proposed time zone package change to africa file for Cairo

[Steffen Thorsen]

Steffen Thorsen wrote:
> There is no final decision yet (at least that we know of) on what date 
> it will begin, so the date we list is tentative. This week we have 
> asked several governmental sources in/representing Egypt, and they say 
> it will usually start on the last Thursday of April (midnight 
> after/24:00), although one person also said sometime in May (could 
> have been with the meaning that it will start when May begin).
Hello,

To follow-up on my previous comments about daylight saving time in 
Egypt, it has been officially confirmed today that daylight saving time 
will start at midnight tonight (not next week like we suspected based on 
earlier checks with official sources).

We received this update from several official sources, including a 
government agency in Egypt,  as well as on this site:
www.ahram.org.eg/Index.asp?CurFN=fron10.htm&DID=9926 (Arabic),
which translates to this using Google Translate:

"Begin Daylight (Saving) Time at midnight, which is provided at 60 
minutes, the last time even before the holy month of Ramadan, which 
falls in about the middle of August."

The DST end date is likely to be before Ramadan begins, so it will 
probably end on midnight between Thursday, 20 August and Friday, 21 
August. (Ramadan starts around 2009-08-22). So a rule like this is 
probably a good guess:
Rule    Egypt    2009    only    -    Aug    20    23:00s    0    -
and maybe even
Rule    Egypt    2010    only    -    Aug    5    23:00s    0    -
for next year. Eventually, as Ramadan is starting earlier every year, 
their period of DST may be really short unless otherwise advised.

Best regards,
Steffen / timeanddate.com