L'Orient le Jour (Egypt)

Me, Eva Habil, a copt, the first mayor of Egypt

Egypt's first female mayor has been elected. Eva Habil is an Egyptian Christian Copt, from a large village of ten thousand in the Nile valley. What’s interesting is that this region south of Cairo is traditionally an extremely conservative region, south of Cairo. But such is her popularity  that one of the region’s elders said that this 53-year-old single lawyer would make a good leader – and made comparisons  with Angela Merkel, Germany’s first female Chancellor.  Habil’s father was also a mayor but she said she was in no way parachuted in and spoke of the difficulty of being a woman in a chauvinist society, troubled by thirty years of Islamism. But Egypt, in contrast to many Arab countries, has been seen as a pioneer in female rights… In 1956 it gave women political rights but the ensuing rise of political Islam set women back. She said modestly that things evolve step by step, but that others with follow her example.

Le Figaro (France)

Chased from Louxor by tourists and archaeologists

In a country that's world-famous for its archaeological sites, some of the inhabitants are now victims of this fame. There’s news that Egyptians living near a site in Louxor, next to Gourna, have been chased out by tourists and archaeologists. For centuries the Gournayans have lived here, on top of noble tombs. But over the last few years, authorities have been trying to get them out. They’ve resisted, but then the bulldozers were brought in to raze their shacks. 
And at the end of November, the final straw came, with the electricity supply being illegally cut off to force them out into the desert.

The Times (UK)

Jean Charles de Menezes jury condemns police

All over the British press there's one story that just won’t go away – and is a thorn in the side of the police.
It’s the condemning inquest into the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes. There's a photo of a protestor outside the court wearing the words "unlawful killing" on her T-shirt. Menezes was the Brazilian electrician killed by officers in the London tube, back in 2005. They mistook him for a suicide bomber trying to blow up the underground. Well, the jury has condemned Scotland Yard, rejecting that it was a lawful killing. The coroner had sparked cries of a “whitewash” when he’d actually denied them returning an outright unlawful killing verdict. In the end, it was an open verdict. It’s being called one of the most important public examinations of police conduct – and the jurors found the police testimonies unreliable.
It's a major embarrassment for British police.

The Independent (UK)

Sorry we killed your cow, RSPCA tells Hindus – have another one…. Archbishop of Canterbury helps to heal bitter rift after temple animal is put down

In the Independent there is an unusual story about a cow, an archbishop and the Hindu community... the article explains.
A bitter rift developed last year between Britain’s Hindus and animal protection group the RSPCA. Now the archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has had to step in to sort things out. In December last year, animal welfare officers put down a cow in pain at a certain Manor Temple, which outraged Hindu community. But the RSPCA said the cow was suffering unnecessarily after paralysis following an overly vigorous mating session with the resident bull. The two sides (the RSPCA and hte Hindus) have had high level talks, and now with the help of the archibishop, they’ve patched things up. As an early Christmas gesture the RSPCA’s going to give the temple a replacement cow.