El Baradei launches new Egyptian party

Mohamed ElBaradei establishes Constitution Party aimed at ‘saving’ last year’s revolution

Egyptian presidential contender Mohamed ElBaradei said on Friday that the "miracle" of his country's revolution must be cemented by a rejection of changes being offered by the army in a referendum.Egyptians will vote Saturday on the military's plans for the future after Hosni Mubarak's fall, with pro-democracy activists campaigning for a "no" result as they say the proposals will only lead to further authoritarian rule.ElBaradei, speaking at a conference in New Delhi, said the referendum on changes to the constitution dealt only with "minutiae".

All the gains of Egypt's revolution will be lost if elections are held too soon because supporters of ousted president Hosni Mubarak will get back in power, opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei warned on Sunday."If we go too fast, if we organise elections in four or five months, it will be all over for the revolution, the old regime will perpetuate itself in another guise," the Nobel Peace Prize laureate told the Turkish daily Milliyet.

A Canadian citizen is facing five years of hard labour in an Egyptian prison for working with an NGO in Cairo during the Arab Spring. Journalist Michelle Betz was one of 43 members of nongovernmental organizations convicted in Egypt this month for operating without a licence and accepting foreign funding during the 2011 revolution. The staffers were given jail sentences ranging from one to five years on June 4—a move quickly criticized as “politically motivated” by White House and State Department officials.

Leading Egyptian opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei sought to ease Western fears Wednesday that a post-Mubarak Egypt could turn against Israel and the United States."The hype that once Egypt becomes a democracy, it will become hostile to the US and hostile to Israel... these are the two hypes, and are fictions," ElBaradei told CBS News.ElBaradei, who earned a Nobel peace prize for his stewardship of the United Nations atomic watchdog, returned to Cairo shortly after protests erupted last month against President Hosni Mubarak's regime.

Hundreds of Egyptians cheered former UN atomic watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei on Friday as he took his political reform campaign to the streets of the Nile Delta town of Mansura."Oh, ElBaradei... Egypt wants democracy!" and "There are thousands of alternatives in Egypt, ElBaradei is proof," chanted supporters of the high-profile dissident.The rally in Mansura, a university town half way between Cairo and the Mediterranean Sea, drew students dressed in T-shirts bearing his image, as well as activists ranging from doctors to taxi drivers.

The return to Cairo of former UN atomic watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei has injected energy into the political landscape, but many people wonder whether he is the "saviour" Egypt has been waiting for.ElBaradei, who arrived home on Friday to a rapturous welcome from hundreds of supporters, has repeatedly called for democratic change in Egypt since he stepped down as head of the International Atomic Energy Agency last year.