NGOs banned

TWO NGOs have been prevented from registering with the Ministry of Social Affairs and Insurance.

The Land Centre for Human Rights, which advocates the rights of the rural poor, especially landless peasants, applied for registration under a new NGO law well before the 4 June deadline. The New Woman Research Centre, which also applied for registration, has played a leading role in advocating the rights of women in Egypt.

A statement issued by 18 advocacy and human rights organisations in protest said the ministry's decision was taken upon the request of security authorities. "This security-directed orientation by the Egyptian government is a violation of all constitutional stipulations and human rights conventions endorsed by the Egyptian government," the statement said.

Human rights organisations intend to contest the legality of the decision and will use "all constitutional means to defend the role of Egyptian civil society in order to advance democracy and human rights in Egypt".

An Egyptian prison

EFFORTS are underway to obtain the extradition of the spiritual leader of Al-Gama'a Al-Islamiya, Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, who is currently serving a life sentence in a US prison, reports Jailan Halawi .

Family, followers and lawyers of the ailing 65- year-old blind cleric are probing all possible ways to have him deported to Egypt. His Egyptian lawyer is trying to contact the Grand Imam of Al- Azhar Sheikh Mohamed Sayed Tantawi, to ask him to intercede on Abdel-Rahman's behalf. Abdel-Rahman wants to serve the remainder of his sentence in an Egyptian prison.

Abdel-Rahman himself was a renowned Al- Azhar scholars, which is why he is seeking Tantawi's assistance.

Abdel-Rahman was found guilty in October 1995 of seditious conspiracy -- among other charges -- which he dismissed, at the time, as a US government attempt to put Islam on trial.

The sheikh is in poor health, suffering from diabetes and heart disease, because of which his followers and lawyers are trying to have him brought back to Egypt.

In the late 1990s an American appeals court upheld the guilty verdict pronounced upon Abdel- Rahman and nine of his followers for the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Centre in New York, in which six people were killed and more than 1,000 injured.

Lawyer sues Welch

LAWYER Nabih El-Wahsh has filed a lawsuit against the American ambassador to Cairo, David Welch. The lawsuit called for the expulsion of Welch on the grounds that the American ambassador had interfered with internal Egyptian policies.

During last week's annual meeting of the American Chamber of Commerce in Cairo, Welch attacked the performance of the Egyptian government and asked for most of the current political and economic strategies to be amended.

Road deaths in Qalyba

FIFTEEN Egyptians were killed on Saturday in Saudi Arabia when their bus collided with a truck on a northern highway and turned over several times. The bus was carrying 49 Egyptian workers and their families from Daba to the capital, Riyadh.

The crash occurred at 7am in the town of Qalyba, some 130 kilometres north of Tabuk, according to a statement issued by Egyptian Consul Ahmed Fouad El-Badawi.

The other 34 passengers were seriously injured and taken to the King Fahd and King Khaled hospitals in Tabuk. A delegation from the Egyptian Consulate hurried to the crash scene to identify the dead and injured and to obtain more details about the accident.

Road accidents occur frequently in this Gulf kingdom as a result of speeding. According to official figures, more than 35,000 people were killed and 200,000 injured in vehicle accidents in the last decade.

... and in Cairo

ELEVEN people were killed and 14 seriously injured when a speeding bus lost control and plunged off Abbasiya bridge in Cairo on Monday night, a police source said. The bus crashed 10 metres to the ground below.

Four passengers were killed instantly and seven others died later in hospital. The driver was among the 14 passengers who were injured.

Compiled by Mona El-Nahhas