Newsreel

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Bloggers freed

ON TUESDAY, three bloggers who were arrested for taking part in a demonstration organised by the Kefaya movement to protest against the constitutional amendments proposed by President Hosni Mubarak, were released.

The bloggers were arrested on 15 March along with 18 other Kefaya members. "The 21 Kefaya detainees were released at 6.30pm Tuesday," Hossam El-Hamalawi, a journalist and a blogger, wrote in his blog. "The detainees should have been released in the early morning but the police station kept delaying, saying it was waiting for orders from state security," he wrote.

"The detainees went on hunger strike protesting at their continued imprisonment and ended it only with their release," El-Hamalawi added.

The bloggers were identified as Mohamed Adel, Mohamed Taher and Mustafa Ismail.

Defamation complaint

SHEIKH Youssef El-Badri, a member of the Islamic Research Council, has filed a complaint against the independent weekly Al-Fagr for defaming the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Mohamed Sayed Tantawi.

On Sunday Al-Fagr published "Head of Al-Azhar, don't visit the Vatican", with a picture of Tantawi dressed in papacy attire and holding a cross. Tantawi has been invited to visit the Vatican. Al-Azhar has not commented on the issue but on Monday, El-Badri said Tantawi was one of Islam's important symbols and that his defamation defamed Islam and Muslims worldwide.

Learning human rights

A TRAINING course for anti-riot police in human rights started on Sunday. The course, the first of its kind, is being conducted under the supervision of Minister of Interior Habib El-Adli. The one-month course aims at informing anti-riot police on issues related to human rights, developing and improving their ability to deal with such cases, informing them on international and domestic documents and conventions, and how to stay abreast of news on related issues. The course is part of a cooperation protocol between the ministries of interior and foreign affairs and the United Nations Developing Programme which aims at protecting human rights and improving the services provided by police officers to the public.

Street gang on trial

ON SUNDAY the Tanta Criminal Court opened a hearing into a gang charged with raping and killing at least two dozen children over the last several years. All seven suspects, aged between 15 and 22, are accused of killing and raping 24 children as well as an attempt to violate nine more in five governorates. The hearing started at 11am and lasted nearly an hour. The suspects, including gang leader Ramadan Abdel-Rahman, who has become infamously known as El-Torbini, were brought to court under heavy police protection and were accompanied by their 12-lawyer defence team. The suspects accused police officers of torturing them while undergoing interrogation and took off their clothes in the courtroom to show what they claim were torture marks. The court allowed the suspects to be examined by forensics. The case resumes today.

The story made front page headlines when it was first published one month ago.

Stable after bird flu

A NEW bird flu case has brought the number of cases reported in Egypt to 26. Two-year-old Youssef Mohamed, from Aswan, 700km south of Cairo, tested positive for the H5N1 virus but is expected to survive. "Mohamed is in stable condition after receiving the anti-viral drug Tamiflu after he was admitted to hospital on 16 March," Health Ministry spokesman Abdel-Rahman Shaheen said. "The boy contracted the virus because of direct contact with sick poultry," Shaheen told the Middle East News Agency. Mohamed is from Aswan, 700km south of Cairo.

Of those who contracted the disease in Egypt, 13 have died, 10 recovered and two are being treated -- a four-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl.

Egypt announced its first bird flu case in poultry on 17 February 2006 while the first human case was discovered on 18 March 2006.

Compiled by Salonaz Sami