Newsreel
Farewell Mostageer
Scientist, poet and author Ahmed Mostageer died in Austria yesterday after suffering a stroke. Mostageer was born in 1934 in the village of Sallahat, Daqahliya Governorate, eastern Delta.
Mostageer earned his PhD in 1963, and was a recipient of numerous prestigious state awards. He received the State Incentive Award in 1974, the State Merit Award in 1996 and the State Excellence Award in 1999 for the best scientific work and the best literary production in 2000. He was awarded the Mubarak Prize in Science and Advanced Technology in 2001.
Mostageer is survived by his widow, three sons and a daughter.
Status quomaintained
CAIRO and Tehran say they are not planning to upgrade their diplomatic relations any time soon. Following a three-hour meeting on Sunday between President Hosni Mubarak and visiting Iranian Foreign Minister Menosher Muteki, Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit told reporters that while the meeting discussed in part bilateral relations between Iran and Egypt, no plans to upgrade diplomatic representation was considered.
Egypt and Iran do not have full diplomatic relations. Diplomatic ties between the two were severed following the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979 to protest against the support offered by Cairo under former president Anwar El-Sadat to the toppled shah of Iran.
Several attempts to revive ties have failed mainly because of security concerns on the Egyptian side.
Currently, both countries exchange interest sections headed by diplomats at the ambassadorial level.
"Bilateral relations between Egypt and Iran are stable and amicable," Abul-Gheit said in a joint press conference with his Iranian counterpart on Sunday. "The current diplomatic status will remain as is for now," he added.
The two ministers stressed their countries' joint interest to upgrade consultations and cooperation on regional and international issues of common interest both at the bilateral and multilateral level in bodies the countries are members of including the Organisation of Islamic Conference.
MBs released
HELIOPOLIS Misdemeanour Court on Monday ordered the release of Essam El-Erian and Mohamed Mursi, two leading members of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. Together with El-Erian and Mursi, nine other MBs were also released.
The release of the MBs, who were detained in May while taking part in demonstrations supporting judges, came in accordance with the new remand-in-custody legislation passed by the People's Assembly in June. For the first time, the legislation gave suspects the right to contest prosecutors' decrees prolonging their detention period. As such, the MBs on Monday filed an appeal before the Heliopolis Misdemeanour Court contesting the prosecution's decision to renew their detention.
Following their arrest in May, the Supreme State Security Prosecution ordered the MBs be detained for two months on charges of leading an outlawed organisation which aims at toppling the regime.
After the detention, the MBs were arrested again. The charge this time was reviving the activities of an outlawed organisation. Since then, the prosecution has been renewing their remand-in-custody detention.
By accident
LUCK has always played a major role in discoveries. Early this week at Moqattam coincidence led to the finding of what looked like part of an ancient Egyptian workmen's necropolis. While expanding a section of the Autostrad stretching from Maadi to 15th of May, workers stumbled upon two Old Kingdom limestone sarcophagi, one containing a human skeleton along with a small red clay pot. Although neither sarcophagi bear any inscription that may identify its owner, the discovery shed light on workmen who had helped in the building of the Giza Pyramids. Sabri Abdel-Aziz, head of Ancient Egyptian Antiquities Department in the Supreme Council of Antiquities, told Al-Ahram Weekly that the discovery will probably help find a large workmen and miners necropolis because the area was used as a stone mine in ancient Egyptian history. Abdel-Aziz said kings Khufu, Khafre and Menkawre had cased their pyramids from the stones of such a mine.
Pilgrim problems
SIX-HUNDRED pilgrims, whose ferry Cleopatra Moon was banned from sailing for safety reasons, left Suez on Sunday for Jeddah on another ferry. The remaining 290 pilgrims will fly to Jeddah from Cairo Airport.
On Friday, the Marine Inspection Authority announced it had discovered several technical flaws in the ferry. The pilgrims, many of them elderly, were forced to remain in Safaga, their first stop, for two nights, most sleeping on the pavement.
On Sunday, navigation authorities at Safaga asked the Navigation National Company which owns the ferry to provide a number of buses to transport the pilgrims to Suez, where they took another ferry, Shahd Cleopatra. The company was also obliged to bear the cost of the pilgrims' flights.
Compiled by Mona El-Nahhas
Al-Ahram Weekly Online : Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2006/808/eg5.htm