Russia warns Ireland over diplomat's expulsion

Wed Feb 2

MOSCOW (AP) – Russia has reacted angrily to Ireland's expulsion of a Russian diplomat, warning that it will respond in kind.

Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Vladimir Titov said in a statement carried Wednesday by Russian news agencies that Moscow sees Ireland's move as an "unfriendly act." He added that the Irish move "won't be left without a corresponding reaction."

The Irish government said it was expelling a Russian diplomat because Russian intelligence agents stole the identities of six Irish citizens to use as cover for spies operating in the United States.

Ireland opened the investigation after the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation smashed a Russian spy ring last June involving 10 men and women posing as American suburbanites.

Heavy gunfire rings out in Cairo protest square

By HADEEL AL-SHALCHI, Associated Press

CAIRO – Bursts of heavy gunfire rained into Cairo's Tahrir Square before dawn Thursday, killing at least three anti-government demonstrators among crowds trying to hold the site after a dramatic assault hours earlier by supporters of President Hosni Mubarak, according to a protest organizer.

Sustained bursts of automatic weapons fire and powerful single shots rattled into the square starting at around 4 a.m. and continued for more than two hours.

Protest organizer Mustafa el-Naggar said he saw the bodies of three dead protesters being carried toward an ambulance. He said the gunfire came from at least three locations in the distance and that the Egyptian military, which has ringed the square with tank squads for days to try to keep some order, did not intervene.

Footage from AP Television News showed one tank spreading a thick smoke screen along a highway overpass just to the north of the square in an apparent attempt to deprive attackers of a high vantage point. The two sides seemed to be battling for control of the overpass, which leads to a main bridge over the Nile.

In the darkness, groups of men hurled firebombs and rocks along the bridge, where a wrecked car sat engulfed in flames. Others dragged two apparently lifeless bodies from the area.

Egypt's health minister did not answer a phone call seeking confirmation of the number killed.

Throughout Wednesday, Mubarak supporters charged into the square on horses and camels brandishing whips while others rained firebombs from rooftops in what appeared to be an orchestrated assault against protesters trying to topple Egypt's leader of 30 years. Three people died in that earlier violence and 600 were injured.

The protesters accused Mubarak's regime of unleashing a force of paid thugs and plainclothes police to crush their unprecedented nine-day-old movement, a day after the 82-year-old president refused to step down. They showed off police ID badges they said were wrested from their attackers. Some government workers said their employers ordered them into the streets.

Mustafa el-Fiqqi, a top official from the ruling National Democratic Party, told The Associated Press that businessmen connected to the ruling party were responsible for what happened.

The notion that the state may have coordinated violence against protesters, who had kept a peaceful vigil in Tahrir Square for five days, prompted a sharp rebuke from the Obama administration.

"If any of the violence is instigated by the government, it should stop immediately," said White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.

The clashes marked a dangerous new phase in Egypt's upheaval: the first significant violence between government supporters and opponents. The crisis took a sharp turn for the worse almost immediately after Mubarak rejected the calls for him to give up power or leave the country, stubbornly proclaiming he would die on Egyptian soil.

His words were a blow to the protesters. They also suggest that authorities want to turn back the clock to the tight state control enforced before the protests began.

Mubarak's supporters turned up on the streets Wednesday in significant numbers for the first time. Some were hostile to journalists and foreigners. Two Associated Press correspondents and several other journalists were roughed up in Cairo. State TV had reported that foreigners were caught distributing anti-Mubarak leaflets, apparently trying to depict the movement as foreign-fueled.

After midnight, 10 hours after the clashes began, the two sides were locked in a standoff at a street corner, with the anti-Mubarak protesters hunkered behind a line of metal sheets hurling firebombs back and forth with government backers on the rooftop above. The rain of bottles of flaming gasoline set nearby cars and wreckage on the sidewalk ablaze.

The scenes of mayhem were certain to add to the fear that is already running high in this capital of 18 million people after a weekend of looting and lawlessness and the escape of thousands of prisoners from jails in the chaos.

Soldiers surrounding Tahrir Square fired occasional shots in the air throughout the day but did not appear to otherwise intervene in the fierce clashes and no uniformed police were seen. Most of the troops took shelter behind or inside the armored vehicles and tanks stationed at the entrances to the square.

"Why don't you protect us?" some protesters shouted at the soldiers, who replied they did not have orders to do so and told people to go home.

"The army is neglectful. They let them in," said Emad Nafa, a 52-year-old among the protesters, who for days had showered the military with affection for its neutral stance.

Some of the worst street battles raged near the Egyptian Museum at the edge of the square. Pro-government rioters blanketed the rooftops of nearby buildings and hurled bricks and firebombs onto the crowd below — in the process setting a tree ablaze inside the museum grounds. Plainclothes police at the building entrances prevented anti-Mubarak protesters from storming up to stop them.

The two sides pummeled each other with chunks of concrete and bottles at each of the six entrances to the sprawling plaza, where 10,000 anti-Mubarak protesters tried to fend off more than 3,000 attackers who besieged them. Some on the pro-government side waved machetes, while the square's defenders filled the air with a ringing battlefield din by banging metal fences with sticks.

In one almost medieval scene, a small contingent of pro-Mubarak forces on horseback and camels rushed into the anti-government crowds, trampling several people and swinging whips and sticks. Protesters dragged some riders from their mounts, throwing them to the ground and beating their faces bloody. The horses and camels appeared to be ones used to give tourists rides around Cairo.

Dozens of men and women pried up pieces of the pavement with bars and ferried the piles of ammunition in canvas sheets to their allies at the front. Others directed fighters to streets needing reinforcements.

The protesters used a subway station as a makeshift prison for the attackers they managed to catch. They tied the hands and legs of their prisoners and locked them inside. People grabbed one man who was bleeding from the head, hit him with their sandals and threw him behind a closed gate.

Some protesters wept and prayed in the square where only a day before they had held a joyous, peaceful rally of a quarter-million, the largest demonstration so far.

Egyptian Health Minister Ahmed Sameh Farid said three people died and at least 611 were injured in Tahir Square on Wednesday. One of those killed fell from a bridge near the square; Farid said the man was in civilian clothes but may have been a member of the security forces.

Farid did not say how the other two victims, both young men, were killed. It was not clear whether they were government supporters or anti-Mubarak demonstrators.

After years of tight state control, protesters emboldened by the uprising in Tunisia took to the streets on Jan. 25 and mounted a once-unimaginable series of demonstrations across this nation of 80 million. For the past few days, protesters who camped out in Tahrir Square reveled in a new freedom — publicly expressing their hatred for the Mubarak regime.

"After our revolution, they want to send people here to ruin it for us," said Ahmed Abdullah, a 47-year-old lawyer in the square.

Another man shrieked through a loudspeaker: "Hosni has opened the door for these thugs to attack us."

The pressure for demonstrators to clear the square mounted throughout the day, beginning early when a military spokesman appeared on state TV and asked them to disperse so life in Egypt could get back to normal.

It was a change in attitude by the army, which for the past few days had allowed protests to swell with no interference and even made a statement saying they had a legitimate right to demonstrate peacefully.

Then the regime began to rally its supporters in significant numbers for the first time, demanding an end to the protest movement. Some 20,000 Mubarak supporters held an angry but mostly peaceful rally across the Nile River from Tahrir, responding to calls on state TV.

They said Mubarak's concessions were enough. He has promised not to run for re-election in September, named a new government and appointed a vice president for the first time, widely considered his designated successor.

They waved Egyptian flags, their faces painted with the black-white-and-red national colors, and carried a large printed banner with Mubarak's face as police officers surrounded the area and directed traffic. They cheered as a military helicopter swooped overhead.

They were bitter at the jeers hurled at Mubarak.

"I feel humiliated," said Mohammed Hussein, a 31-year-old factory worker. "He is the symbol of our country. When he is insulted, I am insulted."

The anti-Mubarak movement has vowed to intensify protests to force him out by Friday.

State TV said Vice President Omar Suleiman called "on the youth to heed the armed forces' call and return home to restore order." From the other side, senior anti-Mubarak figure Mohamed ElBaradei demanded the military "intervene immediately and decisively to stop this massacre."

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke with Suleiman to condemn the violence and urge Egypt's government to hold those responsible for it accountable, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said.

In the early afternoon on Wednesday, around 3,000 pro-government demonstrators broke through and surged among the protesters, according to an Associated Press reporter at the scene.

They tore down banners denouncing the president, fistfights broke out, and protesters grabbed Mubarak posters from the hands of the supporters and ripped them to pieces.

From there, it escalated into outright street battles as hundreds poured in to join each side.

The battle lines at each of the entrances surged back and forth for hours. Each side's fighters stretched across the width of the four-lane divided boulevard, hiding behind abandoned trucks and holding sheets of corrugated metal as shields from the hail of stones.

At the heart of the square, young men with microphones sought to keep up morale. "Stand fast, reinforcements are on the way," said one. "Youth of Egypt, be brave." Groups of bearded men lined up to recite Muslim prayers before taking their turn in the line of fire.

Bloodied young men staggered or were carried into makeshift clinics set up in mosques and alleyways by the anti-government side.

Wednesday's events suggest the regime aims to put an end of the unrest to let Mubarak shape the transition as he chooses over the next months. Mubarak has offered negotiations with protest leaders over democratic reforms, but they have refused any talks until he steps down.

As if to show the public the crisis was ending, the government began to reinstate Internet service after days of an unprecedented cutoff. State TV announced the easing of a nighttime curfew, which now runs from 5 p.m. to 7 a.m. instead of 3 p.m. to 8 a.m.

____

AP correspondents Sarah El Deeb, Hamza Hendawi, Diaa Hadid, Lee Keath, Michael Weissenstein and Maggie Michael contributed to this report.

Journalists attacked, detained in Egypt

By DAVID BAUDER and CHRIS TORCHIA, Associated Press – Wed Feb 2

NEW YORK – In multiple incidents, journalists covering Egypt's unrest were pummeled, hit with pepper spray, shouted at and threatened by loyalists to President Hosni Mubarak as the scene at anti-government demonstrations suddenly turned ugly.

"For the first time in the last few days, we can feel what dictatorship really means," said Lara Logan of CBS News, who said she was effectively trapped in an Alexandria hotel.

When a CBS camera crew attempted to take pictures of violence between pro- and anti-government crowds, they were marched back to their hotel at gunpoint, Logan said. The CBS journalists were only allowed to leave without cameras, and were watched wherever they went. Mubarak's opponents were becoming afraid to talk to journalists, she said.

Several reporters told similar stories of what the Committee to Protect Journalists described as a series of deliberate attacks. The New York-based CPJ called on the Egyptian military to provide protection for reporters.

Veteran international correspondent Christiane Amanpour, now working for ABC News, said she witnessed Mubarak supporters arriving at Cairo's Tahrir Square in what appeared to be coordinated fashion in the early afternoon and sensed the mood changing.

"The thing about this is you can smell it," she said. "I just wondered what this was going to bode for the day."

She soon found out. She was trying to interview a Mubarak supporter when she was surrounded by several young men shouting that "we hate Americans" and "go to hell."

When it was clear the situation wouldn't improve, Amanpour and her ABC colleagues got in a car to leave. The car was surrounded by men banging on the sides and windows, and a rock was thrown through the windshield, shattering glass on the occupants. They escaped without injury.

Blaming the press when things are going bad is a "time-honored and sad tradition," she said.

CNN's Anderson Cooper said he, a producer and camera operator were set upon by people who began punching them and trying to break their camera. Another CNN reporter, Hala Gorani, said she was shoved against a fence when demonstrators rode in on horses and camels, and feared she was going to get trampled.

"This is incredibly fast-moving," Cooper said. "I've been in mobs before and I've been in riots, but I've never had it turn so quickly."

A journalist for Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television suffered a concussion, said media watchdog International Press Institute, citing Randa Abul-Azm, the station's bureau chief in Cairo.

The attacks appeared to reflect a pro-government view that many media outlets are sympathetic to protesters who want Mubarak to quit now rather than complete his term. On Tuesday night, Mubarak pledged not to run in elections later this year, and the army urged people to cease demonstrating.

In Wednesday's fighting, security forces did not intervene as thousands of people hurled stones and firebombs at each other for hours in and around the capital's Tahrir Square.

Fox Business Channel's Ashley Webster reported that security officials burst into a room where he and a camera operator were observing the demonstration from a balcony. They forced the camera inside the room. He called the situation "very unnerving" and said via Twitter that he was trying to lay low.

CBS newsman Mark Strassman said he and a camera operator were attacked as they attempted to get close to the rock-throwing and take pictures. The camera operator, who he would not name, was punched repeatedly and hit in the face with Mace.

"As soon as one started, it was like blood in the water," he said. The two men were caught up in a crowd they soon learned were anti-Mubarak demonstrators who were trying to whisk them to safety. The demonstrators told them to get away for safety's sake, and they complied.

"It's a significant news story but at the same time you have to protect yourself," he said. "You're not doing anybody any good if you end up in a hospital or worse."

Strassman said that he and his colleague were vulnerable because they were clearly identifiable as Westerners. Al-Jazeera, the Arab news network that has been the most consistent target of the Mubarak regime's wrath, escaped trouble on Wednesday.

Al Jazeera kept its camera crews away from the square and instead relied on reporters of Arab descent who had flip cameras and tried to do their work by blending in with the crowd, said Al Anstey, the network's managing director.

"It's a very, very challenging situation," Anstey said. "But it's history in the making."

There were reported assaults on journalists for the BBC, Danish TV2 News and Swiss television. Two Associated Press correspondents were also roughed up.

"We strongly condemn these attacks and urge all parties to refrain from violence against journalists, local or foreign, who are simply trying to cover these demonstrations and clashes for the benefit of the public," Anthony Mills, press freedom manager for Vienna-based International Press Institute, said in a statement.

"We are particularly concerned at suggestions that the attacks may have been linked to the security services," he said.

Government spokesman Magdy Rady said the assertion of state involvement in street clashes and attacks on reporters was a "fiction," and that the government welcomed objective coverage.

"It would help our purpose to have it as transparent as possible. We need your help," Rady said in an interview with The Associated Press. However, he said some media were not impartial and were "taking sides against Egypt."

The website of Belgium's Le Soir newspaper said Belgian reporter Serge Dumont, whose real name is Maurice Sarfatti, was beaten Wednesday while covering a pro-Mubarak demonstration and taken away by unidentified people dressed as civilians. The paper said Sarfatti had been able to call the paper to tell them he had been taken to a military post.

"They are saying I'm going to be taken to see security services. They accuse me of being a spy," the paper's website quoted him as saying.

A reporter for Turkey's Fox TV, his Egyptian cameraman and their driver were abducted by men with knives while filming protests Wednesday, but Egyptian police later rescued them, said Anatolia, a Turkish news agency.

There was no information on why the crew was held or circumstances surrounding their release.

A correspondent and a cameraman working for Russia's Zvezda television channel were detained by men in plainclothes and held overnight Tuesday, Anastasiya Popova of Vesti state television and radio said on air from Cairo.

"All of their equipment, cameras and all cassettes, were taken from them, they were taken to a house and blindfolded," Popova said. They were questioned, she said, "but today they took them to the outskirts of town and let them go without any explanation."

Reporter Jean-Francois Lepine of Canada's CBC all-French RDI network said that he and a cameraman were surrounded by a mob that began hitting them, until they were rescued by the Egyptian army.

"Without them, we probably would have been beaten to death," he said.

___

Associated Press writer Angela Doland in Paris, Lynn Berry in Moscow, Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, and Mark Lavie in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

South Korea's Lee open to summit with Kim Jong Il

By HYUNG-JIN KIM, Associated Press – Tue Feb 1

SEOUL, South Korea – South Korea's president pressed North Korea on Tuesday to change its pattern of provocations and take responsibility for two deadly attacks last year, saying that could lead to a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

President Lee Myung-bak's appeal came as the rival Koreas are to hold a preliminary meeting next week to lay the groundwork for high-level defense talks — the first in more than three years — to ease months of hostility on the Korean peninsula that have raised fears of war.

Lee said the North must use the talks as a chance to show it is serious about improving ties with the outside world and changing its pattern of raising regional tensions with provocations and then seeking negotiations to wrest badly needed aid.

"North Korea has a good opportunity to change" its behavior, Lee said during a panel discussion televised live. "I have high hopes for a change."

Asked whether a summit with North Korea's leader Kim was possible if the North demonstrates sincerity and that leads to bilateral and multilateral talks with North Korea, Lee said; "Yes. I don't deny it. I'd hold a summit if necessary."

Tensions on the peninsula sharply rose after the North's artillery barrage killed four people on a front-line South Korean island in November. The bombardment came eight months after the deadly sinking of a South Korean warship blamed on Pyongyang. The North has denied its involvement in the sinking, which killed 46 South Korean sailors.

Before last year's attacks, the two Koreas reportedly pushed for a summit but failed to agree due to differences over the impoverished North's demand for food aid. Lee has said in the past that he was willing, in principle, to meet Kim at any time if that would help foster peace on the Korean peninsula, which has remained in a technical state of war since the three-year Korean War ended in a truce in 1953.

The leaders of the two Koreas held their first-ever summit in 2000, with then-South Korean President Kim Dae-jung traveling to Pyongyang to meet with Kim Jong Il. The second summit was held in 2007 between then-President Roh Moo-hyun and Kim.

The North has pushed recently for talks with South Korea and the resumption of six-nation negotiations over its nuclear weapons program.

Last week, South Korea agreed to defense talks in what would be the rivals' first official contact since the November artillery barrage — the North's first attack on a civilian-area since the Korean War. Working-level officials of the Koreas are to meet at the border village of Panmunjom next Tuesday to discuss the agendas, a date and other details for the defense talks, Seoul's Defense Ministry said.

Lee said North Korea must change its pattern of behavior if it wants to improve ties with the South or see the resumption of nuclear-disarmament-for-aid negotiations.

"When (North Korea) has a position that it really intends to have genuine talks rather than armed provocation, we can have South-North Korea talks and economic exchanges, and discuss the six-party talks," Lee said.

___

Associated Press writer Haeran Hyun contributed to this report.

Egypt crowds unmoved by Mubarak's vow not to run

By SARAH EL DEEB and HADEEL AL-SHALCHI, Associated Press – Tue Feb 1

CAIRO – President Hosni Mubarak defied a quarter-million protesters demanding he step down immediately, announcing Tuesday he would serve out the last months of his term and "die on Egyptian soil." He said he would not seek re-election, but that did not calm the public fury as clashes erupted between his opponents and supporters.

The 82-year-old Mubarak, who has ruled the country for nearly three decades, offered little protesters had sought after a dramatic day in which a quarter-million Egyptians staged their biggest demonstration yet. And he insisted he wouldn't have sought a fifth term in September even if the protests had never happened.

Mubarak's halfway concession — an end to his rule seven months down the road — threatened to inflame frustration and anger among protesters, who have been peaceful in recent days but have made clear they will not end their unprecedented week-old wave of demonstrations until he is out.

Soon after his speech, clashes erupted between protesters and government supporters in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, and gunshots were heard, according to footage by Al-Jazeera television.

The speech was immediately derided by protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square. Watching his speech on a giant TV, protesters booed and waved their shoes over their heads at his image in a sign of contempt. "Go, go, go! We are not leaving until he leaves," they chanted. One man screamed, "He doesn't want to say it, he doesn't want to say it."

In the 10-minute address, Mubarak appeared somber but spoke firmly and without an air of defeat. He said he would serve out the rest of his term working "to accomplish the necessary steps for the peaceful transfer of power. He said he will carry out amendments to rules on presidential elections.

Mubarak, a former air force commander, vowed not to flee the country. "This is my dear homeland ... I have lived in it, I fought for it and defended its soil, sovereignty and interests. On its soil I will die. History will judge me and all of us."

His speech came after a visiting envoy of President Barack Obama told Mubarak that his time in office was running out. Frank Wisner, a respected former U.S. ambassador to Egypt who is a friend of the Egyptian president, made clear to Mubarak that it is the U.S. "view that his tenure as president is coming to a close," according to an administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the ongoing diplomacy.

The United States has been struggling to find a way to ease Mubarak out of office while maintaining stability in Egypt, a key ally in the Mideast that has a 30-year-old peace treaty with Israel and has been a bulwark against Islamic militancy.

Mubarak would be the second Arab leader pushed from office by a popular uprising in the history of the modern Middle East, following the ouster last month of the president of Tunisia — another North African nation.

The U.S. ambassador in Cairo, Margaret Scobey, spoke by telephone Tuesday with Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei, the embassy said. ElBaradei, a pro-democracy advocate and one of the opposition's most prominent leaders, has taken a key role in formulating the movement's demands for Mubarak to step down and allow a transitional government paving the way for free elections. There was no immediate word on what he and Scobey discussed.

Only a month ago, reform activists would have greeted Mubarak's announcement with joy — many Egyptians believed Mubarak was going to run again despite health issues. But after the past week of upheaval, Mubarak's address struck many of his opponents as inadequate.

"The people have spoken. They said no to Mubarak, and they will not go back on their words," said Saad el-Katatni, a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood. "Enough suffering. Let him go, and leave the Egyptians to sort themselves out."

Ayman Nour, a former presidential candidate who is now a member of a committee formed to conduct any future negotiations on behalf of the protesters, said Mubarak clearly didn't get the message.

"This is a unique case of stubbornness that will end in a disaster," he said. "It is only expected that he wasn't going to run because of his age... He offered nothing new."

Tuesday's protest marked a dramatic escalation that organizers said aims to drive Mubarak out by Friday. In a single day, the protesters' numbers multiplied more than tenfold, with more than a quarter-million people flooding into Tahrir, or Liberation, Square.

Protesters jammed in shoulder to shoulder: farmers and unemployed university graduates, women in conservative headscarves and women in high heels, men in suits and working-class men in scuffed shoes. Many in the crowd traveled from rural provinces, defying a government transportation shutdown and roadblocks on intercity highways.

They sang nationalist songs, danced, beat drums and chanted the anti-Mubarak slogan "Leave! Leave! Leave!" as military helicopters buzzed overhead. Organizers said the aim was to intensify marches to get the president out of power by Friday, and similar demonstrations erupted in at least five other cities around Egypt.

Soldiers at checkpoints set up at the entrances of the square did nothing to stop the crowds from entering. The military promised on state TV Monday night that it would not fire on protesters answering a call for a million to demonstrate, a sign that army support for Mubarak may be unraveling.

The movement to drive Mubarak out has been built on the work of online activists and fueled by deep frustration with an autocratic regime blamed for ignoring the needs of the poor and allowing corruption and official abuse to run rampant. After years of tight state control, protesters emboldened by the Tunisia unrest took to the streets on Jan. 25 and mounted a once-unimaginable series of protests across this nation of 80 million.

The repercussions were being felt around the Mideast, as other authoritarian governments fearing popular discontent pre-emptively tried to burnish their democratic image.

Jordan's King Abdullah II fired his government Tuesday in the face of smaller street protests, named an ex-prime minister to form a new Cabinet and ordered him to launch political reforms. The Palestinian Cabinet in the West Bank said it would hold long-promised municipal elections "as soon as possible."

Egypt's protesters have rejected earlier concessions by Mubarak, including the dissolution of his government, the naming of a new one and the appointment of a vice president, Omar Suleiman, who offered a dialogue with "political forces" over constitutional and legislative reforms.

In an interview with Al-Arabiya television Tuesday, ElBaradei dismissed Suleiman's offer, saying there could be no negotiations until Mubarak leaves. In his speech, Mubarak said the offer still stands and promised to change constitutional articles that allow the president unlimited terms and limit those who can run for the office.

Egypt's state TV on Tuesday ran a statement by the new prime minister, Ahmed Shafiq, pleading with the public to "give a chance" to his government.

The United States ordered non-essential U.S. government personnel and their families to leave Egypt. They join a wave of people rushing to flee the country — over 18,000 overwhelmed Cairo's international airport and threw it into chaos. EgyptAir staff scuffled with frantic passengers, food supplies were dwindling and some policemen even demanded substantial bribes before allowing foreigners to board their planes.

Banks, schools and the stock market in Cairo were closed for the third working day, making cash tight. Bread prices spiraled. An unprecedented shutdown of the Internet was in its fifth day.

The official death toll from the crisis stood at 97, with thousands injured, though reports from witnesses across the country indicated the actual toll was far higher.

But perhaps most startling was how peaceful the protests have been in recent days, after the military replaced the police around Tahrir Square and made no move to try to suppress the demonstrations. No clashes between the military and protesters have been reported since Friday night, after pitched street battles with the police throughout the day Friday.

Egypt's military leadership has reassured the U.S. that they do not intend to crack down on demonstrators, but instead they are allowing the protesters to "wear themselves out," according to a former U.S. official in contact with several top Egyptian army officers. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.

Troops alongside Soviet-era and newer U.S.-made Abrams tanks stood guard at roads leading into Tahrir Square, a plaza overlooked by the headquarters of the Arab League, the campus of the American University in Cairo, the famed Egyptian Museum and the Mugammma, an enormous building housing departments of the notoriously corrupt and inefficient bureaucracy.

Protester volunteers wearing tags reading "the People's Security" circulated through the crowds in the square, saying they were watching for government infiltrators who might try to instigate violence. Organizers said the protest would remain in the square and not attempt to march to the presidential palace to avoid frictions with the military.

Two effigies of Mubarak dangled from traffic lights. On their chests was written: "We want to put the murderous president on trial." Their faces were scrawled with the Star of David, an allusion to many protesters' feeling that Mubarak is a friend of Israel, still seen by most Egyptians as their country's archenemy more than 30 years after the two nations signed a peace treaty.

Every protester had their own story of why they came — with a shared theme of frustration with a life pinned in by corruption, low wages, crushed opportunities and abuse by authorities. Under Mubarak, Egypt has seen a widening gap between rich and poor, with 40 percent of the population living under or just above the poverty line set by the World Bank at $2 a day.

Sahar Ahmad, a 41-year-old school teacher and mother of one, said she has taught for 22 years and still only makes about $70 a month.

"There are 120 students in my classroom. That's more than any teacher can handle," said Ahmad. "Change would mean a better education system I can teach in and one that guarantees my students a good life after school. If there is democracy in my country, then I can ask for democracy in my own home."

Tamer Adly, a driver of one of the thousands of minibuses that ferry commuters around Cairo, said he was sick of the daily humiliation he felt from police who demand free rides and send him on petty errands, reflecting the widespread public anger at police high-handedness.

"They would force me to share my breakfast with them ... force me to go fetch them a newspaper. This country should not just be about one person," the 30-year-old lamented, referring to Mubarak.

Among the older protesters, there was also a sense of amazement after three decades of unquestioned control by Mubarak's security forces over the streets.

"We could never say no to Mubarak when we were young, but our young people today proved that they can say no, and I'm here to support them," said Yusra Mahmoud, a 46-year-old school principal who said she had been sleeping in the square alongside other protesters for the past two nights.

Tens of thousands rallied in the cities of Alexandria, Suez and Mansoura, north of Cairo, as well as in the southern province of Assiut and the southern city of Luxor.

Authorities shut down all roads and public transportation to Cairo and in and out of other main cities, security officials said. Train services nationwide were suspended for a second day and all bus services between cities were halted.

Still, many from the provinces managed to make it to the square. Hamada Massoud, a 32-year-old a lawyer, said he and 50 others came in cars and minibuses from the impoverished province of Beni Sweif south of Cairo.

"Cairo today is all of Egypt," he said. "I want my son to have a better life and not suffer as much as I did ... I want to feel like I chose my president."

___

AP correspondents Maggie Michael, Maggie Hyde, Lee Keath and Michael Weissenstein in Cairo and Kimberly Dozier in Washington contributed to this report.

Mubarak backers open fire on protesters

By Samia Nakhoul and Marwa Awad

CAIRO (Reuters) – Supporters of President Hosni Mubarak opened fire on protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Thursday, killing four people and wounding 13, witnesses and television said.

It was the biggest spike in violence since protesters angered by oppression and hardship launched an unprecedented challenge to Mubarak's 30-year-rule 10 days ago. Many accused the government of backing the pro-Mubarak supporters.

Mubarak said on Tuesday he would step down in September, angering protesters who want him to quit immediately and prompting the United States to say change "must begin now."

Al Arabiya television quoted a doctor at the scene as saying four people had been killed and 13 were wounded in the overnight violence in Tahrir Square which began around 4 a.m. on Thursday, and which was shown live on television.

"It's really a battlefield," a witness who gave her name as Mona told al Jazeera. But she said the protesters would not give up. "We are not leaving this place until Mubarak leaves."

After more than an hour of intense firing, television stations showed live footage of two bodies being pulled from the scene, while Mubarak supporters and protesters hurled stones at each other. Black smoke billowed over the area.

Shortly before dawn, television footage showed army vehicles being deployed among protesters. But fighting continued between protesters and pro-Mubarak supporters.

After Mubarak said in a nationally televised address on Tuesday that he would step down in September, the army told protesters to go home.

But with many saying they would not call off their protests until the 82-year-old president quit, Mubarak backers, throwing petrol bombs, wielding sticks and charging on camels and horses, attacked protesters in Tahrir Square on Wednesday.

Anti-Mubarak demonstrators said the attackers were police in plainclothes. The Interior Ministry denied the accusation, and the government rejected international calls to end violence and begin the transfer of power.

This apparent rebuff along with the spike in violence -- after days of relatively calm demonstrations -- complicated U.S. calculations for an orderly transition of power in Egypt.

In pointed comments, a senior U.S. official said on Wednesday it was clear that "somebody loyal to Mubarak has unleashed these guys to try to intimidate the protesters."

PROTESTERS SAY THEY WON'T LEAVE

By nightfall on Wednesday, the protesters were still holding their ground in Tahrir Square. Skirmishes continued into the night, with blazes caused by firebombs.

After a brief period of calm, a barrage of gunfire could be heard ringing out for more than an hour.

"They fired at us many petrol bombs from above the bridge in the northern end of Tahrir Square," said one witness.

Despite the violence, protesters said they would not give up. "We cannot go back at this point," a 33-year-old woman in the square told al Jazeera.

An estimated 150 people have been killed so far and there have been protests across the country. United Nations human rights chief Navi Pillay said up to 300 people may have died.

Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman on Wednesday urged the 2,000 demonstrators in Tahrir Square to leave and observe a curfew to restore calm. He said the start of dialogue with the reformists and opposition depended on an end to street protests.

Officials said three people were killed in Wednesday's violence and a doctor at the scene said over 1,500 were injured.

Reacting to the tumult in Egypt, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said on Wednesday that, "If any of the violence is instigated by the government it should stop immediately."

OPPOSITION REJECTS TALKS

Opposition figurehead Mohamed ElBaradei, a Nobel Peace laureate, called on the army to intervene to stop the violence.

Khalil, a man in his 60s, blamed Mubarak supporters and undercover security men for the clashes. "We will not leave," he told Reuters on Wednesday. "Everybody stay put," he added.

"I will stay with my brothers and sisters in Tahrir until I either die or Mubarak leaves the country," said medical student Shaaban Metwalli, 22, as night closed in on Wednesday.

An opposition coalition, which includes the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, said it would only negotiate with Suleiman, a former intelligence chief appointed by Mubarak at the weekend, once the president stepped down.

The crisis has alarmed the United States and other Western governments who have regarded Mubarak as a bulwark of stability in a volatile region, and has raised the prospect of unrest spreading to other authoritarian Arab states.

President Barack Obama telephoned the 82-year-old Mubarak on Tuesday to urge him to move faster on political transition.

"The message that the president delivered clearly to President Mubarak was that the time for change has come," Gibbs said, adding: "Now means now." Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in a call to Suleiman, underlined that U.S. position.

But Mubarak dug in his heels on Wednesday. A Foreign Ministry statement rejected U.S. and European calls for the transition to start immediately, saying they aimed to "incite the internal situation" in Egypt.

"This appears to be a clear rebuff to the Obama administration and to the international community's efforts to try to help manage a peaceful transition from Mubarak to a new, democratic Egypt," said Robert Danin, a former senior U.S. official now at the Council on Foreign Relations think tank.

The administration supplies the Egyptian army annually with about $1.3 billion in aid. But international backing for Mubarak, a stalwart of the West's Middle East policy, a key player in the Middle East peace process and defense against militant Islam, crumbled as he tried to ride out the crisis.

France, Germany and Britain also urged a speedy transition.

Some of the few words of encouragement for him have come from oil giant Saudi Arabia, a country seen by some analysts as vulnerable to a similar outbreak of discontent.

Israel, which signed a peace treaty with Egypt in 1979, is also watching the situation in its western neighbor nervously.

At the weekend, Mubarak reshuffled his cabinet and promised reform but that was not enough for the pro-democracy movement.

(Additional reporting by Andrew Hammond, Patrick Werr, Dina Zayed, Marwa Awad, Shaimaa Fayed, Alexander Dziadosz, Yasmine Saleh, and Alison Williams in Cairo; Writing by Myra MacDonald; editing by Samia Nakhoul)

Jordan activists stage anti-Mubarak demo

30/01/2011

AMMAN (AFP) -- Dozens of Islamists and trade unionists staged a noisy protest outside the Egyptian embassy in Amman on Saturday in support of "the people of Egypt" and against the regime of President Hosni Mubarak.

"Mubarak, you are a traitor and an American agent," the 70-strong crowd chanted, even as thousands of protesters in Egypt took to the streets for a fifth straight day to demand Mubarak's ouster.

"Hosni Mubarak, Saudi Arabia awaits you," the Jordanian activists chanted, referring to the country which has sheltered Tunisian strongman Zine El Abidine Ben Ali after he was toppled earlier this month in the so-called "Jasmine Revolution" that has been the inspiration for the Egyptian revolt.

"We say to the Americans, 'do not interfere'," Hamam Said, head of the Muslim Brotherhood, told reporters at the rally. "Your control which has lasted 100 years is finished. We are living in a new era."

He urged the Jordanian authorities "to draw lessons from the events [in Egypt] and start political reforms, because the people want to have a voice and to be able to express their opinion."

Anti-government protests have been staged in Jordan after weekly Friday prayers for the past three weeks.

The Muslim Brotherhood has called for constitutional amendments to curb the king's power in naming government heads, arguing that the premiership should go to the leader of the majority in parliament.

The Jordanian constitution, adopted in 1952, gives the king the exclusive prerogative to appoint and dismiss the prime minister.

King Abdullah II held meetings earlier this week with senior officials, MPs, senators and others as part of efforts to "come closer to the demands of the people," urging them to speed up political and socio-economic reforms.

The government has announced it was pumping around 500 million dollars into the economy in a bid to help living conditions.

The Islamists and Jordan's 14 trade unions, which group more than 200,000 members, say the government's new measures are inadequate as poverty levels are running at 25 percent in the desert kingdom.

Source: Ma'an News Agency.
Link: http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=355351.