(Continued from page 26)

a polite smile in the front row listening to President Mohammed Morsi give a 2 1/2-hour speech defending his year in office. El-Sissi even clapped lightly as the audience of Morsi supporters broke into cheers.
• It was a calculating display of cool by an army general plotting the overthrow of his commander in chief. Just over a week later, el-Sissi slid in the knife, announcing Morsi's ouster on state TV on July 3 as troops took the Islamist leader into custody.
• The move was the culmination of nearly a year of acrimonious relations between el-Sissi and Egypt's first freely elected -- and first civilian -- president.
• A series of interviews by The Associated Press with defense, security and intelligence officials paint a picture of a president who intended to flex his civilian authority as supreme commander of the armed forces, issuing orders to el-Sissi. In turn, the military chief believed Morsi was leading the country into turmoil and repeatedly challenged him, defying his orders in at least two cases.
• The degree of their differences suggests that the military had been planning for months to take greater control of the political reins in Egypt. When an activist group named Tamarod began a campaign to oust Morsi, building up to protests by millions nationwide that began June 30, it appears to have provided a golden opportunity for el-Sissi to get rid of the president. The military helped Tamarod from early on, communicating with it through third parties, according to the officials.
• ___

• KIROV, Russia (AP) -- Alexei Navalny, one of the Russian opposition's leading figures, was convicted of embezzlement Thursday and sentenced to five years in prison.
• Navalny and his supporters claimed the case was politically driven to try to shut down the vehement Kremlin critic and intimidate his supporters.
• Navalny was found guilty of heading a group that embezzled 16 million rubles' ($500,000) worth of timber from state-owned company Kirovles in 2009 while he worked as an unpaid adviser to the provincial governor in Kirov, about 760 kilometers (470 miles) east of Moscow.
• The 37-year-old lawyer played with his smartphone for much of the nearly 3 ½-hour verdict reading. A post on his Twitter account after the sentence was pronounced said "Oh, well. Don't get bored without me. And, importantly, don't be idle ..."
• Navalny handed the phone and his watch to his wife Yulia before bailiffs took

(Continued on page 28)