Alexandria -- Had it not been for a leaked morgue photo of his mangled corpse, tenacious relatives and the power of Facebook, the death of Khaled Said would have become a footnote in the annals of Egyptian police brutality.

Instead, outrage over the beating death of the 28-year-old man in this coastal city last summer, and attempts by local authorities to cover it up, helped spark the mass protests demanding the ouster of Egypt's authoritarian president.

The story of Said's death is in many ways the story of today's Egypt, where an authoritarian regime is being roiled by a groundswell of popular anger. Fear and resentment of the police has been a prominent theme, and when Google executive Wael Ghonim created a Facebook page titled "We are all Khaled Said," the grisly morgue photo went viral and the public had a rallying point.

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ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT - Had it not been for a leaked morgue photo of his mangled corpse, tenacious relatives and the power of Facebook, the death of Khaled Said would have become a footnote in the annals of Egyptian police brutality.

Instead, outrage over the beating death of the 28-year-old man in this coastal city last summer, and attempts by local authorities to cover it up, helped spark the mass protests demanding the ouster of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

The story of Said's death is in many ways the story of today's Egypt, where an authoritarian regime is being roiled by a groundswell of popular anger. Fear and resentment of the police has been a prominent theme, and when Google executive Wael Ghonim created a Facebook page titled "We are all Khaled Said," the grisly morgue photo went viral and the public had a rallying point.

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The prevalence of HIV among intravenous drug users (IDUs) in Egypt is relatively low, but needle sharing is rife among this group, putting them at risk of contracting the virus, experts say. "Sharing needles and syringes is very high in Egypt.

This is very alarming because although only one per cent of IDUs are HIV-positive, the high percentage of needle sharing may mean that we are sitting on a ticking bomb," Ehab Kharrat, a senior programme advisor for the UNDP HIV/AIDS Regional Programme in the Arab States (HARPAS), said. Different studies of sample groups show that 45-50 per cent of drug users in Egypt share needles, he said. "When the IDUs get the drugs, many of them do not wait to get a clean needle or syringe, so they grab the next available one they find," Midhat el-Arabi, the head of a programme dealing with drug users at the Freedom Drug Rehabilitation Centre, a local NGO, said. "They [addicts] believe that securing the tool [the syringe] first is a bad omen," said 29-year-old Mohamed (he preferred to give his first name only), who stopped injecting himself eight months ago, said. "I used to buy the narcotic first then inject myself with the first syringe I found." "This belief increases the risk of needle sharing and hence the transmission of HIV and other [blood transmittable] diseases," Midhat el-Arabi told Reuters. Mohamed said he knew he contracted HIV five months ago, a few months after he gave up drugs. "I am quite sure I got it from needle sharing.

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The National Council for Fighting and Treating Addiction says 12 per cent of Egypt's school students use drugs, reports Reem Leila

A study by the National Council for Fighting and Treating Addiction (NCFTA) has revealed that 12.21 per cent of school students report using drugs. Nine per cent of respondents said they had used bango, a strain of marijuana, and three per cent reported using cannabis with the remaining 0.21 per cent reporting use of psychoactive pharmaceuticals and heroin.

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For Some Arab States, Treatment Is Emerging As A Popular Method To Battle A Rising Tide Of Drug Abuse.

WADI EL NATROUN, EGYPT - Mohamed Hassan hasn't forgotten the good life. He had a big salary from an international firm, Procter and Gamble, and was zipping around the deserts of Saudi Arabia in his new Porsche. He eventually left for his homeland of Egypt where, he says now, there were much better drugs. But this cocky pleasure-seeker finally hit the skids when his superiors informed him that his dreams of advancement would never come true.

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In the cafes of Cairo these days, there is much head-wagging about the perils of globalisation. Puffing on their hookahs, patrons mutter about the unstoppable invasion of American fast food and trash television. Few realise that the hookah itself is stealthily kippering the globe.

They should ask Murad Askar. Two years ago he lugged his suitcase full of waterpipes from Egypt to California, thinking his fellow college students might like to try a water-cooled smoke. "They went nuts," he says simply. Mr Askar's company, Hookah Brothers, is now shifting 4,000-5,000 units a month to clients in 47 American states. Aside from the standard smoking gear--hollow glass bases, stainless-steel "hearts", hoses and clay pipes--the company sells over a tonne of sticky hookah tobacco a month, in 20 flavours ranging from strawberry to mango.

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CAIRO, Feb 15 (Reuters) - An Egyptian judge has been sentenced to three years in prison with hard labour for possessing 70 grams (2-1/2 ounces) of cocaine, court sources said on Monday.

The sources said the drug had been found when police raided the house of Edmond Hefzi, in his 40s, in connection with a bribery case. He was also fined 50,000 pounds ($14,700).

Hefzi is still on trial in the bribery case and the sources said he could be jailed for up to seven years if convicted.

The drug verdict, handed down on Sunday, can only be annulled by the Court of Cassation, the sources said.

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Party-goers in ancient Egypt could have become induced into an ecstasy-like state of happiness with the help of a sacred plant called the blue lily.

Tests on volunteers have found that the blue lily, which Egyptologists had thought was a benign plant used only for decoration, can cause psychotropic effects similar to the modern party drug MDMA, or ecstasy.

Susan Duty, a pharmacologist at King's College London, monitored the effects of the blue lily on two people who reported that they felt happy and energetic and wanted to get up and dance. ''It is quite clear that the blue lily did have some psychoactive effects. Both of the volunteers were very talkative and energetic. At the same time they felt relaxed and contented and were also very happy,'' she said.

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Associated Press

CAIRO, Egypt - The male potency pill Viagra sells for $100 a tablet on the black market in Kuwait and has become the subject of wishful cartoons and religious debate as word of its power spreads through the Arab world.

But at least five Arab countries have banned the pill on medical grounds, saying they must conduct their own health tests before it can go on the market.

Many men in the Middle East - the sexually frustrated and the merely curious - - are angry that government bureaucracy is preventing them from benefiting from the new performance-enhancing drug.

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