Both state-run and independent newspapers on Wednesday continue to focus on developments in the sectarian violence that erupted Saturday in Imbaba, including the arrest of 16 supects Tuesday for allegedly using firearms and burning Saint Mary's Church.
State-run paper Al-Ahram reports the suspects are between 17 and 19 years old and have no relation to the conservative Salafi sect. Independent daily Al-Shorouk writes that security forces are still looking for three members of the former ruling National Democratic Party who are believed to have set fire to the Virgin Mary Church in the Cairo suburb of Imbaba. The names of the suspects have not been announced.
As protests in front of the state television building continue, community leaders as well as security forces are trying to convince protesters to go home because suspects have been arrested and officials are investigating the incident. The Coptic protesters, however, refused to end the sit-in until Salafi leaders believed to have incited people to burn Coptic churches are prosecuted, reports Al-Shorouk.
Daily opposition paper Al-Wafd writes that Abeer Talaat, the woman whose alleged conversion from Christianity to Islam triggered the violence last week, explained in a phone interview with Al-Tahrir channel that she converted to Islam last September, filed for divorce from her Christian husband and fled the Upper Egyptian governorate of Assiut. A week ago, someone reported Talaat to the church and she was held in several church-owned properties until she was finally moved to Imbaba. She added that she was released on Saturday after violence broke out in the neighborhood.
Amid rising fears that the Imbaba violence would deal another blow to the economy, Ibrahim al-Issawy, an economics professor at the National Council for Planning, writes in Al-Shorouk that the best way to boost the economy is to increase public and private spending to stimulate production and subsequently, local and foreign investment. Issawy argues that postponing the minimum wage law and associated reforms might only prolong recession because it further curtails demand.
The general assembly of the Doctors Syndicate had called for a strike Tuesday asking the government to allocate 15 percent of its budget to health care instead of a mere 3.5 percent. Doctors are also demanding better payment and more secure hospitals, which have suffered increased break-ins and incidents of violence over the past few months.
Ninety percent of doctors participated in the Cairo demonstration, reports the daily Al-Dostour, whereas participation in most governorates reached 100 percent. Doctors referred patients to the emergency rooms and intensive care units. However, the strike resulted in long lines of patients in several hospitals and in some cases fights between patients and doctors on strike, writes Al-Shorouk.
The Ministry of Health tried to end the strike by alternately announcing that all the demands had been met and threatening to refer the doctors to a disciplinary council. Public university hospitals such as Qasr al-Aini and Ain Shams did not participate in the strike in defiance of the warning from the organizing committee that any who did not participate would be punished, according to Al-Shorouk.
After former Interior Minister Habib al-Adly was sentenced to 12 years in prison last Thursday for money laundering, profiteering and abusing power, Former Minister of Tourism Zoheir Garana was convicted of wasting public funds by authorizing the sale of state-owned land below market price. Garana was sentenced on Tuesday to 5 years in prison and fines of nearly LE300 million.
Former President Hosni Mubarak denied having influenced the decisions of the committee that approved the deal to export gas to Israel during investigations on Tuesday, writes Al-Ahram. Al-Dostour reports that an Israeli delegation is currently in Cairo, negotiating to keep gas export prices at US$4.50 per million thermal units. The price of 1 million thermal gas units on the international market is US$6. Petroleum expert Amr Kamal Hamouda said Egypt hopes to raise the sale price to US$8 per million thermal units, according to Al-Dostour.
Egypt's papers:
Al-Ahram: Daily, state-run, largest distribution in Egypt
Al-Akhbar: Daily, state-run, second to Al-Ahram in institutional size
Al-Gomhurriya: Daily, state-run
Rose al-Youssef: Daily, state-run
Al-Dostour: Daily, privately owned
Al-Shorouk: Daily, privately owned
Al-Wafd: Daily, published by the liberal Wafd Party
Al-Arabi: Weekly, published by the Arab Nasserist party
Youm7: Weekly, privately owned
Sawt al-Umma: Weekly, privately owned
