Top-level meetings PRESIDENT Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi on Monday met a US Congressional delegation headed by Representative Devin Nunes, chairman of the Permanent Select Committee for Intelligence at the House of Representatives. The delegation also met Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri. The officials discussed the importance of boosting bilateral relations in the political, economic, trade and security fields in a way that serves the mutual interests of Cairo and Washington. During the meeting, Shoukri answered questions raised by the delegation regarding the recent developments in the Middle East and the threat of terrorism to the region and the world, as ministry spokesman Badr Abdel-Ati stated. Shoukri responded to questions related to the situation in Yemen, the crisis in Syria and a possible political solution, as well as cooperation with east Mediterranean countries, including Cyprus, which Al-Sisi recently visited, Abdel-Ati added. In March, a congressional delegation met Al-Sisi, Shoukri and Defence Minister Sedki Sobhi in Egypt. The Ministry of Defence reported that the talks focussed on joint military cooperation between Egypt and the US, particularly efforts to fight terrorism and security in the Middle East. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Schteinmeier also visited Egypt on Sunday. Schteinmeier, who was visiting the country for the first time, expressed Germany and Europe's support for Egypt in fighting terrorism and fixing economy and social problems. In his meeting with Shoukri on Monday, the two sides discussed improving bilateral relations, terrorism and the situation in Libya, Yemen and Syria. They also tackled national security, the development in the Iranian nuclear issue in light of the recent framework agreement and the threat of illegal immigration to Egypt, Germany and the EU. In March, German Chancellor Angela Merkel invited Al-Sisi to visit Germany. The visit is scheduled for 3 June. New passports THE FOREIGN Ministry said on Monday it had issued 2,659 new electronic passports for expatriates in three days. The passports were then sent to foreign missions which will distribute them to expats. “The centre for issuing passports affiliated to the Foreign Ministry works in conjunction with the Immigration and Passports Department at Mugamma inTahrir to avoid any delay in issuing the electronic passports before the deadline,” ministry spokesman Badr Abdel-Ati said in a statement. The deadline for issuing the passports is November. The Foreign Ministry is taking measures to ensure that all expats have them before then. Airport lady YASMINE Al-Narsh became the subject of a recent video that went viral after she was filmed insulting and beating a police officer at Cairo Airport. The incident happened when she was prevented from catching her flight after she was suspected of possessing hash. Al-Narsh, 40, was reportedly en route to Sharm El-Sheikh on 27 April when an EgyptAir officer told her the flight was overbooked and full, at which point she became aggressive, an eyewitness told TV host Ahmed Moussa during a phone-in on his show on 3 May. Al-Narsh was found in possession of approximately 200 grams of hash. The drugs were confiscated and she was booked for drug possession and insulting a police officer. Deputy Minister of Interior for Human Rights Abu Bakr Abdel-Karim said that Al-Narsh was detained for four days pending an investigation. Her detention was extended 15 days. Death sentences FIVE people were sentenced to death on Monday for the killing of police officers in one of three cases involving assaults on security forces in the town of Kerdassa on the outskirts of Greater Cairo. The defendants were accused of killing 11 police officers during an attack on Kerdassa police station in August 2013 following the deadly dispersal of two large sit-ins in Cairo supporting ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi. They had been sentenced in absentia to death in February. They were later arrested and retried. Giza criminal court originally sentenced 183 people to death over the attack, including 34 in absentia. Defendants appealed the verdict but a retrial has not been announced. In a separate case, 22 people were sentenced to death in April for attacking Kerdassa police station and killing a policeman in the wake of Morsi's ouster in July 2013. Both lawsuits were originally heard in court by Judge Mohamed Nagi Shehata who has become known for passing mass death sentences and long jail terms against alleged Islamists and pro-January 25 Revolution activists. In August last year, 12 people were sentenced to death and another 10 to life in prison on charges of killing police General Nabil Farrag and injuring nine other policemen during a security raid in Kerdassa in September 2013. The operation sought to capture those wanted in the August attack on the police station. A retrial has been ordered.
