The suspect was late A burglar died while being chased by the residents of a block of flats in Faisal Street, Giza, who'd caught him stealing. The story started when one of the residents, Hussein Moustafa, got home from work at 5am, only to discover that LE58,000 had been stolen from his flat. He told the security guard for the block what had happened and they both went to the police station to report what had happened. The security guard was detained and Hussein walked back home, only to spot a man climbing down the pipes on the side of the building. Presumably, he'd hung around to burgle some of the other properties in the building after breaking into Hussein's drum. Hussein screamed, waking up the neighbours, who came running. When the burglar saw them, he panicked and fell from the seventh floor to his death in the narrow alley that separates the building from the next one. He was found in possession of LE50,000, 1,000 Saudi riyals and four mobile phones. What happened to the other LE8,000 is a mystery. The security guard must have felt relieved when a suspect was found, albeit a late one. (Al-Wafd) Hostages in hospital Instead of compensating him and his daughter for a mistake, which has consigned her to her bed and destroyed all the dreams that children have, Awwad Amin, the father of Fatma el-Zahraa, who isn't yet twelve, has become indebted to the Hospital for Natural Medicine and Rehabilitation in el-Agouza, where he has been told he must pay himself for the rest of her treatment. If he doesn't pay up, Fatma el-Zahraa and her father will remain hostages in the hospital. "The problems started when Fatma el-Zahraa was only seven months old and a doctor in Abul Reesh Hospital performed a minor operation. However, because he made a mistake, it negatively affected her balance," said her father. On December 7, last year, Awwad's daughter was granted treatment at State expense, costing LE5,000, to cure the problem. Awwad took Fatma el-Zahraa to the Hospital for Natural Medicine and Rehabilitation, but was surprised to discover that it cost LE260 for every day his daughter stayed there, while, according to the terms of the agreement, the State would only pay a maximum of LE100 per day for 50 days and he would have to be responsible for anything over and above that. "When I went to the Specialised Medical Councils to get the terms of the agreement changed, I was told that such agreements can only be changed a year after they have been issued. That means I'll have to wait until December 2010! Meanwhile, until I pay, the hospital has stopped 75 per cent of the treatment it was giving to my daughter, including water, wax and electrical treatment," he commented. The hospital won't let Awwad and his daughter leave until it gets paid for January and February. It is common practice for local hospitals to detain patients until their families pay up – this also applies to corpses, which aren't released for burial until someone foots the medical bill. Unless the Specialised Medical Councils have a change of heart, it looks like father and daughter will have to be extremely patient till the end of the year. (Al-Masry Al-Youm) A rude awakening El-Montazah Police in Alexandria have arrested a teenage pupil at an agricultural school on suspicion of murdering his father. Kyrillos Ibrahim (17) stabbed his dad, a 61-year-old pensioner called Ibrahim Hanna Ishaq, in the chest, merely because he'd woken him up to go to school. The suspect told police that it was very unpleasant to be woken up by someone beating you with a hose. (Al-Gomhuria) Blame it on Osama A farmer living in the village of Maasara near Balqaas in el-Daqahlia Governorate breathed his last during an argument with his daughter's husband and the latter's family. He'd gone round to the home of his daughter and son-in-law, in order to take her home, because she'd fallen out with her husband. But his family refused to let his daughter go. Ibrahim Fathi (50), overcome by this bad news, promptly dropped dead of a heart attack, to the horror of his son, who'd gone with him to collect his sister, Noura (21). The name of Ibrahim's son-in-law, who'd caused the original problem, was given as Osama Mohamed, a 23-year-old worker. (Al-Akhbar) His lights were put out for good There was grief in Helwan when a 50-year-old man called Qotb Younis was killed by two of his neighbours, brothers Moustafa and Hassan Gaber (aged 38 and 23 respectively). Moustafa and Hassan had extinguished all the lights in the street to stop children playing football there. When Qotb complained, the brothers clubbed him to death. (Al-Wafd) Molotov madness When a housewife blamed two schoolboys after someone threw a large stone onto the balcony of her flat, they got very angry. Shortly afterwards, they lobbed a Molotov cocktail into her flat and ran off. The cocktail injured 50-year-old Amna Hassan, who had to be treated for burns to her face, chest and stomach at Imbaba General Hospital. The boys are helping Giza Police with their inquiries into the case. (Al-Gomhuria) Schoolboy in chair horror Meanwhile, a pupil stabbed one of his classmates in their school in Shubra el-Kheima, as they argued over a chair during one of their lessons. The knifeman has been arrested, while his victim is in a critical condition in hospital. Karim Sayyed (18), a pupil at Shubra el-Kheima Training School, was rushed to Nasser General Hospital with serious stab wounds, after being knifed in class by Abdel-Rahman Alaa (17). (Al-Ahram) Hungry without their vehicles Eight tok-tok drivers in el-Ismailia Governorate who went on hunger strike have been admitted to el-Qantara East Central Hospital. Seven of the eight were named as Karim Hassan, Yasser Mohamed Gharib, Ahmed Shehata Ali, Ahmed Mahmoud, Hani Radi, Emad Radi and Mohamed Ali Mabrouk. Because they hadn't been granted licences, even though they'd paid their necessary dues, their tok-toks were confiscated by officers during a clampdown on unlicensed vehicles. (Al-Messa) The spectre of unemployment The spectre of unemployment is haunting women more than men, not to mention falling wages and the difficulty of trying to balance their role as mothers with that of contributing to national production. These are among the many reasons why many young female graduates are opting to get married instead of going to work. An opinion poll about this recently generated much debate at a forum organised by the National Council for Women (NCW), which discussed the potential of women to compete in the labour market. The results of the poll were published in a working paper prepared by Safwat el-Nahas, Chairman of the Central Agency for Organisation and Administration, based in Salah Salem Street, Nasr City. The results suggested that unemployment is a bigger burden for women than men, because they can be more easily laid off by their employers, especially in this age of privatisation, while there is also (in many cases) a big difference in what women and men earn for doing the same job. The private sector is often reluctant to employ women, as they don't want to give them maternity leave. In the meantime, women are victims of the fact that the public sector is shrinking. The daughters of middle-class families like to work in the Civil Service, because of the job security, which allows them to take extended, unpaid leave, if they want to start a family. (Al-Ahram) The most precious thing The family of late 39-year-old Mahmoud Ibrahim, who was secretary to the Abdeen Prosecution, are in a state of shock and grief. Mahmoud died in el-Fustat Park, Old Cairo. He'd been happily playing with his three children when he fell onto a metal spike, which fatally transfixed him. His eldest child, Ibrahim (10), still cannot come to terms with the fact that he has lost his father. It's the same for the other orphans: Ibrahim's younger sister and brother, seven-year-old Nahed, who dreams of being a famous doctor, and Abdullah (five). Meanwhile, his distraught widow is faced with the onerous task of bringing up their children on her own. His widow, Hala, who works for the Ministry of Culture, has lost the joy and love of her life, the loyal husband who cared for her every need for 15 years. "On the day my husband died, I took the children to the park in el-Fustat and Mahmoud came and joined us after work. My sister's children came with us too. He turned up at 4pm on his motorbike. I was always afraid that he would have an accident on his machine," she says. "We had something to eat and then he played football with the children, while I sat on the grass happily watching them all. The muezzin announced the call for evening prayers. My husband went off to the mosque. When he'd said his prayers, he came back and started playing football again. Then Ibrahim hit the ball extra hard and it flew over the fence round the park into the premises of the car showroom next door. "Mahmoud climbed over the fence and onto the fibreglass roof of the showroom, but he slipped off the roof and fell onto a vicious metal spike in the yard beside the building. I rushed towards the fence and two young men, who'd seen what had happened, rushed over too. They climbed over and pulled my husband off the spike, but he was bleeding very heavily. "Mohamed [the children's 13-year-old maternal cousin] called an ambulance. It arrived and the doctor on board examined Mahmoud, but it was too late. A few moments later, my husband had died. I don't blame anyone for what happened. It was God's justice." "I miss daddy so much. He was the most precious thing in the world. He'd promised to take us to the Giza Zoo and the Pyramids. He was going to give us lots of sweets and treats," says Nahed innocently. (Al-Masry Al-Youm)
