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Al-Ahram Weekly 17 - 23 August 2000 Issue No. 495 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 17 - 23 August 2000 Issue No. 495
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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 Calling the doctor
A REGULAR complaint made by those who frequent the northern coast was the lack of medical facilities. The flaw has been redeemed with the establishment of a high-tech emergency military hospital inaugurated on Monday by President Hosni Mubarak. The Mubarak Hospital for Accidents and Emergencies is a 70-bed structure, including a blood bank, the latest in lab technology and intensive care units. These facilities will service civilians as well as the military, covering the highway which extends from Alexandria to the town of Salloum along the border with Libya.Free at last
STATE Security Prosecutor Hisham Saraya last Thursday ordered the release on bail of sociologist Saadeddin Ibrahim and four employees of the Ibn Khaldun Centre for Developmental Studies. In a statement to the press, Saraya said that the "investigation was continuing and that no specific charges have been pressed against Ibrahim." Earlier, Ibrahim was banned from travelling outside the country. Ibrahim was questioned in connection with the acceptance of illegal funding from abroad, forging voting cards and producing a documentary about parliamentary elections that was said to tarnish Egypt's image. He was first taken into custody on 30 June and was released on LE10,000 bail. Nadia Abdel-Nour, a Sudanese accountant for the Ibn Khaldun Centre, was released on LE5,000 bail and three others being held in the case were released on bail ranging between LE500 and LE1,000. Osama El-Baz, chief political adviser to President Hosni Mubarak, commented that Ibrahim's arrest, and subsequent release, did not mean that the government was "trying to muzzle any opposition or to ... intimidate any activists. This is not a case of a political nature. It is strictly a judicial matter." Ibrahim's first public function following his release was to join last Saturday's funeral procession of the late Wafd leader Fouad Serageddin.Patience on trial
THE PATIENCE of lawyers is once again wearing thin with yet another delay in setting a date for Bar Association elections, reports Mona El-Nahhas. Their anger was fuelled on Monday when Counsellor Wahid Mahmoud, head of the interim committee in charge of running the association's affairs, declined to set an election date. Mahmoud argued that setting a date was the responsibility of Counsellor Mahfouz Shuman, head of the judicial committee in charge of supervising elections at professional syndicates. Shuman previously said that an election date cannot be set before 299 polling stations have been readied at the general syndicate and its branch offices. According to Mahmoud, only 80 stations have been prepared to date. Lawyers described the delay as "unjustified procrastination" on the part of the government. They requested a meeting with Shuman to discuss the issue, and threatened to resume sit-in strikes and work stoppages if a date for elections was not set soon.Radioactive action
THE FIRST decisive action to regulate the use of radioactive equipment after the Mit Helfa scandal came last week with the decision of the Minister of Health and Population Ismail Sallam to tighten control procedures over the use of such equipment. According to the new regulations, the import of radioactive material will not be allowed before proof is offered that all security precautions have been taken and an import license is obtained. The new guidelines were decided by a multi-ministerial higher committee set up by Prime Minister Atef Ebeid following the death of a farmer and his son as a result of being exposed to a radio-active gadget they found in their fields in the village of Mit Helfa. Officials have said that a comprehensive protection plan on the national level will come into effect in accordance with a report which has been prepared by the committee on the events that led up to the deaths at Mit Helfa.Escape to Italy
AFTER 12 years of marriage and two daughters, Stefania Atzori and Hisham Abul-Naga got divorced only to begin a bitter dispute over custody of their children. Atzori is Italian and Abul-Naga is an Italian-Egyptian and both reside in Kuwait. A court awarded the father custody of the elder daughter last January. But the girl took refuge in the Italian embassy and she was joined there in June by her mother and eight-year-old sister. Stefania has claimed that Hisham abused her and her daughters and asked to be sent home to Italy, "where women are protected by law and where we have the same rights as men." On 9 August, another Kuwaiti court approved the repatriation of the mother and girls to Italy on "humanitarian grounds." The father, who denies the claim of abuse, was outraged, declaring that he found out about the repatriation from Italian TV. "I will do whatever I can to get my daughters back. It was shocking to learn they had left Kuwait despite a travel ban on them," Abul-Naga told AP, adding that he would seek the assistance of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.Oh, behave!
INTERNET liberties have their limits and Egypt's name will not be associated with "improper" cyber behaviour. This message rang clear with the arrest in Cairo of the owner of an advertising company on charges of showing pornographic material on a site with "Egypt" written at the top. The material reportedly included indecent pictures, allegedly of Egyptian university students as well as actresses.
Compiled by Fatemah Farag
