Newsreel

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Fighting piracy

SOMALI President Sheikh Sherif Ahmed paid a two-day visit to Egypt this week, his first since being elected as interim president of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia. The Somali leader met with President Hosni Mubarak for discussions on Somalia's reconciliation, rebuilding and national security. They also pledged to jointly combat piracy off the Somali territorial waters and explored the possibility of Egypt's training the nascent Somali police force. Sheikh Sherif assured Mubarak that he was doing his utmost to secure the release of two Egyptian fishing vessels abducted by Somali pirates on 12 April with 24 people on board.

"Our priority now is to restore security" the Somali leader told Al-Ahram and Egyptian television. He stressed that Egypt has a pivotal role to play in instituting "peace, political stability and prosperity in Somalia". He also pledged to combat the challenge of piracy in the Indian Ocean and noted that he is aware of Egypt's keen interest in resolving the piracy problem.

Somali pirates hijacked the Blue Star, an Egyptian cargo vessel with 28 crew on board, on New Year's Day. But later released it on 5 March for a ransom of $1 million.

Absolute rejection

THE FOREIGN Ministry summoned the head of Iran's Special Interests Office in Egypt to convey its "absolute rejection" of criticism levelled against Egypt after the recent capture of a Hizbullah cell in the country. Ambassador Mohamed El-Zarqani, assistant foreign minister for Asian affairs, told Mohamed Rajabi that Egypt would not accept statements such as these or such a hostile position. Such statements made by Iran, El-Zarqani said, are unacceptable interference in internal affairs. "Egypt will not stand silent with folded arms when confronted with such positions," El-Zarqani said.

Iranian officials have said Egypt's detention of 49 suspects accused of planning attacks inside the state was spurious and an attempt to influence the upcoming Lebanese parliamentary elections.

Trial postponed

A CAIRO Criminal Court has postponed the re-trial of Hani Sorour, CEO of Hayedelena for Advanced Medical Industries Company (HAMIC), his sister Nivan, in addition to five employees of the Ministry of Health who were involved in the defected blood bags case. The new date is 20 June. Defendants are accused of fraud for importing contaminated blood bags to the Ministry of Health. The court, which postponed the session to listen to additional testimony, which according to the law starts with that of the general prosecution, allows the defence to surf all relevant documents.

HAMIC was accused of producing 300,000 defective blood bags, of which 37,000 were used while the rest were confiscated. The bags were found ripe with bacteria and fungi that could have caused cancer and hepatitis. A previous verdict in April last year exonerated all the accused. The verdict was repealed two months later by Prosecutor-General Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud who forwarded the repeal to the Appeals Court for consideration. According to a statement, Mahmoud said the circumstances surrounding the verdict offered numerous bases on which a revocation of the verdict could be considered.

Paramount among the ambiguities was the court's decision to perceive the defects in the blood bags as within the permitted parameters set by the law, something the forensic reports issued on the case did not verify. The forensic reports presented to court also indicated that the defects in the bags were not a result of methods of storage but could only have come about through a fault in the production process.

Bird flu child death

A SIX-year-old boy died on Tuesday of the H5N1 bird flu virus, the 24th human fatality of the disease in Egypt. Ali Somaa, from Qalioubiya, died of respiratory failure, Egypt's first bird flu fatality of 2009. According to Abdel-Rahman Shahin, spokesman of the Ministry of Health, Somaa had been admitted to hospital in late March. Concerning another case, Shahin said Ahmed Kamaleddin, a four-year-old from the Sohag governorate, had contracted bird flu and was in hospital. The boy was being treated with the antiviral drug Tamiflu. Kamaleddin was admitted to hospital on Saturday suffering from fever after exposure to dead poultry -- suspected of having died of bird flu -- bringing to 67 the number of bird flu cases in humans.

And a toddler also contracted bird flu in the country's fourth reported case in a week. The 18-month-old girl from Kafr Al-Sheikh governorate is in stable condition after being treated with Tamiflu. According to Shahin, it was the 66th recorded case since the outbreak of the disease in Egypt in 2006.

Last week the Health Ministry announced that two women were in critical condition after being infected with the virus.

Egypt has seen an increase in bird flu cases over the past two months and the World Health Organisation (WHO) called for an investigation into why many of the victims have been young children. Last week local authorities culled 40,000 poultry infected with the virus, in a poultry farm located in Sharqiya governorate. "A preparatory mission arrived in the country on 21 April to start investigating the situation in Egypt," stated Ahmed Abdel-Latif, director of WHO in Egypt.

Twenty-three people have died of bird flu in Egypt, mostly young girls and women who are generally in charge of looking after poultry in rural areas.

Egypt hosted an international conference on bird flu in October, when Washington pledged an additional $320 million to fight the disease amid fears that it may yet escalate into a global pandemic. The H5N1 strain of the virus that is most dangerous to humans first emerged in Asia in 2003 and has since caused nearly 250 deaths, according to WHO figures.

Scientists fear that a mutation of the bird flu virus resulting in a strain easily transmitted among humans could create a pandemic, potentially affecting up to one-fifth of the world's population.

Building falls

A WOMAN was killed when a building partially collapsed in the northern coastal city of Alexandria on Friday. Three other people were injured after parts of the four-storey building west of Alexandria, some 220km northwest of Cairo, fell. The body of the victim was recovered under the debris and the injured were rushed to hospital. An investigation is underway, an official source at the Ministry of Interior said.

It was the second building to collapse this month in the northern Egyptian city. At least two people were killed on 7 March in a similar incident. Building collapses occur from time to time in Egypt due to building regulations being ignored.

Compiled by Reem Leila