Cairo: If Egypt's new president, Mohamed Morsi, needs any reminder of the weight of expectations bearing down as he begins work, he can glance from a window of the presidential palace. Citizens seeking jobs, compensation from the state or clemency for jailed relatives crowded at the palace gates on Sunday, showing how Morsi's unprecedented popular mandate has raised hopes for a more responsive kind of government. "My name is Alaa...
12:12 AM, Jul 02, 2012
Cairo: Egypt's first Islamist president, Mohamed Mursi, was sworn in on Saturday, propelling his Muslim Brotherhood into power after 84 years of struggle, although the military remains determined to call the shots. Immediately after swearing his oath, he said a civil, national, constitutional and modern state was "born today". The bearded US-trained engineer is Egypt's first non-military president since army officers toppled the king in 1952. For the Brotherhood, banned...
08:13 AM, Jul 01, 2012
Cairo: Islamist Mohammed Morsi promised a "new Egypt" and unwavering support to the powerful military as he took the oath of office Saturday to become the country's first freely elected president, succeeding Hosni Mubarak who was ousted 16 months ago. In a solemn inauguration ceremony before the Supreme Constitutional Court, Morsi also became the Arab world's first freely elected Islamist president and Egypt's fifth head of state since the overthrow...
10:52 PM, Jun 30, 2012
Cairo: Islamist President-elect Mohamed Mursi began talks on Wednesday with groups nervous about where he will take Egypt after the generals who have ruled since Hosni Mubarak's fall make way for the republic's first civilian leader. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Mursi to bring diverse groups into his government, mentioning Egypt's Coptic Christian minority, secular-minded Egyptians and young people. The US State Department played down reports that Clinton...
08:49 AM, Jun 28, 2012
Cairo: An Egyptian court on Tuesday overturned a government decree allowing the army to arrest civilians, a setback for military rulers preparing to hand power to an elected president. The army-backed interim government issued the decree days before a tense presidential run-off vote on June 16-17 to give soldiers the power to detain people during street disturbances. But rights groups and politicians challenged the decision, accusing the military of reviving...
02:57 AM, Jun 27, 2012
Cairo: Mohamed Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected president whose powers have already been curbed by the army, began work on a coalition on Monday after touring his new palace, once home of Hosni Mubarak who banned his movement for three decades. Declared winner on Sunday a week after a tumultuous run-off vote that pitted him against a former air force chief, the Islamist faces the challenge of meeting sky-high expectations...
04:27 AM, Jun 26, 2012
The election of Egypt's president is a momentous event with ramifications that cover not just the Arab spring and Middle East but the wider world. ...
10:27 PM, Jun 25, 2012
Netanya: Israeli President Shimon Peres on Monday urged visiting Russian President Valdimir Putin to take steps to avert the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran and to stop the bloodshed in Syria. Putin's trip to Israel, the Palestinian Territories and Jordan is seen as an effort to increase Russia's clout in the region at a time when the West and some Arab nations have criticised Moscow's stance opposing their efforts to...
09:23 PM, Jun 25, 2012
Cairo: Islamist Mohamed Mursi, Egypt's first freely elected President whose powers have been curbed by the military, toured his palatial new residence - where ousted leader Hosni Mubarak once lived - and began work on Monday to form a coalition government. Declared winner on Sunday, a week after a nail-biting run-off vote that pitted him against an ex-military officer, the Islamist faces the challenge of meeting sky-high expectations in a...
08:08 PM, Jun 25, 2012
Cairo: The Muslim Brotherhood's Mohammed Morsi was declared the winner of Egypt's first free presidential election on Sunday, and he proclaimed himself a leader "for all Egyptians," although he faces a struggle for power with the country's still-dominant military rulers. The announcement by election officials touched off a joyous celebration of chanting and dancing in the sweltering heat by tens of thousands of Morsi's supporters jamming Tahrir Square, the birthplace...
05:17 AM, Jun 25, 2012
Cairo: Muslim Brotherhood's Mohammed Morsi on Sunday won the historic post-Mubarak presidential polls in Egypt, beating his rival and former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafik to become the country's first freely elected President. Supreme Presidential Elections Commission head Farouq Sultan announced that Morsi had won the presidential run-off. Morsi, 60, won 51.73 per cent of the vote, beating his rival Shafik, the Higher Presidential Election Commission said. Morsi won 13,230,131 votes...
08:20 PM, Jun 24, 2012
Cairo: Egypt's ruling armed forces were on high alert on Sunday as fears of violence mounted in the final hours before the state election committee is to name the winner of last weekend's presidential election at 1:00 pm GMT. Mohamed Morsy of the long-oppressed Muslim Brotherhood has already claimed to be the successor to the ousted Hosni Mubarak. Millions of his Islamist loyalists may react with fury if the run-off...
06:12 PM, Jun 24, 2012
Cairo: Egypt will release results from disputed presidential elections on Sunday, the country's top elections commission official said - an announcement that will put an end to nerve-wracking uncertainty about who is the official winner, but promises no resolution to the power struggles between Islamists, the military and other factions. A gathering of secular-leaning politicians criticized on Saturday what they said was US meddling on behalf of the Muslim Brotherhood,...
01:29 AM, Jun 24, 2012
Cairo: Thousands of protesters filled Cairo's Tahrir Square overnight as Egypt's rival presidential candidates, an Islamist and former general, accused each of trying to steal an election whose result is still not known five days after polling ended. Another two days of uncertainty and name calling seem likely over the weekend which begins on Friday, though there was no immediate violence. With confidence ebbing away in a process Egyptians hoped...
10:36 AM, Jun 22, 2012
Cairo: Officials postponed declaring a winner in Egypt's disputed election on Wednesday, sending political tensions soaring as the country awaited its first new president in three decades. Adding to the confusion and uncertainty were reports about the health of Hosni Mubarak, who is serving a life sentence for failing to stop the killing of protesters in the uprising that ousted him last year. At one point on Tuesday, he was...
08:51 AM, Jun 21, 2012
Cairo: Deposed Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak suffered a brain stroke and was shifted from Yura prison to a military Hospital in southern Cairo, with some media reports claiming he is "clinically dead". The 84-year-old former president, who is serving a life sentence, was in a "critical" condition and transferred to Maadi Hospital late on Tuesday night after he was defibrillated in the prison hospital, state-run new agency MENA reported. The...
11:19 AM, Jun 20, 2012
Cairo: Egypt's Hosni Mubarak was being kept alive by life support after he was rushed from prison to a military hospital in a rapidly worsening condition, officials said. The 84-year-old ousted leader's health crisis added a new element of uncertainty just as a potentially explosive fight opened over who will succeed him. The state news agency MENA said Mubarak was "clinically dead" when he arrived at the hospital and that...
03:40 AM, Jun 20, 2012
Cairo: The United States expressed alarm that its proteges in the Egyptian Army were abusing hopes for democracy by ordering more military rule just as the Muslim Brotherhood was claiming victory in the country's first free presidential election. The Islamists' self-assurance was contested by the other candidate in the run-off race, a former general who was prime minister when Hosni Mubarak was ousted last year by an Army anxious to...
03:41 PM, Jun 19, 2012
Even as the Muslim Brotherhood claims that it has won the landmark elections, it won't be real victory for the civilian President-to-be as the military council strips the President of any real powers through its latest decree. ...
11:25 AM, Jun 19, 2012
Cairo: Egypt's agonised passage from revolution to democracy was in limbo on Monday, as the Muslim Brotherhood claimed victory in a presidential election while the generals who took over from Hosni Mubarak decreed it was they who would keep power for now. That drew a sharp rebuke from Washington, long the Egyptian military's financial sponsor. The Pentagon said it was "deeply concerned" and urged the army to hand over "full...
07:59 AM, Jun 19, 2012
