News stories by Cam McGrath

CAIRO, Aug 10 (IPS) - Magda Ibrahim first learnt that she had endometrial cancer when she went to a clinic to diagnose recurring bladder pain and an abnormal menstrual discharge. Unable to afford the recommended hospital treatment, the uninsured 53-year-old widow turned to what she hoped would be a quicker and cheaper therapy.

CAIRO, Jul 26 (IPS) - Less than four percent of Egypt's land mass is suitable for agriculture, and most of it confined to the densely populated Nile River Valley and Delta. With the nation's population of 85 million expected to double by 2050, government officials are grappling with ways of ensuring food security and raising nutritional standards.

BAHARIYA OASIS, Egypt, Jul 12 (IPS) - Using a hoe, farmer Atef Sayyid removes an earthen plug in an irrigation stream, allowing water to spill onto the parcel of land where he grows dates, olives and almonds.

CAIRO, Apr 09 (IPS) - Mohamed Ibrahim first learned he had hepatitis C when he tried to donate blood. Weeks later he received a letter from the blood clinic telling him he carried antibodies of the hepatitis C virus (HCV). He most likely acquired the disease from a blood transfusion he received during surgery when he was a child.

CAIRO, Mar 21 (IPS) - When Egypt's then-president Mohamed Morsi said in June 2013 that "all options" including military intervention, were on the table if Ethiopia continued to develop dams on the Nile River, many dismissed it as posturing. But experts claim Cairo is deadly serious about defending its historic water allotment, and if Ethiopia proceeds with construction of what is set to become Africa's largest hydroelectric dam, a military strike is not out of the question.

SANAA, Jan 31 (IPS) - The Yemeni capital of Sanaa is reputed to be over 2,500 years old, making it one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world. But it is living on borrowed time.

EL RASHID, Egypt, Jan 29 (IPS) - It only takes a light covering of seawater to render land infertile, so Mohamed Saeed keeps a close watch on the sea as it advances year after year towards his two-hectare plot of land. The young farmer, whose clover field lies just 400 metres from Egypt's northern coast, reckons he has less than a decade before his field – and livelihood – submerges beneath the sea.

CAIRO, Jan 09 (IPS) - A draft constitution set to go before a public referendum next week gives the military more privileges, enshrining its place as Egypt’s most powerful institution and placing it above the state.

CAIRO, Dic 26 (IPS) - At a small pet shop in an upscale Cairo neighbourhood, puppies, kittens and sickly-looking parakeets occupy the cages behind the storefront window. But if you want more exciting and exotic animals – such as crocodiles or lion cubs, just ask behind the counter.

CAIRO, Oct 01 (IPS) - Egyptian workers who mobilised during the 2011 uprising that toppled the regime of Hosni Mubarak have used the past two and a half years to organise into unions, press for labour reforms, and strike for better wages and working conditions.