Little knifeman A packet of crisps was responsible for a boy of nine in Sharqia Governorate ending up in hospital and another boy of only seven being sent to a care home. The former was admitted in a serious condition, with deep wounds to the stomach. The two boys were playing outside the nine-year-old's home, when the younger one grabbed his friend's crisps and tried to run off with them. He got very angry with him, so the seven-year-old stabbed him in the stomach. The little knifeman joked with police who interviewed him, telling them that he still wanted a packet of crisps. (Al-Akhbar) Felous on fire A woman who was fed up with the constant arguments with her husband decided that the best way to get her revenge was to torch his flat in Ezbet el-Zara'ia near Tanta in Gharbia Governorate. She was successful in her mission and was also successful in destroying the cash her husband kept under the bed ��" all LE72,000 of it. (Al-Ahram) Trash and ash There was a fire of a different sort in a village near Awseem, 6th October Governorate. Someone had ignited the rubbish in a street in the village and it set light to a car driving through. The driver and his sister's son, who was in the car with him, were badly burnt as a result. Abdel-Rahman Abdel-Hafez (53), a grocer, and his little nephew, three-year-old Mohamed Mahmoud, were taken to Imbaba General Hospital for treatment. Mohamed's burns are particularly serious. His uncle's car was badly damaged in the accident in Ezbet el-Khalifa. Trash has become a huge problem in Egypt, especially the cities, as this nasty incident shows. (Al-Messa'ia) Free cell in flames And now for more burns. A civil servant who works for the Ministry of Housing must have regretted buying a Chinese mobile phone. He was talking to someone on the mobile when it exploded, burning his face. Waleed el-Youssri had to be taken to hospital to have the burns treated. Waleed had recently bought the brand-new free cell from a shop in the Ard el-Golf district of Heliopolis. As well as his face, his left hand got burnt too. (Al-Wafd) A rat in the wardrobe! A tailor living in Awseem, 6th October Governorate got a surprise when he returned home unexpectedly early from work, accompanied by his brother. He knocked at the door and his wife opened the door, but she looked very confused. The tailor smelt a rat and searched the flat until he found the rat ��" her wife's lover ��" hiding in the wardrobe in the bedroom. Badawi (38) and his brother took the 22-year-suspect, a driver called Riyadh Naggui, to the police station. Badawi's 25-year-old wife, Nisma, admitted having sex romps with the suspect in their home, when her husband was out at work. (Al-Ahrar) An avoidable accident A tok-tok driver was accidentally shot dead by his teenage friend who was playing with his unlicensed gun in the village of el-Khazan near Balqaas, not far from Mansoura, Daqahlia Governorate, in the Delta. Islam Ahmed (19), who has an industrial diploma, blasted the 22-year-old driver, Ramadan Abdel-Fattah, in the stomach. After killing his friend, Islam panicked and ran off. He was arrested and told police that he hadn't intended to kill his friend, let alone shoot him. Investigations continue. (Al-Messa Al-Osbouia) Fruiterer's flowers A man in Ain Shams murdered his wife, because she killed the flowers in the flat by pouring the water she'd used to wash the laundry with over them. The suspect, a 29-year-old fruiterer called Nasser Qenawi, got home from work only to discover that the flowers he was so proud of had been drowned by his wife, Afaf Hussein (30). Nasser admitted killing his wife, who was three months pregnant. (Al-Akhbar) Fatal freshwater fish farm Three young men, two of them brothers, drowned when they went for a dip in a freshwater pond in a fish farm in the village of Degla, Minya Governorate. The victims were named as Sameh Karam, a 22-year-old arts student at Minya University; his 16-year-old brother, Hisham; and Abbas Hamdi, a 20-year-old worker. The families of the deceased blamed workers at the farm for their sons' death; police have moved into the village in large numbers to prevent them clashing. (Al-Masry Al-Youm) Rising prices, rising tempers A former convict stabbed an ironing man in the street outside his little shop. The victim, 25-year-old Mohamed Amer, who lives in Giza, was taken to el-Tahrir General Hospital for treatment. The problems started when Mohamed got into an argument with one of his customers because he'd put his prices up. The suspect, Safwat Amer (32), who has done time for theft, then intervened, using his knife to end the altercation. (Al-Ahrar) A sign of the times A student at Al-Azhar University and an unemployed man shot dead another unemployed man who cheated them in a drug deal in a village near Toukh, Qaliubia Governorate. The two killers, who have been arrested, had bought adulterated hashish from their victim. The deceased was named as Gomaa Mohamed (23). The undergraduate, studying Islamic and Civil Law at Al-Azhar, and his jobless friend killed Gomaa in the village of Meet Kanana. The student was named as el-Shehat el-Sayyed (also 23) and his friend as Ahmed Gomaa (21). This column recently reported that, like other commodities, hashish has leapt in price in Egypt, because of the global financial crisis and also because the police have recently made some impressive seizures of the drug. Because of this, we may well see more cases of drugs being adulterated. (Al-Ahram) A curious sight Detectives have unveiled the thieves responsible for stealing a very large sum of money in Alexandria. ‘Unveiled' is the right word as the suspects were disguised as monaqabaat (fully veiled women). The suspects, a shop assistant and the owner of the same shop, shinned up the pipes in the lightshaft, climbed into the flat of a ringa (dried fish) seller through the window and stole LE2.62 million. The victim, Mohamed Anwar, who lives in the building he owns in the Manshiya district of Alex, kept his money in the wardrobe in the bedroom. The two thieves, who both live in Mohamed's building, were very short of money, so they hit on the idea of robbing their wealthy landlord. They struck one evening, when they knew that he wasn't at home, as he'd gone off to attend his son's wedding party. The first suspect was named as Mohamed el-Sayyed (26), aka Bogie, who happens to be the son of Mohamed Anwar's wife's brother, while the second suspect, the owner of the readymade clothes shop in which he works, was named as Kareem Abdel-Nasser (24). Before being caught, the burglars had spent LE250,000 of their ill-gotten gains in just one week. Kareem hid the rest of the haul in the home of his ex-wife and her mother in the Meena el-Bassel district of Alexandria. The fully veiled suspects must have made a curious sight, descending the pipes with all that cash, in LE20 and LE50 notes in 11 large black plastic bags, stuffed underneath their copious garments. (Al-Ahrar, Al-Akhbar and el-Messa el-Osbouiya) Cheeky choc shock Supply Police have raided an unregistered and unlicensed factory that was making chocolate from ‘evil-smelling substances' that were unfit for human consumption. The owner of the factory, located in el-Marg, northeast Cairo, even had the cheek to pretend that his chocolate bars were a famous brand. The owner was arrested, while detectives confiscated 800kg of chocolate bars, ready for distribution; 250kg of starch; 300kg of cocoa powder; 400kg of milk powder; and 3,000 chocolate bar wrappers, with the famous brand named printed on them. They also confiscated wrapping machines and other equipment. Presumably, the premises were raided at night ��" imagine if officers carted away all that chocolate in the heat of the Cairo sun in the middle of the day and it melted on their smart white summer uniforms. (Al-Ahram) Agony aunt arrested Most of the charlatans who claim they can cure people's physical and psychological ills are men, but one charlatan, who claimed she could help people with their emotional and romantic problems and who was recently caught getting up to no good in el-Marg, was a woman. The suspect, named as Sayyeda Mohamed (50), ‘treated' clients in her flat for LE100 a throw in her flat. When detectives raided her home, they arrested Sayyeda and confiscated ‘various substances', headscarves and ‘strange photographs'. (Al-Ahrar) He whom the suits fit Detectives in 6th October City are probing a burglary of the villa where Malawi's Ambassador to Egypt lives. There was no sign of breaking and entering and detectives are now questioning five people who work there in connection with the incident. The Ambassador reported that the thief made off with ten gold and silver items that belong to him, as well as eight of his suits. Surely police should concentrate their inquiries on someone of a similar build to the envoy's. (Al-Masry Al-Youm) Slain for a ciggie in Sadoud A fellah was killed by his brother in an argument over a cigarette. Arafat Hamed (26), from the village of Sadoud near Menouf in Menoufia Governorate, died in Menouf General Hospital, shortly after being admitted with stab wounds. His 26-year-old unemployed brother Yasser is helping police with their inquiries. They were at home when he asked his brother for a cigarette but Arafat refused, so Yasser, who was found by police hiding in the fields, knifed him. (Al-Messa Al-Osbouia) E-mail: [email protected]
