Tahrir Square

CAIRO -- Tens of thousands of Egyptians gathered in the capital and other major cities across the nation Tuesday demanding that Islamist President Mohamed Morsi rescind a self-issued constitutional decree that gives him sweeping powers. Egyptians marched with families and friends across Cairo to converge in Tahrir Square, chanting the "people demand the fall of the regime," the same slogan that crowds yelled last year in opposition to longtime President Hosni Mubarak. One young woman held a sign that read in Arabic: "Oh Morsi, after the throne, there will be the prison cell ... Just ask Mubarak.

CAIRO -- A hot-air balloon exploded over the ancient city of Luxor on Tuesday, killing at least 18 people and adding fresh turmoil to Egypt's beleaguered tourism industry, which has been struggling since the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak two years ago. Authorities said the balloon was drifting at about 1,000 feet when it caught fire and the basket plummeted into sugar cane fields outside a village shortly after dawn. Officials said the dead included nine passengers from Hong Kong, four from Japan, two from France, two from Britain and one from Belgium.

Writing from Cairo ? Was it ridiculous that I was perched on top of a ladder hanging curtains before going out to join the revolution in Tahrir? I don't know. I know I had taken my bedroom curtains down and they'd been laundered and needed hanging ? otherwise they'd get creased and have to be ironed again. So I took 10 minutes to hang them and half a minute to take pleasure in their soft, billowing whiteness. Then I slung my bag over my shoulder and left. We live in Zamalek, a leafy residential neighborhood that is a 5-minute drive from the bridge that connects it to downtown.

When I walk into Tahrir Square alone these days, carrying my notebook, I try to remain calm, act like I belong and move with the cascading crowds. If you seem scared or intimidated, they smell your fear. Like other female reporters, I have grown accustomed to being constantly on guard while doing my job. But that can't guarantee safety. Sexual assaults on women protesters - and journalists - have become commonplace in Cairo. In late January, the United Nations strongly urged the Egyptian government to act, saying it had received 25 reports of assaults on women in Tahrir Square in a single week - 19 of them in a single day. One young woman was hospitalized with lacerations after being raped with a sharp object.

Banners waved and angry slogans echoed as tens of thousands of Egyptians protested Friday against the ruling military council, which they blame for hijacking a revolution that once bore the hope of leading the restive Arab world toward democracy. Dominated by Islamists, with a smattering of secularists and liberals, crowds swelled into Tahrir Square in one of the largest demonstrations since longtime President Hosni Mubarak was overthrown in February. Despite competing political agendas, the factions were united in condemning the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces' refusal to cede power to a civilian government.

The Egyptian army moved into Tahrir Square on Sunday, tearing down tents and opening the artery to traffic nearly three weeks after the start of the protests that brought an end to the 30-year reign of Hosni Mubarak. The dozens of soldiers in olive fatigues and red berets surrounded the one remaining stage for protesters, while cars honked and drove around the city hub for the first time since Jan. 25, when people erupted in rage against Mubarak. It was a sign of the military's determination to restore normalcy to the nation's capital.

CAIRO - Egyptians wept and hugged as fireworks exploded in Tahrir Square and their world suddenly changed. Tears in their eyes, men, in some cases accompanied by their families, congratulated one another as throngs pushed in on roads and bridges leading from the Nile. In all, tens of thousands of Egyptians took to the square to celebrate the election of Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsi as the nation's first Islamist president. Although many in the crowd were ecstatic, others acknowledged that they were bracing for the struggle to come as Morsi inherits a country with a battered economy and ruling military still very much in power after President Hosni Mubarak's overthrow 16 months ago. The square - the battered, graffiti-streaked epicenter of Egypt's popular revolt - is where Egyptians have flocked to pour out their joy over the election results and their grievances about the military.

CAIRO - Security forces built a wall to contain stone-throwing protesters and Egypt's stock exchange tumbled Sunday amid growing unrest over President Mohamed Morsi's decision to expand his powers in a nation dispirited and angered by months of uncertainty. The country's main stock index fell nearly 10% in one of the most bruising days of trading since the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak. Morsi's power grab left traders fearful that foreign investors - desperately needed to rescue Egypt's troubled economy - would shy away from the nation in light of the latest spasm of political instability.

CAIRO - Knots of men argue politics, barefoot boys grip stones, graffiti blooms, banners unfurl and wind whistles through the tents of protesters in the latest stage of a revolution that, at least for now, has revived passions and lighted new campfires in Tahrir Square. How long the fervor will last is uncertain. The opposition against Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi has called for mass rallies Tuesday in a final push to block a referendum on a new constitution - one that many fear would favor Islamist interests - set for this weekend.

Los Angeles Times CAIRO - President-elect Mohamed Morsi of Egypt joined tens of thousands of protesters in Tahrir Square on Friday to celebrate his victory and keep pressure on the nation's ruling generals to restore the parliament and hand power over to a civilian government. Morsi's appearance in the sweltering square defied the ruling military council and came before his scheduled swearing-in Saturday as the first freely elected president in the country's history. But much of his authority has been curtailed by an army that has seized legislative and executive powers to prevent Islamists from controlling the government.

CAIRO -- Thousands of Egyptians protested Friday after a week of deadly riots that have shaken President Mohamed Morsi's grip on the nation and spurred fears that fresh unrest may lead to economic collapse. [Updated at 12:45 p.m. Feb. 1: The clashes continued late into the night as protesters in Cairo threw firebombs over the walls of the presidential palace, shot off fireworks and tossed Molotov cocktails as police advanced behind volleys of tear gas to push them back.  Morsi condemned the violence and said he would act with "utmost decisiveness" to guard state buildings.

CAIRO - They are a bedraggled front line, shock troops with scabbed faces and gunshot wounds, many of them boys with runny noses and sandaled feet, standing beyond police barricades with gasoline bombs, swords and stones. They are legion, angry young men and grade school dropouts without jobs, prospects or political ideologies. They battle Egyptian police through the fog of tear gas, advancing and retreating over charred streets and shattered glass. They are as persistent as horseflies, an endless buzz at the edge of protest.

The 99% may have been a little above-average. A sampling of Occupy Wall Street supporters in May showed that the anti-corporate protest movement was disproportionately wealthy and educated, according to a study published Tuesday by the City University of New York. However, many protesters -- especially those younger than 30 -- had also been recently laid off and were saddled with debt, one of the signature issues of the movement. Participants were predominantly concerned about income inequality in the United States.

CAIRO - Egypt's top military commander warned President Mohamed Morsi and opposition parties Tuesday to end days of bloodshed and unrest before the nation slides into chaos that may jeopardize the economy and “lead to the collapse of the state.” The ominous statement from Gen. Abdel Fattah Sisi signaled that the military, which ruled Egypt for months before Morsi was elected in June, wanted to quickly stem an uprising against the Islamist-led government....

CAIRO -- Young men and boys clashed with security forces as tens of thousands of Egyptians protested Friday against the Islamist-led government's failure to fix the economy and heal the politically divided nation two years after the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak. The anniversary of the revolution that led to Mubarak's downfall was marked more by rancor than joy as familiar and troubling scenes played out across the country: Rock-throwing youths lunging at police through clouds of tear gas while peaceful demonstrators waved banners and shouted epithets against those in power.

PARK CITY, Utah -- The bullets and tear-gas pellets were flying at Jehane Noujaim, but instead of scrambling backward with the rest of the Cairo protesters, the documentary filmmaker walked forward into the smoky haze, where hundreds of gas mask-clad soliders waited. Her camera in hand, Noujaim approached one of the officers and asked for an interview. To her surprise, he granted it. But a few minutes later another soldier in a ski mask spotted her. Yelling to a crowd of policemen that the Egyptian-American director was a U.S. spy, the soldier threw Noujaim into the swarm of cops, who grabbed her camera and corralled her into a paddy wagon.

Here is the morning commute of Emad Mohammed, a soft-spoken 35-year-old accountant: Trudge five miles through the dawn streets. Dodge roving bands of armed regime supporters, who would beat him or worse if they knew where he was headed. Walk across the Kasr-al-Nil bridge, a main artery into central Cairo, as pale morning mist rises from the broad, green river. Step past a line of weary young army conscripts squinting in the morning sun. Stop in front of rolls of barbed wire to dig out his identity card so he can pass into Tahrir Square.

Clashes flared for a second day Thursday between opponents and supporters of President Hosni Mubarak, spilling out of the central Cairo square occupied by antigovernment demonstrators and deepening the chaos gripping Egypt. The army acted decisively for the first time to try to separate the two sides, planting tanks and soldiers in the no-man's land between what have become enemy lines. In the early afternoon, as helicopters circled overhead, the fighting was scattered and less intense than the previous day. Confrontations were confined mainly to the periphery of Tahrir Square and the backstreets of the adjoining district, with relative calm in much the sprawling plaza itself.

CAIRO -- Egypt's volatile political fault lines were shaken Tuesday as rival protests echoed across Cairo over the fate of an Islamist-drafted constitution to shape the nation's identity nearly two years after the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak's autocratic regime. Thousands of Islamist supporters of President Mohamed Morsi rallied at a mosque in the capital to back a constitutional referendum set for Saturday. Several miles away, mainly secular opposition groups marched toward the barricaded presidential palace in what appears to be an increasingly improbable task to block the vote and force Morsi to order the writing of a new charter.