Al-Ahram Weekly | Egypt

		Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 14 - 20 December 2000 Issue No.512
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875		Current issue \| Previous issue \| Site map

Newsreel

Plenty of wheat
A RECENT US agricultural report indicates that Egypt is one of the world's major importers of wheat. From July 1999 to May 2000, Egypt imported some 4.4 million tons of wheat, 3.3 million of which were from the United States.
The report also cites figures on per person Egyptian consumption of wheat, which is also one of the highest rates in the world. The average Egyptian consumes between 180 and 200 kilogrammes of wheat per year.
Windshield stickers
WITH MORE and more cars on the road, Egypt's traffic laws are constantly being upgraded, and the latest change involves a very important aspect of licensing one's vehicle. A sticker will now be placed on the front windshield of cars indicating the expiration date of car licences. This will make it much easier for police to spot violators, and will help avoid unnecessary delays at traffic checkpoints.
The sticker has been designed in such a way so as not to allow tampering or counterfeiting. The new programme will begin once the legal and administrative details are put into place.
Consulate transformed
ALEXANDRIA is set to get a new national museum, to be housed in the city's former US consular building. The LE15 million project will take less than a year to complete, Supreme Council for Antiquities Head Gaballah Ali Gaballah said. The government purchased the beautiful, turn of the 19th century, three-story villa from the US for LE12 million several years ago. The museum will house artifacts from Alexandria through the ages.
In other tourism-related news, the Aswan governorate is considering a proposal submitted by an investment group to install a cable car to transport tourists to Philae temple, which is currently only accessible by boat. The same group, according to reports, has also proposed installing a cable car to take tourists to and from Abu Simbel airport to Abu Simbel temple.
Strange stabbing
A COPTIC Orthodox priest is in critical condition after being stabbed 27 times by a man with a history of mental illness. The incident occurred earlier in the week in Bardis, a village in the southern governorate of Sohag.
Anonymous police sources said that 30-year-old Alaa A'zam El-Affendi attacked the 75-year-old Reverend Haqial Ghobrial because he was convinced the priest had cast a magic spell which caused El-Affendi's wife to leave him.
Apparently, the wife had been consulting Ghobrial for advice on her marriage. El-Affendi's family informed police that El-Affendi, who works as a school attendant, had recently been hospitalised and that he suffered from schizophrenia.
Not very smart
A WOMAN working as a domestic maid was worried that Ramadan was approaching and she and her husband did not own a TV. Desperate at the idea of not being able to watch the fawazir, Ramadan's famous riddles programme, she allegedly stole LE60,000 from her employer, with which she and her husband bought a TV, video, and a large amount of gold. According to reports, she was not aware that the fawazir had been cancelled this year.
In a separate incident, a man was caught trying to rob the staff closet at a mosque during the first week of Ramadan, but was caught in the act by a security guard. The man claimed he fell asleep after prayers and that when he woke up and found the door closed he attempted to leave the mosque via a window.
New terminal
A DECISION on the much-discussed third terminal at Cairo International Airport will be taken in the next six months.
Transport Minister Ibrahim El-Demeiri said different funding options for building the terminal were currently being considered. Those options include cooperative efforts with investors, funding from revenues from either the airport authority itself or the government's own coffers, and low-interest foreign loans.
The terminal is being built to handle the increase in tourist traffic to the country and to improve the process of arrival and departure into the country in general.
The long walk
HISTORIANS will be pleased to discover that a huge portion of the country's recent historical documents may soon be that much easier to navigate. The treasure trove of documents currently housed in Dar Al-Kutub represents some 13 kilometres-long worth of material, all of which must currently be perused by hand.
Now, the Culture Ministry, which is in charge of the documents, is considering a plan, in cooperation with the Ministry of Communications, to attempt to place this tremendous archive in more easily accessible and researchable electronic form, on computers and microfiche.
A joint committee has been formed to address this possibility. The committee will issue its report on the cost and length of time necessary to undertake the project in two months time.
Compiled by Tarek Atia

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