Life outside Tahrir Square regained a semblance of normalcy on Sunday, Time magazine reports.

Traffic reached its notorious point of gridlock on some of Cairo's major roadways. Many banks, fast-food restaurants and clothing stores opened their doors for the first time in over a week. And newspaper sellers spread their goods out on the sidewalks.

Behind closed doors, the regime offered its latest in a series of concessions. For the first time, after decades of harsh repression, Vice President Omar Suleiman sat down at the negotiating table with the banned Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest opposition group, as well as other members of the opposition and youth activists, the Vice President's office said.


Indeed, the past week has seen a flurry of changes for a regime typically characterized as stagnant by its many critics. As the Obama Administration has steadily applied the pressure, nudging Hosni Mubarak toward a smooth transition, and hundreds of thousands have continued to mass in Cairo's Tahrir Square, the 82-year-old Egyptian President has responded. He appointed new heads of Cabinet, designated his intelligence chief Suleiman to the role of Vice President, promised that neither he nor his son would run in the September presidential race and reshuffled the leaders of his ruling party. On Sunday, Suleiman's office said that attendees at the negotiating table had reached a "consensus" promising to form a committee to study and propose constitutional amendments, the release of prisoners of conscience and an eventual lifting of Egypt's state of emergency, among other things.

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