Newsreel

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Russian relations

EGYPT and Russia are on the threshold of a new era of economic cooperation. Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif, heading a senior delegation of Egyptian officials, today ends a successful four-day visit to Moscow. Nazif and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin discussed ways of enhancing bilateral trade and to pump more direct Russian investment in several strategic sectors, including tourism, industry, agriculture, oil and gas and IT.

Nazif's visit has already borne fruit. The industrial city of Borg Al-Arab, 30km southwest of Alexandra, will soon host a huge, one million square metres Russian industrial zone. Costing $2 billion, the zone will provide massive job opportunities and will act as a hub for specialised industries including vehicles, electric generators, and oil and gas equipment in addition to other assembling industries, particularly Russian vehicles manufactured in Egypt. A good part of production will be exported to neighbouring markets.

The planned zone will prompt more Russian direct investment into the country. Some $250 million of direct investment are targeted to replace the present figure, estimated at $45 million which does not truly reflect the enormous prospects for investing in Egypt. Putin was quoted by Ria Novosti, the Russian news and information agency, as saying that Egypt is regarded as Russia's "privileged and strategic partner in the region".

The past several years have seen a significant surge in bilateral trade between the two countries. Bilateral trade stood at an estimated $4 billion this year.

Egypt's exports to Russia increased by 39 per cent to $184 million in 2007 compared to $132 million the previous year. Nazif was quoted as saying that the figures are expected to double in coming years.

In tourism, Russia comes at the forefront of European markets in terms of the number of tourists visiting the country. An estimated 1.6 million Russian tourists visited Egypt in 2007. The number is expected to jump to two million visitors in 2009.

Bedouins in action

ARMED Bedouins briefly kidnapped 26 policemen in Northern Sinai on Tuesday, a day after the killing by police of a Bedouin.

According to news reports, the Bedouins freed the policemen in a mountainous area near the Israeli border after being held for around two hours.

According to an Interior Ministry statement a day earlier, during a wave of anti-police protests that swept the peninsula following the killing, three Bedouins were killed and another four injured. Four policemen were also injured.

Monday's shooting started when the driver of a four-wheel drive sped towards a police patrol and overturned, according to the statement.

The driver and another individual got out of the car and started firing at the patrol. A shoot-out ensued leaving one of the two attackers dead and the other wounded.

Bedouins say police routinely carry out arrests in North Sinai and can have their car licences confiscated and homes searched at any time.

Bedouins in the Sinai frequently complain of marginalisation and police abuse although some of the tribesmen are also involved in trafficking people, drugs and goods across the border into Israel and the Gaza Strip.

In July, the detention of one of their number in the Sinai without charge saw hundreds of Bedouins burn tyres and block roads in protest.

A spate of bombings that rocked popular tourist destinations in Sinai between 2004 and 2006 led to massive sweeps of the peninsula with thousands of Bedouins arrested.

Bar breathes easier

THE JUDICIAL committee, which is authorised to regulate elections at professional syndicates, has set 18 January as the date for staging polls of the Bar Association, reports Mona El-Nahhas.

The committee, headed by judge Farouk Sultan, chief justice of the Cairo Southern Court, decided on Sunday that candidates can register from 22 November to 2 December.

Lawyers welcomed Sultan's decision and agreed to end their one-week sit-in.

For the past three weeks, the Bar Association has been on edge in the wake of a court ruling halting syndicate polls which were scheduled for 14 November.

In its ruling, the court said that Law 100/1993 was not applied while taking the necessary electoral procedures.

The ruling abruptly brought election campaigns to a halt. A sit- in was staged last week, while Sultan was asked repeatedly to set a new date for elections.

Sameh Ashour, former syndicate chairman and a chairmanship candidate in the upcoming elections, took the initial step of mobilising lawyers to press for holding elections. Ashour insisted that lawyers would not accept any delay in the poll and vowed to continue the strike until regaining full control of the syndicate.

The Bar Association is currently run by a judicial committee headed by the chief justice of the Appeals Court. The committee began taking responsibility for the administrative affairs of the Bar in the wake of a court ruling passed earlier this year dissolving the Islamist-controlled syndicate council.

Many lawyers argued that the recent crisis in the Bar will benefit Ashour in the forthcoming electoral battle, saying it will make him appear as the Bar's sole defender.

Ashour's two main rivals, Ragaie Atteya and Talaat El-Sadat, were said not to have played a prominent role in the crisis compared with that of Ashour.

Ashour, who was reported to have received unlimited governmental backing, was recently accused by members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, which opposes him, of planning to turn the Bar Association into a governmental-controlled syndicate if he becomes chairman.

Squashed to death

A WOMAN was killed and another injured in the southern city of Qena after they stood in the way of a bulldozer that was demolishing a home built without a permit. The two women, whose family had moved onto the land and built a home there, were protesting against the demolition, which followed a court order.

Housing regulations are regularly flouted in Egypt, where entire portions of neighbourhoods are constructed without permits and people often illegally add storeys to their homes, sometimes causing building collapses.