Cairo

Cairo, EGYPT - There was a time when the Americans and the British didn't give a hoot what the Egyptians thought of them. The British were a colonial power, essentially in charge of the country, although there was an Egyptian king. The Americans were hardly a presence until World War II's battles against the Germans brought their armies here. Later, after the 1952 revolution that toppled the Egyptian monarch and led to the leadership of Gamal Abdel Nasser, America began to fill some of the vacuum in foreign interest.

CAIRO, Egypt -- He is young, rich, relatively handsome and one of the most sought-after men in Cairo these days.And for good reason.He is Ahmed Fouad, Egypt's last monarch, and President Hosni Mubarak has recently allowed him to come home after 40 years of exile.Mr. Fouad, who is in his early 40s, was monarch for just 11 months, and even then, from exile.His father was King Farouk, who ruled Egypt until he was forced to abdicate and seek exile in Italy in 1965. King Farouk then named young Ahmed the new monarch, but when revolutionaries in Cairo declared Egypt a republic, the junior king's career was nipped in the bud.King Farouk and wife Queen Nariman later divorced.

CAIRO, Egypt -- A broad spectrum of Egyptians say they are prepared, even eager, to battle their Arab brethren.In conversations this week, before the outbreak of hostilities yesterday, with Egyptian intellectuals, shopkeepers and students, many said that they were angry enough to fight Iraq more than a year ago, when relations soured between the two Arab powers, but hoped that Israel would stay detached from any fighting."

Cairo. -- Islamic extremism in Egypt is hitting hard times, a victim of its own violence and Egypt's success as Middle East peace mediator.A scant year ago, pundits predicted Islamic militants could stir an Iranian-style revolt against President Hosni Mubarak's secular regime.A year later, Egyptians are washing their hands of extremists, disgusted by a campaign that has taken hundreds of innocent lives, both Western and Egyptian.President Mubarak, once criticized for his harsh crackdown against the militants, is basking in national and international acclaim for his role as peace mediator, with his latest triumph a face-to-face meeting of PLO leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in Cairo.

CAIRO, Egypt -- When allied bombs first hit Baghdad, many young Kuwaitis here had their own, unique response: They hit the dance floors."They're battling it out in the discotheque," cracked an official at Cairo's newest five-star luxury hotel, the Semiramis Intercontinental.As the night wore on, the neon-lighted dance floor at Sultana's, the hotel's discotheque, became crowded with fashionably dressed Kuwaiti youths. They celebrated the news of war by ordering rounds of drinks, nibbling hors d'oeuvres and gyrating to American pop hits; at one point, a belly dancer joined in. At dawn, some of them formed a convoy of cars, rocking and rolling through Cairo's narrow, sooty streets, honking their horns with glee.

The religious controversy swirling around next week's Cairo population conference has tended to overshadow its importance a landmark of our entry into a new, puzzling era of global information politics. In this new information era, nongovernmental organizations are more visible than statesmen, the media is as much a participant as an observer, and influencing public opinion is at least as important as shaping public policy.To get an idea of how this new world order (or disorder) differs from the past, compare the Cairo conference to the 1945 Yalta conference that did so much to create the post-war world.

FAR FROM HOME:LIFE AND LOSS INTWO AMERICAN TOWNS.Ron Powers.Random House.317 pages. $22. On a Fourth of July visit to Marshfield, Mo. (population, 5,000), President Bush spent more time celebrating small towns than the victory in the Persian Gulf, according to the Washington Post, ascribing to them "the kind of values that carried this country for over 200 years."The same day, Pulitzer Prize-winner Ron Powers appeared on a network morning show, pushing his new book, "Far From Home." Subtitled "Life and Loss in Two American Towns," it chronicles the apparent demise of Cairo, Ill., and Kent, Conn.

CAIRO, Egypt - Hundreds of pro-democracy demonstrators denounced Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak yesterday at a rally in the capital while organizers said scores of activists were arrested in other cities. The action by about 250 protesters - small by the standards of mass rallies in Lebanon or Bahrain - was a notable act of dissent in Egypt's strict political confines, extending a regional wave of pro-democracy activities in recent months. The rally drew intense scrutiny from authorities, who surrounded it with more than 1,000 helmeted riot police and plainclothes intelligence officers.

HOSNI Mubarak's authoritarian regime in Egypt is a necessary but embarrassing U.S. aid client and partner in the quest for Middle East peace. The latest curtailment of domestic freedom was the kangaroo trial and seven-year sentence of a civic activist and scholar, Saadeddin Ibrahim, for monitoring elections, championing free speech and exposing discrimination against Coptic Christians. Sentences against 20 other employees of his Ibn Khaldoun Center for Social Development Studies show how adamant the regime was to silence the sociology professor at American University in Cairo, who has U.S. citizenship.

CAIRO, Egypt -- Egyptian security forces trying to eliminate an Islamic extremist cell fought street battles in a Muslim fundamentalist stronghold south of Cairo yesterday, leaving two policemen and at least 10 civilians dead, security sources said.The latest bloodshed was part of an intensifying succession of clashes between Egypt's secular leaders and Muslim militants who seek to topple President Hosni Mubarak's government and replace it with a purist Islamic state.It also is part of an increasing pattern of Islamic attacks that target Westerners for supporting the Middle East's non-Islamic governments.