Two of the top candidates running to become Egypt's first post-revolution president have squared off in the Arab world's first televised presidential debate, one whose focus became a sometimes angry debate over their controversial pasts.
Egyptians crowded around television sets in outdoor cafes for the four-hour debate on Thursday night, aired in two segments over several independent TV channels - a new experiment for Egypt after nearly 30 years of authoritarian rule under President Hosni Mubarak.
Former Mubarak-era foreign minister and Arab League chairman Amr Moussa pressed Islamist doctor and former high-ranking Muslim Brotherhood member Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh over the latter's connections to conservative religious groups, suggesting in the end that if his opponent became president it risked a return to insecurity and terrorism.
Al Jazeera's Rawya Rageh reports.
