Central cities Egypt camp protesters

Cairo (AP) — the Egyptians set up tent camps throughout the country, protest plazas Saturday vowing not to leave until they are military rulers of Egypt remains cleaning of temporary regime kiosk Hosni Mubarak.

The demonstrators demanded that those responsible for killing hundreds of well during the rebellion which can bring justice vaodh Mubarak.

Tents sprang up in major cities including Cairo, Alexandria, vsoatz, and the remote provinces, and organized the most far-flung attempt months click military Council to lead Egypt democracy.

Vatromamot of Government 11 months of Mubarak, after 18 days of mass demonstrations, resulted in widespread frustration that "revolution" has stalled. Complain though Mubarak and hated figures under it had lost power, his regime's key elements remain in the judiciary, the police and citizens.

• Video: Egyptians protest, demand justice after Mubarak

Doubts also began to grow about the ruling Council of generals, which has faced protests, riots for what some consider his reluctance to prosecute former regime accused police and accessibility by killing protesters nearly 900 during the uprising.

Cairo's Tahrir square, hundreds from Saturday night first improvised tents.

"We removed the tip at the top but the rest of the structure remained intact," said Abdel Hadi Abdel Rahim, a farmer in his 50s, square uprising Center Len in February. "Public statement of Mubarak, his family and symbols of his rule. A true statement, "read a banner in the square.

A woman wearing a headscarf spoke from step on, holding a microphone. "Oh, field Marshall Tantawi, we are the masters. The period of slavery is over, "she said, referring to the head of the military. Tantawi is a former friend of Mubarak.

Families of those killed in the rebellion demanded justice for the relatives.

Sayed al-Marnawani, 31, said he did not leave the square until who killed his younger brother on 25 Jan to prosecute. "I don't want money. I am nothing but reward, "he said, carrying a placard with a picture of his brother.

Organizers said hundreds of protest that joined the Suez Canal, located bair at the southern end of the Suez Canal. About 150 protesters have hunger will not end until security officials arrested the top suspect for the killing of the demonstrators, said active Khafagi Ahmad.

"We give them two days later. Then, they see escalation beginning cutting main roads, including civil disobedience, "he said.

"People don't calm until Suez their rights back," he added.

Suez witnesses one of the most violent clashes with security forces in the early days of the uprising. Dozens of demonstrators were shot dead and hundreds injured.

Earlier this week, seven police officers were freed on bail during the trial for the murder of their protesters Suez. Publish their set off two days of riots by angry families, accused the judiciary of corruption. Other former regime officials were acquitted on charges of corruption this week, raising the ire of many.

The southern cities of Luxor, Assuit, several hundred protesters also set up protest tents.

"When we were going to wait?" said AMRO el-Dassouki as he walked to the other through Assuit energizes more people to join them.

Also Saturday, a military Council on behalf of the Egyptian Government for information, filling a post left vacant for almost five months since the last Minister was sacked, was recently acquitted of charges of corruption. A new Minister, haikal Osama was the primary editor of the opposition Al-Wafd paper.

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Egypt police clash with youths; over 1,000 poorly (Reuters)

CAIRO (Reuters)-police in Cairo fired tear gas Wednesday at hundreds of stone-throwing young Egyptians after a night of clashes that injured more than 1,000 people, the worst violence in the capital in several weeks.

Nearly five months since a popular uprising has toppled the longtime authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak, Egypt's military rulers are struggling to maintain order while a restless audience is still eager for reform.

The latest clashes began after the families of people killed in the uprising that ousted Mubarak held an event in a Cairo suburb late on Tuesday in their honor.

Other grieving relatives arrived to complain that the names of their own deaths were not mentioned at the ceremony. Fighting broke and moved towards the capital's central Tahrir Square, and the Ministry of the Interior, according to officials.

The Ministry of Health said 1.036 people were injured, including at least 40 policemen.

The ruling military Council said in a statement on its Facebook page that the recent events "had no justification other than shake the safety and security of Egypt organized in a plan that leverages the blood of the martyrs of the revolution and to sow division among the people and the security apparatus."

Prime Minister Essam Sharaf said TV was monitoring developments and pending a full report on the clashes.

40 people were arrested, including the United States and one is British and were questioned by military prosecutor, said a security source, quoted by State news agency MENA.

Some said that those involved were bent on fighting the police rather than complain. For others, the violence seemed motivated by politics.

"People are angry that the lawsuits against senior officials to keep always late," said Ahmed Abdel Hamid, 26, an employee of the bakery, which was the scene at night, referring to senior political figures of the time Mubarak discredited.

By early afternoon, eight ambulances were in Tahrir, epicenter of the revolt that toppled Mubarak the 11 February, and the police had left the square. Dozens of teenagers, shirts tied around their heads, blocked traffic from entering Tahrir, using stones and scrap metal.

Some led mopeds in circles around the square, making shoes and angering bystanders. "Thugs, thugs ... The square is owned by thugs, "an elderly man chanted.

"I'm here today because I heard from the police violent treatment of demonstrators last night," said Magdy Ibrahim, 28, an accountant in Egypt's Banque du Caire.

TREATING WOUNDED

Egypt discouraged the financial market, clashes with equity traders blame the violence on a 2 percent fall in the benchmark index EGX30, its biggest drop since June 2.

First aid workers treated people especially for inhalation of tear gas in violence overnight. A Reuters correspondent saw several people with minor injuries, including some with head cuts.

Mohsen Mourad, the Deputy Interior Minister to Cairo, said security forces did not enter Tahrir overnight and faced only 150-200 people who tried to break into the Ministry of the Interior and threw stones, damaging cars and police vehicles.

Muslim Brotherhood's political party warned Egyptians that Mubarak's rule remains could use violence to their purposes. Presidential candidate, Mohamed ElBaradei has urged the ruling military Council to clarify the facts surrounding the violence and take measures to stop it.

United States Secretary of State William Burns, visiting Cairo, said he hoped that an investigation into the clashes would be "fair and thorough".

Young men lit car tyres in the streets near the Ministry Wednesday, sending black plumes of smoke into the air.

"There is a lack of information about what happened and the details are unclear. But what is certain is that the Egyptians are in a State of tension and the reason for this is that officials are taking the time to put on trial, Mubarak and officials, "said political analyst Hassan Nafaa.

Sporadic clashes, some of them, between the Muslims and the Christian minority, have posed a challenge to a Government trying to restore order after the police many deserted streets during the revolt against Mubarak. In early may, 12 people and 52 wounded in sectarian riots and the burning of a church in Imbaba neighborhood of Cairo.

A hospital in Central Cairo Munira received two civilians and wounded policemen with 41, bruises and inhalation of tear gas, said MENA. All were discharged except a civilian with a bullet wound and a policeman with concussion, and said.

Former Interior Minister Habib al-Adli has been sentenced to prison for corruption, but he and other officials are still tried for charges related to kill protesters. Police vehicles were stoned by protesters at the hearing on Sunday.

The former President, now hospitalized, was also accused of killing demonstrators and could face the death penalty. Mubarak begins trial 3 August.

(Additional reporting by Dina Zayed and Sherine El Madany; Written by Edmund Blair and Tom Pfeiffer; Editing by Peter Graff)

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Egypt: security forces clashing with protesters Cairo, Egypt (AP)

CAIRO – Egypt's security forces firing tear gas clashed with more than 5,000 protesters rock-launch of Central Cairo late Tuesday, leaving dozens of injured in the latest unrest to rattle the town, witnesses and medical officials said.

Clouds of tear gas and the wail of police in riot gear Tahrir Square forces sirens as security lines are submerged battled to regain control of the central square by the protesters, many of them relatives of more than 850 people have been killed during the revolution which overthrew the longtime ruler of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak.

Families are frustrated with what they perceive as the prosecution slow security agents who is believed to be responsible for the deaths of some 850 demonstrators during the 18 days.

Rocks and shattered glass littered the streets around Tahrir, as the protestors chanted: "down with the junta". Injured protesters lay on the ground, some bloodied and dazed, before the fighting ended after Interior Minister Mansour el-Essawy issued an order before dawn Wednesday to the security services to resign.

The confrontation began Tuesday when security forces cleared a sit-in outside the State television building families of demonstrators killed, said Noureddin, an engineer who gave only his name.

"I was in front of building this morning when security forces attacked the State television," he said. "Since then, things were escalating."

The protesters were United Tuesday evening, the Ministry of the Interior, where rumor had it that two demonstrators injured earlier in the day had been taken. It wasn't immediately clear what sparked the violence outside the Ministry, but in the end the protesters were throwing paving stones and security forces firing volleys of teargas and blocking off streets around the building.

The clashes then moved to the nearby Tahrir — the epicenter of the revolution of Egypt. In a view unseen since the early days of the uprising, the central lines of security troops in riot gear sealed off main roads leading into the square, while dozens of security vehicles were parked in side streets.

The shock response of the Government, which many of the protesters from the heavy handed tactics used by the security forces before the fall of Mubarak.

"Violence and security forces is the same, said Al Maataz Hassan, an engineer."Accuse people of being thugs, then the repression. It's the same mentality as before the revolution ".

Tuesday's clashes, perhaps more serious between security forces and protesters from the revolution, are an offshoot of the tumultuous transition period the country is going through, as it strives to move away from authoritarian to democratic system.

The transition has made a step forward Tuesday with an Egyptian Court to order the dissolution of the municipal councils more than 1,750, seen as one of the last vestiges of the rule of Hosni Mubarak.

The Administrative Tribunal's decision, announced by presiding judge Kamal el-Lamei, meets an important question of the protest movement that has prompted Mubarak from power.

Local councils, with over 50,000 seats filled by elections are widely viewed as rigged, were a backbone of support for the ruling party of Mubarak. They became particularly important after 2005 constitutional amendments require presidential candidates to get support from a contingent of local Council officials as well as by members of the national Parliament. Critics saw this as a springboard for Mubarak's son, Gamal, to succeed his father in Office.

The decision of the Court can still be appealed, but popular opposition, can make it difficult for current military rulers of Egypt for the challenge.

Hamdi el-Fakharani, an engineer who has filed a court case against the boards, said 97 percent of Board members belonged to the now-dissolved Mubarak's National Democratic Party.

"They had already started a campaign by the municipal services to influence people in favour of the return of the party and saying the revolution has negatively impacted the economy," he said.

He said that he was joined in the complaint of ten Board members independent evidencing the corruption of the Council.

The dismissal of all members of the Council will give municipalities of Egypt under the control of non-elected local leaders and provincial officials, until new councils are elected.

A large demonstration is expected next week, among other things, show support for dissolving the local authorities. Activists say the advice, criticized as corrupt and flush with funds from the Government, could help the campaigns of former regime supporters in parliamentary elections, scheduled for September.

"This is, of course, an important decision. If we're having these parliamentary elections, municipal councils have been set to play an important role, "said Hafez Abu Saada, a human rights lawyer who monitored and criticised the elections of 2008 councils.

___

Associated Press writer Sarah El Deeb contributed to this report.

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Egypt has workers revolution left behind? (Time.com)

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No one in Zagazig wants to talk about what happened last week. The hundreds of railway workers who maintain the old, trash-ridden tracks and trains in this Nile Delta town whisper hurriedly about a strike that briefly disrupted rail traffic across the country of 80 million. But the workers won't give their names or discuss it at length for fear of retribution from the soldiers and security forces that so swiftly put an end to it. And the man they point to as their labor leader says nervously that he knows nothing about a strike.

But maybe it's better that way, say some Egyptians - particularly political leaders and the railway's managers. "We're against stopping business like this, because we're trying to get stability back," says Mansour al-Shitry, an accountant for the state-run railways. "Of course the government can't meet the demands of all the people at once, and we don't want to give the military council more of a burden than they already have." (Lightbox [EM] Egypt In Flux: Photographs by Thomas Dworzak)

That's the rationale echoed by many of Tahrir Square's liberal, intellectual youth, politicians and, indeed, the military leadership. It's an opinion that predominates among the educated classes in the debate over where the line should be drawn between revolution and transition. Protests for political reform are crucial, many argue, because the system of governance will define Egypt's future on all levels. Labor strikes, on the other hand, can and should be postponed: it's not the right time, they say; Egypt's floundering post-revolution economy needs all the work it can get.

But the laboring classes - many members of whom have not received their salaries in months - feel otherwise. Dozens of strikes and sit-ins have stalled business across the public and private sectors in recent months. And to union leaders and labor activists, the core revolutionary demands of the working classes have yet to be acknowledged. Minimum wage has been raised and promises have been made, but most have yet to see concrete change on the ground. And indeed, amid the cracks, crevices, and gaping political and ideological fault lines that have shattered the early unity of the February revolution that toppled President Hosni Mubarak, is a divide that increasingly seems to define other debates as well. It's about class.

"There is total class warfare going on in Egypt right now that I don't even think [the liberal movements] can see," says Joshua Stacher, a political scientist and Egypt expert at Kent State University. "If middle upper class, urban people in Cairo and Alexandria get some of their demands met, they could care less about minimum wage, or the fact that the healthcare system is complete crap," he says of the competing array of post-revolutionary demands. "The dominant discourse that's coming out on TV is that it's not the right time to protest for these things. Like 'You shouldn't have a living wage right now, you're being greedy.'"

Instead, political elites have prioritized political reforms. And one of the most prominent debates to grip Cairo's political scene in recent weeks centers around the question of what needs to come first on the roadmap to a prosperous and democratic Egypt: a new constitution or a new, elected parliament. The debate has largely been split along Islamist versus liberal lines. The latter, fearing an Islamist majority in parliament, wants to ensure that certain rights and laws are guaranteed first. The Islamists argue that only an elected parliament can determine the next constitution, and a national referendum passed overwhelmingly in March specified as much. "Some people are trying to take a detour around the popular decision in the referendum," says Mohamed Ezzat, a local Muslim Brotherhood official in Zagazig. "But the people have chosen a road map for what happens next in this country, and they want that to be respected." (See TIME's Exclusive Photos: Turmoil in Egypt)

For others, however, it's not about religious ideology or road maps at all. "Mostly their demands are political like 'Freedom' and the debate over what comes first - constitution or elections," says labor activist Adel Zakaria of the urban elite, who he describes as middle class. "Workers don't care about that. They have their own problems - mainly they need to eat."

The April 6th Youth Movement, one of the most prominent liberal groups, say it recognizes the deep economic concerns felt by most Egyptians. And last month, in an effort to mobilize Egyptians for a "Second Revolution" protest in Tahrir, the group handed out a flier that promoted economic demands first. "The people just move with us if we talk about economics only," said the group's leader Ahmed Maher at the time. "We know the constitution is more important than the economic demands because we know that the things in the street are organized after that. But the people in the street don't know that."

The disconnect has emerged in the results of popular polls as well. Liberal political leader Mohamed ElBaradei topped a Facebook poll by Egypt's ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces this week to gauge popular preferences for 18 prospective presidential candidates. To some, it suggests that the majority favors liberal, "Constitution First" politics, of which ElBaradei is an advocate. But in the streets and fields, and on the railway tracks, Egyptians suggest the poll may have more to do with who uses Facebook than with popular opinion.

A less publicized poll released the same week by the International Peace Institute offered a total reversal of rankings, listing former Arab League chief and popular icon Amr Moussa first among the contenders, followed by the country's top military general.

TIME's Complete Coverage: The Middle East in Revolt

Still, while they lack political clout, the lower class masses - at least in the form of striking workers - have been loud. A new $83 billion budget for fiscal year 2011-2012 released by the Egyptian finance ministry on June 22 says as much about reform priorities as it does about who's making noise. The budget pours money into social welfare spending and subsidies, apparently attempts to address working class unhappiness. And on Friday, workers groups that established the country's first independent labor union federation in March are calling for a million man protest to demand that the government crack down on cronyism in job hiring and uphold its promises to establish better worker rights.

In Zagazig, the railway workers say they want overtime compensation and better pay. Some say they make little more than 500 Egyptian Pounds ($84) a month - hardly enough to raise a family on, and still 200 Egyptian Pounds below the new national minimum wage. "We normal people are calling for our rights," explains one train air conditioner technician plainly.

After security forces cleared the tracks last week, railway workers received a promise from the national Railway Committee, the governor, and the local security chief, that their demands would be met. "They've spoken, but we'll see if they'll pay," says one accountant at the Zagazig train station. "To be honest, how will they pay if there is no income? The economy is in a bad state."

TIME's Complete Coverage: The Middle East in Revolt

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