@Salma_Tweets<blockquote>@pjcrowley,@barakobama,@statedepartment
what are you doing to help us, we're being killed by Mubarak in Tahrir,
long live US Freedom!!!!!</blockquote>
3.51pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-61 Al-Jazeera's reporter can see other emergency vehicles heading to Tahrir Square now; sirens are audible over TV coverage.
3.48pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-60 The White House press secretary Robert Gibbs has put out this statement:<blockquote class="quoted">The
United States deplores and condemns the violence that is taking place
in Egypt, and we are deeply concerned about attacks on the media and
peaceful demonstrators. We repeat our strong call for restraint.</blockquote>It's worth noting again that the US has not come out strongly calling for Hosni Mubarak to go.
3.46pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-59 Al-Jazeera is reporting that an emergency vehicle is trying to get into Tahrir Square. The UN fears that 300 people have been killed and 500 more injured to date.
3.45pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-58 US state department spokesman PJ Crowley has called on all sides to avoid violence. On Twitter, Crowley wrote:<blockquote>We
reiterate our call for all sides in Egypt to show restraint and avoid
violence. Egypt's path to democratic change must be peaceful.</blockquote>
3.42pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-57 Al-Jazeera just showed some kind of burning object being thrown from a building into the crowd in central Cairo.
3.39pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-56 Al-Jazeera is showing smoke rising from a building in the centre of Cairo.Reuters is reporting that the Egyptian army has denied firing any shots at protesters in Tahrir Square. <blockquote class="quoted">"The
army denies firing any shots on the protesters," according to a
statement from the defence ministry, read to Reuters by a ministry
source. It added that some smoke canisters were fired near the US
embassy to disperse crowds.The US embassy in Cairo is close to
Tahrir Square. "No one in the army participated in the protest," the
source said, denying some reports that those involved included soldiers.An
al-Jazeera correspondent earlier said the army had fired shots in the
air. A Reuters witness said they heard shots fired, but it was not
immediately clear where the shots came from.</blockquote>
3.36pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-55
PJ Crowley, a spokesman for the US state department, has criticised
Hosni Mubarak's government regarding detentions and freedom of the press
– although he did not discuss the violence taking place in Cairo.
Crowley said on Twitter that the US was "concerned about detentions and
attacks on news media in Egypt. The civil society that Egypt wants to
build includes a free press."
3.31pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-54
Al-Jazeera is now reporting pro-Mubarak supporters dropping concrete
blocks off the roofs of buildings on to protesters. I can't confirm
that. One of the channel's correspondents asked some pro-Mubarak
demonstrators why they waited until today to come out on to the streets.
He says they said: "Yesterday we weren't happy seeing our leader
broken on screen," referring to Mubarak's televised address announcing
he would not seek a further term as president.
3.29pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-53
The Associated Press news agency has been speaking to pro-Mubarak
protesters gathering "on an upscale Cairo boulevard" for a
counter-demonstration.<blockquote class="quoted">The mood was
angry and defiant but the protest was mostly peaceful, in contrast to
the scene in Cairo's main square, where hundreds of young pro-government
supporters attacked crowds of thousands demanding his ouster.On
the boulevard in the upper-class neighbourhood of Mohandiseen, men in
designer sunglasses and women with expensive hairdos joined government
employees, including a few dozen nurses in white dresses and stockings
who jumped and chanted, "We love you Mubarak!"In dozens of
interviews, they expressed fears of chaos and violence engulfing the
country. They said they feared for Egypt's plummeting currency and the
shortages of food and gasoline gripping the country's major cities.They
identified themselves as middle- and working-class people whose lives
had improved under Mubarak, whom praised for keeping the country at
peace after a series of wars with Israel.Many said they felt
personally humiliated by the jeers of anti-Mubarak demonstrators for the
Egyptian leader to leave the country. They called Egypt a deeply
patriarchal society where the leader is seen as a father-like figure,
and a symbol of the nation itself."We have been a stable country
since the days of the Pharoahs. These demonstrators want to turn us into
Somalia: poor and at war with itself," cried Samir Hamid, a 58-year-old
war veteran who said his age made him remember life in Egypt Mubarak
took power nearly 30 years ago.Many said they did not necessarily
support the Egyptian president, but said the anti-Mubarak demonstrators
should have been satisfied by his Tuesday night pledge to step down
from power in seven months, after the country holds elections."It's
not like Mubarak can rub Aladdin's lamp and pull out a genie who will
fix everything," said Fatima al-Shal, 41, who wore a heavily bejeweled
ring on each hand. "We have to give them time to peacefully change
power," she said."I feel humiliated," said Mohammed Hussein, a
31-year-old factory worker. "He is the symbol of our country. When he is
insulted, I am insulted."</blockquote>
3.28pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-52 My colleagues on the video desk have sent this video of the clashes in Cairo.
3.24pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-51 Mohamed ElBaradei, the leading opposition figure, has called on the army to intervene and prevent bloodshed.
3.21pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-50 The military is refusing to get involved in the clashes between pro- and anti-Mubarak protesters, al-Jazeera is reporting.
3.17pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-49
Mohamed ElBaradei, the leading opposition figurehead and former head of
the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency, has told al-Jazeera he
hopes Hosni Mubarak, the president, will leave office before Friday,
when protesters are planning the "Friday of departure". More from his
interview when we get it.
3.16pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-48
Some more from David Cameron (left), who has said that it would be
unacceptable for the Egyptian government to be supporting violence in
any way:<blockquote class="quoted">If it turns out that the regime in any way has sponsored or tolerated this violence, that is completely unacceptable.</blockquote>
3.13pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-47 A comment from YShawkat below the line:<blockquote>I've
seen pro-Mubarak thugs out on the streets today in a violent attempt to
disperse peaceful pro-deomocracy protesters in Tahrir Square in Cairo,
as I walked with my wife on October bridge.The corrupt regime has managed to turn part of its people on each other as, mostly through instilling fear and panic.We, the Egyptian people, must realise we are all on the same side.</blockquote>
3.10pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-46 Below the line, the Guardian's Middle East expert Brian Whitaker has responded to some of your comments.Snickid asked:<blockquote>What
is probably needed now is some very senior army officers to come out in
support of the revolution. Does anyone know enough about how the
Egyptian army is organised - esp. how politicised it is - to say whether
this is possible or likely?</blockquote>Brian Whitaker responded:
<blockquote>The
role of an army is to protect the state, not the regime or the
revolution. Anything else is an interference in the sovereignty of the
people.</blockquote>Readers are also asking whether Hosni
Mubarak's speech last night and his announcement that he wouldn't run
again is binding or a ploy to disperse tensions and get protesters off
the streets.Brian responded:<blockquote>These guys are
tricky and not to be trusted. Of course the aim is to get the
anti-Mubarak protesters off the streets. Once they have done that, they
will drag their feet as much as possible on the question of reform.</blockquote>
3.07pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-45
My colleague Jack Shenker emails with confirmation that the explosions
he has been hearing in Tahrir Square are warning shots being fired into
the air by the army, at a military checkpoint at the Talaat Harb
entrance to the square. Jack writes:<blockquote class="quoted">The
situation is looking very serious - the road between Abdel Munim Riyad
Square and Tahrir Square is now a war zone, with a debris-strewn no
man's land in between. Behind the front lines of the pro-Mubarak
stone-throwers is a crowd several thousand strong in Abdel Munim Riyad,
and although some of them seem peaceful many others are breaking apart
burnt-out police trucks to obtain metal rods. On the anti-Mubarak side
of the battle in Tahrir, demonstrators fear they are being slowly
encircled, with pro-Mubarak young men stealing through the downtown
backstreets to approach Tahrir from different entrances.I've just
run into grown men crying at the chaos and bloodshed on their streets:
"When we were fighting the central security forces last Friday it felt
liberating," one told me, "yet we know we are fighting each other and
that breaks my heart." Reports are streaming on of there being
government-employed thugs and ex-prisoners among the pro-Mubarak crowd,
alongside plainclothes policemen - though it would be misleading to
suggest that these are the only people making up that side of these
increasingly-violent rival demonstrations.</blockquote>
3.06pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-44
David Cameron, the prime minister, and Ban Ki-Moon, the UN
secretary-general, have appeared in Downing Street to condemn the
violence and call for urgent change.Cameron said: <blockquote class="quoted">These
are despicable scenes that are we are seeing and they should not be
repeated. They are underline the need for political reform and frankly
for that political reform to be accelerated. </blockquote>Ban said: <blockquote class="quoted">This
is an unacceptable situation. Any attack on peaceful demonstrators in
unacceptable and I condemn it. It is important at this junction to
ensure that an orderly and peaceful transition should take place. I urge
all the parties to engage in a such a process without further delay.</blockquote>
3.04pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-43
It's just gone 5pm in Cairo and tonight's curfew is supposed to begin.
But clashes are continuing between pro- and anti-government supporters
in the centre of the city. Al-Jazeera has just been showing pictures of
people throwing rocks and chairs off the roof of a building. You can watch their live stream from Cairo here.
2.52pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-42 New York Times Pulitzer prize winning columnist Nicholas Kristof tweets that menacing pro-Mubarak mobs have arrived in buses.
2.49pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-41 There are lots of people saying the army is simply watching as the violence unfolds around them:@ashrafkhalil<blockquote>#jan25
I saw at least a dozen guys coming back badly bloodied from front line.
Incredibly violent scene and the soldiers are just watching</blockquote>@TravellerW<blockquote>I saw an army checkpoint searching barely 5% of a pro-Mub group then waving them all through #egypt #jan25</blockquote>Tear gas is now being fired, it is not clear who is firing it.
2.43pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-40
Abdel Halim Qandil, from the opposition Kefaya party, echoed the claims
that it is Mubarak's security services who are responsible for the
unrest. He told al-Jazeera.<blockquote class="quoted">There are
no Mubarak protesters. They are thugs, security personnel, dressed as
civilians. What is happening in Tahrir Square now is a crime perpetrated
by the Mubarak regime. It is another crime perpetrated by him...he must
be held accountable.....we cannot stop until we see this murderous
regime step down. </blockquote>
2.33pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-39
An al-Jazeera correspondent estimates he has seen around 100 people
carried away from Tahrir Square, with the most seriously injured an
unconscious boy, no more than 8-years-old, who was being carried on the
back of a man.A crying female protester told the station that
pro-democracy protesters were being prevented from leaving the square
and urged people not to credit the pro-Mubarak supporters with the
description "protesters".
2.29pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-38
Pro-Mubarak supporters are recognizably police, says Peter Beaumont. <blockquote class="quoted">There
is no question in my mind that they police, they are central security
forces. These are the same guys that were out in force all last week and
they have filtered back in again. They are very very recognisable, they
are certain kind of people. </blockquote>At that point the line cut out.
2.25pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-37
Three army trucks have been seized by pro-Mubarak supporters and are
now using them as a barricade to attack pro-democracy campaigners. Al
Jazeera reported that the trucks were seized without any resistance from
the army, which is not making its presence felt at all.
2.10pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-36
Very ominous information coming out of Cairo, with reports of gunfire.
Al Jazeera suggests they might be warning shots to keep people away from
the museum, which is being defended by a number of military vehicles.@BloggerSeif<blockquote>Gunshots from behind me somewhere #Jan25 </blockquote>
2.00pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-35
The Egyptian interior ministry is denying charges by anti-government
protesters that plainclothes police have been involved in the violence, Channel 4 News reports.
1.53pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-34 Mohamed ElBaradei has told BBC Arabic the clashes in Tahrir Square are a "criminal act done by a criminal regime".
1.49pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-33
In the clashes at and near Tahrir Square people are literally grabbing
anything at hand, rocks, sticks to hurl at their opponents. Anti-government
protesters have shown al-Jazeera the ID cards of plain clothed security
police they say they seized from attackers.
1.33pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-32 The CNN reporter, Anderson Cooper, has reportedly been attacked by pro-Mubarak posters.
George Hale, English editor of the Maan News Agency, tweeted:<blockquote>Anderson Cooper punched 10 times in the head as pro-Mubarak mob surrounds him and his crew at Cairo rally - CNN manager</blockquote>
1.24pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-31 Mubarak supporters came in on camels and horses, according to AP.<blockquote>Several
thousand supporters of President Hosni Mubarak, including some riding
horses and camels and wielding whips, attacked anti-government
protesters today as Egypt's upheaval took a dangerous new turn.In chaotic scenes, the two sides pelted each other with stones, and protesters dragged attackers off their horses.The
turmoil was the first significant violence between supporters of the
two camps in more than a week of anti-government protests. It erupted
after Mubarak went on national television the night before and rejected
demands he step down immediately and said he would serve out the
remaining seven months of his term.In the early afternoon around
3,000 Mubarak supporters break through a human chain of anti-government
protesters trying to defend thousands gathered in Tahrir.Chaos
erupted as they tore down banners denouncing the president. Fistfights
broke out as they advanced across the massive square in the heart of the
capital. The anti-government protesters grabbed Mubarak posters from
the hands of the supporters and ripped them.The two sides began
hurling stones and bottles and sticks at each other, chasing each other
as the protesters' human chains moved back to try to shield the larger
mass of demonstrators at the plaza's centre.At one point, a small
contingent of pro-Mubarak forces on horseback and camels rushed into
the anti-Mubarak crowds, swinging whips and sticks to beat people.
Protesters retaliated, dragging some from their mounts, throwing them to
the ground and beating their faces bloody.Protesters were seen
running with their shirts or faces bloodied, some men and women in the
crowd were weeping. A scent of tear gas wafted over the area, but it was
not clear who had fired it.The army troops who have been
guarding the square had been keeping the two sides apart earlier in the
day, but when the clashes erupted they did not intervene. Most took
shelter behind or inside the armored vehicles and tanks stationed at the
entrances to Tahrir.</blockquote>
1.23pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-30
Spain's Cadena SER radio station's reporters in Cairo are reporting
that their car has been surrounded and attacked by pro-Mubarak thugs and
they have had to take refuge in a building protected by the army,
writes Giles Tremlett in Madrid.
1.11pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-29 Anti-Murbarak supporters are holding their ground in Tahrir Square, Jack Shenker reports, as "very injured people" are carried to safety.Anti-Mubarak
protesters have seized a pro-Mubarak supporter, he says. "So far we are
not seeing any lynchings because a number of responsible citizens are
shepherding them [pro-Mubarak supporters] to an army checkpoint," he
says.
12.59pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-28 The writer Ahdaf Soueif emails to express concern.<blockquote class="quoted">This
is urgent news: the Mubarak thugs are now suddenly out in force. I say
'thugs' because their behaviour immediately is radically different from
everything we have seen in the last week. They are in microbuses
and trucks and are keeping up a deafening wall of sound with their
claxons. They are armed with sticks and various bits of weaponry and are
waving them and shouting and honking their horns. They carry large
well-made banners - replicas of the banners that are used in the rigged
elections, proclaiming for Mubarak.
In Tahrir Square, the army
has pulled its positions well back into the square instead of at the
peripheries and have stopped guarding the entrances to the square. The
army s no longer checking the IDs of those who enter the square nor are
they checking them for weapons. A few minutes ago the Mubarak
"supportrs" started attacking our press area in the square where
activists have been collecting photo and video evidence of people who
have been tortured under the Mubarak regime. As I write this the
activists are being attacked with stones and sticks.</blockquote>
12.49pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-27 "It's all kicked off and it's getting very ugly,"
Jack Shenker reports from a side street off Tahrir square. Some of
those involved in the violence have been dragged away by the army, he
says. "People continue to run away from the square. Many of them
have got blood wounds. I could saw one man just brush past me carrying a
child ... there appeared to blood on his chest," Jack said. One pro-Mubarak supporter yelled "liars and Jews" at journalists.
12.42pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-26
"I've seem one guy with pole with a knife attached to it. It's quite
clear some of these people came prepared for a violent confrontation,"
Peter Beaumont reports.
12.19pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-25
"There is a fight of some kind of going on right in front of me. I'm
assuming that it's pro and anti Mubarak supporters," Peter Beaumont
reports from Tahrir Square.The security services are just sitting
on their tanks watching, he says. "You can't help feeling that it has
all been heavily coordinated," he says. "It's an extraordinary turnaround."
12.10pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-24 Tahrir Square is changing hands, according to Peter Beaumont. "Thousands and thousands of pro-Murabak demonstrators are now pouring into the square," he says."It seems to have been heavily choreographed," Peter says.
12.04pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-23 Speaking at prime ministers questions David Cameron said: <blockquote>You can't watch the scenes in Cairo without finding them incredibly moving.</blockquote>There's more on our politics live blog.
11.55am:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-22 Time for a
lunchtime summary:• Thousands of pro-Mubarak supporters are taking part in rallies in Cairo and Alexandria. Some
of those protesting yesterday are satisfied that the Egyptian president
has offered enough concessions, and have switched sides. Others
continue to call for Hosni Mubarak to go now.•
The Egyptian military is calling for an end to the protests. "Your message has arrived, your demands became known ... You are
capable of bringing normal life to Egypt," a military spokesman said.•
Some signs of normality have returned to Egypt. Internet restrictions have been lifted, al-Jazeera is available again, and the curfew has been eased.•
Ahead of a planned protest in Yemen, president Ali Abdullah Saleh has said he won't seek re-election in 2013. Analysts say he is up to his old tricks. •
The families of those arrested in the protests are demanding answers from the military. Around 150 people gathered outside the army HQ in Alexandria where it is thought the missing are being detained.
11.54am:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-21 David Cameron has echoed Barack Obama's call for an "orderly transition" to "begin immediately".The prime minister's spokesman said: <blockquote class="quoted">Our
position has been to repeatedly call for an orderly transition. Our
view is also that the process of change needs to begin immediately.</blockquote>
11.40am:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-20
We have set up a phone line for those protesting in Egypt to call in
with their accounts of the demonstrations. Tarek Nagar, an architect in
Cairo, phoned in to leave his views on Hosni Mubarak's speech yesterday.
He said Mubarak's decision not to run for another term would not wash
with the protesters:<blockquote class="quoted">He's a dictator
who's not willing to let go of his own power, he's behaving in a very
irresponsible way because he's actually agitating the young people who
have been demonstrating, protesting peacefully. They have been attacked
by his own brutal security forces and he should have admitted his
complete responsibility for the mistakes of the last week or so.
On the other hand the minimum demand that everyone is requesting or
asking for is for him to dissolve the parliament to form a committee for
a new constitution, immediately abolishing the emergency law and above
all for his own resignation immediately. We are demanding and the young
people and the youth in the square that a new transitional national
government will take over.</blockquote> You can hear the whole thing below. The number is +44 203 353 2959 if anyone else wants to call.
11.30am:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-19
The families of those arrested in the protests are demanding answers
about their loved ones at an army headquarters in Alexandria where they
are being detained, writes Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director for
Human Rights Watch.<blockquote class="quoted">About 150 angry
relatives are gathered outside the army HQ in Alexandria, desperate for
information about their missing relatives. The army has not produced any
lists of those they have detained, and have not allowed anyone into the
base to visit the detainees. We tried to gain access, but were refused.
One old woman told me she had been there since Saturday, looking for
her son, and had no news. The relatives are very concerned about the
treatment the detainees are receiving.As we were there, a group
of female relatives of the detained started a protest, shouting 'We want
our children, give us back our children!'The situation is very
tense. The army has used the HQ as a detention centre for all of the
suspected looters and other troublemakers handed over to them by the
neighbourhood security committees since Friday. This is an unfamiliar
role for the army, and they are clearly at a loss as to what to do. Many
of the detainees are probably innocent, just caught in the wrong
neighbourhood without identification.The army is in a difficult
position, as it has no evidence of wrongdoing by most of the detainees
and no judicial system to process or release them. But they are the only
functioning security institution.At the very least, the army
should publish a complete list of the detainees and allow lawyers to
visit them and ensure they are properly treated. And they should release
the innocent as soon as possible. </blockquote>
11.15am:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-18
As the internet is back in Egypt, if you're an Arabic speaker you may
find this blog easier to follow using this (automatic) translation
button.
تحديد اللغةالعربية
تدعمه
ترجمة
It doesn't translate photos of placards, though.
11.12am:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-16 Pro-Mubarak supporters claim if there are one million against Mubarak there are 80 million backing him, al-Jazeera reports. It is showing live pictures of several thousands of the regime's supporters at a rally in Cairo.
10.55am:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-15 Al-Jazeera appears to be available again in Egypt. The channel is no longer showing constant coverage of the unrest. Egyptian blogger Zeinobia, tweets: <blockquote>I am currently watching Al Jazeera on Noor Business Channel on Nile Sat</blockquote>
10.53am:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-14 Cairo blogger Sandmonkey is frustrated by the support for Mubarak among some:
10.49am:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-13 Another sign of a return to normality - the curfew is to be relaxed, according to CNN's Ben Wedeman.<blockquote>Curfew to be eased, now 5pm-7am, was 3pm-8am</blockquote>
10.36am:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-12 Some of the pro-Mubarak supporters have been bussed-in, but others have switched sides, Peter Beaumont reports."I've
just been talking to two guys who were with the demonstrators in Tahrir
square, and they have changed sides. What they are saying is 'Mubarak
has made all the concessions that people are asking for, therefore we
should give him time."There are certainly people who now, after
eight days of demonstrations, are sufficiently concerned to have come
over to the pro-Mubarak camp. "They are chanting Baradei, Baradei get out."
10.22am:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-11 Egyptian bloggers are celebrating, and coming to terms with, getting back online.Zeinobia founder of the popular Egyptian Chronicles writes this short post:<blockquote class="quoted">I am back, in fact Egypt is back online.What shall I say, what can I say !!?? Egypt is back online Smile Wait for more updates, daily journals for the past days, photos and videos are coming in the way.</blockquote>
Wael Abbas tweets the downside: <blockquote>shit i have 4043 emails waiting in my inbox</blockquote>
10.16am:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-10 The Egyptian military is calling for an end to more than a
week of demonstrations, AP reports.<blockquote>
A
military spokesman says: "Your message has arrived, your demands became
known ... you are capable of bringing normal life to Egypt."Internet service is also returning to Egypt after days of an unprecedented cut-off by the government.</blockquote>
10.09am:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-9 "It's window dressing"
protester Ayman Farag says of Mubarak's concessions. Speaking from
Tahrir square Farag, a 32-year-old journalist, describes splits among
the protesters about what to do next and a change in the mood since
Mubarak's statement. "There are divisions, that's the fear,
numbers are going to go down," he said. "People are going to say 'we
have achieved something - Gamal Mubarak won't succeed the throne and
Hosni is definitely going'. Unfortunately that's not enough because we
can't trust this regime, this president. It's all window dressing."
9.40am:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-8 "Mubarak, Mubarak, we love you" the president's supporters chant at an angry demo outside a TV station, Peter Beaumont reports."For
the last hour or so there has been an increasingly angry demonstrations
by pro Mubarak supporters, more of whom are arriving all of the time.
They are carrying a policeman on their shoulders and are chanting things
like 'Mubarak, Mubarak we love you' and 'al-Jazeera where are you
now?'" Peter says.He says up to 7,000 people involved, amid concerns that they may clash with anti-government protesters later.
9.31am:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-7 Yememi president Ali Abdullah Saleh's announcement that he won't be standing for re-election is "a canny move" ahead of a "day of rage", Tom Finn from the Yemen Times tells me."Saleh
is famous for doing these stunts where he tells people he will stand
down in order to provoke a reaction for people to say 'no we want you to
stay', at which point he says 'if you insists I'll stay'. But people
are saying this time it could be different because the opposition have
been strengthened by the what's being happened in Tunisia and Egypt.
Saleh has been forced to give a lot of concessions in the last week."
8.53am:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-6 "Thousands" of people have been involved in a number of pro-Mubarak rallies, according to AP.<blockquote>The
small rallies appeared to be the start of an attempt by Mubarak's 3
million-member National Democratic Party to retake momentum from
protesters demanding Egypt's nearly 30-year ruler step down immediately.The
army separated about 20 Mubarak supporters from about 1,000
pro-democracy protesters in Tahrir Square, but the Mediterranean city of
Alexandria saw clashes erupt between several hundred protesters and
government supporters early today, Al-Jazeera television footage showed.Several
thousand people outside Mustafa Mahmoud Mosque in the upper-class
neighbourhood of Mohandiseen waved Egyptian flags and carried a large
printed banner with Mubarak's face. Many passing cars honked in apparent
support.Police officers surrounded the area and directed traffic.</blockquote>
8.47am:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-5
300 pro-Mubarak protesters have gathered outside the offices of ABC
News in Cairo, according to a Twitter update from its reporter Lara
Setrakian.<blockquote>Around 300 people at the pro-Mubarak rally downstairs, chanting 'mish yamshee' - he won't go </blockquote><blockquote>ABC
Biggest threat of violence comes from clashes between pro-Mubarak &
anti-Mubarak crowds. One rally FOR Mubarak outside our bureau now
#Jan25</blockquote>
8.29am:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-4 Mubarak supporters have clashed with protesters in Tahrir Square, al-Jazeera reports. There have been several scuffles in the last few hours, its reporter in the square said.
Protesters have linked hands around the square to "self-police" it, she said. Overnight
TV footage showed pro-Mubarak supporters clashing with protesters in
the port city of Alexandria. My colleague Harriet Sherwood, who is in
the city, has been told that 12 people were injured in the violence.You can read Harriet's Twitter updates, and those of other correspondents in Egypt, on the righthand side of the blog.
8.03am:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-3 Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh has done a Mubarak, by saying he won't seek to extend his presidency.Eyeing
protests that brought down Tunisia's leader and threaten to topple
Egypt's president, Saleh also vowed not to pass on the reins of
government to his son, Reuters reports."No extension, no
inheritance, no resetting the clock," Saleh said, speaking ahead of a
planned rally in Sanaa today that has been dubbed a "Day of rage".
7.49am:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-2
What's going on Egypt is "incredible exciting", according to deputy
prime minister Nick Clegg, who still hasn't mastered the language of
international diplomacy."It is incredibly exciting what is going
on, it reminds me so much of the time when the Berlin Wall fell, the
power of the people out on the streets, in a regime which two weeks ago
everybody thought was one of the most stable regimes in the region," he
told ITV's Daybreak.He then seem to remember he was deputy prime
minister, adding: "I don't think it is really for me or anybody else to
start dictating exactly when the transition should take place but
clearly it is already taking place, and that holds out at least the
exciting prospect of real democracy and real freedom and openness in
Egypt for the first time ever."
7.45am:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/feb/02/egypt-protests-live-updates#block-1 Hosni Mubarak's decision to tough it out for now has been greeted by rage from protesters and international calls for more immediate change.Egypt's
key ally Turkey today urged Mubarak to heed protesters calls. Prime
minister Tayyip Erdogan said Mubarak should take a different step. Last
night Barack Obama said "change must begin now". Opposition
leader Mohamed ElBaradei said Mubarak's speech was an act of
"deception". Speaking to CNN he said Mubarak was a "dead man walking"
and "a person who doesn't want to let go, a dictator who doesn't want to
listen to the clear voice of the people."As the Egyptian president announced that he would stay on until September protesters exploded in anger in Tahrir Square last night. A screen rigged up to show al-Jazeera was pelted with bottles and the cry "Irhal, irhal" went up repeatedly: "Leave, leave."In Alexandria, however, following Mubarak's broadcast his supporters clashed with protesters occupying the main square.
Sticks were brandished and rocks thrown. Bursts of gunfire were heard,
thought to have been soldiers shooting into the air in an attempt to
separate the two factions. In his defiant TV address Mubarak said he would die on Egyptian soil (read the full text here).The regime is still very much in power, the Guardian's foreign affairs columnist Simon Tisdall explains.<blockquote class="quoted">After
a week in the headlights, the regime is showing signs of regaining its
nerve and assembling a strategy to overcome its perilous predicament.
Whether it can work is another matter.The survival plan centres
on Omar Suleiman, who is head of intelligence, Mubarak's close
confidant, and the newly installed vice-president. Right now Suleiman is
the most powerful man in Egypt, backed by the military (from which he
hails), the security apparatus, and a frightened ruling elite hoping to
salvage something from the wreckage.Suleiman is, in effect,
heading a junta of former or acting military officers. Mubarak has been
reduced to a figurehead, sheltering behind this clique. But they will
not humiliate him. There will be no ignominious flight to Saudi Arabia,
like that of Tunisia's deposed president, Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.Mubarak's
fate aside, the regime may also be hoping that recent lawlessness and
looting will convince people, particularly Cairo's middle-class, that
revolution is too risky and that the protesters have made their point.
Likewise, rising food and fuel prices, shortages, lost earnings, closed
businesses, falling exports and reduced tourism caused by the unrest
will have a growing impact on working people if they persist with street
action.</blockquote>Not everyone is calling for Mubarak to stand down now. Speaking to CNN Tony Blair described him as "immensely courageous and a force for good".
Sun Feb 19, 2012 2:15 pm by محمد السعيد الجيوشي
Subject: Egypt protests - live updates 
Elise Labott
John McCain
