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CAIRO: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi inaugurated Egypts Gypto Pharma City, the largest pharmaceutical city in the Middle East.

Gypto Pharma, also known as Medicine City, has been set up to produce safe and effective medicines at reasonable prices, and will manufacture coronavirus remedies and drugs for chronic diseases. Production of some vitamins will also be given priority.

The new city in Al-Khankah aims to increase cooperation between the state and the private sector in order to transform Egypt into a regional center for the pharmaceutical industry in the Middle East.

Gypto Pharma uses the latest technologies and automated machines to ensure production is of the highest quality.

Devices are self-cleaning so that the production process can continue without interruption.

President El-Sisi stressed the necessity of the city to produce high quality products, starting with the packaging.

The medicine package produced by the new city must be distinct so that the citys mark on its products cannot be tampered with, he added.

We started thinking about this project almost seven years ago.

It took a lot of time to create the most efficient factories using scientific methods so that the medicines produced in the city follow the European standards or the World Health Organization (WHO) standards, the president said.

The medicine city on an area of 180,000 square meters is the largest of its kind in the Middle East

It is set to become a regional center that attracts major international pharmaceutical companies.

We must have the ability to produce medicine at the highest levels. The antibiotic produced in the medicine city will be as efficient as its counterparts in the most prestigious countries in the world, El-Sisi added.

Presidency spokesman Bassam Rady said that Egypt produces 97 percent of its medicine needs.

Rady said that the city is a huge national project that aims to produce medicines scientifically in accordance with WHO standards.

The project comes in line with the series of initiatives in the field of health and medical care. The aim is to provide medicines to citizens at the highest possible level with upgraded facilities.

Rady added that medicine production is among one of the most important national projects that the state implemented to possess modern technological and industrial capacity in the field.

The project allows citizens to obtain high-quality and safe treatments, preventing any monopoliztic practices and controlling drug prices. It boosts the efforts undertaken by the state in the field of various medical and health initiatives.

He stated that the project places Egypt in the ranks of the countries producing medicine at the highest level.

The city works according to the latest and most accurate operating standards.

It applies the highest international quality standards, with a focus on human resources especially a young workforce capable of dealing with modern technology.

The city includes a regional center for manufacturing medicine in cooperation with foreign companies, and has plans to export to African, foreign and Arab countries. This is in addition to research and development laboratories.

The second phase will include entering into the field of specialized medicines, such as cancer treatments, to be offered at affordable prices to Egyptian citizens.

The city will include 160 lines to manufacture 150 types of medicines.

The first phase will also include manufacturing 150 million packages of medicine annually.

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EU chiefs to see Erdogan in Turkey next week - Arab News

ANKARA: The Turkish government faced a tough challenge over the weekend after a video of Kursat Ayvatoglu, a member of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), was publicized on social media where he was seen snorting what is believed to be cocaine in a luxury car.

The news coincided with more than 400 kilograms of heroin being seized in south-eastern Turkey and more than 3.8 tons of marijuana seized in the countrys north-west in separate operations.

Although Ayvatoglu initially defended himself against drug charges by claiming he was just snorting powdered sugar that looks like cocaine as a joke, he later admitted in an official letter that he was a drug user and dealer.

Ayvatoglus cocaine use along with his ultra-luxurious lifestyle, that goes against the Islamist values that are promoted by the AKP, drew anger from every segment of the society, except for the AKP voters.

Several photos showed Ayvatoglu, in his 20s, using drugs, gambling, taking bubble baths, driving luxury cars that are not affordable with a parliamentary staff salary and consuming alcohol a lifestyle often criticized and sometimes criminalized by the AKP.

He was detained on March 26 and dismissed from his post at the AKP. Ayvatoglu is known as the adviser to AKP vice-chairman Hamza Dag with several photos showing him closely assisting the lawmaker in meetings and keeping an eye on him at all times, although Dag rejects the claims.

The employment contract of the person in question who has been working as bureau personnel at the headquarters for almost one year, has been ended, Dag announced in a tweet on Friday.

Ayvatoglu, who was employed there for about 3,000 Turkish liras ($370) per month, said in his press statement that he stood on the side of prominent politicians from the AKP in order to get strength and open new doors for him.

Several photos of Ayvatoglu with Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as well as other figures of the government also sparked widespread outrage.

They want to politicize the issue, Soylu said in reaction to the allegations of corruption.

After being released on condition of judicial control the day after, he was again arrested on March 28 after harsh criticisms on social media and the testimonies of other individuals who were in the same car and who confirmed he was using cocaine.

Im the victim here. I was blackmailed. Ill file a complaint against this, he said, adding that those who leaked the video were trying to get some money in exchange for deleting the footage.

Opposition lawmaker and a lawyer by profession Haluk Peksen submitted an inquiry to the investigative prosecutor about the origins of Ayvatoglus wealth.

Why was a forensic medicine examination not conducted? Why isnt there a single questioning about corrupt assets? What is the source of his wealth? Did he provide someone else powdered sugar as well? Are there any more powdered sugar stockpiles?, he asked.

The legislation requires the chief prosecutor to examine the assets of the suspects without getting permission. However, there is still no public declaration about whether this examination will be conducted.

In contrast, last week, a court sentenced Turkish rapper Burry Soprano to four years and two months in prison for inciting drug use in his song lyrics and video clips. In May 2018, another famous rapper named Ezhel was also arrested on the same charges. He was acquitted in his first hearing in June 2018.

Ayvatoglus case exposed a much deeper youth profile in Turkish politics, especially those who appear to be affiliated with the government.

Powdered sugar has become a symbol of a problematic human profile that has emerged in the last 20 years in Turkey and has spread especially among the youth. Even if they do not believe in the AKPs ideas, ideology or lifestyle, they always side with them. They talk about conservatism, nationalism, the Ottoman period, and they make Rabia salute of the Muslim Brotherhood in their social media posts, Deniz Zeyrek, a dissident journalist, wrote in his column at Sozcu newspaper.

They are labeling those who criticize the government, who talk about the injustice and double-standard practices of being a traitor or immoral. But they are doing their job in the background too and they are benefitting from all the blessings of power. They are getting rich. If they are in trouble, they take shelter in the shadow of the leader, the party. If necessary, they lie without hesitation or even hit the bottom of demagoguery.

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Drugs and corruption scandal rocks Erdogan's ruling party - Arab News

Nairobi, Kenya Sarah Obama, the matriarch of former President Obama's Kenyan family has died, relatives and officials confirmed Monday. She was at least 99 years old.

Mama Sarah, as Mr. Obama's step-grandmother was fondly called, promoted education for girls and orphans in her rural Kogelo village. She passed away around 4 a.m. local time while being treated at the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral hospital in Kisumu, Kenya's third-largest city, according to her daughter, Marsat Onyango.

"She died this morning. We are devastated," Onyango told The Associated Press on a phone call.

"Mama was sick with normal diseases. She did not die of COVID-19," family spokesman Sheik Musa Ismail said, adding that she had tested negative for the disease. He said she had been ill for a week before being taken to the hospital.

Mr. Obama was informed of the death and sent his condolences, Ismail said.

She will be buried Tuesday before midday and the funeral will be held under Islamic rites.

"The passing away of Mama Sarah is a big blow to our nation. We've lost a strong, virtuous woman, a matriarch who held together the Obama family and was an icon of family values," President Uhuru Kenyatta said.

She will be remembered for her work to promote education to empower orphans, Kisumu Governor Anyang Nyong'o said while offering his condolences to the people of Kogelo village for losing a matriarch.

"She was a philanthropist who mobilized funds to pay school fees for the orphans," he said.

Sarah Obama was the second wife of President Obama's grandfather and helped raise his father, Barack Obama, Sr. The family is part of Kenya's Luo ethnic group.

President Obama often showed affection toward her and referred to her as "Granny" in his memoir, "Dreams from My Father." He described meeting her during his 1988 trip to his father's homeland and their initial awkwardness as they struggled to communicate, but said they developed a warm bond. She attended his first inauguration as president in 2009. Later, Mr. Obama spoke about his grandmother again in his September 2014 speech to the U.N. General Assembly.

"My family and I are mourning the loss of our beloved grandmother, Sarah Ogwel Onyango Obama, affectionately known to many as "Mama Sarah" but known to us as "Dani" or Granny," the former president said in a statement Monday.

His statement continued:

"Although not his birth mother, Granny would raise my father as her own, and it was in part thanks to her love and encouragement that he was able to defy the odds and do well enough in school to get a scholarship to attend an American university. When our family had difficulties, her homestead was a refuge for her children and grandchildren, and her presence was a constant, stabilizing force. When I first traveled to Kenya to learn more about my heritage and father, who had passed away by then, it was Granny who served as a bridge to the past, and it was her stories that helped fill a void in my heart. ...

"We will miss her dearly, but celebrate with gratitude her long and remarkable life."

For decades, Sarah Obama helped orphans, raising some in her home. The Mama Sara Obama Foundation helped provide food and education to children who lost their parents - providing school supplies, uniforms, basic medical needs, and school fees.

In a 2014 interview with the AP, she said that even as an adult, letters would arrive but she couldn't read them. She said she didn't want her children to be illiterate, so she saw to it that all her family's children went to school.

She recalled pedaling the president's father six miles to school on the back of her bicycle every day from the family's home village of Kogelo to the bigger town of Ngiya to make sure he got the education that she never had.

"I love education," Sarah Obama said, because children "learn they can be self-sufficient," especially girls who too often had no opportunity to go to school.

"If a woman gets an education she will not only educate her family but educate the entire village," she said.

In recognition of her work to support education, she was honored by the United Nations in 2014, receiving the inaugural Women's Entrepreneurship Day Education Pioneer Award.

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Sarah Obama, matriarch of Obama family branch in Kenya ...

March 29 (UPI) -- Sarah Obama, the step-grandmother of former President Barack Obama, died in Kenya on Monday. She was 99.

The Standard newspaper in Kenya reported that Obama died while undergoing treatment at Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital in Kisumu. Relatives did not disclose the cause of death.

Kisumu is about 170 miles northwest of the capital Nairobi.

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta acknowledged her death in a statement.

"The passing away of Mama Sarah is a big blow to our nation," he said. "We've lost a strong, virtuous woman. A matriarch who held together the Obama family and was an icon of family values."

The second wife of the former president's paternal grandfather, Hussein Obama, Sarah Obama helped raise Barack Obama Sr., the father to the 44th U.S. president.

In his memoir Dreams From My Father, President Obama referred to his step grandmother as "granny." She was also known to friends as "Mama Sarah."

The former president first met Sarah Obama during a trip to Kenya in 1988 and had to communicate through interpreters, as she only spoke Luo. Two decades later, she would attend his first inauguration in 2009.

"My family and I are mourning the loss of our beloved grandmother, Sarah Ogwel Onyango Obama, affectionately known to many as 'Mama Sarah' but known to us as 'Dani' or 'Granny,'" the former president tweeted Monday, with a photo of the two during the 1988 trip.

"We will miss her dearly, but we'll celebrate with gratitude her long and remarkable life."

Kenyatta said Sarah Obama will be remembered for her philanthropic work, especially in her hometown village of Nyang'oma-Kogelo in Siaya County.

Sarah Obama founded The Mama Sarah Obama Foundation to help educate children in her native Kenya. For her efforts, she received the inaugural Women's Entrepreneurship Day Education Pioneer Award at the United Nations in 2014.

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Sarah Obama, step-grandmother to former President Barack ...

A year after the presidents inauguration, Ms. Obama created her own foundation the Mama Sarah Obama Foundation to raise funds to build an educational campus in her village and to sponsor scholarships for young Kenyans, particularly girls, who would otherwise be denied schooling.

I help the orphans and widows, especially the young girls who have been orphaned by their parents dying of H.I.V., she told NPR through a translator in 2014, when she won an Education Pioneer award at the United Nations. I am their sole parent right now, so I help pay school fees and also get them the things they need, like sanitary towels, books, necessities like a pencil, school uniforms. Thats what I do.

But there were risks in her ties to the president as well. After the killing of Osama bin Laden by Navy SEALs in 2011, ordered by Mr. Obama, the Kenyan police tightened security in her village for fear of reprisals from a local affiliate of Al Qaeda. Even after Mr. Obama left office in 2017, those precautions were maintained.

Mr. Obamas own security arrangements prevented him from visiting the ancestral village.

When the president made an official visit to Kenya in 2015 the first sitting American president to do so his African relatives had to meet him in the capital, Nairobi. About three dozen members of his extended family, including his stepgrandmother, joined him at his hotel for dinner around long banquet tables.

During that trip Mr. Obama spoke at an indoor arena, where he was introduced by his half sister Auma Obama, who had met him during his first visit to Kenya three decades earlier. She told the audience that a Kenyan had said to Mr. Obama, Dont get lost, but that there was no way he would.

Ill tell you that because he was with me he fit right in, she said.

Hes not just our familia, she added. He gets us. He gets us.

Abdi Latif Dahir contributed reporting.

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Sarah Onyango Obama, Ex-Presidents Stepgrandmother, Dies ...