Word: cairo
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...terrorist threat, which has hurt the country's $7 billion tourism industry. But that is only one of the regime's problems. Long-simmering sectarian tensions erupted into rioting and street fighting between Muslim fundamentalists and Coptic Christians in Alexandria in mid-April. And police clashed last week in Cairo with demonstrators protesting disciplinary action against two high-court judges who alleged widespread vote-rigging in last November's parliamentary elections - an embarrassing episode for a government that has been urged by the Bush Administration to implement democratic reform. Mubarak, 78, has been in power for 25 years...
...terrorist threat, which has hurt the country's $7 billion tourism industry. But that is only one of the regime's problems. Long-simmering sectarian tensions erupted into rioting and street fighting between Muslim fundamentalists and Coptic Christians in Alexandria in mid-April. And police clashed last week in Cairo with demonstrators protesting disciplinary action against two high-court judges who alleged widespread vote rigging in last November's parliamentary elections--an embarrassing episode for a government that has been urged by the Bush Administration to implement democratic reform...
Mubarak, 78, has been in power for 25 years, and his anemic response to these crises is a worrying sign. "The regime is tending toward immobility," says Hugh Roberts, a Cairo-based director of the International Crisis Group. "Old repressive reflexes are in full swing, which suggests that the regime is rather nervous and fresh out of ideas." An aide recently hinted Mubarak would consider stepping down if a suitable successor could be found. In the meantime, for Egyptians caught between terrorist violence and government repression, there's little cause for cheer...
...suspicion and mistrust have flowed as freely as water in the Nile. So dependent is Egypt on the river that rulers since the Pharaohs have regularly cajoled and threatened upstream nations to ensure that their tampering did not leave Egyptians dry and hungry. In 1270, the Orthodox Church in Cairo exercised its control over Ethiopia and the Blue Nile by refusing to send a bishop to anoint an Ethiopian King. In the 20th century, Egypt signed a treaty with Britain that essentially gave Cairo full control over the Nile's waters. Much to its neighbors' disgust, Egypt held them...
...debate is certain to continue. A recent IRN report says half the dramatic drop in Lake Victoria's water level is caused by Uganda taking more water than it agreed to. Kenya and Tanzania claim the drop has reduced hydropower generation, causing outages. Mohammed Kassas, a Nile expert at Cairo University, questions whether the Nile Basin countries can be trusted to protect the environment in their quest for rapid development. "If it is done in the framework of sustainable development, then it would be O.K.," he says. "But if every country goes ahead, doing as it likes, natural systems tend...