People, Arabic news: More than soccer

Who would have thought that a football match between Egypt and Algeria would spark such a huge reaction among artists? But it did...First, Amr Diab cancelled a scheduled concert in Cairo because "he sympathised with people's sadness". Then prominent Egyptian actor Yousef Shaaban turned down an invitation to Algeria to be honoured, while fellow actor Sharif Muneer returned an award he won once from the Wahran Film Festival to the Algerian embassy. Algerian singer Warda was attacked by the press for saying she supports her country's team. Meanwhile, Lebanese singers Haifa Wehbe and Nancy Ajram were slammed for announcing that they supported the Egyptian team!

For now, it looks like the battle will not end.

Al Nour is back on set

After the reconciliation of Syrian actor Abbas Al Nouri from Bab Al Hara and director Bassam Al Mulla, it seems quite certain that Al Nouri will return to star in the fifth season of the very successful series featuring life in the ancient neighbourhoods of Damascus. Al Nouri starred in the second season of the series, as Abu Issam but soon after the show was aired the actor argued with the director and left the series. In the third series, Al Nouri's character is in fact dead.

Rumours have it that the argument was caused by money issues while others say the actor left because of the tight script.No matter the reason, Al Nouri and Al Mulla have been able to resolve the issues in front of the cameras on MBC's 1 program Kalam Nawaeem and apologised to each other.

Al Nouri expressed his admiration and respect for the talented director and Al Mulla apologised for not having congratulated him when he got the award for best Arab actor.

Now, there is just one concern. How will Al Mulla bring back the dead character on set? This is beyond us, but we hope he can pull it off successfully. The fifth season of the popular soap opera will be aired next Ramadan.