Al-Ahram Weekly | Egypt

		Al-Ahram Weekly Online 12 - 18 July 2001 Issue No.542
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875		Current issue \| Previous issue \| Site map

Forces graduation
EARLY July, just before summer vacations begin, is traditionally the time when hundreds of army and police cadets graduate to become officers. On Monday, President Hosni Mubarak and military brass, including Minister of Defence Field Marshall Mohamed Hussein Tantawi and chief-of-staff of the armed forces Lt-Gen Magdi Hetata, witnessed the graduation of 197 air defence cadets at their academy in Alexandria. With much pomp and circumstance, the class of 2001 held a parade and took the oath to serve and honour their country.
A day earlier, the president, along with leading officials and commanders, watched as the Naval Academy graduated its 52nd class of officers into its naval forces. During the 75- minute ceremony, the new graduates displayed their athletic and technical skills.
Regulating transplants
ONCE again the Grand Mufti of the Republic, Sheikh Nasr Farid Wassel, affirmed his approval of organ transplants, provided certain conditions are met. "Donors must provide their consent before death, and no money should be taken in return for the organs," Wassel told college students earlier this week in Helwan, south of Cairo.
Despite the conditional approval of the highest religious authorities in the country, four draft laws regulating organ transplants have failed to be enacted during the past few years. Among those opposed to the legislation are people concerned about the potential for an illegal trade in organs that could result from the passing of such a bill.
Both Wassel and the Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar, Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, have already approved a draft law presented by the Ministry of Health regulating organ transplants. According to the two clerics, verification of the death of the donor -- when the brain stem is dead and the heart has stopped beating -- and the donor's written consent or approval by a member of the immediate family, are the preconditions for the transplant operation.
Green meeting
NEXT Monday, an Egyptian delegation of environmentalists and legal experts will be in Germany to participate in discussions on how to revive the Kyoto Protocol which has failed to take off because of US reluctance to ratify the "green bill."
The Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was signed by delegates of 161 nations in December 1997. It sets binding targets for reduction of emissions of greenhouse gases by developed nations, and is required to be ratified by at least 55 states that accounted for at least 55 per cent of the total carbon dioxide emissions in 1990. The US signed the protocol in November 1998, but has yet to ratify it and, therefore, is not legally bound by it.
According to Zeinab Farghali, adviser to the director of the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency (EEAA), the main items on the agenda in Germany will be the creation of several new bodies, such as the Clean Development Apparatus and the Adaptation Fund, as well as consultations on means of funding and facilitating technology transfers.
Compiled by Nevine Khalil

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