Following Tunisian Uprising, Egypt Now Demanding Democracy

How big is this? Not sure; if it's a few scattered thousand, the thug idiot Mubarrak doesn't have much to worry about.

Police used tear gas and batons today to battle thousands of protesters who marched in a "day of revolt" demonstration in a rare show of political defiance in Cairo, the BBC reports.

The anti-government protests, including calls for the ouster of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, erupted only a week after an Internet-inspired street campaign drove President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia from office.

Mubarak has tolerated little dissent since he came to power in 1981. Today, however, security police initially showed unusual restraint, but switched tactics after the protest turned violent, the Associated Press reports.

Here's video of a truck coming out to spray a water cannon at protesters; it shows up at 1:15.

Here's tear gas being used against protesters.

Egypt's blocking Twitter, which is being used by protesters to spread information and make plans.

More: Directly modeled after the Tunisian uprising. Including the self-immolations.

At least six young Egyptians have set themselves on fire in recent weeks, in an imitation of the self-immolation that set off the Tunisian unrest. Egypt has forbidden gas stations to sell to people not in cars and placed security agents wielding fire extinguishers outside government offices.

posted by Ace at 04:02 PM

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