M WAQAR.....
"A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary.Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death."
--Albert Einstein !!!
NEWS,ARTICLES,EDITORIALS,MUSIC... Ze chi pe mayeen yum da agha pukhtunistan de.....(Liberal,Progressive,Secular World.)''Secularism is not against religion; it is the message of humanity.''
تل ده وی پثتونستآن
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 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.
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'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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
