Monday's global agenda: Turmoil in Egypt, progress in Russia

Your morning global affairs speed-read

Less than two weeks after taking office, Egypt's new president, Mohammed Morsi, is stepping up his defiance of the military authorities who still hold sway over the country. On Sunday, the Muslim Brotherhood member ordered the nation's Islamist-dominated parliament to reconvene, despite a legal order from a Hosni Mubarak-era court disbanding it. [The New York Times]

The decree comes as U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns met with Morsi and Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamal Amr on Sunday to convey the United States' desire to help kick-start the Egyptian economy, “including meeting immediate financial concerns, providing debt relief, helping to create jobs and educational opportunities and encouraging U.S. investment and tourism.” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to meet with Morsi on Saturday.

Russian justice: The former deputy head of the Butyrka detention center in Moscow where whistleblowing lawyer Sergei Magnitsky died three years ago will be prosecuted, the Russian state news agency RIA quoted Investigative Committee official Vladimir Markin as saying Monday: “According to the version of the investigation, Dmitry Kratov has not properly performed his duties connected with providing medical aid to citizens kept under arrest in the detention center. As a result, this brought about Sergey Magnitsky’s death in 2009.”

Magnitsky's death has become a rallying cry for U.S. lawmakers who want to maintain human-rights pressure on Russia before establishing permanent normal trade relations with the country when it joins the World Trade Organization next month. WTO membership came one step closer to becoming a reality on Monday when Russia’s Constitutional Court ruled that the country's accession protocol was legitimate following a challenge by the opposition. [RIA Novosti]

Terror list: The U.S. House of Representatives is expected this evening to unanimously adopt legislation requiring the State Department to tell Congress whether the Pakistan-based Haqqani Network qualifies as a terrorist group and, if not, which criteria have not been met. The bill has already cleared the Senate amid growing bipartisan pressure on the Obama administration to take action.

The State Department announced in November that it was engaged in the “final formal review” on whether to designate the group as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, and attacks on NATO troops have continued since then. Some government officials, however, worry that labeling the organization that way could hinder talks with the Taliban, who are closely affiliated with the Haqqani Network.

In other news: 

Libyan elections: A coalition of liberal parties appears to have edged out Islamists this weekend in Libya's first free legislative elections since Moammar Gadhafi took power in 1969, The Wall Street Journal reports. The preliminary results offer a stark contrast with the outcomes of elections in next-door Egypt and Tunisia. 

The death of three U.S. Army commandos in restive Mali is raising questions. [The Washington Post]

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hailed international donors on Sunday for pledging to provide Afghanistan with $16 billion in aid thorough 2015 in exchange for commitments to crack down on corruption in that country. [The Hill]

What you might have missed on Global Affairs: 

Time running out for Russia trade bill

State Dept. says UN arms treaty won't 'handicap' Second Amendment rights

Clinton rips Russia, China for 'blockading' peace plan for Syria

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