CAIRO (Reuters) – The Muslim Brotherhood said the parliament that emerges from Egypt’s landmark elections should form a government, setting the stage for possible confrontation between Islamists and the ruling generals who have only just named a new prime minister.

The results of the first phase of the three-stage poll which could bring the Muslim Brotherhood closer to power were due to start coming out on Wednesday, but the military council which took over from ousted President Hosni Mubarak has yet to step aside.

Millions of voters went to the polls in a mostly peaceful two-day vote, though the calm was shattered on Tuesday night when nearly 80 people were wounded in violence focused around a Cairo sit-in protest by activists demanding an end to army rule.

The election for Egypt’s lower house is due to conclude in early January but early results were expected to trickle out on Wednesday after a high turnout and only minor infringements were reported.

State television broadcast live footage of the vote count across Egypt, which has not seen an election this free in the decades since army officers overthrew the monarchy in 1952.

Though the Muslim Brotherhood went into the polls stronger than nascent secular parties, analysts say it is hard to predict the outcome given that most of the electorate are casting their ballots for the first time.

Election monitors reported logistical hiccups and some campaign violations but no serious violence to disrupt proceedings. Election posters and banners festooned towns and cities while judges officiated under the eye of troops, police and election monitors.

LONDON, Oct 11 (Reuters) – Tahrir Square in Cairo, Green Square in Tripoli, Syntagma Square in Athens and now Zuccotti Park in New York — popular anger against entrenching power elites is spreading around the world.

Many have been intrigued by the Occupy Wall Street movement against financial inequality that started in a New York park and expanded across America from Tampa, Florida, to Portland, Oregon, and from Los Angeles to Chicago.

Hundreds of activists gathered a month ago in the Manhattan park two blocks from Wall Street to vent their anger at what they see as the excesses of New York financiers, whom they blame for the economic crisis that has struck countless ordinary Americans and reverberated across the global economy.

In the U.S. movement, Arab nations see echoes of this year’s Arab Spring uprisings. Spaniards and Italians see parallels with Indignados (indignant) activists, while voices in Tehran and Beijing with their own anti-American agendas have even said this could portend the meltdown of the United States.

Inspired by the momentum of the U.S. movement, which started small but is now part of U.S. political debate, activists in London will gather to protest outside the London Stock Exchange on Oct. 15 on the same day that Spanish groups will mass on Madrid’s Puerta del Sol square in solidarity.

“American people are more and more following the path chosen by people in the Arab world,” Iran’s student news agency ISNA quoted senior Revolutionary Guards officer Masoud Jazayeri as saying. “America’s domineering government will face uprisings similar to those in Tunisia and Egypt.”

Chinese newspapers splashed news about Occupy Wall Street with editorials blaming the U.S. political system and denouncing the Western media for playing down the protests.

CAIRO (Reuters) – Young Egyptians have launched an “Egypt is Safe” campaign, students are cleaning up national monuments and drivers now take visitors around Cairo’s Tahrir Square as an attraction, anything to get the tourists back.

Sites around the great pyramid at Giza, a Wonder of the Ancient World, the Sphinx and the cemetery at Sakkara have been nearly empty of tourists since a revolt started a month ago that ousted Hosni Mubarak, and now Egypt wants visitors to return.

“In terms of reviving tourism, the problem is currently Libya not us. The whole region is very hot right now,” Karim Mohsen, managing director of Sylvia Tours Egypt, said, referring to an uprising against Muammar Gaddafi in the western neighbor.

“Libya is on the border with Egypt and what people see happening there is terrible and therefore they’re afraid to come to the area,” Mohsen told Reuters, in a view reflected by other tour operators and guides who expected several more idle weeks.

Those trying to draw tourists back to cruises down the Nile and Egypt’s ancient artifacts want to turn the nation’s political turmoil to their advantage. One proposed slogan suggests the revolution is “One More Reason to Visit Egypt.”

Hundreds of students at Giza, visited by statesmen from Jimmy Carter to Napoleon and usually bustling with thousands of tourists, rallied at the weekend with “Egypt is Safe” signs, hoping to get the message over to the rest of the world.

“Please tell your friends not to fear the revolution. This is the new Egypt and it welcomes, you,” said Heba, 18.

CAIRO (Reuters) – British Prime Minister David Cameron on Monday became the first foreign leader to visit Egypt since the downfall of Hosni Mubarak which electrified the Middle East and forced the West to rethink its policies in the region.

Cameron’s arrival came hot on the heels of a visit by William J. Burns, U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, who started a visit to Egypt in which he will meet with the army-led interim government as well as political groups.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton is due to arrive in Egypt on Tuesday to discuss the post-Mubarak era in which the army is running the country while setting up free elections to deliver civilian rule and democracy.

Uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia have spread like wildfire in the Arab world, threatening entrenched dynasties from Libya to Bahrain. The West has watched with alarm as long-time allies and foes came under threat, urging reform and restraint.

The Muslim Brotherhood, once banned and playing a growing role in the new Egypt, rejected a government reshuffle on Monday, calling for a purge of the old guard cabinet appointed by Mubarak.

“I think this is a great opportunity to talk to those currently running Egypt to make sure this really is a genuine transition from military rule to civilian rule,” the British prime minister said before arriving in Cairo.

A British official travelling with Cameron said he would meet members of the former opposition to Mubarak but not the Brotherhood, which is Egypt’s most organised political grouping and regarded with suspicion in the West.

CAIRO (Reuters) – The Muslim Brotherhood, once banned and playing a growing role in the new Egypt, rejected a government reshuffle on Monday, calling for a purge of the old guard cabinet appointed by deposed leader Hosni Mubarak.

In a bid to placate pro-democracy activists, the reshuffle late on Sunday named several Mubarak opponents but disappointed those eager for a new line-up as key defense, foreign, justice, interior and finance portfolios were left unchanged.

Egypt’s new military rulers, who took over after an 18-day uprising ended 30 years of Mubarak’s iron rule, has said changes in the constitution for elections in six months should be ready soon and hated emergency laws would be lifted before the polls.

But for many democracy advocates, who want a completely new cabinet with no links to Mubarak’s corrupt and autocratic elite to govern the Arab world’s most populous nation, the military needs to put fresh faces in office.

“No one offered us any post and had they done so, we would have refused because we request what the public demands that this government quit as it is part of the former regime,” said Essam El-Erian, a senior member of the Brotherhood, which is Egypt’s most organized political group.

“We want a new technocratic government that has no connection with the old era,” he told Reuters.

The Brotherhood, viewed with suspicion by Washington and which wants a democracy with Islamic principles, is represented on a constitutional change committee, a council to protect the revolution and will register as soon as new rules allow.

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt’s army was expected to step up efforts to restore stability on Tuesday, hoping a promise to ensure a swift transition to civilian rule would end splinter protests that have flared since the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak.

Facing a wave of protests by workers ranging from banking staff to tourist guides, the military rulers urged people to return to their jobs to avoid more damage to an economy hurt by the 18-day uprising.

A powerful dust storm affecting Cairo was expected to deter worker demonstrations on Tuesday, which is also a national holiday to mark the Prophet Mohammad’s birthday, so the response to the appeal was more likely to become clear on Wednesday.

The military was holding talks with activists at the forefront of the revolt that ended Mubarak’s 30-year rule to reassure them of their commitment to democracy and a smooth and orderly transition of power.

But with anger still smoldering over rising prices, low wages and economic hardship, the military faces a delicate balancing act in restoring stability while allaying suspicions about its readiness to relinquish power.

Egypt’s revolution sent shock waves around the Middle East as well as global financial markets worried about the effect on oil supplies.

Police in Bahrain, neighbor of the world’s biggest oil exporter Saudi Arabia, clashed with funeral-goers mourning a Shi’ite protester shot dead on Monday during an anti-government “Day of Rage”, and one person was killed in the melee.

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt’s new military rulers, who have promised to hand power to civilians, are facing impatient protesters who want swift steps to prove their nation is set for democracy after Hosni Mubarak’s overthrow.

The nation wakes up to its first working day on Sunday since Mubarak was toppled during the Egyptian weekend, and protest organizers have threatened more rallies if the military fails to meet their demands.

The military has given no timetable for the transition but says it is committed to civilian rule and democracy. A cabinet meeting, due later on Sunday, could provide some answers.

As Egypt celebrated the dawn of a new post-Mubarak era, the streets of central Cairo were still filled with euphoric crowds dancing to loud music and waving flags into the early hours of Sunday, more than 24 hours after Mubarak resigned.

On Sunday, shops will reopen and many will head back to work, with life expected to begin to return to normal after 18 days of protests that changed the course of Egypt’s history.

Mubarak’s toppling marked the beginning of a new, uncertain era in the Middle East where autocratic leaders fear Egypt’s revolt could spill over into other parts of the oil-rich region.

Restoring order is a top priority. Tanks and troops have been guarding strategic buildings so far as police disappeared from the streets. Repairing police stations burned down during the protests is another urgent task.

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt’s new military rulers told the nation on Saturday they were committed to civilian rule and democracy after Hosni Mubarak’s overthrow and said they would respect all treaties, a move to reassure Israel and Washington.

Pro-democracy activists in Cairo’s Tahrir (Liberation) Square, the epicenter of an earthquake of popular protest that unseated Mubarak, have vowed to stay there until the Higher Military Council accepts their agenda for democratic reform.

Throughout the Middle East, autocratic rulers were calculating their chances of survival after Mubarak was forced from power in a dramatic 18-day uprising that changed the course of Egypt’s history, unsettling the United States and its allies.

“The Arab Republic of Egypt is committed to all regional and international obligations and treaties,” a senior army officer said in a statement on state television, outlining the armed forces’ broad strategies at home and abroad.

The message was clearly designed to try and soothe concerns in Israel which has a 1979 peace treaty with Egypt, the first Arab nation to make peace with the Jewish state. Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz welcomed the statement.

In another move to restore order, the army said it would “guarantee the peaceful transition of power in the framework of a free, democratic system which allows an elected, civilian power to govern the country to build a democratic, free state”.

Commenting after the army statement, Egypt’s Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, viewed with suspicion by the United States, said that it was not seeking power and praised the efforts of the new army rulers to transfer power to civilians.

LONDON (Reuters) – George W. Bush and Tony Blair appeared to have “converged” on regime change in Iraq after talks at the U.S. president’s Texas ranch in April 2002, a former British ambassador to Washington said on Thursday.

Christopher Meyer, ambassador to the United States between 1997 and 2003, said private one-to-one talks between Bush and the then British Prime Minister seemed to mark an important point on the route to the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

“I know what the Cabinet Office says were the results of the meeting but to this day I am not entirely clear what degree of convergence was, if you like, signed in blood at the Crawford ranch,” Meyer told a British inquiry into the Iraq war.

Meyer said comments that Blair made after the Texas meeting seemed to signal that his views on whether to overthrow Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had moved toward Bush’s stand.

“There are clues in the speech that Tony Blair gave the next day … To the best of my knowledge, I may be wrong, this was the first time that Tony Blair had said in public ‘regime change’,” Meyer said.

“What he was trying to do was to draw the lessons of 9/11 and apply them to the situation in Iraq which led — I think not inadvertently but deliberately — to a conflation of the threat posed by Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein.”

Speaking to the inquiry in London on its third day, Meyer said: “When I heard that speech, I thought that this represents a tightening of the UK/U.S. alliance and a degree of convergence on the danger that Saddam Hussein presented.”