EGYPT

As Egypt celebrated its new-found freedom from a three-decade long dictatorship of the Mubarak regime, the ousted president made his way to his luxe Red Sea villa in Sharm El Sheikh.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday condemned Iran's crackdown on protesters inspired by Egypt's popular uprising and urged friends and foes across the Middle East to take heed of their peoples' aspirations for democracy.

Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has dismissed anti-government protests across his country as getting “nowhere” and warned that he will punish the rally organizers.

Lara Logan, CBS chief foreign affairs correspondent, was sexually assaulted and beaten in Egypt the network said in a statement.

The Egyptian army, praised for overseeing a mostly peaceful revolution, is running into a storm of wage and subsidy demands overtaking pressure for democracy and piling more burdens on an already teetering economy. That has already happened in Tunisia, where strikes and protests continue more than a month after citizens ousted their strongman president and galvanized Egypt's opposition forces to do the same with theirs last week.

Iranian lawmakers called for the death penalty on Tuesday for opposition leaders they accused of fomenting unrest after a rally in which a least one person was killed and dozens were wounded, state media said.

Thousands of Shi'ite protesters marched into the capital of Bahrain on Tuesday after a man was killed in clashes between police and mourners at a funeral for a demonstrator shot dead at an earlier anti-government rally.

Egypt's military said on Tuesday it hoped to hand over to an elected government in six months, while the Muslim Brotherhood said emergency law should be lifted and political prisoners freed now.

Anyone wondering how veteran President Hosni Mubarak lost touch with Egyptian reality needs look no further than this Red Sea resort, where he took refuge after his overthrow last week by a popular uprising.

Arafa Holding, Egypt's biggest garment exporter, has closed its factories in Tenth of Ramadan City till February 17 due to labour strikes, the firm said in a statement on Tuesday.

Obviously in Iran, what is sauce for the goose is not sauce for the gander. Both Egypt and Iran, the masses were raising the same demands - freedom, democracy, free and fair elections.

We believe that the worst is now over for emerging market equities. Moreover, we believe that the resignation of Hosni Mubarak as Egypt’s President will not only ease tensions in the region but will also restore confidence towards investing in emerging markets again

Hilary Clinton, U.S. Secretary of State has extended her support for Iranian opposition members who protested the government of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Teheran in solidarity with popular unrest in Egypt and Tunisia.

Gold rose above $1,360 an ounce on Monday on fears that Egypt's unrest could spread across the Arab world, while silver gained 2 percent on strong industrial demand driven by signs of an improving economy.

Thousands of Iranians have gathered to demonstrate in Tehran in defiance of a government ban on such assemblies.

Rumors and speculation are swirling regarding the whereabouts and health of deposed Egyptian ruler Hosni Mubarak.

Egypt's generals are asserting their command over the country following the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak, preparing on Monday to ban strikes and to warn they will act against chaos and disorder.

Egypt's stock exchange, shut since January 27 because of political unrest, will not reopen until Wednesday, a bourse official said on Saturday.

Hundreds of anti-government demonstrators clashed with supporters of Yemen's president on Monday south of the capital, with both sides hurling rocks as protests escalated in the impoverished Arabian Peninsula state.

Bahraini police fired teargas and rubber bullets to break up protests on Monday in Shi'ite villages that ring the capital Manama, dampening a Day of Rage stimulated by popular upheaval in Egypt and Tunisia.

The Palestinian cabinet resigned on Monday, in an apparent attempt by President Mahmoud Abbas to demonstrate political reform in the wake of the popular uprising in Egypt.