| The Nation in Brief
Sources at Etisalat, Egypt's third mobile license holder, denied last month having requested to indefinitely postpone the launch of Egypt's third mobile network “as certain unnamed weekly papers had mentioned," the financial weekly Al-Mal has reported. Etisalat won the bid for Egypt's third mobile license last summer, paying what industry experts said was an exorbitant LE 16.7 billion in a consortium with the National Bank of Egypt, the Commercial International Bank (CIB, bt100 number 13) and the National Post Authority. As the first company to acquire a 3G license in Egypt, Etisalat was granted the right to premier the service by May 20, after which Vodafone Egypt (Vodafone, bt100 number 5)—the only other mobile operator with a 3G license—would have the right to launch its service in the market.
Town Decrees Solar Panels Ugly, Family Fights Back
I always find amusing the rules that some of my friends around the country must abide by when living in community housing developments. Your grass can only be so high, children's toys must be kept to a minimum outside, your house can only be certain shades of color, etc. etc. It's a frightening utopia of meaningless laws and trivial worry. When I heard that the town of Scarsdale denied a family the opportunity to put up solar panels — on the basis that they were ugly and "not in keeping with the character of the community" — I immediately wanted to cry/laugh. You have got to be kidding me. But then I thought that such reactions are probably not too uncommon. We live in a world with designer water, designer shampoo, and animal spas. People have become so accustomed to modular cookie-cutter homes with white picket-fences and weed-free sidewalks — that they've actually forgotten there's a world of people out there who could care less and actually would like to live a unique existence; with character and vision for their own lives.
Woman, son shot to death near Mandeville; husband arrested
Enraged after his estranged wife took out a restraining order against him, a Pearl River area man ambushed his family Wednesday afternoon, shooting his wife and young son to death with a shotgun and wounding his two daughters after ramming their car off the road in a subdivision near Mandeville, authorities said. James Magee was arrested several hours later in Mobile when 11 Alabama state troopers surrounded his truck, ending an intensive manhunt involving scores of law-enforcement officers across the north shore. The horrific scene unfolded shortly before 5 p.m. in the Tall Timbers subdivision north of Mandeville, where Magee chased his wife's gray Toyota Scion for several blocks, ramming it from behind repeatedly until she lost control and crashed into a tree at Nestor and Thackery streets, Sheriff Jack Strain said.
Fire Destroys Family's Factory
A Tahunanui joinery factory was destroyed by a dramatic blaze last night causing an estimated $1 million in damage and ending a 50- year family legacy. Station officer Brian O'Donnell of the Nelson Fire Service said Tahunanui Lifestyle Kitchens was totally engulfed in flames when the fire service arrived about 11pm. Six firefighting crews, from Nelson, Richmond and Stoke, battled the blaze on Tahunanui Drive until about 5am today, he said. Crews were expected to be on site until about 10am to monitor hot spots concealed by large amounts of roofing iron . The cause of the fire was still unknown and the Fire Safety Service was investigating, he said. Flames were clearly visible from surrounding homes and the Tahunanui hills, sparking multiple emergency calls. Lifestyle Kitchens owner Robert Hart said this morning that the building had been the original one on the site.
|
