THE Shura Council (the Upper House of the Egyptian Parliament) yesterday slammed what it branded as exploiters of communal strife from both the Muslims and Copts. "We call on the nation's thinkers, writers and opinion-makers to fear God and preserve the national unity and security," Safwat el-Sherif, the Council's chairman told a session yesterday. Addressing the same session, Mofied Shehab, the Minister of Legal Parliamentary Affairs denied that there were sectarian reasons for a recent shooting outside a church in Upper Egypt. Seven Copts and one Muslim guard were killed in the January 6 attack. Safwat el-Sherif, the chairman of the Shura Council (the Upper House of Egyptian Parliament) called on the Government yesterday to brief the House on the latest flood relief measures as well compensation and aid for those who were made homeless in the recent bad weather. "All the measures taken by the Government should be discussed by Parliament," el-Sherif said yesterday. The Council will today continue its debate on the flooding that hit five Egyptian governorates last week. Amr el-Dessouki, the head of the development committee affiliated to the Ministry of Local Development, said his department had registered all the damage caused by the flooding, which killed 12 people and damaged more than 1,000 homes in Aswan and Sinai. "Some electricity towers and hundreds of acres of farmland were damaged, as well as some hotels in Sharm el-Sheikh," el-Dessouki added.
