Egypt (and Beyond) Live Coverage: "Only President Morsi Can Save the Economy"

See also Egypt 1st-Hand: The Immersion in Political Violence
Syria Live Coverage: Will the Arab League Recognise the Opposition?
Monday's Bahrain (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Activist Zainab AlKhawaja Writes from Prison

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1910 GMT: Egypt. Blogger Alaa Abdel Fattah handed himself to the authorities for hours of questioning, a day after being accused along with four others of inciting violence.

Abdel-Fattah was cheered by a crowd as he entered the Cairo office of Prosecutor General Talaat Abdullah, who ordered the arrests for encouraging "aggression" against members of the Muslim Brotherhood last week.

The blogger's supporters chanted: "Down, down with [President] Morsi's rule."

1750 GMT: Egypt. Lawyer Hamdy Al-Fakharany has been arrested for allegedly inciting violence against the Freedom and Justice Party's headquarters in Al-Gharbeya.

Al-Fakharany’s daughter Abeer said her father was on his way back from a meeting with the provincial Governor, Mokhtar Al-Hamalawy, when Central Security Forces stopped him.

Abeer said she could not contact her father and did not know where he was taken.

1100 GMT: Iraq. A roadside bomb has ripped through an armoured car, killing two local politicians and badly wounding a third in Tuz Khurmatu, 175 kilometres (110 miles) north of Baghdad.

Town mayor Shallal Abdul, city council chief Abdulqader Naimi, and Salaheddin provincial councillor Rashid Khorshid were travelling together to inspect a road paving project north of Tuz when the bomb went off.

Tuz Khurmatu is at the centre of a tract of disputed territory that is claimed by both the central government in Baghdad and the autonomous Kurdish region.

0650 GMT: Egypt. Presidential advisor Ahmed Omran has said that a new Government headed by President Morsi is the solution to political and economic difficulties.

The statement was more than a tribute to his boss --- Omran criticised the current Government of Prime Minister Hisham Qandil as "incapable" of taking the necessary steps needed to deal with the crisis.

Omran said that, in contrast, Morsi could deal with different political groups int he Government. He added that a Cabinet reshuffle was necessary now, since Parliamentary polls --- which were scheduled for April-June, but which have been suspended by court action --- are not likely to begin for several months.

Meanwhile, Cairo is facing a worsening problem with food supplies, claiming that an exodus of staff from the State grain buying agency in recent weeks has worsened the problems of organisation and falling foreign reserves, leaving the agency without the expertise needed to get affordable deals.

The Government has announced plans to buy record amounts of wheat from domestic production, but sources say those targets would be unrealistic even in good times, much less in a crisis when farmers are short of fuel, equipment, and spare parts.

With the harvest of homegrown wheat is weeks away, and Egypt is already far short of its target to have six months' supply on hand. The country's strategic stocks of imported and local wheat fell to just 2.207 million tonnes by March 13, enough to last just 89 days.