Happy New Year 2013

 

Psychology: Getting Over Loss

Anyone who has lost a loved one is familiar with the overwhelming sense of sorrow we feel in reaction to trying to accept that they are gone. Sometimes grief is anticipatory such as in a situation where we are aware of a terminal illness or anticipating an impending death so mourning actually begins before the person has passed. However most of the time, when death knocks, we are not prepared for this incredibly powerful and painful psychological experience that can temporarily devastate our entire existence.

After a significant loss, we go through all kinds of emotions; some never sensed or experienced before. At times it is difficult to even define or express what it is we’re feeling since there are so many new sensations encountered. The worst part is that every so often these sentiments are so strong that we might feel as if they will never pass.
Shock, anger, sadness, guilt, resentment, fear, confusion are some of the preliminary waves of emotions that carry us away into a dark and lonely sea. Coming to terms with these emotions is a personal encounter that varies from person to person, depending on the loss experienced. These differences are influenced by your personality, tolerance to pain, coping style, attachment style, attitude towards death and the after life, culture, previous experience with loss, and support system.
Unfortunately some people do not acknowledge these differences and incorrectly believe that there are some set rules associated with the bereavement (mourning) process.
Among these myths include:
• The grieving process should last for about a year – There is no specific time frame associated with trying to recover from the loss of a loved one.
• You will feel better if you ignore it or distract yourself with other activities – Keeping busy and engaged in your daily rituals is important however in order to heal in a healthy and permanent manner, we shouldn’t try and repress those difficult and painful emotions. They need to be confronted and dealt with.
• Crying is an important and necessary part of this process – Yes, it is however not everyone cries and more importantly not everyone is comfortable crying in the presence of others, while others can cry us a river quite uninhibitedly so try and not use this as a yard stick for how difficult or easy the grieving process is for someone.
• You should grieve alone – Social support is one of the best ways to heal so although some periods of seclusion is craved, spending time with others can be very comforting and helpful.
• Younger people get over bereavement quicker - Age is not an indicator of the way in which a person might grieve.
• Grieving is only psychological – Unfortunately this is untrue and the mind and body are connected in every way. Eating and sleep patterns need to be closely monitored so that the system doesn’t get into a vicious cycle of both poor emotional and physical health.
In order to shed more light on this emotional rollercoaster, psychologists such as Elisabeth Kübler-Ross talk about what is known as the “five stages of grief.”
These are:
Denial: “This can’t be happening to me.”
Anger: “Why is this happening? Who is to blame?”
Bargaining: “Make this not happen, and in return I will ____.”
Depression: “I’m too sad to do anything.”
Acceptance: “I’m at peace with what happened.”
These stages are complex and multifaceted. Some may remain in one stage longer than another or even regress to earlier stages as time moves on, before reaching acceptance.
Perhaps the most destructive emotion and important part of this discussion is dealing with unresolved guilt. Of course prevention is much better than cure in this regard and therefore we should be both appreciative and mindful of our loved ones when they are alive and present so that we don’t have any regrets when they are gone.

Qatar Airways, Gulf Air awarded Saudi aviation licences

RIYADH- Saudi Arabia's General Authority for Civil Aviation has awarded carrier licenses to Gulf Air and Qatar Airways, the Saudi state news agency reported on Friday, the first foreign airlines to win such a license in the kingdom.
The license, which 14 companies had applied for, is to operate both local and international flights, GACA has previously said.
Until now only the national carrier Saudi Airlines and budget airline National Air Services NAS.L have serviced a domestic market of around 27 million people.
With Saudi Arabia's price cap on domestic flights, private airlines have struggled with their profit margins.
Saudi Airlines, which is undergoing a slow privatization process, receives fuel at subsidized prices unlike private carriers, allowing it to offset the limits of the ticket cost ceiling.

The problem with perfectionism

Perfectionists constantly chase for ‘how things should be’ rather than accepting ‘how things are’. At the same time, ‘how things should be,’ keep changing.

Perfectionism is a set of beliefs about yourself and about your relationships with others that should be transformed and healed.

The origins of perfectionism are complex but it does seem to be linked to early experiences, parental styles of discipline and care providers who were never satisfied, or critical and demanding.
If it is just a perfectionist streak that you want to control, try the following steps:
• Identify the situations which you seek perfection the most
• Set reasonable expectations
• Acknowledge and celebrate your achievements
• Look at the whole picture
• Learn to set the standard yourself
• Embrace the value of mistakes
• Learn to move on from past events
• Enjoy the process and not just the outcome
• Be less critical of others
• Don’t compare yourself just to those more successful
• Focus on progress and not perfection
• Make sure you have a healthy work life balance
• Understand that you are not able to control everything
• Stop being so harsh on yourself
• Failure does not equate to lack of personal value

The burden of being a perfectionist goes above and beyond mere irritation. It is recognised as one of the contributing factors to other serious mental health issues and should be treated quite seriously.

We are all capable of good and bad work but we should not feel defeated or deflated every time we’re not able to do our ‘best.’ Bouncing back after facing a particular adversity and embracing resilience should be sought after instead.

Things a mother will never stop saying

By: May Rostom
Attention: Avoid ego and self-centered attitude
We always have this attitude responding to our mothers questions, below are some USUAL answers to the most usual mother's request that we should avoid
Happy Mother's Day!!
As I closely observed my mum and several others, I figured that they all have those template sentences that fit into any part of the day just so they can listen to themselves speak rather than actually wanting to hear an answer. Amongst these things were:
1. What do you want for lunch today? ( at 8:00 A.M , I'm not really interested in 'bamia' so my usual answer would be 'anything's fine' which leaves her more confused , me relived and the question un-answered.)
2. Have you cleaned your room yet? (Are you serious? have I ever cleaned my room?)
3. Do you have anything white to wash? (Ironically, you usually don’t when she asks this question)
4. Do I have to do everything around the house? (I can't believe you forgot all about the cup of water I brought you 1 minute ago! see, not everything)
5. If you're not in the room, turn off the lights (what is this jail? I'm going right back in there!)
6. I used to be thinner than you (I guess we'll never know because I wasn’t there to see it and the pictures you had mysteriously got lost at grandmas house)
7. I used to be cool one day and an A student (bring out the grade cards missy!)
8. Back in the day we used to be 100% more stylish than you are now, what's this outfit you're wearing? (Seriously? with those flare pants I recommend you hide)
9. Don’t get me any gifts, I don’t need anything (who said gifts were stuff you needed, mum gifts are things you know you won't buy for yourself like perfume or roses)
10. Have we seen this movie (mmm YUP like twice!)……………….45 minutes later, OHHH I know this movie, I've seen it twice (no comment!)
11. Put the food back in the fridge when you're done (when I'M DONE? I didn’t have dinner!)
12. Clothes are made to be put in closets not on your bed (who came up with this rule? I can pull out any outfit off the bed!)
13. Who are you going out with and where are you going (if I say my friends names would you even know who they are and if I say Starbucks would you know it's for coffee?)
14. Did you remember to feed your helpless pet (what are you, his lawyer?)
15. She's your sister too you know (yeah, you taught me that when I was 2)
16. Stay for a while, we never get to see you (you see me all day, isn’t that enough)
17. Don’t be late; I get worried (you worry too much, nothings going to happen)
18. You always go out, stay at home today you need some rest (trying to trick me to stay a while again, huh?!)
19. Who are you going out with and where are you going? (I just told you that see there's no point in asking in the first place)
20. Who is calling me on my mobile? (you just said it , its YOUR mobile……After 10 minutes of long staring at the screen, she picks up and asks who the caller is, regardless what the caller ID just wrote across the screen.)
Although these tiny sentences tick us off but this is what makes them mothers and this is how we remember them. If you have any more 'templates' you want to share, comment below.

Fear can be pervasive

When setting out to describe the fears that children sometimes suffer, we should first point out that there is nothing unusual about these emotions - indeed they are inevitable.

At birth, babies are suddenly catapulted from their soft, aquatic, enclosed surroundings into a hostile environment that is dazzlingly bright, filled with unrestrained noise, and starkly different to the one the child know in the mother's womb.

A necessary impulse
In fact, fear is very important to a human being's development. At between six and eight months, we fear everything that is unfamiliar or strange. When babies see an unknown face, they turn away, seeking refuge in their mother's lap. This stage is good because it shows that the child is discriminating and is capable of distinguishing and classifying things. Parents will then have no need to worry when their offspring later has to respond to real dangers like passing cars, animals or a stranger offering them sweets in the street, which is crucial for the child's self-protection. However, it is important to check that such reactions are expressed in reasonable proportions and not all the time.

The fear of abandonment
At the base of all fears is the worry of separation, and therefore the fear of being abandoned and finding oneself lost and alone in the world. When children sense aggressive or destructive behaviour towards the one they love, they fear the result. This fear is then transformed and externalised, for example towards school, ghosts or the dark. This is a shifting of the deepest anxieties connected to the fear of abandonment and the loss of love from someone close. It is very common for children to dread starting school, as this often represents the first separation from their parents. Those who have a very intertwined relationship with their parents feel the greatest anxiety over this.

Overcome it through play
Cures for children's phobias come in different forms, depending on the school of thought on which they are based. It is important to focus on the psychoanalytical approach, which aims to deal with all of the child's perceptions, those frightening fantasies that occupy and take over their psyche. Psychoanalytical work aims to free the child of these fears through play, drawing and talking. It is a question of trying to create another relationship with the outside world, one that brings relief and improvement, as often these children will lack confidence in themselves if the whole world causes them fear. Psychoanalysts therefore use playful activities like drawing to enter the young subject's fantasy world, in order to release them from whatever is bothering them.

By Yannick Chavanne

Morsy will call for parliamentary elections in June, says newspaper

President Mohamed Morsy may call for the upcoming parliamentary elections to be held in June rather than January, sources close to the presidential office told state-owned Al-Gomhurriya.
This move may however contravene the new Constitution, which specifies that elections of the lower chamber, House of Representatives, should be conducted within two months of the Constitution being passed.
Major political powers have started forming electoral alliances in preparation for the elections.
Hazem Salah Abu Ismail, the Salafi political figure and former presidential candidate, is set to declare on Saturday the formation of the largest Islamist alliance that will run for 100 parliamentary seats.
It will include other Salfi and Islamist-leaning parties such as Fadeela, Al-Shaab, Salafi Front, Jamaa al-Islamiyah, Jihad, Ansar (yet to be registered) and Construction and Development.
Members who quit the Salafi-oriented Nour Party will join the alliance.
Meanwhile, the National Salvation Front and the forces affiliated to it have yet to declare an electoral coalition.

How to regulate your child’s sleep pattern

Sleeping problems appear in 10% of babies including difficulties in falling asleep, insomnia and sleep disorders during the night.
In the first four weeks after birth do not be surprised if your baby sleeps around 15 to 16 hours per day at two to four hour intervals. Babies at this age do not have a sleep rhythm.
Your child’s sleep/wake rhythm begins at the age of 4 months. This means that during the first three months of its life the baby cannot balance long periods of waking with deep sleep.
Usually the baby cannot stay awake continuously for more than two hours during the first two months after birth. Monica Neihouse from the Association of Child and Adolescent Physicians in Weimar, Germany says that keeping your baby awake for a long time will not help him or her sleep for longer, but results in the baby becoming exhausted and actually developing difficulties in sleeping.
Sleep and wake rhythms develop at the age of one year. Neihouse recommends parents to consult a pediatrician if they notice any sleep disorder in their baby or if the baby is snoring while sleeping.

I wish my child were more like me!

You love sports, but your child loves reading. You’re outgoing, but your child is shy. You’re a doctor, but your child wants to be an artist. How do you raise a child who is very different from you?
Many parents want to see themselves reflected in their children, either through physical or behavioral traits, explains Abier Barbary, psychology instructor and counselor at the American University in Cairo. Many parents also find it challenging to raise a child who has a very different personality. If you’re trying to understand how your child could be so different from you, according to Barbary, many experts believe we are simply born with certain personality traits, in the same way we are born with certain physical ones. “From a scientific research point of view, there’s a lot of proof that most of the behavioral characteristics that we think of as being environmentally affected do have a huge genetic basis as well,” she explains.
Why you shouldn’t try to make your child a mirror of you?

It may be tempting for a parent to push a child with a very different personality to do things the parent's way, but that’s not the answer. Barbary explains that it is essential to accept children for who they are because if you don’t, they may suffer. For example, if you push an artistic child to be excellent at science because that’s your field, your child can learn to be competent at science, but he will never really excel, because he is not being himself and nurturing his own talents. As a result, his self-esteem may drop. “When you’re constantly trying to do something that’s imposed on you, instead of something that comes naturally from within, you always have that questioning doubt about anything that you do,” she adds.
According to Barbary, much of our confidence stems from our sense of “self-efficacy,” which is how much we believe we can function and be efficient at anything we attempt. Children who are constantly pushed to act in a way that doesn’t come naturally may have a low sense of self-efficacy and will not feel motivated to try anything new, because they doubt that they can succeed. “Children with a high sense of self-efficacy will probably be more highly motivated, because they have a positive expectation of the outcome,” explains Barbary.
WHAT TO DO
You want your child to have high self-esteem, and you want to have a good relationship with him, but you don’t really understand him. He is very different from you, and you are concerned about those differences. How do you handle this situation?
Take a good look at your concern

Genuinely ask yourself: “Why is the difference bothering me?” recommends Barbary. Are you anxious because you simply want your child to be more like you, or because your child would have a higher quality of life if he was more athletic or sociable, for example? To get a more objective perspective, find out whether other people who know your child have the same concern. Barbary suggests that getting the teacher’s perspective is also helpful because the teacher sees your child in a different environment than you do.
Get your child’s point of view

If you feel your concern is genuinely linked to your child’s quality of life, get your child’s point of view on the issue. “It’s really important for the parents to be able to sit down and talk to their children and get honest answers, not the answers they expect to hear. And many times kids are very much in tune to that. If they recognize that the parent might get angry at something, they probably won’t say it. If the child feels that the environment is open enough that he can talk, he probably will be honest and talk,” explains Barbary.
Let’s say that your child dislikes sports, but you feel he or she would be healthier with more exercise. By asking your child how he feels and really listening to the answers, you may find a solution. Barbary explains, “If children are given the chance to explore, they will find their own favorite. With something like sports, it’s important to recognize what it is about sports that the child is rejecting. Is it team sports, or is it the fact that they have to be coached?”
When you help your child pinpoint exactly what he or she dislikes about sports, you can usually get around it and find something the child will enjoy. “Whether it’s a game of hide and seek, or whether it’s something like swimming, it’s important to find something the child likes, and in the rare case where children are put off by [athletics] for some reason… they may lean towards another activity, maybe crafts or writing or coloring, in which case it’s important to nurture that as well. Whatever a child has an affinity for and goes towards it’s important for them to get support and to get it nourished,” advises Barbary.
Appreciate your child and express it

Do not point out the things you dislike about your children; rather look for their wonderful qualities and talents. Encourage those qualities, and praise your children as often as possible for them.
Barbary advises, “[Remember] that your children aren’t really yours… meaning they’re not for you to keep forever and ever. Children are given as a gift from God so that you do the best you can in making this human being into a better human being. That’s the parents’ job. It’s not really their job to make this person perfect. It’s important to nurture what you have. You’re given so many different things in a child: they can have their strengths and they can also have their weaknesses. They may be good at one thing and bad at another, like [all] human beings.”
Open your mind and embrace what your child loves

Sometimes accepting your child means that you need to open your mind to things that you haven’t accepted or been exposed to before. Use this as a chance to learn something new. For instance, if you are a doctor whose child is interested in art and design, rather than dismiss art because you don’t understand it, make the effort to explore the art world with your child. Go to art exhibitions with your child and learn about art together.
“It’s important at any age when you recognize that you’re child’s personality is a clash with yours, that you open your mind to whatever it is that your child embraces,” advises Barbary. By doing so, you are much more likely to have a happy relationship with your child. “It really does wonders when children grow up in a family where parents are open-minded and willing to explore things with their kids as opposed to one where parents limit themselves,” she adds. “My final advice would be for parents to act out of an embracing attitude… Embrace the differences that your children bring into your home… Include them in your family dynamic,” concludes Barbary.

Demo in front of the parliament before Morsy’s arrival

Dozens protested in front of the headquarters of the House of Representatives, on Saturday, before the arrival of President Mohamed Morsy to deliver a speech before members of the Shura Council.
Demonstrators included members of Shayfenkom (We Are Watching you), a citizen group monitoring violations in elections, as well as a number of workers of suspended satellite channel Faraeen.
Protestors chanted, “Down with the rule of the Supreme Guide [of the Muslim Brotherhood].”
Security in the area surrounding the Parliament was intensified, and additional iron barriers and barbed wire erected.
Morsy issued a decree on Thursday to call the Shura Council to convene on Saturday, where the president will give a speech to the body that in accordance with the new Constitution has legislative powers until parliamentary elections, after which it will pass to the House of Representatives.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm

It’s Potty Training Time!

Potty training is usually a procedure that most mothers dread, but find out how you can make it easier for both you and your child.
Most children are ready to start real potty training between 18 and 24 months. More important than age is physical and mental readiness. Evaluate your child’s ability to control his bladder by checking his diapers. If he stays dry for at least two hours at a time, his bladder is maturing.
Preparing your child:
Before you start potty training, mentally prepare your child. During changing time, point out key terms: diaper, underpants, wet, dry, clean, dirty. Also, while he’s still in diapers, if he shows signs of urinating or having a bowel movement, point out what he is doing. Always use the same words to refer to urination and bowel movements.
Potty chairs are better for early training than seats that fit onto the adult toilet, because they seem less scary to a toddler. When you bring the potty home, encourage your toddler to sit on it, but don’t insist. If he prefers to sit while fully clothed, let him. Let him sit on the potty whenever he seems interested. If he refuses, don’t pressure him.
Getting started:
Once you decide to start potty training, remove your child’s diaper during the day. You should never put him in a diaper during the day again, even for special occasions, as this will confuse him. For this reason, it’s best to start training when you have no stressful engagements like traveling or a lot of outings planned. When you are at home with your child, make the potty available and encourage him to use it often. When your toddler starts to request the potty, make sure there is always a potty available, even when you go out. Once you start training, never ignore your child’s request to use the potty.
Dress your child in easy to remove garments. Many mothers prefer to start potty training in warm weather, because light clothes are easier to take off in a hurry. Some mothers like to let their toddlers go without underpants in early training to increase chances of success.
Start by sitting your child on the potty for a few minutes with his favorite toy or sit next to him and read a book. If he urinates or has a bowel movement in the potty, show him your approval and he will learn that he is expected to urinate there. If he has a bowel movement at the same time each day, encourage him to sit on the potty at that time.
If your child doesn’t urinate or have a bowel movement right away, you can encourage him to sit on the potty for a while longer. Don’t make him sit for too long or put pressure on him, though, because he will get tired and hate the procedure. After he has urinated or had a bowel movement in the potty two or three times, he will realize that he sits on the potty for a reason and will start asking to sit on it when he needs to.
WHEN ACCIDENTS HAPPEN :
In the beginning, a few accidents may occur every day. Don’t scold or punish your child. Accept accidents as natural, and tell him that next time he should try to make it to the potty. In your first few outings during training, ask your child every 15 to 30 minutes if he needs the potty and always carry a set of clean clothes. Even when he gets older, accompany your child to an unfamiliar bathroom. Some children will wet their pants rather than use a strange toilet.
DRY NIGHTS:
Controlling the bladder at night is usually the last stage of potty training, so your child will probably continue to wear diapers at night even after he has stopped wearing them during the day. When he starts to wake up with dry diapers, you can take the diapers off at night. At this point, it will help to put your child on the potty right before he goes to sleep.
Be patient, because potty training isn’t something that you start and finish within a few weeks. For a few years to come, there will be many times when you will have to ask your child if he needs to go to the bathroom when he is excited or distracted by other things: birthday parties, traveling, going to the club, illnesses and other situations. Potty training has its setbacks, but eventually every child uses the toilet, and one day soon your toddler will too!

Abu Ismail: violent confrontation necessary

Salafi preacher and former presidential candidate Hazem Salah Abu Ismail said that the current political landscape will only be resolved by a powerful confrontation between Islamists on one side, and the opposition, including secular and liberal forces, on the other.
Abu Ismail warned that this confrontation may be “devastating.”
In an interview with Assyasy magazine on Thursday that Egypt is undergoing a stage of sectarian struggle, deliberately stoked by the opposition forces.
He said that the opposition stirring sedition in the Egyptian street in order to cause division will “lead to the destruction of the entire country.”
Abu Ismail said that in spite of his fear, these confrontations are a necessity.
Egypt is on the verge of violent conflict between Islamists and the opposition, which includes not only revolutionaries, but the remnants of the past regime and those hired to seek to destroy Egypt, he said.
Abu Ismail went on to describe the “controversial alliance,” as having “a disease that prompts them to make Egypt live in a state of chaos.” Their only goal and vision, he declared, is creating chaos.
“But we will defend the country with all our power, and if they try to incite violence, it is they who will lose,” he said.
President Mohamed Morsy did not met with a number of political figures, Abu Ismail said, but not him, “Morsy meets with those who stand against him, in order [for him] to solve national problems, and this does not apply to me.”
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm

Indian Chicken Recipe : Dum Kokur

Ingredients:
1 chicken-cut into 8 pieces
5-6 tbsp oil
4-5 cloves
1 tej patta
1 chicken-cut into 8 pieces
5-6 tbsp oil
4-5 cloves
1 tej patta
1" dalchini
1 medium onion- sliced thinly
1" piece ginger - grated For the Marinade :
3-4 tbsp curd
1 tbsp red chilli powder
1 tsp salt, or to taste,
1/2 tsp haldi
1 1/2 tbsp garlic paste,
1 tbsp ginger paste Grind Together
1/2 tsp jeera
2 moti ellaichi
2 chhoti ellaichi
Directions:
1.Mix together all the ingredients of the marinade - curd, saunf, sonth, salt, red chilli, haldi, ginger and garlic paste,
2. Add chicken. Let it marinate for 2 -3 hours. Heat oil. Add laung, Dalchini and tej patta. Fry for 1-2 minutes Add sliced onion and grated ginger. Fry till golden brown Add chicken along with the marinade. Mix well Add powdered jeera and cardmoms. Fry for 2-3 minutes. Cover and cook on low heat for about 1/2 hour or till chicken turns tender. Serve hot with rice.

Sabbahi: I accept referendum result, but Constitution illegitimate

Head of the Popular Current Hamdeen Sabbahi has said that he acknowledges the result of the constitutional referendum “because it is the opinion of the Egyptian people.”
Sabbahi is concerned, however, that there was vote rigging and a number of other violations during both stages of the referendum.
The Constitution has “lost its legitimacy,” Sabbahi said, “because it divided the Egyptian people into two teams, after they had bee gathered together by the revolution in one body and with a common goal.”
In an interview with Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Siyasa, published Saturday, Sabbahi declined any further dialogue with President Mohamed Morsy.
“We responded to his calls before, and attended his meetings, but although he knows what we want, the situation has not changed.”
But Sabbahi is not against serious dialogue, he said, which would have an agenda, combine all the national forces so as to not make a decision to serve one faction over another, and recognize the need for a general consensus between all forces.
These conditions, according to Sabbahi, would help bring Egypt out of the current stage of polarization and violence.
Having been accused to treason and seeking to undermine the president, Sabbahi stressed that Morsy is “the legitimate president of the country, and everyone wants him to be the president for all the Egyptian people all people, not one part of it.”
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm

Bourbon Chicken

Ingredients:
1-2 Tablespoon olive oil
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 lbs. boneless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
1/4 cup apple juice
1/3 cup light brown sugar
2 Tablespoons ketchup
1 Tablespoon cider vinegar
1/4 teaspoon ginger
3/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup soy sauce
Directions:
1. Heat oil in a large skillet.
2. Add chicken pieces and cook until lightly browned. Remove chicken.
3. Add remaining ingredients, heating over medium heat until well mixed and dissolved.
4. Add chicken and bring to a hard boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.

Egypt foreign minister to meet with Abbas

Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr and Arab League Secretary General Nabil al-Araby left Cairo on Saturday morning to the Jordanian capital of Amman, on their way to the West Bank city of Ramallah, to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
The meeting will discuss the possibility of arranging a visit of Arab foreign ministers to Ramallah, to be scheduled in the upcoming period.
During the visit, a range of issues will be discussed, including Arab League efforts to urge Arab countries to implement their resolution at the Baghdad summit of establishing an Arab financial safety net to cover the financial needs of the Palestinian Authority.
The delegation will also congratulate President Abbas for Palestine obtaining observer state status at the United Nations.
Edited translation from MENA

Grilled Porcini Mushroom Burger Melts

Ingredients:
1 ounce dried porcini mushrooms
2 pounds extra lean ground beef
1/4 cup snipped fresh basil
12 slices rye bread
6 slices mozzarella cheese
onions for topping (optional)
1 teaspoon snipped fresh thyme
1-1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 to 2 Tablespoons purchased garlic-flavored olive oil

Directions:
Place mushrooms in a small bowl; cover with boiling water. Let soak for 10 minutes. Drain, rinse well, and chop. Set aside.
Combine chopped porcini mushrooms, ground beef, basil, thyme, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. Mix well. Shape into 6 patties about 3/4-inch thick. Brush patties with garlic oil.
Place burger patties on the lightly oiled rack of an uncovered grill directly over medium heat.
Grill for 14 to 18 minutes or until an instant-read thermometer inserted in centers registers 160 degrees F, turning burgers once halfway through grilling. Top burgers with cheese during the last two minutes of grilling.
Remove burgers from grill, cover to keep warm.
Place rye bread slices on the grill rack; grill for 1 minute or until toasted.
Place each burger between two slices of toasted rye bread.

Power cut in seven governorates

Electricity was cut in Cairo and several governorates on Friday due to shortages of gas provided to the power stations. The Petroleum Ministry announced that irregular gas supply will be dealt with by using heating oil, which can meet fuel demands for one week.

Power stations in 6th October, Cairo and Ismailia were disrupted due to gas pressure decline. Meanwhile, electricity was cut for almost four hours at more than 70 villages in Gharbiya governorate. Several store owners submitted collective complaints to the governorates administration.
Protesters in Alexandria threatened to block roads protesting against power outage in a number of districts, while in Kafr al-Sheikh, citizens refused to pay electricity bills.
There have been frequent power outages as well as water cuts in several areas in Luxor over the past two days.

Petroleum Minister Osama Kamal said heating oil has been provided to meet the fuel demands of the power stations.
However, an informed source at the electricity ministry said this will lead to a 20 percent decrease in the efficiency of the power plants, and reiterated the need to provide gas.

In Helwan, south of Cairo, cement workers threatened to shut down the motorway, if the government did not retreat from its decision to increase electricity and fuel prices, saying this would raise the price of cement by two-thirds.

Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm

Steak with Black Pepper Sauce

By: Lara Ariss
A nice steak with black pepper sauce is always a winner and pairs perfectly with a dark flavourful red wine if you choose not to have a salad on the side. I personally prefer my steak medium-rare but by all means cook yours to your preferred degree.
Ingredients:
• 227 ml double cream
• 2 tablespoons black or green peppercorns
• 1 1/2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon brandy (optional)
• 4 x 175 grams fillet steaks
Directions:
• Preheat the oven at 180C.
• In a small saucepan, heat cream over medium low heat, being careful not to boil. Stir in peppercorns, Worcestershire sauce and brandy and simmer for 2 to 5 minutes. Keep warm while making the steak.
• Place the steaks on a lightly oiled tray and put the tray in the oven. Allow to sear for 10 minutes, turn over and cook for another 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and serve with the black pepper sauce.
Level Easy
Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Serves: 4

Indian gang rape victim dies; New Delhi braces for protests

A woman whose gang rape sparked protests and a national debate about violence against women in India died of her injuries on Saturday, prompting a security lockdown in New Delhi and an acknowledgement from India's prime minister that social change is needed.

Bracing for a new wave of protests, Indian authorities deployed thousands of policemen, closed 10 metro stations and banned vehicles from some main roads in the heart of New Delhi, where demonstrators have converged since the attack to demand improved women's rights. Hundreds of people staged peaceful protests at two locations on Saturday morning.

The 23-year-old medical student, severely beaten, raped and thrown out of a moving bus in New Delhi two weeks ago, had been flown to Singapore in a critical condition by the Indian government on Thursday for specialist treatment.

The intense media coverage of the attack and the use of social media to galvanise the protests, mostly by young middle-class students, has forced political leaders to confront some uncomfortable truths about the treatment of women in the world's largest democracy.

Most sex crimes in India go unreported, many offenders go unpunished, and the wheels of justice turn slowly, according to social activists who say that successive governments have done too little to ensure the safety of women.

'The need of the hour is a dispassionate debate and inquiry into the critical changes that are required in societal attitudes,' Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in a statement.

'I hope that the entire political class and civil society will set aside narrow sectional interests and agenda to help us all reach the end that we all desire - making India a demonstrably better and safer place for women to live in.'

T.C.A. Raghavan, the Indian high commissioner to Singapore, told reporters hours after the woman's death in a Singapore hospital that a chartered aircraft would fly her body back to India on Saturday, along with members of her family.

The body was taken to a Hindu casket firm in Singapore for embalming. Indian diplomats selected a gold and yellow coffin to transport her home, staff at the firm told reporters.

'We are very sad to report that the patient passed away peacefully at 4:45 a.m. on Dec 29, 2012 (2045 GMT Friday). Her family and officials from the High Commission (embassy) of India were by her side,' Mount Elizabeth Hospital Chief Executive Officer Kelvin Loh said earlier in a statement.

Delhi's chief minister, Sheila Dikshit, said the woman's death was a 'shameful moment for me not just as a chief minister but also as a citizen of this country'.

The woman, who has not been identified, and a male friend were returning home from the cinema by bus on the evening of December 16 when, media reports say, six men on the bus beat them with metal rods and repeatedly raped the woman. Media said a rod was used in the rape, causing internal injuries. Both were thrown from the bus. The male friend survived.

The attack has put gender issues centre stage in Indian politics arguably for the first time. Issues such as rape, dowry-related deaths and female infanticide have rarely entered mainstream political discourse.

Analysts say the death of the woman dubbed 'Amanat', an Urdu word meaning 'treasure,' by some media could change that, although it is too early to say whether the protesters calling for government action to better safeguard women can sustain their momentum through to national elections due in 2014.

WORST PLACE

The public outcry over the attack caught the government off-guard. It took a week for Singh to make a public statement on the attack, infuriating many protesters who saw it as a sign of a government insensitive to the plight of women.

The prime minister, a stiff 80-year-old technocrat who speaks in a low monotone, has struggled to channel the popular outrage in his public statements and convince critics that his eight-year-old government will now take concrete steps to improve the safety of women.

'The Congress mangers were ham-handed in their handling of the situation that arose after the brutal assault on the girl. The crowd management was poor,' a lawmaker from Singh's ruling Congress party said on condition of anonymity.

Protesters fought pitched battles with police around the capital last weekend. Police used batons, water cannon and teargas to quell the protests.

Commentators and sociologists say the rape has tapped into a deep well of frustration many Indians feel over what they see as weak governance and poor leadership on social issues.

A global poll by the Thomson Reuters Foundation in June found that India was the worst place to be a woman because of high rates of infanticide, child marriage and slavery.

New Delhi has the highest number of sex crimes among India's major cities, with a rape reported on average every 18 hours, according to police figures. Government data show the number of reported rape cases in the country rose by nearly 17 percent between 2007 and 2011.

Indian media had accused the government of sending the woman to Singapore to minimise any backlash in the event of her death but Raghavan said it had been a medical decision intended to ensure she got the best treatment.

The suspects in the rape - five men, including two brothers, aged between 20 and 40, and a 15-year-old - were arrested within hours of the attack and are in custody. The suspects, all from a slum in south Delhi, will be formally charged with murder, New Delhi Deputy Commissioner of Police Chhaya Sharma told Reuters.

Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde told Times Now television the government was committed to ensuring 'the severest possible punishment to all the accused at the earliest'.

'It will not go in vain. We will give maximum punishment to the culprits. Not only to this, but in future also. This one incident has given a greater lesson' Shinde said.

He said earlier the government was considering hanging for rape in rare cases. Murder already carries the death penalty.

Egypt approves new constitution drafted by Morsi allies

Egypt announced on Tuesday voters had approved overwhelmingly a constitution drafted by President Mohamed Morsi's Islamist allies, and the government imposed currency restrictions to cope with an economic crisis worsened by weeks of unrest.
Final figures from the elections commission showed the constitution was adopted with 63.8 percent of the vote, giving Islamists their third straight victory at the polls since Hosni Mubarak was toppled in a 2011 revolution.
Morsi's Leftist, liberal, secularist and Christian opponents had taken to the streets to block what they argued was a move to ram through a charter that would dangerously mix politics and religion.
The president argues that the new constitution offers sufficient protection for minorities, and adopting it quickly is necessary to end two years of turmoil and political uncertainty that has wrecked the economy.
Hours before the vote result was announced, the authorities imposed a new ban on travelling in or out of the country with more than $10,000 in foreign currency, a move apparently intended to halt capital flight.
Some Egyptians have begun withdrawing their savings from banks in fear of tougher restrictions.
The "yes" vote paves the way for a parliamentary election in about two months, setting the stage for yet another electoral battle between surging Islamists and their fractious liberal and leftist opponents.
The final result, announced by the election commission, matched - to the last decimal place - an earlier unofficial tally announced by Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood.
The constitution was drawn up by a body largely made up of Morsi's Islamist allies. The results announcement was a disappointment for the opposition which had put pressure on the authorities to recount the result to reflect what they have described as major vote violations.
"We have seriously investigated all the complaints," judge Samir Abu el-Matti of the Supreme Election Committee told a news conference. The final official turnout was 32.9 percent.
Cairo, gripped by often violent protests in the run-up to the vote, appeared calm after the announcement and opposition groups have announced no plans for demonstrations to mark the result.
"The results was so odd and no change in the percentage points shows that nothing was done to take our complaints into account," Khaled Dawood, an opposition spokesman, said.
The referendum, held on December 15 and on December 22, has sown deep divisions in the Arab world's most populous nation but Morsi says enacting the new constitution quickly will bring stability and a chance to focus on fixing the economy.
A growing sense of crisis has gripped Egypt's polarized society for weeks. Standard and Poor's cut Egypt's long-term credit rating on Monday.
Hours ahead of the results announcement, Prime Minister Hisham Kandil told the nation of 83 million the government was committed to taking steps to heal the economy.
"The main goals that the government is working towards now is plugging the budget deficit, and working on increasing growth to boost employment rates, curb inflation, and increase the competitiveness of Egyptian exports," he said.
CRISIS MODE
The central bank said on Monday it would take steps to "safeguard" bank deposits, without giving any details. Rumors are rife of what sort of measures are planned.
"I have been hearing that the central bank is going to take over all our bank deposits to pay wages for government employees given the current deteriorating economic situation," said Ayman Osama, father of two young children.
He said he had taken out the equivalent of about $16,000 from his account this week and planned to withdraw more, adding that he had also told his wife to buy more gold jewellery.
"I am not going to put any more money in the bank and neither will many of the people I know," he said.
The referendum is the Islamists' third electoral victory since the fall of Mubarak, following parliamentary and presidential elections, representing a decisive shift in a country at the heart of the Arab world, where Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood was suppressed for generations by military rulers.
However, secularist and liberal opposition members hope they can organize better in time for the next parliamentary vote.
The opposition says the constitution fails to guarantee personal freedoms and rights for women and minorities. The government says the criticism is misplaced.
Hossam El-Din Ali, a 35-year-old newspaper vendor in central Cairo, said he agreed the new constitution would help bring some political stability but like many others he feared the possible economic austerity measures lying ahead.
"People don't want higher prices. People are upset about this," he said. "There is recession, things are not moving. But I am wishing for the best, God willing."

Medical team checks on Mubarak at Tora Prison

A medical panel tasked by Prosecutor General Talaat Abdallah to check on the health of former President Hosni Mubarak arrived at Tora Prison Tuesday, where Mubarak is serving a life sentence for failing to prevent the deaths of protesters during the 18-day uprising. 


Assistant Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim said the panel will prepare a report on Mubaraks condition. The former leader underwent testing at Maadi Military Hospital last week after falling in the prisons bathroom. Doctors have said Mubarak sustained a crack in his chest as a result of the fall.


Ibrahim said the report will be submitted to the prosecutor general, who will decide either to keep Mubarak in prison or to transfer him to another hospital.


His doctors, meanwhile, stress that the former presidents health has stabilized and does not require a surgical intervention.


Security sources said Mubaraks son, Gamal, attended the medical test on his father and stressed his need for care at another hospital.


Mubaraks lawyer, Farid al-Deeb, had requested that his client be transferred to a hospital outside prison after he repeatedly fell inside the prisons bathroom.


Mubarak was sentenced to 25 years imprisonment in June for failing to prevent the deaths of protesters during the 25 January revolution that ended his 30-year rule.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm

Famed Gulf War U.S. General Schwarzkopf dies : Former President George H.W. Bush

US General and head of the 1991 Operation Desert Storm Norman Schwarzkopf dies at 78, ex-President H.W. Bush reveals in a statement.
U.S. General Norman Schwarzkopf Jr, who headed coalition forces that drove Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's army out of Kuwait in Operation Desert Storm, has died, former President George H.W. Bush said in a statement on Thursday.
Bush said he and his wife Barbara "mourn the loss of a true American patriot and one of the great military leaders of his generation," according to a statement released by Bush's spokesman. The former president has been hospitalized in Houston since Thanksgiving.
"General Norm Schwarzkopf, to me, epitomized the 'duty, service, country' creed that has defended our freedom and seen this great nation through our most trying international crises. More than that, he was a good and decent man - and a dear friend."
Schwarzkopf, a burly Vietnam War veteran, commanded more than 540,000 U.S. troops and 200,000 allied forces in a six-week war that routed Hussein's army from Kuwait in 1991, capping a 34-year career that led him to the Army's four-star general rank.
The hard-charging Schwarzkopf, known as Stormin' Norman, died at age 78.
Some experts said the allied plan to trick and outflank Iraqi forces with a sweeping armored movement, which ended the ground war in only 100 hours, was one of the great accomplishments in military history.

Surprise Appearance!

At first glance, your newborn’s looks may just…shock you!
You’ve been imagining an adorable baby with chubby cheeks, but what you actually take home is a wrinkled, puffy-faced, oddly colored little creature... sometimes even covered with dark hair! Here’s what your newborn will really look like.
Head
A baby’s head comprises one fourth of his or her entire body length. What makes it possible for the head to get through the birth canal during delivery is the fact that certain bones in the skull overlap to decrease the size of the head temporarily. This gives the head the cone-shaped appearance that parents may notice at birth. There are “soft spots” on your baby’s head, called the fontanels, which allow this molding to occur. Though you should always be careful with a baby’s head, with ordinary care you won’t do any harm. Even newborns can have their hair washed and ‘gently’ brushed. Over time, the bones will grow together and the fontanels will close completely by about 18 months.
Eyes Your newborn may not be able to open his/her eyes straight away due to puffiness caused by the recent pressure exercised on the head during delivery. Never try to force your baby’s eyes open; they will open when ready.
Many babies are born with gray-blue eyes, but don’t be fooled, because the color is liable to change. You won’t know the true color of your baby’s eyes for several months, because it is only then that babies acquire melanin, the body’s natural pigment.
Nose
Another common feature among babies is a flattened nose. In time, heredity will take its course, and by the time they’re eight months to one year old, you will have a clearer view of what your baby’s nose really looks like.
Breasts
It is common for breasts, of both girls and boys to be swollen, due to the mother’s hormones passing through the placenta during the baby’s time inside the womb. This is nothing to worry about, and parents should not be alarmed if they find milky fluid leaking out. Do not squeeze the nipples; the milk will disappear in time, and squeezing could cause irritation.
Navel
The remains of the umbilical cord, which is the lifeline between the mother and her baby during pregnancy, will stay on your baby’s navel for one or two weeks after birth. It is a source of major concern to most parents, especially first-timers. The best way to deal with the umbilical cord is to keep it as clean and dry as you can. Fold diapers down so that it doesn’t get wet. You should also clean the stump with alcohol two or three times a day to keep it unsoiled, until it eventually drops off by itself. If the skin becomes red or oozes grayish-white fluid, you should call the doctor immediately.
Genitals Some parents are shocked by their baby’s swollen genitals. This swelling occurs in both girls and boys and is usually due to the mother’s hormones during pregnancy. Also due to this transfer of hormones, a baby girl may even experience bloody discharge from her vagina. Again, this is nothing to worry about.
Body Hair
Soft, dark lanugo hair on the newborn’s body is not unusual, especially if the baby is premature. It will disappear along with all the other oddities, but only after giving you this blind-date first shock to test your love for them.

Skin
A white, waxy material may coat your new arrival. This substance, called vernix, protects the skin from the amniotic fluid in the uterus. Most of it disappears after the baby’s first bath.
Red spots, especially on the face, or dark blotches scattered all over a newborn’s body are not uncommon. Both conditions are temporary.
If your baby’s skin starts to look yellow, it may indicate a mild form of jaundice. Contact your pediatrician, who will suggest treatment if your baby needs it.
Newborns have poor circulation, so one side of your newborn’s body or her hands and feet may suddenly turn blue. While alarming, this is usually nothing to worry about. Just turn your baby on to his/her other side or gently rub his/her body to get the blood to circulate through properly.

Notes to My Future Husband: A Bunch of Questions

By: May Rostom
Hey stranger,
It’s been a while; I’ve been busy with Ramadan and all the family gatherings. A lot of people have asked about you, referring to you as “ebn el halal” (aka The One) so I gave them the answer that I thought you’d want me to give them, he’ll be here next Ramadan hopefully. Fasting hasn’t been very tough gladly, I realized that God makes it easier for those who want to please him, and I for one am on a mission to be a good girl this Ramadan.
This time I don't intend on putting down a list of “rules” or tips, this time I’ll just speak my mind out to you. I'm a good person, I usually mean well, and even when I mess up I do it out of complete naivety/ stupidity.
So I was wondering, are you a good person too? Are you going to help me figure out life? Are you going to let me be my complete self without any restraints? I was thinking about how I would like “Us” to be like then I realized that being our complete selves would actually help us grow into our full potential.
I also thought that I don't want to change you either, that I'm willing to accept you as you are, and that jealousy would never be an issue if you earn the trust I’ll have in you.
I like to think I'm adorable (not conceited, but I just love myself), so does that mean you’ll treat me as a little kid? I want to be treated as a little girl with piggy tails and an adorable laugh. I want to be pampered, spoiled, and taken care of. I’m not a selfish person; I expect stuff like that from you because I'm willing to do the same for you.
I know relationships are hard, I know it’s not easy to say sorry, I know it’s not easy to be someone worthy of love and trust, and I know that I'm not perfect and that I will make mistakes (again out of naivety/stupidity) but we all make mistakes just to learn how to be better people.
I'm currently working on myself; I'm changing stuff that I personally don't like about me to make things easier for us in the future.
As I sit here and write you this, Al Fajr prayer has just started so i'll go now and pray to God to lead me to the right path. I hope you’re doing the same.
Goodnight Stranger,
Your Future Wife!

Romance ideas on a budget

By Lizzie Cernik
From handbags to holidays, this pesky recession means lots of us are foregoing our usual luxuries. But why should an ongoing financial crisis impact your love life? If you’re keen to keep the spark but save the cash, check out our ideas for romance on a budget.
1. Movie date night
If you don’t fancy a slushy rom com, rent a horror film for you and your man to curl up with. Slasher movies might not sound romantic but it’s a great excuse to curl up under a duvet and have a girly scream. Just make sure he doesn’t get more scared than you.
2. Cook steak
Even if you’re not a gourmet chef, a good quality steak makes a quick, easy and tasty meal. Choose fillet or sirloin and serve with chunky handmade chips and a creamy pepper sauce. Whether you make them yourselves or cheat with a packet from Spinneys, your boyfriend’s bound to be impressed.
3. A beach picnic
Make the most of the warm weather by grabbing a blanket and heading to the beach with some nice treats. If you’re going in the evening you can even bring along a candle for a more romantic atmosphere. Just make sure you keep an eye on it- nobody wants to be responsible for a desert fire.
4. Games night
You might associate Trivial Pursuit with Boxing Day family rows but a night in playing retro games can make a great day. Whether it’s competitive Monopoly or a game of Cluedo, it’s a good way to bring out your inner child and have some fun.
5. Go hiking
Whilst the city of Dubai is relatively flat, the mountainous regions of Hatta are great for walking. Pack plenty of water, get out your hiking boots and spend some quality time with your boyfriend in the great outdoors.
6. A desert drive
Compared to the rest of the world, petrol is relatively inexpensive in the UAE. Take advantage and drive your jeep out to the desert for a romantic day out. Get some tunes on the radio, the AC up full blast and cruise off to Fujairah.
7. Kite flying
Take inspiration from Mary Poppins and head out with a kite on a windy day. More original than a straightforward beach walk, you’ll have to work together to keep your kite in the air.
8. Volunteer for a charity project
Visiting a children’s hospital or helping out at a fundraiser may not seem the most obvious choice for romance but it’s a great way to spend a unique afternoon together. Giving you the ‘feel good’ factor, your date will also be benefitting the community.

The problem with perfectionism

Perfectionists constantly chase for ‘how things should be’ rather than accepting ‘how things are’. At the same time, ‘how things should be,’ keep changing.

Perfectionism is a set of beliefs about yourself and about your relationships with others that should be transformed and healed.

The origins of perfectionism are complex but it does seem to be linked to early experiences, parental styles of discipline and care providers who were never satisfied, or critical and demanding.
If it is just a perfectionist streak that you want to control, try the following steps:
• Identify the situations which you seek perfection the most
• Set reasonable expectations
• Acknowledge and celebrate your achievements
• Look at the whole picture
• Learn to set the standard yourself
• Embrace the value of mistakes
• Learn to move on from past events
• Enjoy the process and not just the outcome
• Be less critical of others
• Don’t compare yourself just to those more successful
• Focus on progress and not perfection
• Make sure you have a healthy work life balance
• Understand that you are not able to control everything
• Stop being so harsh on yourself
• Failure does not equate to lack of personal value

The burden of being a perfectionist goes above and beyond mere irritation. It is recognised as one of the contributing factors to other serious mental health issues and should be treated quite seriously.

We are all capable of good and bad work but we should not feel defeated or deflated every time we’re not able to do our ‘best.’ Bouncing back after facing a particular adversity and embracing resilience should be sought after instead.

7 Great Ways to Look Picture Perfect!

We all want to look amazing in pictures but a lot of us seem to look worse or can’t seem to make the pictures bring out the best in us.
1. No Shine
If your face is shiny and you have oily skin make sure you pat the excess oil away or use a matte finished foundation and powder.
2. Make Sure There is No Double Chin
No one likes that double chin in pictures avoid it by always looking up, never point that chin down and always keep the camera above eye level. Make sure the person taking the picture is taller than you or make them stand on a chair.
3. Make-Up
Avoid heavy make up in front of the camera as it will look even heavier in those pictures. On the other hand not having enough make up will also make you look washed out. Keep your makeup nice and natural and let it bring out your best features.
4. Remove Those Extra Pounds
Turn your body by a 45 degree angle away from the camera, then turn your body from the waist to face the camera. Think of Paris Hilton when trying to pose for your next picture.
5. Avoid Shadows
Stand with your back to the sun when taking pictures as the light creates unwanted shadows under the eyes, chin and side of the nose. Same goes for indoors avoid any overhead lightings from the room.
6. Practice poses
This may sound silly but actually works, always practice, stand in front of that mirror and practice smiles or poses that look nice and natural not cheesy.
7. Choose the right clothes
Wear the clothes that make you feel good, and bring out the best in you. If you are not comfortable with those clothes then you are not going to look good.

Tony Greig dies at age 66

Flamboyant former England cricket captain and television commentator Tony Greig died Saturday at the age of 66 from a heart attack as he battled lung cancer.

The South African-born Greig had only recently been diagnosed with cancer, and suffered cardiac arrest at his Sydney home, dying shortly afterwards.

"Tong Greig passed away at St Vincent's Hospital of cardiac arrest at 1.45 pm," hospital spokesman David Faktor said.

"He was rushed to St Vincent's and staff at the emergency department worked on Mr Greig but to no avail. I understand his family was with him."

Greig first became aware of his illness during Australia's one-day series against Pakistan in Dubai in August and September. Initially diagnosed with bronchitis in May, the condition lingered and testing revealed he had lung cancer.

On his return to Australia, he had fluid removed from the right lung and testing revealed he had cancer.

Last month, Grieg spoke to the network's cricket commentary team, of which he was a member, during their coverage of the first Test between Australia and South Africa in Brisbane. "It's not good. The truth is I've got lung cancer. Now it's a case of what they can do," he said at the time. He had an operation later that month.

Factbox: Tony Greig
South African-born Greig played 58 Tests for England between 1972 and 1977, scoring 3,599 runs with eight centuries at 40.43 and captured 141 wickets at 32.20. He captained England in 14 Tests.

He also played 22 one-day internationals for England.

Greig was instrumental in the formation of late Australian media tycoon Kerry Packer's breakaway World Series Cricket contest staged from 1977-79 which sent shockwaves through the sport.

He helped secure the signings of a number of English and other foreign players to the rebel cricket series, launched in response to the Australian Cricket Board's refusal to give Packer's Nine Network exclusive Test broadcast rights.

The World Series featured stars such as Dennis Lillee, Imran Khan, Greg and Ian Chappell, Viv Richards and Clive Lloyd and left a lasting legacy on the game, including improved rewards for players.

Greig's involvement caused an abrupt end to his international career and in the 1980s he joined the Nine Network's cricket commentary team along with former Australian captains Richie Benaud, Ian Chappell and Bill Lawry.

Channel Nine described Greig as a "beloved" figure.

"Tony Greig is a name synonymous with Australian cricket - from his playing days as the English captain we loved to hate, to his senior role in the revolution of World Series Cricket, his infamous car keys in the pitch reports and more than three decades of colourful and expert commentary," a Channel Nine statement said.

Nietzsche – alive and well in the age of Twitter

Google 'Friedrich Nietzsche' and you might just end up at his Twitter account. Or one of them, anyway.

Nietzsche has around 100 active Twitter feeds - an impressive feat for a man who's been dead for 130 years. It's even more impressive when you consider the company he's in: William Shakespeare has a similar Twitter presence; Jesus Christ comes in just a bit higher than Fritz and the Bard combined.

Yet unlike his companions, Nietzsche's words are not the stuff of high-school curriculums or Sunday sermons. Most, if they have heard of the philosopher, did so in college or thereafter.

Perhaps dead German philosophers are in vogue? Immanuel Kant, the father of German enlightenment thought, whose 'categorical imperative' is still discussed not only in 700-level philosophy courses at Cambridge, has 15 phantom accounts. Hegel, the brain behind the master-slave dialectic and the author of one of the densest texts in the history of philosophy, the Phenomenology of Spirit, has a paltry single account.

What, then, explains Nietzsche's Twitter magnetism?

Brevity is wit

In addition to being one of the most powerful minds in the history of thought, Nietzsche is known in scholarly circles today as a father of the aphorism - or philosopher speak for a tweet - a thought or saying packaged in a concise manner, oftentimes in a sentence or two.

'Without music, life would be a mistake.'

'There are no moral phenomena at all, but only moral interpretations of phenomena.'

'Talking much about oneself can also be a means to conceal oneself.'

These are three examples of classic Nietzsche 'tweets,' just three of thousands of aphorisms that filled Nietzsche's books throughout his career. Quite often, Nietzsche's books consisted of nothing else.

'Nietzsche writes in an engaging way, whereas Kant, for example, writes in dense philosophical prose,' said Kirk Wetters, Associate Professor of German language and literature at Yale University. 'He's widely perceived as a philosopher of radical (or even macho) individualism. It's ironic, perhaps, that a purportedly individualistic philosophy should end up producing 100 impersonators.'

Arthur Schopenhauer, meanwhile, has just 10 phantom Twitter accounts. It was the directness of Schopenhauer's language and thought that impressed the young Nietzsche, something the latter thinker was unashamed to acknowledge.

He called Schopenhauer outright his educator, and he attempted to emulate the immediate and straightforward way in which Schopenhauer wrote.

'Whoever knows he is deep, strives for clarity.'

'It is my ambition to say in ten sentences what other men say in whole books - what other men do not say in whole books.'

Another two Tweets. And indeed, what Nietzsche didn't take from the long line of German philosophers that preceded him was their wordiness, their long-windedness, their veritable logorrhoea, their - well, let's let Hegel speak for himself...

A case of 'tl;dr'

'The moral consciousness, qua simple knowledge and willing of pure duty, is brought, by the process of acting, into relation with an object opposed to that abstract simplicity, into relation with the manifold actuality which various cases present, and thereby assumes a moral attitude varied and manifold in character.'

Come again? Such sentences - Nietzsche said it back in his day - are nothing other than a stumbling block on the path of knowledge. A discombubulated array of thoughts that few - philosophy PhD candidates included - could ever hope to comprehend.

And, they wouldn't even have a chance on Twitter. Hegel's sentence there clocks in at 259 characters, including spaces. Tweetable? Forget it - nearly double the 140 allowed. Little surprise, then, that Hegel's stuck at one phantom account.

But does this mean that thinkers today have changed the way they write across the board? Do thinkers have to be tweetable?

According to comments across the web, yes. Comments columns are peppered with the collection of letters and numbers known as 'tl;dr.' They stand for 'Too long; didn't read.'

While Kant and Hegel seem to have that problem, Nietzsche's Tweetable aphorisms don't. And in fact, his writing should remain free of 'tl;dr' comments for quite some time.

The great philosopher claimed his work would only be understood 200 years after his death - giving us 70 more years to enjoy him.

Al Habtoor says IPO delayed on scarce investment prospect

Dubai - Al Habtoor Group LLC, controlled by billionaire Khalaf Al Habtoor, postponed an initial share sale because it didn’t see sufficient opportunities to invest the proceeds and may consider reviving the plan in 2014.

'We didn’t find an opportunity that would give us good return to give shareholders,' Al Habtoor said in a Dec. 23 interview at his office in Dubai. 'We looked at safe markets, like Germany and Britain and we found that in the areas we know, there is nothing but recession.'

The company will rely on cash from operations to fund projects including a new skyscraper with more than 800 luxury apartments on a canal in Dubai, he said. Construction of the tower will start in late 2013 or early 2014 and is set to be completed two years later. He said a decision hasn’t been made on whether the 800 homes would be rented or sold.

The company is already building a $1.3 billion hotel complex in Dubai. Grant Thornton, the accounting firm, valued Al Habtoor Group, which includes hospitality, real estate and automotive divisions, at 22 billion dirhams ($6 billion).

Looking for Hotels

The billionaire said he searched markets in eastern and western Europe as well as Asia for hotels, real estate and other assets and he wasn’t convinced of their earnings potential. He said the IPO plan was motivated by his desire to ensure the continuity of his company and not by a need for cash.

'I don’t need to take peoples’ money and put it in the bank,' Al Habtoor said. 'They can do that themselves.'

Trading volumes in Dubai are near a six-year low and global banks have been cutting staff to reduce costs. Al Habtoor, which has been weighing an IPO for about 20 years, said it would delay the share sale on Dec. 18. Economic and political upheaval in the middle East and Europe have also slowed regional share sales in the past two years.

Al Habtoor said he’s investing about $1.6 billion on various projects. He’s also considering plans to build a five- star hotel in Minsk, Belarus. Al Habtoor owns six hotels and has four more in various stages of construction including the Waldorf Astoria on an artificial island off Dubai’s coast.

'We will finance from our cash flows and according to the company’s cash flow strength,' Al Habtoor said.

’Paper in Drawer’

U.A.E. banks have no appetite to lend currently and 'we don’t want them to embarrass us or have us embarrass them,' he said. The group will have 'surplus' cash flows until 2015 when it may seek bank loans, he said.

Al Habtoor said he doesn’t plan to get a credit rating for debt instruments. 'I don’t believe in bonds to begin with,' he said. 'It’s a paper I can put in a drawer. I don’t like the whole thing especially going and begging investors for money. I don’t think we will need that. Not today and not tomorrow.'

The billionaire says cash from operations at the group may surge by 50 percent to 60 percent by the end of 2016 as most of the hotels under construction become operational and other projects reach fruition. Profit next year may climb 10 percent across the group, he said, without providing details.

Al Habtoor’s 29-year-old auto division is the country’s sole distributor for Mitsubishi, Bentley and Bugatti. He has 13 showrooms throughout the U.A.E. and a leasing division with 8,000 rental cars. He built the world’s largest repair facility for Bentley and Bugatti, he said.

In addition, the group owns and runs two international private schools and has a 27.5 percent stake in contractor Habtoor Leighton Group, a joint venture formed in 2007 between Habtoor Engineering and Australia’s Leighton Holdings Ltd. (LEI)

Al Habtoor, which published its earnings on Dec. 18 for the first time, said it forecast a 16 percent profit increase this year to 700 million dirhams compared with 2011.

Grant Thornton’s evaluation of the business excluded two hotels, a shopping mall and a theme park in Lebanon as well as Le Meridien Budapest in Hungary, Al Habtoor said Dec. 18. It also left out the value of its holding in Habtoor Leighton Group and several stakes in some other companies.

Source: Bloomberg

Activist takes hotel chain to task over Pyongyang

The silhouette of the Ryugyong Hotel has stood stark against the hills that surround the North Korean capital since the late 1980s, but it is finally nearing completion.

Constructed in the shape of a 105-storey pyramid, work on one of the North Korean regime's most grandiose vanity projects was halted in 1992 due to the economic crisis the nation suffered after the fall of the Soviet Union, its main sponsor.

The occasional visitor to the secretive state reported that a crane still stood forlornly at the very tip of the pyramid, although work began once again in 2008.

Then, in November, Reto Wittwer, CEO of luxury hotel operators Kempinski S.A., stunned an industry forum in Seoul by announcing that the Ryugyong Hotel will 'partially, probably' open in the middle of 2013. The work to bring the structure up to scratch is being carried out by Egypt's Orascom Telecom, which won the contract to introduce a mobile phone network in North Korea in 2008.

The plan, Wittwer said, is to open the hotel - its name means Capital of Willows and is one of the former names of the North Korean capital - with office space, shops, restaurants and 150 guest rooms.

'Hotel of Doom'

Even with all the investment going into the property, it will be difficult for the building to completely shed the nickname 'hotel of doom' that it has been given by critics.

Esquire magazine once famously described the structure as 'the worst building in the history of mankind.'

The aesthetics of the building are of little concern to Ken Kato, a Tokyo-based human rights activist, who has written to the senior management of Kempinski to urge them to put priority on encouraging North Korea to feed its people, release hundreds of thousands of political prisoners from its gulag system and adhere to pleas from around the world to halt its missile and nuclear weapons programs.

'I am trying very hard to get them to pull out of North Korea because what they are doing there is illegal under United Nations sanctions,' Kato told DW.

'I wrote to the management and the owners of the company three weeks ago with evidence of North Korea's illegal actions, but I have not had any replies yet,' he said. 'But I will keep trying.'

There were no replies to messages from DW to Mr. Wittwer and Colin Lubbe, CFO of Kempinski.

Response to rocket launch

Kato sent out another volley of protest letters after North Korea defied the UN and the rest of the world to launch a rocket and put a satellite into orbit on December 12. Experts say the vehicle is a modified Taepodong missile and the launch was little more than a disguised test of the North's weapons technology. Now, they believe, North Korean scientists are working to miniaturize nuclear warheads to the point they can be attached to missiles.

Kato has also written to the governments of the United States, Germany and the Crown Property Bureau of Thailand as the Thai Royal Family owns a stake in Kempinski.

'As you know, North Korea has been supplying missiles to Thailand's neighbor, Burma, and I think Thailand's participation in the Ryungyong Hotel could be a major scandal due to North Korea's renewed provocations,' he said.

Kato claims Kempinski's operations in North Korea violate paragraph 18 of United Nations Security Council resolution 1874, which prohibits all financial transactions that 'could contribute to the DPRK's nuclear-related, ballistic missile-related or other weapons of mass destruction-related programs or activities.'

In addition, a Thai national named as Ms. Anocha Panjoy was reportedly abducted by North Korean agents and held in Pyongyang against her will.

Kato also claims that Mr. Wittwer is 'a friend' of Ri Chol, the North Korean ambassador to Switzerland, and that Wittwer lives close to Pyongyang's Representative Office in Geneva.

Money laundering operations

Ri Chol has also been identified in South Korean media as one of the regime's most trusted lieutenants and has overseen Pyongyang's money laundering operations.

Kato insists that Ri has overseen the use of billions of euros for North Korea's weapons and nuclear programs when they should have been used to feed a starving populace.

'Ri was responsible for laundering money that could have been used to help these people and it is no exaggeration to say that his actions caused the death of 2 million people from starvation,' Kato said.

It is estimated that North Korea spent some 750 million US dollars on the initial stages of the construction of the hotel, equating to about 2 percent of the nation's GDP. In the same way that the successful launch of a rocket has boosted the standing of the nation's young leader, Kim Jong Un, the opening of the Ryungyong Hotel could prove to be another message to the world that North Korea is making its mark on the international scene.

Ken Kato is determined to stop that happening.