Shoukri in Lebanon IN AN ATTEMPT to end the three-year Lebanese presidential vacuum, Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri headed to Lebanon Monday for a three-day visit. Speaking after a meeting with Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, Egyptian Ambassador to Lebanon Mohamed Badreddine Zayed said the visit “comes at an extremely important time for Lebanon and the region”. “Egypt is keen on extending all support for Lebanon at the current stage. We all realise the challenges through which the region is passing and the delicate regional situation. Hence, came the Egyptian keenness on Egyptian-Lebanese interaction now,” Zayed told reporters after the meeting. Asked if Shoukri is carrying any new initiative for Lebanon, Zayed said: “The visit will carry new ideas with regard to the way to deal with the Lebanese issue. It will be a beginning or reactivation of the situation.” Lebanon has been suffering from a presidential vacuum since May 2014 following the end of the term of former Lebanese president Michel Suleiman. Shoukri also met with top Lebanese officials and heads of political blocs during which he discussed ways to boost bilateral relations, the situation in Lebanon and the recent developments in the regional and international arenas, especially in Syria. Deadly accidents TWENTY TWO people were killed and eleven others were injured early Monday when two minibuses and a microbus collided with each other on a highway in Daqahliya governorate. Mit Ghamr Mayor Saad Al-Faramawi said the crash occurred when a tire on one of the minibuses exploded while the vehicle was travelling at high speed, causing the minibus to collide with the two other vehicles. Twelve bodies were transferred to Mit Ghamr International Hospital, four to Senbelawein Hospital, four to Aga Hospital, and two, one of whom was unidentified, to Mansoura International Hospital. The injured were transferred to Mit Ghamr and Al-Ramad International Hospitals. The government has promised LE10,000 to each of the families of those who died, and LE4,000 for each injured victim. Hossameddin Imam, governor of Daqahliya, said that the families of those killed in the crash in the Nile Delta governorate will receive LE5,000 each in compensation, Al-Ahram Website reported. Imam added that those injured in the crash would receive LE2,000 each. Elsewhere, nine other people were killed and 12 were injured in two accidents on the Cairo-Alamein road on Saturday. One accident killed five people and injured eight, while the other left four people dead and four injured. Egypt has one of the world's highest traffic-accident mortality rates, with traffic accidents apparently on the rise. Reports suggest that road accidents are among the main causes of death in Egypt, and that the country ranks among the highest, if not the highest, in road fatalities in the region. Egypt's official statistics agency issued a report in 2015 stating that 14,548 road accidents were recorded. According to a 2012 report by the World Health Organisation (WHO), Egypt loses 12,000 lives due to road traffic accidents every year. It also has a road traffic fatality rate of 42 deaths per 100,000 people. Police captain killed A POLICEMAN was killed on Monday when a landmine detonated during a shootout with terrorist elements in North Sinai's Al-Arish, according to the Interior Ministry. A ministry media official said in a statement following the incident that Captain Mohamed Safwat Rushdi died from injuries sustained following the landmine explosion while security forces were chasing terrorists who had been planting a 50kg explosive device in the vicinity of an Al-Arish police station. According to the statement, the police were able to defuse the bomb that was to target the police station, and injured one of the gunmen. The statement added that security forces were currently intensifying efforts to catch the culprits. Al-Ahram Weekly learnt that Safwat was born in 1984 and was a resident of Cairo's Nasr City. He graduated from the Police Academy in 2006. He was married and had two children. The death of Safwat came three weeks after a military operation launched by the army killed Abu Doaa Al-Ansari, the leader of Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis, the Egyptian wing of Islamic State, in Sinai. Since Mohamed Morsi's ouster as president in July 2013, terrorist attacks in Egypt have claimed the lives of hundreds of security personnel. Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis — now known as State of Sinai — is thought to have been behind most incidents targeting security forces.
