New undersea cable
Telecom Egypt has announced a $125 million deal with Alcatel-Lucent for a new undersea cable. The new cable will link Sidi Kreir on Egypt’s Northern coast to Marseille in France, to provide Telecom Egypt with additional capacity and more robust connectivity to Europe. The announcement came amid ongoing disruption following the severing of two undersea cables off Egypt’s coast last week. The new 3,100 km TE North cable will be one of the largest in the region, with a capacity of 128 x 10Gbit/s on eight fibre pairs.
Nuclear blueprint
The blueprints for Egypt’s first nuclear reactor have been sent to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Minister of Electricity Hassan Younis said that Egypt had a responsibility to meet IAEA standards and rules. “We are committed to transparency,” he stressed. Younis further said the government was in the process of preparing a training program in cooperation with the IAEA to train Egyptian nuclear engineers to be at the helm of Egypt’s peaceful nuclear reactor.
Oil shale in New Valley
According to a recent announcement by Petroleum Minister Sameh Fahmy, oil shale was discovered in Abu Tartur in Egypt’s New Valley, in the Western Desert. The discovery was made at depths between 35m and 100m. Mr Fahmy said the oil shale, fossil rock composed of layers of clay-like, fine-grained sediments, is considered a high-quality energy source.
E-passport
Egypt has begun issuing its first electronic passports. The new passports look like the regular ones, but include a small computer chip embedded in the back cover containing the information about the holder. They run in line with the specifications of the International Civil Aviation Organisation.
Heritage library
As part of Cairo University’s centenary celebrations a heritage library and panorama hall have been opened at its main campus in Giza. The facilities are the outcome of an agreement sealed last November with the Centre of Civilisation and Natural Heritage, and feature rare pictures and paraphernalia pertaining to the university since its creation in 1908. Cairo University was the first secular, national university in Egypt.
Reading initiative
The United States and Egypt have launched a joint reading initiative on the sideline of the Cairo International Book Fair. The initiative makes available a potpourri of books from both cultures through translation. Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz’ novels were the guest of honour of the event.
Stone Age town
A team of archaeologists from California University has discovered the ruins of a city dating back to the period of the first farmers 7,000 years ago in Kom Oshim, Fayoum, 100km south west Cairo, the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) has announced. “An electromagnetic survey revealed the existence in the Karanis region of a network of walls and roads similar to those constructed during the Greco-Roman period,” the SCA secretary-general Zahi Hawwas said. The remnants of the city are “still buried beneath the sand, and consist of the remains of walls and houses in terracotta or dressed limestone as well as a large quantity of pottery and the foundations of ovens and grain stores,” he added. The city dates back to the Neolithic period between 5,200 and 4,500 BC. The local director of antiquities, Ahmed Abdel-Alim, said the site was just seven kilometres from Fayoum lake and would probably have lain at the water edge at the time it was inhabited.