THAT Egypt has a new strongman is no longer in doubt.

Writer Roden has more aptly been described as an historian and a poet of food, says Joe McNamee

Mubarak lasted three decades as president but as the crowds in Tahrir Square chanted ‘Leave! Leave!’, he ended his tenure as a symbol of all that is wrong with Egypt, says Lee Keath

He survived assassination attempts and wave after wave of Mideast crises, a solid ally of the West whose stable image reassured many Egyptians.

A very public fit of presidential coughing and sneezing has energised debate among the Egyptian elite over democratisation and how power is wielded in the most populous Arab country, reform advocates said today.