World View: Egypt's Opposition Plans Mass Rally in Cairo on Tuesday

This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

• Egypt’s president Morsi to allow the army to arrest people
• Egypt’s opposition plans mass rally in Cairo on Tuesday
• U.S. tries to slow growth of ‘Al-Qaeda in Iraq’ in Syria
• Mercedes-Benz gives Pope Benedict XVI a new Popemobile

Egypt’s president Morsi to allow the army to arrest people

A tank rolls down the street in Cairo (Reuters)

Egypt’s president Mohamed Morsi has given the army the power to arrestcivilians. The power is similar to the “temporary” emergency powersthat former leader Hosni Mubarak kept in place for decades, allowingcivilians to be arrested and incarcerated for no reason. However,Morsi says that the new power was requested by Egypt’s SupremeElectoral Commission to secure the voting process during the upcomingreferendum vote on the new constitution. According to Morsi, the newpowers will expire once the constitutional referendum vote has beencompleted. Al-Ahram (Cairo)

Egypt’s opposition plans mass rally in Cairo on Tuesday

Opposition leaders are not mollified by Sunday’s announcement byEgypt’s president Mohamed Morsi that he was rescinding hisconstitutional decree that gave him dictatorial powers. They pointout that the purpose of the decree in the first place was to pushthrough a new draft constitution, and to establish a date for areferendum vote to ratify it. Since the referendum vote is stillbeing held, canceling the decree at this point is an empty gesture,according to opposition leaders. The opposition is calling for massrallies in Tahrir Square in Cairo on Tuesday as a final attempt tostop the referendum, while supporters of Morsi are also calling for aopposition forces lack unity, while Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood is verywell organized to get its supporters out to vote, and so, manyanalysts consider it unlikely that they’ll be able to stopratification. LA Times and Al-Ahram (Cairo)

U.S. tries to slow growth of ‘Al-Qaeda in Iraq’ in Syria

The U.S. State Department designated the Jabhat al-Nusra (the “NusraFront”) militia fighting Bashar al-Assad’s government in Syria aforeign terrorist organization on Monday. During the Iraq war,terrorist militia fighters from Syria crossed the border into Iraq andjoined al-Qaeda in Iraq to fight the Americans. Now those fightersare traveling back into Syria to fight the al-Assad regime, and Jabhatal-Nusra is essentially the Syrian wing of al-Qaeda in Iraq (IslamicState of Iraq, or ISI). The group has been having an increasingnumber of successes in Syria, and the State Department designation isan attempt to slow its growth. Nonetheless, Jabhat al-Nusra is takingits place alongside al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP),Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb(AQIM) among the major al-Qaeda linked terrorist groups in the world.However, this designation also complicates the American strategy inSyria, since the collapse of al-Assad’s government could mean thatcontrol of the country and its chemical weapons could pass Jabhatal-Nusra. Foreign Policy and CS Monitor

Mercedes-Benz gives Pope Benedict XVI a new Popemobile

Mercedes-Benz’s new M-Class Popemobile

Mercedes-Benz has delivered a new M-Class Popemobile to Pope BenedictXVI. The rear bench seats have been replaced withhydraulically-assisted thrones. Compared to previous Popemobiles,there’s more standing room in the back, with more glass area andbetter interior illumination. Digital Trends

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