Middle East News

New cabinet ministers appointed in Egypt, several retained

Feb 22, 2011, 17:41 GMT

Cairo - The Egyptian military on Tuesday appointed ten new cabinet ministers, creating several new positions as well as retaining several ministers appointed by former president Hosny Mubarak.

The Higher Council of the Armed Forces, now in charge of the country, appointed a handful of opposition members and independents not aligned with the ruling National Democratic Party to lead several ministries.

Among them is the new tourism minister, Munir Fakhri Abdel-Nour, a member of the liberal secular Wafd party.

Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq, Minister of Defence Mohamed Tantawi, Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul-Gheit and Interior Minister Mahmoud Wagdy were among a number of ministers retained.

Yehia El-Gamal was appointed to the newly created post of deputy prime minister.

Maged Othman is the new minister of communications and information technology while Mahmoud Latif Mahmoud is the new minister of petroleum and mineral resources.

The announcement came the same day that several thousand protesters gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square to call for the removal of Prime Minister Shafiq's government and the formation of a transitional government.

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