Just hours after promising that he would give up power seven months from now, Hosni Mubarak unleashed the “chaos” he had warned Egyptians was the only alternative to his autocratic regime. The regime’s thugs ran riot in the center of Cairo, Alexandria and other cities Wednesday, attacking what had been peaceful anti-government encampments with stones, knives and Molotov cocktails. Bahey El Din Hassan, who is one of Egypt’s leading human [Read the rest...]

Faced with an event of Berlin Wall magnitude on its home turf, the Arab media is torn over the uprising in Egypt and how to report it, if at all. In the old days, the media’s role was not so much to report the news as to “guide” the public, shielding them from “harmful” information or anything that might inflame their passions. That ceased to be a viable option more [Read the rest...]

President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt was on Tuesday night forced by Washington to announce he would step down at elections later this year. Mr Mubarak was due in the late evening to appear on state television to announce his departure, which followed mass demonstrations against his rule in Cairo and other major cities. But he was likely to refuse to bow to demands by hundreds of thousands of protesters that [Read the rest...]

(Reuters) – Jordanian activists rallied outside government offices on Saturday as they tried to step up their campaign to force Prime Minister Samir Rifai to step down. Inspired by unrest in Tunisia and elsewhere in the region, about 200 Jordanians gathered outside the prime minister’s office shouting “Our government is a bunch of thieves” and holding banners reading “No to poverty or hunger”. “We’ve come from distant, rural areas to [Read the rest...]

CAIRO — Hundreds of thousands of protesters packed into Tahrir Square on Tuesday in the largest challenge to the embattled regime of President Hosni Mubarak in a week of demonstrations. Al-Jazeera TV estimated the crowd in the square at close to the 1 million organizers had called for. Soldiers ringed the square but let protesters pass after checking them for IDs and weapons. The demonstration was under tight army security, [Read the rest...]

Mohamed ElBaradei, the Egyptian Nobel Prize winner who says he has a mandate from Egypt’s opposition to negotiate President Hosni Mubarak’s withdrawal from power and the creation of a transitional government, urged the US to turn it’s back on long-time ally Mr. Mubarak in a series of television interviews earlier today. Mr. ElBaradei, who joined thousands of protesters in Cairo’s Tahrir Square in the early evening, said the time has [Read the rest...]

The Middle East is on the verge of defining and massive moments which can change the course of the destiny of this region, the world and the fate of other nations in the region. What is taking shape now is certainly overthrowing a despotic and tyrannical rule and trend which has been overwhelming the fate of many nations in the region. The starting point of what we are now witnessing [Read the rest...]

Foreign Secretary William Hague said he was concerned about the situation in Egypt Continue reading the main story Authorities in Egypt should not seek to “suppress people’s right to freedom of expression”, William Hague has said. The foreign secretary’s comments come after thousands of anti-government activists took to the streets in Cairo and other cities and Egypt’s government warned of “decisive measures”. Meanwhile, dozens of protesters have gathered at the [Read the rest...]

The civil unrest in Egypt is gaining more attention among investors, and it could be one reason that the U.S. stock market is struggling at the end of the week. Given that events in Egypt come after the overthrow of the government in Tunisia, more people are wondering about political stability from Morocco to Lebanon. The Market Vectors Egypt Index (EGPT) ETF is down 20% since Jan. 14 and down [Read the rest...]

For the first time since anti-government protests erupted in Egypt, the military has been deployed to monitor a curfew now in effect on the streets of Cairo. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak called on the army to lend support to the police in enforcing the night curfew imposed after tens of thousands of people took to the streets to call for his ouster on Friday. An hour after the curfew was [Read the rest...]