		Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 14 - 20 May 1998 Issue No.377
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875		Current issue \| Previous issue \| Site map

Paris visit

PRESIDENT Hosni Mubarak is expected in Paris on Monday to hold talks with French President Jacques Chirac on the faltering peace process in the Middle East and the role European countries could play to support US efforts to salvage the process.

The talks will also deal with the results of the G15 meeting held in Cairo, specially on the need for an effective dialogue between the North and South on an orderly, regulated international economic system.

During the state visit, President Mubarak will also meet with members of the National Council of Business Leaders, a group that includes the chairmen of 150 leading French companies. More than 100 Egyptian businessmen will accompany President Mubarak.

Key to the future

ON THE last day of the 36th Congress of the International Advertising Association [IAA], a campaign -- "Give a kid a hand" -- to help the children of the world was launched by Mrs Suzanne Mubarak along with Norman Vale, IAA director-general and Barry Day, the IAA's creative director, reports Rehab Saad.

Mrs Mubarak was chosen by the IAA to serve as the honourary chairperson of the World Advisory Body of the programme. "As you come to the close of the 36th IAA World Congress, and on the occasion of your 60th anniversary, I am proud and honoured to accept the honourary chair of your worldwide campaign to help the children of the world and to work towards a better future for all," Mrs Mubarak told the gathering.

Mrs Mubarak said she was confident the new IAA initiative "will touch the hearts of people all over the world and get them to contribute to our children and towards a better future."

Marking '48

POLITICAL parties, syndicates, actors and writers will launch a series of public rallies and activities marking 50 years since the usurpation of Palestine in 1948 (known as Al-Nakba, or the catastrophe). The events will begin today, the eve of the anniversary of the establishment of Israel. A political rally will be held at the headquarters of the Tagammu Party at 6:30pm today. Political party leaders and representatives of the professional and workers' syndicates are to attend. At 7:00pm, the National Theatre will open Palestine Solidarity Week, with a speech by actor Gamil Rateb and a song by actress and political activist Mohsena Tawfiq.

On Friday, Egyptian political party leaders will place flowers at the monument of the unknown soldier in Nasr City. Then they will head to Al-Azhar mosque for the Friday prayers, where they will hold a memorial service for the martyrs of the war. A sit-in protesting the occupation of Palestine will start at 11:00am at the headquarters of Writers' Syndicate, and another will take place at the Press Syndicate. Actors and poets, among them Mahmoud Yassin, Mohsena Tawfiq, Murid Barghouti, Ahmed Fouad Negm and Sayed Hegab, will participate in the events that will take place at Al-Salam Theatre throughout next week. The newly-formed Egyptian Cartoonists' Front will exhibit 30 cartoons by Egyptian and Palestinian artists and cartoonists such as Naji Al-Ali, Gamil Shafiq and Latifa Youssef.

"An entire generation does not know anything [about the catastrophe]," said novelist Radwa Ashour. "We hope they will now... It is a chance for expression." Actress Mohsena Tawfiq, who will open today's events at the National Theatre, said she will sing a song by Mohamed Abdel-Wahab entitled Nashid Falastin (Palestinian Anthem). "When I first heard it after the Nakba, I was very moved. I want to know if today's generation will experience the same feelings. This is what will make my contribution meaningful," she said.

India defiant

DEFYING an international storm, India conducted two more underground nuclear tests yesterday bringing to five the number of tests conducted since Monday.

US President Bill Clinton signed official papers slapping sanctions on India while Pakistani leaders resolved to take all necessary measures to preserve their country's national security. China's reaction was more reserved with the foreign ministry saying it was weighing its response carefully through certain channels, Reuters and AP reported.

The Indian government said in a statement that the two sub-kiloton tests held in the desert state of Rajasthan did not release radioactivity into the atmosphere. It added that India's nuclear testing was now complete and that it was prepared to consider a ban on such activity as a nuclear power within the framework of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

Answering reporters question at the end of the G-15 meeting in Cairo, Indian Vice President Krishna Kant said India was ready to bear any US sanctions. Under a 1994 US law, Washington can freeze all but humanitarian aid and oppose loans to India from the IMF and the World Bank. Kant maintained that his country had not violated any international treaty or agreement signed up till now and was open to denuclearisation of the world.