Newsreel

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New kind of bird flu

A NEW strain of bird flu called HV has been discovered in Egypt.

"The new strain was discovered by representatives of the Ministry of Environment in nine birds which migrated to Egypt from eastern Europe," Minister of Health Hatem El-Gabali said during a meeting of the Shura Council's Health Committee.

Health officials said the new strain, found in swamps in the governorate of Sharqiya, was less infectious than the deadly H5N1 but would nevertheless take precautions to prevent it from spreading.

Minister of State for Environmental Affairs Maged George said the new virus "does not affect human beings and is not an epidemic."

George said the mutation "was not new to Egypt," having been first discovered in 1910.

Wedding boat sinks

A FERRY on which a wedding was being held sank into the Nile south of Cairo on Friday but no casualties were reported.

Hundreds of people were attending the wedding on board the Princess Heidi when it sank near Beni Sweif, about 100 kilometres south of Cairo, officials said.

The boat, according to police officials, went down around midnight as people were singing and dancing. Many passengers were rescued while others reached shore on their own.

Police said at least six people were hospitalised with injuries.

Water poverty

BY 2025 Egypt will be on the verge of water poverty. A recent report issued by the Egyptian Human Rights Organisation warned that a water shortage is expected due to the mismanagement of water resources, a deterioration in irrigation and sanitary sewers networks, and an increasing population which is expected to reach 100 million by 2025.

Abuse of the Nile is blamed for the wasting of more than 30 per cent of its water.

"Twelve per cent of slum areas are deprived of clean drinking water," the report said, adding that there were 4,500 villages without sanitary sewers services.

The report said an individual's share of water had diminished to 900 cubic metres annually. "Egypt has reached the danger level and international institutions say it is below the water poverty line," the report, entitled The Thirsty Revolution on the Banks of the Nile, said.

Sinai cache denied

A MINISTRY of Interior official denied reports that the police had found 250 kilogrammes of TNT on Sunday hidden in sacks near the country's border with the Gaza Strip.

"What they found in Al-Towayel, three kilometres south of Arish, were the remnants of war which somebody reported to the authorities so that they be removed," the source said.

News reports had it that the police discovered the cache covered under bushes and that it was to be smuggled across the border into Gaza.