At the first annual conference of Egypt's ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), held in Cairo from September 26 to 28, President Hosni Mubarak and his son Gamal tried to give the impression that an end to autocratic rule in Egypt is at hand. Forty-year-old Gamal heads the NDP's influential policy secretariat and many believe he is being groomed to inherit his father's presidential seat.

The second of June marked the second anniversary of the assassination of Lebanese writer Samir Qasir, with no indication of who ordered the car bombing that silenced one of the loudest Arab voices criticizing autocratic Arab regimes, particularly the Assad family in Syria.