LISNews: Librarian News

Egypt's candidate to head the UN cultural organisation, Farouk Hosny, apologises for anti-Israeli remarks in May 2008.

Farouk Hosny, who is Egypt's culture minister, expressed "solemn regret" over a May 2008 pledge to burn Israeli books in Egyptian libraries.

Israel withdrew its protest about Mr Hosny's candidature following a request from Egypt's President, Hosni Mubarak.

But Jewish European cultural groups continued to object to the candidacy.

Opponents of Mr Hosny's candidature have cited his response to a question in parliament in May 2008 from an opposition MP about whether Israeli books were held by the new library in Alexandria.

He said: "Burn these books; if there are any there, I will myself burn them in front of you."

Read more about it at The Beeb.