Saturday, January 29, 2011

Egypt: the call for a new "day of anger", the power blocks communication channels

Internet was blocked, Friday 28 January morning in Cairo while young pro-democracy activists behind the movement, the group of "6-April", inspired by the revolt that ousted the Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, called for more demonstrations, starting 13 hours after Friday prayers. Objective: "More than one million people in the street." Several users have reported Egyptian Friday unable to connect to websites and send SMS to Cairo.

The national telecom regulator has so far declined comment. A spokesman for the Egyptian embassy in Washington, Karim Haggag, said the office of Egyptian Prime Minister had issued a statement denying blocking social networking site Facebook and the Twitter micro-blogging. Thursday night already, internet Cairo had reported the inability to connect to the Internet, while others reported delays and intermittent power outages.

Mobile phones also functioned poorly in the center area of the capital, where protesters gathered and messaging services appeared to be down. Earlier, the Interior Ministry had warned it would take "decisive action" against protesters. The Muslim Brotherhood, the main opposition force, have announced they will participate in events "of anger." So far they had supported lip protests, leaving their members choose to participate.

At least twenty members of the Muslim Brotherhood, including five former MPs and five members of the politburo, were arrested on the night of Thursday to Friday, told the lawyer that training. Thursday's mobilization was marked by a seventh death, Sheikh Zouwayed in northern Sinai. One protester was fatally shot in the head during a shootout between Bedouin protestors armed and security forces, witnesses said.

The most prominent opponent, Mohamed ElBaradei, arrived Thursday evening in Cairo, said he was ready to lead the transition to the regime of Hosni Mubarak, faced since Tuesday unprecedented protests that have killed seven people and caused a thousand arrests. "I'm here with the hope to continue working for an orderly and peaceful change," ElBaradei said, asking to be able to stop "violence, detentions and torture."

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