Al-Ahram starts off today’s news with a report on Prime Minister Essam Sharaf’s order to freeze the executive powers of Qena governor Emad Mikhail for three months.
The decision satisfied the majority of Qena’s residents, who called off their eight-day strike, the state-owned paper says. Qena residents closed down the Cairo-Aswan highway and paralyzed the railway, demanding the resignation of Mikhail, who they regard as affiliated with former President Hosni Mubarak's regime.
The paper adds that Maged Abdel Karim will temporarily be in charge of Mikhail’s responsibilities.
On the same front, the state-run paper writes that the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), in coordination with the Interior Ministry, is establishing the necessary procedures to temporarily transfer Mubarak from a hospital in Sharm el-Sheikh to a military one in Cairo.
According to the report, the ousted president will stay in a military facility until Tora prison’s hospital is fully-equipped with an oxygen delivery system, ventilator and other medications that meet Mubarak's medical needs. However, the SCAF did not set a specific date for Mubarak’s move to Tora prison.
Reporting on the same issue from different angle, the Al-Wafd newspaper writes that even though Ahmed al-Sabaie, the chief medical examiner, confirmed that Mubarak’s health is stable, German examiners recommended his stay in Sharm el-Sheikh’s hospital as he is not psychically fit to travel for the time being.
The paper quotes an anonymous security source saying that the Interior Ministry is intentionally slowing down arrangements for security during Mubarak's transfer out of fear of bearing responsibility for anything that could happen to him while moving to Cairo.
Al-Wafd also reports on today’s trial of former Interior Minister Habib al-Adly and six of his assistants, who are accused of hiring snipers to kill peaceful protesters during the 25 January revolution.
The trial will be presided over by the Judge Adel Ahmed Salama at the Cairo Criminal Court in Fifth Settlement. Reportedly, heavy security measures — including 1500 police officers — will be imposed for protecting the defendants.
Earlier this month, al-Adly faced another trial on charges of money laundering and harming the country’s economy.
At the bottom of its front-page, Al-Dostour features a report a column by Ahmed Zewail, a renowned Egyptian-American scientist and Nobel laureate, originally published in the Financial Times. Its subheadline rights, “The success of Egypt's revolution is essential for spreading democracy and the stability of world energy supply.”
The independent paper quotes Zewail as saying, “The Egyptians succeeded in bringing down the head of the regime, but not the regime itself. That is the challenge now.” He added, “Despite the differences of faith and the occasional collisions, Egypt does not witness any tribal conflicts or even sectarianism and will stay united.”
Zewail pointed out that the Egyptian revolution, as well as Tunisia's, represents a model for change in the Middle East, in contrary to the situations in Libya and Yemen, whose tribal and sectarian conflicts might lead to chaos and civil war.
Al-Dostour writes that Zewail calls for collaboration between governmental and private sectors to build up a fund — estimated at US$1 billion — for financing Egypt's educational revolution.
Al-Ahram: Daily, state-run, largest distribution in Egypt
Al-Akhbar: Daily, state-run, second to Al-Ahram in institutional size
Al-Gomhorriya: 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
