Joint exercises EGYPTIAN and Italian armed forces completed a joint military exercise codenamed "Pyramids 2004" last week in Al- Hamam, west of the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, reports Amira Ibrahim. Egyptian and Italian commanders highlighted the exercises as a sign of bilateral cooperation serving international peace. The main dynamic of the exercise involved a country attacking another country, which in turn asked a friendly neighbouring country for help. Troops from both countries then worked together to force the occupying troops out. According to Egyptian commanders, units from both countries exchanged control and command centres, "which allowed both sides to benefit, and learn how each side carries out the same job". Air force, infantry, tanks and heavy artillery units took part in the three-week long exercises. According to the Italian commander, 1,500 Italian military personnel took part in the exercises, which are due to be held every two years. He added that Italy deployed mechanised infantry, artillery, specialised and support troops, as well as the air force. The event was divided into two main phases. First, both sides exchanged military information and created a unified database. The second phase included major applications of beneficial exercises. Al-Hamam is the permanent location for the large-scale multinational manoeuvres codenamed "Bright Star", which take place every two years. The "Bright Star" manoeuvres last took place in October 2001, with two key participants -- Egypt and the US -- and nine other European and Arab countries. Egyptian and Italian military officials expressed hopes that the exercise would be expanded in the future, and grow in the same way Bright Star has. "Egypt is one of the key players in the Mediterranean in the field of peace keeping. In the future we may consider expanding participation, and invite more friendly countries concerned with the international peace process," an Italian commander said. Bus tragedies A TRAGIC bus accident on the Oases highway about 100 kilometres southwest of Cairo on Monday left five Egyptians dead, and 20 other people from different nationalities injured. The accident involved a public transport bus colliding with a tourist bus, while the latter was parked on the side of the road. The tourist bus had stopped so that its occupants could get out and take pictures of the scenery. The driver of the state-owned bus, which was travelling at high speed, was unable to avoid the parked bus, and crashed into it, according to testimonies of eyewitnesses. The crash ended up causing traffic congestion for nearly two hours before the vehicles were removed from the highway. Investigations into the accident are ongoing. Last Saturday, sixteen pilgrims heading to Saudi Arabia died, and 23 others were injured, in a bus accident on the Hurghada highway, after the bus driver fell asleep on the wheel. The bus had been travelling from Giza on its way to the Red Sea port in Safaga, and the driver had just had his licence revoked a few minutes earlier for a speeding violation. The driver and his brother, one of the passengers, were among the dead. The tragedy took place just a few days after another accident that occurred on the same road and left 16 people killed or injured. Journalist arrested A DELEGATION from the Press Syndicate visited arrested journalist Ahmed Ezzeddin at Tora prison last Sunday. Ezzeddin, a reporter at Al-Shaab newspaper, the banned mouthpiece of the suspended Islamist Labour Party, was arrested at Cairo airport on 11 October, just half an hour before he was meant to travel to Kuwait. He was charged with belonging to the underground Muslim Brotherhood group. Ezzeddin also worked for Al-Mujtama' (Society), a magazine that serves as a mouthpiece for the brotherhood in Kuwait. Security forces searched Ezzeddin's home, where they claim to have found photos of the suspect with Saddam Hussein. Ezzeddin told the investigators that the photos were taken as part of an interview with the deposed president, which was published in Al-Shaab before the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait in 1990. A statement issued last week by the Press Syndicate council called for Ezzeddin's immediate release. The syndicate, which said the arrest contradicted widespread calls for widening the margin of freedom in Egypt, commissioned a legal team to follow-up Ezzeddin's case. Lawyers on strike DURING a meeting on Sunday, the General-Secretariat of the Arab Federation of Lawyers asked lawyers in every Arab country to stage a work stoppage next Saturday to express their solidarity with the Iraqi resistance. In a statement issued at the meeting, the federation condemned the assassination of top Iraqi Muslim scholars, and the continuing arrests of Iraqis who oppose the occupation. The federation also called upon the international community to pursue measures necessary to bring the crimes to which the Iraqi people are being subjected on a daily basis to an end. Compiled by Mona El-Nahhas
