Lobbying for peace
MRS SUZANNE Mubarak has renewed her campaign for world peace on both the domestic and international stages, with a fresh attempt to promote both governmental and non-governmental efforts serving the goals of peace and development in the Middle East.
In a speech she is expected to deliver at the Arab International Women's Conference today in London, Mrs Mubarak will re-launch her appeal for international support for these goals. Hosted by the Arab International Women's Forum, Mrs Mubarak is the conference's keynote speaker. Her vision for a peaceful and developed Middle East is based on the elimination of conflicts, the consolidation of education and healthcare, and the promotion of women's rights. Women -- who are usually the hardest-hit victims of war and underdevelopment -- are central to this vision.
Mrs Mubarak will also present the audience with a general overview of the recent developments in the region's political scene, especially with regards to the situation in the Palestinian occupied territories and Iraq, highlighting their negative impact on efforts undertaken by both government and civil society to speed up the Arab world's growth and development rates. The audience will also get a quick glance at the governmental and non-governmental efforts being made in Egypt to promote women's roles in development and peacemaking.
Peace and development issues have been high on Mrs Mubarak's agenda this week, as she hosted conferences and inaugurated cultural and other centres that aim to disseminate a culture of peace.
"The culture of peace is not a luxury or a mere academic issue that we can choose to deal with or ignore," Mrs Mubarak said late last week to a group of Egyptian and Japanese women peace activists who met in Cairo to discuss a joint plan of action. "Rather the opposite, the culture of peace is something that we should all aspire to, and work on consolidating."
The meeting was organised by the International Suzanne Mubarak Movement for Peace, which was launched in Sharm El-Sheikh in September 2002 at the end of an International Women's Peace conference.
The movement is planning yet another international peace conference for the spring of 2004.
Protests continue
HUNDREDS of students from Cairo, Al-Azhar and Ain Shams universities protested on Sunday against Israel and the United States.
As American and Israeli flags were ritualistically burned, students shouted, "Syria, Iraq and Palestine, whose turn is next?" The protests were contained by security forces, which prevented the students from leaving university grounds and spilling out onto the streets.
Ruling postponed
THE SUPREME Administrative Court (SAC) has decided to postpone, until 3 November, its ruling on the case of Hermas Radwan, a parliamentary deputy from the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP).
Radwan is one of 15 NDP deputies who had their parliamentary membership revoked by the People's Assembly's Legislative and Constitutional Affairs Committee on 10 September. The committee's decision was in line with a 17 August Supreme Constitutional Court ruling that MPs who had not done their military service, or who had no legal reason for exemption, must be suspended.
Challenging the committee's decision, Radwan filed an appeal with the SAC, contesting the constitutionality of Articles 5 and 6 of the law governing People's Assembly activities. If the SAC accepts the appeal on 3 November, it will be referred to the Supreme Constitutional Court for a final judgment. SAC's acceptance will also mean that the 15 so-called draft-dodging deputies will not be formally dropped when parliament reconvenes on 11 November. In fact, the SAC's decision represents the last possible way the deputies may remain in parliament.
According to Radwan, the disputed articles deal with MPs who have been stripped of their parliamentary membership for dodging military service as if they were foreigners, permanently banning them from running in elections. This, argued Radwan, is unconstitutional because citizens must not be stripped of their constitutional rights forever.
Black smog again
CAIRO'S infamous "cloud" of black smog is hovering above the city for the fifth straight autumn. In a new twist to the government's continued inability to stop the cloud, military helicopters are to fly over farms in Sharqiya and Qalyoubiya in an attempt to identify where the dark clouds are coming from.
Cairo Governor Abdel-Rehim Shehata said the missions are meant to survey whether the burning of rice chaff taking place in villages and farms is responsible for the pollution. The rice burned by Nile Delta farmers after the harvest, as they clear the fields for a new crop, is usually listed as the main reason for the clouds' appearance.
Mamdouh Riad, the minister of state for environment, however, denied that the rice fires are causing the smog, blaming automobile exhaust and other sources instead.
Medical experts have said the black smog is particularly dangerous for children and the elderly, causing severe coughing and other ailments.
Twins recover
MOHAMED Ibrahim, one of the Egyptian baby twins who were separated in Dallas last week, has started to recover. According to the doctors at Children's Medical Centre (CMC), Mohamed was taken off a ventilator and is now breathing on his own. On Monday, doctors also announced that, with the assistance of a therapist, Mohamed was able to sit upright for the first time in his life.
His brother Ahmed's recovery, meanwhile, has been slower. Ahmed suffered a brief seizure late Friday and still needs respiratory assistance.
Joined at the top of their heads, the twins were born in Egypt on 2 June 2001. After a long medical odyssey, they ended up being separated from each other on 12 October after 34 hours of surgery.
According to James Thomas, CMC's chief of critical care services, the medical team are "cautiously optimistic" about the children's situation. Although the boys remain weak, their recognition of verbal cues from both their family and the medical team continue to improve.
"Once each twin is breathing on his own without respiratory distress his condition may be upgraded from critical to guarded," Thomas said.
In New York, meanwhile, doctors also completed the first of at least three operations on 18-month-old conjoined Philippine twins, Carl and Clarence Aguirre, last Monday. Carl and Clarence are joined at the top of their heads and share a major vein that drains blood from the brain to the heart. The five-and-a-half hour operation -- led by James Goodrich and a team of 20 doctors -- was meant to stretch the twins' skin so there will be enough to cover their heads when they are separated.
By
Reem Nafie
