EGYPT: Blessed Day

"Walad! Walad! [It's a boy]," cried one of the palace physicians in triumph. King Farouk, who had sat sleepless all night in the next room, entered his wife's bedchamber with tears in his eyes, took his blond newborn son in his arms and kissed him. "Thanks, Pasha," the King told Obstetrician Ibrahim Magdi Bey, his words automatically bestowing a title on the lucky doctor. Then, reverently, he kissed his 18-year-old Queen Narriman on the brow and left the room.

Joyous Boom. Too excited to stand on ceremony, Egypt's King picked up a telephone...

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