Carter in town FORMER US president Jimmy Carter, also the co-founder of the Carter Foundation, arrived in Cairo on 9 January to observe the third and final stage of Egypt's parliamentary elections. During Carter's visit he will meet a number of civil society representatives and political parties, along with independent parliamentary candidates and government officials, to discuss the latest developments in Egypt's post-revolution political arena. On 10 January, Carter visited several polling stations, including one in Rod Al-Farag district in Cairo, where he said there were minor problems but ones which did not affect the electoral process as a whole. The foundation, which has been monitoring the elections since they began on 28 November last year, will release a report on the electoral process tomorrow. Carter also visited a vote-counting station on 11 January. There he told the press that he did not have a problem with Islamists sweeping the elections. "The will of the people has been expressed accurately," he said. Carter, who played a major role as a mediator in the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel in the late 1970s, also said he was not worried about the impact of the election results on the Camp David accords. Sawiris to be tried COPTIC tycoon businessman and politician Naguib Sawiris will be tried on 14 January for defaming Islam after he posted on his Facebook account cartoons of Mickey Mouse with a beard and Minnie wearing a niqab. The Bulaq Misdemeanour Court announced the trial date. Sawiris will be tried in the North Cairo Court in Abbasiya. The Central Cairo Prosecution decided to refer the case to court on 9 January after investigating a complaint filed against Sawiris by lawyer Mamdouh Ismail, accusing him of disrespecting Islam after he posted the cartoons in June 2011. Sawiris, founder of the liberal Free Egyptians Party, emerged in the revolution as one of the top political figures in Egypt. He removed the image shortly after receiving a deluge of complaints and apologised "if it was misunderstood," giving assurances of his full respect of Islam and Muslims. Nile Basin tour FOREIGN Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr, along with Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation Hisham Qandil on 9 January visited the Nile Basin countries. The ministers, part of an Egyptian delegation, visited six Nile Basin nations to focus on boosting economic and political relations between Egypt and the other Nile countries as well as the possibility of increasing trade volume. The visit included Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan and South Sudan. The delegation discussed means of improving Egyptian investment by resolving issues hindering investment and trade. It also discussed private and public sector support for international tenders of projects carried out by the countries. The Egyptian delegation met senior leaders and officials to discuss regional issues and ways of reaching a consensus among the Basin countries on issues which were suspended during previous negotiations on the Nile Basin framework agreement. Egypt hopes to improve relations with Nile Basin countries which signed an agreement to redistribute Nile water. Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania and Kenya signed the Entebbe agreement in April 2010 which stipulated the redistribution of Nile water despite Egypt and Sudan's boycott of the agreement. Egypt announced then that the agreement is non-binding. Burundi joined the agreement in March 2011, making it more likely for the agreement to go into effect. Egypt says it will not accept an agreement about water redistribution that does not guarantee its historical rights. According to an agreement signed with Sudan in 1959, Egypt's share of Nile water is estimated at 51 billion square metres annually, while Sudan's share is estimated at 18 billion square metres. Clean in one week PRIME Minister Kamal El-Ganzouri has directed the governors of Cairo, Giza and Qalioubiya to implement a new strategy that will remove garbage and waste from the streets in one week, and to build youth centres and public parks in areas that have been cleaned. Municipalities have begun handing out fines to people who throw garbage on the streets. Egyptian companies, not foreign, will collect the garbage. During a meeting on 8 January with Minister of Local Development Mohamed Attiya and the three governors, El-Ganzouri instructed them to launch a one-week campaign to clear major streets of garbage, Egypt's chronic problem. According to official figures, Greater Cairo, with its 17 million inhabitants, produces an average of 15,000 tonnes of solid waste a day. Environment Minister Mustafa Hussein said the ministry will begin transmitting mobile phone text messages to educate citizens on how to protect the environment.
