Seeking a romantic getaway this Valentine’s Day? Love is in the air (and perhaps the water supply) in Amazon ’s 20 most romantic cities in America. The firm compiled the list with an eye on key sales data: romance novels, rom-coms, and, of course, Barry White albums. The winners: Alexandria,…
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Egypt’s revolution is being celebrated across the Arab world, where people are lauding Egyptians’ show of people power, and also asking their own leaders to change their policies. Al Jazeera’s Nisreen El Shamayleh in Amman, Jordon, Anita McNaught in Istanbul, Turkey and Nicole Johnston in Gaza have more.
Continue reading …A little news to warm your heart in February: Gas prices have never been this high at this time of year, reports AP . The national average hit $3.13 yesterday, 50 cents higher than last year. Prices also are higher than they were in mid-February 2008, when they began their…
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New leadership resists pressure from activists to hand power to civilian administration Egypt’s new military administration and the pro-democracy protesters who brought down Hosni Mubarak were at odds today over the path to democratic rule. The army sought to stave off pressure from jubilant protesters to swiftly hand power to a civilian-led administration by saying that it is committed to a “free democratic state”. The military leadership gave no timetable for the political transition, and many of the demonstrators who filled Cairo’s Tahrir square for 18 days rejected the military’s appeal to dismantle the barricades and go home. They said they were waiting for specific commitments from the military on their demand for a civilian-controlled interim administration, the lifting of the oppressive state of emergency and other steps toward political liberalisation. The shock waves of Mubarak’s fall were felt across the region today, particularly in Algeria and Yemen. Thousands of anti-government protesters, apparently inspired by events in Cairo, turned out in Algiers to confront the police. There were reports that hundreds had been arrested. In Sanaa, a protest by about 2,000 people to demand political reform was broken up by armed government supporters. Some of the organisers of Egypt’s revolution announced they had formed a council to negotiate with the military and to oversee future demonstrations to keep up the pressure on the army to meet the demand for rapid democratic change. “The council will have the authority to call for protests or call them off depending on how the situation develops,” said Khaled Abdel Qader Ouda, one of the organisers. Earlier, General Mohsen el-Fangari said in a televised statement that the military intends to oversee “a peaceful transition of power” to allow “an elected civilian government to rule and build a free democratic state”. He said the present cabinet would continue to sit until a new one is formed. El-Fangari announced that the widely-ignored overnight curfew imposed during the crisis would be shortened by several hours. The military council also sought to allay American and Israeli concerns by saying that Egypt will continue to respect international treaties it has signed. Israeli politicians had expressed concern that a new government in Cairo might abrogate the 1979 peace accord between the two countries. Israel’s finance minister, Yuval Steinitz, welcomed the announcement. “Peace is not only in the interest of Israel but also of Egypt. I am very happy with this announcement,” he told Israeli television. But there will still be concern in Jerusalem about whether a future civilian government will be as cooperative as Mubarak’s regime in isolating and undermining the Hamas administration in the Gaza strip. People continued to pour in to Cairo’s Tahrir square, in part to celebrate at the epicentre of the revolution against the Mubarak regime. But there was also concern among some of the core group of activists who helped organise the mass protests that brought down Mubarak at the army’s apparent intent to control the political transition. A group of the activists issued what they called the “People’s Communique No 1″ — mirroring the titles of military communiques – listing a series of demands. The included the immediate dissolution of Mubarak’s cabinet and “suspension of the parliament elected in a rigged poll late last year”. The reformists want a transitional administration appointed with four civilians and one military official to prepare for elections in nine months and to oversee the drafting of a new constitution. The Muslim Brotherhood, the banned Islamist group that has been the target of military tribunals aimed at suppressing it, sought to allay fears in Egypt and abroad that it will attempt to take power. It said it would not be running a candidate in presidential elections and would not seek to win a majority in parliament. It also offered unusual support for the military council. Reuters reported that the information minister, Anas El-Fekky, was placed under house arrest the day after the military barred some Egyptian officials, including former ministers and state bankers suspected of corruption, from leaving the country without the permission of the armed forces or the state prosecutor. Mubarak was believed to be at his luxury retreat in Sharm el-Sheikh. One of the most urgent tasks for the new Egyptian administration is to get the economy back on track. The protests of the past three weeks are estimated to have cost the country more than $300m a day, in part because of a collapse in tourism. The authorities announced that the stock exchange will reopen on Wednesday. Egypt Protest Middle East Hosni Mubarak Chris McGreal guardian.co.uk
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In China, a country of more than a billion people, the search for kidnapped children has been described by many as hopeless. For one family, however, perseverence has paid off. Al Jazeera’s Melissa Chan has more from Southern China.
Continue reading …Egypt coverage is mostly celebratory today—”a new dawn,” is the phrase of choice for both al-Jazeera and the Guardian , while the New York Times has it that a “new era dawned”—as attention turns to the what-comes-next question. Along those lines: The main coalition of protest groups says it…
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The Egyptian president angered not only protesters but the army when he failed to step down the first time Perhaps only Hosni Mubarak imagined he had put an end to the revolution as he addressed an expectant nation on Thursday evening. Buried in his defiant, self-justifying televised speech was a short, almost mumbled line about transferring his powers to the vice-president, Omar Suleiman. Mubarak was declaring that he would be president in name only. The man who ruled for 30 years thought it would satisfy the protesters while still allowing him to go with dignity by keeping his title, if not his powers, for a few months more. But it didn’t satisfy the people, and so it didn’t satisfy the army. The organisers of the protests that had rocked Egypt for nearly three weeks said from the beginning that the revolution was not about one man, but a system. Mubarak’s transfer of power to Suleiman – the former intelligence chief who played a leading role in suppressing political opposition and was America’s point man in Egypt in the rendition and torture of alleged terrorists – was not an acceptable alternative. To the protesters, Mubarak had merely rearranged the deckchairs. Far from being placated, many saw his speech as further evidence of the regime’s vulnerability and their anger strengthened their determination to bring it down. Mohamed ElBaradei, the former nuclear inspector who earned some credibility in Egypt for standing up to the US over weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, openly called for an army takeover. As hundreds of thousands of people pushed in to Tahrir Square on Friday morning, the military leaders met. Clearly, they had expected something different from Mubarak. The supreme military council had put out a statement before his speech saying it had intervened to protect the interests of the people. That had prompted a buzz that the military had stepped in to take control. A senior army officer had told the crowd in Tahrir Square that their demands were about to be met, further raising the expectation that Mubarak was about to quit or be forced out. Major General Safwat el-Zayat, a former senior official of Egypt’s General Intelligence, told Ahram Online that the military leadership, like the people, had thought Mubarak would resign . Zayat said Mubarak’s speech — and one that followed by Suleiman — “was formulated against the wishes of the armed forces, and away from their oversight” and amounted to an unprecedented breach between the president and the military. In short, the army that had kept Mubarak in power had lost confidence in him. Evidently alarmed at the anger among protesters, who spilled beyond Tahrir Square and surrounded the state television building, the army issued a statement promising that the commitment to free elections would be fulfilled. But again it was not enough. The streets of Cairo continued to fill. The protest leaders warned of mass civil disobedience, a general strike, shutting the country down. The military’s supreme council concluded that the only way to deal with the crisis was for Mubarak to go and to be seen to be gone. He and his family were packed on a plane and dispatched to his palace in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. It was noted on the streets of Cairo, but after the disappointments of the previous 24 hours, few dared to believe. Then came the announcement that the man all Egypt had feared for 30 years really was history. Hosni Mubarak Egypt Protest Middle East Chris McGreal guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Mark Zuckerberg is, in Facebook-speak, “in a relationship.” Aol News introduces us to the Facebook founder’s “no-nonsense” girlfriend, Priscilla Chan, with five fun facts: They’ve been together since college : Where they met at a party, in line for the bathroom. Chan told the New Yorker Zuck seemed like a “nerdy…
Continue reading …From Tahrir Square to Algeria’s May 1 Square: Thousands of demonstrators inspired by Egypt marched in Algiers today despite an official ban on protests and a huge police presence, reports AP . Estimates of the crowd ranged from 10,000 to 30,000, and rights activists say at least 400 have…
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