20110128
Reuters
(Reuters) - Egyptian police clashed with angry protesters who had promised a "Friday of Wrath" in Cairo to demand the end of President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule in a wave of unrest gripping the Middle East.

Police fired teargas and water cannon at protesters who shouted "Down, Down, Hosni Mubarak" and stamped on posters of the president in demonstrations after Friday prayers, witnesses reported.

Hundreds of anti-Mubarak protesters took to the streets in central Cairo and other cities, including Suez, they said. Protesters threw stones and dirt at the police.

Security forces had mounted a clampdown in Cairo and blocked Internet sites prior to the demonstrations.

Emboldened by this month's revolt that toppled the leader of Tunisia, Egyptians have staged mass protests since Tuesday and hundreds have been arrested.

Members of the Muslim Brotherhood, including at least eight senior officials of the opposition group and its main spokesmen, were rounded up overnight. A security source said authorities had ordered a crackdown on the group.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appealed on Friday for Egypt's leaders and its people not to let violence escalate.

"All concerned, people or leaders, should ensure that the situation in that region, particularly in Egypt should not lead to further violence," Ban said at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

POVERTY AND CORRUPTION

Young protesters want an end to President Mubarak's authoritarian rule that has used heavy handed security to crush dissenters who complained about unemployment, inflation and corruption which has created a huge gap between rich and poor.

The same complaints about corruption and poverty cross the region and prompted protests in countries like Algeria and Yemen as well as the demonstrations what led to the end of Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali's 23-year rule.

"Inflation has exhausted people. Prices of food, fuel, electricity, sugar are rising...The rich get richer and the poor poorer," said a taxi driver, declining to be named. "God knows what will happen today. After Tunisia anything is possible."

Ahead of Friday's protests, trucks of police lined side roads leading to Tahrir, a square in Cairo where there were some of the biggest demonstrations on Tuesday and some of the most violent clashes.

At the Mostafa Mahmoud mosque in the upscale Cairo suburb of Mohandiseen, police and security officers lined up preventing cars from crossing toward the mosque.

Internet via Egyptian servers was blocked across the country shortly after midnight, closing a key tool for activists relying on social media networks. Mobile phone and text messaging services also appeared to be disabled or working sporadically.