CAIRO: Egyptian actress Rania Youssef is celebrating the festive season with a “bold photography session” inside the house of the renowned fashion designer Bahij Hussein.
The actress appeared in a golden dress by the designer while being interviewed recently. Hussein said he was happy to work with Rania.
Reports say many surprises regarding the actress are likely to be announced through her official page on Facebook soon.
Born in Cairo in 1973 to an officer and a flight attendant, Rania became a famous Arab celebrity. Prior to her acting career, she worked as a model. She also appeared in a number of television series.
In November, Rania was in the spotlight after saying she was once harassed in a public place but could not catch the molester. The incident pushed her to demand laws to curb sexual harassment in Egypt.
She also said she will stop working with the actresses Ghada Abdelrazek and Zeina despite the strong friendship between them in the past because of conflicts while filming together.
Rania celebrates festive season with ‘bold’ photography
Rania celebrates festive season with ‘bold’ photography
Fans bid farewell to Japan’s only pandas
TOKYO: Panda lovers in Tokyo said goodbye on Sunday to a hugely popular pair of the bears that are set to return to China, leaving Japan without the beloved animals for the first time in half a century.
Loaned out as part of China’s “panda diplomacy” program, the distinctive black-and-white animals have symbolized friendship between Beijing and Tokyo since the normalization of diplomatic ties in 1972.
Some visitors at Ueno Zoological Gardens were left teary-eyed as they watched Japan’s only two pandas Lei Lei and Xiao Xiao munch on bamboo.
The animals are expected to leave for China on Tuesday following a souring of relations between Asia’s two largest economies.
“I feel like seeing pandas can help create a connection with China too, so in that sense I really would like pandas to come back to Japan again,” said Gen Takahashi, 39, a Tokyo resident who visited the zoo with his wife and their two-year-old daughter.
“Kids love pandas as well, so if we could see them with our own eyes in Japan, I’d definitely want to go.”
The pandas’ abrupt return was announced last month after Japan’s conservative premier Sanae Takaichi hinted Tokyo could intervene militarily in the event of any attack on Taiwan.
Her comment provoked the ire of Beijing, which regards the island as its own territory.
The 4,400 lucky winners of an online lottery took turns viewing the four-year-old twins at Ueno zoo while others gathered nearby, many sporting panda-themed shirts, bags and dolls to celebrate the moment.
Mayuko Sumida traveled several hours from the central Aichi region in the hope of seeing them despite not winning the lottery.
“Even though it’s so big, its movements are really funny-sometimes it even acts kind of like a person,” she said, adding that she was “totally hooked.”
“Japan’s going to be left with zero pandas. It feels kind of sad,” she said.
Their departure might not be politically motivated, but if pandas return to Japan in the future it would symbolize warming relations, said Masaki Ienaga, a professor at Tokyo Woman’s Christian University and expert in East Asian international relations.
“In the future...if there are intentions of improving bilateral ties on both sides, it’s possible that (the return of) pandas will be on the table,” he told AFP.
