Egyptian Calls for Mubarak to Step Down Intensify

Protesters in Egypt are preparing for an eighth day of anti-government demonstrations. Opposition groups in Cairo are calling 1 million people to demonstrate against embattled President Hosni Mubarak.

A week into the demonstrations, the call for President Hosni Mubarak's ouster is getting stronger.

A young boy was among the thousands of people marching into Cairo's Liberation Square on Monday.

He shouts, "Leave, Mubarak! Leave!"

The demonstrators got a boost on Monday when the Army issued a statement describing the demonstrations as legitimate and saying that soldiers would not fire on protesters.

Army tanks continued to move into central Cairo in an attempt to bring a semblance of order to a city in chaos. Armed vigilantes set up scores of checkpoints across the city manned by private citizens wielding machetes, swords and sticks to protect their property from the bands of looters who have been roaming the city for days.

The protesters remain firm in their resolve to see Mr. Mubarak, Egypt's president for nearly 30 years, deposed. His rule has brought Egypt stability. But demonstrators say it has come at too high a price. They say they are tired of political repression, corruption, poverty and unemployment.

The protests have continued throughout much of the country, including the coastal city of Alexandria, where hundreds marched on Monday.

This demonstrator says the protesters want Mr. Mubarak and "his agents" to leave. He says Egyptians do not want them. He says everyone in Egypt is calling for change.

President Mubarak appeared on television Monday, swearing in members of his new government. A statement from the newly appointed vice president says Mr. Mubarak has asked him to open a dialogue with the opposition. That invitation is falling on deaf ears, with demonstrators saying they will intensify their protests.

Opposition groups called for 1 million people to take part in a demonstration in the Egyptian capital on Tuesday. With the Army saying it will not fire on demonstrators, the protesters got what appears to be a new level of security and an incentive to keep up their push to drive Hosni Mubarak out of office.

Russian police arrest dozens at anti-govt rallies

Russian police detained several dozen people at anti-Kremlin rallies in Moscow and St Petersburg on Monday as they tried to protest against limits to freedom of assembly.
A crowd of about 600 chanted "Freedom, Freedom!" in sub-zero temperatures on Moscow's Triumph Square, heavily outnumbered by riot police, who dragged more than a dozen activists off to waiting buses after detaining them at a metro exit as they headed to the rally.
"This is our democracy. Look at what happens in Russia!" yelled one youth as black-helmeted OMON riot police arrested him.
Rights activists and Kremlin opponents have staged demonstrations on the square on the last day of each month with 31 days, in a symbolic reference to the right to free assembly enshrined under Article 31 of Russia's constitution.
President Dmitry Medvedev has promised to allow more public criticism of the authorities since he was steered to power by his close ally Vladimir Putin, now prime minister, in 2008. But most opposition groups say little has changed and their activities are still restricted.
In St Petersburg, police said they had detained about 60 people at a rally in the heart of city where protestors cried: "We demand freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and an end to censorship."
Opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, who spent 15 days in jail after a New Year's eve protest, rallied the Moscow crowd with calls for an end to Putin's grip on power since he became president in 2000 and later prime minister.
"The rubbish tip of history awaits Putin just like all dictators," he told Reuters, raising chants of "Putin resign" and "Russia without Putin."
Moscow authorities gave permission for 1,000 people to gather, but in the past police have beaten or detained demonstrators they accused of infractions at such rallies.
Before the anti-Kremlin protests police detained 11 members of an opposition group in a weekend raid on their office and apartments, activists said.
Police linked the searches and arrests to an investigation into nationalist riots in December near Red Square, law enforcement sources cited by Kommersant newspaper said.
But members of the opposition Other Russia group said the arrests were intended to block their participation in the demonstrations on Triumph Square.
"It was clearly meant to pressure activist so that they don't participate in today's protests," Other Russia activist Alexander Averin said, adding that three activists' homes were searched.
Activists were detained and questioned overnight but had all been released by Monday morning, except for Belarusian citizen Igor Berezyuk, who was accused of involvement in violent racist rallies on December 11.
After last month's riots by soccer fans and neo-nationalists who targeted non-Slavic minorities for attacks, a top Kremlin adviser blamed liberal freedom-of-assembly demonstrations he said served as an example to radical groups to take to streets.

Egypt’s military: How will it respond?

As mass demonstrations continue to threaten Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak's grip on power, the country's powerful military is emerging as perhaps the crucial player in determining the course of events in the Middle East's most populous nation.
Already, the army -- which has long enjoyed close ties to the ruling regime -- is playing a key role in the efforts of the embattled Mubarak regime to control the growing chaos. Over the weekend, after police withdrew, the army deployed to cities across Egypt, keeping order but generally not forcing protesters from the streets. Today, the Egyptian government received permission from Israel to move soldiers into the Sinai Peninsula, which has been largely demilitarized since a 1979 peace treaty between the two countries. And Mubarak has now turned to three career military men -- including Omar Suleiman, a former army general and head of the intelligence services, now appointed vice president -- to help run the government.
But the army has promised not to fire on peaceful protests, and has said it recognizes the legitimacy of the protester's demands. If it were to turn completely on Mubarak, he could lose his already tenuous hold on power. The Lookout asked Stephen Zunes, a professor of politics and chair of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of San Francisco, about how the Egyptian military might respond, and how that response might influence events:
LOOKOUT: What role has the military played in Egyptian society during Mubarak's regime? How is it viewed by ordinary Egyptians?
SZ: Egypt has essentially been under military rule since the revolution that overthrew the monarchy in 1952. Mubarak, for example, was the commander of the Egyptian air force prior to Sadat (also a career military officer) naming him as vice-president in 1975. In recent years, the military hierarchy appeared to oppose Mubarak's intention of naming his son Gamal as his successor. With the naming of military intelligence chief Suleiman as vice president, the military hierarchy is reasserting its political leadership.
LOOKOUT:Â Now that the army has been called out into the streets in certain areas to confront protesters, are Egyptian soldiers expected to remain loyal to Mubarak? Would that still likely be the case if they were ordered to fire on Egyptian citizens?
SZ: While the military might be willing to push Mubarak aside, they are unlikely to support a democratic transition of the kind being demanded from the street. And there are certainly those in the military leadership who would be willing to try a Tiananmen Square-style massacre to stop it. The bigger question is whether soldiers, overwhelmingly from the poorest and most disenfranchised segments of the Egyptian population, would be willing to obey those kinds of orders. I would tend to doubt it.
LOOKOUT: Without the support of the army, would Mubarak have any way to hold onto power?
SZ: In either case, it appears at this point that Mubarak is finished. Certainly by September, when the presidential elections are scheduled, but I am assuming long before then. You can have all the formal trappings of government you want and all the military firepower at your disposal you can muster, but if people don't recognize your authority and refuse to obey your orders, you no longer have power. Dictators from [Ferdinand] Marcos to [Slobodan] Milosevic, when faced with similar uprisings, found this out the hard way, and it's becoming increasingly likely that Mubarak will as well.
LOOKOUT:Â What are the various pressures acting on the military, both the commanders and the rank-and-file troops?
SZ: The Obama administration has apparently told the military that a crackdown would lead to the severing of US military aid and cooperation, which -- given the $1.5 billion annual taxpayer-funded US assistance -- is quite a disincentive. For the troops, they may be faced with the choice of disobeying commands or attacking their friends, family and neighbors.
LOOKOUT: The military could well play a role in any new regime that replaced Mubarak. What might such a government look like and how might it rule differently from Mubarak's regime? Would it be any more democratic or open?
SZ: Some argue that the military under Oman Suleiman's leadership is essentially in charge already. In any case, Suleiman has shown strong leadership and mediation skills, and is well liked in some Western capitals, but he is no democrat. He is despised by many Egyptians as a result of his ruthlessness as head of military intelligence, where he effectively served as torturer-in-chief.
While some hope he might be pragmatic enough to lead a democratic transition, it is unlikely that the protesters will be satisfied unless there is a broad representative civilian interim government that can oversee free elections. Neither Mubarak nor the military can be trusted to supervise free and fair elections.

Egypt goes entirely offline

Egypt's last working Internet service provider, the Noor Group, has been disconnected, a US Web monitoring company said, leaving the crisis-torn country completely offline.

Renesys, a New Hampshire-based firm that monitors Internet routing data in real time, said on Monday that the Noor network "started disappearing from the Internet" around 20h46 GMT.

"They are completely unavailable at present," Renesys vice president and general manager Earl Zmijewski said in a blog post.

Attempts by the AFP news agency to access noor.net and other websites in Egypt serviced by
the company, such as the Egyptian stock exchange site at egyptse.com, were unsuccessful.

Egypt's four main Internet service providers - Link Egypt, Vodafone/Raya, Telecom Egypt and Etisalat Misr - cut off international access to their customers on Thursday.

The move left the Noor Group as the only working Internet provider in the country rocked by days of protests against President Hosni Mubarak.

Mobile telephone networks have also been severely disrupted in Egypt along with the Internet.

Activists have used mobile phones and the Internet to organise the most serious anti-government demonstrations in decades, protests inspired by the uprising in Tunisia.

Innovation

Google, in response to the Internet blockade in Egypt, said on Monday that it had created a way to post messages to microblogging service Twitter by making telephone calls.

Google worked with Twitter and freshly acquired SayNow, a startup specialising in social online voice platforms, to make it possible for anyone to "tweet" by leaving a message at any of three telephone numbers.

"Like many people we've been glued to the news unfolding in Egypt and thinking of what we could do to help people on the ground," Google product manager Abdel-Karim Mardini and SayNow co-founder Ujjwal Singh said in a blog post.

"Over the weekend we came up with the idea of a speak-to-tweet service - the ability for anyone to tweet using just a voice connection," they said.

Voice mail messages left at +16504194196; +390662207294 or +97316199855 will instantly be converted into text messages, referred to as tweets, and posted at Twitter with an identifying "hashtag" of #egypt.

Twitter hashtags are intended as search terms so people can more easily find comments related to particular topics or events.

People can call the same numbers to listen to messages or hear them online at twitter.com/speak2tweet.

"We hope that this will go some way to helping people in Egypt stay connected at this very difficult time," said Singh and Mardini. "Our thoughts are with everyone there."

Google, meanwhile, declined to comment on reports that one of its Egypt-based marketing executives, Wael Ghonim, has been missing since late Friday.

"We care deeply about the safety of our employees, but to protect their privacy, we don't comment on them individually," a spokesman for the California Internet giant said in an email response to an AFP inquiry.

Egyptians gear for gigantic protest

Organisers plan "march of millions" on Tuesday to force President Mubarak to quit and the army vows not to use force.

Protest organisers have announced an indefinite general strike and called for a "march of a million" in the Egyptian capital on Tuesday, the eighth day of an uprising that has claimed at least 125 lives in clashes between demonstrators and police.

Another million-strong march was planned in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, as national train services were cancelled in an apparent bid to stymie protests.

The new protests will come as the hated police have returned to the street.

But while the police's posture to be adopted in the face of the strike and marches remains unknown, the Egyptian army stated clearly on Monday that it would not stop them.

Faced with the prospect of massive numbers trying to converge on the capital, Egyptian authorities stopped all train traffic with immediate effect on Monday afternoon.

And state-owned national carrier EgyptAir said it was cancelling all domestic and international flights from 3 pm (1300 GMT) to 8 am (0600 GMT) until further notice, coinciding with a curfew in Cairo, Alexandria and Suez.

Army promise

In a statement on Monday the army said "freedom of expression" was guaranteed to all citizens using peaceful means.

"To the great people of Egypt, your armed forces, acknowledging the legitimate rights of the people," stress that "they have not and will not use force against the Egyptian people," the statement.

It was the first such explicit confirmation by the army that it would not fire at demonstrators who have taken to the streets of Egypt and comes a day before Tuesday's "march of millions"."The presence of the army in the streets is for your sake and to ensure your safety and wellbeing. The armed forces will not resort to use of force against our great people,

"Your armed forces, who are aware of the legitimacy of your demands and are keen to assume their responsibility in protecting the nation and the citizens, affirms that freedom of expression through peaceful means is guaranteed to everybody." the army statement said.

It urged people not to resort to acts of sabotage that violate security and destroy public and private property. It warned that it would not allow outlaws to loot, attack and "terrorise citizens".

Protesters have called for a massive demonstration and a rolling general strike on Tuesday.

The so-called April 6 Movement said it plans to have more than one million people on the streets of the capital Cairo.

The call came as Mubarak swore in a new cabinet in an attempt to defuse ongoing demonstrations across the country.

Call for talks

Omar Suleiman, Egypt's new vice president, said on Monday that Mubarak had tasked him with opening "immediate" dialogue with the opposition "around all the issues concerning constitutional and legislative reforms".

He said steps were underway to implement decisions of the appeals court contesting results of autumn legislative elections in certain constituencies.

However, members of the opposition in the Egyptian capital told our correspondent they reject the offer of dialogue.

"They say it isn't an issue of a different approach from Mubarak, they just don't want Mubarak," he said.

"They are saying they don't want to enter dialogue with Mubarak or Omar Suleiman, they say they've been in that dialogue for the past 30 years and it has been one way. They don't want anything to do with him. They demand he steps down."
Up to 250,000 people are continuing to demonstrate in Cairo's Tahrir square after hundreds remained camped out overnight, defying a curfew that has been extended by the army.

There is a heavy army presence around the area, with tanks positioned near the square and officers checking identity papers.

One of Al Jazeera's correspondents said military attempts to block access to the square on Monday by closing roads was not working as more people were arriving in a steady stream.

"Protesters say they'll stay in this square for as long as Mubarak stays in power," she said.

Protesters seem unfazed by Mubarak's pledge to institute economic and political reforms. Our correspondent said people feel that such pledges "are too little, too late".

Al Jazeera reporters in Cairo also said police had been seen returning to the streets, directing traffic, after being absent since Friday.We are waiting for the minister of interior to announce in what form they are going to come back onto the streets and why they disappeared after Friday prayers, on the 'second day of rage'," one correspondent said.

"The absence of police has given looters a free rein, forcing ordinary citizens to set up neighbourhood patrols. Many people are wondering where the police disappeared to.

"There are two schools of thought as far as the police are concerned: One is that many of them decided to join the protesters.

"The other is that the regime was saying to the people, 'You want to protest. We'll pull back the police and you feel what anarchy feels like'," our correspondent said.

After deadly clashes in which around 125 people were killed in Cairo and other cities, protesters complained that police were using excessive force.

But an Al Jazeera correspondent said some locals greeted police as "long-lost friends" on Monday.

"It's almost as if the population of Cairo is suffering from selective amnesia ... We saw one small boy carrying a tray a of tea to a group of policemen. Another man got out of his car, kissed and hugged the policemen."

Panic and chaos

Meanwhile, many people are reported to be panic buying in Cairo amid the unrest.

"I walked into a supermarket and saw complete mayhem," an Al Jazeera correspondent said.

"People are stocking up on supplies as much as they can. There are very few rations available in the stores. They are running out of basic supplies, like eggs, cheese and meat. Deliveries have not been coming for days."

Chaos has also been reported at Cairo's international airport, where thousands of foreigners are attempting to be evacuated by their home countries.

As the protests continue, security is said to be deteriorating and reports have emerged of several prisons across the country being attacked and of fresh protests being staged in cities like Alexandria and Suez.

Thirty-four leaders from the Muslim Brotherhood were freed from the Wadi Natroun jail after guards abandoned their posts.

Source: Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera English Finds an Audience

NEW YORK TIMES
White House officials have turned to Al Jazeera English among other television channels to monitor the mounting protests in Egypt. But most Americans lack the same ability to tune in to the broadcaster, which is based in Qatar, because cable and satellite companies in the United States have largely refused its requests to be carried.

With the network’s coverage of the crisis drawing praise, however, Al Jazeera executives said Monday that they planned to renew their lobbying to be carried on cable systems across the United States..

“I sincerely hope now is the turning point,” Al Anstey, the managing director of Al Jazeera English, said by telephone from Doha, Qatar. The channel has won some American fans in recent days because of its live stream on the Internet, which has garnered more than 1.6 million views in the United States.

If major cable and satellite companies like Comcast and DirecTV are willing to carry Al Jazeera English, they were not willing to say so on Monday. Some of the companies said in statements that they have to balance the requests of many channels that want space on an already-crowded line-up of channels.

Al Jazeera English, however, is indisputably unique. In recent days, the channel, an offshoot of the main Arabic-language Al Jazeera, has gained attention for its up-close, around-the-clock coverage of the protests in Cairo, Alexandria, Suez and other cities in Egypt.

While American television networks were scrambling to move reporters and producers into Cairo, the Al Jazeera channels were already there. The other networks have noticed: on the roundtable portion of ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, Sam Donaldson looked at an Al Jazeera reporter and said, “Thank you for what you’re doing.”

Al Jazeera began its English channel in 2006. It is generally accessible to viewers around the world, Mr. Anstey said. Inside the United States, however, there is full access in only a handful of cities: Washington D.C., Burlington, Vt. and Toledo, Ohio.

Mr. Anstey said he thought that the channel had suffered from “some misconceptions about what Al Jazeera stood for.” During the Iraq war, the Arabic-language channel was criticized by Bush administration officials, and as recently as Friday the conservative Fox News commentator Bill O’Reilly branded Al Jazeera as “anti-America.”

But that view has been largely drowned out by people like Mr. Donaldson who have hoisted up Al Jazeera English for its protest coverage. Traffic to the English-language Web site has increased by 2,500 percent since Friday, Mr. Anstey said.

Mohamed Nanabhay, the head of online for the English language channel, said the Web site’s live stream had been viewed over 4 million times since Friday, and that 1.6 million of those views have come from the United States. “It’s just a testament to the fact that Americans do care about foreign news,” he said.

Furthering access to Al Jazeera English, on Monday YouTube started promoting its own live stream.

Some of the cable companies pointed to the live Web streams as evidence that cable carriage is less of an imperative. But the channel’s American supporters say that the stream is not equivalent to a channel in a cable line-up, and that by declining to pick up Al Jazeera English, cable and satellite companies are effectively restricting Americans’ views of the world.

Mr. Anstey’s channel has been holding meetings “at various levels” with cable and satellite companies since it started up in 2006. In statements that echoed one another on Monday, the companies said they receive requests from many channels for carriage. “We make those requests part of our decision making process,” said a spokeswoman for Verizon FiOS.

Said a spokeswoman for Time Warner Cable, “We remain willing to talk with them, or any other programming provider, for carriage of their network.”

Egypt, Tunisia and Pakistan

EDITORIAL: Daily Times
Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has tried to counter the political rhetoric that Pakistan could face a Tunisia and Egypt-like situation if the government does not pull up its socks by saying that the country has a functioning democracy and strong institutions. Coalition partner MQM’s leader Altaf Hussain, in his address to a rally for national solidarity in Karachi on Sunday once again raised the slogan of revolution with reference to Egypt and Tunisia. In a press conference the same day, leaders of the newly formed Muttahida Muslim League urged the government to mend its ways or be ready to face the wrath of the people. Tunisia and Egypt have been heaving under the yoke of decades-long dictatorships, and saw a spontaneous outpouring of public anger sparked by a small incident in Tunisia, which eventually forced Zine El Abidine to flee to Saudi Arabia. Soon after the flight of Ben Ali, the virus of popular revolt travelled to other parts of the Arab world, where the masses are rising and protesting against autocratic regimes. The way the protests broke out and spread to Jordan, Algeria, and even to Yemen, is intriguing. It is notoriously difficult to predict when the patience of the masses will run out and they will revolt against their oppressors. There are moments in history when a combination of factors, sentiments and circumstances trigger such events, which can, as seen in Tunisia and particularly Egypt, lead to a situation of dual power and change of the old order. At such junctures, the amorphous voice of the people not being led by any one party or organization surprises all the political forces, because the people are ahead of their traditional leaders. In Tunisia and Egypt, we have witnessed dual power emerging: one centre of power is the old crumbling regime making desperate efforts to hold on, and the other is the power of the people on the streets who would like to see the back of the dictatorial regime after suffering years of brutal repression.

Although the historical trajectory in Tunisia and Egypt, which led to a popular revolt, is very different from that of Pakistan, nevertheless, there is a lava bubbling under the surface here too due to the failure of successive regimes to ensure the provision of even the basic necessities of life to the larger segment of society. Pakistan’s history of incompetent democratic regimes and dictatorial military governments has left the people with few choices. A rudderless, directionless people who reposed their trust in democratic governments have been disappointed so far. Therefore, the raw material for a revolt is very much there. Can an ostensibly democratic government prevent that lava of resentment and anger from erupting?

One should in any case be cautious in dismissing the possibility of a movement of the people in Pakistan. However, there is another dimension to the situation here, which could be the cause of great concern. After four decades of nurturing of jihadis and extremists, any popular revolt will be at risk of being hijacked by extremist forces, who have recently rallied together on the issue of the blasphemy laws and are not in a mood to arrest the momentum of their campaign against the government. In these circumstances, the people of Pakistan have the sorry option between an inept and corrupt political leadership and the entire spectrum of right-wing forces from centre-right to extreme right. The decline of the liberal, democratic and progressive community is at the heart of this crisis. Unless these forces strengthen their cadre, induct fresh blood into their ranks and mount a challenge to the extremists, Pakistan has little hope of salvation.

Pakistan's blasphemy laws & Political bigotry

Daily Times
Thousands of followers of the religious and right wing parties gathered in Lahore to warn the government not to amend the blasphemy laws. The religious parties included the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), Tehrik-e-Millat-e-Jafariya, banned militant outfit Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) among others, while the PML-N, PML-Q, PML-Z, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) were the centre-right parties present.

Just last month there was a large congregation of the extreme right in Karachi under the same banner, demanding the same thing – no amendment or repeal of the blasphemy laws. The rally in Lahore was almost as ‘successful’, but certain dimensions of this rally make it more significant. The extreme right managed to bring on board the centre-right political forces. Equally important is the fact that a Shia organisation decided to join them despite the fact that Sunni sectarian extremists have been involved in massacring Shias over the decades. The bigotry of the Deobandis came out in full force when Sajid Naqvi, a Shia leader, joined the rally and many in the crowd started shouting: “Kafir, kafir, Shia kafir” (Shias are infidels). JuD chief Hafiz Saeed also addressed the crowd. Hafiz Saeed seems to be on the frontline of this ‘struggle’. JuD is a front of the banned terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT). How is it then that the Punjab authorities allowed the chief of a banned outfit to address a mammoth rally in the provincial capital (yet again)? This will also have an adverse impact on the Indo-Pak foreign secretaries meeting about to take place this month in Thimphu.

JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s ‘advice’ to Punjab Governor Khosa to pay a visit to late Governor Taseer’s assassin Mumtaz Qadri in order to ‘thank’ him for his governorship shows the level of the speeches at the rally. On the other hand, the centre-right parties showed their support for bigotry by their participation. The PPP-led government has backpedalled and completely retreated on its stance on the blasphemy laws and repeatedly bleated that no change to these flawed laws is being contemplated.

The track record of blasphemy cases shows that these have nothing to do with religion or blasphemy. These laws are flawed and open to abuse. Instead of stopping the misuse of these laws, now that the religious right has strengthened itself, the abuse is likely to be perpetuated. The government, even if it is not ready to repeal or amend these laws, should at least put a check on the misuse of these laws that has led to so much injustice.

Technology finds role in Egyptian protests

On 27 January, Egypt fell off the internet as virtually all international connections were cut following an order from the government.

But older technologies proved their worth as net activists and protesters used them to get round the block.

Protesters are also circulating information about how to avoid communication controls inside Egypt.

Call charge
Dial-up modems are one of the most popular routes for Egyptians to get back online. Long lists of international numbers that connect to dial-up modems are circulating in Egypt thanks to net activists We Re-Build, Telecomix and others.

Dial-up numbers featured heavily in Twitter messages tagged with hashes related to the protests such as #egypt and #jan25.

ISPs in France, the US, Sweden, Spain and many other nations have set up pools of modems that will accept international calls to get information to and from protesters. Many have waived fees to make it easier for people to connect.

Few domestic lines in Egypt can call internationally to get at the modems, however. The Manalaa blog gave advice about how to use dial-up using a mobile, bluetooth and a laptop. It noted that the cost of international calls could be "pricey" but said it was good enough for "urgent communication". The advice was posted to many blogs, copied and sent out by many others.We Re-Build, which campaigns for unmonitored internet access around Europe, said it was also listening on some ham radio frequencies and would relay any messages it received either by voice or morse code.


Net access in Egypt has dropped almost to zero

Internal aid
While most net connections with Egypt have been cut, Egyptian ISP Noor seemed to stay online largely because it connects the country's Stock Exchange and many Western companies to the outside world.

Reports from Cairo suggest that many people and businesses who are signed up to Noor have removed the passwords from their wi-fi routers so others can piggy-back on their connection.

Elsewhere, a crowd-sourced document entitled 20 Ways to Circumvent the Egyptians Governments' Internet Block has compiled the best ways for Egyptians to keep communicating.

Some Egyptians reported that they could get at websites such as Google, Twitter and Facebook by using the numeric addresses for the sites rather than the English language name.

Mobile networks were not free of official interference. On Friday Vodafone Egypt said it, and all other operators, had been ordered to shut down services in some areas.

To get around this blockade, protesters circulated alternative message centre numbers throughout the weekend. Using these has allowed some locals to continue texting and using services such as Twitter.

Many people reported that they could avoid the block on Twitter by using a third-party updating program, rather than the official website, to receive and send messages.

Fax machines were also drafted in by online activists and others who wanted to contact people inside Egypt and pass on information about how to restore net access.

The group of internet activists known as Anonymous was also using faxes to get information to students at several schools in the country. Anonymous activists have been faxing copies of cables from Wikileaks relating to Egypt in the hope that the information they contain about the Mubarak regime will be more widely distributed. It is not clear how much impact this is having, however.

Blasts hit northern Pakistan

Senior police officer among several people killed in two separate attacks near the city of Peshawar, officials say.

The attacker struck near a police van in Peshawar on Monday, killing Rasheed Khan, a deputy superintendent, two other policemen and a passerby, and wounding at least six others.

"We have received four bodies - three police officials and one civilian," Abdul Hameed Afridi, the head of Peshawar's main hospital, told the AFP news agency.

According to a police officer at the scene, the attack was carried out by a teenage boy carrying between six and seven kilos of explosives.

The Pakistani Taliban has claimed the bombing.

"We have already announced that we will target police and security forces," Azam Tariq, a spokesman for the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan told AFP.

Bashi Bilo, senior minister of the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said fighters were "targeting police to pressure and dishearten them".

But he added that such attacks would not weaken the government's resolve to combat such attacks.

Meanwhile the AP news agency reported that a second blast hit a roadside police patrol several miles from the first incident, killing at least one policeman and wounding three others.

Pakistan's northwest and tribal areas have been wracked by violence, mostly targeting security officials, since hundreds of Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters sought refuge there after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

Peshawar is located next to Pakistan's tribal area, which fighters use as their main base of operations.

Al-Jazeera Journalists Arrested

The Egyptian military arrested and later released six journalists from the Arabic television network Al-Jazeera, the network said today.Special military units have just raided the hotel where our journalists from Al-Jazeera English were operating," Clayton Swisher, an Al-Jazeera reporter in Doha, Qatar, told ABC News.

Swisher said the journalists were arrested and that newsgathering equipment was also confiscated. Though the journalists were released about 90 minutes later, the equipment was not returned. The six were told authorities did not "want to see [them] again" when they were released.

Swisher told ABC News the network will continue to broadcast from Egypt.


Before news of the journalists' release emerged, U.S. State Department spokesperson P.J. Crowley tweeted, "We are concerned by the shutdown of Al-Jazeera in Egypt and arrest of its correspondents. Egypt must be open and the reporters released."The arrests came after Al-Jazeera reported the Egyptian government shut off the channel's signal from an Egyptian satellite. Then, the station denounced the move as an attempt to "stifle and repress" open reporting in Egypt.

Egypt army vows not to use force

Al Jazeera
The Egyptian army has said it would not use force against citizens staging protests to force President Hosni Mubarak to step down

In a statement on Monday it said "freedom of expression" was guaranteed to all citizens using peaceful means.

It was the first such explicit confirmation by the army that it would not fire at demonstrators who have taken to the streets of Egypt and comes a day before before Tuesday's "march of millions" to mark the seventh day of the protests as anti-government sentiment reaches fever pitch.The presence of the army in the streets is for your sake and to ensure your safety and wellbeing. The armed forces will not resort to use of force against our great people," the army statement said.

"Your armed forces, who are aware of the legitimacy of your demands and are keen to assume their responsibility in protecting the nation and the citizens, affirms that freedom of expression through peaceful means is guaranteed to everybody."

It urged people not to resort to acts of sabotage that violate security and destroy public and private property. It warned that it would not allow outlaws to loot, attack and "terrorise citizens".

Protesters have called for a massive demonstration and a rolling general strike on Tuesday.

The so-called April 6 Movement said it plans to have more than one million people on the streets of the capital Cairo.

The call came as Mubarak swore in a new cabinet in an attempt to defuse ongoing demonstrations across the country.

Omar Suleiman, Egypt's new vice president, said on Monday that Mubarak had tasked him with opening "immediate" dialogue with the opposition "around all the issues concerning constitutional and legislative reforms".

He said steps were underway to implement decisions of the appeals court contesting results of autumn legislative elections in certain constituencies.

However, members of the opposition in the Egyptian capital told our correspondent they reject the offer of dialogue.

"They say it isn't an issue of a different approach from Mubarak, they just don't want Mubarak," he said.

"They are saying they don't want to enter dialogue with Mubarak or Omar Suleiman, they say they've been in that dialogue for the past 30 years and it has been one way. They don't want anything to do with him. They demand he steps down."Up to 250,000 people are continuing to demonstrate in Cairo's Tahrir square after hundreds remained camped out overnight, defying a curfew that has been extended by the army.

There is a heavy army presence around the area, with tanks positioned near the square and officers checking identity papers.

One of Al Jazeera's correspondents said military attempts to block access to the square on Monday by closing roads was not working as more people were arriving in a steady stream.

"Protesters say they'll stay in this square for as long as Mubarak stays in power," she said.

Protesters seem unfazed by Mubarak's pledge to institute economic and political reforms. Our correspondent said people feel that such pledges "are too little, too late".

Al Jazeera reporters in Cairo also said police had been seen returning to the streets, directing traffic, after being absent since Friday.We are waiting for the minister of interior to announce in what form they are going to come back onto the streets and why they disappeared after Friday prayers, on the 'second day of rage'," one correspondent said.

"The absence of police has given looters a free rein, forcing ordinary citizens to set up neighbourhood patrols. Many people are wondering where the police disappeared to.

"There are two schools of thought as far as the police are concerned: One is that many of them decided to join the protesters.

"The other is that the regime was saying to the people, 'You want to protest. We'll pull back the police and you feel what anarchy feels like'," our correspondent said.

After deadly clashes in which around 125 people were killed in Cairo and other cities, protesters complained that police were using excessive force.

But an Al Jazeera correspondent said some locals greeted police as "long-lost friends" on Monday.

"It's almost as if the population of Cairo is suffering from selective amnesia ... We saw one small boy carrying a tray a of tea to a group of policemen. Another man got out of his car, kissed and hugged the policemen."

Panic and chaos

Meanwhile, many people are reported to be panic buying in Cairo amid the unrest.

"I walked into a supermarket and saw complete mayhem," an Al Jazeera correspondent said.

"People are stocking up on supplies as much as they can. There are very few rations available in the stores. They are running out of basic supplies, like eggs, cheese and meat. Deliveries have not been coming for days."

Chaos has also been reported at Cairo's international airport, where thousands of foreigners are attempting to be evacuated by their home countries.

As the protests continue, security is said to be deteriorating and reports have emerged of several prisons across the country being attacked and of fresh protests being staged in cities like Alexandria and Suez.

Thirty-four leaders from the Muslim Brotherhood were freed from the Wadi Natroun jail after guards abandoned their posts.

US Begins Evacuation Flights From Cairo

Egyptian protesters want Mubarak out by Friday

Thousands of protesters defied a curfew in Cairo again on Monday, taking to the streets for a seventh straight day of anti-government demonstrations and demanding that President Hosni Mubarak step down by Friday.Even as Mubarak's new cabinet held its first meeting Monday, a coalition of opposition groups began calling for a million people to protest in the Egyptian capital on Tuesday to demand his removal.The coalition includes youth movement groups as well as the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. They were discussing the possibility of making prominent reform advocate Mohamed ElBaradei spokesman for the protesters, spokesmen for several of the groups' members said.
About 40 coalition representatives were meeting to discuss the future of Egypt after Mubarak. They blame the 82-year-old for widespread poverty, inflation, and official indifference and brutality during his 30 years in power.

Tahrir Square: Home to Major Egyptian Political, Cultural Institutions

As protesters mass night-after-night, Egypt's iconic main square is again a focus for national change. On Monday night, the Egyptian army put up some barricades among the throngs of demonstrators in Tahrir Square in the heart of modern Cairo.

The square is a large public space where major Egyptian political and cultural institutions are located and mass protests have been held over the years.
The square was named Tahrir, or Liberation, after Egypt's 1952 revolution, in which Egyptian military officers overthrew a constitutional monarchy and proclaimed a republic.
Prominent buildings surrounding the square include the Egyptian Antiquities Museum, the Arab League headquarters, an Egyptian government complex known as Mugamma, and several hotels.Tahrir Square, located along the Nile River, is a magnet for tourists and Cairo's youth. It also is a major transportation hub for buses, taxis and Cairo's underground Metro railway.It has seen several major demonstrations in recent years, including 2003 protests against the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

And it was a focal point during protests in 1977 when the government of then-President Anwar Sadat set off a fury by raising the price of bread.

Egypt's opposition calls for 1 million on streets

A coalition of opposition groups called for a million people to take to Cairo's streets Tuesday to demand the removal of President Hosni Mubarak, the clearest sign yet that a unified leadership was trying to emerge for Egypt's powerful but disparate protest movement.
In an apparent attempt to defuse the weeklong political upheaval, Mubarak named a new government Monday — dropping the widely hated interior minister in charge of security forces. But the lineup was greeted with scorn in Tahrir Square, the central Cairo plaza that has become the protests' epicenter, with crowds of more than 10,000 chanting for Mubarak's ouster.
"We don't want life to go back to normal until Mubarak leaves," said Israa Abdel-Fattah, a founder of the April 6 Group, a movement of young people pushing for democratic reform.
In what appeared to be a reaction to the opposition call, state TV aired a warning from the military against "the carrying out of any act that destabilizes security of the country." But it also said the military underlined that it "has not and will not use force against the public."
If Egypt's opposition groups are able to truly coalesce, it could sustain and amplify the momentum of the week-old protests. A unified front could also provide a focal point for American and other world leaders who are issuing demands for an orderly transition to a democratic system, saying Mubarak's limited concessions are insufficient.
But unity is far from certain among the array of movements involved in the protests, with sometimes conflicting agendas — including students, online activists, grassroots organizers, old-school opposition politicians and the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood, along with everyday citizens drawn by the exhilaration of marching against the government.
So it was not clear how much the groups that met Monday represent everyone. The gathering of around 30 representatives, meeting in the Cairo district of Dokki, agreed to work as a united coalition and supported a call for a million people to turn out for a march Tuesday, said Abu'l-Ela Madi , the spokesman of one of the participating groups, al-Wasat, a moderate breakaway faction from the Muslim Brotherhood.
But they disagreed on other key points. The representatives decided to meet again Tuesday morning at the downtown Cairo headquarters of Wafd, the oldest legal opposition party, to finalize and announce a list of demands. They will also decide whether to make prominent reform advocate Mohamed ElBaradei spokesman for the protesters, Madi said.

Sudanese police, students clash in the capital

Sudanese police clashed with students Sunday as protests inspired by rallies in Egypt broke out in the capital.
The students protested at a university in Khartoum, chanting "No to high prices, no to corruption" and "Tunisia, Egypt, Sudan together as one."
About 100 students hurled rocks at police officers, who forced them back. Five people were arrested, authorities said.
Students resumed the protests and tried to engage bystanders as soon as police left the area.

Where in the world is Gamal Mubarak?

Actress Veena Malik takes on clerics over dress

A Pakistani film star is pitting herself against conservative clerics after wearing shorts and swimming with Baywatch star Pamela Anderson.

After attacks from religious leaders, Veena Malik, star of more than a dozen "Lollywood" (Lahore's Hollywood) movies, has called for women to be freed from conservative dress and the horror of honour killing.

"If a woman is cool with wearing a burka, she should wear a burka. If a woman, being a Muslim, wants to wear jeans, then she should wear jeans. That's your right," she said.

Malik, 32, whose former boyfriend Mohammad Asif, the Pakistani Test cricketer, was embroiled in a betting scandal last year, has become a champion for Pakistani liberals after appearing in Bigg Boss 4, a version of Big Brother, on Indian television.

The repeated showing on Pakistani television of two clips, one in which she is seen wearing shorts and another in which she hugs an Indian actor, prompted a backlash from clerics.In a fiery confrontation on a talk show last week, Malik defended herself against Mufti Abdul Qawi, who denounced her behaviour as immoral, despite admitting he had not seen the videos.

She retorted that he was attacking her because she was a woman. "I'm a Muslim woman, and I know my limits," she yelled at Qawi, who seemed too shocked by her fury to reply.

Malik said Pakistan's culture of fear had intensified since this month's murder of Punjab governor Salman Taseer.

"I'm not scared of anything. Being a woman, you will just go for me because I'm a soft target. But I won't take it, even if I die," she said.

The actress pledged to fight for women's rights. "Why aren't men being beaten? Have you ever heard they've thrown acid in a guy's face here in Pakistan?

"We should emphasise education and improving the literacy rate, but we're still stuck in 'Look at her, she's not wearing shalwar kameez (traditional dress), she's wearing jeans'. Please, get a life."

Egyptian Protests Expected Monday Despite Curfew

A scholar said Egyptians are dissatisfied with the appointment of a vice president and will continue with their protests Monday despite an imposed curfew to press home their demands for embattled President Hosni Mubarak to step down from office.
Howayda Mostafa, professor of mass communication at the University of Cairo, told VOA the protesters do not consider the installation of Vice President Omar Suleiman as the real democratic transformation in government that they are demanding.
“Today (Monday), they will continue to protest because the nomination of the vice president and all the (others) didn’t satisfy the protesters because they consider that this change doesn’t reflect a real change because both of them are very close to the regime. They (protesters) are expecting a real change in the regime itself,” Mostafa said.
“In addition, they asked the president to go out and to make real change; and they called for another regime which respects them and their aspirations; and they are calling for a new constitution; and they are calling for a government which reflects many political forces. So, they will continue to protest till they realize these changes.”
Meanwhile, Nobel laureate and Egyptian opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei told thousands of protesters in the capital’s Tahrir Square Sunday that they "cannot go back" after starting the uprising against Mr. Mubarak.
Mostafa said it’s impossible to predict whether the ongoing protests will force President Mubarak to step down.
“No one can be sure what will happen in the future. But, as we see now, this is the first time that the regime tried to listen to the people because it’s a real manifestation,” said Mostafa.
A crowd of some 5,000 people erupted in applause as Mr. El-Baradei called for an end to the Mubarak government so that a new Egypt of "freedom and dignity" can emerge. Cairo's Tahrir Square has become a hub of grassroots anti-Mubarak demonstrations.

Protesters also defied the government-imposed curfew in other cities, including the northern port city of Alexandria where thousands continued an hours-long march.

The government says the curfew will continue to be in effect on Monday. It also has extended the curfew one hour, starting at 3:00 pm local time (1300 GMT) instead of 4:00 pm (1400 GMT).

Media reports say police will begin returning to some streets in Cairo on Monday two days after withdrawing following violent clashes with protesters. Security sources say they will return to routine duties, but will not confront protesters.
Egypt's army has increased its presence, but has made no attempt to disperse demonstrators since being deployed. The army is popular and highly respected, while many Egyptians see the police force as corrupt and repressive.

EGYPT PROTESTS VIDEOS, AGAINST A DICTATOR

Arab Elite Say Monarchies Are Safe From Unrest

By LIZ ALDERMAN
DAVOS, SWITZERLAND — The unrest engulfing Egypt caught business and political leaders at the World Economic Forum off guard, but it became the hottest topic among the Arab elite here. Most of those leaders tuned in to the dramatic events using iPads and BlackBerrys and huddled to debate how the uprising would affect the rest of the Arab world.
“It’s all anyone’s talking about,” said Sheik Mohammed bin Essa al-Khalifa, who leads Bahrain’s economic development board and took part in many of the discussions.For the most part, the consensus was that President Hosni Mubarak would not easily relinquish his authoritarian grip in Egypt, an outcome that became more evident as he named Omar Suleiman, the country’s intelligence chief and a close ally, as his vice president on Saturday.
But the drive for change from tens of thousands of protesters means that a near monarchical regime cloaked in democracy will inevitably end, Arab executives here concluded.
“People are saying that Gamal Mubarak doesn’t have a chance of succeeding his father,” said a business executive who insisted on anonymity, referring to Mr. Mubarak’s son. “It’s a matter of when it will end, not if.”The events in Egypt were hardly mentioned during the official programs at the Davos forum, although a few leaders issued brief statements of concern before turning to other topics.Few of the executives present expected a revolution to spread across the oil-rich nations of the Gulf, where the governments are monarchies, which often do not create the types of expectations that accompany a democracy.Rulers in these countries use their oil wealth to invest in social stability by ensuring that their own people lead comfortable lives through subsidies on things like electricity, education and food.
“Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries are going to be spared because they are not democratic regimes,” said Jamal Khashoggi, the general manager of Al Waleed 24 News Channel. People in those countries “don’t feel cheated because there are no elections,” he said.
By contrast, he said, “I can feel the agony of an Egyptian when he sees how democracy is mocked.”
On Thursday, the Saudi prince Turki al-Faisal al-Saud had this answer when asked whether a wave of democracy across the Middle East might be even more destabilizing than a nuclear Iran: “I don’t know; in Saudi Arabia, we have neither nuclear weapons nor democracy.”
One question mark, some Arab executives said, may be Bahrain, the smallest economy in the region and a developing democracy.
Bahrain lacks the abundant oil wealth of many of its neighbors, and has moved to diversify its economy, invest heavily in education and create an unemployment safety net, the only one in the region. Shiites outnumber the Sunni population, which lost control of Parliament in elections last October.
For some, however, the situation is not comfortable enough.
“People think that we should follow this nanny state mentality of the government subsidizing everything,” Sheik Mohammed said. He noted that Kuwait had just paid $3,000 to every Kuwaiti citizen to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the country’s independence.

Referring to people in Bahrain, he said: “They don’t want to let go of electricity subsidies or other subsidies. But those who benefit most are members of Parliament, the business community, decision makers and to some extent, the press, which comes out against reforms.”
Instead, his country is funneling former subsidy money toward advanced education and the creation of jobs — one of the most important ingredients for social stability in the Arab world, where vast numbers of young people in particular are hampered by soaring levels of unemployment.
“What counts is jobs,” Sheik Mohammed said. “This is not just a problem in the Arab world; it’s a global issue that’s hitting the United States and Europe, too.”

Can Mubarak survive the revolt?

The protests in Alexandria - like those in Cairo - have been completely peaceful on Saturday and Sunday after the brutality of last Friday, when the police shot down and killed around 30 demonstrators in the city.Two of them were buried on Sunday, and many thousands of people turned out for their funeral service.
Some things are different in Alexandria - it still is a moderate city. But there is a noticeably stronger religious element here than there is in Cairo.
In other ways, though, things are very much the same: the anger against President Hosni Mubarak has the same intensity.And Mr Mubarak's tactics are the same as well: the army has now been given the task of dealing with the demonstrators, rather than the much more hated police who did the job until Friday's shootings.The army's tactics seem to be to let the demonstrations peter out rather than to stop them with force.So far here - as in Cairo and elsewhere - this system has worked, but the dangers are always present.
It seems clear that the Americans have warned President Mubarak urgently that there must be no more killings.

Can he survive with such vocal opposition in the streets?

He seems determined not to cut and run as President Ben Ali of Tunisia did, and the Americans can't want that either. The power vacuum it would create would be very dangerous indeed.

From the American point of view, the best thing that could happen would be a peaceful end to the protests, the retirement of Mr Mubarak and the continuation of some part (at least) of the system which he has created - shorn, hopefully, of its corruption.

It won't be easy and it won't appeal greatly to the demonstrators, who have condemned Mr Mubarak's entire political structure and want to bring it down.

Perhaps, though, stripping out his closest and older associates might just do the job.

So much of it depends on the demonstrators themselves: if they hold out - an easy transition to one of Mr Mubarak's associates will be much harder.

If, though, the shortages in the shops, the looting that has been going on and the general desire to get back to ordinary life bring a gradual end to the protest, then the system - if not the president himself - might survive in power.

Spotlight Again Falls on Web Tools and Change

Fear is the dictator’s traditional tool for keeping the people in check. But by cutting off Egypt’s Internet and wireless service late last week in the face of huge street protests, President Hosni Mubarak betrayed his own fear — that Facebook, Twitter, laptops and smartphones could empower his opponents, expose his weakness to the world and topple his regime.There was reason for Mr. Mubarak to be shaken. By many accounts, the new arsenal of social networking helped accelerate Tunisia’s revolution, driving the country’s ruler of 23 years, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, into ignominious exile and igniting a conflagration that has spread across the Arab world at breathtaking speed. It was an apt symbol that a dissident blogger with thousands of followers on Twitter, Slim Amamou, was catapulted in a matter of days from the interrogation chambers of Mr. Ben Ali’s regime to a new government post as minister for youth and sports. It was a marker of the uncertainty in Tunis that he had stepped down from the government by Thursday.

Tunisia’s uprising offers the latest encouragement for a comforting notion: that the same Web tools that so many Americans use to keep up with college pals and post passing thoughts have a more noble role as well, as a scourge of despotism. It was just 18 months ago, after all, that the same technologies were hailed as a factor in Iran’s Green Revolution, the stirring street protests that followed the disputed presidential election.

But since that revolt collapsed, Iran has become a cautionary tale. The Iranian police eagerly followed the electronic trails left by activists, which assisted them in making thousands of arrests in the crackdown that followed. The government even crowd-sourced its hunt for enemies, posting on the Web the photos of unidentified demonstrators and inviting Iranians to identify them.

“The Iranian government has become much more adept at using the Internet to go after activists,” said Faraz Sanei, who tracks Iran at Human Rights Watch. The Revolutionary Guard, the powerful political and economic force that protects the ayatollahs’ regime, has created an online surveillance center and is believed to be behind a “cyberarmy” of hackers that it can unleash against opponents, he said.

Repressive regimes around the world may have fallen behind their opponents in recent years in exploiting new technologies — not unexpected when aging autocrats face younger, more tech-savvy opponents. But in Minsk and Moscow, Tehran and Beijing, governments have begun to climb the steep learning curve and turn the new Internet tools to their own, antidemocratic purposes.

The countertrend has sparked a debate over whether the conventional wisdom that the Internet and social networking inherently tip the balance of power in favor of democracy is mistaken. A new book, “The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom,” by a young Belarus-born American scholar, Evgeny Morozov, has made the case most provocatively, describing instance after instance of strongmen finding ways to use new media to their advantage.

After all, the very factors that have brought Facebook and similar sites such commercial success have huge appeal for a secret police force. A dissident’s social networking and Twitter feed is a handy guide to his political views, his career, his personal habits and his network of like-thinking allies, friends and family. A cybersurfing policeman can compile a dossier on a regime opponent without the trouble of the street surveillance and telephone tapping required in a pre-Net world.

If Mr. Mubarak’s Egypt has resorted to the traditional blunt instrument against dissent in a crisis — cutting off communications altogether — other countries have shown greater sophistication. In Belarus, officers of the K.G.B. — the secret police agency has preserved its Soviet-era name — now routinely quote activists’ comments on Facebook and other sites during interrogations, said Alexander Lukashuk, director of the Belarus service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Last month, he said, investigators appearing at the apartment of a Belarusian photojournalist mocked her by declaring that since she had written online that they usually conducted their searches at night, they had decided to come in the morning.

In Syria, “Facebook is a great database for the government now,” said Ahed al-Hindi, a Syrian activist who was arrested at an Internet cafe in Damascus in 2006 and left his country after being released from jail. Mr. Hindi, now with the United States-based group CyberDissidents.org, said he believes that Facebook is doing more good than harm, helping activists form virtual organizations that could never survive if they met face to face. But users must be aware that they are speaking to their oppressors as well as their friends, he said.

Widney Brown, senior director of international law and policy at Amnesty International, said the popular networking services, like most technologies, are politically neutral.

“There’s nothing deterministic about these tools — Gutenberg’s press, or fax machines or Facebook,” Ms. Brown said. “They can be used to promote human rights or to undermine human rights.”

This is the point of Mr. Morozov, 26, a visiting scholar at Stanford. In “The Net Delusion,” he presents an answer to the “cyberutopians” who assume that the Internet inevitably fuels democracy. He coined the term “spinternet” to capture the spin applied to the Web by governments that are beginning to master it.

In China, Mr. Morozov said, thousands of commentators are trained and paid — hence their nickname, the 50-Cent Party — to post pro-government comments on the Web and steer online opinion away from criticism of the Communist Party. In Venezuela, President Hugo Chávez, after first denouncing hostile Twitter comments as “terrorism,” created his own Twitter feed — an entertaining mix of politics and self-promotion that now has 1.2 million followers.

In Russia, Mr. Morozov noted, Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin has managed to co-opt several prominent new-media entrepreneurs, including Konstantin Rykov, whose many Web sites now skew strongly pro-Putin and whose anti-Georgia documentary about the Russia-Georgia war of 2008 went viral on the Web.

Mr. Morozov acknowledges that social networking “definitely helps protesters to mobilize.”

“But is it making protest more likely? I don’t think so.”

In Egypt, it appears, at least some activists share Mr. Morozov’s wariness about the double-edged nature of new media. An anonymous 26-page leaflet that appeared in Cairo with practical advice for demonstrators last week, The Guardian reported, instructed activists to pass it on by e-mail and photocopy — but not by Facebook and Twitter, because they were being monitored by the government.

Then Mr. Mubarak’s government, evidently concluding that it was too late for mere monitoring, unplugged his country from the Internet altogether. It was a desperate move from an autocrat who had not learned to harness the tools his opponents have embraced.

Al Jazeera a powerful counter to Mideast regimes

Al Jazeera television, banned in Egypt on Sunday, has often angered Arab governments with its coverage of dissent and served as a counterweight to regimes which accuse it of stirring dissent.

Egypt’s official MENA news agency said the outgoing information minister, Anas al-Fikki, ordered Al Jazeera’s closure in Cairo after its blanket coverage of anti-government protests sweeping the country.

The Doha-based Al Jazeera slammed the move as an attempt at “censoring and silencing the voices of the Egyptian people.”

In this time of deep turmoil and unrest in Egyptian society it is imperative that voices from all sides be heard,” the Arab satellite news channel said.

On Saturday, it broadcast an appeal from Yusef al-Qaradawi, a popular Egyptian-born television preacher and mentor of Egypt’s officially banned Muslim Brotherhood, urging President Hosni Mubarak to step down.

In Tunisia, a wave of protests earlier this month led to the ouster of president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali after 23 years in power, inspiring demonstrations in various other countries around the region, including Egypt.

“Arab governments accuse Al Jazeera of mobilising the street, and they are right, but this accusation is an honour for the channel,” said Abdel Khaleq Abdullah, a professor at United Arab Emirates University.

“There’s no doubt Al Jazeera was an important actor in the Tunisian revolution and in the events in Egypt,” he said.

Al Jazeera, which was founded in gas-rich Qatar in 1996, is no stranger to conflict with governments in the region.

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh on Thursday appealed to Qatar’s emir to “intervene with Al Jazeera to calm the situation and not resort to provocation, falsification of facts and exaggeration” in reports on protests in his country.

And in October 2010, Morocco’s communications ministry suspended Al Jazeera operations and withdrew the accreditation of its staff, following “numerous failures in (following) the rules of serious and responsible journalism.”

London-based analyst Abdel Wahab Badrakhan said Al Jazeera’s coverage of the protests in Egypt had been quite different in the first days from its coverage of the revolution in Tunisia.

“In Tunisia, Al Jazeera beat the street, but in Egypt, it followed,” he said.

“In the first days, it gave signals that it was not prepared to treat the Egyptian question the same way that it treated the uprising in Tunisia.”

While the protests were breaking out in Cairo, the channel gave precedence to its own controversial leaks on the Palestinian Authority’s position in peace negotiations with Israel, Badrakhan said.

On Tuesday, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat accused Al Jazeera of trying to provoke the Palestinians into “a revolution against their leaders in order to bring down the Palestinian political system.”

His accusation came after Al-Jazeera began releasing 1,600 documents known as “The Palestine Papers” which exposed far-reaching concessions offered to Israel during 10 years of closed-door peace talks.

Demonstrators in the West Bank town of Ramallah on Tuesday burned portraits of Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, while others torched Israeli flags with the Al-Jazeera logo on them.

Despite the ban on Sunday, Al Jazeera vowed to “continue its in-depth and comprehensive reporting on the events unfolding in Egypt.”

Mubarak`s chances

EVEN if Hosni Mubarak is able to survive the current countrywide rage, it is doubtful that things will remain the same for him and for Egypt. The dissolution of the cabinet has done little to calm violent protesters. They are expressing their anger not just against the president; they seem to reject the system in its entirety. No matter who he inducts into the new cabinet, they will be perceived to be collaborators and rejected by those now engaged in running battles with the security forces. What Mr Mubarak offered in his late night address was perhaps too little and too late. He spoke of `reforms` and offered to negotiate — but with whom? The most terrifying aspect of the popular revolt is the absence of a leader. Mohammad ElBaradei is hardly the man who could lead what is a spontaneous outburst of the people`s anger, triggered by Mr Ben Ali`s flight from Tunis. Mr Mubarak`s authoritarianism has given the Egyptian people neither economic opportunities nor a say in governance. What Egypt has witnessed in popular discontent is unprecedented. There were food riots in 2008, but the government managed to control them. Today, it is the urban middle class which is revolting against a system that doesn`t believe in accountability.

As always, Mr Mubarak`s foreign friends are either watching the situation with fingers crossed or have already tilted to the people`s side. Even though President Barack Obama walked a tightrope, the implications of his speech must be disturbing for the Egyptian president. While he urged Mr Mubarak to deliver on his promises, and asked the crowds to express themselves peacefully, he also told his friend that “violence will not address the grievances of the Egyptian people”.

For Egyptians, foreign advice is of no consequence. Ultimately, it is Mr Mubarak`s ability to defuse the people`s fury that will matter, because the demonstrations are gaining in intensity. The shockingly low turn-out in the last parliamentary election seems to indicate the people have lost faith in the kind of `demo- cracy` that was on offer. Mr Mubarak has also indicated he will take part in the presidential election for a sixth term, and this has served in no small measure to fuel popular anger. So far the army has obeyed orders, and even though like the ruling elite it welcomes America`s average $2bn annual dole-out, it is widely believed the generals dislike the president`s son, Gamal. If the demonstrations continue to spread in intensity, we are not sure how long the army will continue to support what may appear to many as a tottering regime.

Mohamed ElBaradei mobbed in Tahrir Square

Europe's Arabs view Middle East chaos in awe, fear

Arabs living in Europe say they have watched events unfold in Tunisia and Egypt with a mixture of awe and fear as governments crumble and a breakdown of order threatens their friends and relations.
Egyptians in London spoke of frantic calls from their family in which they were told of armed criminal gangs roaming the streets after massive protests erupted against the government of President Hosni Mubarak.
"My cousin is calling me, shouting SOS. Criminals, gangs are everywhere, breaking into homes. I'm beside myself with worry. I haven't slept," said student Raouf Ghali, 41.
In Egypt, protesters defied police and the army to turn out in their thousands across the country for a sixth day to demand the end of Mubarak's 30-year rule, and in Tunisia mass protests in recent weeks have toppled the president.
Millions of Arabs have emigrated to Europe from the Middle East in recent decades, many to escape stifling autocratic rule, war or limited economic opportunity -- precisely the conditions that have sparked the demonstrations.
Some hoped the protests would spread across the region.
"I hope all Arab people rise up and take their rights. If one man can bring down government in Tunisia, then there's hope for Morocco," said a Moroccan restaurant worker on London's Edgeware Road, who gave her name only as Sanaa, 27.
The protests that brought down Tunisian leader Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali on January 14 erupted after a young man set himself on fire because police seized his grocery cart.
In other parts of Europe, some emigres said they welcomed the prospect of change in the Middle East but feared Islamist extremists could use any ensuing power vacuum to seize power.
"The worst case scenario is of an Islamist takeover of Egypt where they break the peace treaty with Israel and set back women's' rights by decades," said Albert Turquier, 65, who moved to France from Lebanon in 1972.
"There is also the cautionary lesson learned from the Iranian revolution where a popular uprising gave way to a repressive regime."
Others in London said they wanted Mubarak deposed, but were pessimistic that conditions in Egypt would improve. Poverty and unemployment have been endemic for decades, with many struggling for food.
"Democracy and a better future in Egypt? If I could, I'd get all my family out of there and bring them to the UK. Talk is cheap, and we hear a lot of it," said Mustapha Mahmoud, 27.
GOVERNMENT PLOT?
Egyptians living in Greece also were pessimistic.
"We are very sad and anxious about the way things have developed," said Yousef Samuel, head of the Association of Egyptian Workers of Greece.
"It began as a movement ... to demand a better life. But as it developed, criminal elements crept in."
Police have melted away in some areas, a move some Egyptians say is a government plot to instill fear among the people to keep them at home and away from the protests.
"The police sat on our heads for 30 years, the state spending billions on them. Now that the people need them, where are they? They were only there to protect a corrupt government," said Egyptian restaurant worker Mohammed Ismael, 46, in London.
In the oil-exporting Gulf region, where many Egyptians work to help their families back home make ends meet, were torn between wanting to head home to be with their relatives and the necessity to hold on to their livelihoods abroad.
"I am worried and want to go back," said Jaballa, 24, outside a waterfront lounge in Dubai.
"But if I go I will lose my job. We all hate the president and the government, but we don't want to risk anything in Dubai, because we wouldn't find a better life if they send us back to Egypt."

Egyptian reform leader calls on Mubarak to go

Egypt's most prominent democracy advocate took up a bullhorn Sunday to call for President Hosni Mubarak to go, speaking to thousands of protesters who defied a third night of curfew to mass in the capital's main square. Fighter jets streaked low overhead and police returned to the streets as Egypt's government tried to show its authority over a situation spiraling out of control.
Nobel Peace laureate Mohammed ElBaradei addressed the crowds in Tahrir Square, where up to 10,000 protesters gathered during the day. Even when he spoke hours after the 4 p.m. curfew, they numbered in the thousands, including families with young children, addressing Mubarak with their chants of "Leave, leave, leave."
"You are the owners of this revolution. You are the future," ElBaradei told supporters. "Our essential demand is the departure of the regime and the beginning of a new Egypt in which every Egyptian lives in virtue, freedom and dignity."
In a further sign of Mubarak's teetering position, his top ally the United States called for an "orderly transition to democracy."
Asked if Washington supports Mubarak as Egypt's leader, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton avoided a direct answer, telling Fox News in an interview, "We have been very clear that we want to see a transition to democracy, and we want to see the kind of steps taken that will bring that about."
Now in their sixth day, the protests have come to be centered in Tahrir, or Liberation, Square, where demonstrators have camped out since Friday despite the curfew, which officials announced would be moved up to 3 p.m. starting Monday. Protesters have shrugged off Mubarak's gestures of reform, including the sacking of his Cabinet and the appointment of a vice president and a new prime minister — both seen as figures from the heart of his regime.
The military was taking the lead in restoring order after police virtually vanished from the streets on Friday without explanation after initially clashing with protesters. The disappearance of the police opened the door for a wave of looting, armed robberies and arson in cities around the country.
The anarchy was further fueled when gangs of armed men attacked at least four jails across Egypt before dawn Sunday, freeing hundreds of criminals and Muslim militants. Gangs of young men with guns and large sticks smashed cars and robbed people in Cairo.
The official death toll from the crisis stood at 97, with thousands injured, but reports from witnesses across the country indicated that the actual toll was far higher.
The military, which enjoys far greater support among the public than the police, fanned out in tanks and armored vehicles around the city starting Sunday morning. At Tahrir Square, they appeared to cooperate with protesters in keeping the demonstrations orderly, and there were many scenes of affection between soldiers and protesters, who allowed troops to use their mobile phones to call home or offered them cigarettes.
"I am glad they are continuing to protest. God willing, he (Mubarak) will go," said one Air Force captain in uniform who drove by the edge of the square.
One banner held by protesters summed up the dilemma facing the military, proclaiming, "The army must chose between Egypt and Mubarak."
Minutes before the start of the curfew, at least two jets roared over the Nile, making several passes over the square, dropping lower every time and setting off alarms in parked cars. Some protesters clapped and waved to them while others jeered.
Police on Sunday began reasserting their presence, moving back into some Cairo neighborhoods. In some spots, they were jeered by residents who chanted anti-police slogans.
Interior Minister Habib al-Adly said he was ordering security forces to return to the streets in Cairo and elsewhere to work in tandem with army troops to restore order.
"It is necessary that the police role is quickly restored and that there should be cooperation in the field with the armed forces ... to defend the presence and future of the nation."
The police move could put an end to lawlessness and looting, which stunned many Cairenes and which the military struggled to control. But it could also lead to renewed clashes with protesters, among whom hatred of the black-garbed security forces runs deep — though it appeared the police would not be deployed in Tahrir Square.
In a sign of the distrust, many protesters were convinced the police intentionally allowed the looting in an attempt to spread chaos that would undermine the political demonstrations.
"Those people who are looting are from the police, they want to scare us and make us stay home and not participate in the demonstrations," said Walid Ambar, an engineer who joined the crowds in Tahrir along with his 2-year-old son and pregnant wife. "This is a campaign to scare us. But I came here to join the demonstration and I will not leave until Mubarak leaves."
In a bid to show he remained in control, the 82-year-old Mubarak met with his defense minister and Omar Suleiman, the military intelligence chief whom he named as vice president over the weekend, to review the security situation. Later Sunday, a tired looking Mubarak was shown on state TV conferring with Suleiman and the new prime minister-designate Ahmed Shafiq, like Mubarak a former air force officer.
An unprecedented Internet cutoff remained in place for a third day after the country's four primary Internet providers stopped moving data in and out of the country early Friday in an apparent move by authorities to disrupt the organization of demonstrations. Egyptian mobile-phone networks were back up but with text-messaging widely disrupted.
The lawlessness, uncertainty, and indications of an attempted exodus from Cairo were gravely damaging Egypt's economy, particularly tourism, which accounts for as much as 11 percent of the country's gross domestic product.
Banks were closed on orders from Egypt's Central Bank, and the country's stock market was shut on what is normally the first day of the trading week.
On the first day of trading across the Mideast after a weekend of protests and violence, nervous investors drove stocks down sharply. Crowds of foreigners filled Cairo International Airport, desperate and unable to leave because dozens of flights were canceled and delayed.
The U.S. Embassy in Cairo told its citizens in Egypt to consider leaving the country as soon as possible, and said it had authorized the voluntary departure of dependents and non-emergency employees, a display of Washington's escalating concern about the stability of its closest Arab ally.
ElBaradei's appearance in Tahrir Square underscored the jockeying for leadership of the protest movement, which erupted seemingly out of nowhere to shake the nation, inspired in part by protests in the nearby Arab nation of Tunisia that forced out its autocratic president.
ElBaradei, the former head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, has gained a following among young secular democracy activists with his grassroots organizing. But some demonstrators dismissed him as an expatriate long removed from the country's problems.
"Many people feel he loves prizes and traveling abroad," said Muhammad Munir, 27. "He's not really one of the people."
The outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, which wants to establish an Islamist state in the Arab world's most populous nation, also appeared to moving for a more prominent presence after largely lying low when the protests first erupted. Sunday evening, the presence of overtly pious Muslims in the square was conspicuous, suggesting a significant Muslim Brotherhood representation. Hundreds performed the sunset prayers. Veiled women prayed separately.
A senior Brotherhood leader, Essam el-Erian, told The Associated Press he was heading to Tahrir Square to meet with other opposition leaders. Though the Brotherhood has made some statements suggesting it was willing to let ElBaradei act as pointman in any negotiations, el-Erian also suggested the movement wants a major role. He told one Egyptian TV station that the Brotherhood is ready to contact the army for a dialogue, calling the military "the protector of the nation."
Egyptian security officials said that overnight armed men fired at guards in gun battles that lasted hours at the four prisons including one northwest of Cairo that held hundreds of militants. The prisoners escaped after starting fires and clashing with guards.
Those who fled included 34 members of the Muslim Brotherhood, whose lawyer, Abdel-Monaem Abdel-Maqsoud, told The Associated Press they were among scores rounded up by authorities ahead of large anti-government demonstrations on Friday. The escapees included at least seven senior members of the group.
State TV later reported that 1,000 escaped inmates were recaptured.
In the southern city of Assiut, officials said riot police stormed the city's main prison to quell a prison riot, using tear gas and batons against inmates. An Associated Press reporter saw army tanks were deployed outside the prison, on bridges straddling the Nile and at the police headquarters.
The pan-Arab broadcaster Al-Jazeera said that Egyptian authorities ordered the closure of its Cairo news hub overseeing coverage of the country's massive street protests, denouncing the move as an attempt to "stifle and repress" open reporting.
The Qatar-based network has given nearly round-the-clock coverage to the unprecedented uprising against Mubarak and had faced criticism by some government supporters and other Arab leaders as a forum to inspire more unrest.