Al-Ahram Weekly | Egypt

		Al-Ahram Weekly Online 31 May - 6 June 2001 Issue No.536
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875		Current issue \| Previous issue \| Site map

Medical aid for Sudan
EGYPT will send a medical mission to Sudan to offer assistance to refugees from the south, according to Sudanese Minister of Health, Ahmed Bilal Othman.
Following a meeting on Tuesday with Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher, Othman also said that Egypt will build a hospital in Sudan and provide existing hospitals with medical equipment. Moreover, health centres will be opened with assistance from the Egyptian Fund for Technical Cooperation with African Countries.
Loud voices
FOREIGN Minister Ahmed Maher said on Tuesday that Egypt will not bow to international pressure over the seven-year jail term handed down last week to prominent sociologist and NGO activist Saadeddin Ibrahim.
"We don't bend to storms and we will not submit to pressure," Maher told journalists. "It is a matter which concerns the Egyptian judiciary, its sovereignty and independence," Maher added. "Saadeddin Ibrahim has the right, like any other citizen, to appeal."
Maher stressed the "deep strategic relationship" between Cairo and Washington, indicating that "some loud voices which tried to make problems for Egypt have not succeeded in the past and their current attempts will not succeed either. What we have found is that every time Israel is caught in a fix -- and they truly are in a fix right now because of their position [regarding the current crisis in the occupied territories] -- they try to cover it up by encouraging some of their friends, or those who unwittingly fall in their trap, to attack Egypt." (see On to the next chapter?)
From Egypt to Israel
DANIEL Kurtzer, US ambassador to Egypt, has been nominated by President George W Bush as ambassador to Israel. Kurtzer, a career diplomat, has served as ambassador to Egypt since 1997.
Al-Shaab is not alone
THE PRESS Syndicate's council, chaired by Al-Ahram board chairman and editor-in-chief Ibrahim Nafie, has expressed sorrow for, and condemnation of, the continued suspension of Al-Shaab newspaper, mouthpiece of the Islamist-oriented Labour Party. The party had also been suspended on the grounds that it was fraught with internal struggles.
In a statement issued after a council meeting on 25 May, the council noted that Al-Shaab has remained shut for a whole year despite 11 court rulings affirming the newspaper's right to resume publication. "Ignoring court rulings affects adversely the Egyptian political system which considers the opposition an integral part of its legitimacy...," the statement said.
The council pledged to "continue making efforts to ensure that Al-Shaab will return and its staff regain the jobs that they unjustly lost."
Tourism flourishes
TOURISM revenue rose to $4.3 billion in 2000, according to Tourism Minister Mamdouh El-Beltagui. He said that tourism revenue has grown by an average of approximately 12.5 per cent annually since 1993.
"5.5 million foreign tourists came to Egypt in 2000, and 9.5 million are expected in 2005," El-Beltagui said. The figures have bounced back since their decline following the killing of 58 tourists in Luxor in November 1997 .
"Tourism revenues represent 11.3 per cent of Egypt's gross domestic product," El-Beltagui said.
Negligence toll
FOUR people died and two were injured after a recently-constructed pedestrian bridge in Old Cairo collapsed on top of their vehicles after midnight on Sunday.
The tragedy was caused by a truck whose load scraped the bottom of the bridge, causing it to fall on the truck and another car. Four men in the truck, including the driver, were killed. A fifth man in the truck and the driver of the other car were severely wounded.
According to police sources, the truck's load exceeded the bridge's clearance limit.
Prosecutors set up a committee of engineers to determine whether there were technical faults in the bridge's construction. The bridge was opened to pedestrians only recently and part of it was still under construction.
Compiled by Shaden Shehab

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