Perhaps the world’s most respected Arab filmmaker, Chahine started his career in 1950 with Baba Amin. Just one year later his film Ibn Al-Nil (Son of the Nile) landed him an invitation to the Cannes Film Festival. He moved quickly and by 1960 had another 10 films to his name. Chahine suffered a heart attack in the mid-1970s and briefly retreated from the world of cinema. He returned in 1978 with Iskandreya Leh? (Alexandria Why?), the first in a series of four autobiographical films.

His most recent movie, Heya Fawda (This Is Chaos), about a heavy-handed police officer in Cairo’s Shubra district, came out last year. True to Chahine’s form, the film caused a stir of controversy as a result of its blunt look at corruption, political oppression and police torture in Egypt.

The director is known for dealing with sensitive issues ranging from politics to sexuality and religion. “I make my films first for myself. Then for my family. Then for Alexandria. Then for Egypt. And if the Arab world likes them, ahlan wa sahlan [welcome]. And if the foreign audience likes them — they are doubly welcome,” Chahine is quoted as saying on his official website.

His relationship with American cinema has been contentious as well, and some critics say his work is too anti-American. Chahine denied this, saying the years he lived in the country earned it special place in his heart. In 1946, Chahine went to the United States to study acting at Pasadena Playhouse, after spending one year at Alexandria University.

“I think the American dream is in the hearts of all Egyptian people,” Chahine told Egypt Today in 2004. “I differentiate between the Bush administration and the American people. I was irked by the Arab press hurling invectives at a country I love very much. But it’s a tremendous contradiction. You see massacres on TV, carried out by American arms. I disagree totally with the Bush administration.”

Chahine has more than two-dozen films to his credit. In 1997 he received a lifetime achievement award at the Cannes Film Festival.

Youssef Chahine starring with Khaled Al-Nabawi.

Both the Arab League and Egypt’s Shura Council officially expressed support for the Sudanese government last month, after the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) chief prosecutor announced he would seek an indictment against Sudanese president Omar Al-Bashir for alleged war crimes.

On July 14, ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo asked a panel of judges to issue an arrest warrant for Al-Bashir on charges of crimes against humanity and genocide for his role in the conflict that has beset Sudan’s Darfur region. Arrest warrants for two other Sudanese citizens were issued last year after the Security Council referred the Darfur crisis to the ICC for investigation in 2006.

Arab foreign ministers meeting at an emergency session in Cairo issued a statement denouncing the ICC actions, saying the indictment would undermine Sudan’s sovereignty and potentially damage the already fragile peace process. This followed a call by Egypt’s upper house for the United Nations Security Council to prevent the ICC from pursuing Al-Bashir.

After talks between Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa, Al-Bashir and other Sudanese officials to discuss the crisis, an Arab League official reported that Sudan had agreed to try war criminals in Sudanese courts and allow Arab League and African Union officials to supervise the proceedings.

The July 16 train crash was the worst Egypt has seen in two years.(Wael Saad/Associated Press)

Darfur has been an arena of conflict since 2003, when non-Arab ethnic groups rose up against what they saw as increasing political and economic marginalization by Khartoum. Government-backed Arab militias known as the janjaweed were sent in to quell a potential uprising of the Fur, Zaghawa and Masalit tribes, and have since been accused of being responsible for 400,000 deaths and 2.5 million displaced in a wave of looting, killing and rape in Darfur’s villages.

Moreno-Ocampo claimed in a press conference to have evidence that the chain of command leads to Al-Bashir, who he alleges “masterminded and implemented a plan to destroy in substantial part the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa groups on account of their ethnicity.”

“His motives were largely political,” Moreno-Ocampo said of Al-Bashir, “his alibi was a ‘counterinsurgency.’ His intent was genocide.”

Moreno-Ocampo has also vowed to investigate leaders of Darfurian rebel groups for war crimes.

World reaction to the announcement has been mixed, with critics warning the country will be further destabilized and human rights activists lauding the move as a vital step toward prosecuting war criminals.

Mohsen Allam Traffic violators will soon have their license plates digitally recorded.

The US, which is staunchly opposed to the ICC, has simply urged all parties to “remain calm” while saying it would “monitor the situation.” China, Sudan’s largest arms supplier, has expressed “serious concern” about the implications of the ICC indictment.

If indicted, al-Bashir will be the third head-of-state to be pursued by the ICC, after Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic and Liberian president Charles Taylor.

Sudan is not a signatory to the international court, however, making Al-Bashir’s capture and prosecution unlikely any time soon. (EC)

The contents of the Ministry of Information’s proposal for new media regulations was printed by Al-Masry Al-Youm July 9. According to the Egyptian daily, the draft law, set to be reviewed by the People’s Assembly in the next session, detailed firm new legislation to control audio-visual transmission.

Associated Press Members of the Muslim Brotherhood were arrested throughout July.

The first article of the proposed law sets a definition for audio-visual transmission that includes the internet. Egyptian activists and dissidents are increasingly taking their causes online, organizing through social networking sites and posting information and criticism on blogs.

Fourteen human rights organizations signed a joint statement condemning the proposal, and media organizations have come out strongly against the law. The Arab Network for Human Rights Information released a statement July 14 raising concerns about the document’s vague language, saying, “We cannot deny the relationship between this law project and the [] satellite broadcast regulation document that was discussed by the Arab information ministers during their last meeting on June 20, 2008.”

Egyptian Minister of Information Anas Al-Fiqqi announced in a news conference in February that Egypt would be the first to implement the Satellite Broadcasting Charter, which was signed by 20 of the Arab League’s 22 members. Many media professionals see the charter as a new mechanism for suppressing the press. While the Arab media charter doesn’t provide governments with additional power, the law proposed last month calls for the establishment of a new agency for regulating audio-visual transmission and outlines penalties ranging from imprisonment to fines between LE 10,000 to LE 50,000, for infringements.

According, the government backed daily Al-Ahram, El-Fiqqi said, “The [proposed] body will not have a negative effect on media freedoms or impose any constraints.” He added that the law is a first draft and some changes may be made. (RC)

Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif announced last month that some LE 850 million would be allotted to the healthcare sector, after members of the Doctors’ Syndicate organized protests and demanded a salary increase. Nazif said he expected 295,000 physicians, technicians and Ministry of Health staff to benefit from the new funds.

Doctors have been threatening to strike since March, citing long hours, low salaries and inadequate supplies; Nazif said it was illegal for them to do so. The Doctors’ Syndicate, which represents 93,000 doctors working directly for the government, has asked for a raise to LE 1,000, up from as low as LE 120 per month. Of the LE 850 million, LE 400 million has been allocated toward “overhauling doctors’ working and pay conditions,” according to the syndicate’s website. The cash influx is expected to raise an average salary of LE 700 to LE 1,379.

Not everyone is so optimistic. “They’ve been saying this for two years but they never went through with it,” says Dr. Reham Rizk, a family-medicine physician with the Egyptian Fellowship program. He adds there has been no word from hospital administration that any action is being taken. “I’ll have to see it to believe it. So many times they’ve talked about issues like bonuses or increased pay for those working in far away districts, but they were empty promises.”

At press time, Ministry of Health representatives were unavailable for comment. (HZ)

A railway accident on the North Coast left 44 people dead and at least 38 injured on July 16. Among the dead were eight Libyans, according to AFP.

Two carriages derailed and two more were destroyed when a truck failed to stop at a railroad crossing, pushing several other vehicles (including a bus) onto the tracks, 80 kilometers east of Marsa Matruh.

Egypt has a poor safety record for its railways. The last major accident was two years ago, when two trains on the same track collided, killing 58 and injuring 144. In 2002, 360 people died when fire tore through seven carriages of a train.

The Ministry of Transport announced last February it expects investments of LE 10 billion through public-private partnerships to renovate the network. It is encouraging private bids for two new lines and refurbishing the existing rolling stock.

The Matruh accident also highlights road safety. Traffic incidents claimed the lives of 7,300 in 2007 and thousands more are injured on Egypt’s roads each year, mostly due to very low standards of driving, lack of enforcement of traffic laws and lack of vehicle maintenance. (JC)

Egypt started exporting gas to Syria last month as part of the Arab Gas Pipeline Project signed in 2001.

The $1.2 billion (LE 6.36 billion) agreement has Egypt providing gas to Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria for the next 30 years and is expected to position Egypt as a major provider of natural gas to those countries.

According to the Associated Press, Syria’s oil minister Sufian Allaw says the pipeline, which runs through Jordan, started moving gas on July 9. Egypt will provide Syria 2.5 million cubic meters of gas per day at first and that figure will be increased to 6 million cubic meters per day over the next nine years. It is expected to reduce gas shortages in Syria, which generates 40 percent of its power by burning natural gas.

The pipeline itself, when finished in its entirety, will be 1,200 kilometers long. The first section, connecting Egypt with Aqaba, Jordan — using a submarine pipe under the Gulf of Aqaba so as to not cross Israeli territory — was completed in 2003. Nearly 2.8 billion cubic meters of gas have moved through the pipe into Jordan since. The second phase, extending the line to reach Rihab in northern Jordan, near the Syrian border, was finished in 2005. The third phase extended the pipeline to a power station south of Damascus — the destination of the gas that recently started flowing — according to SANA, Syria’s official news agency.

The pipeline will be further extended in to Lebanon this year and then to the border with Turkey where it will be connected to the Nabucco Pipeline, slated for completion in 2014. This 3,300 kilometer line will run through Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria. When the Arab line is connected to it, Egyptian gas will begin flowing into Turkey and Romania, under a 2006 agreement between Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon and Romania.

Egypt has been exporting natural gas to Israel since February under a controversial agreement signed in 2005; some allege it is being sold at below-market prices.

Egypt’s natural gas reserves have been estimated at 62 trillion cubic feet, putting it in nineteenth place in the world in terms of proven natural gas reserves, according to 2007 figures in the World Factbook. The country has high aspirations to become a major player in global natural gas exports, hoping to position itself into the world’s top 10 within the next four years. The early 1990s were the turning point for natural gas in Egypt, with extensive exploration discovering major natural gas finds in the Mediterranean Coast and Nile Delta regions as well as in the Western Desert. The industry grew 220 percent from 1999 to 2004, according to Business Intelligence Middle East.

The Ministry of Petroleum said it will not sign any more contracts for exporting natural gas before 2010, planning to wait instead until prices stabilize. (ES)

Prominent Egyptian intellectual Abdel Wahab Al-Messiri passed away on July 3 at age 70. The English literature professor, who has been the head of the Kifaya movement since last year, was known for his series The Jews, Judaism and Zionism and extensive works on the Arab-Israeli conflict.

His funeral raised controversy as no state representatives were in attendance, which many attributed to the fact that Al-Messiri was severely opposed to the government during his last years. Al-Messiri studied literature at Alexandria University, completed his masters degree at the University of Columbia and later received his doctoral degree from the University of Rutgers. He worked as a part-time professor in Ain Shams University and held several positions in universities and institutes, including member of the board of Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies. (NS)

Apreliminary agreement between Egypt and the European Union has set the ground for unfettered agricultural and fishery trade.

The agreement — an outcome of the 2005 Euro-Mediterranean Roadmap for Agriculture — is the first step in a plan to liberalize trade in agricultural, processed food and fish products between Egypt and the EU.

This first step gives EU exporters duty-free access to the Egyptian market for around 90 percent of their agricultural and fisheries products. Duties will remain in place for tobacco, wines, spirits and pork, while duties on confectionery, chocolate, pasta and bakery products will be halved, reducing the duty to an average of 12.5 percent.

In turn, the European market “will be liberalized for all products except tomatoes, cucumbers, artichokes, courgettes, table grapes, garlic, strawberries, rice, sugar, processed products with high sugar content and processed tuna and sardines,” said a European Commission (EC) press release. The EC did not provide a definite timetable for when this liberalization would take place, instead stating that the current agreement formed the basis for a future agreement, “subject to completion of both sides’ internal procedures.”

Mariann Fischer Boel, EC commissioner for agriculture and rural development, s “I am delighted that we have been able to negotiate this deal, which will strengthen the position of European exporters on what is our most significant market in the Middle East region. This is the latest success in our Rabat roadmap for bilateral farm trade with our Mediterranean neighbours.”

EU agricultural and processed food exports to Egypt were worth 600 million (LE 5 billion) from 2005 – 2007, while Egyptian exports to the EU were worth 540 million (LE 4.5 billion). (HZ)

Three water refineries near Manial and Helwan temporarily shut down in July after an oil spill was found in the Nile.

The spill was the result of a cracked pipeline owned and operated by National Petroleum Pipelines which provides Helwan Cement Company with fuel oil.

“Through the crack, a little bit of oil slipped into the Nile through a waterway that a couple of companies over there have set up to throw away excess water from their wells,” says Ashraf Thabet, chairman of Pesco Environmental Services, the only company in Egypt that handles oil-spill cleanup.

According to Thabet, the site is nearly cleaned up of all oil. “If you come to the site it’s just as if a bucket or two of oil was spilled and is now contained,” he says.

Fouad Megahed of the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency agrees that there is no further threat to the water supply.

“Since there was an oil spill, there’s bound to be some pollution,” Megahed says. “But since the spill was far from the drinking water supply, there’s no real danger. The water stations use water near the shores, and this spill was in the middle of the Nile — nowhere near where the drinking water supply is.”

The recent spill highlights the need for more clean-up centers along the Nile.

“When you move from Suez all the way to Helwan, it obviously takes a long time to load up all the equipment and send the people,” he says, adding that the closest center Pesco had to the spill was in Suez. “So there’s a proposal in the works and hopefully the ministries will approve it so that we can build two new centers on the Nile for any future crisis.” (HZ)

In an attempt to end license plate fraud, the Ministry of Interior has teamed up with the Ministry of Finance to produce a barcode system for license plates, to be introduced this month. Expecting to produce 350,000–500,000 plates a year, the pilot phase will be implemented in Heliopolis and Nasr City and eventually expand to all 4.5 million cars in Egypt.

Each plate will feature a unique bar code and will contain a watermark to prevent forgery, as well as numbers applied with indelible paint. The new license plates will have seven character combinations of numbers and Arabic characters, indicating the city in which the car was licensed.

Starting mid-August, traffic police will be issued handheld computers capable of reading the new barcodes. License plate data of lawbreakers will be recorded and transmitted directly to the central traffic office, which will assess fines on the owner of the car. Two-hundred devices will be launched in the first phase. Drivers will also be able to pay for their fine immediately using a credit card. (AB)

Journalist and novelist Abdel Khalq Farouk was released after being detained over the content of his new book, Indictment Claim, according to the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI).

Farouk was arrested and interrogated for two and a half hours by military police, who questioned him about a chapter in his book that looks at the relationship between civil society and the military in Egypt, according to the ANHRI.

The chapter the police took issue with was titled “The Sin of Article 15 of the Constitution and Military Control over the Civil Service Apparatus.”

In a press release issued by the ANHRI, the organization’s executive director Gamal Eid s “The Egyptian government should have paid more attention to the analysis and thoughts discussed in the book, rather than reacting to it with a military police mentality, which uses a stick when it comes to dealing with an idea or an opinion.”

ANHRI also said that Farouk was released on the condition that he will never again discuss or write about issues related to the Egyptian military without prior approval.

An electronic copy of the book will be available on the internet, according to the ANHRI. (TH)

17 the number of African migrants killed by Egyptian security forces while trying to illegally cross into Israel this year. Hundreds more have been injured or arrested.

99 the number of Egyptian athletes participating in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

500 million dollars, the amount Agrium will ask for compensation if they are unable to build a nitrogen plant in Damietta, according to the Financial Times. In June, Parliament recommended the facility be relocated after area residents protested the plant because of health concerns.

2 the percentage of foreign women who say they have never been sexually harassed in Egypt.

22 percent, the current rate of inflation.

50 the number of Chili’s restaurants now open in the Middle East.Arrested,

Detained, around 60 members of the Muslim Brotherhood in early July. The members were arrested in advance of July 13 elections for seats in Alexandria and Kafr El-Sheikh.

Arrested, 30 foreign nationals in a home northwest of Ismailia. In the first operation of its kind, Egyptian police raided a home after they received reports that nationals from Sudan, Eritrea, Ghana and Ethiopia were there preparing to cross illegally into Israel. In an unrelated incident, an Egyptian man was shot dead near the border town of Rafah as he tried to assist a group of African migrants trying to cross into Israel. He was originally reported as African but was later identified by local Bedouin leaders. In recent months, dozens of African migrants have been killed or injured by Egyptian forces while trying to cross into Israel illegally.

Harassed, 84.5 percent of women in Egypt, according to a study completed by Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights. The center interviewed 1,100 Egyptian and foreign women, as well as Egyptian men. The sexual harassment reported ranged from verbal to physical abuse, and most reported being harassed on a daily basis. Sixty-two percent of Egyptian men admitted perpetrating harassment, while 53 percent of the men claimed women either enjoyed it or dressed in inappropriate ways, bringing it upon themselves. The center says it found no correlation between dress and harassment, with 72.5 percent of the women interviewed being sexually harassed while wearing the veil or the niqab.

Collapsed, a building in Mansoura, killing five people, including seven-year-old twins.

Smoke-free, 10 of Alexandria’s beaches after a campaign by the group Life Without Smoking. The beaches from Gleem Public Beach all the way to Shatby Public Beach will be smoke free. The group says they will continue their campaign to ban smoking at more beaches.

Drowned, nine people after their pickup truck toppled off a Nile ferry at Minya. The victims included four women and five children.

Banned, Inside Egypt: The Land of the Pharaohs on the Brink of a Revolution, a book by British author John R. Bradley. Palgrave Macmillan, the book’s publisher, was informed July 23 that Egyptian booksellers would be banned from stocking the title.

Denied, Ayman Nour of a pardon on July 23. Family and supporters had hoped Nour, a lawyer and former presidential candidate for the Ghad party, would be granted a presidential pardon (a custom on Revolution Day), having served half his sentence of five years on charges of forging powers of attorney required for establishing a political party.

Resolved, a row between two of Cairo’s main football clubs over defender Hani Said last month. Weeks of rumors put Said jockeying back and forth between Zamalek and Al-Ahly, who both claimed they had presented offers to the football star and that he had agreed. The rumors were put to rest, however, when Said took the field wearing the Zamalek jersey for the July 20 game against Al-Ahly. Zamalek lost 2-1.

Disappeared, 80-octane gasoline. The gas, cheaper that 90 and 92-octane has virtually disappeared from service stations, with long lines forming in front of petrol stations that were still selling 80-octane gas. Disputes have broken out between some station owners and drivers.

— Newsreel was written by Ali El-Bahanasawy, Hossam Zaatar, Nadine El-Sayed, Tamer Hafez, Rebecca Collard, Erin Cunningham, James Chester, Erika Sherk