Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, delivering a blunt challenge to the United States’s closest allies in the Arab world, called on Egypt and Saudi Arabia today to embrace democracy by holding elections, releasing political prisoners and allowing free expression and rights for women. “For 60 years, my country, the United States, pursued stability at the expense of democracy in this region here in the Middle East, and we achieved neither,” Ms. Rice said at the American University in the Egyptian capital. “Now we are taking a different course. We are supporting the democratic aspirations of all people.” Full Story