EGYPT: On anniversary of Khaled Said's death, complaints of police brutality, corruption

Police brutality was part of what motivated people to take to the streets and protest during Egypt’s revolution, which culminated in the ouster of former President Hosni Mubarak on Feb. 11.

Among the most famous cases was that of 28-year-old Khaled Said, who died a year ago Monday, after allegedly being dragged out of an Internet café and beaten in the street by plainclothes police in Alexandria. At first, a medical examiner reported that Said choked to death, but when images of Said’s bloodied face surfaced on the Internet, outraged youth organized on Facebook and called for demonstrations. Said’s name became a rallying cry for protesters across the country, with many chanting, "We are all Khaled Said!"

One of the coordinators of the Facebook group, Google executive Wael Ghonim, became a target for security forces when he was arrested Jan. 28 during protests in Cairo. His televised speech upon his release from detention transformed him, too, into a symbol of the youth revolution.

EGYPT: ElBaradei warns 'Egypt will explode'

Mohamed ElBaradei, who has emerged as a leader of the opposition movement against President Hosni Mubarak, posted comments online within the last hour warning that the country has become volatile.

“Egypt will explode," ElBaradei, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and retired diplomat, posted on Twitter. "Army must save the country now."

In statements posted earlier in the day, ElBaradei vowed continued protests and complained of violence by Mubarak's government.

EGYPT: Al Jazeera English video from Tahrir Square

 

Al Jazeera English reports on the increase in protesters gathering Monday in Tahrir Square, likely leading up to a planned million-man rally Tuesday.

The report says the Internet is still completely inaccessible, and that many cellphone services remain limited, as only local calls can be made from mobile to mobile.

Some reports on Twitter surfaced on Monday afternoon that all mobile phone service had been cut off within the country.

Abdurahman Warsame, with Al Jazeera English, reported on Twitter on Monday afternoon: “Noor was last standing internet provider but it was shut down as well.”

— Lori Kozlowski
twitter.com/lorikozlowski

EGYPT: Protesters, analysts denounce Cabinet changes as futile

Protesters and political analysts have quickly denounced embattled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's Cabinet shuffle as an empty gesture and a desperate attempt to cling to power.

Monday's appointment of new finance and interior ministers, following the naming on Saturday of the first vice president of Mubarak's 30-year rule, seemed more to galvanize his opponents than placate them. Tens of thousands continued to demonstrate and paralyze economic life in the capital, Cairo.

Shouts of "Get Out" rang through an emboldened crowd on Tahrir Square, where Mubarak opponents have gathered for seven days running in the nation's most defiant challenge of his authoritarian regime. Protesters ignored the government's expanded curfew that began at 3 p.m. Monday and was intended to keep people off the streets until 8 a.m.

"This is a failed attempt. He is done with," Mostafa el-Naggar, a member of emerging opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei's Association for Change, told the Associated Press.

Outside Egypt, analysts also saw the Cabinet appointments as unlikely to slow the mounting unrest in the nation of 80 million, the Middle East's most populous.

"This new Cabinet is too little, too late. I think Mubarak will probably be gone well before 30 days is up," Zaineb Al-Assam, a Middle East expert at London's Exclusive Analysis, told the Reuters news agency.

Foreign telecommunications companies stepping in to connect protesters to Internet

Egypt's police return; foreigners try to evacuate

Photos: Unrest in Egypt

-- Carol J. Williams

Photo: A woman carrying a placard referring to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak attends a demonstration  in Cairo's Tahrir Square. Credit: Lefteris Pitarakis / Associated Press.