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Beirut missions

IN ANTICIPATION of 12 November, the date set for electing a new Lebanese president to succeed the incumbent Emile Lahoud, Egypt decided to raise its profile of mediation on Lebanon. Today, Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit is expected to arrive in the Lebanese capital Beirut. According to a statement issued by the press office of the foreign minister, Abul- Gheit's mission will focus on lending Egyptian support to efforts exerted by the Lebanese to conclude an agreement on political reconciliation that would allow for the election of a new head of state that has the support of all Lebanese political forces.

Like other Arab and international diplomatic endevours that have been exercised over the past few weeks, Abul-Gheit's mission to Lebanon is not expected to produce any specific result beyond the promotion of an ongoing internal Lebanese dialogue.

Abul-Gheit's trip comes only three days after a session of consultations conducted at the Heliopolis presidential headquarters by President Hosni Mubarak with the Lebanese army chief Michel Suleiman. Mubarak's meeting with Suleiman was qualified by Lebanese commentator Satei' Noureddin as a sign of an increased Egyptian attention to the Lebanese political crisis that Cairo has so far been very careful not to get too involved in. In his daily column in As-Safir on Tuesday, Noureddin wrote that the Mubarak-Suleiman encounter "offers a significant turn in the Egyptian approach towards the Lebanese question, which has so far been remarkably hesitant and reserved by Cairo which does not want to be perceived as attempting to replace the [traditional] Syrian influence in Lebanon or to compete with the Saudi [mediation] role."

Suleiman is a potential presidential candidate who enjoys adequate support from the conflicting Lebanese political players.

Meanwhile, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa declared on Monday that he is planning to send a high-level delegation to Lebanon within a few days. The delegation, to be chaired by one of Moussa's senior aides, would resume the mediation effort that Moussa started late last year, which is to help Lebanese political leaders reach a reconciliatory approach on contentious issues, including a future coalition government that would need to be formed in the wake of the presidential elections.

Campus confrontations

UNIVERSITY student protests reached a crescendo this week as the final names of candidates for student union elections in universities across the country were announced.

On Saturday, around 250 Cairo University students affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) staged a demonstration in which they waved banners calling on students to take part in the union elections. Demonstrators also mocked the alleged fraud committed by university administrations during the elections and the prevention of candidates affiliated with the banned group and other opposition forces from running.

On Sunday, a group of students apparently affiliated with the National Democratic Party organised a demonstration and chanted anti-Muslim Brotherhood slogans.

On Monday, more than 300 Cairo University students affiliated with the MB and other opposition parties staged a demonstration in protest at dropping their names from the list of candidates. Demonstrators accused the university administration of succumbing to the demands of security apparatuses to scratch the names of opposition students.

The president of Cairo University Ali Abdel-Rahman said that no candidate was dropped from the list because of his/her political or religious affiliation.

Heavy central security forces, which have been deployed in huge numbers outside the university campus since Sunday, prevented demonstrators from leaving the campus. Pro- government students organised a counter demonstration in Dar Al-Olum Faculty in which they called for the banning of partisan and political activities in universities.

In Mansoura University, voting lists did not include any of the 208 MB candidates, leading them to demonstrate amid tightened security measures. Protesters called upon their colleagues not to vote in the elections.

Similar complaints were echoed in the universities of Menoufiya, Damietta and Suez Canal where most of the candidates were elected by default.

Last year students affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, along with other opposition political forces including the Nasserists and Kifaya, decided to hold their own elections and form the Free Student Union in an attempt to break free of state intervention. Clashes between the official student union and members of the Free Student Union erupted at Ain Shams University during the launching ceremony.

Demo continues

AROUND 2,000 civil servants working for the Real Estate Taxation Office continued their sit-in which began Sunday to protest against low wages. The demonstrators, who gathered outside the Finance Ministry, demanded that their monthly salaries, which does not exceed LE300, be increased.

The protesters also demanded that their office, currently affiliated to local municipalities, be operated by the Ministry of Finance, where employees earn a monthly average of LE1,500.

Officials at the ministry told the demonstrators that shifting the affiliation of their office to the ministry lay in the hands of Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif.

Sunday's demonstration was the latest in a series of protests which are seen as a potentially serious challenge to President Hosni Mubarak's government.

In September, at least 24,000 workers at the Mehala Spinning and Weaving Company in the Nile Delta, one of the largest textile factories in the world, went on strike over unpaid profit shares and low wages.

The government subsequently agreed to their demands.

Similar strikes were held in other factories.

Tantawi defended

MEMBERS of the Islamic Research Centre have expressed their approval of an address delivered by the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Sheikh Sayed Tantawi in which he said libel could be punished by flogging.

Tantawi's remarks, made during a religious celebration attended by President Hosni Mubarak, had angered journalists, who viewed it as flattering the regime and targeting opposition writers.

During his controversial talk earlier this month, Tantawi stated that he who commits libel should be flogged 80 times, alleging that such punishment was mentioned in the Holy Quran. Although the case mentioned in the Quranic verse deals with libelling virtuous women without proof, Tantawi stressed that such punishment should be generalised and applied to whoever harms the dignity and reputation of honourable men.

The centre, headed by Tantawi, said in a statement on Sunday that the imam's speech provided a general religious ruling and was not targeting journalists or any specific group.

"The address has nothing to do with any of the state's political issues. It just reminds people of the religious punishment defined by God against whoever commits libel," the statement said, renewing its confidence in Tantawi.

Road deaths

TWELVE people were killed on Saturday when their minibus collided with a truck on the Assiut desert road linking Cairo with Upper Egypt. The accident occurred near the town of Ayyat, around 45km south of Cairo.

The driver and 11 passengers were killed when the minibus collided head-on with a truck coming from the opposite direction, security officials said.

Seven people were injured in the crash. Three of them were rushed to a hospital in downtown Cairo in critical condition.

Compiled by Mona El-Nahhas