Egyptian protests

Feb. 8 * As the authorities and protesters struggle to grasp the see-sawing initiative in the 15-day-old revolt, the government unveiled new pledges of reform, but demonstrators gathered in ever greater numbers to reject anything less than the president’s immediate ouster.

Feb. 9 * Inspired in part by the emotional televised interview with Wael Ghonim, the largest crowd of protesters in two weeks occupied Tahrir Square, surrounded the Egyptian Parliament and staged sporadic demonstrations and strikes in several Egyptian cities.

* The Obama administration is discussing with Egyptian officials a proposal for Mr. Mubarak to resign immediately and turn over power to a transitional government headed by Vice President Omar Suleiman with the support of the Egyptian military.

* Video TimesCast | January 31, 2011 * Video Nicholas D. Kristof in Cairo Jan. 30 * A week-old uprising has had a transforming effect on a people long treated as subjects, not citizens, by a state that saw elections as a scripted exercise in affirmation.

Egypt, the most populous country in the Arab world, erupted in mass protests on Jan. 25, 2011, as the revolution in Tunisia earlier in the month seemed to inflame decades worth of smoldering grievances against decades of heavy-handed rule by President Hosni Mubarak.

* Israel, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates have pressed the United States not to throw its weight behind the democracy movement in a way that could further destabilize the region, diplomats said.

* Video Mixed Reactions to ElBaradei Jan. 29 * A change in the cabinet announced the night before did not slow the protests, as troops and demonstrators fraternized.

* After maintaining a low profile in protests led largely by secular young Egyptians, the Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s largest opposition force, appeared to be taking a more assertive role, issuing a statement asking for President Hosni Mubarak to step aside for a transitional government.

* In a live television interview after his release from an Egyptian prison, the Google executive Wael Ghonim acknowledged that he was one of the people behind the anonymous Facebook and YouTube campaign that helped galvanize the protest that has shaken Egypt for the last two weeks.

Egypt, the most populous country in the Arab world, erupted in mass protests on Jan. 25, 2011, as the revolution in Tunisia earlier in the month seemed to inflame decades worth of smoldering grievances against decades of heavy-handed rule by President Hosni Mubarak.

* Graphic: Battle for Tahrir Square Feb. 2 * Waves of pro-government provocateurs armed with clubs, stones and knives fought their way into and around Tahrir Square in a concerted effort to rout the protesters.

* Interactive Interactive Feature: A Closer Look at the Unrest in Cairo Feb. 3 * Clashes between government supporters and opponents continued for a second day, as the government broadened its crackdown to the international media and human rights workers, in an apparent effort to remove witnesses to the battle with anti-government protesters.

More than 300 people are estimated to have died in Egypt since the turmoil began, according to human rights groups.

Feb. 8 * As the authorities and protesters struggle to grasp the see-sawing initiative in the 15-day-old revolt, the government unveiled new pledges of reform, but demonstrators gathered in ever greater numbers to reject anything less than the president’s immediate ouster.

Feb. 6 * Vice President Omar Suleiman announced that a transition to a post-Mubarak era had begun with a meeting with opponents of the government.

He had also successfully negotiated complicated issues of regional security, solidified a relationship with Washington, maintained cool but correct ties with Israel and sharply suppressed Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism — along with dissent in general.

It had been seething beneath the surface for many years, exploding at times, but never before in such widespread, sustained fury.The grievances are economic, social, historic and deeply personal.

* After maintaining a low profile in protests led largely by secular young Egyptians, the Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s largest opposition force, appeared to be taking a more assertive role, issuing a statement asking for President Hosni Mubarak to step aside for a transitional government.

After the jails were opened, looters smashed store windows and ravaged shopping malls as police stations and the national party headquarters burned through the night.

But the protesters, having beaten back an attempt by armed pro-government supporters to drive them from Cairo's Tahrir Square, managed to keep the movement's momentum going.

* As the opposition on the streets of Cairo has increasingly coalesced around Mr. ElBaradei to negotiate on their behalf, the Obama administration is scrambling to figure out whether he is someone with whom the United States can deal.

The country, often the fulcrum on which currents in the region turn, also has one of the largest and most sophisticated security forces in the Middle East.

Mr. ElBaradei, the former director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, publicly challenged Mr. Mubarak’s autocratic rule, but the Mubarak political machine steamrolled its way to its regular lopsided victory in a parliamentary vote.

* As Egypt struggles to reinvent itself, many experts in the region say that it might look to Turkey for some valuable lessons in combining Islam, democracy and a vibrant economy.

Feb. 8 * As the authorities and protesters struggle to grasp the see-sawing initiative in the 15-day-old revolt, the government unveiled new pledges of reform, but demonstrators gathered in ever greater numbers to reject anything less than the president’s immediate ouster.

* As the opposition on the streets of Cairo has increasingly coalesced around Mr. ElBaradei to negotiate on their behalf, the Obama administration is scrambling to figure out whether he is someone with whom the United States can deal.

In December 2010, a suspect being questioned in connection with a bombing was beaten to death while in police custody.Abuse is often perpetrated by undercover plainclothes officers like the ones who confronted Mr. Said, and either ordered or allowed by their superiors, the head investigators who sit in every precinct.

* After an all-out war against anti-government crowds, the legions of black-clad security police officers — a reviled paramilitary force focused on upholding the state — withdrew from the biggest cities.

* After an all-out war against anti-government crowds, the legions of black-clad security police officers — a reviled paramilitary force focused on upholding the state — withdrew from the biggest cities.

* Nine days after a diverse band of protesters mobilized on the Internet and gathered by the thousands in Tahrir Square, their campaign seems to have survived, improbably, without a recognized cadre at the top giving orders.

* Photographs Slide Show: Young Egyptians Spread Their Message Feb. 7 * The reorganized government announced a 15 percent salary hike for its six million employees, a move apparently aimed at shoring up support for Mr. Mubarak and defusing popular support for the protests.

* Two reporters tell how their detention threw into haunting relief the abuses of security services, the police, the secret police and the intelligence service.

From Apathy to Anger While Mr. Mubarak's regime had become increasingly unpopular, the public long seemed mired in apathy.

* After maintaining a low profile in protests led largely by secular young Egyptians, the Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s largest opposition force, appeared to be taking a more assertive role, issuing a statement asking for President Hosni Mubarak to step aside for a transitional government.

* Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit dismissed calls by Egyptian protesters and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. to scrap the country’s emergency laws, which allow the authorities to detain people without charges.

He had also successfully negotiated complicated issues of regional security, solidified a relationship with Washington, maintained cool but correct ties with Israel and sharply suppressed Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism — along with dissent in general.

* The Obama administration, confronting the spectacle of angry protesters and baton-wielding riot police officers from Tunisia to Egypt to Lebanon, scrambled for a plan to deal with a vexing region that could suddenly spin in dangerous directions.

* As the opposition on the streets of Cairo has increasingly coalesced around Mr. ElBaradei to negotiate on their behalf, the Obama administration is scrambling to figure out whether he is someone with whom the United States can deal.

But the protesters, having beaten back an attempt by armed pro-government supporters to drive them from Cairo's Tahrir Square, managed to keep the movement's momentum going.

Egypt, the most populous country in the Arab world, erupted in mass protests on Jan. 25, 2011, as the revolution in Tunisia earlier in the month seemed to inflame decades worth of smoldering grievances against decades of heavy-handed rule by President Hosni Mubarak.

* Nine days after a diverse band of protesters mobilized on the Internet and gathered by the thousands in Tahrir Square, their campaign seems to have survived, improbably, without a recognized cadre at the top giving orders.

* After days of delicate public and private diplomacy, the United States openly broke with its most stalwart ally in the Arab world, as the Obama administration strongly condemned violence by allies of Mr. Mubarak and called on him to speed up his exit from power.

Feb. 9 * Inspired in part by the emotional televised interview with Wael Ghonim, the largest crowd of protesters in two weeks occupied Tahrir Square, surrounded the Egyptian Parliament and staged sporadic demonstrations and strikes in several Egyptian cities.

He said the gathering had produced a “consensus” about a path to reform, but leaders of the protest movement denounced his remarks as a political ploy.

Feb. 9 * Inspired in part by the emotional televised interview with Wael Ghonim, the largest crowd of protesters in two weeks occupied Tahrir Square, surrounded the Egyptian Parliament and staged sporadic demonstrations and strikes in several Egyptian cities.

Egypt, the most populous country in the Arab world, erupted in mass protests on Jan. 25, 2011, as the revolution in Tunisia earlier in the month seemed to inflame decades worth of smoldering grievances against decades of heavy-handed rule by President Hosni Mubarak.

He had also successfully negotiated complicated issues of regional security, solidified a relationship with Washington, maintained cool but correct ties with Israel and sharply suppressed Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism — along with dissent in general.

* As the diplomatic crisis in Egypt has intensified, the potential Republican candidates and the party’s leaders in Congress have, with only a few exceptions, had little to say.

Egyptians often speak of their dignity, which many said has been wounded by Mr. Mubarak’s monopoly on power, his iron-fisted approach to security and corruption that has been allowed to fester.

And in nearly every case, the state addressed the issue as a security matter, deploying the police, detaining suspects, dispersing crowds.

* Political organizers, many younger than 30, are taking the lead in efforts to topple a regime older than they are.

* Whoever becomes the new president of Egypt after elections in September, American officials say that the rich and secretive Egyptian military holds the key to governing.

* Egyptian, Arab and Western officials dealing with Mr. Mubarak in recent days said he has reacted to the calls for his resignation with what one Arab official called “his reflex adherence to the status quo.”

* But Mr. Mubarak's concession was rejected as insufficient by demonstrators, and Mr. Obama also strongly suggested that it was not enough, declaring that an “orderly transition must be meaningful, it must be peaceful, and it must begin now.”

Egypt, the most populous country in the Arab world, erupted in mass protests on Jan. 25, 2011, as the revolution in Tunisia earlier in the month seemed to inflame decades worth of smoldering grievances against decades of heavy-handed rule by President Hosni Mubarak.

* President Obama’s decision to stop short, at least for now, of calling for Mr. Mubarak’s resignation was driven by the administration’s concern that it could lose all leverage over the Egyptian president, and because it feared creating a power vacuum inside the country.

* Interactive Interactive Feature: A Closer Look at the Unrest in Cairo Feb. 3 * Clashes between government supporters and opponents continued for a second day, as the government broadened its crackdown to the international media and human rights workers, in an apparent effort to remove witnesses to the battle with anti-government protesters.

Mr. ElBaradei, the former director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, publicly challenged Mr. Mubarak’s autocratic rule, but the Mubarak political machine steamrolled its way to its regular lopsided victory in a parliamentary vote.

But in a late-night address to the nation, Mr. Mubarak unexpectedly refused to budge, saying he would stay on through the end of his term.

* After days of delicate public and private diplomacy, the United States openly broke with its most stalwart ally in the Arab world, as the Obama administration strongly condemned violence by allies of Mr. Mubarak and called on him to speed up his exit from power.

* After maintaining a low profile in protests led largely by secular young Egyptians, the Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s largest opposition force, appeared to be taking a more assertive role, issuing a statement asking for President Hosni Mubarak to step aside for a transitional government.

* Video TimesCast | January 28, 2011 * Video Egyptians React to Mubarak Speech Jan. 26 * The Egyptian government intensified efforts to crush a fresh wave of protests, banning public gatherings, detaining hundreds of people and sending police officers to scatter protesters who defied the ban.

His government has appeared to be trying to wait the protesters out, offering a reform plan that consists of minor concessions.

* Hundreds of thousands of Egyptians, brimming with confidence after days of protest, traveled like pilgrims to gather at Tahrir, or Liberation, Square, to speak freely and to be heard.

Feb. 4 * Cracks in the establishment’s support for Mr. Mubarak appeared when jubilant crowds remained in Tahrir Square and demanded his ouster, unmolested by either security police or uniformed Mubarak loyalists.

Mr. Mubarak has been in office since the assassination of Anwar el-Sadat on Oct. 16, 1981, whom he served as vice president.

* Whoever becomes the new president of Egypt after elections in September, American officials say that the rich and secretive Egyptian military holds the key to governing.

* Nine days after a diverse band of protesters mobilized on the Internet and gathered by the thousands in Tahrir Square, their campaign seems to have survived, improbably, without a recognized cadre at the top giving orders.

In the last few years, Egypt has struggled through a seemingly endless series of crises and setbacks.The sinking of a ferry left 1,000 mostly poor Egyptians lost at sea, an uncontrollable fire gutted the historic Parliament building, terrorists attacked Sinai resorts, labor strikes affected nearly every sector of the work force and sectarian-tinged violence erupted.