Vote for the dead THE ADMINISTRATIVE Court has postponed Bar Association elections scheduled for 18 January after a number of lawyers contested the validity of voting lists. The court found it necessary to examine the lists before new elections are held. The plaintiffs argue that the association's current electoral roll is in need of a massive overhaul and includes the names of lawyers long dead as well as those working overseas. Former syndicate chairman Sameh Ashour said the postponement of the elections was a tactic to delay the vote and, ultimately, see the syndicate placed under judicial sequestration. The syndicate is threatened with being placed under judicial sequestration until the process of sorting out voters' lists ends. Twenty-one candidates are running for the post of syndicate chairman and 540 are competing for places on the 41- seat council. In October the Administrative Court ordered earlier polls, scheduled for 14 November, to be stopped on the grounds they did not conform to Law 100/1993 which regulates the election process at professional syndicates. A judicial committee authorised to supervise syndicate elections had fixed the previous date of 18 January. Bird flu victims add up A TODDLER has contracted bird flu, the 52nd case to be reported in Egypt, and the first in the country in 2009, Reem Leila reports. A 22-month-old baby girl, Asmaa Mohamed Salah Ismail, showed early symptoms on Friday and was admitted to Al-Abbasiya Fever Hospital on Saturday. She became the second reported case in the winter season. The toddler, from Kerdasa on the western edge of Cairo, had been in contact with infected birds and showed the usual initial symptoms -- high temperature, vomiting and diarrhoea. According to Abdel-Rahman Shahin, official spokesman of the Ministry of Health and Population, since the girl was admitted to the hospital she had been receiving the antiviral drug Tamiflu which has proven effective against bird flu if treatment starts early. A 16-year-old Egyptian girl from a village near the central city of Assiut, who died in mid-December, was the most recent fatality. Since the first case in 2003 there have been 248 human deaths globally from the H5N1 strain of bird flu and at least 394 confirmed cases of infection. Egypt has reported more cases than any country outside Asia. Scientists fear that a mutation of the bird flu virus, resulting in a strain easily transmitted among humans, could create a pandemic, potentially affecting up to one-fifth of the world's population. Butane scarce A SHORTAGE of butane gas cylinders has escalated during the last few weeks in a number of governorates. In Daqahliya, several people were injured during fights in queues to get butane gas cylinders. Distributors are accused of selling the cylinders to unofficial traders who in turn sell them at LE20 each. Local residents of three villages in the governorate were forced to go to the city of Mansoura to buy the cylinders given the shortage in their villages. The Supply Bureau confiscated 4,780 cylinders on the black market and filed complaints against facilities which were using the cylinders for purposes other than those for which they are intended. Daqahliya Governor Samir Sallam said the gas cylinder plant of Talkha had raised production to 3,200 cylinders per day to meet the growing demand. In Sharqiya governorate, a gas cylinder costs LE20. Some 500 residents gathered in front of a warehouse of butane gas cylinders in protest against the shortage. In Beni Sweif, people said getting a butane gas cylinder had become something of a dream. Director of the Control Department Ahmed Othman said Beni Sweif did not receive its quota of butane gas. For its part, the petroleum gas company Petrogas said it increased distributor quotas of cylinders to meet the increase in consumption in winter, pointing out that daily consumption at this time of year was about 2.1 million cylinders. Minister of Petroleum Sameh Fahmi has asked the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation and heads of oil and marketing companies to adopt short-and long- term plans to increase outlets of marketing petrol to help end the daily queues in front of warehouses. In Sohag, cylinders have become a rare sight. The price of a single unit rose to LE15. Some people have reported needing brokers to get one. Rows have broken out among people lining up. Supply deputy director Ahmed El-Senousi said the crisis can be ascribed to rising consumption rates in winter. He said an agreement had been struck with Petrogas to increase the share of the governorate to 1.5 million cylinders, 200,000 units more than the usual quantity. On track NEARLY 500 train and metro drivers protested on Tuesday, demanding a salary raise promised by the government in November. Workers from the Ramses Railway Station took their demonstration to the rails, obstructing train routes. Drivers of underground metros expressed their discontent by reducing their speed to 30km per hour from the normal 80km. Following negotiations with the head of the Railway Drivers League, management said it will pay half of the promised salary increase starting July this year, and the rest beginning from January 2010. The drivers regarded the offer as unsatisfactory and refused to end the strike despite attempts by the state-controlled union to persuade them otherwise. Another round of negotiations is scheduled in 10 days.
