If your wishes for 2014, in Egypt, included respect of human rights, a civil state and respectable judiciary, the year was an efficient delivery system of pain. The stark reality that this dark turn in history delivered, to analysts and dissidents alike: the majority of Egyptians prefer to exalt in Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi’s iron-fisted glory. This ‘fist’ has seen Egypt arrest over 10,000 Egyptians this year alone, including hundreds of minors. When Mubarak was, recently, found innocent of charges of killing protesters, in yet another dark twist, two more protesters were killed while protesting the verdict. The 25 January Revolution seems an increasingly hazy historical relic in an era of extreme political dichotomies. Such is a refusal that any narrative outside the government line exists that, two weeks ago, a man was arrested for possession of magic markers in the bathroom of a mosque: accused of writing anti-regime messages . The world stands idly by, for various reasons, and watches the ‘Sisification’ of Egypt in 2014.

Egyptian recognition of China in 1956, entailing a challenge to the West on Taiwan, viewing it as a Chinese province, was one of the reasons behind the criminal colonial attack on Egypt by France, Britain and Israel the same year. Egypt was akin to an ambassador for China, gathering recognitions from various African and Arab states that Egypt had helped gain independence. In return, China was a supporter and champion of all just Egyptian and Arab causes on the world stage through direct relations.

As the United Nations is currently debating how to allocate about $2.5tr in development aid for the 2015-2030 period, education will most likely gain prominence. But do we fund early education or secondary school? In a paper commissioned by the Copenhagen Consensus Center, Economist George Psacharopoulos says the priority should be increasing the number of pre-schooled children in sub-Saharan Africa.

In the past few days, the Egyptian economy has seen several positive developments; Fitch raised Egypt’s credit rating indicating an improvement in how the world views Egypt’s ability to meet its external debt, oil prices fell to their lowest level in five years giving the government the chance to reduce energy subsidies (and with them the budget deficit) without new hikes in the price of gasoline and diesel, and the president’s visit to China opens new horizons for economic cooperation with this superpower especially in infrastructure. These developments are timely, coming in the run-up to the economic conference scheduled for March 13 and 14.

There is an old saying: "They thought that under the dome there was a sheikh (an expert or scholar)." It is an expression of bankruptcy, helplessness and lack of means. The saying makes one ponder on the next House of Representatives and the capabilities of those who will be elected to it.

The Palestinian-Israeli peace process has again ground to a halt, and each party blames the other for this unfortunate failure. Israeli officials repeat continuously that there is no Palestinian peace partner, and accuse Abbas and his authority of flexing their diplomatic muscle in an attempt to isolate Israel internationally and making unilateral steps, ie avoiding negotiations and seeking individual and/or collective recognition of the state of Palestine. However, it would be outlandish to imagine that the Palestinians would succeed in this approach (if it is true) without a minimum international understanding of the Palestinian narrative. In order to fully comprehend this state of affairs, it is crucial to make an assessment of the positions and announcements of each party.

The great January 25 Revolution was not an illusion, no matter how loud the voices of sceptical newspapers, corrupt satellite channels and merchants of death. It is rather the greatest Egyptian revolution in modern history, which ignited the energies of a great people against tyranny, injustice, corruption and failure, whatever its share of success, failure or conspiracy.

The release of the Senate Intelligence Committee torture report has brought back painful memories. Now everyone knows that our government has “tortured some folks”, as President Obama has put it when he wanted to be homey and cute. As someone who was tortured himself in an Egyptian jail, such charm is wasted on me. And contrary to what CIA director confuses knowable and unknowable things , nothing is unknowable about Torture; the emotional and physical details remain vivid in my memory even after more than 40 years.

As the West experiences a rise in the sort of terror attacks that are endemic to the Islamic world -- church attacks, sex-slavery and beheadings -- it is only natural that the same mainstream media that habitually conceals such atrocities “over there,” especially against Christians and other minorities under Islam, would also conceal the reality of jihadi aspirations “over here.”

There is an old saying: "They thought that under the dome there was a sheikh (an expert or scholar)." It is an expression of bankruptcy, helplessness and lack of means. The saying makes one ponder on the next House of Representatives and the capabilities of those who will be elected to it.

President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, who is perceived as the strongman of Egypt, constantly claims that his goal is to lead a strong country – yet he is actually working on neutering Egyptian society.

Egyptian and Turkish football pitches are set to re-emerge as battlegrounds between militant, street battle-hardened fans and authoritarian leaders in a life and death struggle that involves legal proceedings to brand the supporters as terrorists and efforts to undermine their widespread popular base.

They call themselves “The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.” On the other hand, clerics prefer to call them “Da’ish,” while the Western world and international press call them “ISIS,” which is the initials of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

Egypt has been making impressive progress in straightening up its balance sheet in recent months. Steep cuts in energy subsidies coupled with a drop in world oil prices have given the Middle East’s most populous country some fiscal breathing space, following three years of increasing budget deficits, mounting debt and reduced foreign currency reserves.

Every year, the world joins in a worldwide and national campaign between 25 November (International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women) and 10 December (Human Rights Day) to send a message that violence against women is a violation of human rights and that it must be ended.

Very little has changed with regards to Egypt’s trajectory of descent into a social and political abyss ever since its security forces dispersed the Islamist sit-ins using great force and even much greater impunity. The slope of decline into a more oppressive police state has indeed been very slippery and while there’s room for more damage, what has already transpired will take years and years to fix.

The vast majority of people were struck with the impression that the judgment acquitting Mubarak was not simply a court ruling issued by an independent judge acquitting Mubarak from specific crimes, but instead served to acquit the personality of Mubarak and his regime in general.

Bishoy Armia Boulous who currently on remand in Tora prison following his release on 20/7/13 and his re-arrest same day for conversion from Islam to Christianity receive inhuman treatment in Egypt prisons, he is being tortured physical and mentally.

In a recent interview on CBN News, Andrew White, an Anglican priest known as the “Vicar of Baghdad,” tried to recount the horrific atrocities Christians in Iraq are suffering at the hands of the Islamic State. After explaining how Christian minorities fled Baghdad to Ninevah when Islamic militants began terrorizing them and bombing their churches, White said:

At the end of last week, a statement was issued by the King of Saudi Arabia announcing the Riyadh supplementary agreement, whose goal is to clear the air in the Gulf. He hoped that moving forward with the agreement would bring about cooperation, free of past disagreements. Just one day before this, an announcement was made that the Saudi, Emirati, and Bahraini ambassadors would return to their posts in Qatar, representing a significant step forward in ending the Gulf crisis. But will this actually lead to the end of the crisis, and has Qatar responded to the demands of the Gulf states?