Tuesday’s papers: Candidacy door finally shuts, Pope Shenouda and military council reconcile
Heba Helmy
25/10/2011
Tuesday’s papers achieve consensus on their coverage of a meeting between Pope Shenouda III and the head of the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, running identical pictures of the two shaking hands.
Independent daily Al-Tahrir reports that the acute crisis between the Coptic Church and the SCAF has finally been resolved, after the two decided to restore the burned section of a church in Marinab, a village near Aswan. Muslims’ burning of the church there provoked the Coptic-led demonstration in Cairo that eventually turned into the violent Maspero clashes.
Both Shenouda and Tantawi also agreed on drafting a bill regulating the building of churches that will not be adopted until the writing of new constitution.
Privately-owned Al-Shorouk features a report on “the closure of candidacy door for the revolution’s parliament” after a 23-day registration period, considered the longest election application process in Egypt’s history. Hundreds of candidates from different political parties packed into registration centers Monday to submit their applications.
Officially, 29 party lists and 1025 individual candidates registered for the People’s Assembly elections, and 11 parties and 285 individual candidates will compete for Shura Council seats, according to the paper.
“The return of Egyptian gas stops Tel Aviv losses,” reads a headline on privately-owned Al-Dostour’s front page, quoting an Israeli newspaper.
Egypt is pumping natural gas to Jordan and Israel again after a recent disruption, said an official source in state-owned Egypt Gas. Exporting gas to Israel was halted several times due to a series of attacks on the pipeline delivering the gas, located in Sinai, after 25 January revolution.
Al-Dostour quotes the report from the English-language Israel-based Jerusalem Post, saying: “The resumption of pumping Egyptian gas to Israel is in its preliminary phase. The supply will increase in the coming days to eventually return to its normal rate, which will stop the daily heavy losses of gas being delivered to Israel.”
Reporting on the same news, state-run Al-Gomhurriya quotes Petroleum Minister Abdullah Ghorab as saying, “The price of exporting gas to Jordan has doubled, reaching more than US$5 per million BTU (a unit measuring energy).”
Al-Tahrir allocates nearly an entire page to the nationwide demonstrations of thousands of lower-ranking police officers on Monday.
Though Interior Minister Mansour al-Essawy agreed two days ago to most of the police’s demands, some 30,000 lower-ranking officers began an open-ended strike outside the Interior Ministry.
The officers called for the Essawy’s resignation, higher salaries and better working conditions, says Al-Tahrir.
State-run Al-Ahram – whose headlines used to tout former President Hosni Mubarak’s achievements before he was toppled in the 18-day uprising earlier this year – manages to find space today to document the toppled ruler’s latest problem. Giza’s criminal court has postponed to 26 October its first hearing on the Illicit Gains Authority’s decision to freeze Mubarak and his family’s assets, the paper reports.
On its second page, state-run Al-Akhbar posts the headline: “A wave of rumors about Mubarak’s death.”
A strong rumor is circulating for the second time in the last couple of days regarding Mubarak’s apparently life-threatening heart condition, says the paper. However, according to Yasser Abdel Qader, the oncologist treating Mubarak, the ousted president’s health is stable and he is receiving his normal treatment at the hospital.
Suleiman Gouda’s editorial on party-run Al-Wafd’s front page addresses the issue of America’s “political financing” to Egyptian NGOs.
The eye-catching op-ed headline “America is not a charitable organization” clearly conveys the author’s message; the hidden reasons behind America’s approach with Egyptian NGOs.
Gouda does not blame America’s “well-known” political manipulation in pursuit of its own interests, but instead places responsibility on the Egyptian government for continually issuing warnings about external financing without actually taking any moves to prevent it.
The “only solution,” according to Gouda, is introducing amendments to the law governing NGOs and properly implementing them. Otherwise, he believes, it is better for the government to stop reiterating useless warnings that will not actually change the US’s actions.
Khaled Salah, the editor-in-chief of the Youm7 newspaper, sharply criticizes in an op-ed former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq’s decision to run in the upcoming presidential elections.
Throughout his short editorial, Salah details the many governing failures during Shafiq’s short tenure following the revolution, which resulted in stirring up public anger against his policies; eventually the outcry led to his resignation.
Shafiq did not take any critical stance of the government’s actions during the “Battle of the Camel,” which prompts Salah to question who has Shafiq’s allegiances.
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
Youm7: Daily, privately owned
Al-Tahrir: Daily, privately owned
Sawt al-Umma: Weekly, privately owned
Al-Arabi: Weekly, published by the Arab Nasserist party
