Another article about Google indexing five of the world's libraries that refers back to Ptolemy I's work setting up the Library of Alexandria.

...[T]he Library of Alexandria ... [s]et up by Ptolemy I in the third century B.C., it was meant to hold every book on every imaginable subject.  To ensure that no title escaped its vast catalog, a royal decree ordered that any book brought into the city was to be confiscated and copied; only then would the original (sometimes the copy) be returned.

[More], New York Times, New York, USA, December 19, 2004.

cf. At our fingertips, wisdom of the ages.

AK Comics usher in the era of the homegrown Middle Eastern superhero.

Batman ... the X-Men ... Spiderman ... Bah!! These American superheroes are old news.

Now is the new era of the homegrown Arab superhero, four of them in fact — and they look likely to give their made-in-America counterparts a run for their money...

[More], The Daily Star, Libya, December 21, 2004.

Egypt brought back an ancient mural from the Metropolitan Museum in New York, "said Culture Minister Farouk Hosni yesterday.

In press statements on this occasion, Hosni said that the mural, discovered in Helwan, Egypt by archaeologist Ibrahim Zarqana, was 12 pieces that were auctioned off in Bonhams in London in October.

He said when the Metropolitan Museum discovered that the mural that dates back to the prehistoric was stolen from Egypt; it immediately contacted the Egyptian authorities...

[More], State Information Service, Egypt, December 21, 2004.