ElBaradei calls on Mubarak to 'retire'
Third day of protests planned
Reformist Mohamed ElBaradei returning to country
Death toll from protests has risen to six
International criticism of police crackdown
12.19pm: 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.
12.12pm: Clashes reported in Ismailia, via Twitter
Rubber bullets & extreme bruitality against us in lsmailia #egypt #jan25
And a new demonstration in Alexandria
Surprising new protest in Mansheyya square in alexandria #alex #jan25 #egypt
11.57am: 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
11.! 40am: De tails 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.
11.28am: 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.
11.14am: @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
11.09am: 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 d! own a lo cal 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.
11.01am: 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 re! ports, a lthough 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.
10.56am: The Nation's Habiba Hamid is suggesting Mubarak's own government is telling him to step down or leave the country.
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
10.53am: An update from Ismailia, in north-east Egypt on the west bank of the Suez canal, via Twitter:
URGENT: mass protest arranged in Ismailiya at 13:00 local time! Ismailiya police force is weakened by redeployments to #Suez! #egypt #jan25
10.48am: @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
10.44am: 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.
10.42am: Egypt's general prosecutor has charged 40 protesters with trying to "overthrow the regime", al-Arabiya television reported today.
10.32am: 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.
10.10am: 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 le! ader 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."
10.01am: People appear to be under curfew in Suez.
From Twitter:
i'm stuck at home and can't go anywhere.. i need live confirmed and trusted updates from the city. #suez #jan25
9.47am: 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%.
9.35am: 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 tod ay 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.
9.30am: 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.
9.25am: 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!
9.20am: 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 ca! n shine a light on the situation please get in touch.
9.11am: 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.
9.08am: 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."
8.43am: 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".
8.36am: 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?
8.29am: 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 me! ssage.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.
8.03am: 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 ! criticis ed 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.
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