Egypt Feature: The Rise and Fall of the 6 April Youth Movement? (Fadel)

The April 6 youth movement has shrunk in stature against a backdrop of economic woes and instability, including months of clashes between security forces and demonstrators that have disrupted daily life. Although the group once had near-heroic status, its troubles have been compounded by the ruling military’s success in portraying the group as agents of a foreign-backed insurrection.

Together with other youth groups and activists, the group is trying to organize mass protests Jan. 25 to demand the immediate transfer of power from the military to the newly elected parliament, which is expected to be seated soon.

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"New Egypt" Feature: When Idealism Meets Reality (Fadel)

A Town in the Nile DeltaOn his first political foray beyond cosmopolitan Cairo, Shady Ghazali Harb, a British-educated surgeon, hoped to find support for his effort to build a political party.

What he found instead, here [in Buzoor] in the Nile Delta, was uncertainty about the new crop of politicians emerging from Egypt’s revolution. Farmers who had gathered in a dirt yard to hear Harb speak stared blankly as the 32-year-old idealist in jeans, a purple dress shirt and Adidas sneakers spoke of his desire to set up shop “where people hang out.’’

“People don’t go to coffee shops here,” Karam el-Hadi Mohammed, 55, a merchant and farmer, told him. “They work hard and go to bed early.’’

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