Congratulations to the people of Egypt! Its so inspiring to see what they have accomplished here... I was shocked actually, especially after yesterday it seemed Mubarak was firmly standing tall, I feared Tienanmen Square all over again.

What comes next though is both exciting, and rather troubling. Alot of what ifs right now, and the Israel-Palestine question is atop of those what ifs.

It is a bit unclear how the Field Marshal Tantawi is "reactionary", but...

<span style="font-size:120%;">The man now at the apex of Egypt is Defence Minister Mohamed Tantawi. He embodies the reactionary forces still embedded at the heart of a regime that may have shed its figurehead but not its essence. Field Marshal Tantawi is known by junior officers as "Mubarak's poodle". According to Wikileaks cables, he has resolutely "opposed both economic and political reforms that he perceives as eroding central government power" - hardly such stuff as revolutions are made on.

There is every possibility that he will simply rebuild the apparatus of autocracy by dispersing superficial powers to a fractured opposition, while restoring the army to its Cold War standing.

Some optimists have invoked the "Turkish model" for Egypt, but recall that the Turkish army has toppled four governments since 1960 and still lurks just under the surface of that country's democratic institutions.

BBC News</span>

+ a piece from The Guardian, with some insights from one French sociologist.

<span style="font-size:13pt;">Egypt: Hosni Mubarak used last 18 days in power to secure his fortune</span>

<span style="font-size:10.5pt;">Hosni Mubarak used the 18 days it took for protesters to topple him to shift his vast wealth into untraceable accounts overseas, Western intelligence sources have said.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/egypt/8320912/Egypt-Hosni-Mubarak-used-last-18-days-in-power-to-secure-his-fortune.html</span>

<span style="font-size:19.5pt;">After Egypt Revolution, Evening News Ratings Down Double Digits</span>

<span style="font-size:11.5pt;">President Hosni Mubarak's resignation didn't drive tune-in on the same level of the weeks of mass protests. </span>

<span style="font-size:10.5pt;">After elevated tune-in for the week of Jan. 31, the evening newscasts came back down to earth for the week of Feb. 7, which included the resignation of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak last Friday after three weeks of mass protests in that country.

NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams averaged 9.9 million viewers with 2.9 million of them in news' target demographic of 25-54-year-olds, according to Nielsen. That's down about 12% from the prior week's 11.3 million (which was a six-year high for Nightly). But it was still more than enough to keep the newscast in first place for the 74th consecutive week.

ABC's World News with Diane Sawyer pulled in 8.8 million viewers (with 2.4 million in the demo), down 10% compared to the previous week's four-year high.

The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric averaged 6.4 million viewers (1.9 million in the demo). That was a 13% drop week-to-week, when the Evening News attracted its largest audience since 2009.

http://www.hollywood...gs-99722</span>

Edited February 15, 201114 yr by Sylph

OMG! Poor Lara Logan! I loved when she and Uncle Bob would dialogue on the Evening News! I hope she's recovering.

http://news.am/eng/news/48065.html

February 16, 2011 | 07:38

CBS TV correspondent Lara Logan was raped and beaten during the riots in Cairo.

The journalist was attacked on February11, when jubilant crowd in Tahrir Square was celebrating the Hosni Mubarak’s, resignation, writes the BBC.

Lara Logan, her crew and security guards were surrounded by hazardous elements that were present on the area. The situation came to an uncontrolled state, a crowd of more than 200 people separated Logan from her colleagues and subjected her to cruel and prolonged sexual abuse and beatings.

The interference of a group of women and approximately 20 soldiers of the Egyptian army saved Logan. After that, Lara Logan was reunited with his crew and returned to the United States.

Lara Logan, 39, is of a South African origin. She is a Senior Correspondent at C-PBS for international affairs. In recent years she has worked in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Poor Lara.

One of the better journalists in American news media ... and she's hot too.

There's civil unrest in almost every North African/Middle Eastern country right now... Iran, Kuwait, Bahrain, Yemen, Jordan, Libya... I wonder where this will all lead to.

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/tripoli-a-city-in-the-shadow-of-death-2223977.html

Not Egypt, not Libya, but it's about Libya – squatters inside Saif al-Islam Gaddafi's mansion:

http://curbed.com/archives/2011/03/10/qaddafis-sons-manse-a-veritable-high-end-lounge-for-squatters.php#qaddafis-son-house-looters-3