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Pensioners protest

HUNDREDS of pensioners staged a sit-in on Sunday at the headquarters of the National Authority of Social Insurance, an affiliate of the Finance Ministry, to press for financial dues, reports Mona El-Nahhas.

Security cordoned off the building to prevent protesters from getting inside.

Members of the Pensioners' Rights Movement which organised the strike threatened to launch a larger sit-in next Sunday if the ministry does not respond to their demands. They said they would invite pensioners from the provinces to attend next week's gathering.

In two successive rulings passed two months ago, the Supreme Constitutional Court ordered that pensions paid to state employees who went on early retirement should be adjusted upwards. The court ruled that early retirees should be paid what had been cut from their pensions during several years.

The authority recently amended last month's pensions without paying pensioners their accumulated financial dues.

Mohamed Maeet, the finance minister's advisor for pensions and insurance affairs, said his ministry had referred the ruling to the State Council's fatwa (religious edict) department to get a clear-cut interpretation of the ruling. "Now we are waiting for a legal reply from the State Council," Maeet said, adding that all pensioners' demands were presented to Finance Minister Youssef Boutros Ghali.

The Pensioners' Rights Movement is one of the several movements recently created to defend the social and financial rights of around eight million Egyptian pensioners.

Members of such movements have accused the Finance Ministry of squandering pensioners' funds which has caused difficulty in paying what they are owed.

Moonlighting judges

THE STATE Council has ordered three judges working for its courts to be investigated for professional infringements. Judge Adel Farghali, a member of the special council, the highest administrative authority at the State Council, told Al-Ahram Weekly that the judges are accused of working for several governmental bodies in addition to their own work without receiving approval from the special council.

"A judge is allowed to work for any government body provided that his court circuit does not hear lawsuits filed against such a body," Farghali said. "This would guarantee that rulings passed would be void of any bias," he added.

"That's why the special council should be informed in advance of the government body the judge will work for and the monthly bonus he would get in return," Farghali noted.

The three judges violated such a rule, according to Farghali. "And it was found that lawsuits filed against government bodies they work for are now being heard by court circuits which they chair," Farghali added.

Investigations are still being conducted by the Judicial Inspection Department which is an affiliate of the Justice Ministry and which is authorised to question judges.

Investigators asked the Central Auditing Authority (CAA) to examine the monthly bonuses the three judges get from such bodies.

Inspectors sent by the CAA have started to examine the financial records of all State Council judges, a move which stirred resentment among judges.

The CAA Chairman judge Gawdat El-Malt was quoted on Monday as saying that the CAA step was made by mistake and that whoever commissioned his inspectors for such a task will be held accountable.

Egyptians detained

SAUDI authorities have detained 20 Egyptian females working for a Saudi hairdresser. The arrests came following a complaint submitted to the police by the owner of the salon stating that she had been robbed by the Egyptians.

However, Egyptian Consul in Riyadh Fawzi El-Ashmawi said the allegations directed at the women were false. "They have submitted a complaint to the Egyptian consulate in Riyadh about being mistreated by the owner of the hairdresser where they work. While looking into the complaint the consulate discovered that they had entered Saudi Arabia by way of a guarantor different from the one they had signed the agreement with." El-Ashmawi added they had neither their passports nor a copy of their work contract with them.

He said the consulate had started taking the necessary steps to solve the problem and had informed the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Riyadh governorate and the Ministry of Work. He said the female workers had complained about working for too many hours and were treated inappropriately, unprofessionally and rudely. He added that the owner of the hairdresser had accused them of theft and that they had been summoned by Saudi police for questioning.

El-Ashmawi added that the legal consultant of the Egyptian consulate was attending the investigations, and that attempts were being made to release and repatriate the women. He said the Interior Ministry had issued a decree banning work permits for Egyptian women seeking to work as hairdressers and for private homes in Gulf countries.

Bird flu conference

PRIME Minister Ahmed Nazif will inaugurate the sixth international ministerial conference on bird flu in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh on 24 October, Reem Leila reports.

Egypt's experience in fighting bird flu will figure high on the conference's agenda. The three-day meeting will be attended by more than 300 representatives from 116 countries, including 40 health ministers and 18 ministers of agriculture and environment, as well as representatives of a number of governments and concerned international organisations working in the fight against bird flu.

The highlight will be a lecture given by the UN assistant secretary-general and system senior coordinator for avian and human influenza David Nabarro.

Organisations attending will include the World Health Organisation, World Bank, United States Department for Agriculture, UN Food and Agriculture Organisation and the World Organisation for Animal Health.

The conference has already praised the efforts of five similar gatherings held in Washington, Beijing, Vienna, Bamako and New Delhi.

The total number of confirmed bird flu cases in the world is 348 -- 216 being fatal -- with the highest mortality rates in Indonesia and Vietnam. In Egypt, the number is 50 human cases of which 22 have died and 28 have recovered.

School attack

A SCHOOLBOY was seriously wounded after being attacked by students at the Talaat Harb Secondary School in Agouza.

Mohamed Abdel-Moeti was allegedly attacked by five of his colleagues during break time. Abdel-Moeti said his classmates had been beating another, younger pupil. "When I tried to stop them they attacked me with knives and sharp blades," said Abdel-Moeti who was rushed to hospital suffering from severe injures in the face and neck.

The school's administration claims Abdel-Moeti was absent on the day of the attack and has reportedly warned his parents not to identify the school by name during police investigations. The administration also alleged that the incident occurred outside the school.