In very hot water: An ex-convict shot and injured a Police Major in the thigh in the course of a gun battle in a village near Senouris in Fayoum Governorate, as detectives closed in on the suspect, who'd been sentenced in absentia in a number of cases. Leaving aside his most recent escapade, which occurred in Ezbet Boutros, the gunman had already been sentenced in his absence to a total of 22 years in prison for aggravated robbery (seven years); another incident of aggravated robbery (another seven years); an undisclosed offence (five years); and attempted murder and possessing a firearm (three years). His troubles don't end there: he is also suspected of shooting dead a man called MahmoudMohamed with an automatic weapon in Midan Sanhour in Senouris, last October; the pair had argued over a mobile phone. The unnamed suspect was shot and injured too; he was arrested and taken to Fayoum General Hospital for treatment. One thug and his dog: An unemployed man in Dar el-Salam used a vicious dog to terrorise the people in the street. When one of his neighbours, a housewife, complained to him aboutthis, he started insulting her, so she went to get her husband, a carpenter. Her husband remonstrated with the dog owner, who then fatally knifed him in the street, in front of hundreds of passersby. The 22-year-old knifeman, Mohamed Hareidi, ran off with his dog, but was arrested later. It all started when Doaa (18) was walking along Sadeeq Gheith Street, on her way to the shops, and Mohamed's dog started barking at her and straining at his leash, in a bid to attack her. Mohamed was holding the leash and became very angry with her when she started complaining. Doaa told her 25- year-old husband, Saleh Sayyed, who tried to reason with the thug, whose response was to stab him to death. A happy ending: Services were disrupted when two carriages of a goods train turned over on the Port Said singleline railway. Because of the accident, trains to and from el-Ismailia were delayed, as well as the Port Said-Cairo train and the Port Said-Alexandria train. The accident, which happened at 3pm near el-Balah Station, caused delays for the next five hours. This stretch of line between West el Qantara and el-Ferdan stations, runs parallel and close to the Suez Canal. After emergency repairs to the line, services resumed at 8pm. It appears that the poor state of maintenance of the single line was to blame for the accident, rather than any error on the part of the driver. No-one was killed or injured when the two carriages overturned. What was miraculouswas that all the high-speed trains were alerted before they could plough into the goods train while it was stranded.
