US releases $300m to Egypt

[Dover]

US releases $300m to Egypt


Friday 04 June 2004, 23:11 Makka Time, 20:11 GMT


The United States has freed 300 million dollars in aid to Egypt in a bid to resume strong economic ties strained over Iraq and the Middle East conflict.

The US congress voted for the $300 million addition to the already existing annual US aid to Cairo in 2003.

The aid package was earmarked as compensation for financial losses incurred as a result of the US-led war on Iraq.

Israel, Turkey and Jordan received similar sums, but the money slated for Eqypt was 'delayed' in what Egyptian analysts believe was punishment for the country's strong criticism of the war.

..snip..

Privatisation

Welsh on Monday told the American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt that it was vital for the country to put up for sale one of the country's big state-owned banks as soon as possible to signal that it was ready to push ahead with privatisation....cont'd

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/348DE242-1EFB-4228-9969-16DC9B2E1FA8.htm

[shraby]

1. Couldn't WE use some of that

money ourselves instead of playing give-away? Sheesh!!!

[Massacure]

2. agreed

you solve the problems at home first, then you help other nations. Not vice-versa.

[shraby]

3. After all...

it IS our money!

[Darranar]

4. Yes, let's give MORE money to tyrannical dictatorships! n/t

[Dover]

5. It's the typical reward/punishment system used to push global privatizatio

It is a bribe system of manipulation.

[Rose Siding]

6. Maybe this was part of the deal

CAIRO, Egypt – One of Islam's most-prominent religious institutions is seizing extremist books and pamphlets sold on Cairo streets, and has been granted the authority to confiscate materials deemed un-Islamic.
Egyptian rights activists worry authorities are creating a religious police force akin to Saudi Arabia's Committee for the Protection of Virtue and Prohibition of Vice that roams streets looking for violators of strict Islamic social norms.

Unlike the Saudi religious police, the roaming clerics in Cairo have a narrow mandate and do not have the power to make arrests, though they can report suspicious activity to police for further investigation.

A cleric with al-Azhar, the foremost theological institute in the mainstream Sunni sect of Islam, said Saturday that "secularists have nothing to fear from this decision."

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20040605-0831-egypt-religiouspolice.html