More than 100 residents of the Sinai Peninsula protested Monday in front of the parliament building in downtown Cairo against a recent government decision to cut off irrigation water to their reclaimed land on the pretext that they are not the actual owners of the land in question. Protesters held the government responsible for resultant damage to their crops. Only meters away, 50 employees of the office of Egypt's social prosecutor protested against their transfer en masse to the Illicit Gains Authority following the abolition of the post of social prosecutor a few years ago. A third protest was also staged at the same time and place by residents of the village of Rashwan in Beni Sueif against recent moves by the Endowments Ministry to charge them rent for their residences. Villagers claim that they own their residences and should not therefore pay rent for them. Protesters called for President Hosni Mubarak to intervene personally to resolve their respective grievances. Translated from the Arabic Edition.
