Male Belly Dancing Makes Comeback in Egypt

Farid Mesbaah, male belly dancer, hopped on a car in Cairo's Shobra district and strutted his stuff

	Male Egyptian Belly dancer

He clanged metal castanets, magically converted his hips into pistons and twirled his head around like a centrifuge. The crowd at tables lining a dirt alley clapped rhythmically.

Mesbaah was performing at the opening of the Old-Time Moon Cafe, a gig that - along with weddings, birthdays, night clubs and circumcisions - is typical for belly dancers. Untypical, at least in recent years, are performances by men.

"I just like to dance'' says Mesbaah, who has seven children. "It's very sensual. I've been doing it since I was little.''

Mesbaah is shimmying in a society that has long struggled with ever-changing limits of social tolerance. A carved relief at a pharaonic-era tomb near Cairo shows today's dance prohibitions were yesterday's norm. It depicts a chorus line of men at a religious festival; each wears a sash knotted on his left hip, a fashion for dancing men and women that lingers today.

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Christmas Lebkuchen

	Christmas Lebkuchen

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 225g almonds
• 10g cinnamoon
• 2 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 4 eggs yolks
• 225g thinly sliced orange
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 450g sugar
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
• 175g butter
• 700g flour

Directions

1. Melt butter over low heat.
2. Stir in sugar, spices, chopped almonds and well beaten eggs. Add flour and baking powder.
3. Roll dough out thinly and cut into shapes. Place half an almond in the centre of each biscuit, and brush the top of each biscuit with the white of an egg.
4. Bake at 180 degrees celcius until brown.

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Back and forth

Not a bad 2007 sports year for Egypt, and tough challenges lies ahead

	ANC 2008

It was by any standard a successful 2007 for Egyptian sports. Egypt won the All-Africa Games in Algeria, tore up the record books in winning the pan-Arab Games which Egypt hosted, and squash champion Amr Shabana took the World Championship for a third time. But not all was rosy. Ahli lost the opportunity for an unprecedented three consecutive African Champions League titles in what was certainly the biggest upset of the year

Egypt will be looking ahead to three major events that could impact the nation's sports history.

1. The national handball team will compete in the African Nations Handball Cup in Angola.

2. The African Nations Cup (ANC), the biggest football tournament on the continent. This year, the event will kick off in Ghana starting 20 January to 10 February.

3. The 2008 Olympic Games, the biggest and most prestigious sports event in the world. The Olympics will be held from 8 to 24 August in Beijing.

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An Orange revolution?

	Orange

Spurred by Egypt’s growing population, France Telecom Orange Group is eyeing the country for its future expansion plans. On Thursday, it opened the18th Orange Lab in Egypt’s Smart Village, with a view to vie for the country's second fixed-line license.

“Egypt is a fast growing market with 75 million inhabitants. It is a leading cultural and scientific center for the Middle East Africa region,” explained Georges Penalver, the group’s senior executive vice president.

“Operations in Egypt will support all France Telecom Orange’s operations across the region.”

Worth around 8.9 million euros in investments, France Telecom Group inaugurated Thursday its technology innovation center, placing further confidence in Egypt’s evergreen telecommunications market.

“Mobile activity has grown very quickly in Egypt, especially during the last five years. A few years ago, there were no mobiles. Now, there are millions, and the market is not yet saturated. Penetration rate will continue to grow,” said Didier Lombard, the group’s chief executive officer.

ICT is a sector that can bring high growth to development of the country.

Presently, mobile market is very strong, but beyond that comes the Internet as well as the fixed-line network,” he added. “The market in a country like Egypt will grow very quickly. There are a lot of young people who have high demand for technology.”

Orange is the key brand of France Telecom, one of the world’s leading telecommunications operators. France Telecom serves more than 167 million customers in five continents, two thirds of which are Orange customers. In 2006, Orange became the group’s single brand for Internet, television and mobile services in most of the countries in which it operates.

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This is a great Christmas party craft

Lid Ornament

What you will need:

• A clean lid
• Construction paper
• Old Christmas cards.
• Ribbon
• Glue

How to make it:

Cut a favorite picture from a card. Using the juice can
lid, trace and cut a circle from the construction paper.
Glue the picture onto the paper and the paper onto the lid.
Here's a job for Mom or dad…
Use a glue gun to attach a paper clip to the lid for a hanger.

Tip: You can spray paint the lids in gold, green or red to add a bit more. If you have particularly creative kids, they can glue objects onto their lids!

Almonds

Fortunately, the delicately flavored and versatile almond is available throughout the year to make a healthy and tasty addition to both sweet and savory dishes. Although packaged almonds are available year round, they are the freshest in mid-summer, which is when they are at the height of their season.

The almond that we think of as a nut is technically the seed of the fruit of the almond tree, a medium-size tree that bears fragrant pink and white flowers. Like its cousins, the peach, cherry and apricot trees, the almond tree bears fruits with stone-like seeds (or pits) within. The seed of the almond fruit is what we refer to as the almond nut.

Health Benefits

high-fat food that's good for your health? That's not an oxymoron, its almonds. Almonds are high in monounsaturated fats, the same type of health-promoting fats as are found in olive oil, which have been associated with reduced risk of heart disease. Five large human epidemiological studies, including the Nurses Health Study, the Iowa Health Study, the Adventist Health Study and the Physicians Health Study, all found that nut consumption is linked to a lower risk for heart disease.

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