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Cabinet reshuffle

PRESIDENT Hosni Mubarak introduced a minor cabinet reshuffle on Tuesday, swapping the ministers of information and youth, with Mamdouh El-Beltagui becoming youth minister and Anas El-Fiqi information minister.

Although there were no immediate reasons given for the reshuffle, the rumour mill soon claimed that El-Beltagui's handling of the information ministry had not been up to the government's expectations, and may have even antagonised some officials.

Prior to becoming information minister in July 2004, El-Beltagui was the minister of tourism; before that, he was head of the State Information Services.

Before he became the youth minister in the same July 2004 reshuffle, the 44-year- old El-Fiqi was the chairman of the Cultural Palaces Organisation. Prior to that, he worked as a marketing manager for a UK- based publishing firm, before establishing his own translation, publication and distribution company.

El-Fiqi is known to be close to Gamal Mubarak, the chairman of the NDP's influential Policy Secretariat.

Founder remembered

AL-AZHAR University students held a public gathering on Monday to mark the anniversary of the 1949 assassination of Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan El-Banna. Despite the presence of scores of anti-riot police outside campus, there was no attempt to disperse the demonstrators, since the students themselves made no attempt to take their gathering off campus.

The students also expressed their anger over Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's visit to the Red Sea resort of Sharm El- Sheikh last week for an Arab-Israeli summit. The students shouted slogans demonstrating their opposition to the summit, as well as to warmer Egyptian ties with Israel. They also called on the government to expel the Israeli ambassador to Cairo.

The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in 1928 by El-Banna, who was a 22-year-old elementary school teacher at the time. El- Banna based some of his ideas for the Islamic revivalist movement on the tenets of Wahhabism, a strict Saudi Arabian interpretation of Islam.

Government agents assassinated the group's founder on 12 February 1949, and the brotherhood was eventually banned altogether in 1954. Although still outlawed today, it is considered one of the strongest political forces in the country.

Taba militant identified

A SUSPECTED militant killed in a police shootout earlier this month was identified by his family members. Police identified the man as Salama Suleiman Awad, a 19-year- old unemployed Bedouin from Al-Arish.

Awad and Hammad Tarabeen were shot dead in a 5 February fire-fight between security forces and militants who were hiding in the mountainous region on Sinai's western coast near Ras Sudr.

Both men were wanted in connection with a series of bombings that took place in October at a Taba resort and two camps in Nuweiba that left 34 people dead and 105 injured.

Awad's family received the body and buried it.

Investigation continues

A REPORT by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), leaked to the press on Monday, stated that according to preliminary investigations, Egypt's atomic research over the past four decades has not gone beyond the laboratory stage.

In fact, the UN atomic monitoring agency praised Cairo's cooperation with the investigation, and said that Egypt appeared to be telling the truth when it explained that the activities were not divulged to the IAEA because Cairo assumed it did not have an obligation to do so.

"The nuclear material and facilities seen by the agency to date are consistent with the activities described by Egypt," the report said. Nonetheless, the investigation will continue because "the repeated failures by Egypt to report nuclear material and facilities in a timely manner are a matter of concern."

The investigations were focussed around the country's two research reactors, along with a partially assembled laboratory meant to separate small quantities of plutonium, all located in Anas, north east of Cairo.

Throughout the inquiry, Cairo said its scientists were involved in small scale activities generated by interest in nuclear fuel cycle for creating energy.

Welch to leave Cairo

US Ambassador to Egypt David Welch has been nominated by President George W Bush to the post of Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, the White House announced on Friday. Welch, a career foreign service officer, will replace William Burns, who in recent years was the US point man for Middle East peace.

The appointment comes at a critical time in the peace process, as the Palestinians and Israelis re-launch talks and work towards a final solution to the conflict.

Before being posted to Egypt, Welch was assistant secretary of state for international organisations affairs, responsible for US policy at the UN and with other groups. He served as a diplomat in Saudi Arabia, Syria and Jordan.

Welch arrived in Cairo shortly before the 11 September 2001 attacks in Washington and New York, and has had a somewhat rocky relationship with the local media since then. On more than one occasion, Welch said the Egyptian media should stop "proposing crazy conspiracy theories, or attacking the US in very hostile terms". In response, Welch was declared a persona non grata by a group of Egyptian leftists. In another row last year, the Press Syndicate urged its members to boycott the ambassador.

His replacement has yet to be announced.

See Al-Ahram Weekly roundtable with Welch

Compiled by Jailan Halawi