Computer gamers and chatroom frequenters living off Cairo’s internet cafés faced new competition for their seats at the terminals last month, as day traders flocked to cyber cafés after the Cairo and Alexandria Stock Exchange (CASE) became equipped to handle online trading.

Hisham Tawfik, chairman of Al-Arabia Online, the first company licensed to provide online trading services, is hopeful that the new service will boost Egyptian markets by expanding the investor base at home and abroad.

“Investors will be able to carry out their transactions from anywhere,” he says, adding that transaction fees will be cut almost in half, if not more.

Arab Finance, a subsidiary of LINKdotNET, is also offering online trading and considers the service to be an equalizer among investors. Mohamed Sultan, LINK’s chief product officer, demonstrated the ease with which an account could be set up through his company at a meeting with the American Chamber of Commerce.

“Remote, online trading decisions are based upon fully transparent, live online data, such as stock quotes and company/industry news,” he says. “Breaking news is communicated to all clients at the same time, trade placement is managed by the client himself and the response is nearly instantaneous.”

Sultan says trading online would do away with brokers’ preference for larger clients and eliminate delays caused by human error. It will also level the playing field by ending minimum investment requirements.

Mohsen Allam Girls’ school enrollment figures have greatly increased in governorates where they have been historically underserved.

Although online stock trading is new to Egypt, it has been growing in popularity in other markets for years.

Datamonitor, a leading global research firm specializing in the information technology sector, says tens of thousands of new online accounts are registered in Europe every day, and online trading has become so popular that one out of every three individual investors’ trade activities are now made over the net.

But online trading is not without its risks. Most of the well-established online trading companies, including E*TRADE and Ameritrade, provide long lists of warnings and free investment advice for those just getting started.

Arab Finance has taken it one step further, providing a post-registration educational program for new investors where you can try your luck on various stocks before risking your own money. The service is aptly called the Trading Game, and while it may not turn online gamers into overnight millionaires, it will at least give them a break from battling monsters and aliens. (CS)

Approximately 2,000 PARENTS, angry that their children are paying the price for what they claim is the failure of the Egyptian educational system, have banded together to form the Victims of Thanawiyya Amma Union.

The union aims to relieve bereaved students and their families, disappointed with the system in which a child’s future is largely decided by his or her score on the hated thanawiyya amma, the national test taken by all graduating high school seniors.

Dr. Hussein Zayed has become the union’s official head and spokesman and is currently working the legal channels to gain official recognition as an NGO from the Ministry of Social Security.

Once this has been achieved, Zayed says, the organization will “be on the same footing” as the Ministry of Education and could possibly influence decisions. (Official recognition would not put the NGO on the “same footing” as a ministry, but would give it a platform from which to legally raise funds to lobby the government.)

After the much-awaited final exam results came out last month — accompanied by the usual reports of student suicides and requests to review exam papers — Zayed appeared on state television’s ultra-popular El-Beit Beitak nighttime talk show and alleged there were numerous errors in exam questions.

Courtesy Barclays Bank Giza Governor Fathi Saad is ready for the pigs’ move

“Minutes after I left the show I was bombarded by phone calls from angry parents of students who suffered as a result of these error-riddled exams,” Zayed was quoted as saying by the local press. “All were pondering the same question: How to save themselves from the errors of the Ministry [of Education].”

The Delegation of the European Commission (EC) in Egypt announced it would finance the construction of 23 new schools in nine governorates across the country as part of a joint Egyptian-European Education Enhancement Program (EEP). The new schools bring the number of EC-funded schools under the EEP to a total of 148.

Meanwhile, the EC recently financed the purchase of 11,000 personal computers, auxiliary equipment and computer furniture for 1,000 primary and preparatory schools. The new schools will be built in Damietta (1); Qalyoubeya (2); Ismailia (2); Beni Sueif (1); Beheira (2); Gharbia (1); Sharqiyah (7); Daqahliyah (6) and Minya (1).

A total of 240 classes will be up and running by the first quarter of 2007 at a cost of LE 37 million.

The EEP has received LE 740 million in funds from the EC since February 1999, and while the EEP is scheduled to come to an end in December 2006, the EC is planning another intervention for 2007-13, which will probably also address basic education.

At the policy level, the EEP has assisted the Ministry of Education in improving the efficiency of education delivery through a commitment to adopting a strategic planning and management approach.

Recent statistics indicate the program has been a success, as there has been an increase in the gross enrollment figures of students and a significant increase in girls’ enrollment in governorates where they were previously underserved.

Student performance quality is also improving as measured by an impact assessment study, which showed a significant development in the performance of students in Arabic, mathematics and critical thinking.

Giza governor Fathi SAAD has locked horns with Israel Ayyad, head of the zabbaleen (garbage collectors) in the Ard El-Lewaa, Mo’tamidiya and Baragil districts. The conflict largely revolves around the community’s pigsties.

Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif’s recent decision to relocate the pigsties to unpopulated areas sparked the tensions between the two. Following the move, Saad announced that the sties would be moved to their new location south of Sixth of October City, 48 kilometers down Wahat Road and 5.5 kilometers from the main thoroughfare. He added that LE 20 million had been set aside to pave roads and to bring both electricity and water to the new area.

“We will not abide by the decision,” said Ayyad, declaring that “no one can make us move. The location the governor has chosen is miles from anywhere and is nowhere near any of the areas where we collect garbage. It’s surrounded by mountains and besides, the Sixth of October authority quashed the suggestion a while back on the grounds of the Wahat being a tourist thoroughfare.”

Ayyad warned of the huge losses set to befall the zabbaleen, the least of which would be the damage done to the lorries and trucks needed to transport workers back and forth.

A 13-year-old preparatory school student lost her life last month during a botched abortion after her family found out she was four months pregnant.

The girl, from Esna in Upper Egypt, was enrolled in sixth preparatory, and met her fate at the hands of her 17-year-old brother. The brother, a farmer, attempted to force a miscarriage, fearing a scandal should news of the pregnancy break out.

In unrelated news, Egypt is being recruited by the Vatican to work on an international campaign to outlaw abortion.

Vatican Ambassador to Egypt Michael Fitzgerald reportedly met last month with Dr. Moufid Shehab, the new head of the State Specialized Councils, to rally support for the Vatican’s efforts to oppose movements lobbying to legalize abortion.

An international conference on the issue is scheduled to take place at the end of the month in New York.et

30the number of heroin-laced cigarettes found on Menoufiya University law student Wael Mohammed last month. The son of a former Ministry of Agriculture, Mohammed was arrested last month on charges of trafficking. He has reportedly confessed.

25piastres, the increase in the price of underground tickets. Metro passes, student passes excluded, shot up 33 percent. Despite pleas from passengers, authorities refused to bring fares back down, projecting a revenue increase of LE 90 million to bring up metro profits to LE 360 million per annum. A third of the income, the city has been promised, will be funneled into maintenance and refurbishment, while the remaining two-thirds will go toward the construction of the third Metro line.

30percentage increase in the price of gasoline, sending the cost for one liter of 90-octane fuel to LE 1.30 from LE 1.00.

100,000dollars, the sum the Football Federation has been asked to set aside to cover the cost of testing for steroids next season. The request was made by Dr. Medhat Mostafa, head of the Federation’s medical board, who suggested that players undergo random testing before each match and that samples be sent to the nearest international lab in Tunisia for testing.

15million dollars, the cost of a new ice-skating rink and entertainment complex to be built in Hurghada. The Red Sea’s Higher Authority for Investment, headed by governor Abu Bakr El-Rashidi, agreed to allocate 200,000 square meters in Hurghada for the project, which will be privately funded, mainly by Russian investors. In addition to the skating rink, the World on Ice project will offer 24 sports activities, a number of international restaurant chains and a commercial center.

The difference is between the leader who offers up his son a shahid [martyr] and the leader who offers up his son a warith [someone who inherits].

I, personally, am all for a ceasefire. Israel will not emerge the winner in this war.

Since 1948, all the resolutions the UN has passed have been used to fuel an Israeli toilet-paper factory.

The Arabs have become vagrants addicted to the sidewalks of the Security Council.

I have lived through the reign of five Cairo governors, none of whom has been concerned with the ugliness of the city. All they care about are sewage systems and telephone lines. Once upon a time, Midan El-Opera was the most beautiful square in the world. Today, the nation builds and the society destroys.

Newsreel is written by Fatima El-Saadani, NohaEl-Hennawy, Cache Seel and Noha Mohammed.