Egypt: A determined stand

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood has joined forces with 17 other parties, including liberal and secular groups, to form a common platform ahead of legislative elections, state media said on Wednesday.In a meeting on Tuesday, participants including the Brotherood's Freedom and Justice Party, the liberal Wafd party, the left-leaning Tagammu and the newly formed Salafi (Muslim Fundamentalist) Noor party, joined hands to "channel their efforts... into building a state of law based on citizenship, equality and sovereignty of the people."

FAYOUM, Egypt — When election-time rolls around, this impoverished province of farmlands south of Cairo has proven one of the most die-hard bastions of support for Islamists in Egypt, producing lopsided victories for the Muslim Brotherhood and its ultraconservative allies.

Michael Slackman reports on the shifting political sands in Egypt:

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama begins his second term straining to maintain a good relationship with Egypt, an important U.S. ally whose president is a conservative Islamist walking a fine line between acting as a moderate peace broker and keeping his Muslim Brotherhood party happy with anti-American rhetoric.

At least 100 members of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood were arrested across Egypt on Friday 10 days ahead of legislative elections, a security official and members of the organisation said.Between 100 and 120 Islamists were arrested in several towns, among them 20 in Sharqiya province and 30 in Qalubya, the security official said on condition of anonymity.Mohammed Mursi, a senior Brotherhood official, put the number of people arrested at around 300, among them at least 130 in the port of Alexandria, the country's second city in the north.

Egyptian authorities swooped on the opposition Muslim Brotherhood before dawn on Monday, arresting 13 members including the group's deputy chief and two other leaders, the Islamists said.Brotherhood deputy chief Mahmud Ezzat was picked up along with senior members Essam Erian and Abdel Rahman el-Berr, the group's lawyer Abdel Moneim Abdel Maksud said in a statement posted on the website.The attorney, citing initial reports, said that 10 other members of the opposition group were also arrested in various parts of Egypt.

The Muslim Brotherhood and the secular Wafd party withdrew from Egypt's election on Wednesday after a crushing first-round defeat by the president's ruling party marred by alleged fraud and violence.The move left barely any opposition to contest the second round of the parliamentary poll this Sunday and dealt another blow to its credibility after Egypt came under heavy criticism from its US ally and human rights groups.The Muslim Brotherhood won a fifth of the seats in the 2005 election but failed to secure a single one in Sunday's ballot.