18 - 24 January 2001
Issue No.517
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 18 - 24 January 2001 Issue No.517 |
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A reversal of fortune
THE HIGHER State Security Court has sentenced the former board chairman of both the Aswan Metallurgical Development Company and the Aswan Iron and Steel Company, Mohamed Abdel-Raouf Bahgat, to 15 years imprisonment with hard labour. A second defendant, board member Ibrahim El-Shimi, was given 10 years and the two were ordered by the court to return LE116 million, which they had acquired through forgery and corruption. Bahgat was also ordered to return an additional LE2,198,000.The two ex-managers were found guilty of embezzling millions of pounds from the companies they managed.
Another circuit of the same court sentenced Mohamed Foda, former press secretary of the minister of culture, to five years in prison and fined him LE3,167,000, $3,700,80,000 Italian lire and 85 Emirates dirhams for misusing his position to amass wealth.
Against the faith
FIFTEEN followers of the Bahai faith were arrested this week because their "ideas and behaviour" go against Islam. The authorities are searching for 16 others. According to security sources, members of the faith were accustomed to walking virtually naked in the village of Shuraneya in the Upper Egyptian governorate of Sohag.Egypt is home to a small number of Bahais, a sect founded in the 19th century by Bahaullah, an Iranian Shi'ite Muslim.
Protecting history
IN AN EFFORT to preserve submerged antiquities off the Alexandrian coast, the city has removed 150 20-ton concrete blocks from the waters of the Mediterranean, reports Nevine El-Aref.The blocks were picked up from the waters surrounding the 15th century Qait Bey Fort. They had been dumped there in 1990 by the Beach Protection Authority to protect the eastern side of the fort against erosion. The blocks have been relocated to the northern side of the fort with the intention of maintaining its foundation. The precaution is described by Ibrahim Darwish, head of the Underwater Archaeology Department, as necessary because recent studies revealed that the northern part of the fort is constructed on an irregular rocky surface. Throughout the ages, and with the direct effect of the sea, the rocky surface has become weak, posing a threat to the fort's structure. Archaeologists believe that the fort was built on the site of Alexandria's famed lighthouse, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
Although this is a contentious theory, specialists expect that the removal of the concrete blocks will allow them to recover thousands of submerged artefacts, including the feet of a statue of one of the Ptolemaic rulers of Egypt. The effort is also aimed at protecting and preserving submerged Pharaonic and Graeco-Roman artifacts.
Decimating cannabis
THESE are not good times for connoisseurs of cannabis. The Interior Ministry is escalating a campaign, begun last month, to eradicate cannabis cultivation in the Sinai desert. Officials were happy to announce that the latest effort in the geographically challenging area of mid-Sinai has been very successful, although no exact figures were released.Documented efforts go back to 1993, when one million of the offending plants were destroyed. The efforts picked up momentum later and the number of destroyed plants rose to 8 million in 1994 and jumped to 52 million the following year. Then came what the ministry described as the "frightening" figure of 231 million plants in 1996.
Since then, the number of plants destroyed has leveled off at around 64 million annually.
Deadly relief
THOUSANDS of Egyptians have waited for years for money from a United Nations Fund to compensate them for abandoning their jobs and homes in Kuwait following the Iraqi invasion of 1990. Ramadan Abu-Seif was no different, and for 10 years he shuttled from one office to the next and scanned the newspapers for news of the anticipated money. Finally, his day came. A cheque for LE9,000 arrived.It may seem a paltry sum, but for Ramadan it was a windfall. As he sat in a car outside the Assiut office where he picked up the cheque, his excitement got the better of him. He died of a heart attack.
Throngs hit IT fair
IF YOU HURRY, you can still make it to Cairo-Telecomp 2001, the fifth telecommunications, information technology, networking and broadcasting trade fair, scheduled to close tomorrow. The fair got off to an exciting start on Tuesday at the Cairo International Conference Centre (CICC). By 10.30am, shortly after opening time, it was already difficult finding a parking space in the CICC's large parking area.The fair had a new look this year. It was spread over 17,000 square metres with booths for over 250 local and international companies, reflecting the growing interest in the Egyptian telecommunications and Internet technology (IT) market. If you are an Internet buff, head straight to the e-town hall, which has the latest technology and services on, and for, the web. As for shopping enthusiasts, a 5,000-square-metre mall was allocated to provide the general public with telecommunications and IT products.
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