WATANI International
25 July 2010
USD100 million for solar power
The Global Environment Facility (GEF) has granted Egypt USD100 million as contribution towards financing a 100-megawatt solar power plant in the Upper Egyptian region of Kom Ombo. Total investment for the project amounts to some USD450 million to be supplemented by the World Bank and the African Development Bank. GEF is a global partnership among 178 countries, international institutions, NGOs, and the private sector to address global environmental issues.
Nuclear training
In preparation for the establishment of the first nuclear power plant in Egypt, an international tender which will be issued by year-end, a team of the Egyptians who will be operating the plant are receiving training in Russia. Other teams will receive training in Korea, the United States, France and China.
Jewish leader sentenced
The head of Egypt’s Jewish community, Carmen Weinstein, was sentenced to three years in prison for selling an Egyptian businessman a building that did not belong to her then refusing to return his money. Weinstein said documents proving she had sold the building for EGP3 million, were forged. Superiors reportedly told Israel’s ambassador to Cairo, Yitzhak Levanon, not to intervene because it may hurt the tiny Jewish community. Weinstein heads a Jewish community of only a few dozen members, most of them women. She rents out a few buildings to support them.
Two tombs
Egyptian archaeologists recently unveiled a double tomb in the ancient necropolis of Saqqara west of Cairo. The tomb includes two false doors with colourful paintings depicting the two people buried there, a father and a son who served as heads of the royal scribes, explained the top Saqqara archaeologist Abdel-Hakim Karar. “The colours of the false doors are vivid and fresh as if painted yesterday,” he said. Humidity has destroyed the sarcophagus of the father, Shendwas, while the tomb of the son, Khonsu, was robbed in antiquity. Inscribed on the false door was the name of Pepi II, whose 90-year reign is believed to be the longest of the pharaohs. This dates the double tomb to the beginning of the decline of the Old Kingdom (2664 – 2180BC), the age of pyramids. Also found were a handful of duck-shaped artifacts and a small limestone obelisk. The large necropolis lies west of Saqqara’s famous Step Pyramid and contains tombs from Egypt’s earliest history up through Roman times.
Youngest ICDL winner
Last weekend saw Minister for Family and Population Mushira Khatab honour six-year-old Ibrahim al-Ghamri as the youngest person worldwide to earn the ICDL (International Certificate for Digital Learning). He earned it in only 35 days from the information centre of Mansoura University on the Eastern branch of the Nile Delta. Ghamri’s name was included in the Guinness World Records.
Another whale valley
A huge valley containing prehistoric whale skeletons was recently discovered north of Lake Qarun in Fayoum, 100km southwest of Cairo. The discovery, which included a fossilised whale embryo and adult whale fossils was made by an Egyptian archaeo-geological mission. An assortment of tools used in hunting and fishing in ancient eras was also found, among them spearheads, razors, and knives. In 2005, the nearby Wadi al-Hitan (Whale Valley) which also included amazing fossil remains of now-extinct whales, was declared by UNESCO a World Heritage site.