Video killing AN EGYPTIAN driver has apparently been killed by a militant group in Iraq, unconfirmed reports said. According to the reports, Ibrahim Mohamed Ismail, 39, was killed in the Iraqi city of Al- Ramadi, 110km west of Baghdad. However, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit said the ministry did not have any information on the incident. He pledged to provide the public with all the facts once they were in. A website belonging to Al-Qaeda leader in Iraq Abu Musaab Al-Zarqawi posted a videotape on Sunday showing Ismail being killed. "I call on every driver and the Kuwaiti firm Shallahi [a Kuwaiti trucking company] not to go to Iraq again," Ismail, 39, had said on the tape. The company has denied that Ismail worked for it. The firm's General Manager Ayed Al-Shallahi said Ismail had applied for a job earlier this month but had been turned down after the company's officials believed his driving skills were not up to par. Al-Shallahi added that his company would continue to operate in Iraq, trucking goods for US forces. Bar elections PREPARATIONS to nominate the Bar Association chairman and council members will end on Saturday. The elections will be held on 12 March. The poll, between Nasserist lawyers led by syndicate Chairman Sameh Ashour and the banned Muslim Brotherhood who constitute the majority of the current council members, promises to be close. Nominations will be submitted to the judicial committee in charge of supervising professional syndicates elections. Committee members held a meeting on Monday to discuss the necessary preparations. Members who have the right to vote number 170,000. Aid for Indonesia A TEAM from the Cairo-based Arab Medical Union wrapped up a mission to tsunami-ravaged areas in Indonesia last week. The team, part of the union's relief and emergency committee, held a press conference on Tuesday in Cairo on the one-week trip. "It is an unprecedented disaster," Abdel-Moneim Abul- Futouh, a member of the team, said as he gave a first-hand account of the impact of the earthquake-driven killer. "Entire villages were demolished and a large number of corpses remained under the rubble," said Abul-Futouh. The team warned against the spread of epidemics and the fear of more fatalities from famine and displacement. However, they believed one of the most acute problems was the steadily rising number of post- traumatic cases, including children who witnessed the loss of their families. The doctors stayed in Banda Aceh, the Indonesian region worst hit by the quake, for six days, plus one day in Jakarta. The Arab Medical Union is to send another team to train 20 Indonesian doctors on socio- psychic assistance. The union's assistance came after a protocol agreement with the Indonesian Red Cross was signed. Writer dies FAROUK Khorshid, chairman of the Egyptian Writers' Union, died last Thursday at the age of 77. Khorshid, who wrote nearly 50 literary works, received the state medal in 1964 and State Merit Award in 1989. Khorshid was also the rapporteur of the Popular Arts Committee at the Supreme Council of Culture and the head of the Middle East radio station. Compiled by Mona El-Nahhas
