Egypt news

*The lawyer for Hisham Talaat Mustafa, the wealthy developer convicted of hiring a hotel security director as a hitman to kill his Lebanese pop star mistress in Dubai (though he later escaped the initial death sentence) has apparently refused an offer to represent the Mubaraks.

*Instead, they’ve reportedly ended up with a very unpopular lawyer, unpopular because he represented the reviled owners of the Salam 98 ferry boat, which SANK IN THE RED SEA in February 2006, en route from Saudi Arabia back to Egypt, with around 1,000 killed. What makes that incident live in infamy was not only the poorly maintained condition of the ship, but the fact that the captain fled to safety as it was sinking, leaving the passengers to die alone.

*There are also eyewitness reports from Sharm el-Sheikh that the ex-President stopped dying his hair and also grew a beard.

Incredible. This seemed like a pretty stable regime as late as January 24, and though I never thought they’d actually get away with installing Gamal as the next President, there was certainly no sign of anything but a secure and wealthy future for all of them. Even after the resignation, the ex-President probably never imagined the army would stop covering his back. But now they’re edging uncomfortably towards an unhappy ending.