Skylar1
01-28-2011, 03:42 PM
Cairo, Egypt (CNN) -- The streets of downtown Cairo appeared to calm somewhat Friday night, after thousands of angry Egyptians earlier defied a government curfew and faced stinging police tear gas as they marched for change.
The United States had appealed for restraint, but early Friday evening the sounds of gunfire rang out near a Cairo police station on which protesters had converged, and in the coastal city of Alexandria.
The government cracked down throughout the day with thousands of riot and plainclothes police, later joined by army troops in tanks and armored personnel carriers equipped with gun turrets.
Undeterred, people ran, screamed, hurled rocks and accosted walls of security as they tried to make their way to central Cairo.
As Friday night wore on, however, CNN's Ben Wedeman said that a calm was settling in downtown Cairo amid little sign of authority.
"There is no government, there is no authority ... there's nobody to protest against," Wedeman said, speaking of the capital's downtown area. "State authority in much of downtown Cairo has disappeared."
Embattled President Hosni Mubarak imposed a nationwide curfew from 6 p.m. to 7 a.m. State-run Nile TV said the curfew was in response to the "hooliganism and lawlessness" of the protesters.
Vans packed with riot police circled Cairo neighborhoods before the start of weekly prayers in the afternoon. Later in the day, Egyptian soldiers moved onto the streets, the first time the army has been deployed to quell unrest since 1985.
But protesters, fed up with economic woes and a lack of freedoms, defied all warnings to demand an end to Mubarak's authoritarian 30-year-rule.
They chanted "God is Great" and that the dictator must go. "Down, Down, Mubarak," they shouted.
Plumes of rancid, thick smoke billowed over the Nile River as, by day's close, chaos reigned in the bustling metropolis. The headquarters of the ruling National Democratic Party was ablaze Friday night. Nile TV said protesters ransacked the building and set it afire.
Police fired water cannons, rubber bullets and tear gas with force and impunity. A tourist on the balcony of his 18th floor hotel room told CNN he had to run in and wash his eyes and face from the stinging gas.
Full article:
http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/01/28/egypt.protests/index.html
o_O; sounds like a lot of stuff is going down there.
The United States had appealed for restraint, but early Friday evening the sounds of gunfire rang out near a Cairo police station on which protesters had converged, and in the coastal city of Alexandria.
The government cracked down throughout the day with thousands of riot and plainclothes police, later joined by army troops in tanks and armored personnel carriers equipped with gun turrets.
Undeterred, people ran, screamed, hurled rocks and accosted walls of security as they tried to make their way to central Cairo.
As Friday night wore on, however, CNN's Ben Wedeman said that a calm was settling in downtown Cairo amid little sign of authority.
"There is no government, there is no authority ... there's nobody to protest against," Wedeman said, speaking of the capital's downtown area. "State authority in much of downtown Cairo has disappeared."
Embattled President Hosni Mubarak imposed a nationwide curfew from 6 p.m. to 7 a.m. State-run Nile TV said the curfew was in response to the "hooliganism and lawlessness" of the protesters.
Vans packed with riot police circled Cairo neighborhoods before the start of weekly prayers in the afternoon. Later in the day, Egyptian soldiers moved onto the streets, the first time the army has been deployed to quell unrest since 1985.
But protesters, fed up with economic woes and a lack of freedoms, defied all warnings to demand an end to Mubarak's authoritarian 30-year-rule.
They chanted "God is Great" and that the dictator must go. "Down, Down, Mubarak," they shouted.
Plumes of rancid, thick smoke billowed over the Nile River as, by day's close, chaos reigned in the bustling metropolis. The headquarters of the ruling National Democratic Party was ablaze Friday night. Nile TV said protesters ransacked the building and set it afire.
Police fired water cannons, rubber bullets and tear gas with force and impunity. A tourist on the balcony of his 18th floor hotel room told CNN he had to run in and wash his eyes and face from the stinging gas.
Full article:
http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/01/28/egypt.protests/index.html
o_O; sounds like a lot of stuff is going down there.