Sudan bust-up THE EGYPTIAN Embassy in Sudan this week reported that 18 Egyptian workers who were briefly arrested last week have been released. The embassy had reported an alleged assault against close to 20 Egyptian workers in Sudan. The assault reportedly occurred over the weekend in a Sudanese prison against the Egyptians who were rounded up by police following a scuffle with a group of Sudanese co-workers in the city of Al-Riyad. Photos displayed on the Internet indicated the Egyptians arrested were tortured. Human rights organisations have requested an investigation. However, Ambassador Hisham El-Naqib told reporters that the Foreign Ministry received no complaints of torture and had declared the case closed. All Egyptians arrested were released. The Foreign Ministry and Egypt's diplomatic mission in Khartoum persuaded Sudanese authorities to drop charges of slander brought against the Egyptians involved. The workers have been living in Sudan for some years and were engaged in what Egyptian officials described as a typical fight among workers. Appeal thrown out A CAIRO Criminal Court has tossed out an appeal by Abboud El-Zomor to be released after serving time for his role in the assassination of former president Anwar El-Sadat in 1981, saying the matter was out of its jurisdiction. One of Jihad's prominent leaders, El-Zomor filed a lawsuit demanding he be released, arguing that he had already served a life sentence -- 25 years in Egypt -- but that the Ministry of Interior had consistently refused to free him, claiming he must serve a jail term stemming from another case. Observers argue that authorities need to keep El-Zomor in jail for security reasons for fear he might incite his followers. The court on Sunday ruled that the case came under the jurisdiction of the administrative court. No date was given for the new hearing. Kidnap trial AN ITALIAN judge has ordered 26 US intelligence agents and the former head of Italy's military intelligence to stand trial over the 2003 kidnapping of Egyptian mosque preacher. The cleric, Osama Mustafa Hassan, alias Abu Omar, was abducted on a Milan street on 17 February 2003 and handed to Egyptian authorities who kept him in custody until his release on 11 February this year. Abu Omar remains under house arrest. The trial, to start 8 June, was ordered by Italian judge Caterina Interlandi despite the fact that all the American agents are believed to have left the country. The ruling followed the European parliament's condemnation of EU member states for turning what it called a "blind eye" to secret CIA rendition flights and the Swiss government's green light for a criminal investigation into the use of Swiss airspace to fly Abu Omar to a US base in Germany before he was flown to his final destination in his Egyptian homeland where he said he was subjected to torture. Despite being in Egypt since 2003, Abu Omar's whereabouts were not officially acknowledged until December 2005 in an interview Al-Ahram Weekly conducted with a high-ranking security official. While the official did not deny that Abu Omar was in Egyptian custody, he insisted the cleric returned to Egypt and turned himself in to authorities "out of his own initiative after getting tired of being on the run". However, human rights organisations, Abu Omar's family and lawyer have given a different account, insisting he was kidnapped and tortured while in prison. In a brief telephone interview published on 18 February by the Nasserist Party's mouthpiece Al-Arabi, Abu Omar said he was under house arrest. "I'm banned from travelling with strict orders not to speak to either local nor international media about my kidnapping or torture," Abu Omar was quoted as saying. Abu Omar's lawyer and spokesperson Montasser El-Zayat said the cleric wishes to return to Italy despite a court ruling in absentia sentencing him to a year in jail on terror-related charges. El-Zayat said efforts are being made to lift his house arrest. The only freedom of movement the cleric is allowed does not extend to mosque prayers. Bird flu toll A 37-YEAR-OLD woman has died after testing positive for bird flu, bringing the number of confirmed deaths from the virus in Egypt to 13, Reem Leila writes. It was also reported that a five-year- old boy was hospitalised after being infected with the virus. The woman, Nadia Abdel-Hafez, from Fayoum, 82km south of Cairo, reportedly raised poultry at home. She died on Friday after being moved to hospital five days earlier complaining of high temperature. She was also suffering from bronchitis. The boy, Mohamed Ahmed, from Sharqiya, was the 22nd case recorded in Egypt since the disease first appeared in the country. He tested positive for the virus 10 days ago after being infected by poultry at his home. Abdel-Rahman Shaheen, an official spokesman at the Ministry of Health, said Ahmed's condition was stable and was responding well to treatment. There are fears that the latest victims have been infected with the more dangerous 294S strain of the virus. Hassan El-Bushra, regional advisor of the World Health Organisation (WHO), said that while cross-infection to humans has not occurred, the possibility existed for the virus to mutate into a human-to-human strain. "If the 294S strain mutates it can be passed among humans. It could become a global pandemic. Accordingly, all of Egypt's borders will be closed," El-Bushra said. More than 80 people have died of H5N1 bird flu since the disease's resurgence in December 2003. Most of the victims have been from South Asia. Egypt ranks first among North African countries affected by bird flu and fifth in the world. "The virus has been detected in at least 19 of Egypt's 26 governorates," El-Bushra said. Children besieged A CHILDREN's village in a Cairo suburb was attacked on Monday by assailants but no one was reported injured. The SOS village in Nasr City, northeast of Cairo, was raided by more than 35 people armed with knives and sticks. The attackers, who pretended to be state security officers, reportedly forced out the village's security staff, then assaulted a number of girls inside the village. "One of the thugs attacked me with a wooden stick," said Amal Khalil, one of the village residents. "If it wasn't for a friend who stopped him, he would have raped me."
