An anti-government protester gestures as he sits outside the Egyptian Parliament in Cairo. Photograph: Tara Todras-Whitehill/AP
Cartoonist Carlos Latuff, http://twitpic.com/photos/CarlosLatuff
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We must preserve the constitution even if it is amended, because that will protect the country from an attempt by some adventurers to take power and supervise the transition process. We would find the armed forces forced to defend the constitution and Egyptian national security ... and we would find ourselves in an extremely serious situation.
History has shown us that the industrial working class are normally last social class to join a revolt, and yet their intervention is usually the most crucial. We saw that in Iran, and in Tunisia; when the working-class enter the arena with mass strikes, that's when the regime is finished. Today the working-class has officially entered the battle. Over the past few weeks, since the start of the uprising, the workers have been taking part in the protests but as demonstrators only, not as part of the organised labour movement. They were engaging in independent actions. But now the mass strikes are starting, and we're seeing workers raise not only demands related to their economic rights, but also overtly political demands, and that changes everything.
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"The Ambassador and I had a long discussion about the current situation in Egypt. I clearly reiterated the British Government's position: whilst it is for the Egyptian people to determine the leadership of their country, it is clear that an orderly transition to a broad-based government, with real, visible and meaningful change needs to start now.
Mr Burt noted recent commitments by the Egyptian Government, including the Presidential decree to establish a constitutional review committee, an outline timetable for change, a commitment to protect freedom of expression and to allow peaceful protest and an end the State of Emergency. He said that: "Some of these promises have been made before, and we look forward to actual implementation– what is needed now is action which builds confidence and which leads towards an inclusive government that can meet the needs and aspirations of the Egyptian people". In this context Mr Burt said that he was struck by the size and diversity of yesterday's demonstrations in Tahrir square.
Mr Burt also expressed concern about continuing detention and harassment of foreigners, journalists and members of the opposition in Egypt. Mr Burt said that these needed to "stop immediately", and invoked public assurances given by the Egyptian Vice President.
The methods of Omar Soleiman in dealing with the protesters has become unacceptable and as Egyptians won't accept anything but justice now.
The statements made by Omar Soleiman, that he won't tolerate the presence of the protesters any more, and that he would not tolerate the continuation of such events, is a clear threat to the protesters in Tahrir Square, and we do not accept his threat, on the contrary, the demonstrators will continue and will not stop until we overthrow this tyrant regime.
At the same time, we find that the Egyptian regime has arrested Egyptian participants in the protests, and activists and bloggers and we did not find them till now.
Today, we reaffirm our rejection of ... this comic speech, made by Omar Soleiman and some cartoon parties who do not represent us, in an attempt to deceive the Egyptian people, without trying to meet the demands of the protesters in Tahrir Square and the demands of all Egyptians all over Egypt.
The protesters including the April 6 youth insist that this regime must leave immediately.
The blood of martyrs shed in the field of liberalization in many requires us to reject this comic speech, which Omar Soliman and the President released.
We refuse any negotiations until Mubarak and his regime leaves.
Our rights and demands which have not been implemented, and the blood of our martyrs are not negotiable.
Brian Whitaker has linked to a piece entitled 'The Muslim Brotherhood Myth' (see www.juancole.com). At the bottom of the piece, a commenter writes:
No news network or paper seems to mention the slightest thing about Libya even though it has Tunis on one side and Egypt on the other. Presumably the unrest in Tunis and Egypt has had some kind of effect in Libya? Are you able to shed any light on this?
Despite having supported numerous revolutionary causes over the years, Gaddafi was apoplectic when his chum Ben Ali was turfed out of Tunisia. His rantings about that, blaming the internet, have been quite widely reported both in the mainstream and on blogs. Here is one account.
There was trouble in Libya very soon after Ben Ali was overthrown. I wrote about it on my personal blog, here and here.
Nour makes a fearful analysis: people had no free elections, so they went to the street. if that doesn't work, next step would be violence
I have met with protesters in Ramallah and they said they are, quote, "extremely inspired" by what's happening in Egypt. The problem is the Palestinian Authority from the very beginning banned any kind of demonstrations in the Palestinian territories which means that some demonstrations have not been attended by a large number of people and there's been detentions and people have been taken into police stations. There have been complaints of abuses in the police stations. Finally the Palestinian Authority allowed one protest last Saturday and around a thousand people attended. Analysts told me the Palestinian Authority are worried about what's going on in Egypt.
It started off as solidarity with Tunisia and Egypt ... It's become [about] their demonstrations for political reform in the Palestinian Territories ... Young and old people are very frustrated at the lack of utilities ... but also lack of channels for political participation.
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We are hoping that the "Friday of Martyrs" will be the world largest funeral to bid farewell to 300 Egyptians #Jan25less than a minute ago via webWael Ghonim Ghonim
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A notable thing about the media coverage, a trap that this blog is falling into too, is the lack of comment on the disappearance of Hosni Mubarak from public view. Has he been seen/heard from since that interview with ABC News?
It is a bit of an elephant in the room ... or shall I say the elephant which was in the room and has now been disappeared by a slight of hand ...
• Protesters have continued their demonstration outside the parliament after thousands set up a new front there in the demonstrations last night. They appear not to have been cowed by vice-president Omar Suleiman's warning that the protests are "very dangerous". He said the alternative to dialogue was a coup (see 11.37am).
• The Egyptian government has agreed to amend six articles of the constitution immediately, according to Al Jazeera. These included provisions on who can run for president and on how long a president can serve (see 2.08pm).
• More workers have begun strikes, including factory workers in Mahalla, Suez and Helwan, journalists and sanitation workers in Cairo. Reports of other strikes elsewhere have also been coming in (see 1.34pm).
• Two people are reported to have died in violence last night in Al-Wadi al-Jadid, an isolated town in south-west Egypt (see 2.25pm). There are unconfirmed reports a soldier has been shot by a pro-Mubarak supporter in Mahalla (see 2pm).
• Human rights organisations have accused the minister of information, Anas al-Fiqqi, of being responsible for the deaths of protesters by spreading false propaganda about them (see 11.48am). Human Rights Watch estimates that 302 people have died in the protests so far.
Jamal al-Hajji, who has dual Libyan and Danish nationality, was arrested on February 1 shortly after he issued a call on the Internet for demonstrations in support of greater freedoms in the North African country, it said.
Hajji was arrested in a car park in Tripoli by a group of about 10 security officials in plain clothes who told him a man claimed to have been hit by Jamal al-Hajji's car, which he had just parked, reported.
Amnesty International Middle East and North Africa Director Malcolm Smart said:
Two particular aspects of the case lead us to believe that the alleged car incident was not the real reason for Jamal al-Hajji's arrest, but merely a pretext to conceal what was really a politically motivated arrest.
First, eyewitnesses have reported that the man who is said to have complained of being struck by Jamal al-Hajji's car showed no visible signs of injury.
Secondly, the officers who conducted the arrest were in plain clothes, indicating that they were not the ordinary police who generally would be expected to handle car accidents, but members of the Internal Security Agency (ISA). It is the ISA that usually carries out arrests of political suspects and they wear plain clothes.
Anti-government protesters attach a sign to the gate of the Egyptian Parliament building in Cairo Photograph: Chris Hondros/Getty Images
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So far, the clashes between police and demonstrators have resulted in two deaths and 35 injuries with some of the casualties taken by ambulance to the Assiut University hospital. Those killed have been named as Mustafa Said Bilal and Kitan Abdel Rahman Khadr.
The confrontations continue with intensity, fuelled by the police's use of live ammunition against the demonstrators.
The demonstrations are the first large ones against the regime in the normally quiet governorate, 500 km south of Cairo.
There are unconfirmed reports that three died in the clashes and that one of the protesters was shot in the eye.
#Egypt #Jan25 recognized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of America's historic role played by social media in the Arab world and we want to be part of your conversations
#Egypt #Jan25 Obama said that ultimately the future of Egypt in the hands of the Egyptian people
#Egypt #Jan25 "Vice President Biden to Vice President Solomon:" We must stop the harassment of civil society and the abolition of emergency law
#Egypt#Jan25 تعترف وزارة الخارجية الأمريكية بالدور التاريخي الذي يلعبه الإعلام الإجتماعي في العالم العربي ونرغب أن نكون جزءاً من محادثاتكمless than a minute ago via webUSA bilAraby USAbilAraby
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@mar3e
I'm informed now from a private sources that one of the Army solider in mahalla have been injured by a live bullet from one of the NDP thug
April 6 Youth's Statement for The Egyptian Uprising...
The Egyptian youth Stood & fought against the Tyrants, and we faced their bullets with bare Chests, with all bravery and patience, so hail for the great Egyptian people who made this revolution, and so we confirm that victory is in the fall of Mubarak and his Regime .
From the 25th of January "The Egyptian Uprising" we brought down the dictator's legitimacy...Who rule Egypt now is the Valiant Egyptian people... to maintain our peaceful uprising and to continue protecting ourselves and our country against the Sabotage of the terror regime's thugs.
We will continue what we started on the 25th of January, we the Egyptian youth of who were not deceived by Mubarak's speech which aimed to absurd the Egyptian people's feelings, and underestimated their mentality as it has been used for the past 30 years, with the same fake speeches and promises, and delusional election programs which none of it came to reality.
Mubarak came to this kind of false talk, as a thought from him that the Egyptian people still can be deceived and believe his false words as he just replaced some of his thugs by others and still killing and arresting people, Mubarak lost credibility and will never gain it again from his the Egyptian people as they know now how to fight for their rights and ready to die for it.
We will not accept any kind of negotiations before Mubarak departs. We will not give up until we achieve our demands.
April 6 Youth Movement Egyptian Resistance Movement
the railway technicians in Bani Suweif r on strike. #jan25
• Protesters have continued their demonstration outside the parliament after thousands set up a new front there in the demonstrations last night. They appear not to have been cowed by vice-president Omar Suleiman's warning that the protests are "very dangerous". He said the alternative to dialogue was a coup.
• More workers have begun strikes including factory workers in Mahalla, Suez and Helwan, journalists and sanitation workers in Cairo. Yesterday, steel workers and canal workers in Suez went on strike and Telecom Egypt staff in Cairo among others.
• Two people are reported to have died in violence last night in Al-Wadi al-Jadid, an isolated town in south-west Egypt. The Egyptian paper Youm7 reported 100 people were injured including 8 seriously amid an unconfirmed report of a massacre.
• Human rights organisations have accused the minister of information, Anas al-Fiqqi, of being responsible for the deaths of protesters by spreading false propaganda about them. Human Rights Watch estimates that 302 people have died in the protests so far.
More than 2,000 textile workers and others in Suez demonstrated as well, Al Ahram reported, while in Luxor thousands hurt by the collapse of the tourist industry marched to demand government benefits. There was no immediate independent corroboration of the reports. Al Ahram's coverage was a departure from its usual practice of avoiding reporting that might embarrass the government.
At one factory in the textile town of Mahalla, more than 1,500 workers walked out and blocked roads, continuing a long-running dispute with the owner. And more than 2,000 workers from the Sigma pharmaceutical company in the city of Quesna went on strike while some 5,000 unemployed youth stormed a government building in Aswan, demanding the dismissal of the governor.
In Cairo, sanitation workers demonstrated around their headquarters in Dokki. And more than a hundred journalists gathered in the lobby of Al Ahram itself, denouncing corruption, calling for more press freedom and demanding benefits for two colleagues killed in the Tahrir Square protests.
The subject is trending on Twitter under #NewValley.
The organizations held al-Fiqqi responsible for the "crimes committed in Egypt on Wednesday 2 February which led to the death of 11 people and the injury of 820 others."
In their report, the organizations said that the media campaign launched by the Egyptian Information Ministry incited hatred against peaceful protesters calling for reform, by accusing them of treason.
In a statement, the organizations said al-Fiqqi used Egyptian Television to perpetrate rumours about the peaceful protesters on Egyptian streets, particularly those in Tahrir Square.
The report included some of the news reported by state television, which it described as "false," saying it was misused to turn public opinion against the protesters.
AP has this:
Osama Saraya, the editor-in-chief of the pro-government newspaper Al-Ahram who was there, said Suleiman didn't only mean a military coup but a takeover by another powerful state apparatus or Islamist groups.
Abdul-Rahman Samir, a spokesman for a coalition of the five main youth groups behind the protests in Tahrir Square, said Suleiman was creating "a disastrous scenario."
Blake Hounshell managing editor of Foreign Police magazine tweets:
Beyond Tahrir Square, beyond the boundaries of the sprawling capital, beyond even the provincial cities where protesters joined the call to topple President Hosni Mubarak, rural Egypt is restless for change.
Scraping a meagre living from the land, farmers and rural workers in Egypt's agricultural heartland have watched the largely urban uprising that has shaken the ruling system and many back the web-savvy youths who galvanised the nation. A few have turned up in Cairo in their galabiyas, the robes worn in the fields, although most are too busy trying to feed their families. But many believe it is time for a new era, even if some think Mubarak should stay on a few months more.
"The revolution is good ... It will give us stability but the protest should stop and the president should be allowed to stay until the end of his term," said farmer Fawzi Abdel Wahab, working a field near the Nile Delta city of Tanta.
"If the president doesn't do as he promised, Tahrir Square is still there and the youth will not die, they can go back," he said, his wife and daughter nodding in agreement. The protesters want Mubarak to quit now. Mubarak has said he will step down at the end of his term in September.
The protests may have begun with an educated youth and liberal, urban elite, but a tour of the Nile Delta suggests discontent is more widespread. Mubarak's government needs to do more than meet the aspirations of the middle class.
"The ideas the youths called for in their revolution express those of all Egyptian people, including farmers and residents of rural areas who, like the rest of Egyptians in big cities, face the same needs and suffering," said analyst Nabil Abdel Fattah.
To watch the video in full turn off auto-refresh at the top of the page
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Here's a picture:
Egyptian anti-government protesters gather outside the Parliament gates in Cairo. Photograph: Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images
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The blogger Issandr El Amrani, founder of the Arabist blog:
While people were being shot dead by police on streets packed with protesters calling for Mubarak's resignation, state-run TV presenter Soha al-Naqqash was asserting that calmness prevailed.
Al-Naqqash, a longtime employee of Egypt's Nile News channel, submitted her resignation over state TV's coverage of the uprising.
Al-Naqqash told Al-Masry Al-Youm Wednesday that she had tried to convince her bosses to change the coverage to reflect what was actually happening, but she was rebuffed.
"They used to say 'these are the instructions'. I decided to resign so as not to get involved in what's unprofessional," she said.
Just over the last few days people have told us they were slapped around, in one or two cases they were actually quite badly beaten and threatened with a lot worse. We had one case of someone who claimed he had been subjected to some sort of electroshock device.
Mr Suleiman definitely seems to be not on message when it comes to the demands of the protesters for some serious structural reforms. I was encouraged that the Obama administration called for the revocation of the emergency law. This is something that President Mubarak has to do. It is something he should do before he leaves, when ever that is.
On the release of Wael Ghonim, Stork said.
It is worth pointing out that only not only was detained, he was disappeared, nobody knew where he was. There was a long period of time when his family was going round to morgues and hospitals to find out what happened to him. This is completely outrageous.
Listen! To listen to the audio in full turn off auto-refresh at the top of the page
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An Egyptian regime imposed by military coup is considered by some to be laughable, but they might want to listen to elements of the opposition who are more concerned about this.
On the extension of the protests to the parliament building, Chris said:
So far those protesters [outside parliament] have been left alone, although they have been told not to go into the parliament building, and one of them, who was hanging signs on the railings, was forced to take them down. The protesters now feel they have extended the range of their control beyond the [Tahrir] square. If the military tried to clear them that might well set off a confrontation.
A number of strikes have started, including telecommunication and Suez canal workers, Chris reports.
Although it is dressed up as about pay, it is also being interpreted as a demonstration of support from outside the capital for the protests against Mubarak. It was notable that at the demonstration yesterday, which was the biggest so far, there were quite a number of people who worked for state who would have been fearful of attending demonstrations a week ago.
There will be degree of reassessment [today]. The opposition is deciding how it can best keep the momentum of these protests and even extend them. They want to take it to a second stage and reach out to other Egyptians who maybe more ambivalent at the moment.
The government, as you can see from Suleiman's statement, is clearly in a form of disarray. It doesn't really know what to do. It thought that by beginning the dialogue it could take the sting out of the protests, but the size and scale of the demonstrations plus the sheer variety of people attending yesterday, shows it hasn't at all.
Listen! To listen to the audio in full turn off auto-refresh at the top of the page
The police cut off the electricity and water about 2-3 hours ago. They fired live bullets at the protesters. After brutally beating the protesters, the police were forced to retreat. While retreating they set a gas station on fire. The protesters successfully put out the fire using buckets full of sand.
The protesters set the NDP HQ, Governorate building, and the police station on fire (the police station is unconfirmed). The police arrested a lot of youth randomly and took them to an unknown destination. Also the police set a lot of convicts from the Wadi Prison free to scare the people,keeping only political detainees. The latest news was that the convicts are set to attack the museum, and the protesters are preparing Molotovs for defence. Mohammed Hassan Belal, a 20-year-old protester, is the first confirmed death.
This is not the time to "negotiate", this is the time to "accept" and "enforce" the demands of the Egyptian Youth movement #Jan25less than a minute ago via webWael Ghonim Ghonim
Joe Stork, deputy director of the Middle East and North Africa division of Human Rights Watch, said:
Arrests by military police of journalists, human rights defenders, and youth activists since January 31 appear intended to intimidate reporting and undermine support for the Tahrir protest. These arrests and reports of abuse in detention are exactly the types of practices that sparked the demonstrations in the first place.
Here's a round up of the other recent developments.
Anti-government protesters attach a sign to the gate of the Egyptian Parliament building in Cairo Photograph: Chris Hondros/Getty Images 
Egyptian anti-government protesters gather outside the Parliament gates in Cairo. Photograph: Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images
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