Right approach MRS SUZANNE Mubarak has stressed Egypt's commitment to achieving the millennium's goals and promoting the political, economic and social rights of women as enshrined in UN resolutions and relevant national legislation. During a meeting on Tuesday with Nan Annan, wife of UN Secretary- General Kofi Annan who was in Egypt on a two-day visit, Mrs Mubarak said the National Council for Women (NCW) was dedicated to furthering the rights of women and girls in Egypt. She stressed that this was being done through "cultural sensitive approaches". Mrs Mubarak also said the NCW, in coordination with the Suzanne Mubarak Women for Peace Movement, was "disseminating the culture of peace across the nation especially in the poorer urban neighbourhoods where the culture of violence has often compounded the difficulties of life." Mrs Mubarak accompanied Mrs Annan on a tour of Al-Dowiqa, one of the capital's re-built shantytowns in partnership with the government, civil society and the targeted community. With Sudan THE HIGHER Joint Egyptian-Sudanese Committee will convene in Cairo on Saturday under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif and Sudanese Vice-President Ali Othman Mohamed Taha. The committee, one of several bodies established to boost Cairo's bilateral trade, economic and investment relations with other Arab capitals, will review a set of joint development projects that both countries wish to embark on, especially in view of Egypt's keenness to promote development in poverty-stricken southern Sudan. UN double standards EGYPT's permanent delegation to the UN has expressed concern over the double standards adopted by the world body concerning genocide. A message to this effect was conveyed by Egypt's UN representative Maguid Abdel-Fattah following a UN General Assembly resolution adopted earlier in the month which designates 27 January, the day of the liberation of Auschwitz, an international day honouring the victims of the Holocaust. The resolution, drafted by 104 nations, called on UN member states to develop educational programmes and "to instill the memory of the Holocaust in future generations" to prevent genocide from happening again. Not contesting the moral crime of the Holocaust, Abdel-Fattah told reporters in New York that the world cannot exercise discrimination against the victims of genocide, adding that all acts of genocide, "in Africa, Europe and elsewhere, should be remembered with equal dismay to that accorded the Holocaust." He argued that it would have been more opportune for the world as represented in the UN "to remember and honour the memory of all victims of all acts of genocide and to adopt a set of educational and cultural programmes to make sure that tolerance and justice prevail". In a statement delivered by a spokesman, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said late last week that the Holocaust was "a unique evil". Remembering Zayed PRESIDENT Hosni Mubarak has paid tribute to the former president of the United Arab Emirates Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al-Nahyan on the first anniversary of his death, saying his life was dedicated to the welfare of his nation and the Arab world. In a rare televised statement in memory of an Arab head of state, Mubarak described Sheikh Zayed as "honourable and a much-respected Arab statesman". He recalled the "principled stands" that Zayed took and his generous support offered to Egypt "during times of war and peace". On Sunday, Mubarak called his UAE counterpart, Sheikh Khalifa, to express grief that he said "is still being felt in the Arab world a year later". Med warmth FOREIGN Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit met members of the Egyptian- European Council which marked the second anniversary of its establishment. During the meeting, attended by Presidential Adviser Osama El-Baz and European ambassadors in Cairo, Abul-Gheit stressed the need for closer Mediterranean dialogue and cooperation "to help spare the region from the wrath of war and underdevelopment that affects under-developed countries to the south of the Mediterranean as well as developed countries to the north". The top Egyptian diplomat stressed that the Mediterranean summit, scheduled to convene later this month in Barcelona to mark the 10th anniversary of the Barcelona Process for Mediterranean Partnership, "should give a new lease of life to this multi-dimensional association that has still to fulfil its many potentials on the political, economic and cultural fronts". Abul-Gheit, who is expected to head the Egyptian delegation at the summit, is planning to propose a number of ideas to revive the stalled partnership. Egypt coordinates among Arab member states in the Barcelona Process. Sale stopped EGYPT has halted the sale of 50 ancient Egyptian artefacts on display in Medousa auction hall in Canada. The pieces were part of a collection of Ushabti figures, or wooden statuettes, and Udjat eyes and amulets which had been stolen and sold by two antiquity traders. The pair, brothers, have since been arrested. Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) said the SCA had found the objects while combing the websites of international auction halls known for possessing priceless archaeological objects. The SCA informed the Egyptian prosecutor- general who then asked the Canadian authorities to confiscate the objects on display. Hawass said Egypt would recover the collection within a month. Another collapse PART of a four-storey building collapsed in Muharram Bek in Alexandria on Friday, killing eight people and injuring eight others, reports Mustafa El-Menshawy. An initial enquiry said the district administration had ordered the building reconstructed 13 years ago but that one of the landlords had ignored the order. "After the 1992 earthquake, the landlord was notified twice to restore the building," Hashem Abul-Fadl, head of the Central Alexandria district administration, where the building is located, said. "However, the landlord filed a lawsuit contesting the order to avoid paying for the restoration," Abul-Fadl told Al-Ahram Weekly. Prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for the building's landlords who are at large following the collapse. Officials in Alexandria complained that most landlords adopt the same "court appeal manoeuvring." As such, cases can take as long as 15 years before a final ruling. The long stretch allows for more similar tragedies. On Friday, another building fell, again in Muharram Bek, however no casualties were reported. "There are thousands of restoration orders issued but so far not implemented," said Ismail Ramadan, chairman of the housing committee in Al-Gumrouk, another Alexandria district where dozens of buildings have reportedly collapsed in recent years. Ramadan said municipal corruption was to blame, along with a laxity of building codes and in carrying out restoration policies. In Muharram Bek, where there were 52 survivors, gloomy-faced occupants sifted through piles of debris where their clothes, belongings and books were scattered among twisted pieces of metal and concrete. "It looks like a nightmare," Mohamed Marzouk, a mechanic resident of the building, said. "I was celebrating the Eid with my 12-member family. All of a sudden, we found ourselves homeless." Marzouk said cracks had appeared in the 100-year-old building a few years ago but that the inhabitants believed they were not dangerous. Friday's collapse was a grim reminder of other fatal incidents in Alexandria. In June, at least 16 people, including four children, died when a building collapsed in the overcrowded Al-Raml station area. In July last year dozens were killed after the collapse of a 12-storey building in Nasr City in Cairo which had illegally added four extra floors. Mohamed El-Moayed, then head of the Nasr City district administration, was arrested on corruption charges. Milad Hanna, an independent expert on housing affairs in Egypt, warned of signs that more buildings will collapse. Hanna blamed the government and a "careless society" for showing little interest in addressing the problem. "It's a shame that Egyptians, who built the Pyramids which are still standing after 7,000 years, cannot stop the buildings of today from collapsing," Hanna said. Danger roads ROAD accidents are the second major cause of death in Egypt after heart disease, a report released by the Ministry of Transportation said last week. The report said some 6,000 people die each year as a result of road accidents. The ministry estimated the resulting economic loss at LE3 billion ($520 million) annually, which amounts to three per cent of the country's GDP. Around 30,000 people are also injured in road accidents each year, the report said. "Currently, road accidents are the primary cause of hospitalisation for people between the ages of 15 and 40," it added. The report said human factors were to blame for over 70 per cent of these cases. The condition of vehicles accounted for 22 per cent of all recorded accidents, it said. Statistics released earlier this year by the Interior Ministry's General Administration for Traffic said that around 25 million traffic violations had been recorded in 2004. The number of deaths in road accidents, experts said, was more than the combined number of deaths and injured from the country's four wars with Israel.
