Egypt, Russia go nuclear
Egypt’s Nuclear Substances Authority has signed a cooperation protocol with Russia to extract uranium from four sites in Egypt, Minister of Electricity Hassan Younis said. The protocol stipulates that Russia would provide Egypt with modern technology and equipment to produce uranium for Egypt’s peaceful nuclear project.
Nuclear safety
As Egypt plans to tap atomic power to meet its growing energy requirements, the government has accepted six bids submitted by multinational companies from France, United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, South Korea, and the United States, out of 17 bids it received to provide service-related and technical consultancy to upgrade the country’s nuclear safety standards. Duties of the chosen consultancy firm will include training on the use of nuclear safety codes used in assessment and monitoring, as well as the ability to carry out quality control programmes. The move intends to bring the nuclear energy in Egypt body up to the standards of its counterparts in advanced nations.
Google and Yahoo in Arabic
Google launched four new Arabic versions of Google News for Egypt, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. According to Google, there are over 40 million Arabic-speaking Internet users. Google is not the only one expanding its Arabic offerings. Last week, Yahoo acquired—for an undisclosed sum—Maktoob.com, an Arab portal combining news, business and sports information with mail and chat services that reaches one in every three people online in its region. Maktoob began life in 2000 as a Web-based e-mail service, and in May claimed around 16.6 million unique monthly visitors. The company is based in Jordan, with offices in Egypt, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Yahoo is expected to launch Arabic versions of Yahoo Mail, Messenger, Search, and the Yahoo home page, followed by local versions of its News, Sports, and Finance properties.
USD34.5 Million agreements
Egypt has signed four energy and gold exploration agreements valued at USD34.5 million with companies including Apache Corp., the Oil Ministry said earlier this month. Three of the agreements, valued at a total of USD30 million, are with Apache and the state-run Egyptian General Petroleum Corp. to dig 14 wells in the Western Desert. A fourth agreement, valued at USD4.5 million was signed with Matz Holdings of Cyprus to explore for gold in the Eastern Desert.
IT understanding
A memorandum of understanding was recently signed to establish permanent cooperation between the Egyptian Information Technology, Electronics, and System Association (EITESAL) and the Canadian association for Information Technology (ITAC). By virtue of the MoU, Egypt and Canada will be able to exchange trade to the tune of USD50 million within the coming three years, and encourage and create investment opportunities in the IT field in both countries to the limit of USD100 million.
Christian collection at the Bibliotheca
The Bibliotheca Alexandrina (BA) recently received a collection of some 15 valuable books on Greek history and literature donated by Studio University Press publications. It also received another donation of 15 books on Christian theology and patristic studies from Dr Christos Krikonis, professor of theology at Thessaloniki University in Greece. Dr Youssef Zeidan, head of the Manuscript and Rare Book centre at the BA, told Watani the BA was keen to enrich its collection with books on Christianity. Besides the recent donation, he said, the BA was in talks with the Greek Orthodox Melkite Church, to which St Catherine’s monastery in Sinai is affiliated, to cooperate with the monastery as regards it famed manuscript collection.