Egypt

Howard Community College student Sarah Blake was in Egypt when that nation's turbulent demonstrations began, and she and her friends found themselves being pushed and shoved in Cairo's streets. "It was really scary. That's when the tear gas started coming out more and the water cannon trucks were going through. The police cars would come through, and crowds of people would just scramble," said Blake, who returned from the violence-torn nation last week after a one-month stay. Blake is among several area residents who have come home from the country with harrowing stories that mirror the images depicted on news broadcasts.

Mundane life in a small Midwestern town may not seem to have much in common with tales of rescued princesses and knights in shining armor.But Lynn Siefert's "Little Egypt" -- receiving a slick, funny production at AXIS Theatre -- is precisely that. It's the story of a knight and his lady, set in a backward burg in southern Illinois.How backward is it? Well, Little Egypt is the kind of town where the words "dark ages" refer to more than the Medieval flavor of Siefert's plot.And yet, as directed by Gil Given, this isn't just another laugh-at-the-yokels comedy.

CAIRO, Egypt -- Saudi Arabia will not participate in the United Nations population conference next month in Cairo, U.N. officials here said yesterday, giving rise to fears that other Islamic nations will follow the lead of the Saudis.The Saudis' withdrawal supplies political ammunition to both moderate and militant Islamic groups that have condemned the conference as a plot to dominate the Muslim world by spreading Western "immorality."The agenda for the conference, which has also drawn fire from the Vatican, addresses the impact that population pressures have on development.

CAIRO, Egypt -- They are the naysayers, the lonely jousters of conventional wisdom, and they came to the world conference on population problems to say there is no population problem.James A. Miller of Frederick, Md., is an old soldier in their ranks. This weekend, he stood in the hallways of the conference center, touting his newspaper that warned: "At stake: the future of humanity.""Amazing as it may seem, the entire population of the world can be housed in the U.S. state of Texas," the newspaper proclaimed.

I READ in Tuesday's New York Times that Egypt's president, Hosni Mubarak, says he warned the United States of a plot by al-Qaida before Sept. 11 and that he has a new plan for a Palestinian state. I suppose that's all to the good, but frankly, none of it leaves me feeling reassured, for one simple reason: We don't need Egypt to be our policeman, we need it to be our progressive. We need Egypt to play the role that it played in Arab politics in the early part of the last century, the role that history assigned it and the role for which it has no replacement: to lead the Arab-Muslim world into modernity -- with an ideological message that is rooted in Arab and Muslim tradition but is progressive, pluralistic, democratic and modern-looking.

In exploring the early photography of Egypt, the Baltimore Museum of Art's "Excursions Along the Nile" sheds light on Egypt, but also on photography.With its thousands of years of history and its immense monuments, Egypt has always been a land of fascination. The introduction of photography in the mid-19th century only fueled an already intense interest, and by the 1850s photographers were recording Egyptian sites from the pyramids to details of hieroglyphic-filled walls.This show, organized by the Santa Barbara Museum of Art and selected from the holdings of collectors Michael and Jane Wilson, contains works from five decades beginning in 1850 with the rich, evocative images of French photographer Maxime Du Camp.

CAIRO, Egypt -- Ramadan Mahmoud Ahmed said his police interrogators blindfolded him, cuffed back his hands and stripped him to his underpants. They demanded to know about his law clients, who were accused of belonging to a violent Islamic campaign to overthrow the government.When Mr. Ahmed refused to betray his clients, he said, his interrogators clipped electric wires to his toes and upper arms."All my body would shake when they connected the electricity," he recalled in an interview. "A second or two. Then off. On and off for an hour or more.

CAIRO, Egypt -- Egyptian officials said yesterday that they had arrested a member of the Kuwaiti ruling family on charges of possessing nearly two pounds of heroin and trafficking in the drug.Under an Egyptian law promulgated two years ago to fight hard drugs, the offenses could be punishable by death.The arrest of the Kuwaiti, Sheik Talal Nasser al-Sabah, a nephew of the emir of Kuwait, and its prominent announcement on the front page of the government-owned newspaper Al Ahram yesterday morning were pointed reminders to wealthy Arabs visiting this country as tourists in large numbers after the Persian Gulf war not to abuse Egypt's hospitality, senior Egyptian officials suggested in interviews yesterday.

LUXOR, Egypt -- The tour boat from Aswan to Luxor carried 13 passengers instead of its usual 200 when Alyce Rideout took a vacation here this month from her harpist job in the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.The absence of many other tourists on the voyage was startling evidence of the success of Muslim fundamentalists who have targeted the high-profile tourism industry in their continuing effort to undermine the government and replace it with an Islamic regime.And the battle is escalating.A few days after Ms. Rideout's excursion, a bloody shootout in the tourist town of Aswan between Muslim militants and police left nine dead and dozens injured.

CAIRO, EGYPT -- A high-profile political challenger to President Hosni Mubarak remained in jail yesterday after losing a bid for a judicial review of a forgery conviction stemming from last year's presidential campaign. The appeals court's rebuff to Ayman Nour came as riot police arrested hundreds of demonstrators who turned out to support two prominent judges facing reprimands for speaking openly about election irregularities. Nour and Judges Mahmoud Mekki and Hisham Bastawissi are widely seen as paying the price for demanding reforms and challenging the 25-year rule of Mubarak and his National Democratic Party.