Egypt threatens to take back New York obelisk

Egypt Says NY Neglecting Monument Gift
(NewsCore) - An Egyptian government official has penned a stinging letter to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, in which he accuses the city of neglecting "Cleopatra's Needle," the New York Post reported Saturday. Egypt gave the city the ancient obelisk over 100 years ago -- and is now threatening to take it back if it is not properly cared for and preserved. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General for the Supreme Council of Antiquities, claims it is his job to monitor the country's antiquities, whether i...

Egypt to New York: Protect Ancient Obelisk or Else
By Andrea Leontiou, This story originally appeared on LiveScience.com Since 1880, the obelisk known as Cleopatra's Needle has stood in New York's Central Park, but a letter from the Secretary General of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities indicates that this may change if the monument is not taken better care of. Recently, Zahi Hawass, the aforementioned Secretary General and archaeologist, wrote to the Central Park Conservancy and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to inform them that ...

Egypt Displeased With Treatment Of Obelisk In NYC
NEW YORK (AP) — An Egyptian official has chided New York City over the condition of “Cleopatra’s Needle,” an ancient column in Central Park. Zahi Hawass of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities wrote a letter to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg complaining that his city is not taking good care of the 3,500-year-old obelisk. Egypt gave the stone monument to the city as a gift more than a century ago. It now sits on a knoll near the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Hawass...

Egypt Demands Return of Cleopatras Needle.
Dr. Zahi Hawass is none too happy with New York Mayor Bloomberg. The Secretary General of Egypt’s Supreme Council on Antiquities has sent the Mayor a letter demanding the City preserve a 3500 year old obelisk known as “Cleopatra’s Needle”  or send it back. Since 1881, the red granite monument has stood in Central Park near the Metropolitan Museum of Art and is nearly 68 feet high. According to Hawass, he has made several trips to New York to ...

Egypt Threatens to De-Gift Giant Central Park Obelisk
Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images Over a hundred years after Egypt gave New York a 71-foot-tall ancient obelisk in "an attempt to cultivate trade relations between the two countries," the country has decided it might want it back, even though we're pretty sure it's ours now. The condition of Cleopatra's Needle, which has sat in Central Park since 1881, recently caught the attention of the Secretary General of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, Zahi Hawass. According to a letter he sent t...

Egypt Threatening To Repossess Cleopatra's Needle
galvarez51's flickr Cleopatra's Needle has been a cornerstone of Central Park since 1880, but now Egypt is threatening to take it back if the city doesn't keep it in better condition. Zahi Hawass, the Secretary General of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, wrote to the Central Park Conservancy and Mayor Bloomberg imploring them to preserve the obelisk for future generations, or else face Egyptian repo men: I am glad that this monument has become such an integral part of New York City, bu...

Egypt Threatens NYC/Bloomberg Removal of Cleopatra's Needle
Since 1881, the obelisk known as Cleopatra's Needle has stood in New York's Central Park, but a letter from the Secretary General of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities indicates that this may change if the monument is not taken better care of. Recently, Zahi Hawass, the aforementioned Secretary General and archaeologist, wrote to the Central Park Conservancy and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to inform them that if steps are not taken to prot...

Egypt Called. They Want Their Obelisk Back.
via MSNBC, LiveScience/Dreamstime ​More than a century ago, Egypt "gave" New York City a giant obelisk, you know, to cultivate trade and good faith and such. We called it Cleopatra's Needle, and we parked it in Central Park, where it's stood since 1881. But all of a sudden, Egypt is not happy with the care we've been taking of their 71-foot-tall monument. Perhaps we don't deserve the obelisk, after all! MSNBC has the note that Zahi Hawas, the Secretary General of Egypt's Supreme Council ...

Early On, About One Truck for Every Snowflake
Earl Wilson/The New York Times A sanitation truck out to battle the snow on 34th Street. If you learned your Latin, or if you were a fan of “The Gilmore Girls,” you can think about this until there are two inches of snow on the ground: In omnia paratus. Or, if you prefer, semper paratus. Either phrase could be Friday’s motto for the Department of Sanitation, which already has 365 salt spreaders on city streets even it says there is only a trace of snow and the National Weather Service say

NYC Overprepares For New Snow After Blizzard Mess
NEW YORK — New York City came out overprepared Friday for a weak storm that delivered just a few inches of snow – not enough to plow in most places and not likely enough for the mayor to redeem himself from a disastrous response to a post-Christmas blizzard. Flakes melted onto wet streets as snowplows – some equipped with global positioning devices since the blizzard foul-up – and salt spreaders sat idle in neighborhoods all over the city. By nightfall, the National Wea...

"Everyone Knows . . . "
There is a decidedly arrogant claim engendered by the horde of Progressives which starts with the words "everyone knows." For example, everyone knows the Tea Partiers have a Racist agenda. And everyone knows Patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels. Presumably if everyone knows, evidence to buttress one’s argument is unnecessary. Dissent is a function of those conservative know nothings, the grass-roots mob wallowing in ignorance. If the Tea Partiers display none of the characteristic...

News Briefs
The Cleveland Browns try a new defense. “reluctantly” signs a bill that forbids Detainees at Gitmo from having trials in the United States, thus ensuring that Gitmo will never be closed. (Reuters) account information. Unlike the Telecom companies during Chimpy’s reign of error, the Government had to actually follow the law this time; Twitter did not just hand it over, AND it notified any users who were impacted by the court order. (AP) burst into flames. Local television WJZ sa...

NYC Kicks Off MulchFest To Recycle Christmas Trees
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — The NYC Department of Parks & Recreation kicked off MulchFest 2011 Saturday in their effort to recycle Christmas Trees. The two day event will feature many sites, where city residents can drop off their trees and have them turned into wood chips, which will be used to nourish trees, plants and gardens across the area. The Parks Department along with the Department of Sanitation and GreeNYC are encouraging people to try and top the nearly 24,000 trees recycled in...

Andy Plesser: Architect John Hix: Vieques is the "Central Park of the Caribbean"
VIEQUES, PR -- John Hix, the Canadian-born architect who developed the "eco-hip," retreat the Hix Island House, sees Vieques as largely undeveloped gem in the Caribbean, a sort of "Central Park" in the midest of a highly developed region. He sees sustainability as key to Vieques' future success is creating homes which are energy dependent, "off the grid," using solar power. He hopes that in the future Wind Farms will provide Energy Independence for the island. Hix first visited Vieques some 28...

Locating the Zeckendorf Buyer: GPS Exec Purchased 15 CPW's Record-Setting Penthouse
We've been obsessing over William Lie Zeckendorf's former penthouse for a while now. After all, how could he leave the trophy building, 15 Central Park West, that he built with his brother and Robert A.M. Stern. Well, when presented with a record-setting price and the tantalizing prospect of Bruce Wasserstein's pad, why not? Part of the mystery surrounding the sail was who the buyer might be, and it's a surprising one. No, not a media mogul or master of the universe or movie sar. The buyer of ...

Let It Snow, But Clean It Up
One of the signature moments of the Bush Administration came when the federal government failed to immediately react to the carnage caused by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. As you'll remember, President Bush seemed lethargic about the death and destruction, and the media buried him because of his lackluster posture. But we now know that the president could not have seized control of the situation because he was not asked in by then-Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco. Bush could have appeared mor...

NYC official under fire for snow mess
NEW YORK, Jan. 8 (UPI) -- New York's deputy mayor, hailed as re-inventor of government, is in trouble for the alleged mismanagement of the December blizzard. Stephen Goldsmith, a former mayor of Indianapolis and Professor at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, was appointed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg last year. As deputy mayor for operations, he is responsible for police, fire, sanitation and a dozen other agencies that touch New Yorkers' daily lives. But during the blizzard, h...

A HEARTENING REPORT FROM EGYPT: Egypts Muslims attend Coptic Christmas mass, serving as human shi
A HEARTENING REPORT FROM Egypt: Egypt’s Muslims attend Coptic Christmas mass, serving as “human shields.” ...

"We either live together or we die together"
"We either live together or we die together" by digby These people are putting it on the line: Egypt’s majority Muslim population stuck to its word Thursday night. What had been a promise of solidarity to the weary Coptic community, was honoured, when thousands of Muslims showed up at Coptic Christmas Eve mass services in churches around the country and at candle light Vigils held outside. From the well-known to the unknown, Muslims had offered their bodies as “human shields” for last n

Egyptian Muslims Serve As Human Shields During Coptic Christmas Services
After a New Year's Eve attack against Coptic Christian Churches in Egypt, there was some concern that this week's celebration of Christmas by Egypt's oldest...

After The Deadly New Years Eve Attack Muslims Shield Christians in Egypt
We are led to believe violence and hatred against Muslims has grown since the 9-11 attacks ... and both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. But according to a recent FBI report it has not. In fact Hate Crimes against Muslims in the USA are "rare". On the other hand, another recent report has Islamic countries dominating the 2011 world watch list in persecution of Christians: Of the top 10 countries on the 2011 WWL, eight have Islamic majorities. Persecution has increased in seven of them. They are Ir...

We need much more of this
Egypt’s majority Muslim population stuck to its word Thursday night. What had been a promise of solidarity to the weary Coptic community, was honoured, when thousands of Muslims showed up at Coptic Christmas Eve mass services in churches around the country and at candle light Vigils held outside. From the well-known to the unknown, Muslims had offered their bodies as “human shields” for last night’s mass, making a pledge to collectively fight the threat of Islamic milit...

'Religion of peace' launching 'ferocious' attacks
Editor's Note: The following report is excerpted from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, the premium online newsletter published by the founder of WND. Subscriptions are $99 a year or, for monthly trials, just $9.95 per month for Credit Card users, and provide instant access for the complete reports. It was only six days after the 9/11 attacks that President Bush described Islam as a religion of peace, specifically saying, "Islam is peace," but the Religion of Peace website reports that for 2010, ther...

Al-Qaeda Websites May Have Spurred Suicide Bombing of Egyptian Coptic Church
Source: AP by Amar Toor on January 7, 2011 at 07:30 AM On New Year's Day, a Suicide bombing killed 21 people at a Coptic church in Alexandria, Egypt. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was quick to accuse foreign groups of orchestrating the attack, while domestic investigators turned their attention to Extremist groups within the country. Now, new evidence has emerged to suggest that Al-Qaeda may have at least lain out the groundwork for the plot via the Web. In the weeks leading up to the attack...

Habib to sue US and Egypt over torture case
Mamdouh Habib. FORMER Guantanamo Bay detainee Mamdouh Habib will use the money received from an out-of-court settlement with the Federal Government to start an international Lawsuit against the US and Egyptian governments. Mr Habib, who reached an agreement last month in which he received a secret sum in exchange for absolving the government of liability in his Torture case, says he has fresh evidence, including film footage. ''I will take this money and use it to sue the Egyptian and the Unite...