• Everyone is Talking About the Egyptian Olympian Facing an Israeli Opponent

    News of Egyptian Judo player, Islam el-Shehaby, competing against Israeli Or Sasson, is becoming a source of uproar social media.  The reactions in Egyptian social media ranged from some objecting and demanding his withdrawal, and some challenging this view and asserting that he should go through with it. Those who object believe it is a choice the Egyptian judoka should not even contemplate, because according to them, it is a given that relations with Israel must be avoided, even in international sports arenas. As for those who believe he should go through with it, they are certain that el-Shehaby is strong enough to take the Israeli judoka down – a win that will metaphorically represent Egypt,

    Cairo Scene q

  • British Ambassador performed Haj

    Saudi Gazette report According to a report in the BBC, the British ambassador to Saudi Arabia has performed the Haj pilgrimage after converting to Islam. The report stated that Simon Collis made the holy trip with his Syrian wife Huda Mujarkech, and he was the first British ambassador to perform Haj. Collis was pictured wearing the white robes, or ihram. The photograph was posted on the twitter account of Saudi Arabian writer and university professor, Fawziah Albakr, who wrote in Arabic, “First British ambassador to the Kingdom undertakes the Haj following his conversion to Islam. Simon Collis with his wife Huda in Mecca, praise be to God.”  On Twitter, Collis thanked well-wishers and revealed

    Saudi Gazette q

  • Blake Lively doesn't want you praising her post-baby body

    Blake Lively says new mums shouldn't feel pressure to lose weight straight after having a baby. She's been on Australian breakfast show Sunrise, where she was complimented on how great she looked in a bikini in her new film The Shallows. The presenter commented on how the film was shot just months after Blake had her first baby. But the 28-year-old called it unfair that slimming down after birth is "so celebrated". "It's like, this is what someone looks like after having a baby," she said. "I think a woman's body after having a baby is pretty amazing. You gave birth to a human being. I would really like to see that celebrated." The ex-Gossip Girl star's now expecting her second child with husband

    BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat q

  • India needs more than Rafale to match China - Just spent billions of dollars

    NEW DELHI: India may have just spent billions of dollars on hi-tech French fighter jets, but experts say it needs to do a lot more if it is going to face up to an increasingly assertive China. The world’s top defense importer has signed several big-ticket deals as part of a $100-billion upgrade since Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi took power in 2014. But it has been slow to replace its dwindling fleet of Russian MiG-21s-dubbed “Flying Coffins” because of their poor safety record. An agreement to buy 36 cutting edge Rafale jets from France’s Dassault aims to fix that. “It will give the air force an arrowhead. Our air force has old aircraft, 1970s and 1980s generation aircraft and

    Kuwait Times q

  • Egyptian Girl Sold Into Slavery at the Age of 8 Publishes Her Memoirs

    Despite having been heavily covered by western media, the sad saga of an Egyptian girl who was robbed of her childhood in the cruelest way possible is only just beginning to become known here in Egypt after one Facebook user took to the social network to share her story, which is rapidly going viral  Although born in 1991, Shyima Hall’s life didn’t really begin until 2002 when she was freed from the shackles of slavery her own parents had sold her into for the mere price of $30. Born in grinding poverty, little Shyima lived with her parents and ten siblings in an Alexandria slum until she was traded to a rich family for whom her older sister used to work as a maid. The wealthy employers accused

    Cairo Scene q

  • Love Island will return for a third series

    Good news for fans of Love Island - ITV has announced it will be back next year. Bosses have ordered a third season of one of the summer's most talked about shows. Its second run is thought to have doubled last year's viewing figures, with an average of 1.3 million people watching each episode. "We can't wait to do it all again next year," said ITV Studios creative director Richard Cowles. Although the series officially finished last night with Nathan Massey and Cara De La Hoyde crowned champions, it will return for a special episode on Sunday 17 July. Love Island: Heading Home will follow the islanders as they're reunited at the wrap party. Which will no doubt mean clashes as exes come face-to-face

    BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat q

  • Two Muslim Women Kicked Off JetBlue Flight for ‘Staring’ at Flight Attendant

    In what would have been a shocking but is now an all-too-familiar Islamophobic incident, two Muslim women were led off a passenger plane as a flight attendant did not like the way the women ‘stared’ at her, according to DailyMail. On Saturday, two Muslim women in hijabs onboard JetBlue Flight 487 between Boston and Los Angeles were escorted out of the airliner by police as one of the flight attendants was concerned about the way the two women were looking at her. A video showing the two women being escorted out for questioning was posted on YouTube on Monday by Mark Frauenfelder, taken by his friend Sharon Kessler. In regards to the incident, Kessler told DailyMail that "it was a terrible moment

    Cairo Scene q

  • 23 Absurdly Fab Photos from Karim El Chiaty & Victoria's Secret Model Ana Beatriz Barros' Wedding

    You might have noticed people making the move to Sahel, Gouna, and other such dreamy beachy lands during the Eid weekend, but what about the mysterious case of Mykonos? Why were our social media feeds suddenly flooded with images of the Greek tropical island? A coincidence? We think not. Everyone in the country (or world) has been buzzing – about what can only be described as the biggest, most glam wedding of the year where Brazilian Victoria’s Secret supermodel Ana Beatriz Barros tied the knot with Egyptian-Greek billionaire Karim El Chiati. You could say a few celebrities made an appearance. Nothing special. A slew of luxurious villas held over 400 guests who flew from all over the world for

    Cairo Scene q

  • South Korea reveals it has a plan to assassinate Kim Jong Un

    North Korea has a history of using creative language to express loathing for its enemies. Here are some of the regime's more colorful threats against the West. North Korea warned it would make a "preemptive and offensive nuclear strike" in response to joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises. Pyongyang issued a long statement promising that "time will prove how the crime-woven history of the U.S. imperialists who have grown corpulent through aggression and war will come to an end and how the Park Geun Hye group's disgraceful remaining days will meet a miserable doom as it is keen on the confrontation with the fellow countrymen in the north."

    CNN q

  • Meet the world's richest young billionaires as Hugh Grosvenor inherits £9bn

    He had three daughters but only one son, 25-year-old Hugh Grosvenor, who is heir to the dukedom. Hugh has now inherited "half of London" after his father's estate covers most of Belgravia and Mayfair - the most expensive area on the Monopoly board. He hasn't had to work for his father's money. But he does have a job as an account manager for Bio-bean - a green technology company. According to the 2016 Forbes Rich List there are nine other under-30s worth more than $1bn - so we thought we'd find out who some of them are. At 20 and 21, Alexandra and Katharina Andresen are the youngest Johan, a Norwegian industrialist and investor, transferred his fortune to his two daughters in 2007. Norway is

    BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat q

  • China covers portions of Great Wall with cement

    Public decries the Chinese government's decision to repair a 700-year-old stretch of China's Great Wall with a smooth, white trail of cement.

    CNN q

  • Rita Ora confirms she's leaving The X Factor

    Rita Ora has confirmed that she's leaving The X Factor. The singer, who joined the show last year, tweeted: "I had a ball on The X Factor last year and will miss the team. "@simoncowell can't wait to work with you again... I'll be round for dinner soon. Thank you for the experience & love X" Rita took on the role after moving from The Voice UK, which is moving from the BBC to ITV. The singer mentored the girls category and went on to win the show with her act, Louisa Johnson. In a statement ITV told Newsbeat: "Rita brought a great energy to the show last year and did a brilliant job mentoring the girls' category, leading Louisa to victory. "We wish her all the best with her music and film plans

    BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat q

  • Team Clinton: Trump's Gennifer Flowers tweet 'indicative of kind of leader he would be'

    Hillary Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook discusses Trump's tweet inviting woman Bill Clinton had an affair with, Gennifer Flowers, to the debate

    CNN q

  • China's giant space telescope starts search for alien life

    It's a process known by astronomers as "first light" -- when a telescope opens its eyes and takes its first pictures of the universe. And FAST is wide eyed: its field of vision is almost twice as big as the Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico that has been the world's biggest single aperture telescope for the past 53 years. Russia's RATAN-600 telescope is larger than FAST by diameter with panels arranged in a 576 meter wide ring -- but it's not one single dish and its collection area is much smaller than FAST and Arecibo. Decade to find right location Construction of the $185 million mega project began in 2011, with the last of the 4,450 triangular panels that form the dish painstakingly lowered

    CNN q

  • Italian driver races China daredevil road in record time

    An Italian driver has raced up China's Tongtian Road, considered one of the world's most dangerous, in record time. Fabio Barone covered the nearly 11km (6.8 mile) route in just 10 minutes 31 seconds, on 21 September. The road has 99 sharp turns on its way up Tianmen Mountain, rising from 200 to 1,300 metres above sea level. He had his Ferrari specially modified for the attempt, shaving crucial kilos off its weight by swapping metal for carbon fibre parts. Mr Barone is not new to racing hairy mountain roads, having set another speed record last year on the Transfagarasan mountain road in the Transylvanian Alps in Romania. Tianmen Mountain is no stranger to extreme motor sports either, having

    BBC News q

  • Saudi Arabia vs Dubai: The 2020 Race For The World’s Tallest Tower

    It seems like Dubai is bored of smashing Guinness World Records, as flagship developer Emaar Properties announces plans to construct the world’s tallest tower, surpassing the Burj Khalifa that currently holds the current world record, but will Saudi Arabia steal the title? The race is on as property developer Emaar has announced plans to build a new tower, with an estimated cost of $1 billion, that will stand a ‘notch’ taller than 830-metre Burj Khalifa. The proposed project expects completion by 2020, which coincidentally will be the same year that Dubai will host the World Expo Trading Fair. The announcement explained that Spanish-Swiss architect Santiago Calatrava Valls is expected to devote

    Cairo Scene q

  • Deputy crown prince among world’s most influential 50

    JEDDAH: Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been named on the list of Bloomberg’s 50 Most Influential People in the World of Finance.Bloomberg notes that almost eight decades after oil was discovered in Saudi Arabia, the 31-year-old has drawn up a plan to transform the world’s biggest crude exporter into a diversified economy fit for the next era. “He is readying the state oil company (Saudi Aramco) for an IPO, so he can pump the proceeds into other industries,” said Bloomberg. UK Prime Minister Theresa May took the top spot. US presidential candidates, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, are tied up in the second place. At No. 4 is Chinese President Xi Jinping. “The importance of Xi Jinping

    Arab News q

  • Rouhani uses UN to hit US over nuclear deal - Region - World

    Iran used the UN General Assembly on Thursday to accuse the United States of failing to meet its commitments under a historic nuclear deal. President Hassan Rouhani complained that America is dragging its feet on its side of the bargain. "The lack of compliance (with the deal) on the part of the United States in the past several months represents a flawed approach that should be rectified forthwith," Rouhani told the world body. The agreement between Tehran, Washington and five other major powers came into force in January. Iran accepted curbs to its nuclear program in exchange for their lifting sanctions. While observers say Iran has met its commitments, Tehran accuses Washington of continuing

    english.ahram.org.eg q

  • India needs more than Rafale to match China: experts – Peninsula OnQatar Daily Star

    New Delhi: India might have only spent billions of dollars on hi-tech French warrior jets, though experts contend it needs to do a lot some-more if it is going to face adult to an increasingly noisy China. The world’s tip counterclaim importer has sealed several big-ticket deals as partial of a $100-billion ascent given Hindu jingoist Prime Minister Narendra Modi took energy in 2014. But it has been delayed to reinstate a shrinking swift of Russian MiG-21s — dubbed “Flying Coffins” since of their bad reserve record. An agreement to buy 36 slicing corner Rafale jets from France’s Dassault aims to repair that. “It will give a atmosphere force an arrowhead. Our atmosphere force has aged aircraft,

    Qatar Daily Star q

  • Shakespeare Lives - Ballet, Opera and the Bard

    Great music and performance from the world of ballet and opera, presented by Ore Oduba. We join Royal Ballet stars Lauren Cuthbertson and Edward Watson as they rehearse The Winter’s Tale. Also featured; the potion scene from Kenneth MacMillan’s classic Romeo and Juliet and music from Verdi’s two great Shakespearean operas Otello and Falstaff. Watch live and on demand via the BBC Live page

    BBC Music Events q