Abu Ammar (Lukmet Eish) wrote here:

And also Nawara (Tahyyes) wrote here about the incident:

And although, Nawara's post was so brief, a huge debate was started in the commenting section on her blog. Some bloggers, like Tafatefo, were against the post, and he wrote:

I personally don't think the photograph is clear enough, and it is really hard to tell if it is wine or not.

Ahmed Doreiny wrote here how Obama's victory was so obvious.

Also Sara - One Long Road - wrote here welcoming Obama:

I hope he's sincere and honest and true.
Being the first African-American President, he should have a lot of eyes watching him and a lot of pressure which I think he shouldn't give in to.

While Mohaly wrote here:

I am not dreaming that US president will care about us, coz it is all about benefits in politics. But I am really happy that Obama won the presidency because he is a symbol of someone who challenged everyone, came over taboos and granted stuff, and was persistent enough to plan and reach his goals.
I respect the American people who had the guts to know that they were wrong for the last 8 years and it is about time to fix their mistake (67% of states voted for change)!
Obama is a really an international president, born in Hawaii, has african father, had his childhood in Asia, and is an American citizen…. black father, white mother…. Muslim father, secular mother, and Christian child… it is rare to find all these stuff in one person.

And finally “An Egyptian” has a different opinion here:

I wish Obama you drop dead before you become the US president.

In his post, he writes:

He continues:

He then explains how staying is a foreign country is really different from just visiting it for few days or even weeks:

Alaa finally notes:

Zeinobia wrote here about how some people have decided to withdraw their money from foreign banks here in Egypt, and invest this money in buying gold.

She explained:

The ministers and officials are appearing here and there to calm the people down saying that our economy is fine and that we got a great opportunity to attract the Gulf capital money escaping from Wall Street !!Anyhow let the officials say whatever they want ,it seems that the implications of the Bailout and the nationalization of banks across the U.S and the Europe have their impact here in Egypt. I read news and I also heard from relatives and people who work in Egyptian banks that Egyptian clients are withdrawing their money from the foreign banks especially Citibank. The problem that they do not deposit in any other national or Arab bank ,they take the money and buy Gold.
Egyptian people are used to buy Gold whenever there is an economic crisis .It is a custom, gold is more secure through time ,it does not lose its value so rapidly like money.

I think we need financial and economic experts to study such a phenomenon, and its effect on banks, and the country's economy as a whole.

Zeinobia, at Egyptian Chronicles, dedicated a post here to the Egyptian special forces fir their heroic role in the rescue.

I do not know if anyone of them will ever read this but thank you for bringing joy, faith and hope to people who are really missing a lot these days, thank you for standing up as usual as expected when it needed.

Those kidnapped included 11 foreign tourists - five Italians, five Germans and a Romanian - who were snatched in a remote border region of Egypt, which has cave paintings thought to be about 10,000 years old. The region is accessible by desert vehicle from the conflict zones of Darfur and eastern Chad.

Meanwhile, The Arabist links to news sources and announces:

The word is the 19 hostages are now free and healthy.

Writing in The Skeptic, Elijah Zarwan earlier reported:

Sudanese government officials are telling reporters that the Sudanese forces killed six men accused of complicity in the abduction of 11 tourists and eight Egyptian guides after a high-speed chase through the desert. The Sudanese say they captured two people involved, who said that the hostages had been moved to Chad. If all the reports coming out have been true, then the hostages have been moved from Egypt, across the border to Sudan, across the border into Libya, then back into Sudan, and again across the border into Chad.

Egyptian blogger El-Hanem wrote here about today's disaster. She said:

شب حريق في صالة العرض بالمسرح القومي بوسط القاهرة مساء اليوم السبت في وقت يسود فيه الهدوء التام مع استعداد المسلمين لتناول طعام الإفطار بعد غروب الشمس.
وقالت مصدر بالإدارة العامة للدفاع المدني والإطفاء إن النيران بدأت في الاشتعال في نحو الخامسة وخمس وثلاثين دقيقة بتوقيت القاهرة وبدأت بستارة المسرح واستمرت نحو ساعتين ولم تؤد إلى وقوع إصابات باستثناء بعض حالات الاختناق المحدودة.
وأضاف أن أكثر من 30 سيارة إطفاء انتقلت إلى المسرح المشتعل الذي يقع في ميدان العتبة حيث توجد الإدارة الرئيسية للحماية المدنية بالعاصمة.
ورجح أن الحريق نتج عن تماس كهربائي تلاه انفجار بعض أجهزة التكييف داخل قاعة المسرح وهو ما أدى إلى انهيار جزء من ديكورات وواجهات المسرح المطلة على ميدان العتبة.

A fire started in the National Theater's Hall in downtown Cairo at 5pm today. The city was calm then as it's the holy month of Ramadan now and Muslims here were getting ready for breaking their fast.
Sources at the Fire Fighting department said that the fire started at 5.35pm Cairo local time, when the theater's curtains burned and lasted for about two hours. Fortunately, there were no victims there except for some minor injuries due to smoke inhalation. More than 35 trucks moved to the burning theater located in El Attaba square, which is by the way where the Cairo Fire Fighting department headquarters is located.
The fire was most probably due to an electric spark, followed by an explosion in one of the theater's air conditioning systems, which in turn destroyed parts of the theater's decorations.

She writes:

It is no big secret that the number of Egyptians who believe that Egypt should become a secular nation are increasing. Mainly, intellectual bilingual well-educated people have realized that inter-faith strives are holding the country back.

And for sure both Secular and Religious Egyptians along with their debates and struggles have made their presence felt in the blogosphere and on Facebook groups. Rakha explains:

On the other hand, the number of Islamic fundamentalists and Muslim Brothers is increasing. Their jihad methods have evolved from swords, bombs, banners, stickers, and tapes to invade the world wide web.

And for sure there are more weapons both camps can use besides arguments and discussions on the internet battlefield. Rakha explains:

Facebook's liberal activists were the main target of hackers who took over accounts, changed the name of the owner, sent out messages to his or her friends, deleted the account altogether, sabotaged his or her groups, and used obscene pictures and words to totally defame that person.
Groups that were hacked began posting offensive messages about the admins who lost control over the group and the hackers had more access to more people who do not think that Egypt is an Islamic country. Other than hacking, they created fake accounts that mimicked those of known liberal writers and activists.
One of the activists said “my account was hacked which is painful, especially that I had previously lost all my content while joining a network and I had to start all over”
Another activist said “I personally suggest for group owners to have always a backup account as well and both of them admins; I learnt this tip from other group owners. As for not using my own self I don't like the idea. I prefer being me, if there are sick people out there its their problem. Facebook was meant for us to get together decently and to get to know each other normally; if I need to go through all this hassle I'd rather then not use it at all.”

The Arabist wrote here:

Up to 15 people, including 11 foreign tourists, have been abducted in Egypt, according to the Italian foreign ministry and Egyptian security sources.
…
Although it’s easy to jump to conclusions when the Israeli government recently issued a warning that Israeli tourists were being targeted for kidnappings in Sinai, this is very far away from Sinai and may simply be a criminal gang, considering they’re asking for ransom. Of course that does not rule out the possibility that some violent political group (Islamist or otherwise) is trying to fundraise through kidnappings, which would mark the return of organized militant political violence in Upper Egypt. But I personally doubt it, but this kind of criminal activity is bad news for Egypt and a sign that more attention should be paid to the porous border with Sudan.

Donkeys, Elephants & Crocs also wrote about the same incident here:

An Egyptian government official said the kidnapping took place at a remote location near the Sudanese-Egyptian border south of Aswan. He too said that details remained sketchy. “We don't know yet who did this and we don't know the whereabouts of the tourists,” he said.
…
There has been virtually no violence against tourists in the Nile valley and southern Egypt since an uprising by Islamist militants during the mid-1990s was put down by the government of President Hosni Mubarak.
The last major attack on foreign tourists in the Nile Valley took place in 1997 when 58 were killed by militants in the ancient temple city of Luxor, just north of Aswan.There has been virtually no violence against tourists in the Nile valley and southern Egypt since an uprising by Islamist militants during the mid-1990s was put down by the government of President Hosni Mubarak.
The last major attack on foreign tourists in the Nile Valley took place in 1997 when 58 were killed by militants in the ancient temple city of Luxor, just north of Aswan.

And finally, Zeinobia has another opinion here, as she believes this is not the fist time an incident like this happens in the same location.

The group was abducted at the Gilf el Kebir area where the English Patient film was shot.
…
It tuned out that it is the not first time that something like this happens in the same region of Karkur Talha according to the locals who spoke to Al Jazeera , two similar incidents took place last year and they ended by giving ransoms to the abductors !! We did not know about this before why ?? Where is the security ??
…
There is no news about whether the ransom was paid or not.
Till now the identity of the abductors despite the speculations that they can be from the tribes in the region .

Historically and internationally we were the second country after UK to have a railways. Today from 125 years on the 16th of September 1856 Egypt inaugurated the first railway in Africa and in the East.
It was during Khedive Abbas I era.The Railway was from Alexandria to Cairo “209 km”. Khedive Abbas I whom we rarely remember signed  an agreement with Engineer Robert Stephenson to build the railways  for 56,000 Pounds in 1850. In 1851 Stephenson had accepted to be Engineer-in-Chief to the Egyptian Railway between Alexandria and Cairo. In 1855 Stephenson inaugurated the first two moveable bridge in Egypt at Kafr Zayat and Benha.

Zeinobia wrote about the accident here:

Ok forget about Ramadan hit TV Soap Operas and “Hisham and Susan” , this is much more important …
Today Egypt woke up on a catastrophic disaster that could have avoided if there had been a proactive regime that put the safety of its citizens regardless of their social status in its top priority.
According to news coverage over the hour about 17 persons were killed by a rockslide in Doweiqa shanty town at Manshiyat Nasser, east of central Cairo. The rockslide source is the famous Mokattam Hill.
Massive boulders according to the shocking footage Al Jazeera that has just aired few minutes ago destroyed complete buildings.
The official news channel ,Nile news is saying that 17 persons were killed, 40 were transferred to the hospitals and 30 houses were damaged. Al Jazeera is speaking about no less than 500 persons are currently trapped under the wreckage and some of them are alive and called for help through their mobile phones.

El Nadaha also wrote here wondering why does harm keep haunting and hurting poor people:

A certain thought kept aching my heart all day after hearing the very sad and tragic news about the Natural Disaster that happened in Cairo…Why does harm keep haunting hurt people? Why the poor become poorer, more ill, loose loved ones and keep struggling all the time?
While, the Big old Bad wolves that are eating our country are becoming chubbier, hungrier and more cruel?
I'm not opposing destiny as I know that this is “Qadaa Allah Wa Qadaroh” (God's will)
I'm just so sad that the small neighborhood where very very needy and poor people chose to build small huts made of shattered bricks and tin ceilings had to suffer a Rock slide from the near by Hill…I'm Imaging them fasting…sleeping or what ever when those Rocks smashed their little poor houses over their heads…Lots of deaths and Injuries…more misery have landed over Aldwe2a…the already miserable neighborhood!

Also Mohamed El Gohary left the following comment on El Nadaha's post:

This is majorly man-made actually. People there for years were complaining about water leaking, since this area is mainly limestone, and limestone changes drastically when reaction with water as you may know. There are many decisions issued for like 5 years ago to treat this situation and nothing was done.

And finally Abdul Rahman wrote about the accident in his blog [Ar], calling it: “The rock that committed suicide.”

Kuwaitism [Ar] paints the picture here:

حبيت آخذ هالفرصة لشكر بعض ممثلينا العرب –
سامويل فرانسيس (قطر)
جايمس كواليا كوكوروي (قطر)
فيلكس كيكواي كيبوري (قطر)
سلطان زمان (قطر) الإسم الأصلي أونيسفور نكونزيمانا (بوروندي)
جمال سالم (قطر) الإسم الأصلي توماس كاتيو (كينيا)
دهام بشير (قطر) الإسم الأصلي دايفيد إينياغا (كينيا)
عيسى راشد (قطر) الإسم الأصلي دانييل كيبكوسكي (كينيا)
جابر سالم (قطر) الإسم الأصلي ياني مارشوكوف (بلغاريا) – حول جنسيته بـ1,000,000 دولار عام 2000.
مبارك شامي (قطر) الإسم الأصلي ريتشارد ياتيتش (كينيا)
أحمد حسن عبدالله (قطر) الإسم الأصلي ألبرت تشيبكوروي (كينيا)
بلال منصور علي (بحرين) الإسم الأصلي جون ييكو (كينيا)
مريم يوسف جمال (بحرين) الإسم الأصلي زينيبيش تولا (أثيوبيا)
نادية الجافني (بحرين) الأصل مغربية
يوسف سعد كامل (بحرين) الأصل غريغوري كونشيلا (كينيا)
آدم اسماعيل خميس (بحرين) الأصل هوسيا كوسغي (كينيا)
حسن محبوب (بحرين) الأصل سايلاس كيروي (كينيا)
رشيد رمزي (بحرين) الأصل مغربي
ناصر سعيد (بحرين) الأصل ستيفان لورو كامار (كينيا)
طارق مبارك طاهر (بحرين) الأصل دينيس كيبكوروي سانغ (كينيا)
محمد عبدالله زكريا (بحرين) الأصل مغربي
قطر و البحرين مثلهما 11 كيني 3 مغربيين 1 بوروندي 1 أثيوبي 1 بلغاري 3 غير معروف من أفريقيا

I wanted to take this chance to thank our Arab representatives in the games:
Samuel A. Francis (Qatar) [Nigeria]
James Kwalia C'Kurui (Qatar) [Kenya]
Felix Kikwai Kibore (Qatar) [Kenya]
Sultan Zaman (Qatar) - born Onesphore Nkunzimana (Burundi)
Gamal Salem (Qatar) - born Thomas Katui (Kenya)
Daham Bashir (Qatar) - born David Nyaga (Kenya)
Essa Ismail Rashed (Qatar) - born Daniel Kipkosgei (Kenya)
Jaber Saeed Salem (Qatar) - born Yani Marchokov (Bulgaria) he changed his nationality for 1,000,000 Dollars in 2000.
Mubarak Hassan Shami (Qatar) - born Richard Yatich (Kenya)
Ahmad Hassan Abdullah (Qatar) - born Albert Chepkurui (Kenya)
Bilal Mansour Ali (Bahrain) - born John Biko (Kenya)
Jamal Maryam Yusuf (Bahrain) - born Zenebech Tola (Ethiopia)
Nadia Ejjafini (Bahrain/Morocco)
Yusuf Saad Kamel (Bahrain) - born Gregory Konchellah (Kenya)
Aadam Ismaeel Khamis (Bahrain) - born Hosea Kosgei (Kenya)
Hasan Mahboob (Bahrain) - born Silas Kirui (Kenya)
Rashid Ramzi (Bahrain/Morocco)
Nasar Sakar Saeed (Bahrain) - born Stephen Loruo Kamar (Kenya)
Tareq Mubarak Taher (Bahrain) - born Denis Kipkurui Keter (Kenya)
Mohammad Abdullah Zakaria (Bahrain/Morocco)
In brief, Qatar and Bahrain were represented by 11 Kenyans, 3 Moroccans, 1 from Burundi, 1 Ethiopian, 1 Bulgarian and 3 others.

Zeinobia describes how some people felt here:

They are happy seriously happy in a way you can’t imagine , of course today the fire of the Shura Council is still the talk of the town , most P190808_19.46[01]of the Egyptians did not see the grand fire of Cairo 1952 , so to see this one like this live on TV screen till the hours of the morning was something new. The people are feeling that they are suppressed and can’t take it any longer . They are so angry and pissed off this government and regime
The people who were gathering in the street were watching the scene in joy ,I felt , they did not put in consideration the historical value of the building , I do not know if this is because of cultural ignorance or 7areeq6 the hate of every thing that represents the regime , I think it is more the second option

Even on Facebook, a new group was created under the name: “Anybody else is happy for what happened to the Parliament!”.

El Motamangeh on the other hand writes here about the government's failure to put out the fire:

سؤال يطرح نفسه : الدولة التي فشلت في تأمين برلمانها ضد الحرائق ثم فشلت في اخماد حريق بسيط في مبني من 3 أدوار، كيف ستنجح في تأمين حدودها الشرقية؟

A very important question: A government that failed to protect its own Parliament building and then failed to put off the fire in the three-storey building - so how can it protect its eastern borders?

Some other bloggers voiced conspiracy theories as to what caused the disaster. Politikia, for example, writes here about the rumours which surfaced in the aftermath of the fire:

Rumors say that the fire can be an intentional one, to burn documents related to some recent important incidents (related to corruption) Like Mamdouh Ismail Salam 98 case for example.

Other bloggers are really saddened as the Shura Council building possessed an historic value. Nawara writes here about how sad she is for what happened:

زعلانة قوي
ليه كده؟ للدرجة دي؟ عايز ياخد ورق ياخده باي طريقة، ده تاريخنا، دي بلدنا
مبنى الشورى بينهار، ده مش زي احتراق الاوبرا، ده مجلسي الشعب والشورى، دي فلوسنا

I am really sad.
If they really want to destroy those documents, they sure have other options. It's our history, and our country. The Shura Building is falling down, it's not like what happened to the Opera House (more than 50 years ago). it's our parliament and our own money.

And finally, this incident didn't stop Egyptian Leftist from showcasing his sense of humor. He mocks a popular telecommunication's giant advertisement here . The banner says “Seeing a Cigarette Butt”, as cigarette butts are always the usual suspects when it comes to intended fires meant to destroy some documents

The image above is been circulated for a while via email. It's one of those campaigns targeting women in order to cover their body and get veiled. But many bloggers in Egypt found it offensive and pathetic.

The Egyptian SandMonkey wrote a post about it entitled boys are flies, girls are lollipops.

The text reads: “You won't be able to stop them (i.e. guys), but you can protect yourself. He who created you knows what's best for you!”

Oh, where do I begin? Should I start with the “Men are flies” example, the MEN who made this employed, describing themselves? Or with the complete disregard to personal responsibility of men when it comes to sexually harassing females theme of the ad? Or Is it with the paternal tone that god, who created you naked, really really wants you covered for your protection from his other perfect creation? Or should I not even bother, given that there is a joke there about lollipops and licking that I am simply not man enough to make on this blog?

Yeah. maybe I just won't bother. I am tired of fighting with Hijabis. If they don't find this offensive, then maybe they do deserve whatever comes their way. What's the point of yelling at men that women are not pieces of meat to be coverd, when the Hijabis hold that same exact view of themselves? I mean, sure I am offended by the idea that they are portraying men as uncontrollable animals, but if the women who wear the Hijab and are in the majority are ok with it, why should we even care if they get sexually harassed or assaulted by those same men?

There used to be a point in fighting over this. I am just not sure those women are worth fighting for anymore!

The Arabist published the picture in one of his blog posts, and asked:

Two obvious (and rhetorical) questions: Can we really not stop harassment? And does veiling really “protect” you?

Forsoothsayer also published the picture here in her “Unnecessary, and not very diverting, musings“, and left it for her readers to comment on it.

Deeeeeee's reaction there was just three letters, “WTF?!!”

While Tarek commented: “Oh shit, we are not filthy flies for God's sake.”

And finally Noha commented on The Arabist's Post saying: “I’m veiled, and I can’t stop them nor can I protect myself.”