The Obama administration’s decision to begin releasing $1.3 billion in annual military aid for Egypt will avert a disruption in arms sales that might have cost thousands of U.S. jobs and as much as $2 billion in contracting penalties for the U.S. government.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, invoking U.S. national security interests,...used her authority to waive congressional conditions on the aid that require Egypt to demonstrate democratic progress. Her decision, assailed by human rights advocates, also took account of domestic factors that are important in an election year.
The Muslim Brotherhood, whose Freedom and Justice Party has the biggest bloc in Parliament, described Prime Minister Kamal al-Ganzouri's cabinet as a failure and criticized the army for continuing to support it, in a statement on Saturday.
"We understand that the government's performance may not satisfy public aspirations at this critical stage," SCAF said in a statement read on state television. "But we emphasize that the nation's interest is our first concern and we will not spare any effort and will take any measures or decisions needed for the sake of the nation and its citizens."
SCAF and the Ganzouri Government has been criticised for failing to halt the slide in the shattered economy and for heavy-handed tactics in dealing with protests against its rule.
The Brotherhood said the Cabinet of Ganzouri, who also served as Prime Minister in the Mubarak regime in the 1990s, had been worse than its predecessors.
Thursday night's protest rally in the Douma suburb of the Syrian capital Damascus
2200 GMT: We're closing yet another crazy Friday. Here's a summary.
In Bahrain, there were nine very large protests, most or all of which were attacked by police who used teargas to disperse the crowds. Though protests were planned, they were larger and more energetic today after the news that a man died last night from tear gas inhalation.
Some protesters destroyed closed-circuit TV cameras and threw rocks at police. Apparently, there was at least one occurrence of youth throwing Molotov cocktails.
This anger was sparked by what the activists consider widespread police brutality. Large parts of the island nation were covered in teargas again today, and riot vehicles reportedly chased down protesters in an attempt to run them over. There are also more unconfirmed reports of injured children, and another unconfirmed report that police sexually molested a young girl. Earlier in the week activists say that the police molested and tortured a 16-year-old boy, Ali.
At the end of the day, resolution to this conflict seems further away than it has ever been.
In Syria, the primary headline was arguably the use of helicopters to attack ground targets for the first time that we can confirm. There were several instances of this today and last night, all of them between Aleppo and the border with Turkey.
At nightfall, there are more reports of widespread fighting between FSA soldiers and the Assad military, specifically in Hama and to the east of Damascus.
However, once again the fact that will be lost to most headline writers is that there were large and widespread protests across the country, including in Damascus and Aleppo. Once again the Syrian opposition has used another Friday to prove that their resistance to the regime cannot be shot or shelled into submission.
In Homs city, there were 42 martyrs, 11 in Hama, 6 in Daraa, 9 in Idlib including one family from Kasanfra town),7 in Deir Ezzor and one martyr in each of Raqqa,Lattakia, Damascus Suburbs (Moudamieh) and a defected recruit from the Occupied Golan who was martyred in Hama.
UN peace envoy Kofi Annan arrived in Ankara. Annan met with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and is scheduled to meet with Syrian opposition members on Tuesday. Annan said:
2009 GMT: The UN/Arab League special envoy to Syria, Kofi Annan, has said that a political process, not a military one, is the only way to end the crisis in the country:
"I hope that no one is thinking very seriously of using force in this situation. I believe any further militarization will make this situation worse. We have to be careful that we don't introduce a medicine that's worse than the disease, and we don't have to go very far in the region to find an example of what I'm talking about," said Annan.
"The Syrian people will not accept any form of dialogue with this criminal regime. The Syrian people want to bring this regime down and will never give it another chance."
1916 GMT: The shelling today in Al Rastan, Homs, might have been more intense than the initial reports suggested. Activists post this video, showing heavy damage in a single neighborhood:
2020 GMT: A tour of the streets of Baba Amr in Homs in Syria, damaged by 23 straight days of regime shelling:
1735 GMT: The opposition Syrian National Council has issued a press statement calling for the "rejection of sectarianism" and reached out to the Alawite minority --- of whom President Assad and most of the regime elite are members --- as "an essential part of the Syrian fabric".
Two massacres were committed while the Friends' of Syria Conference being held
The Syrian regime committed two new massacres today in Homs and Hama; where the number of martyrs in Hama reached 30 in two separate massacres and the number of martyrs in the Khaldieh massacre in Homs reached 33. The number of martyrs in Syria today is 97 so far in different cities. The Local Coordination Committees regrets the world's inability to stop the regime's brutal violence, which is increases steadily and kills more innocent Syrian victims every day
Monday, March 26, 2012 at 9:11
The Obama administration’s decision to begin releasing $1.3 billion in annual military aid for Egypt will avert a disruption in arms sales that might have cost thousands of U.S. jobs and as much as $2 billion in contracting penalties for the U.S. government.