 |
Al-Ahram Weekly 26 Aug. - 1 Sep. 1999 Issue No. 444 
|
||
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
| ||
|
Al-Ahram Weekly 26 Aug. - 1 Sep. 1999 Issue No. 444
|
||
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
| ||
Death on the roads
Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Focus Culture Features Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters
SIX WORKERS were killed and 30 others wounded in yet another bus accident on Sunday. The men drowned in the Maryoutiya irrigation canal in the Pyramids area, into which the bus plunged after the driver swerved to avoid crashing into a delivery truck coming in the opposite direction.Ten more workers were wounded in another crash which took place at the entrance of the 7th quarter of Sixth of October City, a satellite of Cairo. On the other side of town, 11 people were wounded in a micro-bus accident on the Amiriya Bridge.
Down south, 12 people were wounded in a car crash near Naga'a Hammadi in the governorate of Qena; and along the northern Mediterranean coast, the collision of two cars on the Alexandria-Matrouh highway resulted in the death of one man and the wounding of nine others.
Royal relations on trial
RELATIVES of the Saudi royal family were put on trial in absentia on Sunday on charges of beating up an Egyptian police officer. Two brothers-in-law of Saudi Prince Turki Ben Abdel-Aziz, Turk and Fahd Al-Fassi, a friend of the family identified as Abdullah Al-Morshed, and two bodyguards, an Austrian and a Syrian, are accused of injuring the officer during a brawl at a Cairo hotel café.Twenty lawyers showed up to represent the victim, police lieutenant Emad Mohamed Abaza, and called for the maximum three-year prison sentence for the accused.
The complaint, filed by Abaza on 26 June, claims that the five defendants beat him up in the course of an argument at the hotel, where Prince Turki occupies the top two floors.
The court adjourned proceedings until 5 September and issued orders that the accused show up for the trial after they -- except for the Syrian -- failed to do so on Sunday.
This is not the first time for Prince Turki and his entourage to be accused of hooliganism. In 1998, Egyptian and Filipino servants accused him of holding them prisoner at the same hotel. At the time, however, the servants were "persuaded" to withdraw their complaints before they went to court.
The root of all evil
ALI AMER Hassan, a 20-year-old student, was killed by his father last week in their home-town of Tema in Sohag governorate. The son had borrowed money from his father which, for some reason, he did not return. The father and son had a fight, which ended with the former picking up a sharp instrument and tearing his son's body to pieces.In Cairo, police resolved the mystery of gunshots which killed a worker and injured a driver on the Autostrad highway. As it turned out, the victims had met an iron-welder, Hussein Abdel- Rahman, and agreed to sell him a quantity of red brick for LE200. As the group walked down the street, an argument erupted about the deal, and Abdel-Rahman produced a gun and shot the two.
Water, water everywhere
SCIENTISTS at the Weather Forecasting Authority have released the bad news: hot air retains large quantities of water vapour. As a result, it is expected that high levels of humidity will prevail until at least the middle of September.According to Sherif Hammad, head of the Weather Forecasting Authority, expected humidity levels will range between 70 and 80 per cent along the Mediterranean coast, between 60 and 70 per cent over the Nile Delta, between 40 and 50 per cent over Cairo and between 10 and 20 per cent over Upper Egypt.
The highest levels of humidity are registered before daybreak when the wind is down and the heat makes the human body more sensitive to the humidity.
Hot summer, cold sales
THE SUMMER sales officially opened on Saturday. The enthusiasm so far is low and the slow movement on the market has been blamed on the hot weather. Other explanations include what have become the "usual" reasons behind low levels of buying.Shop-owners have explained the slow sales as follows: it is the end of the month and people are waiting to receive their salaries first; people no longer have much money to buy anyway; and the shopping festival has just ended, so people have already spent whatever money they had.
Of course, the sale is only just beginning and it is hoped that buyer enthusiasm will grow in the coming weeks.
Life on Mars
THE EGYPTIAN Western Desert has been chosen by the European Space Agency as a possible site on which to conduct 'life on Mars' tests.The agency hopes to be able to test new radar technology that will be used to hunt for evidence of life on the red planet when its Mars Express probe is launched in June 2003.
According to Essam Heggy, a 24-year-old member of the radar-imaging team from the Bordeaux Astronomical Observatory and the first Egyptian to participate in research on Mars, the programme first tried to carry out experiments in Djibouti, whose desert resembles Martian soil. The attempt was unsuccessful and so the Western Desert was chosen as it is extremely dry and the sand is transparent to radar, permitting the rays to penetrate deeply. Also, the dry valleys of the Western Desert are said to resemble those on Mars.
The technology to be used in the experiment cost $150 million and can produce images from a depth of hundreds of metres below the planet's surface via the use of electromagnetic waves.
The request for the test will be submitted officially to the Egyptian authorities in September for their approval.
Medical opinions
THE HEAD of a government hospital sector gave orders that a patient should not receive an X-ray. It was his professional opinion that the man did not need one; besides, it would be better to save the money.His opinion was challenged by the doctor in charge, who insisted the patient needed an X-ray because of a possible leg fracture. The debate ended in an exchange of blows.
The doctor was severely beaten by his superior and promptly headed to the Wayli police station to file a complaint.
