Egypt

Egypt’s Banned Ultras Soccer Fans Take to Streets

Egypt’s Banned Ultras Soccer Fans Take to Streets

22 Photos

CAIRO — Chanting slogans, carrying signs and waving flares, these eager young men who gather in Egypt could be mistaken for Arab Spring demonstrators.

And in this country, the recently-banned hardcore soccer fans known as ultras have played a political role.

Ultras, whose name comes from the Latin word for “beyond,” started in Latin America and Europe in the 1950s before coming to Arab countries. The first to form in Egypt, Ultras White Knights, emerged in 2007 to support the Zamalek team. Groups backing archrival al-Ahly and others followed.

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Egypt’s Urban Expansion Depletes Nile Farmland

Egypt’s Urban Expansion Depletes Nile Farmland

20 Photos

SHUBRA KHIT, Egypt — Lush green farms once stretched all around the Nile River, the fertile dark soil a vital source of life since the Pharaonic times, when ancient Egyptians developed some of the first sophisticated farming methods in the region.

Now, red-brick urban settlements are springing up everywhere, snuffing out farmland to make way for the growing population in this country of about 90 million people.

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