Off to Europe PRESIDENT Hosni Mubarak is expected to arrive in Rome today for talks with Italian officials on Middle East developments, especially in Palestine, Iraq and Sudan, and bilateral relations. Mubarak's one-day visit to the Italian capital is the first leg of a three- stop European tour that will also include Berlin, where the president is expected tomorrow, and Vienna, where he is to arrive on Sunday. In Germany and Austria, Mubarak is expected to review the same agenda of regional developments and bilateral relations. Darfur summit A THREE-WAY summit of the presidents of Egypt, Sudan and Libya is expected to convene in the next few days to discuss developments in Darfur. According to press statements by Mustafa Othman Ismail, the political advisor to the Sudanese president, the summit will take place in Cairo, Tripoli or Khartoum prior to the opening of the Arab summit in Khartoum on 28 March. The summit will convene against a backdrop of diplomatic failures to end the dispute in Darfur and the increasing international pressure on the Sudanese government to accept the presence of international peace-keeping troops in Darfur to work in tandem with peace-keeping forces of the African Union. Justice sought ABOUT 100 high-profile intellectuals and public figures from across the political spectrum have issued a statement calling for the release of thousands of Islamist and political detainees. Entitled "The National Initiative" the statement, issued on Sunday, demanded that the "repeated detaining of Islamists be stopped, since any political reform is meaningless without releasing all political detainees." Signatories to the statement asked the government to "immediately put an end to the 25-year-old emergency law, repression and violation of human rights. The government must respond to the demands of the forces of society that issued an initiative to restore freedom and dignity to political detainees." The statement called upon the government to "open a new chapter in the relationship between the government and all forces in Egyptian society at a time when so many dangers are looming over the country." The signatories to the statement included intellectuals Tareq El-Beshri, Abdel-Wahab El-Mesiri, Fahmi Howeidi, Mohamed Emara, Galal Aref, George Ishaq, Essam El-Erian, Abdel-Ghaffar Shukr, Bahieddin Hassan, Rafiq Habib, Atef El-Banna, Kamal Habib, Hassan Hanafi, Hisham Qassem and Alaa El-Aswani. Fire in Al-Moski FIRE broke out in the commercial district of Al-Moski in downtown Cairo early Friday, damaging 40 stores and shops. Dozens of people were rushed to hospital suffering from smoke inhalation. Thirty-five fire engines rushed to the scene, but the narrow streets leading to the site of the blaze hampered fire fighting for several hours. Losses were reported around LE6 million. The fire was put out after five hours. According to investigators, the fire started following an electrical short-circuit in one of the smaller shops in the area. The fire quickly spread, they said, because of lack of precautionary measures as well as highly flammable materials, including clothes and perfumes, stored in wood shops. Fires are not uncommon in the neighbourhood, shop owners said. "As such, we ask the government to provide us with early warning systems so that we can deal with fires more properly," one shop owner said. The municipality has tried to move the shops to the outskirts of Cairo, however, shop owners claim few people would go to such remote areas to buy merchandise. Nour protests AFTER hours of questioning by prosecutors, imprisoned Ghad Party leader Ayman Nour said he was "Egypt's model of repression". "They're dealing with me as an enemy of the president," Nour said quietly in his first interview since his sentencing in late December. "All these things are beyond my control," he added. Nour was the second-place finisher in Egypt's first multi- candidate presidential elections in September. He was convicted of forgery, a charge that was roundly disputed by human rights groups, and is facing a slew of new accusations filed last month.
