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Tuesday, 22 January 2019

Books, garlic and WhatsApp kept talking heads busy last night

The Cairo International Book Fair, WhatsApp, and garlic were among the topics keeping the talking heads busy last night.

President Abdel Fattah El Sisi will inaugurate today the Cairo International Book Fair, which will run for 13 days, General Authority for Books Haitham El Hag boss told Al Hayah Al Youm’s Lobna Assal (watch, runtime: 07:13). The fair will be open to the public starting Thursday (from 10 am to 8 pm), with entrance fees set at EGP 3.

This year’s edition will be the first in Egypt’s history to meet international standards, Culture Minister Enas Abdel Dayem told El Hekaya’s Amr Adib. The Armed Forces will be providing low-cost transportation from the book fair’s previous home in Nasr City to its new location in New Cairo, Adib noted (watch, runtime: 07:53).

Davos also came up on the airwaves, with Rep. Passant Fahmy saying on Al Hayah Al Youm that it is essential for Egypt to participate in the economic forum to present its recent economic achievements (watch, runtime: 03:04).

Security forces continued yesterday removing illegally-built property in Giza for the fourth day, governorate spokesman Alaa Badran said on Al Hayah Al Youm. Four illegal buildings were torn down yesterday amid protests from residents (watch, runtime: 06:55).

The Higher Education Ministry has ordered that EGP 10 be collected from every student for a fund to honor victims of terrorist attacks and their families, host Khaled Abu Bakr highlighted on Al Hayah Al Youm (watch, runtime: 02:31).

A Cabinet report has denied rumors that the government will be taking out some EGP 35 bn from public funds to build the new capital’s government district (watch, runtime: 01:55).

WhatsApp’s decision to allow its users to forward messages to a maximum of five people to avoid the spread of rumors also earned some airtime on Hona Al Asema (watch, runtime: 10:08) and El Hekaya (watch, runtime: 01:39).

Rejoice, for you may now eat all the domestic garlic you crave (just as long as you brush your teeth afterwards for the sake of everyone around you) because Agriculture Ministry Spokesman Hamed Abdel Dayem has denied rumors that the locally grown stuff contains toxic lead (watch, runtime: 02:31). If we hadn’t banned koshary from our offices, we would order a feed of the smelly stuff to celebrate the news.

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