an unpopular Egyptian

The former Interior Minister has his detention extended. (Which I don’t really get, because I thought he was already sentenced to 12 years in prison on corruption charges, and is now simply awaiting his trial on 800-some counts of capital murder for ordering the use of live ammunition on protestors.)

HERE.

Concerning the corruption charges against Al Adly, there is this:

“It was also found that Adly, his wife Elham Sharshar and his children Sherif, Jihan, Dalia and Rania own 44 palaces and villas, one apartment and several plots of land – the total value of which exceeds LE1 billion.”

I love it that they felt the need to own “one apartment” as the icing on the cake of the 44 palaces and villas.

the rumored new Foreign Minister

Someone I work with. HERE.

He’s a good guy, and they could do a heck of a lot worse. He had the very tricky job of Egyptian Ambassador to the U.S. during the Bush years, including 9/11, and handled it with class.

Egypt’s foreign minister to head Arab League

Their first nomination being highly unpopular, they have turned to Foreign Minister NABIL EL-ARABI to fill the post.

more details from New York

HERE. The woman making the complaint is a 32-year-old African immigrant with a teenaged daughter, and it was a bit more than just an “attempt,” as the story describes. Unless there’s some bizarrely vast conspiracy at work here, this looks like an extremely ugly incident, and it won’t just be an end to a political career for the gentleman. (One also wonders what on earth he was thinking. Did he think the New York police were going to say “no problem, we’ll give you a freebie on this one, Mr. IMF Director.”?)

The other obvious parallel that comes to mind was that Moshe Katsav was convicted of rape while President of Israel, but somehow this case feels a bit more dramatic. Strauss-Kahn is also under arrest in a foreign country, which somehow only heightens the scandal.

French journalist Tristane Banone also says Straus-Kahn TRIED THE SAME THING with her in 2002, as she stated a few years ago.

Bulls 103-Miami 82

Nice news to read in the morning! Big win in Game 1 against the evil Heat.

Not since Jordan has Chicago been such a threat.

This summary is too good to be true. It sounds like it comes from a self-indulgent short story written by a 17-year-old Bulls fan.

“How it happened: Derrick Rose had 28 points and six assists. Luol Deng added 21 points and played solid defense on LeBron James all night, holding the two-time MVP to just 15 points on 5-for-15 shooting. Carlos Boozer had 14 points and Joakim Noah added 14 rebounds. The Bulls probably played their most complete second half of the season. They were dominant on defense, holding the Heat to just 34 points in the second half… The Bulls hit on all cylinders in this one, especially in the second half. Their plan going into the game was to slow down James and Wade and not allow them to get into an offensive rhythm. They executed that to perfection in the second half… The Bulls couldn’t have played much better in the biggest game of their season to date.”