Qurad kill A worker died and another man was taken sick, after they'd eaten fish at a restaurant in Ras Ghareb near Hurghada, Red Sea Governorate. You'd think there'd be nothing wrong with the fish there, as Ras Ghareb is just by the sea. The two diners were taken to Ras Ghareb General Hospital for treatment, but it was too late for one of them. In fact, what was wrong was that the deceased and his friend ate qurad (porcupine puffer fish or globe fish). In the early summer in 2008, eight people died in Alexandria died after eating this fish, while two more – women – also died in a separate incident in Alex, and 11 more, including four children, were taken sick. Puffer fish, also called arnab el-bahr (rabbit of the sea) in Arabic, is very popular with people in Alexandria, where, at the time of the deaths in 2008, the authorities confiscated and destroyed 1.2 tonnes of it. The Government also issued warnings to restaurants not to serve this delicacy. The problem is that most people don't realise that qurad are dangerous to eat, while housewives often mistake them for tilapia when they buy them. The price is also right. (Al-Akhbar and aljazeera.net) The only way out… A barber from a village in el-Sharqia Governorate shot himself in the chest with a pistol, because his wife refused to return to the family home and insisted on divorcing him. Mohamed Gamal (25), from the village of el-Akheewa, died of his injuries in el-Husseinia Central Hospital. The deceased had married his 23-year-old maternal cousin six years ago. The problems started when his wife wanted to move away from Tenth Ramadan City, where they lived, but Mohamed didn't, because his little barber's shop was there. She insisted, so he decided to end it all. (Al-Gomhuria) Four fraternal fugitives in fire After being handed a custodial sentence in absentia by the Criminal Court, a young man started moving from place to place, in order to keep one step ahead of the law. But, late one night, he made the mistake of visiting his family in the Moharem Bek district of Alexandria. Police were tipped off about this and the fact that he'd been dealing in drugs again. When they turned up at his home to arrest him, he set fire to the place, in a bid to cover his escape. But he was arrested and the fire was extinguished before it could spread to neighbouring properties. Detectives made rich pickings that night, as they also arrested three of his brothers, also on the run from prison sentences for thuggery and drug offences. Officers confiscated knives and a large quantity of hashish from the four fugitives from justice. (Al-Ahram) Accepting the shroud In the village of Atsa, Fayoum Governorate, the security authorities, aided by the executive and popular authorities, have managed to reconcile two families – el-Gahoush and el-Thaghwia – who'd been engaged in a feud for 25 years. It was in June 1985 that the vendetta started, when three members of el-Thaghwia family, Aweida Mansour Aweida (a fellah), his brother, Moawad (a worker), and their paternal cousin, Mansour Attia Aweida, got into an argument over the boundaries of their agricultural land with Qassem Abdel-Salem Ahmed of el-Gahoush family. It only ended when the three el-Thaghwias clubbed Qassem to death. They were all arrested and sentenced to 25 years in prison by Fayoum Criminal Court. But the family of the deceased never forgave them, even though they served their sentences, until a few days ago that is, when Salouma, the brother of the late Qassem, and their paternal uncle, Naggui Ahmed Ramadan, accepted the shroud presented to them by Moawad. The family of the deceased also refused to accept any blood money. The reconciliation occurred in the presence of thousands of eyewitnesses in the village of Tatoun. (Al-Wafd) A most unusual vendetta Meanwhile, the curtains have also come down on another dramatic vendetta in Fayoum Governorate that lasted even longer – 60 years. It wasn't a dispute between two families, but a dispute between members of the Hashem family – the children of one Hashem and the children of their paternal uncle – over agricultural land. It was in 1950 that trouble flared between two cousins in the family, who all live near Youssef el-Sedeeq. Mohamed Hashem and his cousin, Dawoud Mahmoud Hashem, fell out over the boundaries of their agricultural land. It all ended with Mohamed's sons, Sayyed, Natag, Nasser and Baleedi, shooting dead Dawoud (47) and his brother Anwar (56). Nateg was arrested in connection with the killing, tried and found guilty. He was sent down for 25 years. He died shortly after his release from jail. But his cousins were still angry and their anger festered for many years, until a few days ago, when a reconciliation meeting was held in the village, attended by the Hashem family and all the villagers. Peace was declared when Sayyed, Nasser, Baleedi (all old men now) and their late brother Nateg's son, Ali, presented the traditional shrouds to Anwar's son, Mahmoud, and Mahmoud's sons, Sayem, Mohamed and Alaa. After receiving the shrouds, Anwar's son and grandsons refused to accept any blood money. Both sides have signed a formal, legally binding document, filed at Youssef el-Sedeeq Police Station, to say that they are reconciled. Normally vendettas like these involve two different families; ones involving the same family are more unusual. But a vendetta lasting 60 years is really unusual. (Al-Masry Al-Youm) Fifty pardons and two mysteries Fifty Egyptian prisoners, convicted for a variety of offences, were earlier this month given a royal pardon in Saudi Arabia, as recently reported in The Egyptian Gazette, the daily edition of the Mail. The pardon came three months after Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdel-Aziz returned home, having had successful medical treatment in Morocco, where he'd spent months convalescing from a mysterious illness. The Saudi Crown Prince, born in 1926, is the Saudi Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence and Aviation. He is the 15th son of King Abdel-Aziz, one of the ‘Sudairi Seven' – the seven close-knit sons of the King by Prince Hassa bint Ahmed Sudairi. Apart from his illness, there is another mystery. Why was the Crown Prince's son, Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdel-Aziz, former Saudi Ambassador in Washington, not there to welcome him last December, when he returned home? (The Egyptian Gazette and Al-Ahram) Saved by its bark El-Ezbekia Court of Misdemeanour has sentenced an unemployed man to a month in prison, having found him guilty of trying to steal a dog that lives on the roof of the block of flats next to the one where he lives. Osama Salama was going through a financial crisis, so he decided to steal his neighbours' hound and sell it. Osama went into action in the depths of the night, when everyone was fast asleep. He crept up onto the roof of the building and tried to unchain the dog, which started barking, waking up everyone in the block. One of the residents walked up onto the roof and detained the suspect until the police turned up. (Al-Wafd) Dramatic storm Readers will remember the dramatic rainstorm that hit Egypt towards the end of last month. That Thursday night, a middle-aged man gave his two sons, Moustafa, an 18-year-old undergraduate, and his 15-year-old brother LE30 to buy something in the computer store near their home. On their way to the store, the heavens opened. The boys ran down the street to try and escape the rain, thunder and lightning. A few seconds later, Moustafa was dead, having been electrocuted by a live electric cable lying in the street outside the school which the deceased had attended. When the boys' father heard the tragic news, he had a stroke, paralysing his neck and one of his arms. He's still sick, confined to bed in their home in Ain Shams, where the family's friends and neighbours speak of Moustafa, who was studying law, as a wonderful boy. "My son was killed by a 350 volt cable," says Moustafa's father, Abdel-Fattah Mohamed, who works as a technician on the Greater Cairo Underground, as he clutches a photo of his late son in his uninjured hand. "I'm an electrical engineer and I can imagine how painful his death must have been. Moustafa was the apple of my eye. I was so looking forward to the day when he'd get married. When I suffered from a blood clot last year, he took me to the doctor's and also looked after me. He was very kind and a bright lad too. He did well at school and dreamed one day of working in the Prosecutor's office." A few minutes after Abdel-Fattah sent his sons to the computer store, Moustafa was dead. Passersby took him to the Workers' Hospital in Ain Shams, but it was too late. "Moustafa died outside el-Bishri School, where he spent ten years as a pupil. The cable had been lying in the street for a long time and I'd warned my sons about it. Nothing will replace my son. Someone must pay for the negligence that caused his death. I don't want anyone else to suffer a similar fate," comments his distraught mother. "The Prosecutor has launched an inquiry into this tragedy, but it's yet to find anyone responsible for my nephew's death," says Ismail Mohamed, Moustafa's paternal uncle. "Officials from the Ministry of Electricity said they weren't responsible, while officials from the Local Council and Greater Cairo Underground said the cable didn't belong to them. Anyway, we want compensation and we won't give up." Shortly after Moustafa's death, workmen buried the cable. If only they'd done it earlier. (Al-Masry Al-Youm)
