Epstein Secrets

d Hamas politburo head Khaled Meshal clasping each other's shoulders in Cairo in May was accordingly greeted with hope, but also much wariness, in Ramallah. "They are like two prisoners fighting over scraps of bread, instead of working on getting out of jail," said one coffee shop patron over his water

of truth. A presidential election in 2005, although marred by low turnout and many irregularities, was won by Mubarak with 89 percent of the vote. Ayman Nour, runner-up, obtained only 7 percent and was then jailed for a five-year term, apparently for the effrontery of opposing the autocrat. His example o

government fiercely=rejected last November. For Palestinians to=, an Obama visit should be a boost — especially if he visits the West Ba=k cities of Ramallah or, as has been mooted, Jericho. The message will be =hat, for all the talk of a Washington foreign policy pivot to Asia, the Middle East is still

in the ruin of Egypt came in 2=05. The dictator rigged yet another presidential election, his fifth in a =ow, and he ordered a decent young rival, Ayman Nour, to prison on trumped =p charges. The administration of George W. Bush grasped the importance of the moment, but Mubarak brushed t=eir entreaties as

made a disappointing showing in yesterday's local elections, with its chosen candidates failing to secure local majorities in key cities including Ramallah despite a boycott by its chief rival, Hamas. "This is a landmark of the end of Fatah," says Mandi Abdul-Hadi, head of the Palestinian Academic Soci

iopia in April and May last year, and it included political figures like Al-Guindi, Al-Sayed Al-Badawi, leader of the Wafd Party, Ghad Party leader Ayman Nour, and presidential hopeful Hisham Al- Bastawisi. Other members of the delegation included journalists like Sekina Fouad, popular figures like Mohamed