FILE PHOTO YASSER ARAFAT.
Arab heads of state meet on Sept. 27, 1970, at the Nile Hilton in Cairo to put an end to the civil war in Jordan between Palestinians and the government of King Hussein. From left to right: Libyan leader Moammer Gadhafi, PLO chief Yasser Arafat, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, and King Hussein of Jordan. Palestinian and Israeli officials steeled themselves on November 4, 2004 for the possible death of the veteran Palestinian leader as Arafat lay critically ill in a Paris hospital. While Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qorei tried to play down in public the seriousness of Arafat's condition, French doctors and Palestinian officials privately acknowledged that the man who has led the nationalist struggle for some 40 years was critically ill. (UPI photo/HO )
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Amid widening political upheaval in Egypt, the military-led regime has given its security services wide-ranging powers that has raised fears the country's reverting to the police state it was before the 2011 pro-democracy revolution that toppled dictator Hosni Mubarak.
An apparent attempt to assassinate Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim, an attack on a ship in the Suez Canal and worsening clashes with jihadist militants in the Sinai Peninsula, all in the last week, have raised concerns the military regime is facing a possible Islamist insurgency over the July 3 ouster of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi.
The “Big Cairo Fire” destroyed 30 banks and major companies, 13 hotels, 310 stores, 92 bars, 40 movie theaters, eight automobile showrooms. Not last week but 61 years ago. And the arsonist was the same -- the Muslim Brotherhood.
The military-led interim government, grappling with widening protests over the army's ouster of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi and a swelling al-Qaida-linked insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula, says it's reviving the hated secret police in a bid to restore order.
Egypt's Old Guard, many linked to former President Hosni Mubarak, is reappearing in Cairo's corridors of power following the July 3 military coup that toppled his democratically elected successor, Mohamed Morsi.
The specter of Algeria's ferocious 10-year civil war in the 1990s between its military and Islamists robbed of a landmark electoral victory hangs over Egypt in turbulent aftermath of the July 3 ouster of democratically elected Islamist President Mohamed Morsi by the army.
Yemen has been a battleground between the West and al-Qaida for years. It's also torn by what amounts to a three-way civil war.
Baby steps. As U.S. President Barack Obama has conceded, the chance for a grand plan when it comes to the federal budget appears to be dead. And last week, he indicated a comprehensive plan for peace in the Middle East appears to be a distant hope as well.
It was surprising to observe Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a diehard Islamist, conduct himself as a man of compassion.
UPI Almanac for Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2013.
