Egypt: Court orders dissolving of parliament

“In another setback for Egypt's fledgling political process, elected officials have been disqualified and the lower house of parliament dissolved... [The court decision] explicitly states that the entire parliament is dismissed because of "constitutional violations”...Egypt's constitutional court also ruled against a law that would have barred...Ahmed Shafiq from standing in this weekend's presidential poll runoff...Anonymous sources in the SCAF told Al Jazeera that the military body will regain legislative authority and form a new constituent assembly on Friday, [though] Al Jazeera has been unable to confirm this...Thursday's judgement comes a day after the justice ministry issued a decree allowing military police and intelligence officers to arrest civilians suspected of crimes, restoring some of the powers of the decades-old emergency law.”

Egyptian Parliament in session [EPA].