Egypt (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Towards the Day of Departure

0540 GMT: Now see Thursday's LiveBlog: "The Battle of Tahrir Square".

0536 GMT: The pro-regime protesters and thugs have not left Cairo yet. Some of them have taken over tall buildings and are throwing Molotov cocktails and rocks at democracy protesters below outside of Tahrir Square. 

This has not stopped hundreds of protesters from continuing to join democracy protesters in Tahrir Square, swelling up their numbers.  

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Egypt (and Beyond) LiveBlog: Black Hole or Another Day of Revolution

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.

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Belarus Updates: US Declares Elections Illegitimate

UPDATE 1915 GMT: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reports that opposition candidate Vladimir Neklyayev, who was hospitalised on Sunday after he was beaten unconscious by police, was subsequently snatched from his hospital bed by men in plainclothes.

Now See Wednesday's Updates: 5 Presidential Candidates, 12 Others Accused of "Organising Riots"

UPDATE 1900 GMT: Activists claim that independent exit polls showed President Alexander Lukashenko was preferred by 40% of voters, followed by Vladimir Neklyayev with 19.3% and Andrei Sannikov with 13%.

The official return declared Lukashenko the victor with 80%, with no opponent getting more than 2.56%. Neklyayev was reportedly beaten unconscious and taken to hospital during Sunday protests.

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