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Al-Ahram Weekly 20 - 26 July 2000 Issue No. 491 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 20 - 26 July 2000 Issue No. 491
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters
Class 2000 celebrated
PRESIDENT Hosni Mubarak celebrated the graduation of new military cadet classes last night. During the festivities, held at Al-Galaa Club, graduates with the highest grades in all military, air and naval academies were honoured.Military academies have been celebrating the graduation of their cadets over the past two weeks. President Mubarak attended ceremonies at both the Air Force Academy and the Military Academy on Monday and Wednesday respectively, in addition to the one held at the Technical Military Academy last week.
Present at the ceremonies were Minister of Defence Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, Chief-of-Staff General Magdi Hatata, Prime Minister Atef Ebeid, People's Assembly Speaker Fathi Sorour and Shura Council Speaker Mustafa Kamal Helmi.
An air show by newly-graduated pilots was a particularly spectacular affair, displaying expertise in flying jet fighters such as the Mirage-2000 and F-16, Buffalo transports and early warning E2C planes. A number of Apache and Gazelle helicopters were also flown in the clear skies of Belbeis, northeast of Cairo, where the Air Academy is located.
Graduation ceremonies took place as well last week at both the Naval Academy and the Air Defence Academy in Alexandria.
Last call for DNA
THE REMAINS of the passengers and crew who died in the crash of EgyptAir Flight 990 on 31 October will be cremated next October, unless their relatives provide DNA samples, needed for identification purposes, in time, reports Amira Ibrahim.Injy El-Habashi, daughter of the plane's pilot, Captain Ahmed El-Habashi, informed Al-Ahram Weekly that the American Embassy in Cairo has a list of the names of all passengers whose relatives are required to provide DNA samples. "The samples will be sent to the US investigating team," said El-Habashi, adding that "the new samples are required to authenticate earlier samples given when we [the relatives] visited the United States following the disaster."
El-Habashi said there is a fear some relatives do not know about the needed DNA samples because there is no contact between them and EgyptAir or the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board). "This is why we have to inform them one by one," she said.
US authorities can verify the identities of the deceased by comparing their remains with hair, blood, dental and other samples containing genetic information. Two months ago, a Rhode Island medical examiner released the remains of 18 victims who had been identified. All of them had American addresses. None of the 217 bodies were found intact, but more than 6,000 body pieces have been recovered to date. Of those, 1,300 have undergone DNA testing.
The spree begins!
THIS YEAR'S Shopping Festival opened on Tuesday with a bang: the Love Festival Operetta, a musical extravaganza attended by Prime Minister Atef Ebeid.A month of spending and saving has begun. For the first time in the festival's history, 600 jewelry shops are joining in. Discounts on airplane tickets and goods are expected to reach 50 per cent.
Satellite countdown
THE SECOND Egyptian media satellite, NileSat 102, has been transported successfully from Toulouse, France, where it was manufactured by Matra-Marconi, to French Guiana in Latin America, from where it will be launched into outer space.Minister of Information Safwat El-Sherif has said the satellite's launching on 18 August will complete the "first generation" in the Egyptian satellite age.
Laser scare
FRIGHTENED by two recent radiation deaths, eight people checked into a Cairo hospital after a light show at a wedding party temporarily blinded them.Many Cairenes have been subjected to new wedding antics, such as laser shows which, for some reason, are deemed trendy, especially when focused on a wedding cake. Well, in the case of this particular wedding, which took place last Thursday, the festivities were taken just a little too far. Eight guests suffered eye inflammation and exhaustion as a direct result of over-exposure to laser rays.
The doctor who received the patients at Al-Nil Hospital explained that the guests' condition was the result of both psychological, as well as physical factors.
He told AFP that people are in a panic because of the huge media attention given to the Mit Halfa incident, in which two people died after coming into contact with a radioactive object.
Road casualties
IN YET another highway accident, three cars collided on the Cairo-Aswan highway near Minya, killing 18 people, including a nine-year-old girl, and injuring 17 others.Prime Minister Atef Ebeid took speedy action, ordering LE3,000 in compensation to each of the families of those killed and LE500 to the families of every injured person.
The remains of war
FOUR workers were severely injured in an explosion of an artillery shell, a war leftover, on a farm where they worked along the Cairo-Alexandria desert highway.A search of the area produced five more unexploded shells.
Pleasure and its discontents
IMPOTENCE is a sensitive subject for men. This is what an unfortunate 35-year-old woman discovered when her husband stabbed her with a knife this week in Alexandria.The man had swallowed a Viagra -- the miracle blue pill manufactured by Pfizer in 1998 that quickly became a best-seller. The pill apparently raised the man's expectations, if nothing more.
His wife seems to have been equally enthusiastic. Decked out in seductive clothes, she belly-danced for him. Something, however, went drastically wrong. For some unknown reason, the man's advances fell flat and were spurned by his wife. In a fit of male frenzy, he went to the kitchen, chose the best knife he could find and stabbed the woman, seriously injuring her. The wife is in hospital and the man is in custody.
The Viagra pill was approved by the Egyptian health authorities last December, following an 18-month ban.
Chicken frenzy
DOESN'T the old saying claim that the path to your man's heart is through his stomach? If only the wife of an oil company clerk had heeded the advice.When she gave larger portions of a chicken lunch to her sons, her husband was infuriated to the extent that he hurled her out of the window of their third floor apartment.
Once again, the wife is in hospital and the man in custody.
