As global attention remains focused on events in Egypt, Khadija Sharife considers the role of the country’s military in the uprising and its political role in planning for the future.

In the context of the popular uprisings in North Africa, Patricia Daley draws on the work of Nigerian scholar Claude Ake and asks how social justice scholars can operationalise the democratic principles he articulated.

The International Federation of Journalists has mourned the loss of the first journalist to die in the social unrest in Egypt. Journalist Ahmed Mohammed Mahmoud died in hospital in Cairo from injuries sustained after he was shot in the eye by a sniper. The journalist, aged 39, worked for the A’wada newspaper, a part of the Al Ahram media group. His death comes after a week of continuing unrest that has seen journalists and media staff among those targeted by groups loyal to the regime of President Hosni Mubarak.

Egypt's new vice-president, Omar Suleiman, has long sought to demonise the opposition Muslim Brotherhood in his contacts with skeptical US officials, leaked diplomatic cables show, raising questions whether he can act as an honest broker in the country's political crisis. US Embassy messages from the anti-secrecy WikiLeaks cache of 250 000 State Department documents, which Reuters independently reviewed, also report that the former intelligence chief accused the Brotherhood of spawning armed extremists and warned in 2008 that if Iran ever backed the banned Islamist group, Tehran would become 'our enemy'.

Google executive Wael Ghonim said after his release that he was kept blindfolded for two weeks while being detained by Egyptian state security. Activists said Ghonim had been involved in founding 'We are all Khaled Said', an anti-torture Facebook group named after an activist who rights groups said was beaten to death by police in the port city of Alexandria.

Ayman Mohyeldin, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Cairo who was held by the military outside Tahrir (Liberation) Square, has spoken to the network about the experience following his release. Mohyeldin describes how he was taken to a separate holding area, where he was handcuffed with plastic strips, had his equipment taken off him and was interrogated.

To call the ongoing people’s revolts in Tunisia and Egypt Facebook revolutions is certainly overstating the case. In both countries, the time was ripe for revolution and social upheaval. Poverty, repression and hopelessness were enforced by greedy US-supported despots who were deaf to the needs of their people. But there is little doubt that the recent street-protest revolts in Tunis and Cairo were assisted by new social media: Facebookers, tweeters and a new generation of Internet bloggers.

'We, the undersigned civil society organisations working to promote freedom of expression around the world, condemn the serious violations of human rights taking place at this critical moment in Egypt. Since pro-democracy activists first began popular protest across Egypt on 25 January, there have been at least three hundred deaths, incidents of physical attacks and brutality, often involving live fire, and
arbitrary arrests and detentions of protestors and journalists. The government has also restricted access to the internet, withdrawn mobile phone services and placed restrictions on independent media.'

Pro-democracy protesters are continuing their sit-in in Cairo's Tahrir (Liberation) Square for the fourteenth consecutive day, showing no signs of being appeased by talks held a day earlier between the government and opposition groups. People were still camped out in the square on Monday while life was slowly getting back to normal in other parts of the Egyptian capital. An Al Jazeera correspondent said traffic in the streets was increasing while businesses were beginning to reopen.

The African Union (AU) Friday called for 'appropriate reforms' in Egypt, where protesters have been pushing for President Hosni Mubarak's exit from power. In a statement made available to PANA, AU Commission Chairperson Jean Ping expressed regret at the continuing violent protests, which entered its 11th day Friday. He said the Egyptian authorities must institute appropriate reforms and respond to the needs of the protesters, while expressing concern at the violent protests and loss of lives.

Compiled on the Towards Freedom website is a collection of recommended reports and resources on current events unfolding in Egypt and across the region.

'I shall leave now for Tahrir Square. My family is already there. My son phoned and said it's fine: the military are running checks and everything's orderly. The questions that are being settled on the streets of Egypt are of concern to everyone. The paramount one for us today is this: can a people's revolution that is determinedly democratic, grass-roots, inclusive and peaceable succeed?'

This film tells the story of five days in January 2011 when the people of Egypt broke through a barrier of fear they had known for a generation and rose in revolt against their president. Egypt Burning captures those critical moments as history unfolded through interviews with Al Jazeera correspondents on the ground.

Much has been aflutter on twitter about the very visible presence of women among the protests that have taken Egypt by storm over the last few weeks, but images of them have remained sparse amid the digital slideshows strung together by major media outlets, portraying mainly dense crowds of the manly. Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights activist Ghada Shahbandar claims the crowd in downtown Cairo is up to 20 per cent female. Others have put the number much higher, at 50 per cent.

The Habitat International Coalition (HIC) has learned that Egyptian military police yesterday have arrested or abducted some 30 human rights defenders in Cairo in yet-unclear circumstance and with unknown charges. The group of arrested human rights defenders includes three staff of the Egyptian Center for Housing Rights, a long-standing HIC Members organization. At the time of their arrest in Bulaq Abu al-„Ila, they were purchasing blankets that they reportedly intended to distribute to protesters camping out in Cairo's central Tahrir Square.

If Egypt’s military is ever to be a legitimate national force, it must side with the protesters against Mubarak’s thugs and the police, writes Mozn Hassan.

The dubious coverage of events in Egypt reveal the extent to which Western media outlets remain mere neoliberal cheerleaders, incapable of conceiving that the Egyptian people have both the right and capacity to determine their own direction, writes Adrian Crewe.

We, civil society organizations from across the world, strongly urge all governments, as well as regional and international organizations, to clearly and unequivocally denounce the ongoing violent crackdown against the public protests and demands for democratic reform and government accountability that have been occurring across Egypt since the 25th of January.

Following developments in Tunisia and as Egypt’s extraordinary scenes continue, Melakou Tegegn stresses that the ruling classes across the region are shuddering at the power of the revolts.

We appeal to all human rights organizations and to all the defenders of freedoms and human rights and all the free honourable media inside and outside Egypt to interfere immediately and support our peaceful demonstrations from the savage attack of the security against the demonstrators using all kinds of weapons...