Egyptian Assembly rejects draft constitution

Members of Egypt's Constituent Assembly objected to the first draft of the constitution, which was released late last week. The articles included in the draft are not final and are still subject to discussion. "The alleged draft contains many articles, which we oppose and other parts of it are pending provisions about which there is no consensus," the members said in a statement. "The assembly is working through serious debates that are still in process, so there is no article that can be deemed final and some articles need to be removed entirely," the statement added. 17 Constituent Assembly members signed the statement, including former presidential candidate Amr Moussa, Ghad al-Thawra party Chief Ayman Nour, and the assembly's spokesperson Wahid Abdel Meguid.