El-Baradie awarded PRESIDENT Hosni Mubarak has presented the Nile Medal to Mohamed El-Baradie, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Nobel laureate. In an address delivered on the occasion at the presidential headquarters on Tuesday, Mubarak described the peaceful usage of atomic energy as the best way to achieve development, progress and a better future for the people. He praised El-Baradie as the "grateful son" who deserved to be awarded the Nobel Prize. El-Baradie called for a dialogue in the Middle East which will help "restore the balance of security" and make the area free of weapons of mass destruction. El-Baradie, who won the Nobel Peace Prize, noted there were still 27,000 nuclear heads in the world. "I am dead sure that if we really want to save mankind from destruction, we must be sure that nuclear weapons should have no place in man's conscience." In Africa ON MONDAY, Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit started a six-day trip to Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi. Accompanied by Minister of Irrigation Mahmoud Abu Zeid, the four-leg tour of Egypt's top diplomats aims at reinforcing Egypt's bilateral relations and cooperation with the countries of the continent, as well as discussing mechanisms that would facilitate such cooperation. Tackling how to develop cooperation in water resources is a major item topping Abul-Gheit's agenda. Legal agreements on the use of water in Africa will also be the topic of a meeting of Africa's irrigation ministers, expected to be held in Addis Ababa soon. Abul-Gheit will present letters from President Mubarak to the presidents of the African countries he is visiting. Since becoming foreign minister in August 2005, Abul-Gheit has conducted four African tours, all aimed at cementing ties. Danish reply FOREIGN Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit has received a letter from his Danish counterpart Per Stig Moller. The letter was in reply to a message Abul-Gheit sent to Moller expressing Egypt's anger over the publishing of 12 cartoons of the Prophet Mohamed in a Danish newspaper on 30 September. In his reply, Moller said, "The Danish government is discussing more seriously the worldwide Muslim outrage that resulted from publishing the cartoons." He stressed his "concern over the Arab understanding of the cartoons as being insulting to the Prophet Mohamed, which was absolutely unintentional" by the Danish paper. "Danish society respects and believes in both freedom of expression and faith, including Islam," Moller said, adding that Denmark "calls to return to dialogue and to continue in building Danish-Egyptian friendship that has always been close." On Monday, Mohamed Sayed Tantawi, the grand sheikh of Al-Azhar, protested against the cartoons. Along with Al-Azhar University students they called on Egypt to withdraw its ambassadors to Denmark and Norway. Also on Tuesday, angry demonstrators marched to the Danish Embassy in Cairo in protest over the cartoons. Meanwhile, Arab information ministers held a meeting last week at the League of Arab States where they discussed the role of information in confronting what was described as the rising phenomenon of smear campaigns against Islam. Help to forces ON SUNDAY, Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit met James Larocco, director-general of the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) of Sinai. The two officials discussed possible means to increase aid from donor countries to the MFO in order to enhance its performance in Sinai. Abu Hamza convicted A CRIMINAL court in London on Tuesday sentenced radical Egyptian Muslim cleric Abu Hamza El-Masri to seven years in jail after being found guilty of incitement of racial hatred and soliciting murder. The hook-handed 47- year-old British by virtue of marriage, El-Masri was found guilty of possessing a document that included terrorism-related information. He was further accused of using abusive or insulting words or behaviour with the intention of stirring up racial hatred in sermons he gave while imam of Finsbury Park Mosque in north London. He was accused by the British prosecution of being a "recruiting sergeant" for terrorism and murder through his pronouncements against Jews, non-Muslims and what he called "apostates" of Islam and Arab leaders "too close" to Western governments. El-Masri claimed the case against him was "politically motivated" with his defence arguing that his client's words were taken out of context. The verdict does not entail his immediate extradition. El-Masri is wanted in the United States for an alleged Al-Qaeda training camp in the Pacific Northwest. He is also wanted in Yemen over allegations that he supported the terrorist kidnapping and murder of Western tourists. Back on sale THE WAFD Party's mouthpiece Al-Wafd will be on the newsstands today more than a week after it stopped its publication because of the ongoing power struggle over the party's leadership. The party's higher council, led by Mahmoud Abaza, had dismissed Noaman Gomaa from his post as chairman but Gomaa refused to comply. He halted the newspaper's publication because his name had been removed from the masthead. After the newspaper's journalists held protests, negotiations led to the resumption of the paper. Gomaa then placed a condition that another editor, Sayed Abdel-Ati, be appointed along with Abbas El-Tarabili, whom Gomaa claims is biased against him. A court will decide today on a lawsuit filed by Gomaa on whether his ouster by the party's higher council was valid. A general assembly is scheduled to take place tomorrow to elect a temporary chairman until elections are held in June. Engineers wait HUNDREDS of engineers will head towards the headquarters of their downtown syndicate on Monday to attend an emergency general assembly, the first to be held since the Engineers Syndicate was placed under judicial sequestration in 1995. For the last 10 years, engineers have been banned from convening at their syndicate. Street conferences have been the alternative. In September, Minister of Irrigation Mahmoud Abu Zeid, in his constitutional capacity as the syndicate's supervisor, set 13 February as the date for holding the syndicate's first general assembly. Abu Zeid also said elections would take place in mid-year. Engineers said they hoped the government will remain true to its word. They vowed to escalate the confrontation with the state if the general assembly does not convene. The assembly will define the measures to be taken to lift the 10-year sequestration imposed on the syndicate. A date for staging syndicate elections will also be made during the assembly. Until elections take place, the assembly will assign a temporary committee, including engineers who do not intend to run in the coming elections, to take charge of the syndicate's affairs after asking the syndicate's custodians to submit their resignations. Wasat's destiny ON 1 APRIL the Political Parties Court will give its final verdict determining the future of the Islamist-oriented Wasat Party which has been waiting for 10 years to obtain an official licence. In 2004 Abul-Ela Madi, the Wasat's founder and former member of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, sued the semi-governmental Political Parties Committee for not licensing his party. In 1997 Madi was prevented from registering the party. Claiming that the party's platform was not unique, the committee repeatedly rejected the Wasat's application, the last refusal being in October 2004. Madi said he was optimistic and hoped the Wasat Party would soon become legitimate. Banned from travel FOR the fifth time, the Interior Ministry has refused to allow Gamal Heshmat, a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood, to travel to Sudan. Heshmat was to travel to the Sudan on Saturday as part of a delegation of the Arab Doctors Federation, headed by Hamdi El-Sayed, chairman of the Doctors Syndicate. Heshmat, whose name was not included in a travel ban list, intends to sue the Interior Ministry for banning him from travel without a travel ban decree from the prosecutor-general. "The Interior Ministry acts without respect for the law or the constitution," Heshmat said. Compiled by Mona El-Nahhas
