CAIRO — News of Muammar Gaddafi's capture and death rippled through Cairo on Thursday afternoon and by evening it was widely known. Libyan National Transitional Council forces had brought down a dictator in Libya, another Arab Spring victory.

FARAJALLAH, Egypt — I never thought that in Upper Egypt, we’d find a pool table. Outside.
 
But whaddya know, standing in the middle of Nazlet Ebeid and in neighboring Farajallah, are makeshift desert billiard clubs. Kids crowd around the pockets (some of which have fallen off) and shoot around the tables (some of which need cinder blocks to balance the broken legs), not really following any sort of rules other than to sink the balls until the table is empty.
 

CAIRO – As the army faces mounting criticism for excessive force that killed 27 people in violent demonstrations last week, two members of Egypt’s military ruling council went on live television to defend themselves Wednesday.

In a program that riveted Egypt, two prominent journalists asked valid questions of the generals, as did members of the public invited to submit them by email. The problem was, for the most part the generals failed to answer.

CAIRO — It's report card time for the Arab Spring, and veteran NPR Middle East correspondent Deborah Amos is doing the grading. While Egypt did A+ work in ousting former President Hosni Mubarak, she gives opposition groups in Syria higher marks than their Egyptian counterparts when it comes to organization.

“Egypt's revolution ended, and there was a huge chasm,” she said, addressing the GlobalPost / Open Hands Initiative "Covering a Revolution" Fellowship on Saturday. “Nobody knew how to do politics.”