Middle East

After 18 days of the popular uprising, Mubarak resigned and fled the country. Egypt displayed the greatest expression of the strength of non-violence. Some nay-sayers, who were more interested in silencing the mass movement with gunfire rather than avoiding bloodshed, were announcing “civil war” . No bloodshed occurred.

“In memoriam, Christoph Probst, Hans Scholl, Sophie Scholl” reads the banner at the top of Kareem Amer’s popular Egyptian dissident blog. “Beheaded on Feb. 22, 1943, for daring to say no to Hitler, and yes to freedom and justice for all.” The young blogger’s banner recalls the courageous group of anti-Nazi pamphleteers who called themselves the White Rose Collective.

-What is Amnesty International doing about the protests in Egypt and elsewhere in the region?
We’ve sent a delegation to Egypt to help witness, record and expose human rights abuses being committed during the uprising, as we did during the unrest in Tunisia earlier in the year. We’re doing this in close cooperation with local human rights activists.

The pro-democracy protests in Egypt have entered their third week as demonstrators are holding another massive protest in Tahrir Square, downtown at El Cairo, the capital city. While President Hosni Mubarak is refusing to resign, his regime is attempting to offer some new concessions in an attempt to end the protests.

Egyptian President Mubarak came under fresh pressure on Monday to step down as opponents said concessions made in landmark talks were not enough to halt a revolt against his 30-year rule.
Thousands of demonstrators spent Sunday night under blankets and tarpaulins in central Cairo’s Tahrir Square, or Liberation Square, which over two weeks has begun to resemble a tented camp.

Here we publish complete the Press Release text that the international organization “World Without Wars and Without Violence” communicated today, in reference with the recent facts developed in Egypt.
Such organism, forms part of the Humanism Movement and was the one coordinating the “World March for Peace and Non Violence” that finished on 2010.

Opponents of Egyptian President Mubarak’s embattled regime dismissed as insufficient an offer to include them in political reform plans and renewed their demand that he step down.
In a concession, Vice President Omar Suleiman sat down with the groups, which included the banned Muslim Brotherhood, but the talks produced no immediate breakthrough in the two-week-old standoff.

Amnesty International is urging the Egyptian military to respect the rights of protesters as demonstrators held their biggest protest.
Media reports said hundreds of thousands of people had gathered for what organisers dubbed a ‘Million Man’ protest calling for President Hosni Mubarak to step down and corruption, poverty and police abuses to end.

European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton on Wednesday urged Egypt’s embattled President Hosni Mubarak to do things “as quickly as possible” to smooth the transition to elections.
* Europe wants Mubarak to move forward
* Muslim Brotherhood see no alternative to Mubarak departure
* World leaders say Mubarak transition must start now

King Abdullah II of Jordan named Maruf Bakhit as prime minister on Tuesday with orders to carry out “true political reforms,” the palace said, after weeks of opposition protests demanding change.
“King Abdullah II designated Maruf Bakhit to form a new government to replace the government of Samir Rifai,” a palace statement said.