Decree for disputed land A PRESIDENTIAL decree was issued this week calling Zewail City of Science and Technology (ZCST) a “national project”. President Mohamed Morsi on Monday passed a law establishing ZCST as Egypt's national scientific renaissance project. ZCST is managed by Nobel laureate in chemistry Ahmed Zewail and was officially established according to Law 161/2012, with headquarters and premises located in Sheikh Zayed in October City, but with no further details about the exact location and whether it will use the disputed buildings and the premises of Nile University. The newly-issued law does not include details about the exact location and address of either Nile University or Zewail City. The presidential decree comes following a November ruling by the Administrative Court that Nile University should relinquish the disputed buildings on the campus, after months of protests by Nile University students who insist on the ownership of the university's premises. Consequently, this week's law angered students and professors of Nile University. Following last year's revolution, a dispute over the land ensued since Nile University students were left without a campus when former prime minister Ahmed Nazif, who had granted their university its land, was imprisoned on corruption charges.
Farewell Abdel-Nour AMIN Fakhri Abdel-Nour, one of the key figures of the leftist Wafd Party, passed away on Thursday at the age of 100. He was the oldest surviving Wafdist member and is the father of the Wafdist figure Mounir Fakhri Abdel-Nour, the former tourism minister. Amin Fakhri was one of the founders of the New Wafd Party which was established in February 1978, a successor to the party that played the central role in Egyptian politics for decades until it was banned after the 1952 Revolution. Fakhri was the last Wafd member who personally shook hands with nationalist leader Saad Zaghloul, the founder of the initial Wafd Party in 1918. His father, Fakhri Abdel-Nour, the leftist leader, also contributed in the founding of the initial Wafd Party and also took part in the 1919 Revolution. On Sunday, Pope Tawadros II, the 118th patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Church, headed the funeral prayers for Fakhri in the Saint Mark Cathedral in Abbasiya. The funeral was attended by a number of political leaders and party figures. Former prime minister Kamal Al-Ganzouri, prominent writer Mohamed Hassanein Heikal, former presidential candidates Amr Moussa and Hamdeen Sabahi as well as Wafd Party chairman Al-Sayed Al-Badawi were among the public figures that attended the funeral. “The deceased was loved and always smiling to whoever met him in addition to being a servant of his country,” Pope Tawadros said at the funeral. “God gave Abdel-Nour many blessings, including long life and blessed years.” Egyptian heads US GDC PRESIDENT Barack Obama has appointed Egyptian-American Mohamed Al-Erian, chief executive officer of Pacific Investment Management Co, as head of the US Global Development Council (GDC). The GDC was established in February through an executive order by the US president. “The council will inform and provide advice to the president and other senior US officials on US global development policies and practices, support new and existing public-private partnerships, and raise awareness and action in support of development by soliciting public input on current and emerging issues in the field of global development,” said a statement released by the White House on Friday. Al-Erian is the chief executive officer of PIMCO, a global investment management firm and one of the world's largest bond investors. Al-Erian, 54, was born in New York and lived in Egypt as a child. He is a son of Egyptian UN diplomat Abdallah Al-Erian who in 1971 was appointed ambassador to France. Al-Erian joined PIMCO in 1999 as a senior member of the portfolio management and investment strategy group. He left in 2006 to serve as CEO of Harvard Management Co and revamped the university's endowment before rejoining PIMCO in 2007. He also worked at the International Monetary Fund for 15 years, and served as the IMF's deputy director from 1995 to 1997. Al-Erian received a bachelor's and master's degree in economics from Cambridge University as well as a doctorate from Oxford University. Other members appointed to the GDC by Obama include Richard Blum, chairman of investment firm Blum Capital Partners, and Sarah Beardsley Degnan Kambou, president of the International Centre for Research on Women. “These dedicated and accomplished individuals will be valued additions to my administration as we tackle the important challenges facing America. I look forward to working with them in the months and years ahead,” Obama said.
