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The developments, reported on the Web site of the official newspaper Al Ahram, further escalated tensions over court rulings on Thursday that invalidated modern Egypt’s first democratically elected legislature. Coming on the eve of a presidential runoff, they thrust the nation’s troubled transition to democracy since the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak last year into grave doubt.

Myanmar held a landmark election Sunday that was expected to send democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi into parliament for her first public office since launching her decades-long struggle against the military-dominated government.

A senior aide to the Burmese president has welcomed the prospect of the party of Aung San Suu Kyi, the democracy campaigner and Nobel prize winner, taking power in the country.

Libya's new rulers plan to declare their embattled nation "liberated" Sunday, a move that will trigger a timetable for elections and the writing of a constitution for the North African nation, according to reports from Tripoli.

Twenty years after a coup in which hardline communists made a last, desperate attempt to save the Soviet Union, Russia is still traveling the long and bumpy road to democracy.

Norway began burying the dead on Friday, a week after an anti-immigrant extremist killed 76 people in a bombing and shooting rampage. Mourners of all ages vowed they would not let the massacre threaten their nation’s openness and democracy. An 18-year-old Muslim girl was the first victim to be laid to rest since the gunman opened fire at a political youth camp and bombed the government headquarters in Oslo.

Norway's prime minister said Wednesday that the response to twin attacks that have rocked his country will be "more democracy."...

Meanwhile, a refugee crisis keeps growing in Turkey, where at least 3,000 Syrians fled across the border in recent days to makeshift tent cities set up by relief agencies and the Ankara government.

Syria plunged deeper into chaos and bloodshed Friday as adamant pro-democracy protesters took to the streets across the country in cities and towns including Homs, Lattakia, Amouda, Izram, Dara, Der Ezzor and Qamishli in mass protests that mark what protestors have called "Friday of Tribes."

Holding out Poland's transformation to democracy as a model for the world, President Barack Obama on Saturday exhorted Western allies and the American public alike to extend their support, energy and vision to those now reaching for democracy in the Middle East and North Africa.