a thread about the civil unrest in egypt (& elsewhere in 'the region' if necessary)

albert jazeera

surprised no one's mentioned this yet

can the pyramids be burned? they're made of stone iirc - maybe they can flip them over

Thanks, goole, I had just come to post that.

I went on a rather nice tour in Egypt in 2007 and our lovely tour guide, a Coptic lady from Cairo, had nothing but good things to say about Mubarak. I grokked it all as completely insincere and let her be, but it was dispiriting to see such a nice lady who was obviously so enamored of her country's heritage have to spout a bunch of rubbish wrt a regime she obviously feared was paying attention to what she said.

Reports of Copts on the protest lines surrounding/protecting Muslims from the riot police while they take time to pray without leaving the protests.

In the midst of a really fucked up world, sometimes I'm just blown away by the sheer humanity present around us.

So what's with the latest rumors about Mubarak et al flying out?

Guy from muslim brotherhood on the bbc saying he had inside news that his health had suddenly gone downhill, hmmm.

Also random egyption protester on the bbc with the quality dad joke: "Can I just say, with respect to Joe Biden saying that Mubarak is not a dictator, I think if you were to look in a dictionary under the word 'dictator' you would see a picture of Mubarak."

me spell egyptian well one day

When a man sporting a long beard and a white robe began chanting an Islamist slogan, he was grabbed and shaken by another protester telling him to keep the slogans patriotic and not religious.

Mubarak speaking

like, later, right?

mubarak is on now xp

. Riot police appear to have withdrawn from the streets of Cairo and Alexandria after several hours of confrontation with protesters, and in their place the Egyptian Army has taken up presence, guarding government buildings.

this doesn't bode well for the usa/egypt friendly on the 9th

Egypt should be able to beat us anyway.

looks like he's going to cling to power by ceding some nebulous "reforms"

mubarak has no intention of going anywhere any time soon

yup

oh shit he just said he is stepping down

wait what did he just say?

as of TOMORROW, will designate interim gov't

whoah

!!!

whoa wtf this speech took a drastic turn

oh my god

ooh

"I have ordered the government to step down, and I will name a new government tomorrow"

is he just like dissolving parliament?

he's staying put it looks like

He's not stepping down, he's just changing the government

twitter responses saying otherwise -- mubarak asked the gov't to step down, whatever that means.

xps lol

oh shit he just said he is stepping down

he said he'd ordered the government to step down, and he'd name a new one tomorrow, but he himself isn't going anywhere!

yeah i was listening to a translation obv but i didn't hear him explicitly say he was leaving office?

xps yeah

not a tenable position surely

kinda hard to believe he's almost 83 yrs old

What channel are you watching (if seeing this in the UK)?

i know yall hate me that's why i'm firing my staff

al-jazeera

reporter saying (obviously) that this won't be enough for the protesters, power is concentrated in the hands of the president anyway

so he's sacking his entire cabinet

wonder if he's playing for time to figure out some way to step aside without being killed/tried for crimes/imprisoned/whatever

thanks xp - don't have it, will keep getting my news from ilx

ismael - http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/

sorry for bungling the translation guys

yes use lex's link

aljazeera is crashing my shit, so there's also http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12307698

thanks lex etc

has anyone made the "mubarak in de nile" joke yet?

Al Jazeera English: Live Stream http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/

sorry for bungling the translation guys

― ex-heroin addict tricycle (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, January 28, 2011 5:33 PM (21 seconds ago)

haha it's okay, i was sort of tuning him out because it seemed like he wasn't saying much, then all of the sudden i heard "new government tomorrow" and read what you said

I'm sure he could find refuge somewhere, Saudi at least. If he does attempt this legalistic gambit, (and assuming he digs in and keeps hold of power - something I'm very sceptical about) will he run for re-election in September?