Mubarak in Cannes PRESIDENT Hosni Mubarak today joins 45 other African heads of state in inaugurating the 24th France-Africa summit. The two-day gathering, which will include French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the current chair of the European Union, is being held in the Palais des Festivals in Cannes. Participants from all 54 African states, in addition to France, Germany, the African Union and other African and European organisations concerned will discuss ways of boosting the political and economic partnership between Africa and France, a once-leading colonial power on the continent. "Africa and the world balance" is the name of this year's summit which is expected to pay considerable attention to a proposal to establish a Euro-African bank to help France and other European donors honour their pledges regarding the development and stability of Africa. The summit is also expected to tackle African migration to France and other European countries to streamline the flow of migrants. Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit said the summit will place preventive diplomacy and peace-keeping operations on the continent high on the agenda. The last France-Africa summit was in the Malian capital Bamako in December 2005. This year's summit comes amid growing European-American competition over political and military influence in Africa. It follows the recent US launch of a rapid deployment force in Africa as part of a new strategy of what Washington described as cooperation with the continent. End of strike MISR Shebin Al-Kom and Kafr Al-Dawwar for Spinning and Weaving workers, numbering some 16,000, ended their 10-day strike after the government met their demands. reports Mohamed El-Sayed. The labourers agreed to resume work after Minister of Manpower and Emigration Aisha Abdel-Hadi and Minister of Investment Mahmoud Mohieddin reached an agreement with the chairmen of the two companies, president of the Workers Union Hussein Megawer and chairman of the Weaving and Spinning Holding Company Mohsen El-Gilani. Abdel-Hadi said the workers would receive a 45-day bonus previously promised by the government. According to the agreement, workers will also get the 133-day bonus they demanded. A food allowance for all weaving and spinning workers around the country will be raised from LE32.5 to LE43 monthly. A new chairman for the Misr Shebin Al-Kom company, Ahmed El-Sawi, was appointed to facilitate the transfer of the company to a new Indian investor, Indo Rama, which will run the company for the next 25 years. News reports said the government was forced to yield to the workers' demands before President Mubarak's visit to Menoufiya last Saturday to inaugurate University Week. Day of anger PROTESTING against the judicial sequestration imposed on their syndicate since 1995, engineers demonstrated in front of the syndicate's headquarters on Tuesday, labeling it "the day of anger", reports Mona El-Nahhas. Similar demonstrations were to be staged at the syndicate's branches in various provinces. A demonstration is also scheduled to be held during meetings of the Arab Engineers Federation in Cairo on 27 February to protest against Egypt's membership in the federation, at a time that its syndicate remains under sequestration. This situation is considered a violation of the conditions regulating the federation's membership. Sit-ins, heated debates, street demonstrations and lawsuits suing state officials responsible for prolonging judicial sequestration have increased, as engineers argue that the government should lift sequestration and give the syndicate more independence. Engineers have also started legal measures to set up a parallel syndicate. Several dates for elections have been announced by Irrigation Minister Mahmoud Abu Zeid in his capacity as the syndicate's supervisor. However, legal pretexts have been cited as the reason for not convening elections Abu Omar set free HASSAN Mustafa Nasr, alias Abu Omar, the Egyptian cleric who was allegedly kidnapped in a suspected rendition operation in Italy and handed to Egypt in 2003, was released on Sunday. According to the cleric's lawyer Montasser El-Zayyat, Abu Omar is back with his family, after a court ordered his release in compliance with the Ministry of Interior. The release, argued El-Zayyat, "was not surprising" since there was no substantial reason to keep the cleric in custody. Abu Omar was held in custody for several years under the emergency law on charges of belonging to an illegal organisation. In April, he was released but then arrested almost immediately for allegedly having failed to comply with his deal with authorities, which stipulated that he not make public, the details of his kidnapping and incarceration. El-Zayyat said that this time Abu Omar would be more likely to commit himself to the terms of his release. Meanwhile, an Italian judge is considering whether to indict 32 suspects, including Italy's former intelligence chief and a group of Americans, believed to be CIA agents, in connection with the rendition. It would be the first such court case, one of the highy controversial offsprings of President George W Bush's war on terror. Kifaya gears up THE KIFAYA movement has announced the appointment of four assistant general coordinators. George Ishak, Abdel-Halim Qandil, Kamal Khalil and Magdi Qorqor. They were elected to assist Abdel-Wahab Elmessiri, who replaced George Ishak last month as general coordinator. Abdel-Wahab Shokr, a member of the coordinating committee, said restructuring the movement was "meant to confront the upcoming challenges effectively". Shokr said a new consultant committee of party intellectuals, university professors and researchers had also been established to study certain issues, upon the recommendation of the coordinating committee. In another change, the post of spokesperson was annulled and the responsibilities associated with it transferred to the general coordinators. Ishak described the new changes as an implementation of the decisions taken by the movement during its last annual conference. "The movement has high credibility with Egyptians and the changes will only add to this," asserted Ishak. Concerning eight Kifaya members who recently resigned from the movement, Elmessiri said the situation would soon be resolved. "Some of them attended the coordinating committee meeting and Magdi Qorqor is now an assistant general coordinator for the movement," said Elmessiri. Qorqor is one of the members who resigned. While expressing dismay at the latest crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood, Elmessiri said that all political parties of different affiliations will unite as one. Suspects detained POLICE officer Karim Fares and policeman Ahmed Abdel-Fatah, charged with torture following the latest in a series of torture videos made public, have been giving testimony. The video, which was circulated on the Internet, shows a man in his 20s being repeatedly beaten on the nape by a policeman. The voice of another man in the background giving the orders was later attributed to Fares. Fares and Abdel-Fatah, who gave their testimony to the Imbaba Misdemeanors Court on Saturday, are charged with the use of excessive force and the abuse of power. Fares has denied the accusations, claiming it was not his voice in the video and that he was not in the police station at the time the alleged incident occurred. A request to be freed on bail was rejected by the court which postponed the case until Wednesday and ordered the detention of both officers for four days pending an investigation. Shocking episode THE AIRING of the second part of an episode on prostitution in Egypt has been banned. The first part had appeared on "The Hala Show", a TV talk show on the satellite channel Rotana and presented by popular presenter Hala Sarhan. The decision not to show the second part was taken by the Cairo General Prosecution on Sunday following a complaint made by three of the girls Sarhan interviewed. They accused her of fabricating the episode and deceiving them. The girls, who appeared on Saturday on the show "Ninety Minutes" on the Mehwar satellite channel, alleged that Sarhan hired them for LE400 each to appear in her show to play the role of prostitutes and promised them that their faces would not be shown and their voices altered to hide their identities. Sarhan, who is currently abroad, said the charges against her have been fabricated and that she will present evidence to prove her innocence once she returns. The prosecutor-general is expected to question Sarhan.
