Egypt after Mubarak: Three ex-ministers arrested

 

Habib el-Adly has been blamed for deadly police violence during the protests

The authorities in Egypt have arrested three ex-ministers for corruption including the former Interior Minister, Habib el-Adly, judicial sources say. 

Egypt crisis: Protesters leave Tahrir Square

Egyptian security forces are removing the final protesters from Cairo's Tahrir Square after the new military rulers vowed to dissolve parliament and suspend the constitution.

Striking doctors flock to Tahrir Square : Egypt unrest

 

Medics say they are angry at corruption as well as low wages in Egypt

Striking doctors and a host of other workers have joined thousands of anti-government protesters in Egypt.

Egypt foreign minister criticises US calls for change

 

Protests and strikes in Egypt have spread out of Cairo once again

Egypt's foreign minister has rebuffed calls from Washington to speed up the pace of political reform.

Protesters keep up momentum as Mubarak refuses to quit

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: Parliament moved after protesters overflow into nearby area
• Egypt's foreign minister tells PBS that Mubarak exit would mean chaos
• The protests expand beyond Tahrir Square into a government compound
• The momentum keeps up Wednesday as massive crowds show up again

Cairo, Egypt (CNN) -- For a 16th consecutive day, tens of thousands of protesters in Egypt jammed Cairo's Tahrir Square on Wednesday, with so many spilling into a nearby compound of government buildings that government officials moved parliament to another site.
The government again sought to portray the imminent threat of chaos if the octogenarian president, Hosni Mubarak, were to end his 30 years of autocratic rule by stepping down right away.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit told PBS' "NewsHour" Wednesday that the military might have to intervene if that were to occur.
"Do we want the armed forces to assume the responsibility of stabilizing the nation through imposing martial law, and the army in the streets?" Aboul Gheit asked rhetorically. "For the army to rule, to step in, to put its friends on the scene, that would be a very dangerous possibility."

 

Protests going strong in Cairo

 

Freed prisoners tell their stories

 

Egypt getting mixed signals?

 

A new 'normal' for Egypt?

He urged the protesters to adopt "some rationality" and said the self-proclaimed Council of the Wise, a group of prominent Egyptians from various walks of life, should determine a course of action.
Aboul Gheit told PBS that Mubarak's interest was to protect the stability of the most populous nation in the Arab world. That's why he will not accede to the protesters' demands that he relinquish power immediately, he said.
"He thinks that it would entail chaos and it would entail violence and it would entail also opportunities for those who would wish to act in a manner to threaten the state, the stability of the country and society," Aboul Gheit said.
Human Rights Watch has put the death toll at more than 300 since the January 25 rally that ignited the movement.
"Instead of running scared, the regime is fighting back with both words and violence to quash its opponents, portraying the opposition as a foreign-backed, un-Egyptian group of conspirators," Human Rights Watch said Wednesday on its website. "Sadly, its propaganda campaign appears to be as crude as its actual physical crackdown has been."
The protests were largely peaceful Wednesday, with demonstrators in one rally composed solely of children who chanted anti-Mubarak slogans. "We want the whole regime to end because they are not making our lives any easier," said 11-year-old Yousef Saeed.
Some of their older relatives said they had brought the children to the square to witness history unfolding. "It is the birth of freedom," said Saeed's uncle, Mohammed Mostafa. "Witnessing this event will engrave in them love of this nation, loyalty, freedom and respecting change. I want them to be free."
But the prospect of freedom was competing with the cost of living as a motivator for some Egyptians, 20% of whom live in poverty. "Whether Hosni stays or Hosni goes, what's important is that the youth get jobs," said Amgad, a mother of three living an hour outside Cairo, in the rural town of Fayoum on the Nile Delta. Her work at a doctor's office earns her $30 per month -- not enough to pay the electricity bill.

 

Egyptian protesters shift tactics

 

Museum looters caught in Egypt

 

How wealthy is Egypt's Mubarak?

 

U.S. student home from Egypt

Amgad said her husband, a day laborer, has been unable to find work since the demonstrations began on January 25. "Our situation is horrible, to be honest," she said as she showed CNN the bedroom where she, her husband and their three daughters sleep. "I can hardly feed them."
On the streets of Cairo, the people showed no signs of relenting. They chanted, "Mubarak is a thief."
The embattled president, meanwhile, went about business as usual Wednesday, meeting with his foreign minister and Russia's deputy foreign minister, state-run television showed.
The unrest extended beyond Cairo. Two people were killed and others were wounded in clashes with police in southern Egypt, state TV reported. A journalist said the hostilities stemmed from complaints about a member of the police force in Kharga.
In the northern town of Port Said, protesters attacked the governor's building over a land and housing dispute, state TV said.
The protesters were galvanized by the tears and words of an activist who was seized by security forces and held for 10 days before he was released Monday.
"If you are true Egyptians, if you are heroic Egyptians, it's time to step down," Wael Ghonim told CNN Wednesday in a message directed to the ruling elite. The 30-year-old Egyptian father of two administered the Facebook page that is widely credited with calling the first protest. Ghonim, on leave from his job at Google in Dubai, said he was prepared to die for the cause.
"Kidnap me, kidnap all my colleagues!" Wael Ghonim said in comments that challenged Vice President Omar Suleiman to try to undo his efforts and those of his supporters. "Put us in jail! Kill us! Do whatever you want to do. We are getting back our country. You guys have been ruining this country for 30 years. Enough! Enough! Enough!"
Mubarak's regime said Tuesday that it had discussed a number of reforms with leaders of various opposition groups and appointed a panel to look into amending the constitution. But its insistence that Mubarak's immediate exit was a recipe for chaos elicited impatience from the Obama administration.
Washington is calling on its African ally to expand negotiations with opposition groups, lift the 30-year state of emergency and make constitutional changes to bring about democratic elections.
But White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs expressed impatience Wednesday with the pace of progress on those matters. "I think it is clear that what the government has thus far put forward has yet to meet a minimum threshold for the people of Egypt," he told reporters.
A short White House statement on U.S. Vice President Joe Biden's telephone conversation with Vice President Omar Suleiman used the word "immediate" or "immediately" four times.
Biden "urged that the transition produce immediate, irreversible progress that responds to the aspirations of the Egyptian people."
The statement also hinted the White House harbors doubts as to whether the Egyptian government is seriously committed to reforms, referring to the regime's statements as "what the government is saying it is prepared to accept."

Meanwhile, an Arab diplomat said that Saudi Arabia would consider matching the more than $1.5 billion in military aid that the United States provides each year to Egypt if Washington were to cut it.

Egypt protesters call for push to eject Mubarak

 CAIRO (Reuters) – Protesters called for a push on Tuesday to eject President Hosni Mubarak from power after the government conceded little ground in talks with the opposition and sought to squeeze demonstrators out of central Cairo.
The protesters barricaded in a tent camp in Tahrir Square have vowed to stay until Mubarak quits and hope to take their two-week campaign to the streets with more mass demonstrations on Tuesday and Friday.
Tuesday's demonstrations will test the protesters' ability to maintain pressure on the government after Mubarak, 82, refused calls to end his 30-year rule now. He has said he will stay until an election in September but will not run in it.
Hundreds of thousands of people took part in previous demonstrations and the United Nations says 300 people may have died so far.
Egyptian opposition figures have reported little progress in talks with the government.
The Muslim Brotherhood, by far the best organized opposition group, said on Monday it could quit the process if protesters' demands were not met, including the immediate exit of Mubarak.
U.S. President Barack Obama however said the talks were making progress. "Obviously, Egypt has to negotiate a path and they're making progress," he told reporters in Washington.
The United States, adopting a cautious approach to the crisis, has urged all sides to allow time for an "orderly transition" to a new political order in Egypt, for decades a strategic ally.
But protesters worry that when Mubarak does leave, he will be replaced not with the democracy they seek but with another authoritarian ruler.
Many young men in Tahrir Square on Monday dismissed the political dialogue taking place.
SIGNIFICANT DISAGREEMENTS
The opposition has been calling for the constitution to be rewritten to allow free and fair presidential elections, a limit on presidential terms, the dissolution of parliament, the release of political detainees and lifting of emergency law.
The state news agency MENA reported on Monday that Mubarak had set up two committees to be involved in drawing up changes to the constitution, one of the demands of the protesters.
Mubarak on Monday chaired the first meeting of his new cabinet, which promised to keep subsidies in full and draw in foreign investment.
The potential rise to power of the banned Muslim Brotherhood troubles Egypt's Western allies and neighbor Israel, which has a peace treaty with it.
Obama said on Sunday the Brotherhood lacks majority support. The White House expressed concern on Monday about the group's "anti-American rhetoric," but stopped short of saying it would be against the group taking a role in a future government.
"We have significant disagreements (with the Brotherhood)," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters.
Keen to get traffic moving around Tahrir Square, the army has tried to squeeze the area the protesters have occupied.
Some protesters slept in the tracks of the army's armored vehicles to prevent them being used to force the protest into a smaller space.
The powerful army's role in the next weeks is considered critical to the country's future.
(Reporting by Samia Nakhoul, Dina Zayed, Marwa Awad, Shaimaa Fayed, Alexander Dziadosz, Yasmine Saleh, Sherine El Madany, Jonathan Wright, Andrew Hammond, Tom Perry and Alison Williams in Cairo; Erika Solomon in Dubai, Writing by Diana Abdallah; editing by Tim Pearce)

Talks between the Egyptian government and opposition groups on tackling the country's political crisis have failed to end protests in central Cairo.

Talks between the Egyptian government and opposition groups on tackling the country's political crisis have failed to end protests in central Cairo.

Crowds of protesters, who have occupied the city's Tahrir Square for two weeks, say they will only leave when President Hosni Mubarak stands down.
The government offered a series of concessions at Sunday's talks, but the opposition said they were not enough.
US President Obama has said Egypt will not "go back to what it was".
Opposition groups met members of the government on Sunday to discuss how to resolve the stand-off which has paralysed the country and left some 300 people dead.
Vice-President Omar Suleiman hosted the talks. Six groups were represented, including a coalition of youth organisations, a group of "wise men" and the banned Muslim Brotherhood in its first ever meeting with the government.

Egyptian state TV said the participants had agreed to form a joint committee of judicial and political figures tasked with suggesting constitutional amendments.

But opposition leaders said they were sceptical of the government's motives and that the measures did not go far enough.
The Muslim Brotherhood said it would only take part in future talks if the government made progress on meeting its demands that Mr Mubarak resign, parliament be resolved, emergency laws lifted and all political prisoners released.
Senior Brotherhood figure Essam el-Erian told reporters the authorities had responded to some of the demands but only in "a superficial way."
'Grapple with reality'
Leading opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei - who was not at the talks but sent a representative to meet Vice-President Suleiman separately - described the process as "opaque".
He said he was proposing a one-year transitional period where Egypt would be run by a three-member presidential council as it prepared for elections.
President Mubarak has so far refused to resign, saying that to do so would cause chaos. He has instead said he will not stand for re-election in September.
But US President Barack Obama has insisted that an "orderly transition" must begin immediately.
In an interview with Fox news on Sunday, he said: "The Egyptian people want freedom, they want free and fair elections, they want a representative government, and so what we've said is, you have to start a transition now."

He added that the US could not dictate to Mr Mubarak what he should do, but that it could advise him "the time is now for you to start making a change in that country".

Later on Sunday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appeared to caution Egypt against a rush to replace its leader of 30 years.
"As I understand the constitution, if the president were to resign, he would be succeeded by the speaker of the house, and presidential elections would have to be held in 60 days," she said.
"Now the Egyptians are going to have to grapple with the reality of what they must do."
Mrs Clinton also praised Mr Mubarak for the compromises he had already put in place, including his pledge that neither he nor his son, Gamal, would run for office in the next elections.

It was widely believed that Gamal Mubarak was being groomed to take over the leadership from his father.

"They have to be viewed as an important set of steps that he has taken," the AFP news agency quoted Mrs Clinton as saying.
Tens of thousands again joined demonstrations in Cairo and other cities on Sunday, although the authorities have been attempting to restore a sense of normality to the capital.
The government is seeking to revive an economy said to be losing at least $310m (£192m) a day.
Many shops, factories and the stock exchange have been closed, and basic goods have been running short.
On Sunday banks in Cairo opened for the first time in a week, drawing long queues as people waited to withdraw money.
Correspondents say many Egyptians have been wondering how quickly daily life will return to normal regardless of the outcome of the struggle for power.

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Mubarak moves to restart economy (BBC)

                                               (Image taken by BBC)
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has held talks with ministers to try to revive an economy hit by a wave of anti-government protests.Banks will reopen on Sunday. Finance Minister Samir Radwan says the economic situation is "very serious".      by BBC