State-owned newspapers Al-Ahram, Al-Akhbar and Al-Gomhorriya carry similar reports on President Hosni Mubarak, as supreme commander in-chief, attending the graduation ceremony of the 39th class of the Technical Institute of the Armed Forces. The president awarded graduates with the Second-Class Order of Military Duty. All three papers also give further coverage to high school results (thanaweyya amma). Admissions offices will open on Wednesday and are expected to accept 2250 applicants into the faculties of medicine schools, 2700 into engineering faculties, 3850 into business schools and 4300 into pedagogical faculties. Al-Wafd also highlights the president's “verbal” approval for the establishment of el-Dab'aa nuclear power plant. Mubarak has given the go-ahead to the three nuclear authorities to start preparing the site. Al-Shorouq and Al-Ahram also provide a short news item on the Health Ministry adding ten new illnesses to the list of those treatable using state funds. Among those to be added are the hepatitis C virus (treated with Inferon), non-cancerous blood diseases, immunity imbalances, cataracts and others. Al-Ahram and Al-Akhbar also report that Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif has declared that all supply commodities will be available during Ramadan in all governorates, with subsidised commodities available at lower prices. Privately-owned newspaper Al-Shorouq reports on the unification of calls to prayer (the athan), starting from Ramadan in areas of Heliopolis, Haram and Nasr city, to be extended later to all Cairo districts, followed by Alexandria and then all governorates, according to Hamdi Zaqzouq, Minister of Endowments. Al-Shorouq leads with a story about the anticipated participation of Mubarak “by himself, even for hours” at the African summit to be held in Uganda later this month. Al-Shorouq quotes official sources as saying, “If the president changes his program for logistical reasons, he will delegate Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif to head the Egyptian delegation at the summit.” Official Egyptian and African sources expect Mubarak to hold bilateral talks with his counterparts from the Nile basin countries if he attends. Meanwhile, Al-Dostour reports that Mubarak is scheduled to meet with Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in Sharm el-Sheikh, followed by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas the day after tomorrow to discuss Israeli-Palestinian negotiations and the Gaza-bound Libyan “Hope” aid ship, in order to avoid a repetition what happened with the Freedom Flotilla. On the front page of Al-Shorouq, Al-Dostour and Rose el-Youssef are stories about Mona Abdel Nasser, daughter of Egypt's second president Gamal Abdel Nasser and widow of the billionaire arms dealer Ashraf Marawan, who was killed in London in the summer of 2007. Al-Shorouq leads with the headline: “Scotland Yard opens probe into the death of Ashraf Marawan.” Abdel Nasser was quoted by the British Observer as saying, “Mossad agents murdered my husband.” Al-Ahram, Al-Akhbar and Al-Gomhorriya highlight the same piece of news but with more limited coverage. As for economics, Egyptian main index, the EGX 30, as well as the penny stock EGX 70, witnessed a 1.41 percent and 4.5 percent increase respectively before the close of trading. Al-Shorouq attributed this increase to the appointment of a new chairman of the Egyptian Exchange. 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
