Egypt's Morsi fires defence minister Tantawi
The Egyptian president has ordered the powerful head of the army and defence minister, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, into retirement and cancelled constitutional amendments issued by the military restricting presidential powers.
Mohamed Morsi announced through a spokesman on Sunday the dismissal of Tantawi and his appointment as a presidential adviser.
Al Jazeera's correspondent, Sherine Tadros, reporting from Cairo, said the president's spokesperson made the surprising announcement on state television.
"There will be a lot of questions asked, especially if Morsi is able to do this," she said.
"In the coming hours, we will find out how this decision came about. All of this has happened very fast, and it was unexpected.
Many other actions taken, noted in the article.
I will leave the analysis to those here more familiar with the dynamics of Egypt.
On first pass, this seems significant.