Author and political thinker Tarek Heggy shares his thoughts on the developments in Egypt

farsightedness, determination and political will, writes Valdai Club expert Tarek Heggy.

As of Tuesday, it is 59% contained.... Just south of this inferno, the Caldor Fire also still rages and has consumed some 216, 646 acres.... The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as Cal Fire, reported it at 49% contained on Tuesday. During the 1990s, the average annual acreage burned by wildfires in the U.S. was 3.3 million acres....

A court in Moscow upheld a 19-year prison sentence Tuesday for imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who was convicted on charges of extremism in August.... It was his fifth criminal conviction and his third and longest prison term — all of which his supporters see as a deliberate Kremlin strategy to silence its most ardent opponent. Navalny's 19-year sentence will be backdated to Jan.... 6, in the town of Melekhovo, about 230 kilometers( more than 140 miles) east of Moscow....

The entire Valdai Discussion Club moved Tuesday to the newly restored Valdai Monastery, which provided a historical setting to discuss inter-religious and inter-ethnic dialogue. In the morning session, official representatives of Russia’s leading religions – Orthodox Christianity, Islam and Judaism