Newsreel

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Suggestions anyone?

INTERVIEWED by the ruling National Democratic Party's mouthpiece Al-Watany Al-Yom, Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif urged anyone who thinks they have the answer to the spiralling price of food products to come forward. Inflation, he said, was a major concern, especially when it comes to food and building materials.

He went on to say that his government remained committed to curbing inflation, and had already agreed to increase salaries, reduce custom tariffs and limit the export of staple commodities. He also indicated that President Hosni Mubarak had asked that all Egyptians receive a 15 per cent salary increase but provided no additional details.

In recent months the price of bread has increased fivefold in private bakeries and state-run bakeries have been plagued by panic buying. Scuffles in bread queues are a daily occurrence. In recent weeks they have become increasingly violent, leaving at least seven people dead.

The independent daily Al-Masry Al-Yom has been running a daily countdown on its front page since Nazif said that the bread crisis would be resolved in six weeks. It is now less than a week before the prime minister's own 5 May deadline.

Problem resolved

THE CONTROVERSIAL fertiliser plant will not be constructed in Damietta but in Suez, the governor of Damietta announced on Tuesday.

More than 2,000 people took to the streets in the Mediterranean city of Damietta on the same day demanding a halt to the construction of a huge fertiliser plant. Public outcry over the construction of the plant by E Agrium began several weeks ago after a group of environmentalists made public their concerns over its impact on public health, the environment and the eco-structure of surrounding areas. The peaceful crowd marched towards the town's municipal headquarters carrying black banners reading "No to polluting our environment, no to the factory of death", and calling on President Hosni Mubarak to intervene to stop the construction.

Mubarak met with ministers and the governor of Damietta earlier this month to review the situation. E Agrium has already spent $500 million on the project, say company officials, which complicates any relocation of the factory. Building has already begun on Ras Al-Barr island, once one of Egypt's most popular summer resorts.

Tragic celebration

ELEVEN children drowned while celebrating Sham Al-Nessim in three separate incidents. Six children were killed in Luxor when a sail boat capsized in the Nile, three drowned while swimming in the river near the southern town of Sohag, while two teenagers died in the northern town of Menoufiya, also while swimming in the Nile.