees !?? Well, you know what is being said about Karma, it is true. Now Riham Saeed is paying the price of her

tabloid TV journalism.
Now she is in truly hot boiling water over something that could end her TV show right away and drag her as well her TV channel “Al-Nahar” to the court.
On Tuesday, she aired an interview with a girl who was sexually harassed in a Cairo mall and was physically assaulted when she tried to defend herself.
The incident was filmed on the mall’s CCTV and soon enough the video was online.

The CCTV video

Riham Saeed , who always preaches about morals and modesty blamed the girl for being harassed because she was wearing sleeveless top
When the girl confronted Riham Saeed that she wears sleeveless top, the famous TV host arrogantly said that she was a renowned personality and American University in Cairo “AUC” graduate !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It did not stop at there as Saeed dared and aired personal photos for the girl while wearing a swimsuit on beach carried by some man as an evidence of her misbehavior !!!!
I won’t share this episode here.
The renowned TV host claimed that her produced received those photos through Whatsapp.
The girl spoke in other TV shows in the past 2 days and it turned out when she went to the studio, she put her mobile phone to be charged in the location and Riham Saeed’s crew took her mobile phone and searched in its file.
The girl says that they took her personal photos. Now that’s a lesson on the importance of mobile phone passwords when it comes to privacy.
Of course Saeed went mad on how she was being attacked on other TV channels and on Wednesday night she appeared on her show defending herself claiming that because she was a mother , she would not scandalize that girl anymore !!!!
Luckily, women’s rights activists and anti-sexual harassment activists decided to help the girl to restore back her right. Not less than 15 lawyers offered to help her and to take a legal action against Saeed and the Al-Nahar TV channel.

#Egyelections : First stage’s runoffs searched for voters too

The first stage of Egypt’s parliamentary elections’ runoffs are over and now we got the results and indications.
First of all, the turnout was lower than the first stage’s turnout last week.
Usually, the runoffs got much lower turnouts but this time we got people who are totally uninterested in the parliamentary elections as well awful heavy rains.
Not to mention, many people did not know that there were parliamentary elections runoffs in the first place.

An empty polling station in Haram, Giza by Heba Farouk Mahfouz

Again it was higher in the villages and districts in Upper Egypt because of the clans and tribes’ power , nothing more.
I did not cover those runoffs, but journalists and photographers who covered them reported empty polling stations.
Checking the media reports and photos as well the interviews made on air at the polling stations confirm this.

Esraa El-Taweel still remains in detention "Updated"

Esraa in an older photo 

And New Cairo Prosecution renewed earlier this week the detention of Freelance photographer Esraa El-Taweel for another 15 days pending investigation.
The next session , Esraa’s detention will  be reconsidered by a Criminal court judge because the temporary detentions limit is over according to the law. She has been in detention for 5 months so far !!
Updated : Now according to Esraa's lawyer , the prosecution actually did not determine an exact date for her session at the criminal court !!!!!!!!
Esraa has been in detention for more than 160 in detention accordingly pending investigation into accusation of being a member in the Muslim Brotherhood and sending fake news to defame Egypt abroad.
Hopefully inshallah, she will be released because this is too much.
BY the way speaking about Esraa El-Taweel and remembering her forcible disappearance, there are three journalists who have been arrested and detained in unknown locations.
Updated : 
Earlier this week , Esraa was allowed to have X-ray scans at Kasr Al-Aini hospital where she met her family and sisters.

Free Alaa : One year later

Today marks one year since the imprisonment of Egypt’s renowned blogger and activist Alaa Abdel Fattah and the rest of the Shura Council detainees.

Free Shura case detainees 

Today thousands of people across the world are participating in a twitter storm to remind the people and the world about Alaa Abdel Fattah and his cause in Egypt as well the cause of many detainees like him under hashtag “#FreeAlaa”
In the past few hours, my twitter timeline and Facebook timeline turned red and orange with Alaa’s avatar while sharing his famous quotes.

Alexandria is drowning while Winter has not come yet !!

Today, Egypt started unstable weather wave with heavy rain and thunderstorm in the North. This thunderstorm wave is hitting East of the Mediterranean.
It started yesterday and ironically the Alexandrians were happy.

The thunder in the sky by Nada Besheer
"Facebook"

The thunder last night in Alexandria
By Sohila Essam "Facebook"

Looking to Alexandria after few hours of heavy rain, you will think that Hurricane Patricia hit what was once known as the Mermaid of the Mediterranean.

Alexandria's famous Cornich

When Mars becomes a National security matter

Egypt’s prominent astronomer Essam Heggy was going to represent an open meeting about Mars and the latest NASA explorations there at  the University of Alexandria on 23-24 October. He was supposed to say a word at Bibliotheca Alexandrina then he was going to have an open meeting with the students of the faculty of engineering in the University of Alexandria.

في مصر يوم ٢٣ و ٢٤ أكتوبر. كلمة بمكتبة الإسكندرية الساعة ١ ظهرا و لقاء مفتوح بطلبة كلية الهندسة بجامعة الإسكندرية الساعة الرابعة ظهرا.

— د. عصام حجي (@essamheggy) October 19, 2015

The former President advisor for sciences arrived Cairo and was on his way to Alexandria only to find that his meeting with the university of Alexandria was cancelled for security reasons !!!

أعزائي الطلبه، حبكم ورغبتكم باللقاء تعدت التوقعات ولم تجد إدارة جامعة الإسكندرية المساحة الكافية لإحتضان حماسكم وحضوركم ...
Posted by Essam Heggy on Friday, October 23, 2015

My dear students , your love and wish for this meeting to take place exceeded expectations, nevertheless the University of Alexandria’s administration did not find enough space to embrace your enthusiasm and attendance and decided to cancel the lecture one day before its date while I was on my way to Alexandria for security reasons.
I would like to thank the organizers and the people who registered to attend the lecture. A salute to the administration of the university which is keen to protect Egypt’s national security by cancelling a lecture about Mars exploration.

This decision created huge reactions denouncing what happened to the lecture of Egypt’s renowned scientist who was part of the Rosetta team.
To defend itself, the University of Alexandria administration said that the students organized the lecture without the knowledge of the faculty of engineering which was informed allegedly on short notice.
I think to organize such event in our public Universities, you need an approval from the administration and security weeks before the event.