This annual competition, held in Cairo, is the oldest and arguably most prestigious of this memorization competition.  Egypt invites over one hundred students from over seventy countries to compete, many of them are kids as young as seven and do not understand or speak Arabic, the language of the Koran.  The competition takes place over two weeks where students compete until the early hours of the morning while continuing to fast.

Documentary film maker, Greg Barker, followed three 10-year-old students from Maldives, Tajikistan and Senegal, during the competition in 2010.  In his HBO documentary, “Koran by Heart,” Mr. Barker chronicles the lives of these students and their families as they prepare and participate in the competition where they must recite passages from the 600-page Holy Qur’an from memory.

City.Mobi

Also in Egypt today, City.Mobi is celebrating the success of its new guide to Cairo.

City.Mobi offers the most comprehensive mobile travel guides available, with over 800 cities in 200 countries listed. Each is developed by the City.Mobi team to combine into a single global travel directory.

However, each city retains its own mobile identity via a dedicated domain. Already on offer are Brussels.Mobi, Paris.Mobi, Sanfrancisco.Mobi and Sydney.Mobi.

Cairo.mobi is the latest in this illustrious line up, offering click to call functionality – which means no scribbling down telephone numbers.

Most entries are also linked to websites where users can quickly access more detailed information if needed.

Other key features include information on accommodation, restaurants, attractions, entertainment, nightlife, shopping, and transport.

City.Mobi guides include user reviews and traveller utilities such as a translation guide, currency converter, news and local weather guide.