BREAKING NEWS:Muslim Brotherhood's Mohammed Morsi wins Egypt's presidential race

Islamist Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood was elected president of Egypt with 51.7 percent of last weekend's run-off vote, defeating former general Ahmed Shafiq, the state election committee said on Sunday. He succeeds Hosni Mubarak, who was overthrown 16 months ago after a popular uprising. 

The military council which has ruled the biggest Arab nation since then has this month curbed the powers of the presidency, meaning the head of state will have to work closely with the army on a planned democratic constitution. Voter turnout at the runoff election was 51.85 percent, the chief of chief of Egypt's election commission said. 

 Thousands of Brotherhood supporters burst into cheers on Cairo's Tahrir Square, waving national flags and chanting "Allahu Akbar!" or God is Great, greeting a dramatic victory. Morsi, a 60-year-old, U.S.-educated engineer who spent time in jail under Mubarak, won the first round ballot in May with a little under a quarter of the vote.

 He has pledged to form an inclusive government to appeal to the many Egyptians, including a large Christian minority, who are anxious over religious rule. The military council will retain control of the biggest army in the Middle East, whose closest ally is the United States. 

Morsi has said he will respect international treaties, notably that signed with Israel in 1979, on which much U.S. aid depends. "President Morsi will struggle to control the levers of state," Elijah Zarwan, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said in Cairo.

 "He will likely face foot-dragging and perhaps outright attempts to undermine his initiatives from key institutions. Faced with such resistance, frustration may tempt him fall into the trap of attempting to throw his new weight around," Zarwan told Reuters. "This would be a mistake.

Read More...

Former Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak 'clinically dead'

"Former president Hosni Mubarak has clinically died following his arrival at Maadi military hospital on Tuesday evening. Mubarak's heart stopped beating and was subjected to a defibrillator several times but did not respond." Egyptian news agency MENA said, quoting medical sources. He was 84

Read More...

At least 20 killed as attackers target Cairo protest

At least 20 people have been killed in Cairo in an attack on a protest near the Egyptian Ministry of Defence.

The unknown attackers used rocks, clubs, firebombs and shotguns. The protesters retaliated, beating some assailants.

Soldiers and police have now intervened to stop the clashes, but as long as six hours after the violence started.

Two leading presidential candidates have suspended campaigning in protest at the way authorities handled it.

Abdul Moneim Aboul Fotouh, an independent Islamist, and Mohammed Mursi, head of the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), criticised the authorities' response.

In addition, the FJP and the Salafist Nour party, which together control 70% of the seats in parliament, decided to boycott a meeting with the ruling Supreme Council of Armed Forces (Scaf).

I saw several people with head injuries and two people died in front of me. There was a lot of blood everywhere”

Many of the protesters who were attacked outside the defence ministry building, in the capital's Abbasiya district, on Wednesday morning were supporters of a Salafist preacher barred from standing in the election.

Hazem Abu Ismail was disqualified because his mother had dual Egyptian-US nationality, violating rules laid out in a constitutional declaration approved after an uprising forced President Hosni Mubarak to step down.

Mr Abu Ismail complained that he was the victim of a "plot" by the military authorities, but the election commission found no evidence.

Ahmed Raafat was at the demonstration with friends and witnessed the attacks which he described to the BBC as a "massacre".

Read More...

Egypt ruling military to reshuffle nation's unpopular Cabinet

Egypt’s ruling military leader vowed Sunday he would reshuffle the nation’s unpopular Cabinet, according to state media, in a move seen as an attempt to calm growing anger in the Islamist-controlled Parliament ahead of next month’s presidential elections. The decision by Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi came hours after Parliament, nearly half of which is controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood, threatened to suspend legislative sessions for a week to protest Prime Minister Kamal Ganzouri’s government. 

Parliament has been critical of the military-backed regime for months, but the generals have indicated they would not tolerate a no-confidence vote. Egyptian media, quoting members of Parliament, reported the Cabinet would undergo a limited restructuring in coming days to include officials from the country’s dominant political forces. 

The Ganzouri government is widely mistrusted and viewed as a throwback to deposed President Hosni Mubarak’s rule. Speaker of Parliament Saad Katatni said Tantawi phoned him to say that changes would be made to the government. Katatni characterized the call as restoring Parliament’s “dignity.” Tantawi made no immediate comment. The conflict over the Cabinet is unfolding as the military and the Muslim Brotherhood are seeking to protect and expand their powers before the May 23-24 presidential vote. 

The two sides had cooperated for months but relations have soured as Parliament has been viewed as a shadow entity against the more powerful army. Tantawi’s promise appears to give the legislature -- and the Brotherhood -- a degree of the legitimacy they crave. The military’s choice of Ganzouri, a prime minister under Mubarak, was opposed by activists and protesters in November. The Brotherhood also criticized the selection but, at the time, was concentrating its efforts on campaigning for parliamentary elections. 

After winning the legislature, Islamists stepped up their attacks on the government, which they blamed for being a tool of the military and stifling Parliament. “Ganzouri should act politically and listen to the parliament and not act with stubbornness and arrogance,” said Sobhi Saleh, a member of parliament with the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party. “If I was in his place, I'd have at least changed five or six ministers to absorb the Parliament's anger." Another legislator, Mohamed Anwar Sadat, said: “Life between the Cabinet and the Parliament is impossible this way.”

Read More...