Saturday, February 05, 2011

02/05/11

* Shake-up in Egyptian ruling party The politburo of Egypt's ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) has resigned en masse, in an apparent response to anti-government protests.

* US Policy: Disgracing Mubarak Is the US repeating with the Egyptian president the errors it made in handling the Shah?

* Hillary Clinton: Middle East facing 'perfect storm' US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said the Middle East is facing a "perfect storm" of unrest and nations must embrace democratic change.

* Arab World: Crossroads for Cairo Gamal Mubarak will not be president of Egypt. The de facto ruler is now former intelligence chief Omar Suleiman.

* US-Russia New Start nuclear treaty comes into effect Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton exchanged ratification documents at a conference in Munich.

* EU: Egypt shouldn't distract from Mideast peace process European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said Saturday that the Quartet of Mideast peacemakers can't be distracted from their task.

* Saboteurs attack Egypt gas pipeline to Jordan Unknown saboteurs attacked an Egyptian pipeline supplying gas to Jordan, forcing authorities to switch off gas supply from a twin pipeline to Israel.

* Eye on unrest, Iraq PM says he won't seek 3rd term Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki will not run for a third term in 2014.

* Syria Is Not Egypt, but Might It One Day Be Tunisia? Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak has yet to answer his people's demands to step down.

* Egypt's foreign minister to Iran: Mind your own business Egypt's foreign minister has told Teheran to mind its own business after Iran's top leader praised the Egyptian uprising as an appropriate response to dictatorial rule.