Newsreel

---

Party crisis over

THE RECENT crisis which erupted in the liberal Democratic Front Party following the dismissal of the party's deputy chairman was settled earlier this week, reports Mona El-Nahhas.

During a meeting of the party's higher committee, held on Saturday, the party's first deputy chairman Osama El-Ghazali Harb asked its executive bureau to suspend its previous decree dismissing Anwar Esmat El-Sadat, one of the three deputies of the party chairman.

The decision to dismiss El-Sadat was passed on 14 February in response to a complaint filed by Harb in which he accused El-Sadat of insulting him personally at a meeting of the party's executive bureau on 28 January.

The motion passed against El-Sadat angered a majority of party members, causing dozens in Alexandria and Gharbeya governorates as well as leading members at the party's headquarters, to resign.

Party chairman Yehia El-Gamal, who resigned earlier this month, was pressured by party members to remain in his post until the election of a new chairman.

Harb surprised those assembled when he retreated from his former decision to run for the post of party chairman or any other leading post in the party elections due 14 March. Harb declared that his decision aims at ending the state of division in which the party has been suffering. El-Gamal is said to support the change in Harb's stance. On the position adopted by Harb, El-Sadat said, "it's a return to the right path" stressing that the decree to dismiss him was illegal from the start.

Following Harb's announcement, members of the higher committee decided to re-open the door for nomination, to give a chance to whoever wants to run for the chairmanship's seat.

Ali El-Salmi, one of the party's founders who resigned in September, decided on Monday to withdraw his resignation. El-Salmi said his intention was to run for the post of party chairman. His decision was hailed by party members who viewed it as a step to help rescue the party.

Ezz 'tried'

THE MOVEMENT "Citizens Against Soaring Prices" on Sunday afternoon started a symbolic trial of senior ruling NDP official Ahmed Ezz. During the trial, held at Hisham Mubarak's Centre for Human Rights, the movement accused Ezz, who controls some 60 per cent of the nation's steel production, of monopolising the steel market.

The court panel was comprised of law professor Salah Sadeq, Nasserist lawyer Sayed Abdel-Ghani and the coordinator of the "No to Selling Egypt" group Yehia Hussein. Parliamentary member Saad Abboud represented the claimants. Deputy chairman of the leftist Tagammu Party Abul-Ezz El-Hariri delivered testimony before the court.

Members of the movement said they would submit to the court documents which prove that the Ezz Steel Group was behind the recent rise in steel prices.

"Such trials, in addition to increasing public awareness, are an effective means of pressuring the regime," Mahmoud El-Asqalani, the movement's spokesman, told Al-Ahram Weekly.

Citizens Against Soaring Prices was formed last year and was aimed at mobilising the public against what it describes as the government's incorrect policies.

Beaten for seeking help

FIFTEEN women were assaulted by unidentified attackers in Kafr Al-Elou in Helwan, reports Reem Leila. Five were taken to Helwan public hospital for treatment after being injured. Residents linked the assault to the demolition of the women's homes by the Cairo governorate to make way for a water facility.

The women had wanted to meet Mrs Suzanne Mubarak during her inauguration of the Helwan Culture Palace on Thursday 21 February to complain about the demolition.

Residents said security prevented the women from approaching Mrs Mubarak. At the end of the visit, the women said men in civilian clothes assaulted them while security officers watched in silence. Residents suggested that the assailants might be Cairo police agents posted to secure the area during the visit.

Omayma Samir Gabr, 31, told Al-Ahram Weekly, "I went to meet Mrs Mubarak to beg her to solve our problem. We built our homes a long time ago but they were bulldozed under the claim that they were in violation of the regulations. We submitted several complaints and although we are 34 families currently living in the streets, no one has ever answered us." The police officers prevented any of the residents from reaching Mrs Mubarak and after she left, "we were beaten and insulted by men we do not know. And now, I am lying in the hospital with a broken leg."

As for 30-year-old Hanan Salama Sediq, she was injured in the face and body. Her four-year-old son was also hurt. Sediq had been living on the street with her children after their home had been pulled down and said the attack happened "right under the nose" of the police.

MP Mustafa Bakri, of the Helwan constituency, told the Weekly that what happened to the women was normal given that no one should interfere with Mrs Mubarak's motorcade. However, Bakri added, "the Cairo governor has promised to solve their problem as soon as possible."

Late last year, the Cairo governorate demolished 37 houses in Helwan to set up a national water company to provide the area with potable water. Since then, residents have been provided with only LE2,000 and five blankets. Two apartments were given to the poorest two families in the neighbourhood.

Bird flu child

AFTER weeks of quiet, the Ministry of Health and Population announced on Tuesday that Aya Atef Hussein, a four-year-old girl, had tested positive for bird flu, bringing the number of those diagnosed with the deadly H5N1 strain in the country to 44, Reem Leila reports.

Abdel-Rahman Shahin, official spokesman at the Ministry of Health and Population, said Hussein, from the southern village of Sheikh Massoud in Minya governorate, had been admitted to a Cairo hospital, treated with the anti-viral drug Tamiflu and was in stable condition. According to Shahin, Hussein is suffering from high fever and is having trouble breathing because of inflammation in one lung.

This is the third winter the virus has struck after lying low during Egypt's hot summers when it is much less likely to spread from one carrier to another. Of the 44 cases confirmed to date in Egypt, 19 have been fatal. Most of the infected and the fatalities have been women or girls whose families raise poultry in backyards and who had daily contact with chickens or turkeys.

Around five million households in Egypt depend on poultry as a main source of food and income, and the government has said this makes it unlikely the disease can be eradicated despite a large-scale poultry vaccination programme.

Egypt is one of the countries most affected by the H5N1 strain outside Asia where the outbreak began in 2003. The country lies on a main route for migratory birds which are believed to have brought the disease. Experts also link outbreaks in countries such as Egypt to a lack of financial resources and public awareness about the disease.

The H5N1 strain has hit 45 countries and led to the culling of millions of birds worldwide. The virus has infected more than 340 people and killed at least 212 since 2003, mostly in Asia.