In May, for instance, the government abruptly extended for two years the official stateofemergency, saying that new antiterrorism laws were not yet ready.
Egypt's opposition had already been crippled by the combination ofemergencylaws, bogus elections, restrictions on union activity, a state monopoly of broadcasting and a general sense of futility.
During the peak of the influenza season, the stateof New York had to take the extraordinary measure of declaring a state health emergency in order to activate laws allowing pharmacists to vaccinate children against influenza.