Word: egyptian
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Surprises are rare in Egyptian politics, where democracy is an affair carefully managed by the government, and President Hosni Mubarak's 24-year presidency has never been contested at the ballot box. That's why the announcement, Saturday, by the 76-year-old Mubarak that he wants the constitution amended to allow more than one candidate to run in September's presidential election registered as something of a political earthquake in Cairo. Rather than yet another presidential referendum in which his is the only name on the ballot, Mubarak is proposing a direct, competitive presidential election - the first in Egypt...
...announcement, say Egyptian political analysts, follows months of growing outspokenness from Egypt's political opposition and within civil society to allow others to run against Mubarak. It also comes against a backdrop of growing pressure from the U.S. for political reform and democratization in Egypt. Indeed, the announcement followed hard on the heels of a decision by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to cancel a trip to Egypt, reportedly in response to the arrest last month of parliamentary opposition leader Ayman Nour - who had been pressing for the right of Egyptians to run for president when Mubarak seeks a fifth...
...most grievous crime of all seems to have been her willingness to defend unpopular clients. Her list of clientele includes a Mafia hit man, a man accused of trying to kill police officers, and a blind Egyptian sheikh convicted of terrorist activities—Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman. It is on his account that she has been accused and convicted of aiding terrorism...
...Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will help open a fresh chapter in the long search for Middle East peace this week when he meets with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. But as usual, internal Palestinian politics played a key role in getting him there. Abbas agreed to go to Sharm el-Sheikh because he wants to show that he has Egypt's support in his effort to rein in the militants of Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Shaken by Hamas' overwhelming victory in last month's municipal elections in the Gaza Strip...
...sense from the blood spilled and rallying Americans to go on? But it wasn't just the post-election glee that animated Bush. It's who he is now. The push for freedom was compelling, riveting. And when Bush took gentle but wildly unexpected dings at the Saudi and Egyptian governments it was brilliant, undermining the Democrats' claims that he had double standards for allies. You suddenly had the sense that freedom would be integrated into American foreign policy in a revolutionary...