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by some of the prominent activists who helped lead the uprising, leaked from the prisons where they are now jailed.
• The letters show a battered spirit, no longer speaking of imminent democracy, but of injustices and a failed struggle that they say has been robbed repeatedly.
• "What adds to my feeling of oppression is that I feel this particular lock up has no value. This is not struggle, and there is no revolution," wrote Alaa Abdel-Fattah, one of the most prominent figures in the 2011 uprising. He was jailed several times in the past and was taken back into detention in November for calling for protests against Egypt's current, military-backed government.
• The 18-day uprising launched on Jan. 25, 2011, rode on hopes for dramatic change in a country long ruled by an iron grip -- for an end to corruption and police power, for freedoms of speech and political rights and for greater economic equality. Those hopes went largely unfulfilled in the ensuing political roller coaster, as a council of generals took power for nearly 17 months after Mubarak's removal, and a string of elections brought Islamists to political dominance. Their rise was crowned by the 2012 election of the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohammed Morsi as president.
• Now the "Jan. 25 Revolution" has been swallowed up by another mass movement: The "June 30 Revolution," named for the giant wave of protests starting on that date in 2013 against Morsi. It erupted after many Egyptians became convinced he and his Brotherhood had violated the dream of an inclusive, democratic Egypt. The millions in the street prompted the military to remove Morsi within days.
• ___

• GENEVA (AP) -- The first face-to-face meeting between Syria's government and the opposition hoping to overthrow Bashar Assad started and ended after barely a half-hour Saturday, with the two sides facing each other silently as a U.N. mediator split the distance between them and laid the groundwork for talks intended to lead Syria out of civil war.
• After tense days spent avoiding each other and meeting separately with the mediator, Assad's handpicked delegation and representatives of the Syrian National Coalition gathered briefly at a single U-shaped table, then emerged and went separate ways, using different doors to avert contact.
• Only the mediator, Lakhdar Brahimi, spoke, according to Anas al-Abdeh, who was among the coalition's representatives.

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