Al-Ahram Weekly | Egypt

		23 -29 May 2002 Issue No.587 Home news	Current issue Previous issue Site map
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875		Recommend this page

Newsreel
Compiled by Shaden Shehab

A women's cause

ON A VISIT to London to further the cause of childhood and motherhood in Egypt and the rest of the Arab world, Mrs Suzanne Mubarak received praise from British officials who described her work as a model to be emulated by Third World countries. They also affirmed their willingness to support her efforts, especially those related to the Alexandria Library, the new Egyptian Museum and her work for children in Egypt.
Mrs Mubarak started her five-day visit on 15 May with a tour of the British Library, accompanied by British Minister of Art Baroness Blackstone and Lynn Brandley, the library's executive director. She was shown the manuscripts section of the library, including Qur'anic manuscripts from Egypt and those from a Qur'an belonging to Sultan Beybars.
The following day, in front of a large gathering of leading feminists and public figures from around the world, Mrs Mubarak delivered a speech at an event organised in her honour by the Arab International Women's Forum in London. She stressed the importance of a more positive and influential role for women in instilling the principles of peace and justice in society, especially in light of the challenges presently faced by countries of the Middle East.
On 17 May, at a private event hosted by the Anglican Church and attended by religious representatives and organisations furthering a dialogue between civilisations, Mrs Mubarak said justice, equality, tolerance and forgiveness were essential conditions for the world to live in peace -- a value upheld by all religions.
A reception held at the Egyptian Embassy in London to host the third meeting of the Egyptian-British Society -- a charity association that helps Egyptian children with special needs -- crowned Mrs Mubarak's visit. Amid a huge charity event, Mrs Mubarak announced that a £100,000 donation would go to Palestinian children. The amount is the sum of donations from businessmen and charity work leaders from Egypt, as well as from members of the Egyptian and Arab expatriate communities in Britain.

Maher on tour

FOREIGN Minister Ahmed Maher began a five-country tour this week, reports Soha Abdelaty. The situation in the occupied territories is at the top of the minister's agenda, as he seeks ways for Egypt to work with other international players to resolve the crisis in the Middle East. The trip's first leg was the Russian Federation, where Maher delivered a message from President Hosni Mubarak to Russian President Vladimir Putin. He also held consultations with his Russian counterpart Igor Ivanov on bilateral relations and the situation in Iraq.
According to the two officials, Russia and Egypt saw eye-to-eye on all matters, especially with regards to the Middle East. Ivanov reiterated Egypt's demand that the proposed Middle East peace conference should seek to build on, and not rewrite, existing international agreements. "This is not about starting a new process of talks," he said, "it is about completing the regulation of the conflict."
Maher was sceptical about Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's ideas regarding who should and shouldn't attend the proposed conference. The idea that Sharon would choose the participants, Maher said, "is a farce that no one will, and no one has, accepted."
Maher's next stop was Beirut, to take part in the Arab Foreign Ministers' Follow-Up meetings discussing the steps needed to activate the peace initiative endorsed by last March's Arab Summit in Beirut.
In Cyprus, Maher met briefly with Cypriot president Glafkos Clerides after which he flew to Athens to attend the ministerial meeting of the Euro-Mediterranean forum.
The last stop on the whirlwind tour is Ethiopia, where Maher is heading the Egyptian delegation at the meeting of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA). After attending the ministerial meetings, Maher will be delivering Egypt's speech at the COMESA summit itself on behalf of Mubarak.

Islam's image

DELEGATES from 75 countries attended an annual gathering in Cairo this week of Muslim scholars discussing issues of importance to the Islamic world. The theme of this year's four-day conference was "The reality of Islam in a changing world."
Prime Minister Atef Ebeid, addressing the conference on President Hosni Mubarak's behalf, reminded the participants that the 11 September attacks "had negative repercussions on Islam's image in the world, with some media making links between Islam and terrorism."
Mubarak's speech said the media "overlooked that the main causes of these events were an increase in feelings of despair, caused by political, economic and social factors."
The conference was attended by ministers of religious affairs, prominent religious scholars, and, for the first time in the conference's 14 year history, non-Muslim representatives of six European countries.
Mubarak also called for making a distinction between legitimate resistance to occupation, and violence carried out by an occupying country, in an apparent reference to Israel.
"The difference must be clear between those who use their legitimate right to resist in order to get rid of foreign occupation, and those who commit acts of violence to terrorise a people in order to occupy territory by force," Mubarak said.
Minister of Al-Awqaf (Religious Endowments) Hamdi Zaqzouq said the conference aimed "at both objective study of the real image of Islam as well as finding ways to deal with attempts to distort this image. As Muslims we call for peace, security, and stability, for us and for the whole world," Zaqzouq said.

Sentence confirmed

AN ISLAMIST militant extradited from Bosnia last year was sentenced to 10 years in prison by a state security court on Saturday. Osama Ahmed Faragallah was accused of setting fire to a number of video shops, nightclubs and other entertainment venues in the 1980s. Faragallah, 38, was tried in absentia in 1992 on similar charges and sentenced to the same jail sentence.
Under Egyptian law, any fugitive is entitled to a retrial upon his arrival back to the country. Faragallah left Egypt in 1987, spending time in Pakistan and Bosnia, which handed him over to Egypt last year. Verdicts passed by state security courts cannot be appealed.

Amenhotep regained

EGYPT has retrieved an ancient statue from the Netherlands that was stolen 15 years ago. Culture Minister Farouk Hosni announced this week that an Egyptian delegation returned on 17 May with the 50-by-33cm statue of King Amenhotep III, who lived from 1417BC to 1379BC.
The statue was among 55 pieces stolen from a warehouse near a temple in Karnak in the southern Egyptian city of Luxor.
Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), said the statue is now in the Egyptian Museum and will be exhibited in December. Hawass predicted that more antiquities will be returning to Egypt from different countries, now that Culture Minister Farouk Hosni has backed a plan to sever all scientific cooperation with foreign universities and museums that refuse to return stolen Egyptian antiquities.
The Amenhotep statue is one of a number of antiquities that have recently returned to Egypt. The base of the sarcophagus of Akhenaten, one of ancient Egypt's most important Pharaohs, was handed back by German authorities in January.

Viagra's spell

BUSINESSMAN Ismail Hassan Abaza was certainly pushing his luck when he allegedly tried to sneak some 300,000 Viagra tablets into the country in his luggage last Friday. Abaza, who uses a wheelchair, and his wife were returning home on a flight from Dubai when airport security officials were alarmed by the excessive weight of the couple's four suitcases.
A search of the bags revealed the blue sex-enhancing tablets, along with empty bottles for packaging them.
Abaza seemed to have obtained backing for his smuggling plans from unnamed airport officials, who allowed him to come through the VIP lounge and recommended that his luggage not be searched.
Mohamed Abu She'esha, who heads the Customs Authority, indicated that this was the largest seizure yet of contraband Viagra, which is available in Egypt via prescription, but which sells on the black market for up to $35 a tablet.
At that price, Abaza's haul would have been worth $9.9 million. Instead, the would-be smuggler paid LE12 million in customs duties to avoid being charged.

Pilot scarf

A CAIRO court ruled Sunday in favour of a woman pilot who was fired for wearing a hijab head scarf under her pilot's cap. Nerin Salem, 35, was dismissed from her job as a pilot for Shorouk Air, in which state carrier EgyptAir has a majority stake, after she began wearing the head scarf in March.
The court ordered the airline to revoke Salem's dismissal, and pay her $770 per month in back pay.

Send a letter to the Editor Recommend this page

ARCHIVES
Letter from the Editor
Editorial Board
Subscription
Advertise!

WEEKLY ONLINE: www.ahram.org.eg/weekly
Updated every Saturday at 11.00 GMT, 2pm local time
weeklyweb@ahram.org.eg

Al-Ahram Organisation