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BBC MUNDO RADIO
President Hosni Mubarak swore in a new Cabinet today, but the move was unlikely to quell protests calling for the ouster of the president himself. Upon word of the new Cabinet, thousands in downtown Cairo began chanting, "We want the fall of the regime," The Associated Press reported.
While many foreigners expressed solidarity with those pushing for democratic reform in Egypt, many also said they preferred not to stay behind to experience any political change firsthand.
"We love it here, and it was a very hard decision to leave," Patty Axelsen, an American who lives in Cairo's upscale Maadi area, told The New York Times as she prepared to fly out of the country. With looting and small fires burning in her street, she said, her beloved neighborhood no longer looks familiar.
"I have been calm and reasonable about everything, but uncertain of what is going to happen long term," one of her neighbors, Randi Danforth, told the Times. "There have been no demonstrations in Maadi, but what people are concerned about are opportunists and thugs. There are rumors going around of home invasions and looting. In fact, we have seen little of that ourselves."
The U.S. Embassy in Egypt said it is making arrangements to evacuate Americans to "safe-haven locations in Europe." Charter flights are due to begin taking off today, with the first plane landing in Cyprus. U.S. citizens will have to reimburse the government for the cost, the Embassy said.
Several other countries, including even Iraq, have sent special flights to do the same. Dozens more have posted travel warnings against tourism to Egypt right now.
An estimated 90,000 Americans live and work in Egypt, and thousands more travel there on vacation each year, the Times said.
Among those fleeing are 46 members of the school band at Augustana College in Sioux Falls, S.D., who have been on a musical tour of Egypt. The group managed to catch a flight out of Cairo on Sunday and stayed the night in Amsterdam before flying back to the U.S. today, the college said on its website.
David Lewis, a Briton who had been visiting his schoolteacher niece in Egypt, told the BBC why he cut his vacation short.
"It did not take us long to realize it was not safe to be out on the streets," Lewis said. "We were lying in bed at night hearing shots, looking out of the window seeing groups of men with sticks in their hands trying to protect their homes."
Mubarak's regime cut off most Internet and phone service on Friday to try to prevent protesters from using Facebook and other social media to organize demonstrations. The outages also created obstacles for foreign media trying transmit news and for relatives abroad trying to verify their loved ones' safety.
The government took further steps against Al-Jazeera, trying to shut down the Qatar-based TV network's Cairo offices and arresting six journalists working for its English-language branch. Al-Jazeera has one of the largest contingents of journalists reporting from Cairo's streets, and Egyptian officials have sought to restrict the free flow of information, accusing the network of stirring up protests.
The American University in Cairo's website was online but very slow today, and contact numbers appeared to be scrambled. A woman who answered the phone at the college's media office, who identified herself only as Reem, said, "No one is going to university anywhere in Egypt today." She refused to give details, but told AOL News that all educational institutions were closed indefinitely. But an emergency announcement posted on the site said that "residents are secure and faculty, staff and students are safe."
With Internet connectivity sporadic at best and most mobile-phone service cut off, the U.S. Embassy hasn't been able to send out text-message alerts to Americans who signed up for the service. Instead, diplomats are relying on word-of-mouth to try to get evacuation information to people.
Photos From Egypt
Under heavy police watch, hundreds of protesters in Cairo, Egypt, on Wednesday, January 26, 2011, demanded an end to the authoritarian regime of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, a key U.S. ally in the Arab world. (Hannah Allam/MCT)
An Egyptian cameraman films a standoff in downtown Cairo, Egypt, on Wednesday, January 26, 2011, between riot police and protesters who demand an end to the authoritarian regime of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, a key U.S. ally in the Arab world. (Hannah Allam/MCT)
Women joined small demonstrations in downtown Cairo, Egypt, on Wednesday, January 26, 2011, as protesters, under heavy police guard, demanded an end to the authoritarian regime of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, a key U.S. ally in the Arab world. (Hannah Allam/MCT)
This combination of undated photos shows Associated Press Television News cameraman Haridi Hussein Haridi, 54, left, and his assistant Haitham Badry, 23. The two were arrested by Egyptian security in Cairo, Egypt early Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2011, while the two were filming clashes between security troops and protesters in Cairo demanding the ouster of the country's president. Haridi telephoned the AP news bureau to say the two had been pushed into a police van and were being driven to an unknown location before his mobile phone was disconnected. (AP Photo)
Egyptian anti-government activists chant slogans as they gather on the rooftop of the Lawyers Syndicate in downtown Cairo, Egypt, Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2011. Egyptian anti-government activists clashed with police for a second day Wednesday in defiance of an official ban on any protests but beefed up police forces on the streets quickly moved in and used tear gas and beatings to disperse demonstrations. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)
Egyptian anti-government activists chant slogans as they gather on the rooftop of the Lawyers Syndicate in downtown Cairo, Egypt, Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2011. Egyptian anti-government activists clashed with police for a second day Wednesday in defiance of an official ban on any protests but beefed up police forces on the streets quickly moved in and used tear gas and beatings to disperse demonstrations. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)
Egyptian anti-government activists chant slogans as they gather inside the Lawyers Syndicate in downtown Cairo, Egypt, Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2011. Egyptian anti-government activists clashed with police for a second day Wednesday in defiance of an official ban on any protests but beefed up police forces on the streets quickly moved in and used tear gas and beatings to disperse demonstrations. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)
In this Jan. 25, 2011 photo, AP photographer Nasser Gamil Nasser is shown after being beaten by a policeman and injured while shooting protests in Cairo, Egypt. Nasser, 43, had his right cheekbone broken and will need surgery to repair the fractures. He said a policeman charged him while he was shooting protests late Tuesday and hurled a stone at his face. His camera was smashed. (AP Photo/Maher Malak)
Egyptian anti-government activists gathering on a road next to the Nile river in Cairo, Egypt, Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2011. Egyptian anti-government activists clashed with police for a second day Wednesday in defiance of an official ban on any protests but beefed up police forces on the streets quickly moved in and used tear gas and beatings to disperse demonstrations. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
Egyptian demonstrators demanding the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak and calling for reforms throw object towards riot police in Cairo on January 26, 2011. AFP PHOTO/STR (Photo credit should read STR/AFP/Getty Images)
Egyptian workers have long held similar strikes, albeit on a smaller scale, to protest their low wages or occasional increases in the prices of government-subsidized bread or fuel. But previous strikes have lasted only a few days, and the danger is that if they last longer, many poor Egyptians could go hungry. Grocery stories across the capital have been looted in recent days, and few new deliveries have come in.
Today's strike was first called by workers in the canal city of Suez overnight, AFP reported.
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