First: Political Headlines:
1. Rice on delicate ME tour
2. Black box emerges from doomed ferry
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1. Rice on delicate ME tour
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Egypt yesterday on the first leg of a five-day tour of the Middle East aimed at shoring up US policies challenged on several fronts in the region.
The US diplomacy chief last night held talks with Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif and Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit.
The Nazif-Rice talks focused on boosting economic and trade ties between Egypt and the US during the period ahead. The meeting also dealt with pending issues pertaining to a bilateral free trade pact.
The talks also covered the economic reform measures, which the Government has adopted to attract more American invstors to Egypt.
Members of the delegation, accompanying Rice, said that the US financial aid programme to Egypt would continue to assist the Government's economic and social development programmes especially in Upper. Egypt
Abul Gheit and Rice exchanged views on the latest developments in Palestinian territories and international efforts to push forward peacemaking in the region.
The meeting has also tackled Iraq and the Iranian nuclear programme.
Rice is expected to meet President Hosni Mubarak and members of Egypt's civil society today before flying on to Riyadh.
Facing a showdown over Iran's nuclear ambitions, the prospect of Hamas group running the Palestinian territories and a polarising Shi'ite Muslim government in Iraq, Rice was treading a tough diplomatic road.
Topping the agenda for Rice's talks during the five-day tour is Iran, which has come under US fire for its suspected nuclear arms programme as well as what she called its efforts to destabilize the Middle East.
The influence of Tehran's Shiite regime appeared instead to be spreading, with the emergence of a Shi'ite government in Iraq and the electoral success of the radical Shi'ite group Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Iran was now making overtures to Hamas, which was set to form a new government in the Palestinian territories and was looking for new sources of financing amid threats of a cutoff of Western aid.
Rice said last week that Egypt, Saudi Arabia and other Arab governments should push Hamas toward recognising an Israeli right to exist and abandoning the principle of armed struggle.
President Mubarak has argued that the United States and Israel should give Hamas more time to adapt its political positions.
Unlike Washington and the Israelis, Mubarak also says that Hamas could be the organisation best able to reach a peace settlement with the Jewish state.
Egypt, which has a good working relationship with Hamas, also opposes US threats to cut off financial support for the Palestinian Authority, saying this would push Palestinians toward what Mubarak called "extremism."

2. Black box emerges from doomed ferry
The Voyage Data Recorder (VDR) or black box from the Al-Salam 98 ferry was found at 4am yesterday, according to the Ministry of Transport.
"The box will be sealed by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and transferred to the premises of the manufacturing company in London, for decoding and analysing of the data on the VDR," Minister of Transport Mohamed Mansour said yesterday.
Mansour added that a well-equipped team from the IMO had succeeded in pinpointing where the ferry sank in 800m under water, near Port Safaga.
"After pinpointing the ferry's location, the Ministry decided to call in of the world top rescue ships [Scandi Bergen], which is equipped with the latest robots," he explained.
He added that the robots found the VDR and the rescue ship had left Port Safaga, having successfully completed its mission.
"We must thank the ministries and authorities concerned for all their hard work in helping to locate the black box," stressed Mansour, adding that the Ministry of Petroleum paid US$1 million for the rescue ship's services.
"The Ministry wants Egyptians to find the truth in a transparent manner," he concluded.
Last Monday, a fact-finding committee started investigating the causes behind the tragedy, along with a technical committee headed by Mohamed Abdel-Fatah Shama, former Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University.
The ferry sank on February 3 while on a journey from Saudi Arbia to Safaga with around 1,400 aboard. Nearly 1,000 died in the mishap.

Second: Economic and Local Headlines:
1. Rumours push up bottled water prices
2. Measures to contain bird flu outbreak
3. More mummies found in Luxor cache
4. Korean classes carving a niche in Egypt
5. Workshop on coastal zone management today
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1. Rumours push up bottled water prices
Egyptians rushed to their local supermarkets and groceries to buy boxes of mineral water amidst rumours that tap water, which originates in the Nile, was contaminated by the bird flu virus.
The government announced the discovery of cases of the bird flu virus H5N1 last Friday.
"One bottle only, take two; you might not find mineral water tomorrow," Karim Abdel-Aziz, a 19-year-old downtown Cairo shop owner, told a customer, seriously confirming the panic.
The customer, having had to fight his way through a huge queue outside the shop, needed little time for reflection before heeding Karim's advice, even though the shop owner had already cashed in on the panic by increasing his prices for bottled water.
"OK, give me another one," said the customer, who was taking no chances about the rumours spreading like wildfire that Nile water has been contaminated.
"I've managed to sell five boxes of bottled water," Karim said victoriously. "Doubt has been sown in the minds of everyone."
Iglal Ahmed had just left Karim's shop and was struggling along Alfi Bey Street under the weight of a huge plastic carrier bag bursting at the seams with bottles of mineral water.
This was a moment when her cell phone proved indispensable. "My mother rang me and told me to buy the water," she said. "These stupid people have contaminated the Nile with their dead chickens."
"It's all lies," said Mohamed Yehia with a chuckle, while sitting with a girl at a cafŽ in downtown Cairo. On the table before them stood two glasses of 'eau de tap'.
What made things worse was that even teachers at some schools advised their pupils not to drink tap water at least for some hours, making an already panicking public even more panicky.
Many Egyptians have been throwing dead chickens suspected of being infected with the virus in the Nile, the main source of local drinking water, ignoring the instructions by the authorities on how to deal with suspected cases, putting them in plastic bags, then sealing the bags and storing them in a safe place, before the health and safety officials come and pick them up.
Hotlines have been set up by the Government to deal with the crisis.
"I don't care about whatever they say," Yehia continued. "One day they say beef is bad, then chicken. If we listened to all the rumours, we'd die of hunger or thirst."
However, Mohamed Fouad, who owns a supermarket, spoke darkly of extreme fear on the streets. "I've been deluged with demands for bottled water," he said excitedly. "I've sold 20 boxes so far. People just don't believe the official assurances to the contrary."
Minister of Health Hatem el-Gabali denied whatever has been said about the contamination of Nile water, describing the rumours as "groundless."
Interviewed by Egyptian TV, el-Gabali said that ministerial officials regularly take samples of Nile water in co-operation with the water authorities for testing.
He stressed that the bird flu virus can never be carried by tap water, as it is full of chloride which kills all known germs and viruses.
The Minister of Health warned against the rumours on some satellite channels, emphasising that the authorities concerned have adopted a policy of complete transparency.
A representative of World Health Organisation (WHO) in Egypt told television that whatever had been said about water contamination was not based on scientific evidence.
"Since the discovery of the bird flu virus, there has been no single case worldwide of the virus being carried by water," he explained, warning the rumourmongers to be careful, as "Egypt is more important than their own purposes."
Meanwhile, a statement from the WHO Regional Office for the East Mediterranean said that the chloride used to sterilise water in Egypt killed the virus. It also urged Egyptians to follow health instructions and not to dump their dead poultry in the Nile.
However, many citizens remain unconvinced. A young lady called Inas, who was window-shopping outside a clothes shop, was proof of this.
She was holding a bottle of water in her hand. "I don't normally drink mineral water," said Inas. "But, what else can we do when the Nile is contaminated? I think we'll all be drinking bottled water for the next two or three days."

2. Measures to contain bird flu outbreak
Health Minister Hatem el-Gabali said yesterday that 90 per cent of the bird flu cases, reported in 11 governorates in the Nile Delta and Upper Egypt, were found in people's backyards.
The remaining 10 per cent came from commercial farms, Minister el-Gabali was quoted by the Middle East News Agency (MENA) as saying in the Governorate of Qalubia, which is home to the country's poultry stock exchange.
Birds have tested positive for H5N1 in the governorates of Cairo, Giza, Beni Suef, Qena, el-Daqahliya, Qalubia, el-Beheira, Kafr el-Sheikh, Minya, el-Sharqiya and Menufia.
"No human cases had been reported in Egypt so far," the Minister stressed, adding that 80,000 packs of the antiviral drug, Tamiflu, were due to arrive here today as part of Egypt's steps to prevent an outbreak of the bird flu virus.
The Ministerial Committee to Combat Bird Flu said in a statement that 35 Egyptians who manifested the symptoms of fever had undergone thorough medical examinations yesterday, which all proved negative.
The tests were conducted in Minya, Port Said, Suez, Cairo, Giza, Kafr el-Sheikh, Qalubia and Beni Suef, according to the statement.
Egypt has embarked on an awareness campaign in a bid to put an end to widespread rooftop and backyard poultry rearing.
According to experts, animals on rooftops are more easily infected by migratory birds and are not subject to veterinary control. This domestic setting also heightens the risk of transmission to humans.
The sudden arrival and spread of the disease over the past four days has caused widespread panic among Egyptians, despite the Government's attempts to reassure them that the health risk is minimal.
The Committee's statement called on citizens not to panic and urged them to follow instructions from the public services.
In response, the price of fish has risen 40 per cent but demand has risen even faster, shopkeepers said yesterday.
Meanwhile, a group of MPs tucked into plates of chicken and rice outside the People's Assembly building near Al-Qasr Al-Aini Street, in a bit to let the public know that no-one's likely to catch avian flu anytime soon from eating poultry, MENA reported.
The MPs, whose numbers were not disclosed, gathered in the streets and ate large chunks of chicken in front of passersby, in order to allay their fears.
Egypt has banned the transport of all live birds, feathers and poultry waste between any of its 27 governorates, and has set up a press centre to raise public awareness about the risk of disease.
Ministry of Health officials believe that migratory birds are the most likely source of the outbreaks throughout the country.

3. More mummies found in Luxor cache
As has been widely reported in the local dailies, five mummies were discovered a few days ago in a catacomb in Luxor's Valley of the Kings on the West Bank of the Nile. But now the number has risen to eight, as three more have since been found in the same cache.
The discovery of the catacomb, very near to Tutankhamun's tomb, was announced almost a fortnight ago. At first, it was found to contain five mummies with coloured funerary masks enclosed in sarcophagi. A number of large sealed storage jars were also discovered. The head of the Upper Egyptian Antiquities Department, Atef Abul Dahab told this newspaper that his staff have started work on investigating the first intact cache to have been located since 1922.
"There are various indications that the catacomb dates back to the 18th Dynasty [1570-1320 BC], but still we are trying to find something that helps us establish the exact date," said Abul Dahab, adding that they will eventually remove the 21 jars found in the cache and then the mummies, some of which are in poor condition.

4. Korean classes carving a niche in Egypt
Seoul highly prizes ties with Cairo, according to a South Korean diplomat. "I think relations between our two countries in the political and cultural fields will improve greatly in the days to come," Korean Ambassador to Egypt Seung-Hoh Choi added. He was speaking at the Ain Shams University's College of Alsun's Department of Korean Language.
Seung-Hoh Choi, who inaugurated the Korean Language Department at Ain Shams University last September, presented the students of the department a Korean-made video, DVD, TV and a radio cassette recorder to help them with their studies.
"Language is the first and most important means of communication between peoples," he said. "It incorporates a lot of the cultural elements of countries or nations," he told The Gazette.
"Learning a language means learning the process of other people's culture. I definitely am very optimistic about the prospects of the Korean language in Egypt."
Dean of the College of Alsun, Makarem el-Ghamri told this paper that the presence of the Korean Language Department in Egypt was very important.
"It will enable the Koreans to spread their own culture across the whole Arab region," she said. "We need such departments badly because this is time we made a dialogue with all peoples of the world."
"The professors of the department are very good, Martina Samy, a first year student at the department said. "They help us a lot learn the language."
Reham Chaker, another student, complained that Korean language books and dictionaries are scarce in Egypt.
"The college library itself doesn't have Korean language books," she said.
"We want our grammar books to have an Arabic-language explanation, not an English one," explained Peter Wadie, another student. "English explanation isn't accurate."

5. Workshop on coastal zone management today
A workshop on "Integrated Coastal Zone Management" starts today in Cairo. The two-day event will be opened by Maged George, the Minister of Environment, and Klaus Ebermann, the Ambassador of the Delegation of the European Commission in Egypt.
The workshop is part of the EU-funded Short and Medium Term Environmental Priority Action Programme for the Mediterranean (SMAP), which was conceived following the Barcelona Declaration in 1995 with the general objectives of reversing the trend of environmental degradation and contributing to sustainable development of the Mediterranean region.
The SMAP programme covers 10 countries in the southern Mediterranean region: Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, Gaza and the West Bank. The programme was conceived as a regional plan, which would implement projects in more than one country at a time. SMAP has been implemented in 3 sub-programmes: SMAP I, SMAP II and SMAP III. SMAP III was launched in 2005 and concentrates on integrated coastal zone management.
The workshop brings together all SMAP correspondents of the Mediterranean partner countries, representatives of the projects on integrated coastal zone management, the Technical Assistance Team and the Delegation of the European Commission in Cairo who is in charge of SMAP III. The workshop aims to create contacts between the different partners under SMAP and to discuss the implementation of SMAP III.
EU funding of the programme amounts to approximately 50 million euros. Following the launching of SMAP III in 2005, a Technical Assistance office was opened in Cairo and eight projects have been selected for an overall amount of 7.6 euros million. All projects aim to develop integrated coastal zone management plans for specific regions in the Mediterranean countries.
Two of the projects will be implemented in Egypt and in partnership with Egyptian authorities. The first project for approximately 600,000 euros (LE4.2 million) entitled "Alexandria Lake Mariout Integrated Management" will be implemented by the authorities of the city of Barcelona in partnership with Alexandria Governorate and the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency. The second project entitled "Plan of Action for an Integrated Coastal Zone Management in the area of Port Said" will be implemented by the University of Sassari, mainly in collaboration with the Egyptian Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation and Zagazig University, with a total funding of 1.5 million euros (LE10.5 million).