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Short Takes:
Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa received yesterday the US ambassador in Cairo, Daniel Kurtzer, saying that they discussed an arrangement concerning the visit of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to the United States that will begin on July 1. Moussa added that he is to head to the US on June 26. Go

An official source in Amman said on Thursday that the emir of Bahrain, Sheikh Hamad Bin Issa al-Khaleifa, will arrive tomorrow in Jordan and will discuss with King Abdullah Bin Hussein in Aqaba bilateral relations, recent developments in the Middle East peace process and Arab solidarity. Go

A governmental statement in Cape Town said on Thursday that Libyan leader Col. Moammar Gaddafi will start on Sunday an official visit to South Africa. The statements added that the visit will continue until Wednesday, during which Gaddafi will attend the celebrations to be held on the investiture of Thabo Mbeki as president of South Africa in succession of Nelson Mandela. Go

Egyptian Minister of Electricity and Energy Maher Abaza stated the consent of the Arab Fund for Economic Development to grant Egypt and countries participating in the Arab electric link 16 million Egyptian pounds to be used to resume studies of electric links among Arab states. Go

US first lady Hillary Clinton has postponed a visit she was to have paid to the Middle East due to advice from the US Department of State. Clinton's visit, which was to take place later this month, was to include Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Jordan, and Yemen. Mrs. Clinton's office said in a statement that the trip will be rescheduled as soon as possible. The visit was postponed earlier this year due to the death of Jordan's King Hussein and preparations for Israel's elections. "Because Israel is still in the process of forming a government, a visit at this time would be inappropriate," the statement said. Go

Tunisia's food commercial exchange with other countries recorded during the first three months of the current year a surplus of 22.7 million dinars, in comparison to a shortage of 151.7 million dinars during the same period of 1998. Statistics referred this development in exports is due to increases this year that reached 65,100 tons in comparison to 11,300 tons during the same period last year, which forms a 600% increase. Vegetables, seeds, date exports also developed at rates between 8.8% and 214.8%. Go

The value of Yemeni agriculture and animal exports reached during last year 5.312 billion riyals. Exports were comprised of coffee, leather, cotton, vegetable, fruits and tobacco, Noaman Mohammed El-Malsi, secretary general for the technical body for the supreme council for developing Yemeni exports, said. Go

The Egyptian Ministry of Environmental Affairs is implementing in cooperation with USAID a project for improving Cairo's air, after a donation of $65 million. The project includes generalizing the usage of natural gas in public and tourist buses and in different means of transportation, in addition to establishing stations for checking cars' exhausts and networks for monitoring air pollution. Go

The World Bank granted the Palestinian Authority an easy loan of $21 million to finance a service project for potable water and sewage in the southern West Bank as well as for improving the effectiveness of water distribution networks in Bethlehem and El-Khalil cities in the southern West Bank. Go

A Turkish business delegation discussed yesterday in Cairo means of upgrading the bilateral cooperation to open the markets of the Russian commonwealth countries and the Balkans before Egyptian goods and African markets before Turkish goods through Egypt, which possesses several commercial privileges, especially after endorsing the COMESA agreement. Go

Statistics released by the national center for Egyptian theater announced a 30% decrease in the number of theater spectators in 1998 from the number in 1997, a decrease of nearly 204,000 thousand spectators The national center for theater called for developing a new marketing plan to attract viewers through presenting classic dramas, the most modern Arab theatre productions, and special shows for symbols of the Arab dramatic movement in Egypt and in the Arab states, like Afrid Farag, Saad Allah Wanous, Michael Roman and Mohammed El-Maghout as well as other theatre writers. Go