A first step

ON MONDAY, Egypt welcomed the creation of the Iraqi National Council, which was formed a day earlier. In a statement issued by the presidency, Cairo called the creation of the "transitional governing council" a "step in the right direction". The council -- chosen by the US-led coalition occupying Iraq -- is composed of 25 Iraqis from various walks of political and religious life. Egypt said it hoped that this would be the "beginning of a deeper transition, which will result in a new constitution, the election of a government by the people with full powers, and sovereignty over the land".

The council has the power to nominate and dismiss ministers, approve the 2004 budget and direct policy. It is also expected to help draw up a new constitution paving the way for free elections. Nonetheless, Paul Bremer, the US governor of Iraq and one of the council's key architects, will have ultimate control and the final word on decisions.

The presidential statement noted Egypt's "confidence in the alertness of the Iraqi people and their ability to shoulder their responsibility, unite their ranks and enrich national progress at this sensitive juncture in the history of Iraq and the region as a whole".

Problem solved?

AFTER more than two years of controversy, the government has closed down Alexandria's Borg Al-Arab sanitary landfill, reports Dena Rashed. French waste management company Onyx assumed control of the site on 23 June 2001, and the first waste was delivered there on 4 October 2001. By the following summer, residents of the summer resort villages on the northern coast began complaining to officials about the odours emanating from the site, as well as an increase in the number of flies and mosquitoes in the area. The complaints catalysed a visit by Prime Minister Atef Ebeid, who announced that the site would be transferred. The landfill continued to be operational for another year, however, receiving an additional 1.1 million tonnes of waste. Only last month, during another visit by the prime minister, was the site actually declared closed.

According to Frederic Duvelle, Onyx's managing director, the site has been "temporarily transferred to Al-Hammam until 15 September". Duvelle told Al-Ahram Weekly that the site could not be completely closed yet since the cell there still requires treatment. "We built another cell deep in the desert area near Al-Hammam to contain the waste during the summer months," he said.

The original site was selected by the governorate in cooperation with the Ministry of Environmental Affairs. Onyx did not have a say in the choice of location. Alexandria's contract with the French company also stipulated that Onyx was not responsible for any changes in the site's location. According to a credible source, several ministries provided the funding for the new site in Al-Hammam. The source also said that the government spent LE4.5 million to prepare and operate the new temporary site.

Editor dies

MAMDOUH Mahran, the 58-year-old former editor of the weekly independent newspaper, Al-Nabaa, died of a heart attack this week in a Cairo cardiology centre, while serving a three-year jail sentence.

In June 2001, Mahran published a story claiming that a Coptic monk in a southern Egyptian monastery had been having sex with women and then blackmailing them.

The article, illustrated with blurred photographs, ran under the headline "Monastery turned into brothel". Its publication caused riots and protests by the Coptic Christian community. The church condemned it, saying the monk had been excommunicated and denying that any sex occurred inside the monastery. In September 2001, Egypt's Emergency State Security Court sentenced Mahran to three years in prison for publishing material that undermined public security and incited religious insurrection.

He spent most of his jail time in the cardiology center under tight security.

The Press Syndicate revoked Mahran's membership, and the court revoked Al- Nabaa's license. An administrative court, however, later ruled that the paper could resume publication, saying constitutional and press laws protect press freedoms and that penalties do not include revoking licenses.

Tragedy strikes twice

ELEVEN factory workers and a microbus driver were killed, and two were injured Sunday when their vehicle crashed into a truck in the Sinai Peninsula. The accident occurred about 350 kilometres northeast of Cairo, when the microbus -- which was heading towards Al-Arish, in northeastern Sinai -- sped up to pass another microbus. Only one passenger on the microbus survived the crash.

The passengers were all workers heading towards a cement factory in Al-Arish. The truck driver suffered minor wounds and was treated and released from the hospital.

Only a day earlier, 15 men were burned to death when the minibus they were travelling in crashed into a truck in Beni Suef, south of Cairo. The crash and subsequent fire charred the minibus and all its passengers. Only eight of the 15 bodies could be identified.