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Reviving a legend

DURING a three-day trip to Denmark this week, Mrs Suzanne Mubarak promised renewed commitment to promote children's reading in Egypt and to invest maximum effort in bringing children from different parts of the world to learn about the culture of one another. She took part in a ceremony commemorating the legacy of luminary Danish children's book writer Hans Christian Andresen. In her capacity as world honorary ambassador of the Hans Christian Andresen Foundation, Mrs Mubarak stressed that the calls of tolerance and cross-ethnic interest that Andresen advocated deserve to be renewed today again.

Malicious campaign

AYMAN Nour, opposition party leader contesting the upcoming presidential elections, alleged that authorities were obstructing his campaign.

Nour said the members of the NDP last week had burnt an American flag outside an office of his Al-Ghad Party and slashed the tyres of one of his campaign vehicles.

He said he is facing a malicious media campaign accusing him of being an agent of the West. Nour, an MP, will stand trial in June on charges of forgery before a Criminal Court.

Minister's statement

INVITED by the Shoura Council, Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit delivered a lecture expounding Egypt's foreign policy. Abul-Gheit noted that the Palestinian question, Sudan and the situation in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq are the focus of Egyptian foreign policy concerns.

Abul-Gheit added that the Middle East is not a nuclear- free zone. He said this was an unresolved issue that Egypt is deeply concerned about.

Denied exit

OFFICIALS at Cairo Airport banned two senior members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group from travelling abroad, although their names were not on the list of people banned from travelling.

The two MB members Essam El-Erian and Gamal Heshmat were not allowed to travel aboard the flight heading for Algiers, where they planned to attend the 16th session of the Arab National Conference, a non-governmental forum drawing together intellectuals and politicians from the Arab world.

"It is a part of the campaign launched against the MB," Heshmat, a former MP, said. Officials gave no reason for stopping him and El-Erian. Last week, security forces arrested dozens of the MB members after the group staged a big demonstration in central Cairo, calling for abolishing emergency laws applied in Egypt since 1981. Nearly 60 members of the MB are still remanded in custody pending investigations.

According to El-Erian, such measures will not stop the MB from continuing their struggle, until a real political reform is achieved.

Judge in jail

THE CAIRO Criminal Court sentenced on Saturday the Chief Justice of Mansoura Court of Appeals Hisham Abdel- Baqi to 25-year imprisonment, after he was convicted of accepting bribes. The court also ordered Abdel-Baqi to pay a fine of LE100,000, and confiscated the villa and the jewels which were presented to him as bribes. "Abdel-Baqi misused his influence and stained the holy profession of judiciary. So, he deserves to get a very harsh punishment," the court said after uttering its ruling.

Abdel-Baqi was arrested last September, together with other six defendants who were acquitted on Saturday, as the court said they confessed their crime.

Six defendants in the case, who did not attend the court sessions, got a 15-year imprisonment sentence and were fined a sum of LE2,000.

Largest petrified whale

AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL team from the University of Michigan, Egypt's Ministry of Environmental Affairs, the Geological Survey Department and the Fayoum Governorate on 1 April unveiled their discovery of the largest ever fossilised whale, reports Mahmoud Bakr. The 16m long basilosauros discovered in the Wadi Al-Rayan nature preserve in Fayoum, once thrived in the sea that covered the Western Desert 40 million years ago. This along with the fossils of dolphins, tortoises, sharks and mangrove trees found in the area depict the tropical environment that existed in Egypt in that geological epoch. Evidence indicates that this type of whale fed on large fish, dolphins and even smaller whales. Of particular significance, however, is that the skeletal remains indicate that this whale had legs and was, therefore, amphibious. They believe that the "King Lizard", as they dubbed it, may be the evolutionary link between land and sea mammals.