Al-Ahram leads today with news of volcanic ash from Iceland continuing to cover much of Europe, saying the ash is edging closer to the Mediterranean Sea. The paper says that airspace in 18 European countries is closed, with expectations that the ash will continue to cover Europe for another five days. The report states that 20 flights to Europe carrying 4500 passengers from Cairo Airport were canceled yesterday. Internal flights have also been significantly affected, particularly to Sharm el-Sheikh and Hurghada. Flights to the former are said to have dropped by 60% as less tourists from Europe arrive in Cairo, and about half the usual tour groups to Luxor were cancelled. The article is accompanied by a picture of deserted check-in counters at Cairo Airport. Al-Akhbar also leads with the same story, declaring “Europe is isolated from the world due to ash from the Icelandic volcano,” and that 30 flights were cancelled in Egypt over the last 3 days. The paper also reports on the start of procedural measures to license El-Dabaa as the location for Egypt's first nuclear power plant. El-Dabaa, which lies almost 300km from Cairo Airport, has long been the proposed site for the plant, though no confirmation has yet been announced. Egypt's third state-owned paper, Al-Gomhorriya, leads today with assurances of Egypt's rights to the Nile. The article quotes Minister of State Legal Affairs Mofid Shehab saying “our historical rights to the Nile are fixed and are not open to bargaining.” The minister is said to have asserted that Egypt's water security is a matter of life and death, and that recent negotiations between the Nile Basin countries in Sharm el-Sheikh were not a failure. A new round of negotiations between the countries is said to be underway. Al-Shorouq leads with “Egypt increases in misery with the rise in prices and unemployment.” The article is based on information from Bloomberg's latest “Misery Index,” which combines the rate of inflation with unemployment as a measure of social and economic costs for a country. In the case of Egypt, the index, as of March 2010, set “misery” at 21.6 percent, a rise from the March 2009 figure which was 20.84 percent. Finally, Al-Dostour's front page carries an interview with Abu Bakr El-Gindy, head of the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics, who said that a preliminary agreement on a monthly minimum wage for workers has set the figure at LE300. The agreement is said to be between the government, the state-run trade union federation and the private sector, and El-Gindy believes it likely that a final decision will be reached this coming July. However, El-Gindy said the problem with increasing the minimum wage was in the enormous costs it would entail, which the state would be unable to provide and which would only increase the rate of inflation. Al-Dostour went on to quote El-Gindy as saying that setting a minimum wage was not the solution to raising poor living standards, as citizens would not feel any increase in income in the shadow of continued increases in prices. Instead, he said that more efforts should be devoted to stabilizing the market and controlling prices. Al-Ahram also covers this issue, quoting Investment Minister Osman Mohamed Osman, who also heads the National Council for Wages, as saying the council suggests LE450 a month, or LE15 a day, as a minimum wage. The minister added that the council does not have the authority to set wages for workers in Egypt, and only acts as a consultative body for the private sector. Egypt's newspapers: Al-Ahram: Daily, state-run, largest distribution in Egypt Al-Akhbar: Daily, state-run, second to Al-Ahram in institutional size Al-Gomhorriya: Daily, state-run Rose el-Youssef: Daily, state-run, close to the National Democratic Party's Policies Secretariat Al-Dostour: Daily, privately owned Al-Shorouq:Daily, privately owned Al-Wafd: Daily, published by the liberal Wafd Party Al-Arabi: Weekly, published by the Arab Nasserist party Youm7: Weekly, privately owned Sawt el-Umma: Weekly, privately owned
