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Al-Ahram Weekly 27 April - 3 May 2000 Issue No. 479 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 27 April - 3 May 2000 Issue No. 479
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Special Features Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters The Sudanese connection
MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS Amr Moussa was expected in Khartoum yesterday for meetings with his opposite number in Sudan, Mustafa Osman Ismail. Moussa, who is on his way to Zambia for a conference of foreign ministers of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), will discuss in Khartoum efforts to resolve the internal conflict in Sudan and activate a joint Libyan-Egyptian initiative aimed at organising a conference for dialogue between the Sudanese government and opposition.One more in the bag
PAKISTAN has confirmed the extradition of an unnamed Egyptian, suspected of being an Islamist militant, to Cairo. According to a report published last Thursday by the daily Al Gomhuria newspaper, the suspect arrived in Cairo aboard an EgyptAir flight from Karachi via Dubai and was escorted by security forces from Cairo airport in handcuffs.During a visit to Cairo last week, General Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's military ruler, pledged that his country would not serve as a base for terrorism. In 1996, Egypt and Pakistan signed a security cooperation agreement, months after a blast at the Egyptian embassy in Islamabad that killed 17 people. The underground Jihad group took responsibility for the explosion.
To resign in shame
MEMBER of parliament Yehia Shaalan was forced to resign from parliament on Monday after its ethics committee found him guilty of a breach of trust and making illegal profits.Shaalan, a deputy from the southern city of Luxor, was accused of abusing an old parliamentary privilege under which every MP is granted eight entry visas to Saudi Arabia per year, for the purpose of hajj [pilgrimage], to be distributed among his constituents. Shaalan, however, illegally sold his quota, via his lawyer, to a man called Salaheddin Ahmed for the sum of LE32,000.
According to informed parliamentary sources, People's Assembly Speaker Fathi Sorour, upon receiving documented information on the transaction, immediately referred Shaalan to the ethics committee for investigation. The committee found Shaalan guilty of profiteering, forced him to pay back most of the money and recommended that his parliamentary membership be withdrawn as soon as possible. Fearing that the loss of membership would deny him the opportunity of contesting the next elections, Shaalan opted to submit his resignation.
Also this week, parliament's Legislative Committee agreed to strip MP Fayez El-Tinikhi of his parliamentary immunity for allegedly issuing three bad cheques for a total of LE925,000 to the Faisal Islamic Bank.
Both Shaalan and El-Tinikhi are members of the ruling National Democratic Party.
Health costs of pollution
YOU MAY HAVE already felt that the air quality in the Greater Cairo area was not that good. Unfortunately, you were right if this was your conclusion, which is corroborated by a recent report issued by the Cairo health administration. According to the latest air pollution readings, the southern section of Greater Cairo, specifically Helwan, Tora, Tibbin and Bassatin, has been the victim of increasing amounts of pollutants. The main culprits behind the increase have been named by the report as the Tora and Helwan cement factories.It is common knowledge that although cement production has been on the rise, most factories do not have operative filters in their stacks. The report documented that pollution was the direct reason behind 11,000 asthma sufferers and 12,000 other people down with bronchitis in Helwan and Tibbin alone. Further, the highest incidence of tuberculosis occurs in the Helwan area (the ratio is one and a half higher than in any part of Cairo), while 50 percent of the residents of the Helwan, Mayo, Tora and Tibbin areas are affected by eye diseases and eczema.
In the same week in which the report was issued, the Ministry of Interior announced that it had recorded 1,545 environmental violations in one day. These included car exhaust, noise and littering offences.
Barrada stabbing case closed
A CASE that will never reach the courts is last month's stabbing of Ahmed Barrada, the world's No 3 squash player. The Prosecutor-General has decided to shelve the investigation of the case. The decision was taken on the grounds that the assailant cannot be traced. A man arrested on suspicion of carrying out the attack was released after Barrada failed to identify him as his attacker.Barrada was stabbed outside his home in Maadi on 20 March. Following surgery in Cairo, he travelled to Germany for physiotherapy.
The price of looting...
AN EGYPTIAN worker, Said Hassan, was sentenced by a Kuwaiti court to two and a half years in prison, after which he is to be deported, for looting during the riots which took place at Kheitan last October. Two other workers, Hosni Mohamed, also an Egyptian, and Nur Shams Al-Haq, from Bangladesh, were convicted of battery and fined $163 each. Thirteen were acquitted .Hassan was quoted by AFP as saying that he would appeal against his sentence. Throughout the five-month trial, defence lawyers repeatedly alleged that the accused were tortured by police in the course of the interrogation.
The incidents began as a supermarket brawl in Kheitan (a working-class district 20km south of the city of Kuwait) that developed into a riot, eventually involving approximately 4,000 disgruntled workers who burned vehicles and smashed stores.
Over 264,000 Egyptians live in Kuwait.
... and of over-excitement
INSPIRED by the spirit of the wedding celebration he was attending, 65-year-old Saadeddin Mohamed of the southern governorate of Sohag decided to take a Viagra pill. Unfortunately, Mohamed only succeeded in exacerbating his heart condition, and died shortly after swallowing the small blue pill.Ever since Viagra became an international craze, it has been available on the black market in Egypt. Legalised only last December, Viagra is only available to patients who have a doctor's prescription. Pleasure-seekers, however, are serviced by a thriving black market, although not always to their benefit.
Risky fish custom
THE FESTIVAL of Sham Al-Nessim celebrates the advent of spring. It is also an Egyptian holiday that invariably leaves in its wake many cases of food poisoning -- an occurrence closely related to the age-old tradition of eating fisikh (salted fish) on this occasion. In an attempt to limit the damage, the Cairo Governorate has impounded 1,000 cartons of inedible fisikh as well as three tons of other types of salted fish. Cairo Governor Abdel-Rehim Shehata also ordered a committee of health specialists and governorate officials to examine all shops trading in the tasty yet dangerous fish.TV shopping bonanza
For the couch potato and those keeping up with the times, you do not have to leave home in order to go shopping. Last Thursday, TAMIMA Marketing signed two one-year renewable contracts with the Egyptian Satellite Company and the Media Production Company, giving the home-shopping conglomerate exclusive rights to a 24-hour channel on NileSat and a studio at the Media Production City.The agreements will bring into your homes an uninterrupted flow of advertisements for tourist resorts, jobs and a multitude of TAMIMA products, including home appliances.
Summer time
AL-AHRAM WEEKLY would like to remind its readers to set their clocks 60 minutes forward at midnight today (Thursday 27 April).Compiled by Fatemah Farag
