The Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy is announcing a call for paper proposals for its upcoming conference, U.S. Engagement with the Muslim World: One year after Cairo. The deadline for submitting paper proposals is December 10, 2009.

Africa and Middle East Refugee Assistance (AMERA), a UK-registered refugee rights organization assisting refugees who seek asylum in Egypt, is seeking a dynamic team-builder with a background in social or community health work to serve as Psychosocial Team Leader. AMERA requires an intelligent, hard-working person with a commitment to service for vulnerable people, and an interest in finding innovative ways to integrate psychosocial, community and legal aid approached to improving refugees’ access to human rights.

When Amank decided to attempt to cross the Egyptian border into Israel, he wasn't thinking about the likelihood that Egyptian guards would shoot at him. He knew the danger existed, but his main focus was escaping dire economic prospects and rampant discrimination as an off-the-books housecleaner in Cairo.

With cheap labour, investment incentives and unrestricted exports, one Chinese textile group has turned to Egypt as an ideal location to produce its ready-made garments, beating stiff competition at home. The Chinese-owned Nile Textile Group has set up shop in the Port Said free zone, overlooking the north entrance of the Suez Canal, and developed an industrial estate now hiring 600 workers, 20 percent of which are Chinese and the rest Egyptian.

Egypt's ruling National Democratic Party keeps a tight grip on power by ensuring that its political opponents stay weak but recently opposition forces have shown fresh signs of life.

Kareem is a young Egyptian blogger who was only 22 years old when he was sentenced to 4 years in prison by the Egyptian government for criticizing Islam and the President of Egypt on a personal blog. Kareem was threatened and harassed consistently for his writing, and was previously arrested prior to his sentence, all of which were attempts to silence his opinions which he should be free to express.

A one year-old Ethiopian girl named Galila died in Egypt's El Quanater prison after having been incarcerated with her mother for six months, in contravention of Egypt's obligations under Article 31(1) of the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees not to punish refugees.

Rights groups such as Amnesty International have called on the Egyptian authorities to "urgently rein in their border security forces" after seven African asylum-seekers were killed in September trying to cross into Israel on foot, but some Israeli NGOs and soldiers say the death toll at the border is far higher.

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights defenders, a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation against Torture (OMCT), expresses its deepest concerns following the accusations against human rights organisations voiced by Dr. Abdel Aziz Hegazi, Chairperson of the General Federation of Civil Associations, an institution likely to become the prime means for the Executive to regulate NGOs in Egypt.

The Egyptian authorities must control their forces at the border with Israel and prevent them from killing migrants attempting to cross it, Amnesty International has appealed. The call follows the border incident this year, in which four men were shot dead by Egyptian security forces as they attempted to cross the border into Israel. Two others were also injured in the incident.

The Director is a part of a three-person team with the Legal Director and the Administrative Coordinator to ensure that all functions of the Project are met. The Director coordinates the work of a Community Coordinator, two psychosocial workers, 10 legal interns, and 5 translators. The responsibilities are heavy, the environment dynamic, and attentive service requires a commitment to the project. The ideal candidate would be both capable and enthusiastic about the potential for high impact in the formation of a new refugee service-providing organization.

Cairo's airport has been unusually busy the past month as Egypt's security apparatus steps up its campaign against online political activists. Several prominent Egyptian bloggers have "disappeared" from the airport's arrivals hall, while others report suspiciously long delays that they claim were cover for state security officers to search their laptops and luggage.

Egyptian police shot dead an African migrant trying to cross the border into Israel on Friday, security and medical sources said, the latest killing in an upsurge of violence at the sensitive frontier. The man, who was shot in the chest and right leg, was announced dead on arrival at Egypt's Rafah hospital, a medical source said. His nationality was not immediately known.

Egypt receives some of the highest annual solar radiation in the world, yet the desert country remains heavily dependent on fossil fuels. "There is a lot of unachieved potential here," says Amr Mohsen, chairman and CEO of Lotus Solar Technologies, an Egyptian firm specialising in solar applications. "The sun is not only strong, but you have everything you need to produce the cheapest kilowatt hour in the region."

Karim borrowed money to expand his bakery. When the money ran out, and facing the prospect of imprisonment if unable to repay his debts, the 36-year- old Egyptian baker sold his kidney. His case, among hundreds documented by the Coalition for Organ-Failure Solutions (COFS), a Washington-based NGO working to end organ trafficking, reveals an alarming trend: poverty is driving Egyptians to sell their organs.

Wael Abbas, a leading Egyptian blogger and activist who has documented police abuse in the country in recent years, staged a sit-in for 10 hours after security confiscated his computer upon arrival from attending the Talberg Forum in Sweden.

Egypt has asked the African Development Bank (AfDB) for a budgetary support loan to offset the impact of the global economic crisis, a senior bank official said on Friday."We are in discussions over a budget support loan with the Government of Egypt to address the impact of the financial crisis and to support the reforms that are under way," Gabriel Negatu, the AfDB's financial reforms director, said.

The Arab Program for Human Rights Activists follows up with deep concern and complete resentment the security procedures' aftermath that accompanied the visit of U.S. President Barak Obama to Cairo on Thursday 04/06/2009. In this regard, the Program purses the serious breaches of citizens' rights that had been conducted between 4th and 6th of June. In addition to the desistance state that took place in Cairo.

cc Following Barack Obama's historic speech in Cairo last week, Mumia Abu-Jamal of San Francisco's Prison Radio (external site) questions Obama's choice of destination. Underlining that Obama 'benefitted more by who he wasn't than who he was', Abu-Jamal acknowledges the US president's success in 'evok[ing] passion' where past presidents would simply have seemed arrogant. But with Egypt 'as far from a democracy as a mouse is from the moon' and benefitting from extensive US aid, America's trust in democracy looks highly dubious when its main allies across the region remain dictatorial regimes, Abu-Jamal contends.

cc US president Barack Obama might seem more human than his predecessor George W. Bush, cautions Nawal El Saadawi, but in a world ruled by a capitalist patriarchal religious system, politics is 'a game based on how to use beautiful words to cover ugly actions' and has 'nothing to do with humanity'. The real goal of Obama's Cairo speech, says El Saadawi, is 'to mobilise Muslim countries against Islamic extremists', 'to open the markets of Islamic countries to American goods' under the banner of development and partnership, and 'to guarantee Saudi and Gulf oil and other American interests' in the Middle East.