Egypt at NPT HISHAM Badr, the head of the Egyptian delegation at the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference – currently ongoing in New York City – said Egypt has spared no effort to free the Middle East from nuclear arms, reports Doaa El-Bey. Badr added that the Egyptian delegation is resuming its efforts to garner support for a paper the Arab states are handing in at the conference with a view to implementing the 1995 UN Resolution of Weapons of Mass destruction-Free in the Middle East. The paper also includes a request to the UN secretary general to hold a conference on that issue six months after the end of the Review Conference on 22. Badr added that Egypt is currently in consultation with the five nuclear states to ask them to support the paper. He pointed out that both China and Russia already have. Meanwhile, he underlined that it is very difficult for Egypt to continue to accept the status of the current deadlock over the implementation of the 1995 Resolution. Egypt has gone tired to achieve this goal through the UN General Assembly and the International Atomic Energy Agency as well review conferences. So far there have been no significant results. A ‘negative' message THE PRESS Syndicate expressed its objection to the arrest of a news Website editor on charges of “publishing false news”, saying the arrest sends a “negative” message. In a statement on Monday, the Press Syndicate indicated that the arrest order violates the press-regulation law, which it called for implementing. The prosecutor-general had ordered on Monday the arrest of Ibrahim Aref, editor-in-chief of the online news site Al-Bayan, over “publishing false news that might disrupt general security, terrorise people and harm public interest”. The Website had published an article on Monday claiming that six of the prosecutor's deputies were assassinated while travelling on the Cairo-Suez highway. In its statement, the syndicate, which sent a lawyer to Aref, said the law prevents detention in publishing cases. It also said the prosecution should notify the syndicate before questioning any journalist, while in Aref's case it only asked for information on his syndicate membership. The syndicate also said that confronting “exceptional circumstances” has to be “through implementing the rule of law and not violating it.” It said what happened had sent a “wrong message” to the people. A match cancelled THE EGYPTIAN national team cancelled their friendly game against Burundi, which was part of their preparations for the 2017 African Cup of Nations qualifiers. The Egyptian Football Association (EFA) announced the cancellation due to security concerns and political strife in the south-east African country. “After coordination with the association's head Gamal Allam and the national team coach Hector Cuper, the match is cancelled. A training session was held on Tuesday and Zamalek players were informed not to attend and train with their club,” the EFA stated on its official Website. The holder of seven Cup of Nations trophies, Egypt have has drawn in Group G of the 2017 qualifiers along with Nigeria, Tanzania and Chad. They will kick off their bid to reach the Gabon finals on 14 June against Tanzania.
