Cairo: Million Man March

All updates will appear at the top off the blog

3.28pm: Two of the three young American students arrested in Cairo and shown on state television have been named by the American University in Cairo, according to the Washington Post.

My colleague Karen McVeigh writes:

They were named as Luke Gates, 21 of Bloomington, Indiana, and Greg Porter, 19, of Glenside, Pennyslvania. They were on a semester-long study abroad programme, University spokesman Morgan Roth told the Post. The third, she said, was a Georgetown University student but his name was not released.

Porter attends Drexel University and Gates attends Indiana.

A third student was identified, along with the other two, by fellow students on Twitter, as Derrik Sweeney, of Northridge California, according to news channel Fox59, but his identity could not be independently confirmed.

Medical personnel in Tahrir square say that most of those who have died is a result of the tear gas being used against the protesters. Injuries from the tear gas have included bleeding from the eyes and nose.

Al Jazeera is showing an Egyptian general being welcomed by the huge crowd who from his shoulder boarders is an Lt. General. This is important as the military had been ordered to not partake in the the demonstrations.

One group not taking part in the demonstrations is the Muslim Brotherhood, but the Freedom Justice party which represents the youth of the party are participating in the protests.

Protesters want the military to step aside.  The head of the military council is expected to speak to the nation later today.  The big question is this: What happens if the military council refuses to step aside?


Today thousands have gathered in Cairo's Tahrir square to protest against the slow change towards a return towards true civilian in Egypt which hasn't existed in Egypt since 1953.

An Al Jazeera reporter in speaking to a doctor speak about the types of injuries incurred by the protesters showed her a tear gas canister which were manufactured in the United States.

Protesters in Alexandria claim that police have been fired from helicopters but Al Jazeera cannot confirm that those incidents actually took place.

Some background for the unrest

According to the government's latest version of proposed roadmap to constitution, 80 out of 100 proposed members on a constituent assembly will be chosen by the SCAF (from various social, religious, professional and political institutions from civil society), and only 20 will be drawn from a new parliament.

The government will chose its share of 80 members on the constituent assembly as follows: 15 members whould be drawn from judicial institutions, 15 university professors – including five of constitutional law – 15 from trade unions, five from workers unions, five farmers, five from civil society associations, one from each of the Commerce Chamber, Federation of Industries, business NGOs, the National Council for Human Rights, the armed forces, police, sports unions, student unions, Al-Azhar, the Church, ten public figures and five representative of political parties and independents, ten women and five members under the age of 35.

Meanwhile, the government's supra-constitutional principles will only allow a newly elected parliament to come up with 20 MPs to serve on the constituent assembly based on the proportional weight of various political parties in the new representative body.

Because SCAF has decided to more or less bypass a newly elected parliament in its quest to formulate a new legal document for the country, the Brotherhood accused the military council of trampling on democracy