Wednesday, February 9, 2011 at 6:09 | Scott Lucas in Africa, EA Global, EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran 2150 GMT: Prominent activist Wael Ghonim today on CNN, telling the regime, " "If you are true Egyptians, if you are heroic Egyptians, it's time to step down":
Tahrir Square now appears as a popular fair: songs, dances, slogans, and "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love". People rise to prominence for their fiery wit, but their beautiful and interesting words, avoid any practical solution.
Please, give us the old-fashioned "What Is To Be Done".
2300 GMT: In Tunisia, the Ministry of Interior has announced that the former ruling party, the Constitituional Democratic Rally, is to be suspended and its offices closed.
2155 GMT: And now, to offer wisdom on the Egyptian crisis, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin:
Al Jazeera English summarises Friday in eight words: "No Sign of an End to the Confrontation".
The anti-regime movement appears to have consolidated its immediate position. After Thursday's deadly attacks by pro-Mubarak forces, Friday passed relatively peacefully. The anti-regime demonstrators established a cordon of barriers around Tahrir Square in Cairo, the centre of the resistance to President Mubarak, and these plus the bolstered presence of the Army kept pro-Mubarak groups at bay. There was still fighting in the side streets, but only a couple of dozen injuries were reported by Friday night.
Inside Tahrir Square, more than a million (how many millions?) people --- after lining up for hours to get through security checkpoints set up by the protesters --- were in the Square, offering dramatic images of mass chanting and a Friday Prayer that awed even the most jaded of observers.
Helene Cooper and Mark Landler write for The New York Times:
The Obama administration is discussing with Egyptian officials a proposal for President Hosni 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, administration officials and Arab diplomats said Thursday.
Even though Mr. Mubarak has balked, so far, at leaving now, officials from both governments are continuing talks about a plan in which Mr. Suleiman, backed by Lt. Gen. Sami Enan, chief of the Egyptian armed forces, and Field Marshal Mohamed Tantawi, the defense minister, would immediately begin a process of constitutional reform.
Friday, February 4, 2011 at 6:25 | Scott Lucas in Africa, EA Global, EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran 
0107 GMT: Fox News reports that an assassination attempt on newly-appointed Vice President Omar Suleiman left two people dead this week. Neither Fox nor anyone else has confirmed this story. When asked the question, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs had this to say:
"I'm not going to ... get into that question,"
0100 GMT: Members of hacktivist group Anonymous have targeted the government websites of Yemen and Egypt in solidarity with the protests in those country against the dictators. They used Distributed Denial of Services (DDoS) attacks to make websites unavailable for viewing.
Thursday, February 3, 2011 at 5:53 | Josh Shahryar in Africa, EA Global, EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran 
0200 GMT: With relative quiet in Egypt, we're going to take a break until Scott Lucas resumes in a few hours with the Friday LiveBlog.
0118 GMT: Al Jazeera TV just announced that Reuters quoting the New York Times reports that the US is discussing a proposal with Egyptian proposal for President Hosni Mubarak to resign immediately and for a transitional government headed by Vice President Omar Suleiman to take power. We cannot confirm this as of yet.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011 at 8:22 | Scott Lucas in EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran, US Foreign Policy 
UPDATE 2120 GMT: While the protesters' reaction to the Mubarak speech is the lead story tonight, the 2nd story may be the breakdown of talks between US officials and the Egyptian President.
It was notable tonight that there was a delay of more than an hour between the announcement that Mubarak was about to speak and his actual appearance. In that hour, Obama's people not only put out the news that the President --- through the envoy Frank Wisner --- had asked Mubarak to refrain from standing for re-election in September, they added to reporters that they had asked Mubarak to rule out any campaign by his son Gamal.
The White House delayed a press briefing, expecting to welcome a suitable Mubarak announcement, but time dragged on. The Egyptian President did not appear, and the White House press briefing was scrubbed.
Whether Mubarak rewrote his speech in that hour is not known, but his defiance and refusal to announce a transition was not a rejection of the millions of his people who turned out today. It was also a rebuff to the US Government.
Protesters in Tahrir Square were screaming, "Not enough!", as they heard the speech. I'm begging some folks in Washington were doing so as well.
Monday, January 31, 2011 at 7:39 | Scott Lucas in Africa, EA Global, EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran 2250 GMT: Ivan Watson of CNN reports that the Egyptian Ministry of Information has told them all cell phone service will be shut down just ahead of tomorrow's expected 'Million Man March'.
2242 GMT: Are you in Egypt? Do you have a phone? Do you want to tweet about the uprising, but don't have internet because it has been shut down? Then, Google has good news for you and us all. Googleblog just ran this post:
Sunday, January 30, 2011 at 7:12 | Scott Lucas in Africa, EA Global, EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran 
0615 GMT: Here's the sign that we have moved from Sunday into Monday --- a Cairo observer reports, "Good morning. I could still hear chanting at 4AM. I could still hear chanting at 8AM. People are roaming Tahrir square now."
A BBC correspondent reports "small numbers" of police on the streets of Cairo.
0600 GMT: Laura Rozen of Politico gives some insight into how the US Administration is now doing crisis management on Egypt:
