Jose James

'Paranoia' is an animated short film made by 4 students as part of their final year degree project for Thakur-Toonskool Advanced Animation Academy.

OFFICIALLY SELECTED:
TASI Viewer's Choice Awards at ANIFEST India 2010.
TBS Digicon6 Awards (Japan)

AWARDS:
Awards of Excellence ASIFA India IAD'10
24fps Awards by MAAC India

For more info on the movie: http://www.facebook.com/PARANOIATHEANIMATEDSHORT

http://www.cartoonbrew.com/student/paranoia.html

Paranoia from Sandeepan Chanda on Vimeo.

__________________
http://sandeepanchanda.blogspot.com/

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Last edited by sandeepan; 13-12-2010 at 01:05 PM.

 

Submissions will be accepted February 1-28, 2011

General Guidelines

Submissions must be 1200 words or less. There is no entry fee. Ron Carlson, celebrated author of four novels and five short story collections, will be the final judge. The Kenyon Review will publish the winning short story in the Winter 2012 issue, and the author will be awarded a scholarship to attend the 2011 Writers Workshop, June 18th-25th, in Gambier, Ohio.

Submission Guidelines

• Writers must be 30 years of age or younger at the time of submission.
• Stories must be no more than 1200 words in length.
• One submission per entrant.
• Please do not simultaneously submit your contest entry to another magazine or contest.
• The submissions link will be active February 1st to February 28th. All work must be submitted through our electronic system. We cannot accept paper submissions.
• Winners will be announced in the late spring. You will receive an e-mail notifying you of any decisions regarding your work.
• For submissions, we accept the following file formats only:
  
  • .PDF (Adobe Acrobat)
  • .DOC (Microsoft Word)
  • .RTF (Rich Text Format)
  • .TXT (Microsoft Wordpad and Notepad, Apple TextEdit

submissions

Submissions for our Summer 2011 issue will be accepted between January 15 and March 15, 2011.

Please note: we accept online submissions only. All submissions must be sent via Submission Manager. Please see below for our guidelines. And as always, we advise that you familiarize yourself with New Madrid before submitting your work.

 

 

General Submission Guidelines

 

New Madrid is published twice per year, during the July and January residencies of Murray State University's low-residency MFA Program. The editors invite previously unpublished submissions of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction.

Please submit manuscripts only during our open Submission Periods (see below). Any submissions sent outside those periods won't be read.

 

SUBMISSION PERIODS

January 15 through March 15: Summer issue

August 15 through October 15: Winter issue

See Upcoming Themes for information about what we're seeking for developing issues.

 

SUBMITTING YOUR MANUSCRIPT

We only accept manuscripts through our Submission Manager. Please note that we don't accept electronic submissions via direct email.

 

FORMAT

• Submissions should be in MS Word format with a 12-point font, such as Times New Roman or Arial.

• The attachment should end with ".doc" in the file name. (Important: Please do not submit files with the .docx extension).

• The author's name and contact information should appear on the first page of the submission, and the pages should be numbered.

• Please include a brief author bio in the "comments" section of Submissions Manager.

Prose submissions should be double spaced (20 pages maximum).

Poetry submissions should be single spaced (six poems maximum).

 

SIMULTANEOUS SUBMISSIONS

We're happy to consider simultaneous submissions, with the request that you inform us if a piece has been accepted by another publication and is no longer available. Should that occur, please follow these guidelines:

Prose: If a prose piece you've submitted gets picked up by another publication, please withdraw it directly through our online Submission Manager (see Submitting Your Manuscript above).

Poetry: If any poem (one or multiple) submitted as part of a batch gets picked up by another publication, please withdraw the submission through our online Submission Manager, delete the unavailable poems, and resubmit the batch.*

* An exception occurs if you submitted before the close of the Submission Period (see Submission Periods above) but need to withdraw a poem within a batch after the close of the Submission Period. If the Submission Period has closed and you still want a portion of your batch considered, do not withdraw your submission (if your resubmission falls outside the Submission Period, we can't consider it). Instead, if this exception applies to you, please email the editor ann.neelon@murraystate.edu">Ann Neelon with a copy to our msu.newmadrid@murraystate.edu">general email, explaining your circumstance.

 

RESPONSE TIME

We read manuscripts on a rolling basis through each of our two annual submission periods, and it's our policy to respond to every submission. As a rule, we respond after the close of the reading period. So if you've submitted during the January-April reading period, expect a response by May. If you've submitted during the August-November reading period, expect a response by December.

All submission responses come via electronic mail, from msu.newmadrid@murraystate.edu.

We've found that because our responses are generated through Submission Manager, they sometimes get filtered. To ensure you receive our messages, please set your email preferences to allow messages from msu.newmadrid@murraystate.edu. Also, you can always check the status of your submission by logging into Submission Manager.

 

RIGHTS

It is our editorial policy to accept only previously unpublished work—we consider work published on the web to be previously published.

For our terms, we acquire first North American serial rights for one-time use in our print publication.

We also request the author's permission to post the same piece on this web site, as part of the table of contents for the issue in which it appears (web permission is at the author's discretion).

Acknowledgment in Future Publications

Should a piece first published in New Madrid be included subsequently in another work, we request that the new work include an acknowledgment of the first publication. For example: ["Title"] by [Author] first appeared in Volume [Number], New Madrid, Journal of Contemporary Literature, [Winter 2009]. Reprinted by permission.

 

COMPENSATION

We pay with two contributor’s copies.

MATRIARCHY! Contact Gerald van Wilgen vanwilgen@mac.com and Gina Renzi gina@therotunda.org We are inviting people from all communities to participate in MATRIARCHY. The objective is to create a song, poem, story, scene, picture, movement etc. in which you show what you think a matriarchy looks like or could look like. You can work as an individual or with a group. This project is the brainchild of those who created Rite of Passage* and Constant Revolution** The purpose of these projects is to further a specific cause while providing a stage for creation irrespective of artistic pedigree. We are aiming for diversity in participants and project content/form. If you are interested and want to participate, come to our first planning meeting on Saturday February 5, at 3:00PM at The Rotunda, 4014 Walnut Street. We won't talk a lot, but instead will offer help for anyone who comes in with an idea. We can connect you with other artists and/or share resources to help your project. This is not a paid event. You will maintain ownership of your work. Please visit our Facebook group, called Constant Revolution, for more information and photos of previous performances. Under the discussion tab, you will find an interview with Francene Blythe, who grew up in a matriarchal culture. She has some amazing insights into both matriarchal and patriarchal culture. Feel free to keep the discussion going by asking her questions.   Schedule: Saturday February 5, 12, 19 & 26, project meetings at The Rotunda; all @ 3:00 PM Sunday February 27, 7:30 PM, public performance at The Rotunda. *Rite of Passage was a collaborative project in which a group of strangers came together to create a modern day collective ritual in order to shed concepts, beliefs, and objects they no longer needed. This ritual was shared with an audience who were invited to participate. **Constant Revolution was a project that welcomed members of the performing arts community as well as members of the general public to discuss abuse in various forms (sexual, verbal, domestic, work place, sex slaves, etc.) and perform, either alone or together, a new piece or a revived one that addresses, exposes, and learns from these topics. Over the course of several weeks, the participants discussed their own stories or stories they have heard, weaving them into their performances and exhibits.   ******************************************

Natasha Trethewey

Mississippi Meditation: A Poet Looks 'Beyond Katrina'

August 18, 2010

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Natasha Trethewey and her brother Joe stand in front of Fort Massachusetts on Ship Island, Miss., circa 1999.

Beyond Katrina: A Meditation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast
By Natasha Trethewey
Hardcover, 144 pages
University of Georgia Press
List price: $22.95

Read An Excerpt

 

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August 18, 2010

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Natasha Trethewey grew up in Gulfport, Miss., a coastal area that suffered some of the heaviest damage from Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Though Trethewey no longer lives in Mississippi, much of her mother's extended family, including her younger brother, live along the Gulf Coast and have been struggling after the storm to recover what they lost.

Trethewey reflects on her own memories of the region and details her family's efforts to rebuild their lives in a new memoir, Beyond Katrina: A Meditation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. She explains that both the identity and future of the Gulf region are directly linked to how the region's past is remembered.

In attempting to understand the devastation that affected both the region and her family, Trethewey tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross that she continued to find comfort in her poems.

"I think poetry's always a kind of faith. It is the kind that I have," Trethewey says. "It is what can offer solace and meaning but also ... allows me to understand these events."

Trethewey holds the Phillis Wheatley Distinguished Chair in Poetry at Emory University. She received the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for her collection Native Guard.

Joel Benjamin

The daughter of an African-American mother and a white father, Natasha Trethewey often explores in her poetry her experiences growing up biracial in Mississippi and Georgia.

Interview Highlights

On bringing her grandmother back to Mississippi to be buried several years after Hurricane Katrina in a church that was chaotic and in disrepair

"It made me feel like Katrina wasn't over. That for the people there — and the people connected to those people — it was still going on. That recovery was taking such a long time and there was something sort of sad and homely about having to have her final home-going service in that little room rather than in the beautiful sanctuary for which she had sewn the draperies of the baptismal font."

On finding out her brother had been arrested

"It happened in the spring of 2007, but he didn't tell me about it then. He didn't tell me about it because that was the moment when happy things were going on in my life and he didn't want to ruin that. ... He didn't tell me until a year later when he was about to go to trial, and his lawyer told him that if he didn't call me and ask me to come down there and to speak on his behalf, then he might be in jail a very long time. I didn't let him know that I was upset [but when] I flew back the next day, and my husband picked me up at the airport ... I just started sobbing. And I asked him how I was going to live if my heart was in prison."

Listen Now

Natasha Tretheway reads "Liturgy," one of the poems from her memoir, Beyond Katrina.

'Natasha Trethewey Reads Liturgy'

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On winning the Pulitzer at the same time in her life that her brother was arrested on drug-related charges

"I think I do feel a good measure of guilt. I've carried with me a lot of survivor's guilt ... and with my brother, I definitely feel that. You can come from the same household and yet have such dramatically different lives. ... I feel guilty that I couldn't protect him from it. When [our mother] died, because I was 7 years older than him, my brother began to look to me as kind of a surrogate mother. I was the one that he clung to in that way. And yet, I couldn't mother him in the way I wish I could have. When he was in prison, I think that was really so difficult."

On communicating with her brother while he was in prison

"One of my failures during that time was the kind of responses that I gave to him. My brother was writing to me, he would call and I would never miss a phone call. I'd do everything I could do be there, if he needed anything, I'd send it. Along with his girlfriend, I worked tirelessly calling and e-mailing the commissioner of prisons in Mississippi to get my brother released, to have him moved to the facility we wanted him to be in so he could be closer to family — all of that kind of legwork, I was willing to do. But what I never once did was write him a letter. Once it hit me, it felt like the worst betrayal ever. One of the first things I did when he was out was sit him down and apologize for it. Not once when he was there did he ask me to, and I know how that probably hurt him deeply, and I don't know why it didn't occur to me. It didn't occur to me at all."

Excerpt: 'Beyond Katrina'

by Natasha Trethewey

 

Beyond Katrina: A Meditation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast
By Natasha Trethewey
Hardcover, 144 pages
University of Georgia Press
List price: $22.95

 

 

Somewhere in the post-Katrina damage and disarray of my grandmother's house is a photograph of Joe and me — our arms around each other's shoulders. We are at a long-gone nightclub in Gulfport, The Terrace Lounge, stand¬ing before the photographer's airbrushed scrim — a border of dice and playing cards around us. Just above our heads the words High Rollers, in cursive, embellished — if I am remembering this right— with tiny starbursts. It is 1992, the year the first casino arrived on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and, with it, a new language meant to invoke images of high-stakes players in exclusive poker games, luxurious suites on the penthouse floor, valet parking and expensive cars lined up in a glorious display of excess. Scenes from a glamorous casino someplace like Monte Carlo or Las Vegas — nothing like the gravel parking lot outside the club, the empty lot beyond it, and the small, run-down houses on either side, each with a chained-up dog barking into the night.

Not far from the club, beyond the spot that held the old Gulfport City Limits sign, is the neighborhood my ancestors settled in when they arrived on the Gulf Coast. Roughly five miles from the beach and downtown, the place called North Gulfport was once the northernmost settlement beyond the city. Now, it occupies a middle ground in Gulfport, though — until just recently — the city of Gulfport's annexation of outlying districts had skipped the entire area to incorporate the white and affluent residential neighborhoods that had developed, due north, beyond it. One of two historically African American communities that sprang up along the Mississippi Gulf Coast after emancipation, North Gulfport has always been a place where residents have had fewer civic resources than those extended to other outlying communities. Isolated and unincorporated, North Gulfport lacked a basic infrastructure: flooding and contaminated drinking water were frequent problems. Although finally incorporated in 1994 — not long after the arrival of the first casino — many of North Gulfport's streets still lack curbs, sidewalks, and gutters. Before the arrival of the casinos brought tourists down Highway 49 toward the beach, there were few streetlights and North Gulfport was cast in darkness. In recent years, as developers have acquired land in the community for commercial purposes — as the city has redistricted homesteads as commercial rather than residential property — many elderly citizens have lost their homes. Higher property taxes have forced people out even as property values have declined. For Sale signs abound, and developers seeking to fill in the nearby wetlands continue to threaten the environmental safety of North Gulfport's residents. Highway 49, rerouted and expanded after World War II, long ago cut the community in half. According to an article published in the July/August 2005 issue of the National Housing Institute's Shelterforce magazine, in a state as poor as Mississippi, residents in North Gulfport face "even higher rates of poverty, land loss and housing abandonment than the state average."

When I was growing up there, North Gulfport was referred to as "Little Vietnam" because of the perception of crime and depravity within its borders — as if its denizens were simply a congregation of the downtrodden. Even now, it is a place that outsiders assume to be dangerous or insignificant — run-down and low income, a stark contrast to the glittering landscape of the post-Katrina beachfront with its bright lights and neon bouncing off the casinos onto the water. Were North Gulfport not along the main thoroughfare, making it necessary to drive through to get to the beach, it might be easily forgotten. Now, because the city is invested in improving that stretch of Highway 49, some residents face losing the right to make decisions about their own property. This problem is foremost in Cicero Tims's concerns about the post-Katrina political landscape.

Across Highway 49 from my grandmother's house and down the street from Tammy's, Mr. Tims still runs the business he started years ago — Tims's Snowballs — a little stand that serves as a gathering spot for a lot of people in the community. I haven't seen him in years, but when I stop in, he gives me a free snowball, and we stand in the shade of a big live oak, reminiscing. A longtime friend of my grandmother and my great-uncle, Son Dixon, Mr. Tims has seen a good deal of change around here — and a lot of his stories include my family. In between telling me about what's going on now, he interjects recollections of the past, revealing his thoughts on what he considers to be the two worst things to have happened to this place — one man-made, one natural:

"I've had to start over several times in my life when every¬thing I had was destroyed. This time, the city won't let me rebuild my business the way I want to. This old shack that my snowball stand is in — I can't even tear it down to build a new one. If I tear it down, the city takes the land. I'm only here now because of the grandfather clause. If your business was here before a certain date, you can keep your property. But if you tear it down to do something else, it's gone.

"I've been out here a long time. I remember when your uncle built his nightclub right over there. He was one of only three people out here who had a Cadillac. Owned the ball team too. A high roller — he bought Lizzie that pink Cadillac. I owned a motel back then, and all the colored acts had to stay in it. Son Dixon booked them at his club, and they stayed with me. I did a good business — until they desegregated the white hotels. Before Katrina, the worst thing that happened was desegregation. I lost all my business. Had to shut down the motel. You know where it was — back over there, off old Highway 49."

I'm stunned at first that he has fond memories of a segregated Gulfport, but then I realize that he's speaking figuratively, and I can see the comparison he's making. He's a man who is proud to have put all his children through college — at integrated institutions. Yet his nostalgia about the days of Jim Crow implies that the alternative hasn't always benefited poor and low-income people equally and that reforms that should help all members of a society still privilege some people over others. Rather than simplifying the idea that desegregation was immediately and equally good for everyone, he focuses on the nuances of what some people lost: how suddenly owners of white hotels were able to benefit from the revenues brought in by black consumers at the same time black business owners were losing those customers. Whatever economic base the community might have had because of local businesses began to evaporate when they could no longer afford to stay open. And without a good tax base, the community would receive fewer resources from the city. In his nostalgia for a past in which he had a viable business, he underscores the ongoing discrepancies that have plagued the rebuilding effort on the Gulf Coast.

Excerpted from Beyond Katrina by Natasha Trethewey. Copyright 2010 by Natasha Trethewey. Excerpted by permission of the University of Georgia Press.

Ugandan gay rights activist David Kato found murdered

'Real and substantive' investigation urged after advocacy officer for Sexual Minorities Uganda bludgeoned to death in Mukono

• Xan Rice in Nairobi
• guardian.co.uk, Thursday 27 January 2011 10.55 GMT
• Article history

David Kato was murdered weeks after winning a court case against the Ugandan newspaper Rolling Stone over its policy of identifying homosexuals in its pages. Photograph: Marc Hofer/AFP/Getty Images

One of Uganda's most prominent gay rights activists has been murdered in his home weeks after winning a court victory over a tabloid that called for homosexuals to be killed.

David Kato, the advocacy officer for Sexual Minorities Uganda, was bludgeoned to death in Mukono, Kampala, yesterday afternoon. Witnesses saw a man fleeing the scene in a car, and police are investigating.

Along with other Ugandan gay activists, Kato had reported increased harassment since 3 January, when a high court judge granted a permanent injunction against the Rolling Stone tabloid newspaper, preventing it from identifying homosexuals in its pages.

Late last year, Kato had been pictured on the front page of an issue carrying the headline "Hang Them". He was one of the three complainants in the court case.

"Since the ruling, David said people had been harassing him, and warning they would 'deal with him,'" Julian Pepe Onziema, a close friend and fellow gay rights activist, said.

"We were due to meet yesterday [Wednesday] to discuss security arrangements, but he said he did not have money to get to town. A few hours after we spoke, his phone was off."

Human Rights Watch said it was too early to speculate why Kato had been killed, but added that there were serious concerns about the level of protection of members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community in Kampala.

Maria Burnett, the Uganda researcher for Human Rights Watch, urged a "real and substantive investigation" into the murder.

News of Kato's murder came after a lesbian due to be deported from Britain to Uganda said she feared she would be killed if she was returned.

Brenda Namigadde, 29 – who fled Uganda in 2003 after being threatened over her relationship with her Canadian partner – is being held at Yarl's Wood detention centre.

She told the Guardian: "I'll be tortured or killed if I'm sent back to Uganda. They've put people like me to death there. Most of my friends in Uganda have disappeared."

Her initial asylum claim was rejected, in part on the basis that there was not sufficient evidence that she is a lesbian.

Ugandan society is, in general, homophobic – but in recent years the anti-gay feeling has been stoked by religious leaders, a group of US evangelicals and politicians.

In 2009, MP David Bahati introduced the anti-homosexuality bill, which calls for gay people to be imprisoned for life. Repeat offenders would face the death penalty, while Ugandans would be required to report any homosexual activity within 24 hours or face police action themselves.

Widely condemned internationally, the bill remains before parliament. Kato was one of the leading voices against the legislation.

27 January 2011 Last updated at 17:31 ET

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Uganda gay rights activist David Kato killed

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David Kato spoke to the BBC in 2010

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• Obituary: Uganda gay activist David Kato
• Uganda paper in 'outing gays' ban
• Petition opposes Uganda gay bill

David Kato, a Ugandan gay rights campaigner who sued a local newspaper which outed him as homosexual, has been beaten to death, activists have said.

Police have confirmed the death and say they have arrested one suspect.

Uganda's Rolling Stone newspaper published the photographs of several people it said were gay, including Mr Kato, with the headline "Hang them".

US President Barack Obama was quoted as saying he was "deeply saddened" to learn of Mr Kato's death.

His Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has urged authorities to investigate and prosecute the killers.

'Iron bar killings'

The BBC's Joshua Mmali, in Kampala, says it is unclear whether the death is linked to the Rolling Stone campaign but police have said there is no connection between Mr Kato's activism and his death.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

We want the government to hang people who promote homosexuality, not for the public to attack them”

Giles MuhameRolling Stone editor

The police say that though they have arrested one suspect, the main suspect - who they say lived with Mr Kato - remains on the run.

Homosexual acts are illegal in Uganda, with punishments of 14 years in prison. An MP recently tried to increase the penalties to include the death sentence in some cases.

There has been a recent spate of "iron-bar killings" in Mukono, where Mr Kato lived, in which people have been assaulted with pieces of metal.

Witnesses have told the BBC that a man entered Mr Kato's home near Kampala and beat him to death before leaving.

His Sexual Minorities Uganda (Smug) group said Mr Kato had been receiving death threats since his name, photograph and address were published by Rolling Stone last year.

Frank Mugisha, the group's executive director, told the BBC's Network Africa programme he was "devastated" on hearing the news from New York.

"He was killed by someone who came in his house with a hammer, meaning anyone else could be the next target."

Mr Mugisha said Mr Kato had recently been concerned about the threats he had received.

'Profoundly saddened'

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called for a swift investigation into his death.

"David Kato's death is a tragic loss to the human rights community," said HRW's Maria Burnett.

He had campaigned against the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, which appears to have been quietly dropped after provoking a storm of international criticism when it was mooted in 2009.

In a statement, Hillary Clinton said she was "profoundly saddened" by Mr Kato's death.

"This crime is a reminder of the heroic generosity of the people who advocate for and defend human rights on behalf of the rest of us - and the sacrifices they make," she said.

"And as we reflect on his life, it is also an occasion to reaffirm that human rights apply to everyone, no exceptions, and that the human rights of [LGBT] individuals cannot be separated from the human rights of all persons."

'Extra caution'

Following a complaint by Mr Kato and three others, a judge in November ordered Rolling Stone to stop publishing the photographs of people it said were homosexual, saying it contravened their right to privacy.

Several activists said they had been attacked after their photographs were published.

Mr Mugisha called on the Ugandan government to step up security for gay people.

"We're strongly asking every gay and lesbian and bisexual and transgender person in Uganda to watch out for their security … [they] should take extra caution."

Rolling Stone editor Giles Muhame told Reuters news agency he condemned the murder and that the paper had not wanted gays to be attacked.

"There has been a lot of crime, it may not be because he is gay," he said.

"We want the government to hang people who promote homosexuality, not for the public to attack them."

"Iron-bar killings" were common in Uganda when former leader Idi Amin was in power in the 1970s.

A rapid response police team has been sent to the area and several suspects have been arrested over the killings.

More on This Story

Related stories

• Obituary: Uganda gay activist David Kato 27 JANUARY 2011, AFRICA
• Uganda paper in 'outing gays' ban 01 NOVEMBER 2010, AFRICA
• Petition opposes Uganda gay bill 01 MARCH 2010, AFRICA
• Uganda fear over gay death-penalty plans 22 DECEMBER 2009, AFRICA
• Uganda gay-porn stunt 'twisted' 18 FEBRUARY 2010, AFRICA
• Uganda gay bill 'will be changed' 05 FEBRUARY 2010, AFRICA

Egypt's new Suez Crisis

Posted By Blake Hounshell Thursday, January 27, 2011 - 3:07 PM Share

The violent epicenter of protests in Egypt is an industrial city few outsiders know much about: the seaport town of Suez, which sits astride the Suez Canal as it opens southward into the Red Sea.

Suez has seen its share of blood over the years. In 1967, the coastal town was nearly wiped out during the Six Day War with Israel and thereafter was the scene of sporadic guerrilla fighting between the two sides. The canal remained closed for nearly eight years, reopening only in 1975.

In recent years, Suez has seen growing prosperity, sending billions in tax revenue from its factories and workers to the government in Cairo. But as in the rest of Egypt, that prosperity hasn't been widely shared, leading to the same sort of dashed hopes that proved so explosive in Tunisia.

This week, Suez erupted in anger as protesters took to the streets to complain about economic conditions and their lack of freedom under Hosni Mubarak's government. It got ugly fast, with several deaths and reports of demonstrators hurling Molotov cocktails in response to a harsh police crackdown. (To get a feel for the chaos, check out journalist Ian Lee's gripping tweets from earlier today.) 

Photographs of the mayhem are now coming out. Here are a few of the latest:

 

Protests in Egypt - live updates

• Reformist Mohamed ElBaradei returns to Egypt
• Calls on president Hosni Mubarak to retire
• Third day of protests
• Death toll from protests has risen to six
• International criticism of police crackdown
• Read a summary of today's key events

• Comments (315)

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A child walks past burning tyres as Egyptian demonstrators battle police during a demonstration in Suez. Photograph: Khaled Desouki/AFP/Getty Images

8.03am:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-1 Protesters demanding an end to Hosni Mubarak's authoritarian 30-year-rule are planning more protests after a second day of clashes. Here is a summary of significant developments:

• Political reform campaigner Mohamed ElBaradei, who lives in Vienna, is expected to return to the country today. He said he is going back to Cairo "and back onto the streets because, really, there is no choice".

• The US has indicated a possible toughening in its stance towards its ally Mubarak. Hillary Clinton still did not criticise his government directly but said "it's possible for there to be reforms and that is what we are urging and calling for".

• A massive demonstration is being planned for after Friday prayers tomorrow and more protests are being organised for today. The Egyptian government has warned that protesters will be prosecuted.

• The UK foreign secretary, William Hague, has today urged the Egyptian government to "to respond positively to legitimate demands for reform" and criticised censorship of social media in the country.

• Protests took place across Egypt yesterday, with gatherings broken up by police outside a number of locations in the capital, including the supreme court, Nasser metro station and on Ramses Street. Officers fired teargas cannisters and beat people with staves and bars. Two people died in uncertain circumstances, bringing the death toll from the protests to six. Officials said 860 people had been rounded up.

8.29am:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-2 ElBaradei, who was awarded the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize along with the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency, which he headed at the time, told the Daily Beast:

The young people of Egypt have lost patience, and what you've seen in the streets these last few days has all been organized by them. I have been out of Egypt because that is the only way I can be heard. I have been totally cut off from the local media when I am there. But I am going back to Cairo, and back onto the streets because, really, there is no choice. You go out there with this massive number of people, and you hope things will not turn ugly, but so far, the regime does not seem to have gotten that message.
Each day it gets harder to work with Mubarak's government, even for a transition, and for many of the people you talk to in Egypt, that is no longer an option. They think he has been there 30 years, he is 83 years old, and it is time for a change. For them, the only option is a new beginning. How long this can go on, I don't know. In Egypt, as in Tunisia, there are other forces than just the president and the people. The army has been quite neutral so far, and I would expect it to remain that way. The soldiers and officers are part of the Egyptian people. They know the frustrations. They want to protect the nation.
But this week the Egyptian people broke the barrier of fear, and once that is broken, there is no stopping them.

This twitpic of ElBaradei is being adopted by some people as their profile picture on Twitter to illustrate their support for him.   

8.36am:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-3 Ashraf Naguib, a member of the ruling National Democratic party, has just had some interesting things to say on Al Jazeera, speaking in a private capacity. Here's a selection

The National Democratic Party needs to listen to them [the protesters] because the people have spoken.
...
We need to come out and make significant changes to what's happening in this country
...
Political change has to come but what's going to happen? Who's going to be there?

8.43am:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-4 Israel obviously has an interest in keeping Mubarak, an ally, in power and a former Israeli ambassador to Egypt says he expects the Egyptian government to succeed in its attepts to put down the protests, the Associated Press reports:

Former envoy Gideon Ben-Ami predicts events in Egypt will not follow the same trajectory as the recent popular uprising in Tunisia, where the longtime dictator was ousted and fled the country. Ben-Ami says the Egyptian security and intelligence services "know how to resolutely take care of things when they feel under an existential threat as they already have begun to do".

9.08am:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-5 There is an interesting article in today's Financial Times on how the target of the protests is not just the president but also his son Gamal Mubarak. It says the unrest signals the end of tawrith (inherited rule). It gives several examples. Zein al-Abidine Ben Ali was suspected of putting forward his wife as president of Tunisia and in the Yemen, where there are protests today, Ali Abdullah Saleh was forded to deny any intention of succession, despite the fact he has been grooming his son Ahmed, making him head of the army's special forces and the country's Republican Guard. In Libya, Muammer Gaddafi "appears to be grooming not one but two sons, setting them up against each other in a race to succeed him" writes the FT's Middle East editor Roula Khalaf. The article is behind a paywall but here is a taste:

Even if the ageing Mr Mubarak finds a way to withstand the pressure for radical political reform, analysts say that the protests have dealt a fatal blow to the campaign to install his 47-year-old son, a former banker who is supported by the young guard in the ruling National Democratic party. As Egyptians demonstrate a willingness to make their voices heard on the streets, any attempt to force a Mubarak succession in this September's presidential election would probably trigger a much wider revolt. "The idea of tawrith is taking a huge hit after Tunisia, and after the Tuesday events in Cairo," said Amr Hamzawy, political analyst at the Carnegie Middle East Centre. "It is difficult to imagine that the ruling establishment will still pass a tawrith scenario."

9.11am:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-6 More problems for the Egyptian stock exchange today. From Reuters:

Egypt's stock exchange said it halted trading until 1130 am (0930 GMT) on Thursday after the benchmark index slid more than 6% for a second day following the biggest anti-government protests in decades.The EGX30 index (.EGX30) was down 6.2% before the suspension, adding to a 6.1% fall on Wednesday.

9.20am:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-7 In the comments section @nighthood has raised concerns about the situation in Suez where the internet, mobile phones and landlines were down amid reports of clashes. We have not managed to find out any further information but anyone who can shine a light on the situation please get in touch.

9.25am:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-8 A rallying call on Twitter from @ashrafkhalil:

#Jan25 thought #2: the central security guys must be exhausted by now. This is more than what they trained for and protestors know it!

9.30am:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-9 This video footage from Suez (see 9.20am post) last night shows what is said to be the police station on fire.

The accompanying text says:

The burning building is the police Head Quarters. This was done in response to several killings by the police of Protesters. I have footage of 1 death as soon as I can get a name for him I will put the video up on line. More unconfirmed deaths have been reported over the last few hours.

Also outside Cairo, there were protests in Alexandria which can be seen in this YouTube video.

9.35am:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-10 Jack Shenker, reporting in Cairo for the Guardian, has sent this update:

There is a sense of calm before the storm in Cairo today, as protesters prepare for an all-out surge tomorrow following the afternoon prayers in mosques and churches around the country. A heavy security presence remains in place across the capital, whilst hundreds of those arrested since this uprising began will begin being interrogated today; activists are appealing for lawyers to come forward and help with their cases. Meanwhile violence continues in other parts of the country, particularly Suez where anti-government demonstrators set fire to the local headquarters of the ruling NDP party and continue to clash with security forces. Many eyes today will be on Mohamed ElBaradei, the former UN nuclear weapons chief who has emerged as a dissident rival to President Mubarak and whose return to Egypt is imminent. Many of those who have taken to the streets in the last two days are angry that ElBaradei only offered lukewarm support for these protests before they began; now, some say, he is trying to crash the party late. But with his international name recognition there is a feeling that the security forces will be wary about attacking ElBaradei on the ground – some are now hoping he will join rallies in Cairo, offering protesters a bit of much-needed protection from the charges of the riot police.

In case you haven't listened to Shenker's account of his arrest and beating by Egyptian police on the first night of protests, recorded from the back of the police van, I would urge you to do so.

9.47am:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-11 The Egyptian stock exhange has reopened... and has gone down another 2 percentage points from 6.2% before the suspension (see 9.11am) to 8.2%.

10.01am:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-12 People appear to be under curfew in Suez.

From Twitter:

@theydontneedme_

i'm stuck at home and can't go anywhere.. i need live confirmed and trusted updates from the city. #suez #jan25

10.10am:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-13 First Tunisia, then Egypt and now Yemen:

Thousands of Yemenis today took to the streets of the capital, Sana'a, to demand a change of government, inspired by the unrest that ousted the Tunisian leader and spread to Egypt this week. "The people want a change in president," protesters chanted at Sana'a University in one of a series of demonstrations across the city – the largest in a wave of anti-government protests. President Ali Abdullah Saleh, a key ally of the US in a battle against the resurgent Yemeni arm of al-Qaida, has ruled the impoverished Arabian Peninsula state for more than 30 years. At least 10,000 protesters gathered at Sana'a University, with around 6,000 more elsewhere in Sana'a. The demonstrations were organised by Yemen's opposition coalition, Reuters witnesses said. Police watched, but no clashes were reported.
Protesters said they were demanding improvements in living conditions as well as political change. One banner read: "Enough playing around, enough corruption, look at the gap between poverty and wealth."

10.32am:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-14 Some snippets on the international response.
My colleague, politics blogger Andrew Sparrow, listened to William Hague talking about Egypt on BBC Radio 4's Today programme this morning. Hague said:

Clearly, in so many of these countries people do have legitimate grievances, which are economic and political. While every country is different, and we shouldn't try to dictate what they should do, in general I do think it's important in this situation to respond positively to legitimate demands for reform, to move towards openness, transparency and greater political freedom. That would be my advice to Egyptian leaders.

In case you missed US secretary of state Hillary Clinton's comments last night, they have caused a bit of a stir in that they have been interpreted by some as a more aggressive approach towards Mubarak, a key ally of the US. But she did not directly criticising him and it might just be a sign that the US is hedging its bets in the event that he is ousted. She said:

I do think it's possible for there to be reforms and that is what we are urging and calling for. It is something that I think everyone knows must be on the agenda of the government as they not just respond to the protests but as they look beyond as to what needs to be done.

Thanks to @orlandobeetle in the comments section provided a link to US state deparment spokesman PJ Crowley on Al Jazeera failing to answer what "reform" the US is actually supporting. On more than one occasion he refers to the "stability" Egypt provides and its contribution to the Middle East peace process.

10.42am:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-15 Egypt's general prosecutor has charged 40 protesters with trying to "overthrow the regime", al-Arabiya television reported today.

10.44am:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-16 The Egyptian stock exchange has fallen further, down 9.93% to 5,728.49 points. Ahmed Hanafi, a broker with Guthour Trading, told the Associated Press:

It's clear today that the inability to control the situation in the streets yesterday is panicking investors. The drop we saw yesterday is being repeated. At this rate, it's going to continue to fall hard.

10.48am:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-17 @ianinegypt has arrived in Suez and is tweeting.

Roughly 50 protesters on El Geish street in Suez in front of police station. Just saw another torched station. #jan25

El Giesh street looks like a war zone. Burnt out tires and rubble litter the street. Police checkpoint destroyed. #jan25 #egypt

10.53am:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-18 An update from Ismailia, in north-east Egypt on the west bank of the Suez canal, via Twitter:

@fouad_marei

URGENT: mass protest arranged in Ismailiya at 13:00 local time! Ismailiya police force is weakened by redeployments to #Suez! #egypt #jan25

10.56am:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-19 The Nation's Habiba Hamid is suggesting Mubarak's own government is telling him to step down or leave the country.

She tweets:

Just had confirmed that Mubarak is still in Sharm El Sheikh, not taking advice from his own government to step down or leave the country

11.01am:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-20 A couple of links sent to me from the Guardian's Peter Beaumont is in Cairo, both relating to the arrest of journalists. The first is from the Associated Press:

Egyptian police released early Thursday an Associated Press Television News cameraman and his assistant who were arrested the previous day while filming clashes between security forces and protesters in Cairo. APTN's Haridi Hussein Haridi, 54, and his assistant Haitham Badry, 23, were taken into custody around 1am Wednesday during the biggest
anti-government protests Egypt has seen in years.

The second is condemnation of the treatment of reporters from the Committee to Protect Journalists:

"We call on Cairo to bring to an immediate end all forms of violence against the media, release all detained journalists, and lift online censorship," said Mohamed Abdel Dayem, CPJ's Middle East and North Africa program coordinator. Egyptian authorities have blocked access to at least two websites of local online newspapers: Al-Dustour and El-Badil, local journalists told CPJ. The government has also blocked domestic access to social networking sites Twitter and Facebook, as well as Bambuser, a video-streaming website, according to multiple news reports, although sources on the ground tell CPJ that access to Facebook is intermittent. "It is an attempt to black out information and to stop the use of social media and communication to block those who are demanding democracy," Gamal Eid, executive director of the Cairo-based Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, told CPJ.

11.09am:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-21 Reuters reports protesters have set fire to a police post in Suez today. I posted video footage of what was said to be a police station on fire at 9.30am. Reuters says:

Egyptians torched a police post in the eastern city of Suez early on Thursday morning over the killing of protesters in anti-government demonstrations earlier in the week, a Reuters witness said. Protesters in Suez had on Wednesday set a government building and another police post on fire, as well as trying to burn down a local office of Egypt's ruling party. Those fires were all put out before they engulfed the buildings. The Reuters witness said police fled the post that was burned on Thursday before the protesters hurled petrol bombs. Dozens more protesters gathered in front of the second police post later on Thursday morning demanding the release of their relatives who were detained in protests. Demonstrations demanding the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak, in power since 1981, have raged since Tuesday across several cities, including Cairo and Suez. Officials say hundreds of people have been arrested. All three protesters killed in demonstrations to date were in Suez. A policeman was killed in Cairo.

11.14am:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-22 @gamelaid, a lawyer and executive director for the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, has tweeted that some army units in Suez are refusing to support the crackdown against the people.

The orginal tweet was in Arabic, so apologies for the translation if it is not 100% correct:

URGENT Suez: reports that some army units refused to support the police to confront the demonstrators, and the acceptance of other units, and did not intervene until now

11.28am:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-23 I featured a cartoon by Carlos Latuff yesterday of Mubarak taking shelter from a hail of yesterday. Latuff has come up with some more, including this one which, as well as showing the contempt for Mubarak, pays tribute to Khaled Said, who was allegedly killed by Egyptian police last year and who is an inspiration for the current protests. If alive, he would have been 29 today.

Happy Birthday Khaled Said! Cartoonist: carlos.latuff@gmail.com

  

11.40am:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-24 Details of an ElBaradiei interview with Reuters are being flashed on the wires.
• He said he won't lead street protests and sees his role as managing change politically.
• He has called on Mubarak to "retire".
• ElBaradei has also said he expects a major demonstration in Egypt tomorrow.

More details as I get them.

11.57am:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-25 More from Reuters on ElBaradei, who they interviewed shortly before he was due to leave Vienna from Cairo. He said:

He [Mubarak] has served the country for 30 years and it is about time for him to retire. Tomorrow is going to be, I think, a major demonstration all over Egypt and I will be there with them.

I'm a bit confused as the earlier Reuters post (11.40am) said ElBaradei had said he would not lead the street protests. Perhaps he is saying he will be joining them but not leading them? He might fear being seen as hijacking the protests for his own political purposes. No doubt some of the protesters support him but it is not for him that most of them have been risking life and limb to demonstrate.

In an article he wrote for the Daily Beast (8.29am), he wrote:

I am going back to Cairo, and back onto the streets

12.12pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-26 Clashes reported in Ismailia, via Twitter

@emosweet

Rubber bullets & extreme bruitality against us in lsmailia #egypt #jan25

And a new demonstration in Alexandria

@Farrah3m

Surprising new protest in Mansheyya square in alexandria #alex #jan25 #egypt

12.19pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-27 A Reuters report on the clashes in Ismailia:

Around 600 protesters clashed with police in demonstrations across the Egyptian eastern city of Ismailia on today, witnesses said. They said the police dispersed the crowds using tear gas. Demonstrations demanding the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak, in power since 1981, have raged since Tuesday in several Egyptian cities, with the biggest clashes in Cairo and Suez.

12.32pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-28 Bahrain's ruler has responded to the unrest engulfing Arab states by proposing an Arab summit, a suggestion he has put to Hosni Mubarak, who he has expressed support for, AP reports:

Bahrain's king is calling for an Arab summit to discuss efforts to calm the region amid widening protests inspired by the toppling of Tunisia's iron-rule regime.
The state-run Bahrain News Agency says King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa urged the emergency Arab meeting in a telephone call with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
The agency's report said Thursday that the king pledged support for Mubarak, a key Western ally who has faced ongoing street protests demanding an end to his nearly 30-year rule. Major anti-government demonstrations also have broken out in Yemen.
Bahrain is among the most volatile nations in the Gulf. Last year, majority Shiites staged widespread riots after a security crackdown by Sunni rulers.

12.39pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-29 I just spoke to Dr Amon Aran, lecturer in International Politics of the Middle East at City University, in London.
He claimed that the prospects for political change in Egypt are "limited" by two factors:
• the strength and loyalties of the national security apparatus
• the lack of political leadership. Aran said ElBaradei does not have the necessary level of support in the country.

Listen to the interview below:

Turn off auto-refresh to play Listen!

  

12.58pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-30 Violence seems to be returning to the streets of Egypt.

From Reuters:

Egyptian police fired rubber bullets, water cannon and tear gas at hundreds of demonstrators in the eastern city of Suez, on a third day of protests calling for an end to President Hosni Mubarak's rule, a witness said. Demonstrators early on Thursday morning torched a police post, after setting fire to another police post and a government building a day earlier. All three protesters killed in demonstrations in Egypt so far died in Suez. A policeman was killed in Cairo.

From Twitter:

@Farrah3m

Central forces in Ismaley-ya are currently spraying a yellow chemical spray on protesters which makes them dizzy &lose thier balance #jan25

@MinaNaguib90

NOW: Brutal violence between protesters and the central security forces in #Ismailia #Egypt #Jan25 via @holom10

The lawyers syndicate in Cairo, scene of clashes yesterday, is apparently surrounded by police. See this picture.

1.02pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-31 Al Jazeera is reporting that the Egyptian cabinet is planning to meet to discuss the protests. Amazing that they haven't already to be honest.

Meanwhile, an Israeli cabinet minister says he expects the Egyptian government, a key ally, to weather the protests roiling the country and remain in power, reports the Associated Press.

The minister told reporters Thursday that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is strong enough to overcome the unrest because of his deep-rooted security forces. He spoke on condition of anonymity because the Israeli government has not formally commented on the matter. Egypt, the first Arab country to make peace with Israel, is a key ally.

1.08pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-32 The Guardian's Jerusalem correspondent, Harriet Sherwood, has sent me more on Israel's comments on the situation in Egypt. Perhaps unsurprisingly Mubarak's close ally is raising the prospect of an Islamist takeover, presumably a reference to the Muslim Brotherhood which has had a limited role in the protests so far:

A senior Israeli government source today described the events in the Middle East as an "earthquake". Israel was monitoring the situation in Egypt closely, he added, but believed the Mubarak regime was strong enough to withstand the protests. "We believe Egypt will overcome the current wave of protests," he said. "But it reflects the fragile situation in the region."
"Islamic elements" were ready to exploit the situation, he added.
"The cause of instability ... has no connection with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," he said, but was being driven by economic factors. The protests were being fuelled by social media, he said - "it's what connects the dots" - pointing out that in the past Arab regimes were able to maintain a tight grip on news and communications. Al Jazeera, he said, was "playing a more significant role than a regular TV station in the West". There were many differences between Egypt and Tunisia, where protests forced the president and his wife to flee the country. "Mubarak's regime is well-rooted in the military

1.14pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-33 Some tweets from Suez where there are clashes between protesters and police

@holom10 (these are translated from Arabic below)

The protesters turn to side streets and throwing stones at the security #Suez #Egypt #jan25

Security and armored vehicles roam the streets and fired tear gas and chasing Almtazahri

Firing rubber bullets and water cannons on demonstrators in the area of section forty. #Egypt #Suez #Jan25#Suez #Egypt #Jan25

1.17pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-34 This inspirational video of Egyptian people stopping a metro train is currently doing the rounds:

  

1.27pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-35 Despite widespread reports of use of teargas and police brutality, Egypt's cabinet spokesman said today officers were showing maximum restraint in dealing with anti-government protesters but intervening "strongly" in Suez in response to vandalism. From the Associated Press:

The police is keeping self restraint to the maximum but when there is an illegitimate way of expression or destruction of property they interfere," Magdy Rady told Reuters, speaking after violent clashes with police in the eastern city of Suez.
The government was urging youths on the street to be aware of the Muslim Brotherhood and others exploiting protests for "hidden agendas", he said.

1.29pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-36 ElBaradei, due to arrive in Egypt today, seems to be making bold declarations of intent. Reuters reports:

Prominent Egyptian reform campaigner Mohamed ElBaradeisaid he was ready to assume power in Egypt if the people called for him to do so, the Arabic satellite channel Al Arabiya reported on Thursday. In a brief screen headline, the channel said: "ElBaradei: ready to take up power for a transitional period if the street demanded it." It did not give details.

1.55pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-37 @ianinegypt is providing updates on the clashes in Suez, where there are reports of live rounds being fired, via Twitter

Rocks fill the air. Protesters charging. Suez. Reports of live rounds being used. #jan25

Tear gas fired at us protesters respond with molotov cocktails in Suez #jan25

2.13pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-38 The outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, the biggest opposition group in Egypt, has thrown its weight behind tomorrow's planned demonstration. People are spreading the world via Twitter, trying to get a million people onto the streets after Friday prayers.

From Al-Masry Al-Youm:

A member of the group's Executive Bureau and its spokesman, Dr. Mohamed Morsi, said that the group will participate in a demonstration after Friday prayers in order to "achieve popular demands." The Brotherhood is keen on pushing the people's demand for reform as the group is part of the people, he said in a statement to reporters. A member of the group's Guidance Office, Dr. Saad al-Katatni, said the demonstration has been successful so far because it represents the whole society.
He said in a statement to Al-Masry Al-Youm that it is not necessary for the Brotherhood to take a leading role in the protests, but if the situation requires, its members will maintain a strong street presence.

There have already been concerns raised on Twitter that the group will hijack the protest and its involvement might taint what is a non-religious uprising.

I like this poster for tomorrow's demonstration from exiled surfer's blog.

Image from http://www.artificialeyes.tv/blog/2

  

2.18pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-39 Jack Shenker, in Cairo has just sent me a statement on events in Egypt by Catherine Ashton, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. Although it calls from restraint on all sides, it contains strong criticism of the Egyptian authorities:

I deplore the reported deaths following the demonstrations taking place in Egypt. I wish to extend my sympathies to the family and friends of the deceased. I note also with concern the high number of people injured and arrested, and the use of violence. I call on all parties to exercise restraint and on the Egyptian authorities to release all peaceful demonstrators who have been detained. Freedom of expression and the right to assemble peacefully are fundamental rights of every human being. I call on the Egyptian authorities to fully respect and protect the rights of their citizens to manifest their political aspirations by means of peaceful demonstrations. The voices calling for the full respect of their political, social and economic rights should be listened to carefully.

2.32pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-40 Reuters is asking if Suez, where clashes are ongoing as far as I can tell, could be Egypt's Sidi Bouzid, the town where the Tunisian protests that toppled Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali began:

Mosaics lining the road to Suez glorify Egypt's achievements in a 1973 war with Israel but, further on, toppled billboards, charred signposts and shattered glass stand as monuments to a more recent conflict. The port city has jumped onto the world's radar as the scene of clashes between government forces and protesters demanding the removal of President Hosni Mubarak, a veteran of the war with Israel who has ruled Egypt for three decades.
The capital Cairo was mostly calm on Thursday morning, but in Suez police fired rubber bullets, water cannon and teargas at hundreds of demonstrators, according to witnesses.
Online activists have started calling Suez Egypt's Sidi Bouzid in a nod to the Tunisian city where protests began that toppled autocratic leader Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali 13 days ago.
Suez residents say they share many of the problems voiced by the Tunisian protesters - high unemployment, rising prices, official corruption and widespread use of torture, and have taken inspiration from Tunisia's uprising. As in Tunisia, a large portrait of the country's leader adorns a wall on the road into town. Mubarak's face is beaming and benevolent, his arms outstretched toward his people.
Our government is a dictatorship. A total dictatorship," said Mohamed Fahim, a 29-year-old glass factory worker, as he stood near the charred skeleton of a car that he said was burned in the protests. "It's our right to choose our government ourselves. We have been living 29 years, my whole life, without being able to choose a president."
"I've grown bald, and Mubarak has stayed Mubarak," he said, rubbing his bare scalp.
A group of about 20 people quickly gathered around him, shouting out their complaints.
"We can't find bread!" shouted one woman, who identified herself as a Christian.
Hundreds gathered outside a morgue in Suez on Wednesday demanding the body of one of three people killed in the first clashes on Tuesday. Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets and chased the demonstrators into side streets. After nightfall, protesters set a government building on fire in Suez and tried to burn down a local office of Mubarak's ruling National Democratic Party (NDP). The fires were put out before they engulfed the buildings. The government raised security at key buildings and ordered that shops be closed after looting was reported.

An image taken in Suez today

Egyptian demonstrators burn tyres during demonstration in Suez Photograph: Khaled Desouki/AFP/Getty Images

  

2.49pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-42 Egypt's interior minister Habib al-Adli, whose resignation is being demanded by the protesters, has dismissed the demonstrations, reports Reuters. He told Kuwait's al-Rai newspaper:

Egypt's system is not marginal or frail. We are a big state, with an administration with popular support. The millions will decide the future of this nation, not demonstrations even if numbered in the thousands. Our country is stable and not shaken by such actions.

2.52pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-43 The fire station in Suez in on fire according to @ianinegypt, who also says other protesters confronted him angrily because he is a foreigner and they thought he was a spy.

Fire department building on fire. billows of black smoker rising. Firemen jumping out windows. #jan25 #suez

3.13pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-44 President Mubarak's party has said it is ready to open a dialogue with protesters, reports AP, but I think it might be too late for that, especially as it is has not held out any hope of concessions to those taking to the streets. From AP:

President Hosni Mubarak's ruling party says it is ready to open a dialogue with the youths who have staged three days of anti-government protests. Safwat El-Sherif, the secretary general of the National Democratic Party, also called Thursday for restraint by the security forces and protesters during a rally planned for after Friday prayers. However, el-Sharif, a longtime confidant of President Hosni Mubarak, did not offer any concessions to the protesters demanding Mubarak's ouster nor suggest that steps would be taken to address their complaints about unemployment and poverty. "The minority does not force its will on the majority," he said.

I'm handing over the blog to my colleague Paul Owen now.

3.30pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-45 Hi, Paul Owen here, taking over from Haroon Siddique. Here is an afternoon summary:

• Protests have taken place in Egypt for a third day against the government of Hosni Mubarak. Suez seems to have been a particular flashpoint, whereas Cairo has been calm.

• Big demonstrations are planned for tomorrow across the country. Mohamed ElBaradei, the Egyptian reformer and former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, has said he will join the protesters in Cairo, and called on Mubarak to retire. The outlawed Muslim Brotherhood has also thrown its weight behind the planned protest.

• Mubarak's party says it is willing to open a dialogue with the demonstrators, but did not hold out hope of making concessions to their complaints about poverty and unemployment.

 

• The EU's foreign policy chief, Lady Ashton, has criticised the high number of people arrested and the use of violence by the police and called on the Egyptian government to respect the protesters' freedom of expression and right to assemble peacefully. William Hague, the UK foreign secretary, said the Egyptian government should move towards openness, transparency and greater political freedom. Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, has been less forthright, but last night called for "reforms".

• The king of Bahrain has called for an Arab summit to discuss the turmoil in the region.

3.39pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-46 This is the latest tweet from Al-Shaheed, the We are all Khaled Said Facebook group – named after the young man allegedly killed by Egyptian police whose death helped spark these protests – which was partly behind the demonstrations on Tuesday.

Protests in #Egypt have reached point of no return. If we stop now we will be butchered/massacred by #Government #Jan25.less than a minute ago via webKhaled Said
Alshaheeed

  

3.43pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-47 Here is a list of Egyptian protesters' slogans translated from Arabic, including "Oh Mubarak leave for good, or else tomorrow you'll be killed" and "Oh Mubarak, you rhinoceros, leave, leave, you're annoying".

3.46pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-48 There are reports that Egypt's domestic football league games for this weekend have been cancelled, but I can't confirm that.

3.54pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-49 This tweet from Al-Shaheed (see 3.39pm) is even more interesting. As my colleague Jack Shenker points out, it shows people are starting to practically consider a post-Mubarak future.

in case of power vacum in #Egypt it can be filled by our independent judges who stood against rigged presidential elections in 2005 #Jan25

4.01pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-50 According to Al-Masry Al-Youm, the Egyptian government has warned protesters against using mosques to launch protests tomorrow.

The Endowments Ministry told imams at tomorrow's prayers – after which protests are expected to begin across the country – to prevent mosques from being used to create "confusion among citizens or the circulation of unfounded rumors and speculations". The ministry said:

The teachings of the Holy Qur'an and Sunnah promote freedom of expression as long as it does not lead to chaos or corruption and as long as it respects others including those with opposing views or beliefs.

The newspaper says tomorrow is being called "the Friday of anger and freedom".

4.03pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-51 My colleague Jack Shenker in Cairo sends me the latest warning from the British embassy to UK visitors to Egypt:

There have been a number of violent demonstrations in Cairo and other locations across Egypt, including Suez, north Sinai, Rafah, the Delta region and some areas of upper Egypt over the past week. The situation is unpredictable and may change quickly. You should monitor the situation closely and stay away from demonstrations and large gatherings of people, public buildings or other sites which may become the focus of demonstrations, such as Tahrir Square in Cairo. There are press reports of calls for large scale demonstrations on Friday 28 January after midday mosque prayers. You should exercise caution, and observe instructions given by local security authorities and tour operators.

4.14pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-52 There are reports on Twitter that the BlackBerrys have been blocked in Egypt. I can't confirm that.

Photograph: Roland Schlager/EPA

4.17pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-53 Reuters has more on Mohamed ElBaradei (left), the former head of the UN nuclear watchdog often named as a leading reformist candidate to succeed Hosni Mubarak. ElBaradei is expected back in Cairo today and has said he will join tomorrow's demonstrations, and told Reuters it was time for Mubarak to go. He suggested he might run for president if democratic and constitutional change was implemented.

ElBaradei said the Egyptians had ended their "culture of fear" and said he was "ready to help manage transition to democracy".

He expects big demonstrations across the country tomorrow, he said, but told Reuters he would not lead these protests; rather, his role would be "to manage the change politically". Reuters goes on to say:

The Arabic news station Al Arabiya quoted ElBaradei, who held a number of rallies to campaign for political reform in his homeland last year, as saying he was ready to take power for a transitional period if protesters asked him to do so.

ElBaradei's arrival might provide a focus for a protest movement that so far has no figurehead, although many activists resent his long absences over past months.

ElBaradei called for peaceful protests, and said any use of force by the authorities would "backfire badly". He said:

People broke the culture of fear and, once you break the culture of fear, there is no going back. I think we will definitely see a change coming.

He called for Mubarak to stand down:

He has served the country for 30 years and it is about time for him to retire. I think he has to declare that he is not going to run again. I expect that we will see a new team, and a new set-up, and a new democratic structure.

My first priority is to get the country from point A to B, put in place a framework that ensure that we will have a functioning democracy. [If, after that,] people want me to run I would not let them down, particularly the young people.

Of the police he said:

They have been charging people, detaining people, but that will backfire ... use of violence will backfire badly.

And, talking about tomorrow's protests:

Tomorrow is going to be, I think, a major demonstration all over Egypt and I will be there with them. I assume ... that there will be lots and lots of people.

Asked if he might be arrested on arrival in Cairo, he said any such move would make things "much, much worse for them".

Reuters notes:

The next presidential election is due in September, and Mubarak, 82, has not said if he will run. Egypt's political rules make it hard for anyone other than the ruling party's candidate to stand, let alone win.

ElBaradei, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005, launched a campaign for political change last year, hoping his international stature could galvanise the opposition.

But many activists have since complained that he should have spent more time on the street than abroad.

4.24pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-54 In the comments, the charmingly-named guardiansux makes some interesting points about the relative strength of protests in different parts of the country.

In smaller towns it's obvious there is more solidarity, even protesters from nearby Ismailia have travelled to Suez to help, Ismailla having its own unrest ... what is strange is Port Said, it's practically an island and if it rebels they can easily drive out the police but what can be very worrying to the world, if things escalate in Suez and Port Said revolts, the Suez canal will be closed. In Cairo and Alexandria, people still suffer from political apathy ... they are huge metropolis and perhaps one shouldn't judge yet but all those massive protests in Alexandria and Cairo are not even 0.5% of their populations. Those two cities if they really do erupt, the regime will be gone in a few hours ... that's why I said yesterday, we can never know what will happen or if they can really bring him down ... the number of protests tomorrow can be a barometer of what's to come.

4.27pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-55 Italy is to propose a high-level EU mission to the north African countries that have seen political upheaval and protests over the last few weeks, my colleague John Hooper writes from Rome.

The foreign minister, Franco Frattini, said the purpose of the proposed mission would be to make the EU's ties with north Africa "still fuller" and offer help in monitoring the forthcoming elections in Tunisia. He suggested the EU team should also visit Algeria and Egypt.

Frattini said he intended tabling his proposal at Monday's meeting of EU foreign ministers.

He said he would also argue for an increase in Europe's development assistance to north Africa; the creation of a programme of university exchanges similar to the intra-European Erasmus scheme, and an "updating" of Tunisia's links with the EU following the fall of the Ben Ali regime.

Frattini said the EU should try to promote the spread of democracy, but without "imposing or indicating solutions".

4.38pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-56 Reuters has just sent the following update on the state of play in various areas of the country:

• SHEIKH ZOWEID - Security forces shoot dead a Bedouin demonstrating in a town in Egypt's Sinai region, eyewitnesses and a security source say. Security forces fire tear gas to disperse dozens of protesters.

• SUEZ - Security forces fire rubber bullets, water cannon and use tear gas to disperse hundreds of protestors. Youths throw rocks and petrol bombs at the police.

• SUEZ - At sunset, hundreds of demonstrators are still on the streets and black smoke hangs over the city. Youths walk around shooting fire extinguishers into the air.

• ISMAILIA - Hundreds of protesters clash with police, who disperse the crowd with tear gas.

• CAIRO - Large groups of riot police keep watch in Cairo and in Giza suburb. Outside the press syndicate in central Cairo, dozens of protesters shout demands for President Hosni Mubarak to resign as police look on.

• CAIRO - State news agency MENA says the security services have released protesters in several parts of the country.

4.56pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-57 The Associated Press news agency has a full quote from Safwat El-Sherif, the secretary general of president Hosni Mubarak's National Democratic party, who has tentatively indicated the party might speak to protesters.

We are confident of our ability to listen. The NDP is ready for a dialogue with the public, youth and legal parties. But democracy has its rules and process. The minority does not force its will on the majority.

Tomorrow's prayers offer protesters a big opportunity, the news agency says:

Millions gather at mosques across the city for Friday prayers, providing organisers with a huge number of people already out on the streets to tap into.

As AP points out, Mubarak, 82, has not been seen in public or heard from since protests began on Tuesday.

Mubarak has not said yet whether he will stand for another six-year term as president in elections this year. He has never appointed a deputy and is thought to be grooming his son Gamal to succeed him despite popular opposition. According to leaked US memos, hereditary succession also does not meet with the approval of the powerful military. Mubarak has seen to it that no viable alternative to him has been allowed to emerge.

The banned Muslim Brotherhood put out a statement about the protests:

The movement of the Egyptian people that began January 25 and has been peaceful, mature and civilised must continue against corruption, oppression and injustice until its legitimate demands for reform are met. We are not pushing this movement, but we are moving with it. We don't wish to lead it but we want to be part of it.

AP also reports that the Egyptian stock market has fallen more than 10 per cent.

5.01pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-58 My colleague Owen Bowcott and I have been trying to follow events in Suez as reported on Twitter, but it's difficult to know how much of this information is current, and impossible to confirm what people ae posting at this point. If you want to take a look for yourself, click here.

5.03pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-59 Egyptian officials have denied reports that Hosni Mubarak's son Gamal – who the president has reportedly groomed to replace him – has fled the country, perhaps to London.

A senior party official said that Gamal had had a meeting at the National Democratic party's headquarters this morning "to discuss issues related to the demonstrations, along with other party leaders".

5.09pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-60 Mohamed ElBaradei's plane has landed in Cairo, my colleague Jack Shenker reports:

ElBaradei's plane has landed 15 mins ahead of schedule, flight MS 798 Egyptair. There's quite a big crowd at the airport. The police have erected a huge galleyway of metal barriers manned by burly plainclothes state security officers so celarly expecting a crush of people to descend. One imagines it will also be used to stop him giving an impromptu press conference.

5.15pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-61 Here is a gallery of pictures of today's Suez protests.

5.20pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-62 Ahmed El Wahsh, a student at the American University in Cairo, sends this report of last night's protests in the capital.

The Egyptian government have deployed savages to contain the protesters. Last night in Tahrir Square, we were surrounded by bloodthirsty governmental thugs that were given direct orders to batter us with different means of weapons (ranging from electric taser bats, to rubber bullets and tear gas).

We Egyptian protesters must grace ourselves for tomorrow's strike after our weekly Friday prayers, as we go on ... with our protest against poverty and corruption.

5.36pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-63 Mohamed ElBaradei has returned to Egypt, Associated Press reports. We'll have more from Jack Shenker in Cairo on that soon.

5.38pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-64 Jack Shenker has just called in to say ElBaradei was thronged by people when he arrived in Cairo. Jack asked him why he had come back, to which he replied: "This is a crucial moment for Egypt."

Asked why he had come back now and not three days ago, ElBaradei replied: "This is all part of an ongoing process."

5.45pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-65 Here's the Associated Press on ElBaradei's return:

Egypt's top democracy advocate Mohamed ElBaradei has returned to the country amid the largest anti-government protests in years.

ElBaradei arrived this evening in Cairo, where he was greeted by family and friends.
He said he returned to the country because "it's a critical time in the life of Egypt and I have to participate with the Egyptian people".

5.56pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-66 Here is a Comment is free piece on the protests by Amira Nowaira.

6.24pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-67 Hi, David Batty here, I'll be taking over the live blog for the rest of the evening.

The Obama administration has made further comment on the protests in a White House webcast, Reuters reports.

Deputy National Security Adviser Denis McDonough said the protests provided a "great opportunity" for the Egyptian government to advance some of the political reforms they have been discussing with US officials.

He said the White House would like to see Egypt take steps to lift its emergency law, implement a new elections law and create a space for "social and democratic speech and openness so that we can see the kind of advancement that we hope for."

McDonough also urged the government and protesters in Egypt to refrain from violence.

6.34pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-68 Jack Shenker has just rung in from Cairo with more details of ElBaradei's comments at Cairo airport on his return to Egypt.

The opposition leader said he would be joining the protests on the streets tomorrow. He said there was no going back but warned that change would not happen overnight:

"This is a critical time in the life of Egypt and I have come to participate with the Egyptian people.

"I advise the government to listen to the people and not to use violence. There's no going back. I hope the regime stops violence, stops detaining people, stops torturing people. This will be completely counterproductive.

"We're still reaching out to the regime to work with them through the process of change. Every Egyptian does not want to see the country going into violence.

"The right to peaceful demonstration is the right of every Egyptian. I wish we didn't have to go onto the streets and press the regime but they need to change. We tried signatures, boycotts, elections ... nothing worked. Every demand fell on deaf ears.

"I'm still hoping to manage the process of change in a peaceful way, in an orderly way. I hope the regime will do the same. There's no going back."

In an interview with CNN before his return, ElBaradei poured scorn on comments made earlier by US secretary of state Hillary Clinton.

"I was stunned to hear secretary Clinton saying the Egyptian government is stable. And I ask myself at what price is stablity. Is it on the basis of 29 years of martial law? Is it on the basis of 30 years of [an] ossified regime? Is it on the basis of rigged elections? That's not stability, that's living on borrowed time.

"When you see today almost over 100,000 young people getting desperate, going to the streets, asking for their basic freedom, I expected to hear from secretary Clinton stuff like democracy, human rights, basic freedom - all the stuff the US is standing for.

"I've been trying for a year to engage the regime through peaceful means, by collecting signature[s] for demands for free and fair elections, for opening the door to Egyptians to run for [the] presidency, for having [a] parliament representative of the people."

Asked by the news channel whether he would run for the presidency, ElBaradei replied cautiously:

"The priority for me is to shift Egypt into a democracy, is to catch up with the 21st century, to get Egypt to be a modern and moderate society. Whether I run or not is totally irrelevant, and I made it very clear I would not run under current condition[s]."

The opposition leader said the so-called Jasmine revolution that recently brought down the Tunisian government could prove to be the catalyst for regime change across the Arab world.

"It sent a message to the Arab world, to quote Barack Obma, that 'yes we can'. We can be empowered as people to change a system that is ossified, that is completely representative of our own basic rights."

Questioned as to whether he feared for his life on his return to Egypt, ElBaradei said:

"There was an edict against me a couple of weeks ago basically saying that my life should be dispensable because I'm defying the ruler. I have no security when I go to Egypt. But you have to be with your people."

7.13pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-69 White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Mubarak faces an opportunity to address the decades-long concern that the Egyptian people have for their "lack of rights," Reuters reports.

Gibbs called Mubarak a close and important US partner but stressed that the United States was not taking sides on the unrest.

"This isn't a choice between the government and the people of Egypt. This is not about taking sides. What is important is President Mubarak and those that seek greater freedom of expression, greater freedom to assemble, should be able to work out a process for that happening in a peaceful way."

7.55pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-70 A third day of protests has sent the Egyptian stock market plummeting, which could further undermine Mubarack's government.

The 10.5% plunge left the market's year-to-date losses at over 20%, with traders warning that the economic damage could widen if there are more protests tomorrow, AP reports.

"Tomorrow will be a trigger," said Mostafa Abdel-Aziz, a broker with the Cairo-based investment bank, Beltone Financial. "If things pass quietly, there should be a technical rebound" when the market reopens on Sunday. But I don't think the overall sentiment will be reversed."

8.03pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-71 In a sign that Mubarak's government is cracking down on social media from being used to foment unrest, Facebook said it had seen a drop in traffic to its website from Egypt today.

"We are aware of reports of disruption to service and have seen a drop in traffic from Egypt this morning," Facebook spokesperson Jillian Carroll told Reuters in an email.

Sites such as Twitter and Facebook were cut off within Egypt yesterday.

8.10pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-72 Barack Obama has spoken out about the protests in Egypt, warning the violence was not the answer to the unrest. He said he had repeatedly told Mubarak to press ahead with political and economic reforms, Reuters reports.

Obama said Mubarak had been "very helpful on a range of tough issues in the Middle East."

"But I've always said to him that making sure that they are moving forward on reform - political reform, economic reform - is absolutely critical to the long-term well-being of Egypt.

"You can see these pent-up frustrations that are being displayed on the streets.

"Violence is not the answer in solving these problems in Egypt. I think it is very important that people have mechanisms in order to express legitimate grievances. That, I think, is no less true in the Arab world than it is here in the United States."

8.15pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-73 Italy has voiced its support for Mubarak's government, contending that regime change would lead to chaos in the Middle East and the Mediterranean.

Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini said the situation in Egypt was completely different from that in Tunisia, where a wave of street protests toppled the president earlier this month.

The minister claimed there were civil liberties in Egypt and the regime should be encouraged to expand them, Reuters reported. He warned that if the government fell it could provoke chaos throughout the region.

"The situation in Egypt is different. There are civil liberties. It is not a copy of the European model but we are not colonisers of any country, we must not impose our model."

"The stability of Egypt is fundamental for the entire Mediterranean. The biggest mistake would be to think of a change of leadership without having a solution, a proposal, a proper development of the situation. This certainly would lead to chaos.

"We must help the Egyptian leadership to gradually expand the enjoyment of civil liberties, the authorisation of peaceful demonstrations at the same time as guaranteeing stability."

Frattini said he would propose an EU delegation to Egypt, Tunisia and Algeria, to help their governments strengthen democracy, at a meeting of foreign ministers on Monday.

8.50pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-74 Here's a round-up of today's events from Reuters. The news agency reports that five people were killed in today's protests, including a a Bedouin protester shot dead by security in the north of Egypt's Sinai region.

In Suez, police fired rubber bullets, water cannon and tear gas at hundreds of demonstrators calling Mubarak to step down.

Protesters hurled rocks and petrol bombs at police lines, setting fire to a police post in Suez.

Mohamed Fahim, a 29-year-old glass factory worker, told Reuters that the action came in response to the killing of three demonstrators earlier in the week:

"Our government is a dictatorship. A total dictatorship. It's our right to choose our government ourselves. We have been living 29 years, my whole life, without being able to choose a president."

In Ismailia, hundreds of protesters clashed with police who dispersed the crowds with tear gas.

Witnesses told the news agency that demonstrators have been dragged away, beaten and shoved into police vans.

Tomorrow's demonstrations could be the biggest yet following the return of ElBaradei, who has pledged to join the protesters on the streets. A Facebook page publicising tomorrow's protest gained 55,000 fans in less than 24 hours.

"Egypt's Muslims and Christians will go out to fight against corruption, unemployment and oppression and absence of freedom," one activist wrote on Facebook.

Egypt's interior minister Habib al-Adli, whose resignation is being demanded by the protesters, dismissed the demonstrations in an interview with Kuwait's al-Rai newspaper.

"Egypt's system is not marginal or frail. We are a big state, with an administration with popular support. The millions will decide the future of this nation, not demonstrations even if numbered in the thousands. Our country is stable and not shaken by such actions."

10.30pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-75 In an analysis piece on the Egyptian protests, US foreign policy analysts suggest ElBaradei's return will not mark a tipping point in the unrest. However, the commentators also told Reuters that the US is unlikely to drop its support for Mubarak given that Washington provides the regime with aid topping $1.3bn (£0.82bn) per year.

"This is a matter for the Egyptian people - and how they view his return," state department spokesman PJ Crowley said.

Jon Alterman, director of the Middle East programme at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, dismissed ElBaradei's return and argued there was no groundswell of support for democracy.

"ElBaradei hasn't been willing to take the risks of bare knuckle fighting," he said.

"In the current environment it would be very hard for the United States to bet against a government with which it has both extraordinarily broad and extraordinarily deep cooperation.

"What most Egyptians really want is a government with better outcomes, and it is sometimes easier for successor authoritarian governments to say they are addressing those needs. The real cry here is not so much for democracy but for justice."

ElBaradei has a significant international profile but Brian Katulis, an analyst at the Center for American Progress, said this did not necessarily mean he would attract popular backing in Egypt.

"It remains unclear whether El Baradei's return will help unify the groups of protesters coming out into the streets," he told Reuters.

Katulis added that there was no evidence ElBaradei had any relationship with Egypt's security forces, which would count against him given that the country has been ruled by ex-officers since 1952.

Ellen Bork, director of democracy and human rights at the Foreign Policy Initiative, said ELBaradei's return might increase US leverage on Mubarak to promote political reforms ahead of the presidential election expected in September.

"The important thing to focus on is whether [ElBaradei], or any other independent candidates, have access to the ballot, and are able to campaign freely," she said. "The US needs to press for specific reforms to make these conditions possible."

10.53pm:CloseLink to this update: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jan/27/egypt-protests#block-76 Peter Beaumont and Jack Shenker, who are in Cairo covering the protests for the Guardian, have filed a piece on how tomorrow's demonstrations, expected to be the largest yet, will escalate the pressure on Mubarak.

The return of ElBaradei, one of the president's fiercest critics, and the intervention of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's most potent opposition force, could further undermine Mubarak's authority.

Shenker also assesses the impact of ElBaradei's return, guaging support for the former UN nuclear weapons chief on the streets.

That's all for today's live blog but we'll be continuing our coverage tomorrow.

In the meantime, here's a round-up of today's main developments:

• Mohamed ElBaradei has returned to Egypt today, telling reporters there was no going back for the country and pledging to join protesters on the streets tomorrow.

• Violent protests continued in many parts of the country today, including the port of Suez. After four days of unrest, six people have died and almost 1,000 have been rounded up by police.

• Thousands are expected to attend tomorrow's marches – dubbed "the Friday of anger and freedom". Egypt's main opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, has thrown its weight behind tomorrow's protests, which are scheduled to follow Friday prayers.

Egypt protest leaflets distributed in Cairo give blueprint for mass action

Anonymous flyers provide practical and tactical advice for confronting riot police, and besieging government offices

• • Share
  • 
  • 

• Ian Black, Middle East editor
• guardian.co.uk, Thursday 27 January 2011 19.15 GMT
• Article history

Illustration from an Egypt protest leaflet

Egyptians have been urged to come out after Friday prayers tomorrow and demand the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak's government, along with freedom, justice and a democratic regime.

Anonymous leaflets circulating in Cairo also provide practical and tactical advice for mass demonstrations, confronting riot police, and besieging and taking control of government offices.

Signed "long live Egypt", the slickly produced 26-page document calls on demonstrators to begin with peaceful protests, carrying roses but no banners, and march on official buildings while persuading policemen and soldiers to join their ranks.

The leaflet ask recipients to redistribute it by email and photocopy, but not to use social media such as Facebook and Twitter, which are being monitored by the security forces.

Protesters in Cairo are advised to gather in large numbers in their own neighbourhoods away from police and troops and then move towards key installations such the state broadcasting HQ on the Nile-side Corniche and try to take control "in the name of the people". Other priority targets are the presidential palace and police stations in several parts of central Cairo.

The leaflet includes aerial photographs with approach routes marked and diagrams on crowd formations. Suggested "positive" slogans include "long live Egypt" and "down with the corrupt regime". There are no signs of slogans reflecting the agenda of the powerful Muslim Brotherhood. It advises demonstrators to wear clothing such as hooded jackets, running shoes, goggles and scarves to protect against teargas, and to carry dustbin lids – to ward off baton blows and rubber bullets – first aid kits, and roses to symbolise their peaceful intentions.

Diagrams show how to defend against riot police and push in waves to break through their ranks. "The most important thing is to protect each other," the leaflet says.

It is important to prevent policemen penetrating the ranks of demonstrators, it adds. If they do, they should be persuaded to change sides and reminded that their own families could be among the people.

Banners and posters should be hung from balconies and windows, it advises, and it provides handy models for posters – one showing a visor-helmeted riot policeman flanked by an elderly woman in traditional peasant dress and a younger one in modern clothes over the slogan "Police and people together against the regime".

The president's son Gamal – often thought likely to succeed his father – is labelled "Cowardly Mubarak", with the words "Where's Daddy now?" Another idea is the country's national symbol of an eagle with "Egypt's Liberation Day" underneath it.

>via: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/27/egypt-protest-leaflets-mass-actio...

 

__________________________

• Jack Shenker
• The Guardian, Thursday 27 January 2011
• Article history

Anti-government protesters light flares in Tahrir Square, Cairo. Photograph: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters

In the streets around Abdel Munim Riyad square the atmosphere had changed. The air which had held a carnival-like vibe was now thick with teargas. Thousands of people were running out of nearby Tahrir Square and towards me. Several hundred regrouped; a few dozen protesters set about attacking an abandoned police truck, eventually tipping it over and setting it ablaze. Through the smoke, lines of riot police could be seen charging towards us from the south.

Jack Shenker records his experience of being beaten by police alongside protesters in Cairo Link to this audio

Along with nearby protesters I fled down the street before stopping at what appeared to be a safe distance. A few ordinarily dressed young men were running in my direction. Two came towards me and threw out punches, sending me to the ground. I was hauled back up by the scruff of the neck and dragged towards the advancing police lines.

My captors were burly and wore leather jackets – up close I could see they were amin dowla, plainclothes officers from Egypt's notorious state security service. All attempts I made to tell them in Arabic and English that I was an international journalist were met with more punches and slaps; around me I could make out other isolated protesters receiving the same brutal treatment and choking from the teargas.

We were hustled towards a security office on the edge of the square. As I approached the doorway of the building other plainclothes security officers milling around took flying kicks and punches at me, pushing me to the floor on several occasions only to drag me back up and hit me again. I spotted a high-ranking uniformed officer, and shouted at him that I was a British journalist. He responded by walking over and punching me twice. "Fuck you and fuck Britain," he yelled in Arabic.

One by one we were thrown through the doorway, where a gauntlet of officers with sticks and clubs awaited us. We queued up to run through the blows and into a dank, narrow corridor where we were pushed up against the wall. Our mobiles and wallets were removed. Officers stalked up and down, barking at us to keep staring at the wall. Terrified of incurring more beatings, most of my fellow detainees – almost exclusively young men in their 20s and 30s, some still clutching dishevelled Egyptian flags from the protest – remained silent, though some muttered Qur'anic verses and others were shaking with sobs.

We were ordered to sit down. Later a senior officer began dragging people to their feet again, sending them back out through the gauntlet and into the night, where we were immediately jumped on by more police officers – this time with riot shields – and shepherded into a waiting green truck belonging to Egypt's central security forces. A policeman pushed my head against the doorframe as I entered.

Inside dozens were already crammed in and crouching in the darkness. Some had heard the officers count us as we boarded; our number stood at 44, all packed into a space barely any bigger than the back of a Transit van. A heavy metal door swung shut behind us.

As the truck began to move, brief flashes of orange streetlight streamed through the thick metal grates on each side. With no windows, it was our only source of illumination. Each glimmer revealed bruised and bloodied faces; sandwiched in so tightly the temperature soared, and people fainted. Fragments of conversation drifted through the truck.

"The police attacked us to get us out of the square; they didn't care who you were, they just attacked everybody," a lawyer standing next to me, Ahmed Mamdouh, said breathlessly. "They … hit our heads and hurt some people. There are some people bleeding, we don't know where they're taking us. I want to send a message to my wife; I'm not afraid but she will be so scared, this is my first protest and she told me not to come here today."

Despite the conditions the protesters held together; those who collapsed were helped to their feet, messages of support were whispered and then yelled from one end of our metallic jail to another, and the few mobiles that had been hidden from police were passed around so that loved ones could be called.

"As I was being dragged in, a police general said to me: 'Do you think you can change the world? You can't! Do you think you are a hero? You are not'," confided Mamdouh.

"What you see here – this brutality and torture – this is why we were protesting today," added another voice close by in the gloom.

Speculation was rife about where we were heading. The truck veered wildly round corners, sending us flying to one side, and regularly came to an emergency stop, throwing everyone forwards. "They treat us like we're not Egyptians, like we are their enemy, just because we are fighting for jobs," said Mamdouh. I asked him what it felt like to be considered an enemy by your own government. "I feel like they are my enemies too," he replied.

At several points the truck roared to a stop and the single door opened, revealing armed policemen on the other side. They called out the name of one of the protesters, "Nour", the son of Ayman Nour, a prominent political dissident who challenged Hosni Mubarak for the presidency in 2005 and was thrown in jail for his troubles.

Nour became a cause celebre among international politicians and pressure groups; since his release from prison security forces have tried to avoid attacking him or his family directly, conscious of the negative publicity that would inevitably follow.

His son, a respected political activist in his own right, had been caught in the police sweep and was in the back of the truck with us – now the policemen were demanding he come forward, as they had orders for his release.

"No, I'm staying," said Nour simply, over and over again and to applause from the rest of the inmates. I made my way through the throng and asked him why he wasn't taking the chance to get out. "Because either I leave with everyone else or I stay with everyone else; it would be cowardice to do anything else," he responded. "That's just the way I was raised."

After several meandering circles which seemed to take us out further and further into the desert fringes of the city, the truck finally came to a halt. We had been trapped inside for so long that the heat was unbearable; more people had fainted, and one man had collapsed on the floor, struggling for breath.

By the light of the few mobile phones, protesters tore his shirt open and tried to steady his breathing; one demonstrator had medical experience and warned that the man was entering a diabetic coma. A huge cry went up in the truck as protesters thumped the sides and bellowed through the grates: "Help, a man is dying." There was no response.

After some time a commotion could be heard outside; fighting appeared to be breaking out between police and others, whom we couldn't make out.

At one point the truck began to rock alarmingly from side to side while someone began banging the metal exterior, sending out huge metallic clangs. We could make out that a struggle was taking place over the opening of the door; none of the protesters had any idea what lay on the other side, but all resolved to charge at it when the door swung open. Eventually it did, to reveal a police officer who began to grab inmates and haul them out, beating them as they went. A cry went up and we surged forward, sending the policeman flying; the diabetic man was then carried out carefully before the rest of us spilled on to the streets.

Later it emerged that we had won our freedom through the efforts of Nour's parents, Ayman and his former wife Gamila Ismail. The father, who was also on the demonstration, had got wind of his son's arrest and apparently followed his captors and fought with officers for our release. Shorn of money and phones and stranded several miles into the desert, the protesters began a long trudge back towards Cairo, hailing down cars on the way.

The diabetic patient was swiftly put in a vehicle and taken to hospital; I have been unable to find out his condition.

>via: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/27/egypt-riot-security-force-action