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Judges to vote

HUNDREDS of judges will converge tomorrow on the downtown headquarters of the Cairo Judges Club to elect the club's new chairman and council members, reports Mona El-Nahhas.

The election campaign has been fierce, pitting current Chairman Zakaria Abdel-Aziz, known for his patriotic stances, and the deputy chief justice of the Cassation Court, Adel El-Shorbagui, who is backed by the state due to his post as the cabinet's legal advisor. Sources at the Judges Club told Al-Ahram Weekly that the state, attempting to increase their candidate's chances of success in the elections, has launched a smear campaign against members of the club who are running.

The sources also said the state promised judges unspecified rewards if El-Shorbagui and his group won.

Despite the governmental backing of El-Shorbagui, the current council seems to have the support of the majority of judges in Egypt's provinces. Since March, club members have been battling with the state for total independence of the judiciary from the state's executive authority and for guarantees for fair elections.

During tomorrow's general assembly, judges are expected to announce the results of their assessment of this year's parliamentary elections, which, they said, had been marred by unprecedented rigging. As such, a decision to boycott future elections is possible. Judges who supervised the parliamentary polls will submit their testimonies during the meeting. The assessment was to have been announced at a press conference which was abruptly cancelled. Abdel-Aziz said the club thought it better if they announced their stance tomorrow after consulting the assembled judges.

Judicial sources said judges had been receiving anonymous phone calls for the past week threatening to take revenge if they escalate the situation with the state and speak out about rigging.

End to emergency law?

PRIME Minister Ahmed Nazif has said the government expects to draft an anti-terrorism law within a few months, clearing the way for an end to emergency law in place for a quarter century.

President Hosni Mubarak promised during his election campaign last year to replace the emergency law with more narrowly targeted legislation but the government has not yet aired a substitute for the law which Mubarak invoked after the assassination of President Anwar El-Sadat in 1981.

"We cannot take the risk of not having a legislative environment that would allow us to fight terrorism and combat it effectively," Nazif said in an interview with Reuters on Tuesday.

"They are both linked. We are now working on that law. We expect to have it out within the next few months," he added.

Once it is passed, Nazif said, the state of emergency will be lifted. "It will go to parliament, and parliament will have to ratify it and then we can end the state of emergency."

Bird flu flight

THE EU commissioner for health and consumer protection, Markos Kyprianou, was in Cairo this week to coordinate the fight against bird flu with Egyptian officials. Kyprianou, who met Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif and Health Minister Hatem El-Gabali, discussed how the EU can help in battling the disease.

Addressing members of the Confederation of Egyptian European Business Association, Kyprianou said bird flu is a global threat that needs a global response. He said the EU had created a trust fund of 100 million euros towards supporting efforts aimed at containing and eradicating bird flu. Of this amount, 10 million euros will be dedicated to Mediterranean countries.

Kyprianou said vaccinations do not provide 100 per cent protection, adding they must be accompanied by other measures such as the restriction of trade and movement of birds.

Kyprianou said it was important to learn more about the virus. "The way it changes poses a challenge." To learn more the EU has dedicated 20 million euros for research, half of which will go to studies on human health aspects and the other half on animals. "It is still an animal disease and we have to make sure it remains so," Kyprianou said.

He stressed that close regional and global cooperation was important, given the movement of the birds. "It's a question of defence, not just solidarity."

Kyprianou underlined the importance of the EU's sanitary and phytosanitary requirements. "These are not barriers," he said, but a safety issue. "Everything that reaches the table of EU consumers has to be safe." He stressed that the EU needs imported food, making it unnecessary to put up barriers. To that end, Kyprianou highlighted EU efforts to help exporting countries conform to EU standards, stressing that once goods gain access to EU markets, they easily gain access to other markets as well.

Just one newspaper

THE SUPREME Press Council has put an end to the current controversy over the issue of two newspapers bearing the name of the liberal Wafd Party, reports Mona El-Nahhas.

During its meeting on Monday with Wafd reformers, who dismissed party chairman Noaman Gomaa in January, the council said it will not license the publication of the newspaper which Gomaa intends to issue to replace the current mouthpiece.

A statement issued by the press council recommended that the publication of a single mouthpiece of the Wafd should continue so long as it abides by objectivity while covering news of the power struggle.

In the wake of his dismissal, Gomaa said he intended to issue another mouthpiece of the Wafd Party and invited all journalists working for the current publication to work with him.

Claiming to be the sole legitimate leader of the party, Gomaa informed the press council that Mohamed El-Qoddosi, managing editor of Al-Shaab newspaper, will be the chief editor of the new publication, noting that Gomaa dismissed the Wafd's current chief editor Abbas El-Tarabili.

Gomaa also asked Al-Ahram Establishment for Publication to halt publishing the current mouthpiece and to issue the newspaper bearing his name in the masthead instead.

Viagra scheme foiled

CAIRO Airport officials foiled one of the world's biggest Viagra trafficking operations, preventing 1,700 kilogrammes of the blue pill from entering the Egyptian market illegally.

The huge amount of sexual enhancement pills was hidden in 17 barrels of freight coming from Dubai under the name of a famous ceramics manufacturing company owned by MP and businessman Mohamed Abul-Enein, head of the Housing Committee in the People's Assembly. There have been mutual accusations between the ceramics company and the customs agent, Hani Rushdi, over the ownership of the freight. Prosecutor-General Maher Abdel-Wahed ordered that Rushdi be put in custody pending an investigation.

Abul-Enein claimed the freight "has nothing to do with my company. All the papers and data of this freight are forged."

Ship sinks

FIFTEEN people were rescued and one crew member went missing after a Maltese ship sank off Egypt's Mediterranean coast, said marine officials.

Chairman of Port Said Authority Hisham El-Sersawi said the ship which was sailing from Turkey to Port Said last Thursday with a cargo of containers, sank in strong winds and high waves, 121 kilometres from the Egyptian port city.

The ship's distress signal was received by a few passing ships which rushed to the site to help, he said.

Compiled by Mohamed El-Sayed