Egypt Round-up: Sunday's Protests --- And What Might Happen Today

2130 GMT: There is a steady stream of reports via social media of protests in the Shubra area of Cairo tonight, with renewed clashes with police.

1400 GMT: Minister of Information Anas al-Fiqqi has urged private television channels to heed objectivity and avoid inflammatory coverage when reporting on the Alexandria bomb.

Al-Fiqqi insisted that "nationalist dimensions" should be the focus of reports.

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Egypt Opinion: After the Bombing --- "J'Accuse" (Shukrallah)

Hypocrisy and good intentions will not stop the next massacre. Only a good hard look at ourselves and sufficient resolve to face up to the ugliness in our midst will do so.

We are to join in a chorus of condemnation. Jointly, Muslims and Christians, government and opposition, Church and Mosque, clerics and lay people -- all of us are going to stand up and with a single voice declare unequivocal denunciation of al-Qaeda, Islamist militants, and Muslim fanatics of every shade, hue and color; some of us will even go the extra mile to denounce salafi Islam, Islamic fundamentalism as a whole, and the Wahabi Islam which, presumably, is a Saudi import wholly alien to our Egyptian national culture.

And once again we’re going to declare the eternal unity of “the twin elements of the nation”, and hearken back the Revolution of 1919, with its hoisted banner showing the crescent embracing the cross, and giving symbolic expression to that unbreakable bond.

Much of it will be sheer hypocrisy; a great deal of it will be variously nuanced so as keep, just below the surface, the heaps of narrow-minded prejudice, flagrant double standard and, indeed, bigotry that holds in its grip so many of the participants in the condemnations.

All of it will be to no avail.

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Egypt Video: Today's Protests in Cairo

Thirteen videos of today's demonstrations in Cairo over the Alexandria attack and events in Tunisia....

Protestors try to get into Egyptian Radio and TV building in Maspero:

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Egypt Video and Pictures: The Alexandria Bombing and Demonstrations

Video from inside the church as the car bomb explodes just outside:

Last night's protests in the Shubra neighbourhood of Cairo:

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Egypt Exclusive: "Up to 50" Killed in Bombing of Alexandria Church

UPDATE 1950 GMT: Protests and clashes with police are continuing in Alexandria.

UPDATE 1940 GMT: President Mubarak sent Mufeed Shehab, the head of the Alexandria Council, and the Minister of Development to the funerals, and a couple of other ministers reportedly were present.

Bishop Youanis, the secretary of the Copt leader Pope Shenouda III, said, "We thank the President." The audience responded with shouts of "No, no, no", and waved their hands. They also reportedly shouted, "We want our rights", and sang, "Kyrie, Eleison" ("Lord Have Mercy").

UPDATE 1855 GMT: A source reports that doctors at St Mark's Hospital are "livid" over the official accounts minimising the casualties. They say there are definitely, and one doctor says there are more to be processed.

There are reports of graffiti on church walls saying "Watch out" and "You're Next".

Ten Christians have reportedly been detained for questioning.

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Egypt Breaking: 21 Killed in Car Bomb Attack on Christian Church

LATER UPDATES: "Up to 50" Killed in Bombing of Alexandria Church

UPDATE 1530 GMT: A picture from the post-bombing protests in Alexandria today:

UPDATE 1510 GMT: Protesters and police are clashing near the site of today's bombing. There are reports of injuries and suffocation from tear gas used by anti-riot forces.

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WikiLeaks 2007 Special: Palestinian Authority Calls on Israel to Attack Hamas

In a June 2007 report, the head of Israel's internal intelligence service Shin Bet, Yuvak Diskin, had a meeting with US Ambassador Richard H. Jones. Diskin talked about the destructive yet balancing nature of the conflict between the Palestinian parties Fatah and Hamas, outlined Fatah's disadvantages  in that contest, and complained about Cairo.

Then Diskin claimed that a "desperate" Fatah Party had turned to Israel:

They are approaching a zero-sum situation, and yet they ask us to attack Hamas. This is a new development. We have never seen this before. They are desperate.

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Egypt Video: El Baradei Intervenes After the Elections "The Regime's Last Chance"

Last week, Mohammad el Baradei --- the former director of the International Atomic Energy Agency and a key actor in the National Alliance for Change --- issued a video response to the Parliamentary elections that gave more than 90% of the seats to the ruling National Democratic Party: "We do not have real industry , we do not have real agriculture, we laugh at ourselves and the world laughs at us.... You are not investing in your future, you are investing in the end of what you have, in destroying Egypt and in destroying the future generations."

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WikiLeaks and Egypt: Shame About That Internal Repression

Last February, the US Ambassador in Cairo sent this "scene-setter" for the visit of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, to Egypt.

The priorities in the cable are telling. President Obama's heralded Cairo speech, delivered in June 2009, is the platform for Eight months after President Obama's heralded Cairo speech, for "our Strategic Dialogue and...a new framework for regular bilateral meetings with the Egyptians to explore areas for cooperation and coordination, including examining our respective assessments of strategic threats such as Iran".

But wait a minute. Didn't Obama also speak about the merits of open societies, with political participation and respect for all religions? In the 12th of 14 paragraphs, the cable finally notes the internal situation. It opens with the aspiration, "We continue to promote democratic reform in Egypt, including the expansion of political freedom and pluralism, and respect for human rights", and ends with reality: "The GOE has also used the Emergency Law to target political activity by the Muslim Brotherhood, bloggers and labor demonstrators. The Interior Ministry suppresses political opposition through arrests, harassment and intimidation."

(Interesting Postscript: This week, Al-Ahram published an opinion piece from the head of the European Union delegation to Cairo, Marc Franco. Days after the disputed Egyptian elections, Franco enthused, "Looking back over the last few years, it is only fair to say that Egypt has made courageous steps towards promoting a culture of human rights at all levels of Egyptian society.")

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Egypt Snapshot: Mubarak "Pleased" But Protests Continue Over Elections

Yesterday, even as President Hosni Mubarak tried to settle any tensions over this month's Parliamentary elections, in which his ruling National Democratic Party won more than 90% of the seats, there were further signs of troubled political waters.

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