Egyptian Protesters call for million on streets

Police returned to the streets on Sunday and the army set up checkpoints but this did not deter tens of thousands from again congregating in Cairo and cities across the country today.

Well over 100 protesters have now been killed and thousands more injured since the protests began last week.

And Egypt's increasingly isolated 82-year-old leader unveiled a "new" cabinet which included mostly the same faces as the previous one which the president dismissed at the weekend.

There was one main change - new Interior Minister Mahmoud Wagdi, a former prison chief, replaced Habib el-Adly.

However despite cosmetic changes to his government the multiple forces behind the mass protests pledged to increase the pressure for Mr Mubarak to go - with Friday the target date for his departure.

Thirty to 40 representatives of opposition groups including Islamist party the Muslim Brotherhood met in Cairo to plot the country's future.

It was reported that delegates discussed proposals to appoint former chief of the UN nuclear watchdog Mohamed El Baradei an official for the protesters.

Brotherhood deputy leader Rashad al-Bayoumi was quoted as saying: "What we hope to reach in today's meeting is formulating a united strategy to remove Mubarak.

"What we have here is the Egyptian people's biggest chance to effect regime change."

And in Cairo's Tahrir Square, the focus of days of protest, April 6 Group youth movement founder Israa Abdel-Fattah said: "We don't want life to go back to normal until Mubarak leaves."

Independent trade unionists have urged workers to form workplace committees to "protect and defend them" amid the continuing people's protests.

In a statement on Sunday the Centre for Trade Unions and Workers Services, which brings together unions representing employees in tax collection and the health and industrial sectors, announced the formation of a new Federation of Egyptian Trade Unions.

"The labour movement is the heart and soul of the Egyption people's revolution," it said.

It announced the formation of "committees in all factories and enterprises" and said it would mount a general strike.

Its stance stands in marked contrast to the collaborationist Egyptian Trade Union Federation which has called on its apparatchiks to monitor the activities of workers.

foreigneditor@peoples-press.com

Egypt: Latest

Moody's credit ratings agency downgraded the status of government bonds today, warning that protests in the country were putting the economy at risk.

It also complained that the government had been spending far too much on subsidies in the country, which suffers from around 25 per cent unemployment and annual food price inflation of 17 per cent.

Using the West's preferred financial measures Egypt's economy has been doing well and had been expected to grow by 6 per cent this year.

Moody's announcement means that it will now be more expensive for the Hosni Mubarak's regime to raise cash on the international money markets.

Al-Jazeera appealed for help from bloggers and ordinary citizens today after the authorities shut down its Cairo bureau and jammed its broadcasts.

Six of the Qatar-based broadcaster's journalists were reportedly seized by security officials yesterday but were later released.

Its reporters have continued to tweet and phone in news from the country.

Tunisia: Latest

Islamist leader Rachid Ghanouchi and 70 other exiled members of the once outlawed Ennahdha party returned from Britain today to chaotic scenes at Tunis airport.

Mr Ghanouchi said that while he has been depicted in the West as a figure similar to Iran's theocratic despot Ayatollah Khomeini, "that's not me."

"I am not going to run for president of Tunisia nor as a minister nor as a parliamentarian," he said.

Swiss prosecutors have launched a money laundering investigation into accounts belonging to ousted leader Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and his family.