Protests in Egypt enter 12th day as curfew defied

Protests against President Hosny Mubarak were held throughout the night and into early Saturday as thousands held out in Cairo's central Tahrir Square during a 12th-straight day of protests, and demonstrators in Alexandria disregarded a curfew, dpa reported.

   Hundreds of people in the coastal city demanded Mubarak step aside after nearly 30 years in office.

   The protests that erupted last week led Mubarak to announce he would not seek another term in office, but that has not satisfied protestors who vowed to persist until he is no longer president.

   The protests overnight were primarily peaceful although al-Jazeera television reported that the military was believed to have fired into the air early Saturday at Tahrir Square.

   The overnight curfew was shortened three hours to 7 pm to 6 am (1700 to 0400 GMT), state-run television said.

   Meanwhile, the first death of a journalist covering the protests was reported. An Egyptian journalist died of a gunshot wound suffered a week ago in Cairo, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said.

   Ahmad Mohamed Mahmoud, who was working for the newspaper al- Ta'awun, was hit by what the newspaper described as sniper fire while filming a confrontation between security forces and protestors on January 28 near Tahrir Square.

   Numerous journalists from around the world have been detained or assaulted while covering the protests in Egypt with the rate of incidents targeting media soaring since Thursday.

   Al-Jazeera said its Cairo bureau was stormed and destroyed by unknown attackers Friday and its bureau chief, Abdel Fatah Fayed, and journalist Ahmad Youssif were detained by Egyptian security agents.

   In Washington, US President Barack Obama on Friday appealed to Mubarak to listen to his people and make "the right decision" about the best way forward for the country as the White House warned of greater instability.

   Obama would not say whether Mubarak should resign before the end of his term in September, but Obama made it clear that "going back to the old ways is not going to work."

   "The only thing that will work is moving (to) an orderly transition process that begins right now," Obama said.

   In the event of new elections, Mohammed ElBaradei, a Nobel Peace Prize winner as former head of the international nuclear watchdog and an opposition activist, said he would be prepared to run as Mubarak's replacement.

   "If the people want it, then, of course, I would," he told the Vienna newspaper Der Standard.

   He added, however, that who would run is not what was truly important at the moment and told the newspaper that he saw himself primarily as a "broker of change."

   The secretary general of the Arab League, Egyptian Amr Mussa, met Friday with an informal group of Egyptian intellectuals dubbed the "wise men."

They have been talking with the government and have proposed a gradual shifting of power away from Mubarak to vice presidents and technocrats while allowing the ruler to keep his titular job as head of state.

   Mussa was prepared to negotiate between the demonstrators and the government, Arab League sources said.

   Mussa, a former foreign minister is popular in Egypt, and is seen as a potential Mubarak successor.