Stealing and flirting In Saudi Arabia, thieves sometimes have one of their hands amputated for stealing. Meanwhile, here in Egypt, an unemployed man called Hazem el-Sayyed (22) used his knife to cut off one of the hands of a young man and also his left leg. He was named as Adel Mohamed (20). The victim, who died of his injuries on the way to Qasr Al-Aini Hospital, was punished for flirting with the girls in the streets of Imbaba, a district in Giza, one of them being a relative of his killer, who was found walking down the road with blood all over his clothes and has been arrested. (Al-Wafd and Al-Gomhuria) Bangoes their bike A chase involving police and two ex-convicts on the Upper Egyptian Desert Road only ended when the latter crashed their motorbike into a palm tree. Detectives had been tipped off that the pair were going to drive some drugs from Beni Mazar to Maghagha. They kept the suspects under surveillance, then tailed them as they set off. As they increased speed it turned into a chase. The two dealers were badly injured in the accident and had to be taken to Minya University Hospital, where they remain under police guard. When they feel better, they'll have to answer a question or two about the 10kg of bango found in their possession. (Akhbar Al-Youm) It's not my bridge It was three o'clock in the morning and the little boy was running a fever. His father couldn't take him to hospital, because he was about to start his shift in the bakery where he works. If he didn't turn up, he'd lose LE30, something he couldn't afford, as he has a wife and four children to feed. So his wife decided to take their baby to the Imbaba Fever Hospital, accompanied by their elder son, aged ten. The three of them got a taxi and the driver took them halfway across the Sahel Bridge. There, he dropped them off, simply because it's far quicker to walk across to the other side and down the steps to the hospital; by taxi you have to do a big detour due to the one-way system. It was still dark and they had to cross the road, with the mother carrying the baby and her other son walking behind them. When they got to the other side, the older boy had vanished. The mother looked around and couldn't see him anywhere. It then dawned on her what must have happened. Down the middle of the road there is a central reservation consisting of concrete blocks. Her elder son, Mohamed, had fallen down through the hole created by two missing blocks, when they were crossing the bridge. Thinking he might have landed on some structure beneath the bridge, she stopped a passing motorcyclist, who managed to shine his headlamp down into the hole. All they could see was the Nile. Mohamed's mother went to Imbaba Police Station, where later she was joined by her sister-in-law, the boy's paternal auntie. In the meantime, the male members of their family had rushed to the bridge, looking for any sign of the missing Mohamed. His mother complained that the police were slow to react, while River Rescue said they were hampered by currents and there weren't any police divers available. It was nine hours after Mohamed fell through the hole that his father spotted his body floating near a barge, not far from the bridge. The Prosecution reasoned that the governorate responsible for the bridge should take responsibility for this tragic incident. The heads of the North Giza and el-Sahel districts said that they are responsible for the roads feeding into the bridge on each side, but that the bridge itself is the responsibility of the Administration for Roads and Bridges in Giza and Cairo. But the director for Roads and Bridges in Giza told the Prosecution: "I am in possession of official notification that the bridge belongs to Cairo. It used to belong to me years ago." And of course you can guess what the director for Roads and Bridges in Cairo told the Prosecution: "I have official notification that the bridge belongs to Giza." The Prosecution has asked both directors to produce their notification. Investigations have revealed something else: no maintenance has been done on the bridge for seven years, while the lighting is totally non-existent. The Prosecution has also subpoenaed whoever is responsible for the lighting. "We were four, but now we are three. May God grant us our rights," says Mohamed's father. Little Omar, the couple's other child, suffering from fever, keeps on crying and asking who killed his brother. The Prosecution will hopefully be able to answer this question soon. (Al-Masry Al-Youm) Marriage and murder A young woman from Naga Hammadi in Qena Governorate killed her elderly husband during their honeymoon by poisoning his bottled water. His teenage wife wanted him out of the way, so she could enjoy her lover, an undergraduate. Khalaf Abdeen, a 65-year-old fruiterer, died in Naga Hammadi General Hospital of the effects of the poison. The problems started when he found out that his 17-year-old wife, Amira Mohamed, was involved with a student called Moustafa (also 17). Amira and her husband, a man the same age as her grandfather, had a big argument about this and then she decided to kill him. She wasn't taken any chances, as she put 250g of rat poison in his water! Khalaf's youthful widow has been arrested on suspicion of premeditated murder. (Al-Gomhuria and Al-Akhbar) A tactless intrusion A housewife went to visit the grave of her late father in the cemeteries in Ard el-Golf, on the borders of Heliopolis and Nasr City, only to discover a film crew hard at work. She told her husband, an employee with EgyptAir, who complained to the police, telling them that he suspected the caretaker of letting the film crew in. The employee's wife was shocked when she turned up with flowers to put on her dear father's tomb, only to discover the peaceful atmosphere of the graveyard had been shattered by cameramen, lighting technicians, actors and stuntmen, combined with the racket being made by several generators. Her husband went to ask the caretaker what was going on, but he fled. Detectives are still looking for him. (Al-Gomhuria) Blame it on the balcony A man and the woman he'd married the orfi (unregistered) way had a big argument in their flat in 6th October City. He picked up a metal bar and chased her onto the balcony. He pushed her against the wall surrounding the balcony, which collapsed, sending them both over the edge, as the neighbours witnessed. The husband, 45-year-old Shaaban Abu Bakr, who worked in an administrative post at Ahmed Maher Teaching Hospital in Bab el-Shaariya, died of his injuries, as he fell from the fourth-floor flat in the Fourth Neighbourhood of 6th October City's 16th district. Meanwhile, his wife was injured but survived, her fall being broken by the washing line outside the flat on the third floor that she grabbed as she plummeted to the pavement. Shaaban's widow was named as Hala Abdel-Mohssen (36). (Al-Gomhuria and Al-Masry Al-Youm) Staying in Cairo Civic Affairs Police have arrested a housewife in Cairo who impersonated her late sister, because she wanted to visit her only son living in the United States. There's nothing wrong in a woman wanting to visit her boy in the US, but the problem was that she was banned from leaving the country because of several outstanding court cases against her. The suspect was caught trying to get a National ID issued in the name of her deceased younger sister, which would have allowed her to apply for a passport. Her chances of ever going now seem very slim indeed, bearing in mind that she'd already been sentenced in absentia to a century (!) in prison, having been found guilty of bouncing cheques, fraud and immorality. (Al-Ahram) A courageous widow When her husband died, Om Tamer, who was only in her thirties, suddenly found herself responsible for bringing up six children on her own. Rather than selling tissues or begging in the street, she put on her late husband's uniform and also took on his job, working as a syce in a car park in 26th July Street, belonging to Ezbekiya Police Station. Om Tamer, now in her fifties, has been doing this job for the past 20 years, working from 3pm until midnight. She says that no-one bothers her, as everyone in 26th July Street knows her. Om Tamer, who lives in a two-room flat costing LE150 a month in rent, says that she feels like her children's father, as she has provided for their every need. She gets paid a monthly wage, as well as tips from the drivers whose cars she looks after. Om Tamer feels that she's changed people's opinion about working women for the better. (Al-Wafd) Free at last Sohag Criminal Court has exonerated a teacher who spent a decade in prison, having been found guilty of killing a worker who had sneaked into his family's flat late at night. It was on April 27, 1997 that the police were informed that Mohamed Ibrahim, a 35-year-old worker, had been found dead in his flat in Ahmed Farid Street, Tima. There were serious injuries to his head. He had been clubbed to death. A 40-year-old teacher called Ashraf Ramadan was arrested, tried in absentia and found guilty of Mohamed's murder. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. When he was caught, the sentence was reduced to twenty years at his retrial. But the case recently went to the Court of Cassation, after Ashraf's lawyer said there were irregularities in his second trial. The Court of Cassation found him innocent last Tuesday, exactly 13 years after Mohamed died. (Al-Ahram and Al-Wafd)