The timing of last week’s bombing could not have been worse for the Egyptian government.
Friday’s attack on a tour bus, which killed three Vietnamese tourists and their Egyptian guide near the renowned Giza Pyramids, came just as the country’s battered tourism industry was showing signs of recovery.
Adding insult to injury, the attack came at the height of the holiday season, when the number of foreign visitors normally peaks.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, in which a crude roadside bomb was used, but it bore the hallmarks of extremists.
The site of the blast – Cairo’s Marioutiyah district – suggests that it was probably the work of a local militant cell not associated with ISIS.
A quiet and semi-rural area a short drive from the heart of Cairo, Marioutiyah was in recent years the scene of a string of deadly assaults targeting police, for which suspicion fell on one or more breakaway factions of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.
Regardless of the identity of the culprits, the December 28 attack exposed a possible loophole in what is believed to be an elaborate security plan to protect foreign tourists and the country’s minority Christians during the festive period.
Followers of Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Church, the dominant denomination among the country’s estimated 10 million Christians, mark the New Year with late prayers on December 31 and celebrate Christmas early next month.
The immediate fallout for the tourism industry has been limited. There is no sign to suggest mass cancellations by would-be visitors or early departures by those already in the country.
This could be a sign that the industry has resilience during a season expected to be the best since 2010, when the number of visitors hit a record 12 million.
An uprising that ended the 29-year rule of President Hosni Mubarak in 2011 and years of turmoil and violence that followed damaged the tourism industry.
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Read more:
Egypt kills 40 suspected militants after tour bus bombed in Giza
Angry Copts mourn Egypt bus attack victims
Egypt's Christians fear for safety at Christmas after church attack
______________Tens of thousands of security personnel are routinely posted across the country during the holiday season in anticipation of terrorist attacks, with particular emphasis on churches – a favourite target of militants in the past two years.
Last year, attacks in Alexandria and Tanta targeted Coptic churches on Palm Sunday, killing 47 and injuring more than 120. Airports, hotels and tourist attractions such as museums, historical sites and bazaars are also secured during busy months.
It is a costly exercise that Egypt has endured for decades to keep the confidence of overseas visitors in the face of the threat of terrorist attacks.
In an apparent bid to show that the fight against terrorists continues unabated, Egyptian authorities announced just hours after the bus bombing that security forces killed 40 militants in raids on their hideouts.
Of the 40 killed, some 30 were in the Greater Cairo area, the Interior Ministry said. Significantly, the ministry statement did not say when the raids took place, suggesting that the timing of its release may have been designed to reassure people that the security forces were working diligently.
But that did not stop some from pointing out that the police's hard work needs to be complemented by good intelligence on terrorists and their networks to pre-empt future attacks.
"If it's impossible to entirely stop terrorist operations, actionable and accurate intelligence on terrorist networks will be enough to drain, to a large extent, the sources of terrorism," Emad Hussein, editor of the respected Cairo daily Al-Shorouk, wrote on Sunday. "Police are required to glean as comprehensive and detailed information on extremists and terrorists as possible."
How much do leading UAE’s UK curriculum schools charge for Year 6?
- Nord Anglia International School (Dubai) – Dh85,032
- Kings School Al Barsha (Dubai) – Dh71,905
- Brighton College Abu Dhabi - Dh68,560
- Jumeirah English Speaking School (Dubai) – Dh59,728
- Gems Wellington International School – Dubai Branch – Dh58,488
- The British School Al Khubairat (Abu Dhabi) - Dh54,170
- Dubai English Speaking School – Dh51,269
*Annual tuition fees covering the 2024/2025 academic year
Brief scores:
Toss: Sindhis, elected to field first
Pakhtoons 137-6 (10 ov)
Fletcher 68 not out; Cutting 2-14
Sindhis 129-8 (10 ov)
Perera 47; Sohail 2-18
Stamp%20duty%20timeline
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SERIE A FIXTURES
Saturday Benevento v Atalanta (2pm), Genoa v Bologna (5pm), AC Milan v Torino (7.45pm)
Sunday Roma v Inter Milan (3.30pm), Udinese v Napoli, Hellas Verona v Crotone, Parma v Lazio (2pm), Fiorentina v Cagliari (9pm), Juventus v Sassuolo (11.45pm)
Monday Spezia v Sampdoria (11.45pm)
MATCH INFO
Barcelona 2
Suarez (10'), Messi (52')
Real Madrid 2
Ronaldo (14'), Bale (72')
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE SQUAD
Goalkeepers: Ali Khaseif, Fahad Al Dhanhani, Mohammed Al Shamsi, Adel Al Hosani
Defenders: Bandar Al Ahbabi, Shaheen Abdulrahman, Walid Abbas, Mahmoud Khamis, Mohammed Barghash, Khalifa Al Hammadi, Hassan Al Mahrami, Yousef Jaber, Mohammed Al Attas
Midfielders: Ali Salmeen, Abdullah Ramadan, Abdullah Al Naqbi, Majed Hassan, Abdullah Hamad, Khalfan Mubarak, Khalil Al Hammadi, Tahnoun Al Zaabi, Harib Abdallah, Mohammed Jumah
Forwards: Fabio De Lima, Caio Canedo, Ali Saleh, Ali Mabkhout, Sebastian Tagliabue
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
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Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
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2.0
Director: S Shankar
Producer: Lyca Productions; presented by Dharma Films
Cast: Rajnikanth, Akshay Kumar, Amy Jackson, Sudhanshu Pandey
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
Killing of Qassem Suleimani