Welcome in Egypt: The authorities at Cairo International Airport have arrested a Saudi Arabian woman who attacked an Egyptian woman and broke her arm, as they argued over who should go first at passport control. They'd both just flown into Cairo from Saudi Arabia. The 48-year-old Saudi lady pushed the Egyptian passenger to the floor, breaking her arm, and insulted her, in front of all the other passengers. The lady from the Gulf has been referred to the Prosecutor; her victim was taken to hospital for treatment. (Al-Wafd) The fatal report The daughter of a police officer was accidentally shot dead by her little brother, who was playing with dad's service revolver when it went off. Their father, a major, was asleep at the time. He was in for a rude awakening when he heard a sharp report. He rushed into the living room of their home in Shubra, only to find that his son had shot his sister in the chest. He rushed his nine-year-old daughter, Nada Mohamed, to hospital, but it was too late. (Al-Gomhuria) Was it worth it? A thief who'd been arrested for stealing a mobile phone jumped from a second-floor window in el-Gamalia Police Station in Islamic Cairo. But his bid for freedom was shortlived, as he injured himself in so doing and had to be taken to hospital with two broken legs. In hospital, he told doctors that his injuries had been caused by police officers who'd given him a vicious beating, but a number of passersby had witnessed his bold leap and ruled out his claim. The injured party, named only as Hameda (24), had stolen the free cell from a man who was praying in el-Moghariba Mosque. Hameda has been charged with theft and trying to escape from justice. Given his injuries, his escape bid, which has only got him into more trouble anyway, was hardly worth it. (Al-Masry Al-Youm) A big box of chocs Minister of the Interior Habib el-Adli has given a big box of chocolates to a little girl called Fatma, to make up for the chocolate a nasty thief stole from her in 6th October Governorate. The home of five-year-old Fatma in el-Sheikh Zayyed City near 6th October City was burgled by an engineer. The suspect, who also burgled 10 other flats in el-Sheikh Zayyed, has been arrested. He stole gold jewellery, money, mobile phones and other electronic devices from the properties ��" and also one little girl's chocolate. The families have been reunited with the stolen property, but Fatma's nose was put out of joint when she didn't get her choccie back. General Osama el-Morasi, a senior security official, relayed this serious complaint to the Minister of the Interior, who promptly organised a parcel for Fatma, containing a box full of a mouthwatering selection of choccies, as well as a card, signed by Minister Habib himself. General Osama had the honour of presenting the parcel and the card on behalf of the Minister to a delighted little girl. (Al-Gomhuria) Suspicious box creates a stink Meanwhile, another box, dumped outside the Nasser Mosque and the adjacent Coptic Orthodox church in Church Square, Minya, threw this Upper Egyptian city into a state of panic. The Bomb Squad were called and cordoned off the area. A few minutes later, they were able to reassure everyone that the box was fully of humming rubbish. The smell was offensive, nothing more than that. (Al-Akhbar) Close call for controversial couple Two brothers torched an old block of flats in el-Khalifa district, southern Cairo, leaving an elderly couple who live there with serious burns. The arsonists were angry because the couple's son had married the brothers' younger sister, aged 19, without informing them. The brothers thought the young couple were in the building when they set it alight, but thankfully for them they'd already run off. The youngsters had got married six months before the incident and the teenage bride's two elder brothers had spent the time since then looking for her. The bridegroom's elderly parents are being treated for their injuries in el-Moqattam General Hospital and the arsonists have been arrested. They have admitted trying to kill their sister and brother-in-law. (Al-Ahram) The imitation of Adam In the first case of its kind in Egypt, the Artistic Varieties Police have arrested an assistant professor, on suspicion of violating the intellectual property rights of a plastic artist called Adam Henein. He used to hang around the famous artist then started copying his original statues. The suspect was arrested in possession of nine forged statues, which are being examined by a committee of plastic arts professors. Adam's rather special originals have been known to fetch up to $50,000. The assistant professor used to help Adam with his work and acquired a very good insight into the master's secrets. The suspect rented a flat in Faisal which he used as his atelier for forging Adam's statues. When detectives raided the property, the statues they confiscated included three of a woman, one in bronze, one in plaster and one in wax, and another of a she-goat. The assistant professor had also forged Adam's signatures on his works. There was also a rubber mould for a statue of Om Kolthoum and three statues of a man in a galabia standing on some steps; these, it is thought, were copied from the late legendary sculptor, Mahmoud Mokhtar. There was recently a similar case in England, which resulted in a man called Shaun Greenhalgh (47) being sent to prison. He was a brilliant forger, his biggest con happening in 2003, when George Greenhalgh managed to convince experts at Bolton Museum in northern England that a sculpture which his son, Shaun, had managed to knock up in just three weeks was in fact a lost Ancient Egyptian artefact ��" the Armana Princess. The museum paid more than £400,000 for the statue. But Shaun came a cropper when he produced three large stone reliefs based on sketches of lost Ancient Assyrian sculptures. The British Museum's expert on Ancient Mesopotamia, Dr Irving Finkel, spotted subtle mistakes on the reliefs and the tablets were condemned as forgeries. Scotland Yard's Art and Antiques Unit began to investigate the Greenhalghs and it all ended with Shaun being sent to prison in late 2007 for four-and-a-half years. (Al-Akhbar and the Crimewatch UK website) Donkey drama A donkey in Assiut was to blame for a nasty argument involving two families that left four people injured, two of them seriously. The problems started when a motorbike belonging to a member of one of the families crashed into the donkey belonging to the other family. Ironically, the injuries weren't caused by the crash, but by the argument that followed between the Daraba and el-Khayyam families. The four victims, all from el-Khayyam family, were taken to Assiut University Hospital. They were named as Meena Nadi, brothers Rashad and Kameel Bishoi, and Nabil Mahrouss. (Al-Wafd) Mother-in-law's teeth Everyone knows that there's a plant with sword-like leaves called mother-in-law's tongue. It's quite innocuous compared with the effects of mother-in-law's teeth. In an incident in Abul Namrus, 6th October Governorate, a woman spotted her son-in-law arguing with and beating her teenage daughter, his wife, and she went over to remonstrate with him. The man pushed his mother-in-law to the ground, so she bit him very hard. This enraged him and he gave her a terrible beating, from the effects of which she died in Om el-Masriyeen General Hospital in Giza Governorate. The deceased was named as Alaa Abdel-Qader (52) and her daughter with the violent husband as Nisma Mohamed (19). The man Alaa bit in the thigh and who then killed her was named as Mahmoud Ibrahim, a 22-year-old worker. (Al-Ahrar) Keeping an eye out for trouble When a civil servant living in el-Sharabia near Ramses heard a violent argument outside in the street, he walked out onto the balcony of his third-floor flat to take a look at what was going on. On the pavement below, there were two unemployed men threatening each other. This went on for a few minutes until a third man, a local thug, walked up to them and fired his single-barrelled shotgun into the air, to try and get them to shut up. Some shrapnel from the round hit the man on the balcony in the right eye. The 50-year-old civil servant was taken to a hospital, where doctors had to remove his injured eye. The two jobless men and the thug have been arrested. He ought to keep an eye out for trouble in future. (Al-Akhbar) Shocking secondary school stabbing A pupil at the Bassioun Industrial Secondary School in Gharbia Governorate stabbed another pupil through the heart in the exam hall. The victim is in a critical condition in hospital. His friend knifed him, because he refused to help him cheat in his exam. The named of the injured boy, who is in ICU at Bassioun Central Hospital, was named as Mahmoud Abdel-Sattar. The other examinee he wouldn't give the answers to was named as Meleegi Mohamed. The suspect has been arrested and the Gharbia Education Committee is looking into the incident. One wonders how the other pupils were able to concentrate on their exam questions after witnessing this appalling outburst of violence. One also wonders how Meleegi was able to smuggle a knife into the exam hall undetected. Normally examinees at schools and universities in Egypt are searched, not necessarily for knives but for crib sheets, but surely such a search would have turned up a knife. Teachers at the school complained that tens of the pupils have threatened them (yes, the teachers); if they meet the teachers outside the school premises, they even threaten to kill them. (Al-Masry Al-Youm) E-mail: [email protected]
