Cross Posted from The Stars Hollow Gazette
Mishima is providing the live updates- TMC
Mishima’s live blog
I’ve been awake for 22 hours I’m going to bed- mishima
This Is A Live Blog
- AP reports that the Foreign Ministry has been stormed by protesters
- Port Said has 40,000 protesters in the streets
- Gun Fire can Clearly Be Heard Near The Hilton Hotel
- Protesters have stopped to pray for the last time today
- Military is out in force in Suez
- People in Alexandria are trying to get home to avoid the curfew
- Heavy gun Fire Is Being Reported
- Fires are burning on the 6th of October bridge
- Gun Fire is being reported by Al Jazeera in Cairo
- It Looks as though the NDP building is on FiRE
- Five tanks have entered Suez in an attempt to regain control of Suez
- The power of the People have Over whelmed the Police
- Police riot van has been set alight with protesters trying to dump it into the Nile river
- Mubarak will address the country shortly
News is breaking extremely fast. Both Al Jazeera and CNN are transmitting live images. You can watch the Al Jazeera broadcast live on line. Protests broken out all over Egypt and there are tanks on the streets of Cairo. Reports are that the police have withdrawn from the Alexandria.
Mohamed ElBaradei, the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, arrived in Egypt yesterday and it is being reported by numerous news agencies that he has been placed under house arrest
As I am writing this, the commentator is reporting that state security has entered Al Jeezera’s Cairo building in an attempt to shut down their feed. Communications have been hampered in the building. The cutting of cell phone connections and the Internet blackout the past three days is unprecedented and reporters and crews are missing, as per live reports.
It is prayer time and the protesters are organizing for evening prayer and the riot police has back off to give them time to pray.
There are reports of at least one person killed in Cairo and a curfew has been imposed for 6 PM Egyptian time (11 AM EST).
This is a video of clashes on a bridge that took place earlier today.
UP dates will continue as they happen.
Up Date #1: CNN reports that the Egyptian Army has been ordered to take over the security from the police.
Up Date #2: The New York Times has continuous up dates on the protests as they receive them.
Egyptian President is expected to give a live address.
Up Date #3: A curfew went into effect at 6 PM (11 AM) and is being ignored.
Al Jazeera reports that 5 Army tanks have entered Cairo as protesters take over security police armored personnel carriers and police stations, setting them on fire.
Further up dates and videos will be below the fold.
Update #4: Al Jazeera is reporting that protesters have formed a human chain around the Cairo Museum to protest it from looting. (TMC)
Up Date #5: CNN reports the headquarters of Egypt’s ruling party, have been ransacked and burned.
Delta Airlines has suspended all flights to Egypt.
The U.S. State Department has issued a travel alert.
Lt. General Sami Hafez Enan is the Egyptian Armed Forces Chief of Staff who has cut short his visit to the US to return to Egypt. (TMC)
Up Date #6: This is video from Al Jazeera has useful primer on Cairo geography, giving readers (and journalists) unfamiliar with the city’s plan an idea of where some of the scenes we have been witnessing in video of protests have taken place:
This video from Al Jazeera, shot earlier on Friday night in Cairo and uploaded to YouTube recently, shows people on the streets of Cairo on Friday night cheering units of Egypt’s Army, which is more respected than the members of the country’s police force:
(TMC)
Up Date # 7: President Hosni Mubarak finally spoke.
CAIRO – President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt appeared on television early Saturday morning and ordered his government to resign, but backed his security forces’ attempts to contain the surging unrest around the country that has shaken his three-decade-long authoritarian rule.
(Simultaneous translation from Al Jazeera)
President Barack Obama spoke shortly after and said little, remaining neutral, more or less, but the White House seems to be giving Mubarak the benefit of the doubt but support is dwindling.
Pres. Obama spoke with Mubarak for 30 minutes before Mubarak spoke. What else did they talk about besides not using violence against peaceful protesters and turn back on the cell service and internet? That might have taken 3 minutes, what else did they say?
News organizations are reporting the cell and internet service is back. (TMC)
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I need to go out shortly. I’ll be back around 2 PM EST
As Police Fire Tear Gas Into Crowds – and listen to phone call as David Swanson talks with US Activist Tighe Barry in Cairo who describes a “different situation from what we get through the US media”
http://antemedius.com/content/chaos-erupts-egypt-police-fire-tear-gas-crowds
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that the streets are still filled with demonstrators, the curfew has had little effect. The military has surrounded the burned out national party headquarters and the nearby Museum of Antiquities to prevent damage or looting, although there have been no reports of looting.
It is abundantly clear, the US government is supporting a corrupt Egyptian regime with $1.3 billion in military aid. Unemployment in Egypt is 40% and the majority of the population is under 25. The Egyptian people are fighting an oppressive government and the US is supplying the means to suppress them. There is something incredibly wrong with that picture. The US is on the wrong side of democracy and freedom around the world propping up despotic regimes.
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Thousands protest in Jordan
The Jordanian people are protesting regressive taxes that are impoverishing an already poor population and rising prices of food and fuel.
young people in the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa, we are seeing the predictable results. It’s amazing that Anglo American meddling continues at an unimaginable intensity. Just how important is oil, the Suez Canal, the Eastern Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf to England, the U.S. and Texas? And how about the Saudi Royal Family?
How much did Clinton earn giving speeches over there? What a clever way to handle those iou’s. Just when the bankers (all over the world) are making their supreme efforts to get the new world order moving along, these unemployed desperados are getting all riled up. Those best laid plans?
The U.S. has to get a hell of a lot worse before young people here even wake up. I guess the American Mythos has to be shattered first.