EGYPT: Police officer imprisoned for torturing suspect

In a nationally followed case that highlighted Egypt's long-standing problem of human rights abuses, a police officer has been sentenced to five years in prison for torturing a mentally disabled suspect in July.

Col. Akram Soliman first appeared in front of a criminal court in the city of Alexandria in September after he was accused of detaining and beating Ragaie Soltan for eight days without any formal charges. Soltan had been taken into custody July 21 during a random police sweep of the homeless in the seaside city.

Soltan was transferred to a public hospital one week later, where he was diagnosed with brain concussion and internal bleeding after losing consciousness as a result of the physical abuse.

EGYPT: Activist Ayman Nour blasts authorities for travel ban

Opposition leader Ayman Nour has attacked the ruling regime after he was barred from traveling to the United States, where he was invited to speak about Egypt's political climate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.

Nour and a number of Egyptian politicians, including Gamal Mubarak -- a top official in the ruling National Democratic Party and the son of President Hosni Mubarak -- were invited to the Carnegie event. Nour said he is convinced that his travel ban was intended to prevent anti-government figures from spoiling Gamal Mubarak's trip. 

"Mubarak's son wants the lion's share of the Egyptian political sphere, whether that is inside or outside the country," Nour said. "But I will not give him such pleasure, and I will take part in the Carnegie seminar through video conferences." 

The founder and former head of El Ghad opposition party, who was also planning to take part in a number of conferences organized by the Egyptian community in the U.S., previously said that the Egyptian public prosecutor had issued an administrative decision preventing him from going to the U.S. and other nations in the Middle East and Europe.

Gamal Mubarak is being groomed to succeed his father, a scenario resented by many Egyptians who have suffered under the government's economic programs and repressive human-rights policies and don’t want a Mubarak dynasty. Nour and fellow opposition activists and parties recently formed a coalition under the slogan Mayehkomsh ("You don't have the right to rule"), rejecting any succession plan.

After losing to Hosni Mubarak in Egypt's first contested elections in 2005, Nour was sentenced to five years in prison on what are widely regarded as trumped-up charges of forging signatures in order to establish El Ghad party. He was released on health grounds in February and since then has only been allowed to leave the country to receive healthcare abroad.

Nour, who has been touring Egyptian cities to interact with citizens and demonstrate his political vision over the last few months, can't run in the 2011 presidential elections because of his earlier conviction.

-- Amro Hassan in Cairo

Photo: Ayman Nour. Credit: AFP
 

EGYPT: NDP conference fails to ease succession fears

Egypt's ruling elite is not talking about what everyone wants to hear. 

The National Democratic Party's annual convention, launched on Saturday under the slogan "For every citizen's sake," is unfolding amid the fears of many Egyptians that Gamal Mubarak -- a leading NDP official and son of current President Hosni Mubarak -- is being tailored to succeed his father in the 2011 presidential elections.

While many were anxious to see if the party would announce or even drop a hint on whether Gamal Mubarak would be nominated for the coming elections, top NDP officials did not broach the matter during speeches Saturday and today. In his address to the party faithful, President Mubarak, 81, gave no indication whether he would seek another term or step aside.

EGYPT: Cairo's hovering 'black cloud'

Fires burn in the provinces, and mornings break smoky in the city.

It’s harvest time. The rice has been gathered, and farmers light the chaff. The Cairo skyline -- smudged gray even on good days -- turns ominous, an ashy, strange-scented cloak. Lungs grow scratchy. Eyes water. 

Is the annual rice harvest alone to blame for what Egyptians call the ‘black cloud’? Many say, definitely. But there are other theories and myths: Military maneuvers kicking up sand in the desert, dust storms, rubbish fires, global warming, autumn fog off the Nile or, perhaps, all of these mingling with the smoke from rice farms to create a sky of gloom.

Some days are worse than others, but even on the “clear” afternoons the horizon seems tinged with smoke. Egypt is not known for environmental protection, and Cairo, a city of 18 million, is streaked in air the shades of mustard dust and pepper. 

"It has been 10 years since we first saw the black cloud," said Dr. Mostafa Ghoneim, a specialist in respiratory illnesses. "The government and the Ministry of Health never put any effort into investigating such a phenomenon despite the diseases many are suffering because of it."

The problem is larger than the burning of rice straw "because smoke that spreads from these burnings can only have limited effect and shouldn’t reach Cairo with the strength we see here. Cairo alone has more than 12,000 factories and 2 million vehicles," said Ghoneim. "The black cloud is most dangerous to people with sensitive eyes, as well as children. Children’s lungs become very vulnerable when inhaling such smoke, and they can easily develop asthmas once exposed to smoke for long."

The harvest fires in the Nile Delta will burn until mid-November. Until then, shutters stay dirty, windshields gritty and the sky is a plague, descending.

-- Jeffrey Fleishman in Cairo

Photo: A policeman views Cairo's '"black cloud." Credit: AFP/Getty Images

LEBANON: Pop princess faces Egyptian outrage over 'Nubian monkey' lyrics

Haifa Wehbe is no stranger to controversy. The sultry Lebanese provocateur made a name for herself on the Arabic music scene with her signature coquettish pout and tongue-in-cheek songs like "Boos al Wawa" ("Kiss the Boo-Boo) and "Ya Ibn al Halal" (roughly, "Hey, Good Little Muslim Boy").

But now the pop princess is finding herself at the center of a different kind of scandal after Egyptian lawmakers expressed outrage over allegedly racist lyrics in her new song "Baba Fein?" ("Where's Daddy?"), according to news reports. 

The song, a duet between Wehbe and a young singer who plays her son, is supposed to be a lighthearted lyrical argument revolving around bedtime, with the child at one point singing the line, "Where's my teddy bear and the Nubian monkey?"

EGYPT: A hope to make ElBaradei a presidential candidate

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, is being talked about as a possible candidate for the 2011 presidential elections. The Nobel Peace Prize winner has not commented on his intentions, but two Egyptian opposition parties are courting him to lead their organizations, which would make him eligible for the national ballot.   

The Al Wafd party and the Free Constitutional party have both revealed that they are awaiting ElBaradei's final word before they start the necessary procedures. The Egyptian constitution requires that a presidential candidate be head of a political party or receive state permission after collecting approval from at least 300 municipal councils. For an independent candidate that is a mission impossible, which is precisely why the ruling National Democratic Party supports it. 

EGYPT: Opposition forms anti-succession coalition

 

Opposition leaders and political parties have started a new front to challenge the prospect that President Hosni Mubarak's son, Gamal, an untested politician with limited domestic and international experience, will succeed in the 2011 elections.    

Talk of succession has gripped the country in recent months as Gamal Mubarak's profile has risen, including a trip to Washington with his 81-year-old father. Gamal is an influential voice in the ruling National Democratic Party. But many Egyptians, who have suffered under the government's economic programs and repressive human rights policies, don't want the presidency kept in the Mubarak family.      

The new front took the name "Mayehkomsh" -- Egyptian slang for "You don’t have the right to rule" -- as its slogan. The question, however, remains: How can a disparate group of opposition parties successfully come together to challenge a police state that has pressured them for years with intimidation and arrests?

EGYPT: 23 investigated for hacking American bank accounts

A prosecutor in the city of Mansoura is investigating 23 suspects accused of laundering money and stealing more than $26 million from U.S. banks through Internet piracy.

The defendants were arrested recently in cooperation with FBI agents, who had been monitoring movements of the hackers and their American associates since 2007. FBI officials said that, so far, 33 out of 53 people charged in connection with the investigation, known as Operation Phish Phry, were arrested in the U.S.

All Egyptians accused come from the governorates of Dakahleya and Sharkeya by the Nile delta and are between the ages 21 and 27. The alleged ringleaders, all California residents, were identified by the FBI as Kenneth Joseph Lucas, 25, of Los Angeles; Nichole Michelle Merzi, 24, of Oceanside; and Jonathan Preston Clark, 25, whose residence was not given.

The suspects are accused of posing as legitimate bank representatives and sending e-mails to victims, seeking to "update" their records. After the victims sent their personal information, the suspects allegedly withdrew money from their bank accounts.

The scheme included the recruiting of "runners" to set up bank accounts where stolen money from Bank of America and Wells Fargo could be transferred and withdrawn. At least $1.5 million was withdrawn from victims' bank accounts, officials said. Some of that money was transferred to individuals operating in Egypt, they said.

Ongoing investigations in Egypt have already been marred by allegations of human rights violations, as one of the defendants' lawyers told newspapers that police officers forced his client to admit to the charges. Other lawyers complained that they are not allowed access to the evidence forwarded to authorities by the FBI.

-- Amro Hassan in Cairo

Photo credit: Associated Press

EGYPT: Niqab ban adds to Azhar cleric’s woes

The decision to prohibit the face veil, or niqab, among female students attending Al Azhar’s universities and schools is proving yet another reason for many Egyptians to call for the firing of Al Azhar’s grand sheik, Mohamed Sayed Tantawi.

The Supreme Council of Al Azhar banned the niqab last week, days after Tantawi ordered one student to remove her veil, telling her that Islam never obliged women to cover their faces. Al Azhar is the preeminent educational and religious institution in Sunni Islam.

Despite later justifying that he only did so in order to hear the girl while she was speaking with him, the incident angered religious and secular figures alike. Many went so far as to suggest that officially banning the niqab was Tantawi demonstrating his religious authority to the media.

EGYPT: Antiquities Council cuts ties with Louvre

Egypt this week severed cultural and artistic ties with the Louvre museum in Paris until the French government returns artifacts taken decades ago from a tomb in Luxor. The move follows Egypt's recent international embarrassment over the rejection of Cultural Minister Farouk Hosni to head the Paris-based United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization.      

Zahi Hawass, head of the Egyptian Supreme Council for Antiquities, said on Wednesday that the Louvre had failed to return five painted wall fragments that were stolen from a tomb in Luxor in the 1980s before they ended up in the French museum in 2002 and 2003.

"The Louvre bought the relics knowing they were stolen," Hawass said. "Acts like these show that unfortunately some museums encourage the stealing and ruining of Egyptian antiques. All seminars and lectures that we held in collaboration with the museum will be stopped until those artifacts are restored. We will similarly suspend the Louvre's expedition works currently held in Saqqara, Giza."