Egypt protests resume; Al-Jazeera shut down "Some 1,000 protestors take to streets of Cairo, chant 'Mubarak and Suleiman are American agents.' In bid to restore order, authorities suspend operations of Qatari network which encouraged uprising
Egypt said on Sunday it had shut down the operations of Arab satellite broadcaster Al-Jazeera, which according to the authorities had encouraged the uprising in the country, in an attempt to restore order.
"The Information Minister ordered ... suspension of operations of Al-Jazeera, cancelling of its licenses and withdrawing accreditation to all its staff as of today," a statement on the official Mena news agency said. The Qatari network said the move was aimed at "silencing the Egyptian people".
The protests resumed on Sunday morning as more than 1,000 people took the streets of Cairo and called on President Hosni Mubarak to resign. The Al-Arabiya network reported that military forces deployed in the capital were working to guard the interior ministry building in the city center. ........
...........The demonstrators, however, called on the two leaders to resign. "Hosni Mubarak and Omar Suleiman, you are both American agents," they chanted. "Mubarak, Mubarak, your plane awaits you."
Meanwhile, the US said on Sunday it was offering evacuation flights to Europe for US citizens who wish to leave Egypt. "The U.S. Embassy in Cairo informs US citizens in Egypt who wish to depart that the Department of State is making arrangements to provide transportation to safehaven locations in Europe," the statement said.
Turkey was also sending two Turkish Airlines planes to Egypt on Sunday to evacuate is citizens, state-run Anatolian news agency quoted embassy officials in Cairo as saying.
European tour operators and airlines have cancelled trips to Cairo since protesters took to the streets, dealing a blow to a tourism industry that provides about one in eight jobs in the country.................
.............Security sources told Al-Arabiya that thousands of prisoners had escaped from the Wadi el-Natrun Prison, north of Cairo, where radical Islamic activists are held. Some of the inmates managed to escape to Gaza. Palestinian sources said several prisoners had already reached their homes in the Strip. "