Rolling coverage of the latest events in Egypt as protests continue into the 12th day
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The release of Cairo bureau chief, Abdelfattah Fayed, and another journalist, Mohammed Fawi, comes a day after the news channel said its offices in the Egyptian capital had been burned and destroyed by "gangs of thugs", Reuters reports.
Al-Jazeera continues to operate in the country and can be seen by Egyptians via satellite feeds. It is also being aired on a giant screen in Tahrir Square.
"They've moved their tanks right up to what was the frontline in the battle between the demonstrators in the square and the pro-Mubarak supporters and have been trying to clear a buffer zone."
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The proposal being promoted by a group of Egyptians calling itself the "The Council of Wise Men" involves Suleiman assuming presidential powers for an interim period pending elections.
But some opposition figures argue that would mean the next presidential election would be held under the same unfair conditions as in previous years. They want to first form a new parliament to change the constitution to pave the way for a presidential vote that is democratic.
The cause and the scale of the blast are not yet clear, according to the news agency.
Witnesses said they saw several armed men around the church but it was not clear whether they were involved. Smoke rose from the Mari Gerges church, which was empty of people, they added.
The Egyptian government blamed the Gaza-based Army of Islam for a New Year's Day church bombing in Alexandria that killed 23 people. The group denies the charge.
The quartet of Middle East peace negotiators said today they will give high priority to the impact of Egypt crisis on the negotiations, but would not allow the situation to derail the peace talks.
In a draft statement due to be endorsed by the UN, the European Union, Russia and the US, the quartet said further delays in resuming talks would be "detrimental to prospects for regional peace and security".
Israel has voiced alarm at the unrest amid fears that the Muslim Brotherhood, perceived as anti-Israel and anti-Semitic, could take control of Egypt.
AP says it is possible that the regime thinks a resolution to the crisis can be reached without the immediate removal of Mubarak.
The comments by prime pinister Ahmed Shafiq on state TV suggest the government may calculate it can ride out protests and reach a deal with its opponents without Mubarak's ouster.
The Egyptian army's attitude to the protests in Tahrir seems to have hardened somewhat today; this morning military cranes were sent in to remove some of the burnt out vehicles demonstrators had been using as barricades at the front line of their battle with pro-Mubarak supporters. However they were thwarted by dozens of protesters who lay down in front of the vehicles.
In response the army deployed four rows of troops and four tanks to create a 50 metre buffer zone between the frontline and the main body of protesters, although those in Tahrir are still able to travel the edge of no man's land and maintain their barricades at the opening of Abdel Munim Riyad square.
Many fear that the army are attempting to strip the protesters of the defences they have painstakingly constructed over the past week to protect themselves from hostile attacks. "If the army now withdraw at any point we will become sitting targets and suffer a lot of casualties," said Amr Radwan.
By 3pm this afternoon an army general flanked by a dozen soldiers had made their way to a clinic on the front line in what appeared to be an attempt by the military to shut the clinic down. He was quickly surrounded by a gaggle of doctors, journalists and protesters questioning his decision.
More than 150 passengers are expected to be on the plane, which leaves Cairo this afternoon.
It is the second government-chartered flight out of the country in the last few days and is expected to touch down at Gatwick airport this evening.
The Foreign Office would not confirm the number of people expected to be onboard as details were still being finalised.
A spokeswoman said: "We are still taking expressions of interest from British nationals in Cairo for today's flight and the number of passengers has not been finalised."
Novelist Ahdaf Soueif said eight to 12 people were dragged out of No 1 Souq el-Tawfikiyyah St and bundled into a bus while a military police vehicle waited nearby. The building houses offices of the Hisham Mubarak Legal Aid Centre, the Centre for Social and Economic Rights and the 6th April Youth.
A self-declared group of Egypt's elite called the "group of wise men" has circulated ideas to try to break that deadlock. Among them is a proposal that Mubarak "deputise" his vice-president Omar Suleiman with his powers and, for the time being at least, step down in everything but name.
The "wise men," who are separate from the protesters on the ground, have met twice in recent days with Suleiman and the prime minister, said Amr el-Shobaki, a member of the group. Their proposals also call for the dissolving of the parliament monopolised by the ruling party and the end of emergency laws that give security forces near-unlimited powers.
The protesters are looking into the proposal floated by the "wise men," said [Abdel-Rahman] Youssef, who is part of the youth movement connected to Nobel peace laureate and prominent reform advocate Mohamed ElBaradei.
"It could be a way out of the crisis," Youssef said. "But the problem is in the president … he is not getting it that he has become a burden on everybody, psychologically, civicly and militarily."
Israa Abdel-Fattah, a member of the April 6 group, another of the youth movements driving the demonstrations, said there is support for the wise men's proposal among protesters.
Youssef underlined that the 12-day-old protests will continue in Tahrir Square until Mubarak goes in an acceptable way.
"There is no force that can get the youth out of the square. Every means was used. Flexibility, violence, live ammunition, and even thugs, and the protesters are still steadfast," he said.
• The front-page story is an account of yesterday's "day of departure" - the largest protest yet against Mubarak's regime. Jack Shenker and Mustafa Khalili write that the huge peaceful gathering marked a contrast to the violence and anarchy of previous days as people flooded into Tahrir Square "to show the world something different".
• Barack Obama has dropped heavy hints that Mubarak should go, although he stopped short of unambiguously calling for him to stand down.
• Peter Beaumont writes about the harassment he, Jack Shenker and other journalists have dealt with in recent days. This has ranged from being detained by soldiers who ordered them to kneel facing a wall with their hands behind their heads to the suspicion aroused by a pack of Strepsils.
• Egyptian novelist Ahdaf Soueif has a diary of the past week's protests, which she says has seen hope emerge amid the violence and deaths.
• Mubarak's family fortune could be as much as $70bn (£43.5bn), with much of his wealth in British and Swiss banks or tied up in real estate in London, New York, Los Angeles and the Red Sea coast.
•The paper's leader column contends that while the outside world is right to be anxious about the risk of Islamic extremism in Egypt, it should not be too worried by the Muslim Brotherhood as the organisation is now more politically conservative than a fundamentalist group.
Abdel-Rahman Youssef, a youth activist, told the news agency that he and other protest leaders met prime minister Ahmed Shafiq late yesterday. He said the meeting only concerned how to bring about Mubarak's departure.
Under one proposal, Mubarak would become deputy to the current vice-president, Omar Suleiman, and step down "in some way, either in a real departure or a political one," Youssef said.
The news network reported two of Suleiman's bodyguards were killed in the failed assassination. However, a senior security source has denied the report, according to Reuters.
Hisham Mubarak Legal Centre and the Centre for Economic and Social Rights
Ahmad Seif el-Islam abd el-Fattah
Ahmad Taher
El-Sayyed el-Fekki
Fatma Abed
Kamal Samir
Mona el-Masri
Muhamma Hamdi Mahmoud
Muhsin Bashir
Mustafa el-Hasan
Nadia
Nadine Abu-Shadi
Shahdan
Tamer Hagina
Ahmad Seif el-Islam abd el-Fattah
Ahmad Taher
El-Sayyed el-Fekki
Fatma Abed
Kamal Samir
Mona el-Masri
Muhamma Hamdi Mahmoud
Muhsin Bashir
Mustafa el-Hasan
Nadia
Nadine Abu-Shadi
Shahdan
Tamer Hagina
Amnesty International
Mona el-Kakhi
Saeed Haddadi
Mona el-Kakhi
Saeed Haddadi
Human Rights Watch
Daniel Willams
Daniel Willams
Youth Activists
Ahmad Douma
Amre Ezz
Amre Salah
Michael Nabil
Mustafa Shawqi
Naser And el-Hamid
Shadi el-Ghazali Harb
Wael Ghoneim
Yaser Hawwari
Ahmad Douma
Amre Ezz
Amre Salah
Michael Nabil
Mustafa Shawqi
Naser And el-Hamid
Shadi el-Ghazali Harb
Wael Ghoneim
Yaser Hawwari
The Islamic Dawa party stopped short of calling on Mubarak to step down but it praised Egyptians for demanding their right to choose their leadership.
The statement also urged Egyptians to reject violence or chaos and praised the Egyptian army for balancing security with respecting protesters' rights.
The statement from the Dawa party raises the stark contrast between the push for regime change in Egypt and the 2003 invasion of Iraq which, according to Iraq Body Count, has claimed more than 150,000 lives.
The US-led invasion of Iraq dismantled the state apparatus, including the army, leaving a power vacuum that led to violent disputes among different religious and political factions and the growth of Islamic extremism. The leaders of the grassroots uprising in Egypt clearly wish to avoid such chaos and it is worth noting that their shared aims include involving the army in a transition of power.
Iraqi clerics and protesters have also warned leaders in Baghdad to heed the unrest in Egypt and Tunisia or risk facing it at home.
Despite the risk of short-term instability in countries like Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen, Clinton said change was a "strategic necessity" that will make Arab nations stronger and their people more prosperous and less susceptible to extremist ideologies.
Speaking at the international security conference in Munich, Clinton said leaders who deny their people freedom and opportunity open the door to instability.
The Guardian's Julian Borger has sent through more on Clinton's speech. She told the security conference:
There are forces at work in any society, particularly one that is facing these kind of challenges, that will try to derail or overtake the process to pursue their own agenda, which is why I think it's important to follow the transition process announced by the Egyptian government, actually headed by now vice-president Omar Suleiman (…) and that it be a transparent, inclusive process that sets forth concrete steps that people who are engaged in it and looking at it can believe is moving toward an outcome that lead to the orderly establishment of elections scheduled for September.
It states that ultimately only the army can tell Mubarak to quit, but also notes that the generals face a dilemma in intervening in the crisis:
The army is clearly torn. If it asks Mubarak to spare the country more violence and step down, it would throw the door wide open to the possibility of the first civilian president, ending the hold it has had on power since a 1952 coup overthrew Egypt's monarchy. Every president since has come from the military.
But dislodging protesters by force from Cairo's central Tahrir Square, epicentre of the demonstrations, would portray the military in the same light as the widely hated police, risking a popular backlash that could taint its carefully guarded reputation as protector of the people.
Speaking at the security conference in Europe, Cameron said:
"There is no stability in Egypt. We need change, reform and transition to get stability. The longer that is put off, the more likely we are to get an Egypt that we wouldn't welcome."
BQ
These include:
• The resignation of the entire ruling party, including the new vice-president Omar Suleiman, whom the Obama administration believes is best placed to oversee a transition of power.
• A broad-based transitional government appointed by a 14-strong committee, made up of senior judges, youth leaders and members of the military.
• The election of a founding council of 40 public intellectuals and constitutional experts, who will draw up a new constitution under the supervision of the transitional government, then put it to the people in a referendum. Fresh elections would then be held at a local and national level.
• The end of the country's emergency law.
• The dismantling of the state security apparatus.
• The trial of key regime leaders, including Mubarak.
• A broad-based transitional government appointed by a 14-strong committee, made up of senior judges, youth leaders and members of the military.
• The election of a founding council of 40 public intellectuals and constitutional experts, who will draw up a new constitution under the supervision of the transitional government, then put it to the people in a referendum. Fresh elections would then be held at a local and national level.
• The end of the country's emergency law.
• The dismantling of the state security apparatus.
• The trial of key regime leaders, including Mubarak.
The state MENA news agency said the meeting, which involved the oil minister, the finance minister, the governor of the central bank and other officials, took place this morning in the presidential palace in Heliopolis, a Cairo suburb miles away from the protests in the city centre.
The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, backed the pro-democracy demonstrators, saying the rest of the world would be remiss "if we were not siding with these people".
Speaking at a security conference in Munich, she added: "There will be a change in Egypt … but it needs to be change in such a way that it is peaceful and orderly."
However, Merkel added that early elections would probably be unhelpful.
"Early elections at the beginning of the democratisation process is probably the wrong approach," she said.
At the same conference, the United Nations secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, said the turmoil in Egypt, Tunisia and other Arab countries demonstrated the risk of insecurity caused by a "deficit of democracy".
He said democracy created peace and security but "where it is absent there is chaos and uncertainty. We see this of course … most recently in Tunisia, Egypt and other countries in the Middle East."
The causes of this instability include "human insecurity, poverty, diminished or disappointed expectations, lack of good governance, corruption, ineffective governance of public institutions and deficits of democracy", the UN chief added.
It quoted an official as saying that the "situation is very dangerous and explosions were continuing from one spot to another" along the pipeline, according to Reuters.
"It is a big terrorist operation", a state TV reporter said.
There were no injuries and the blaze was quickly brought under control after the gas flow was shut off, according to the Associated Press.
The governor of the region, Abdel Wahab Mabrouk, said he suspected "sabotage".
Security sources told Reuters that the Egyptian army closed the main source of gas supplying the Jordanian branch of the pipeline, blaming the attack on "foreign elements".
Israel Radio said the Egypt-Israel pipeline was not damaged, but the supply has been stopped as a precaution.
Jack Shenker said it is thought that the explosion is linked to the ongoing dispute between Mubark's government and the Sinai Bedouins, rather than being directly related to the current protests against the regime.
We'll also be bringing you a roundup of UK and international news coverage of the protests. In the meantime, here is a roundup of the latest developments:
• Thousands of people spent the night in Tahrir Square following another huge rally against Mubarak.
• The US has raised the pressure on Mubarak, with President Barack Obama urging him to begin an "orderly transition" of power. US officials say a meeting between Egypt's leaders and the opposition could be held in the next few days, perhaps even this weekend.
• Egypt's finance minister, Samir Radwa, says talks are planned between the vice-president and opposition leaders. The outlawed Muslim Brotherhood is not expected to take part.
• Reuters reports that there has been a blast near Egypt's gas pipeline with Israel in north Sinai. Jack Shenker will have more details on this shortly.
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