Even if these protests do not force Mubarak out, they have shattered the illusion of his credibility. Compromises or reforms will be unlikely to satisfy the protesters, which means that Egypt, and by extension the United States, will no longer be able to take the Egyptian people's passivity for granted.
0425 GMT: The government of the Netherlands today froze its diplomatic ties with Iran over the hanging of Dutch-Iranian Zahra Bahrami.
Bengt van Loosdrecht, the Dutch foreign ministry spokesman, said Uri Rosenthal, the foreign minister, was "shocked, shattered by this act by a barbaric regime.'' He added the hanging was especially shocking as Abadi had assured the Dutch minister on Friday that Bahrami's legal avenues had not yet been exhausted.
Saturday, January 29, 2011 at 7:18 | Scott Lucas in Africa, EA Global, EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran 
2247 GMT: A German news agency is claiming 19 private planes have departed Cairo Airport carrying Egyptian and Arab businessmen and families.
2245 GMT: Tens of thousands of protesters are still in central Cairo, with food being organised for them.
2240 GMT: A senior police officer has been kidnapped in Damietta, 200kilometres/120miles north of Cairo. Tarek Hammad is Head of Damietta Security.
2230 GMT: Escalating story tonight of at least one sniper in the Ministry of Interior picking off protesters outside the building. Witnesses are saying 10 to 15 people have been shot dead and dozens have been wounded. Dr Muhammad Hassan tells Al Jazeera that dead protestors from the area are flooding the makeshift field hospital.
2225 GMT: Al Jazeera reports the death of Major General Mohammed El-Batran, head of the Investigative Unit at Fayoum Central Jail in middle Egypt, 130 kilometres (80 miles) southwest of Cairo. About 700 prisoners have fled.
Last night Mubarak stood almost alone. And what no one was quite saying is that his fate is not in his hands. The immediate issue now is whether the military will hold the line for him and whether the protesters will accept that.
Unless there is something more from the President --- not just some economic payouts to the people but a clear sign that he and his son Gamal will be giving up the prospect of continued power, with promises of significant reform in the political system --- the demonstrations will continue. And at that point, the question will be whether the Army sides with those demonstrations or turns its guns upon them.
Egypt, Gamal Mubarak, Hosni Mubarak 
HRANA reports that the Dutch-Iranian national Zahra Bahrami, arrested just after the Ashura demonstrations of December 2009, was put to death this morning on the charge of drug possession.
Bahrami, who had returned to Iran before Ashura to see her daughter, was in legal limbo for months before Dutch authorities realised she was one of their citizens. Tehran refused to let them see her, however, as it does not recognise dual nationality.
Initally Bahrami was charged with "mohareb" (war against God), but Iranian officials shifted the emphasis to her alleged possession of a kilogramme (2.2 pounds) of cocaine. No evidence was ever produced to support the claim.
Bahrami lost her lawyer last autumn when Nasrin Sotoudeh was imprisoned.This week the Netherlands Government appointed two lawyers to represent Bahrami, but Tehran did not follow up on its declaration that Bahrami would be tried on the "mohareb" charge before any sentence was carried out. Indeed, it appears that there was no appeal allowed on the penalty for the drugs conviction.
For further details, see "Iran, Political Prisoners, & New Media: Discovering The Case of Zahra Bahrami" (August 2010), "Iran Snapshot: Death Sentence Handed Down on Iranian-Dutch National Zahra Bahrami" (6 January 2011), and "Iran Interview: Daughter of Condemned Zahra Bahrami 'A Political Death Sentence'" (13 January 2011). And for analysis, read Dave Siavashi's "What the Executions Say About the Regime's 'Control' and Murder" (26 January 2011).
1) Was departing Mossad chief Meir Dagan really pressing the Government by saying it is not the right time to focus on Iran's nuclear programmes at a time when the Palestinian issue should be the one on the table? Was he reinforcing this as a window of opportunity by saying that there is no way to envisage an Iranian nuclear weapon within the next four years?
2) Even if Netanyahu's Forum of Seven agrees to a limited number of concessions following the departure of Defense Minister Ehud Barak from the Labor Party, can Netanyahu and/or his coalition partners give up the Iran card? Can they do so at a time when the world "has not learnt its lesson" from the Holocaust and "there is a great island of instability" in the region, which can even put the peace made with Cairo in jeopardy?
Egypt 
1020 GMT: Claim of Day. The hard-line Raja News writes that Mehdi Karroubi went to Behesht-e Zahra cemetery today to honor post-election victims but fled after families protested.
1015 GMT: Sedition Watch. Ayatollah Alamolhoda, the Friday Prayer leader in Mashhad, has proclaimed that some fitna (sedition) leaders and activists are trying to "desecrate" the Supreme Leader.
Posted by AhmadFahmy on Twitpic:
Egypt Friday, January 28, 2011 at 5:47 | Scott Lucas in Africa, EA Global, EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran 
So there is a 13-hour curfew imposed in Egypt, right? What that means is that people should remain at home, there shouldn't be any gatherings and police should be in-charge of the street. Instead, the police are missing and people are swarming through the capital Cairo. The situation is made worse by opportunistic looters. Several people in Egypt are reporting that shopkeepers are gathering relatives and friends to protect their businesses from looters in isolated areas of the city.
Does that make sense?
0307 GMT: And now the mother of all disclosures?
The Daily Telegraph quotes a Wikileaks diplomatic dispatch with the following story:
The American Embassy in Cairo helped a young dissident attend a US-sponsored summit for activists in New York, while working to keep his identity secret from Egyptian state police.
On his return to Cairo in December 2008, the activist told US diplomats that an alliance of opposition groups had drawn up a plan to overthrow President Hosni Mubarak and install a democratic government in 2011.
Read the full story on the Daily Telegraph here.
