Post-coup Egypt swept by nationalist fervor centered around the military, its chief
Post-coup Egypt swept by nationalist fervor centered around the military, its chief
CAIRO — While riots turned the neighborhoods of Cairo into deadly battlegrounds this weekend, Egypt’s most powerful man — the head of the armed forces — enjoyed a star-studded show.
In a sports stadium, celebrities and pop singers lavished praise on the military in a televised extravaganza complete with dancers and an elaborate fireworks display.
The scene crystalized Egypt’s situation since the July 3 coup that ousted the country’s first freely elected president, Mohammed Morsi, and ended a year of rule by Islamists.
The new leadership has seemingly taken a two-pronged approach to building the future: On one hand, it pumps up a pro-military, nationalist fervor, while on the other it tries to crush Morsi’s Islamist supporters and his Muslim Brotherhood. So far, the result has led to more turmoil.
The scenario raises doubts about whether Egypt can progress toward the democracy that those who supported Morsi’s ouster say they want to achieve — or whether the leaders can tackle pressing issues like the damaged economy. Repeated bouts of violence since July have only worsened the slump in the vital tourism industry, amid high unemployment, low productivity and steep price increases.
3 win Nobel Prize in medicine for studying cell’s internal delivery of precious cargo
NEW YORK — Two Americans and a German-American won the Nobel Prize in medicine Monday for illuminating how tiny bubbles inside cells shuttle key substances around like a vast and highly efficient fleet of vans, delivering the right cargo to the right place at the right time.
Scientists believe the research could someday lead to new medicines for epilepsy, diabetes and other conditions.
The work has already helped doctors diagnose a severe form of epilepsy and immune deficiency diseases in children. It has also aided research into the brain and many neurological diseases, and opened the door for biotech companies to make yeast pump out large quantities of useful proteins such as insulin.
The $1.2 million prize will be shared by James Rothman, 62, of Yale University, Randy Schekman, 64, of the University of California, Berkeley, and Thomas Sudhof, 57, of Stanford University.
They unlocked the mysteries of the cell’s internal transport system, which relies on bubble-like structures called vesicles to deliver substances the cell needs. The fleet of vesicles is sort of the FedEx of the cellular world.
Man bitten by shark says it was perfect day for surfing until great white interrupted
EUREKA, Calif. — It was a perfect day for surfing. Except for the shark.
Jay Scrivner, a 45-year-old college English teacher, was waiting for waves off the Northern California coast near his hometown of Eureka on Sunday morning after surfing for about two hours when a great white he estimated at about 8-to-9 feet long bit his thigh and board.
“Sometimes you have a feeling that the water is weird,” Scrivner told The Associated Press in a phone interview from his room at Eureka’s St. Joseph Hospital on Monday afternoon. “But everyone was just so happy. I was lying on my board, paddling around just waiting for a wave set.”
Scrivner regularly surfs at the spot near Humboldt Bay known as the Samoa Peninsula. He was aware that another surfer, Scott Stephens, survived a shark attack in the same area last year.
Scriver said that “out of nowhere” he saw the shark’s teeth and nose. After he was bitten, he took a swing at the great white and let out what a friend nearby described as a primordial yell.
By wire sources