Pending this date, the presiding magistrate, Judge Ahmed Rafaat, has ordered that Mr. Mubarak be admitted to the International Health Center near Cairo, and authorized his consultation by a cancer specialist any time it became required.

The former head of state, whose trial opened Wednesday morning in Cairo’s police academy, could face the death penalty if found guilty of murder.

Mubarak is accused of plotting along with his former Interior Minister, Habib Adli, and some police officers being prosecuted for the killing of peaceful protestors, and the intimidation of others to prevent them from demonstrating and calling for him to step down.

The demonstrations, which were triggered on 25 January 2011, lasted for 18 days and ended with 850 deaths and more than 6,000 casualties.

The former leader is also accused of ordering police officers to shoot live bullets at the demonstrators and run over others by car in a bid to remain on power.

He is also accused of abuse of power to make a fortune for himself and his two sons, including a large palace and 4 residences in Sharm el-Sheikh, the value of which has been estimated at 40 million pounds, equivalent to $6.7 million.

Mr. Mubarak is further accused of allowing Mr. Salem to take possession of huge tracts of lands in the South Sinai, one of the country’s main tourist destinations, and plotting with former Oil and Mining Minister, Sameh Vehmi, to embezzle public funds involving natural gas exportation transitions with Israel.

Source African Press Agency

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At a meeting with visiting Chinese Foreign Affairs Minister Yang Jiechi who paid him a courtesy call at his office in Nairobi, Kibaki described China as a true friend of Kenya, pointing out the many infrastructure projects funded by China.

The President also thanked the Government of China for its commitment to funding parts of the Northern Corridor and their interest in a new Mombasa-Kampala standard gauge railway line.

“Kenya highly appreciates the development assistance extended by China. The assistance has been substantial in financial terms and has a considerable impact on Kenya’s socio-economic development,” Kibaki said in a statement issued to the press in Nairobi.

The Head of State outlined the importance of Lamu Port and the second transport corridor that will link Kenya to Ethiopia and Southern Sudan via Garissa and Isiolo in northern Kenya.

During the meeting, China extended a 540 million shillings ($7.2 million) grant to support various projects in the country.

Kibaki and Jiechi also discussed issues centered on further enhancing the existing Kenya-China cooperation raised during the 4th Forum for China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Ministerial conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt in November last year.

The 4th FOCAC ministerial meeting adopted an action plan which lays out strategies for China-Africa cooperation over the next three years in which China seeks to build a new type of China-Africa Strategic Partnership covering several sectors of socio-economic development.

China and Kenya have in the past signed agreements and MOUs in various fields including technical and cultural cooperation, trade, education, health, energy, agriculture and cooperative development.

Source African Press Agency

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The two sides also agreed to hold the second political dialogue between Chinese and African foreign ministers in 2010 on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Created in October 2000, the Forum consists of meetings at three levels : the ministerial conference, the meeting of senior officials and negotiations between the monitoring committee of the Chinese Forum and African diplomatic mission in Beijing, according the forum’s web site.

The FOCAC, which is seeking to be a ’’platform for discussions and constructive dialogue’’ between China and 49 African countries with diplomatic ties with Beijing, held its first ministerial conference from October 10 to 12, 2000 in Beijing. More than 80 ministers from 44 African countries and China and representatives of 17 international and African regional organizations attended the meeting.

In July 2001, in Lusaka (Zambia), the Chinese and African leaders developed a procedure for the monitoring mechanism of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation which entered into force in April 2002. This tool also helped institutionalize the mechanism of the Forum.

The second ministerial conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation was held on 15 and 16 December 2003 in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital.

The Beijing Summit, coupled with the third Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, took place in Beijing from 3 to 5 November 2006.

The resort of Sharm el-Sheikh (Egypt) hosted, in 2009, the fourth Ministerial conference of FOCAC which was especially marked by the adoption of the “Sharm el-Sheikh Declaration” and “Sharm el-Sheikh Action Plan (2010 – 2012)’’ that define new actions to promote Sino-African cooperation.

Source African Press Agency

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“Following the latest Forum of Sharm el-Sheik in Egypt, the Chinese government seems eager to prioritize the strengthening of cultural exchanges and the training of human resources with Africa to wipe out the misunderstandings noted between the African and Chinese peoples, a cultural adviser at the Chinese embassy in Dakar told APA.

The remoteness of China from Africa does not favor a real mix of both peoples, according to She Mingyuan who reaffirmed his country’s will to strengthen the cultural ties with the continent to better remove the divisive stereotypes attributed to Beijing.

Many Africans believe the presence of Chinese nationals in the continent means anything but marketing counterfeit.

Diplomatic sources reveal that since 2006, China has been assisting Africa in the framework of 900 programs, with half of them on the healthcare area for the local population. The country has also helped in training more than 30,000 people and sent 350,000 technicians and 17,000 health officials to Africa.

China seeks now to boost its cooperation with Africa which matches with the economic and social development of Africans, the Chinese diplomat says, recalling the pledges made by the Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabao, at the fourth FOCAC ministerial conference in Sharm el Sheikh, in Egypt.

Jiabao had announced a pledge of $10 billion of new low-interest loans to Africa during the next three years.

The Chinese Premier had also announced eight new measures to be taken from 2010 to 2012 to boost the China-African cooperation and the implementation of a $1 billion fund to the benefit of African Small and Medium Entreprises (SMEs).

The conference had further adopted the “Sharm el-Sheikh Declaration” and the “three-year action plan of Sharm el-Sheikh (2010-2012)” that both outline the new action aimed at boosting China-Africa cooperation.

The “Sharm el-Sheikh Declaration” focuses on the effort Beijing has to achieve to increase the volume of aid dedicated to Africa, as well as the reduction or cancellation of the debt owed to it by African countries.

Meanwhile, under the “three-year Sharm el-Sheikh action plan (2010-2012)”, Africa and China agreed to give free rein to the dialogue and communication mechanisms in a bid to further a new form of strategic partnership.

Consistent with the conference’s recommendations, this policy shall be built through strategic dialogue, consultations, strengthened political relations between the foreign Ministries and the joint commissions for economic and trade cooperation.

Source African Press Agency

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President Museveni was meeting the Chief Executive Officer of Elsewedy Cables, Ahmed El Sewedy, in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt on the sidelines of the 4th ministerial conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation.

Elsewedy Cables is an integrated energy solutions company and one of the leading manufacturers of electrical products including transformers, total telecoms solutions, turnkey projects and wind energy solutions.

“I would like to invite you to come and make transformers and meters in Uganda. We would be interested in the use of wind to make water pumps,” he said.

Ahmed El Sewedy, who was accompanied by the company’s Regional Director Amr Abdoun, said they specialize in the manufacture of cables, transformers, meters, wind and green energy in Africa and the Middle East.

Source African Press Agency

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The documents were adopted at the end of the two-day event held in Sharm El-Sheikh, 500km from Cairo.

The “Declaration of Sharm el-Sheikh” highlights China’s work to increase the volume of aid to Africa, the reduction of debt owed by African countries, maximizing the investment in the African continent, opening more markets and the promotion of scientific cooperation with Africa.

The 49 African countries and China agreed to support the work and coordination to strengthen the role and mechanisms of the Forum to meet the needs of both sides.

The China-Africa Cooperation members states also focus on making the most of consultation mechanisms at various levels to strengthen strategic dialogue between Africa and China, and deepen their scope of cooperation and coordination in multilateral forums to serve the interests of both sides, and the interests of developing countries as a whole.

The document emphasizes the need to maintain unity and mutual support to address the challenges arising from the economic crisis and global finance.

With regard to the second document, “Action Plan for Sharm El-Sheikh” (2010-2012), Africa and China agreed to give full play to the existing mechanisms of dialogue and communication to deepen a new form of strategic partnership, through the activation of strategic dialogues, consultations, political relations between the foreign ministries, joint commissions for economic cooperation and trade.

The two sides also agreed to hold the second political dialogue between Foreign ministers of the two sides in 2010 on the sidelines of the General Assembly of the United Nations, and hold consular consultations to deal with consular issues of citizens of the two sides.

They stressed their appreciation of the important contributions of the African Union and regional organizations in Africa to solve hot issues in the continent, promote the African integration process and regional economic integration, peace and development in Africa, and encourage the support to the African role in regional and international affairs.

China has welcomed the establishment of the African Union representative office in Beijing in a timely manner. It stressed its intention to promote partnership with African organizations in the field of institutional capacity building and implementation of projects which include more than one country in the region.

The African side welcomed China’s efforts to combat piracy in the Gulf of Aden off the Somali coast, pursuant to the spirit of the relevant UN Security Council resolutions.

Source African Press Agency

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The heads of State and Government and heads of parliaments of 15 African countries as well as Foreign ministers of 49 member states attended the opening.

President Mubarak stressed in his speech the importance of the Forum to promote and develop joint investments between the two sides in various sectors of production and services.

President Mubarak added that deepening cooperation between China and Africa to achieve sustainable development requires continuous dialogue, consultation and coordination of positions between the two sides to defend the interests of their peoples at international forums and gatherings.

He said the participants in the conference will be keen to come to joint ventures and specific agreements.

Mubarak added that the forum has achieved many successes over the past three years, adding that the trade exchanges between China and Africa is coming closer to the hundred billion dollars a year.

There is a steady increase in the volume of investments and joint ventures with countries of the continent, he said.

Mubarak underlined the seriousness of the challenges facing China and the AU, the most serious crisis of unprecedented rise in global prices of food commodities in 2007 and the current crisis of the global economy, which repercussions continue today.

He stressed the need for concerted efforts between China and Africa to consolidate the concepts of democracy in international relations, and rejection of double standards at both political and economic arenas, as well as to address the marginalization of Africa.

On his part, Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao said China will provide $10b in soft loans to Africa over the next three years to strengthen the China-Africa cooperation.

The theme of the two-day meeting is “Deepening the new type of China-Africa strategic partnership for sustainable development.”

The meeting will review the implementation of the follow-up activities of the FOCAC Beijing Summit and the 3rd Ministerial Conference.

It will also discuss ways to boost Sino-African cooperation in areas of human resources, agriculture, infrastructure development, investment and trade.

The participants are expected to endorse The Sharm el-Sheikh Declaration and Action Plan .

Source African Press Agency

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Mustafa Osman was carrying a written message from President al-Bashir to his counterpart President Mubarak on bilateral relations, and issues of common concern.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an international arrest warrant against President al-Bashir in March for crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur, western Sudan.

The Sudanese head of state had since visited Eritrea, Egypt, Libya and Ethiopia in defiance of the warrant.

Source African Press Agency

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Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, the chairman of the NAM for the next three years, pledged in his closing note to the session that Egypt would do its best to serve the movement and defend its causes, principles and stands.

Mubarak announced that the summit adopted the Sharm El-Sheikh Declaration and Plan of Action, a declaration on the United States political and economic sanctions against Cuba, as well as recognizing the Nelson Mandela International Day and the Sharm El-Sheikh Declaration on Palestine.

The final declaration said that the goal of attaining world peace and security was still as elusive as ever.

The declaration blamed this on the tendency by some nations to resort to unilateral action and not to come up with their promises and obligations under international agreements, especially those connected with weapons of mass destruction, conventional weapons, terrorism, conflicts, human rights violations and international humanitarian law.

The action plan envisages the movement in the next few years expanding its presence inside international organizations such as the United Nations and its agencies and at world forums to consolidate the causes and serve the interest of the NAM’s 118 member states.

It underlined the need to shore up South-South and North-South cooperation and to encourage more coordination and cooperation between the G-77 and China and strengthen the ability of developing nations to have a stronger say on international issues.

The former South African leader Nelson Mandela’s long struggle in support of African causes, and his outstanding contribution to setting up an anti-racial and democratic state was hailed by the summit.

The summit also issued a declaration on Nelson Mandela’s long-struggle against apartheid and his role in defending the African continent’s causes, hailing his role and efforts in liberating Africa and achieving unity in the continent.

The participants approved a declaration setting July 18, Mandela’s birthday, as an international day for Nelson Mandela.

The leaders of NAM asserted in a declaration on Palestine, their commitment to supporting the Palestinian people’s struggle for self determination and independence.

The declaration also called for an end to the Israeli occupation of Arab lands since 1967 and the realization of a just and permanent solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict which is the core of the decades-running Middle East problem.

Source African Press Agency

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Crystal Lagoons has announced the construction of twelve giant crystal clear lagoons at the Sharm El Sheik beach, the biggest of them measuring 8.8 hectares in size. The world’s largest pool is currently in San Alfonso del Mar, Chile, and has an area of 8 hectares. This one-kilometer-in-length behemoth — also built by Crystal Lagoons — will soon be surpassed by its Egyptian relative, which is expected to be finished around July 2009.

The project, located 3kms from the Red Sea, involves a master plan of 30,000 home units, hotels, a museum and a shopping center. This will be the first of four tourist projects that Crystal Lagoons has formally agreed with its Egyptian partner and that will be emplaced in Sharm El Sheikh, Hurghada and Alexandria.

Source: Crystal Lagoons

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How People Arrived Here:

largest desert pools

Israel launched an attack on the Gaza Strip on December 27, in a bid to end rocket attacks on Israeli border towns and arms smuggling by militants. The operation left over 1,284 Palestinians dead, according to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights.

“We have shown our readiness, though there has not yet been a request,” Silvio Berlusconi said. “However, I believe that [requests] will follow shortly.”

Berlusconi also said that Italy is continuing to provide aid to the enclave of 1.5 million where some 50,000 people were left homeless by the Israeli offensive.

The Italian premier said that many injured children were being treated at hospitals by Italian doctors and that 10 children had been flown to Italy for treatment.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Amr Moussa, the Arab League Secretary General and EU leaders met in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Sunday in an attempt to rally support for a fragile ceasefire in the Gaza Strip announced just hours before the summit.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said following the summit, that “Today could be the start of the end of the Gaza crisis,” adding that a “breakthrough” had been reached.

Italy’s ANSA news agency reported on Wednesday that Egypt planned to organize an international conference on the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip. The plans were announced at a joint press conference in Cairo with the Egyptian president and Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, who had just returned from a visit to Israel.

Frattini stated that participants at the Egyptian-hosted conference were expected to include the UN, European Union, and World Bank representatives. Norway, which is handling donations for the Palestinians, and Italy, currently chairing the G8, are also expected to attend.

Frattini also said that “Italy plans to bring other G8 countries” to the conference.

Israel has now pulled all of its troops out of Gaza, the Israeli army’s press service said on Wednesday.

An Israeli military statement said that the last Israeli Defense Forces troops had left the Gaza Strip before dawn. However, Israel soldiers remain deployed near the border with Gaza.

Source RIA Novosti

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Pope Benedict told those gathered in Saint Peter’s Square to pray to the Lord for the hundreds of children, elderly, women who have fallen as innocent victims of unheard of violence.

He called for prayers for the success of all efforts “to end the tragedy” in Gaza and bring about lasting peace.  He was speaking just hours before a summit on the crisis at Sharm El-Sheik, in Egypt.

The pope did not specifically mention either the Israeli or Palestinian side in the conflict, but said he wanted to encourage those who believe there is room for everyone in the Holy Land.  He expressed the hope that all sides could help their populations pick themselves up from the ruins and the terror and bravely pick up again the thread of dialogue, in justice and in truth.

Pope Benedict sent aid Saturday to the Gaza Strip for Catholics there to distribute to Palestinian victims of the conflict.

The 22-day-long campaign to stop Hamas firing rockets into Israeli territory has killed at least 1,300 people, including more than 400 children.  Large areas of Gaza are now in ruins.

By Sabina Castelfranco

Originally posted and written for VOA News

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The girl is believed to have contracted the virus from domestic poultry kept at the family home.

The latest report takes the number of people in Egypt who have developed the virus to 52, since the first case was recorded in 2006. Some 23 people have died.

Last year during an international bird flu conference at Egypt’s resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh, the country’s health minister said that Egypt would need some $2.2 billion to deal with avian flu over the next three years.

According to the World Health Organization, avian influenza has so far killed 243 people out of a total 387 confirmed cases worldwide.

Although there have been no incidences of human to human infection, experts fear that it may mutate into a form that could easily be transmitted from person to person, causing a global pandemic.

Source RIA Novosti

Net News Publisher

Nicolas Sarkozy, France’s president, has said that Israel and the Palestinian Authority have accepted a Franco-Egyptian truce plan for Gaza.

A statement from Sarkozy’s office on Wednesday said: “The president is delighted by the acceptance by Israel and the Palestinian Authority of the Franco-Egyptian plan presented last night in Sharm el-Sheikh by [Egyptian] president [Hosni] Mubarak.”

While Sarkozy deserves credit for trying to fill the diplomatic vacuum created by a combination of negligence and bad faith on the part of the Bush Administration, his track record of self-promotion obliges us to question his statement; and it does not take much questioning to trip over the noun “acceptance.” Certainly the only Israeli source Al Jazeera was able to turn up was far from ready to commit to that noun:

Israel’s ambassador to the UN said on Tuesday that the Israelis were taking the ceasefire proposal “very seriously”.

“I am sure that it will be considered and you will find out whether it was accepted,” Gabriela Shalev told reporters in New York. “But we take it very, very seriously.”

At the same time, Israel’s security cabinet is meeting to discuss an escalation to a “third phase” of the war on Gaza, which would see ground combat from street-to-street, according to two senior Israeli political sources.

This strikes me as far more suspicious than Mr. Dooley‘s admonition to “Trust everybody, but cut the cards.”

Meanwhile, on the Palestinian side the best reactions Al Jazeera reported came from two key sources. Here is their quote from Mohammed al-Masri, a strategic analyst at Jordan University’s Centre for Strategic Studies:

It [the truce plan] is not talking about Hamas as a partner, who were elected to govern the Palestinian people. It is not talking about recognising Hamas.

The other is Azzam Tamimi, author of Hamas: The Unwritten Chapters, who accused Egypt of having been “a conspirator with Israel.” Tamimi’s quote argues that acceptability will require a bigger initiative:

Egypt, geographically, is indispenable, but we need to have Turkey and Qatar in this initiative, for example.

Qatar has spoken out about the situation in a way that the Arab people understand and has had success in mediating Lebanon’s crisis. Turkey is a Nato member, close to Europe and willing to convey the Palestinian perspective.

He also echoes al-Masri on excluding Hamas from the discussion of any truce proposal:

Tamimi said the problem with the Egyptian initiative is that it treats Hamas “as if it is not a player”.

“But it is the player,” he said. “It is fighting Israel and so cannot be ignored as part of the process.”

This context makes the Hamas side of the story perfectly understandable:

Speaking to Al Jazeera from Beirut, Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas official, said: “The [Hamas] movement is now discussing its stance to the Egyptian initiative, keeping in mind that there are, in principle, a number of reservations on this initiative.

“Israel has not accepted the French-Egyptian initiative yet. They said they are looking positively to this initiative, that does not mean they have accepted it.

“As for the Palestinian Authority, they could accept it but everyone knows that who is on the ground – and can decide ‘yes or no’ – is the resistance, that means Hamas and the resistance movement. So there is no use in them saying yes or no.

“It is Israel who started the war, not Hamas. When Israel decides to let humanitarian aid into Gaza, it is not a big deal. They have to do that. They are doing this because they are now realising the international anger over the UN school bombing”.

This leaves us with the conclusion that the only real beneficiaries of the Sharm el-Sheikh meeting appear to be the only participants, Mubarak and Sarkozy, by promoting their reputations for reasonable deliberation in times of diplomatic crisis. Unfortunately, the only reputation that has emerged is one for the same sort of denial that we have associated with the Bush Administration and is now being adopted by Tzipi Livni, who is presumably speaking for the Israeli government. Meanwhile, the population of the Gaza Strip continues to be punished for nothing more than their exercising their right to choose their leaders through a democratic electoral process.

Posted by Stephen Smoliar

Net News Publisher for World News

The French President upon his arrival held talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak which focused on the French initiative for ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

President Sarkozy had visited Egypt on Monday during which he met President Mubarak as part of a tour of a number of countries in the region, including Israel, Syria; the Palestinian territories and Lebanon.

Source African Press Agency

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