News stories by Analysis by Adam Morrow

Results of the first post-Mubarak presidential election last week have left most Egyptians stunned, with Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsi coming in first and Ahmed Shafiq - ousted president Hosni Mubarak's last prime minister - coming in a close second. The two are now slated to face off in a hotly-contested runoff vote next month.

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood has surprised both supporters and rivals by abruptly announcing its own nominee for upcoming presidential elections, despite earlier promises that it would not field a candidate from within its own ranks.

Egyptians watched with rapt attention as deposed president Hosni Mubarak was hauled before court on live television to answer charges of corruption and murder. The move appears to have restored public confidence in Egypt's ruling military council, which has governed the country since Mubarak's February ouster.

Developments in Libya have raised fears among Egyptian analysts and political figures of the possible break-up of the North African nation into two warring halves. To support the assertion, they point to longstanding Israeli designs - supported by the western powers - to balkanise the Arab states of the region.

In the aftermath of Egypt's recent uprising, which led to the ouster earlier this month of longstanding president Hosni Mubarak, a number of groups have emerged under the banner of what has come to be known as the 25 January Revolution. The sudden proliferation of these movements has raised the contentious question: who now speaks for the Egyptian people?

Egypt's armed forces, the de facto rulers of the country since last week’s ouster of President Hosni Mubarak, have already met several longstanding demands of the opposition, including the suspension of the constitution and dissolution of parliament. Some critics, however, say more must be done if the Mubarak regime’s authoritarian structure is to be satisfactorily replaced with a democratic one.

The U.S. has rejected an Egyptian proposal for a 'confederation' between northern and southern Sudan, insisting that a Jan. 9 referendum - which will determine the fate of the south - go ahead as scheduled. According to Egyptian analysts, the move proves Washington's determination to see Africa's largest country split in two.

The government's decision to renew Egypt's longstanding Emergency Law has drawn furious reactions from opposition figures and rights advocates. While government spokesmen say the law will only be used against terrorism and drug trafficking, critics say it is aimed primarily at stifling political dissent.

Amazingly, just when all four parties - the U.S., its allies in the Arab world, the Palestinian Authority, and Israel - seemed to have hit rock bottom in terms of the prospects of moving the region away from conflict and towards peace, all of a sudden everything seems to be pointing in the exact opposition direction.

Egyptian officials are lining up to praise U.S. President Barack Obama's address to the Islamic world delivered in Cairo Thursday. But local campaigners for political reform say the speech was disappointingly light on the issues of democracy and human rights.