• Egyptians move to reclaim streets through graffiti

    Graffiti has turned into perhaps the most fertile artistic expression of Egypt's uprising, The Associated Press reports, as street artists duel it out to shift public opinion for or against the ruling military council:

    During the regime of Hosni Mubarak, Egypt had almost no graffiti on the walls of its cities. But when the uprising against Mubarak's rule erupted a year ago, there was an explosion of the art.

    Taking control of the streets was critical for the thousands of Egyptians who eventually overthrew the country's authoritarian leader. The battle continues to be fought by graffiti artists who support the country's military rulers and those who want them to relinquish power. Read the full story.

    Nasser Nasser / AP, file

    Two women walk by a mural depicting faces of Egyptians killed before and after the revolution, in Tahrir Square in Cairo on Dec. 20, 2011. The slogans read "No conciliation" and #NOSCAF, referring to the ruling Supreme Council of the Army Forces.

    Nariman El-Mofty / AP, file

    A girl, left, posts an art piece made by Sad Panda, unseen, on a wall as flower vendors prepare a bouquet outside their shop in Cairo on Jan. 19.

    Nasser Nasser / AP

    A man walks by a graffiti that reads "Pride and dignity, No SCAF," on a road that leads to Tahrir Square on Jan. 29.

    Ahmed Ali / AP, file

    Soldiers beat a protester wearing a niqab during clashes near Tahrir Square on Dec. 16, 2011. Graffiti in the background depicts members of the military ruling council and reads "Killer".

    Jeff J Mitchell / Getty Images

    Graffiti written on the walls in Mohammed Mahmoud Street off Tahrir Square on Jan. 26.

    To see more examples of Cairo street art, take a look at the suzeeinthecity blog and a map of graffiti locations.

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  • Filippo Monteforte / AFP - Getty Images

    Two photographs of people gathered outside the trial of former President Hosni Mubarak at the Police Academy in Cairo, Egypt, on December 28, 2011.
    Left: A relative holds a T-shirt belonging to a young boy who died in the clashes earlier this year, during a protest against Mubarak.
    Right: A supporter of Mubarak holds his portrait as she joins others gathered outside the court.

    Rival protests as Hosni Mubarak trial resumes

    msnbc.com staff and news services report:

    The trial of ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, charged with the killing of protesters and abuse of power, resumed on Wednesday following a delay of almost two months while lawyers demanded a new judge.

    Mubarak, his two sons, the former interior minister and senior police officers face a range of charges including involvement in the deaths of hundreds of protesters and corruption during his three decades in office. Continue reading.

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  • Panetta becomes first Pentagon chief to visit Libya

    Pablo Martinez Monsivais / Pool via Reuters

    U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, thrid from left, U.S. Ambassador to Libya Gene Cretz, second from left, and Gen. Carter Ham, Commander of U.S. Africa Command, left, bow their heads during the wreath laying ceremony at the grave site of 13 U.S. Navy sailors at the Protestant Cemetery in Tripoli, Libya, Dec. 17.

    Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP

    U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Libyan Prime Minister Abd al-Rheem Al-Keeb greet one another during their joint news conference in Tripoli, Libya, Saturday, Dec., 17.

    TRIPOLI - U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta arrived in Tripoli Saturday, taking advantage of the ouster of Moammar Gadhafi in an eight-month civil war to become the first Pentagon chief to set foot on Libyan soil.

    But Panetta has indicated that the U.S. will give more time to gain control of the militias that overthrew Gadhafi before determining how to help the fledgling government.

    "The last thing you want to do is to try to impose something on a country that has just gone through what the Libyans have gone through," said Panetta on Friday before landing in Tripoli.

    "They've earned the right to try to determine their future. They've earned the right to try to work their way through the issues that they're going to have to confront," he said.

    Read the full story here and see more images of Leon Panetta's travels on PhotoBlog.

     

  • Clashes in Cairo after rumors of activist's beating

    Khaled Elfiqi / EPA

    A woman is taken away by the Egyptian army during clashes in central Cairo on Dec. 16, 2011.

    Reuters reports from CAIRO:

    Protesters clashed with military police in central Cairo on Friday after rumors spread that an anti-government activist was detained at a sit-in and badly beaten, in the worst violence since the start of Egypt's first free election in decades.

    Police fired in the air after dawn to try to disperse around 300 demonstrators who said they were angered by images posted online of the man - named as Abboudi Ibrahim - being supported by a crowd, his face badly bruised and eyes swollen and shut.

    The fighting continued and, by mid-morning, the area around the cabinet office and parliament was strewn with rubble as soldiers and men in plainclothes threw stones from the roofs of state buildings down on protesters, who hurled back rocks. Continue reading.

    Amr Hafez / AP

    Protesters throw rocks and firebombs at military police as another waves a national flag during clashes near Cairo's downtown Tahrir Square, in Egypt on Dec. 16, 2011.

    Khaled Elfiqi / EPA

    Protesters try to enter to the Prime Ministry building in central Cairo on Dec. 16, 2011. Dozens of protesters have been camping for three weeks outside the government headquarters near Tahrir Square to prevent new Prime Minister Kamal al-Ganzouri from entering.

    Mohammed Abed / AFP - Getty Images

    Egyptian soldiers beat with their batons a protester during clashes near Cairo's Tahrir Square on Dec. 16, 2011 after demonstrators threw petrol bombs and set fire to furniture in front of the nearby parliament.

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  • Heavy voter turnout as parlimentary elections continue in Egypt

    Mohamed Abd El Ghany / Reuters

    A policeman tries to control the crowds as they gather outside a polling station during the second day of parliamentary elections in Giza, on the outskirts of Cairo, December 14. Egyptians voted on Wednesday in the second round of a parliamentary election, part of a lengthy transition to civilian rule after generals took charge following Hosni Mubarak's removal from office in February.

    Khaled Elfiqi / EPA

    Egyptians wait to vote for the second round of parliamentary elections, during the second round of parliamentary elections, at polling station in Giza Egypt, on Dec. 14. According to media reports, polling stations in Egypt opened on 14 December in the second round of voting in parliamentary elections, the first since the overthrow of former president Hosni Mubarak in February 2011. About 18.7 million voters are eligible to cast their ballots in nine of the country's 27 districts, where 3,387 candidates are contesting 180 seats, according to government figures. Islamist parties, all of which were officially licensed after Mubarak's exit, made notable gains in the first round that saw a voter turnout of some 60 per cent.

    Khaled Desoukia / AFP via Getty Images

    An Egyptian soldier stands guard as people line up to vote in Giza, southwest Cairo, on Dec. 14, during the second round of parliamentary voting. Islamists who swept to victory in the first stage of Egypt's parliamentary elections were looking to extend their winning streak in a second round of voting.

    Ahmed Ali / AP

    Egyptians stand in line waiting to cast their votes in Cairo, Egypt, Wednesday, Dec. 14. Egyptians turned out in large numbers Wednesday to vote in the second round of parliamentary elections that have become a stiff competition between dominant Islamist parties likely to steer the country in a more religious direction. Arabic writing on the posters read names of election candidates.

     

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  • Amr Abdallah Dalsh / Reuters

    A man sitting under electoral posters for Salafi political party Al-Nour and the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party outside a polling station during the second round of voting in parliamentary elections at a village in Beheira, 83 miles north of Cairo, Egypt, on Dec. 14, 2011.

    Egyptians weigh up Islamist parties' pros and cons

    The Associated Press reports from CAIRO:

    Egyptians turned out in large numbers Wednesday to vote in the second round of parliamentary elections that have become a stiff competition between dominant Islamist parties likely to steer the country in a more religious direction.

    Two Islamist blocs won an overwhelming majority, close to 70 percent of seats contested, in the first round of voting on Nov. 28-29, according to an AP tally compiled from official results. The secular and liberal forces that largely drove Egypt's uprising failed to turn their achievement into a victory at the polls and were trounced.

    The final two rounds of voting are not expected to dramatically alter the result and could even strengthen the Islamists' hand.

    "We have to try Islamic rule to be able to decide if it's good for us," said 60-year-old voter Hussein Khattab an accountant waiting to vote at a polling station near iconic pyramids in Giza province on the western outskirts of Cairo. "If not, we can go back to Tahrir," he said, referring to the Cairo square that was the focus of the uprising in January and February. Continue reading.

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  • Khaled Elfiqi / EPA

    A statue of Egyptian Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz, with one of his eyes bandaged, is seen in Cairo, Egypt, on Dec. 8, 2011. The bandaged eye is a reference to the eye wounds many protesters sustained in clashes with security forces at the end of November.

    Statue of Egyptian literary giant bandaged in solidarity with injured protesters

    By David R Arnott, NBC News

    The 100th anniversary of the birth of Naguib Mahfouz, an Egyptian writer who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1988, will be marked on December 11. In advance of that occasion, an eye bandage appeared on a statue of Mahfouz in Cairo, apparently placed there as a show of solidarity with protesters injured in recent clashes.

    Human rights activists accused police of using excessive force during last month's demonstrations in Cairo, with many people sustaining eye injuries. The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, a campaign group, said that it had seen records documenting 60 cases of eye injuries at one hospital alone.

    Ghada Shahbender, a member of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, told The Associated Press that she had heard soldiers being ordered to aim rubber bullets at protesters' heads.

    Agence France Presse reported on December 1 that a policeman nicknamed the "eye sniper" had handed himself in for questioning after mobile phone footage circulated that appeared to show him aiming at protesters' eyes.

    Previously on PhotoBlog:

    Slideshow - Protests in Egypt

  • Amr Nabil / AP

    Election officials count ballots for the parliamentary elections in Cairo, Egypt, on Nov. 30, 2011.

    Egypt awaits results of first free election in six decades

    Reuters reports from CAIRO:

    Egyptians will hear results of their first free election in six decades on Thursday, with the Muslim Brotherhood expecting to pick up two-fifths of the vote for an assembly that might limit the power of the generals.

    The Brotherhood, Egypt's oldest and best-organized Islamist group, hopes its new Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) will secure a solid platform in parliament, saying it hopes to form a coalition government once polls are over in January. Continue reading.

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  • 'Massive' turnout in Egyptian elections

    Peter MacDiarmid / Getty Images

    Election officials wait for voters inside a polling station in Old Cairo on the second day of voting in Egypt's landmark parliamentary elections on Nov. 29, 2011 in Cairo, Egypt.

    Bela Szandelszky / AP

    A soldier directs women outside a polling station in Cairo on Nov. 29.

    Peter MacDiarmid / Getty Images

    A woman walks from a polling station guarded by soldiers in Old Cairo on Nov. 29.

    The Associated Press reports from CAIRO:

    The head of Egypt's election commission said turnout was "massive and unexpected" for the first elections since Hosni Mubarak's ouster, with millions participating peacefully in a spirit of hopefulness that surprised many after new protests broke out in the days leading up to the vote.

    Long lines formed again Tuesday at polling centers around the capital Cairo and other cities on the second and final day of the first round of parliamentary elections.

    "I am voting for this country's sake. We want a new beginning," said Zeinab Saad, 50, who brought her young daughter to a polling station in Cairo. "It's a great thing to feel like your vote matters." Read the full story.

    See more images in our slideshow of the Egyptian elections and watch Richard Engel's report for NBC's Rock Center below.

    NBC News Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel reports from Egypt as the country's first free elections take place after the ouster of Hosni Mubarak. Engel talks to Amal Sharaf, a former school teacher, who helped galvanize protesters and organized an internet-linked network of young professionals that helped topple Mubarak. Sharaf, like a growing number of protesters, is calling for an end to the military rule of the country.

  • Egyptians line up to cast their votes in historic election

    Mahmud Hams / AFP - Getty Images

    Voters wait outside a polling station in the Manial neighbourhood of Cairo, Egypt, on November 28. Egyptians began voting in the first elections since the fall of Hosni Mubarak.

    msnbc.com news services report from CAIRO:

     Voters stood in long lines outside some polling centers in Cairo well before they opened at 8 a.m. local time (1 a.m. ET), a rare sign of interest in political participation after decades of apathy created by the mass rigging of every vote.

    "We are very happy to be here and to be part of the election," said Wafa Zaklama, 55, voting for the first time in a parliamentary election. "What was the point before?" she asked.

    Amr Nabil / AP

    Women line up outside a polling center in Cairo on November 28.

    Bernat Armangue / AP

    A soldier stands guard as voters enter a polling center in Cairo on November 28.

    In the upscale neighborhood of Zamalek, some 500 voters waited in line outside a polling station at a school. Shahira Ahmed, 45, was there with her husband and daughter. Like Nawar, Ahmed had never cast a ballot before.

    "I never voted because I was never sure it was for real. This time, I hope it is, but I am not positive. The most important thing is to have a liberal and a civilized country, I mean no fanatics," she said, alluding to the Islamists, who hope their domination of the next parliament will bring them closer to realizing their dream of creating an Islamic Egypt. Read the full story.

    Ahmed Jadallah / Reuters

    A woman reads a ballot paper before casting her vote at a polling station during the parliamentary election in Cairo on November 28.

    See a slideshow of images of the recent unrest in Egypt.

     

  • Egyptians throng Tahrir Square seeking end of military rule

    Peter Macdiarmid / Getty Images

    People take part in Friday prayers in Tahrir Square before a mass rally on Nov. 25 in Cairo, Egypt. Thousands of Egyptians are continuing to occupy Tahrir Square ahead of parliamentary elections to be held on Nov. 28.

    Manu Brabo / AP

    An Egyptian protester with colors of the Egyptian flag and Arabic writing that reads, 'Nov. 19' on his face gestures near Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Nov. 25. Tens of thousands of protesters chanting, "Leave, leave!" filled Cairo's Tahrir Square in a massive demonstration to force Egypt's ruling military council to yield power. The Friday rally is dubbed by organizers as "The Last Chance Million-Man Protest," and comes one day after the military offered an apology for the killing of nearly 40 protesters in clashes on side streets near Tahrir over the last week.

    More images from the latest days of protest

  • Morocco votes in test of king's reform drive

    The AP reports from RABAT, Morocco:

    Moroccans voted for a new parliament Friday in Arab Spring-inspired elections that are facing a boycott by democracy campaigners who say the ruling monarchy isn't committed to real change.

    Zacarias Garcia / EPA

    The people in charge of a polling station wait for voters in a school in Rabat, Morocco, on November 25.

    A moderate Islamist party and a pro-palace coalition led by the finance minister are competing for the top spot, but a key test for the authorities' legitimacy will be how many voters cast ballots.

    The king amended the constitution over the summer giving the prime minister new powers, including the ability to dissolve parliament and make certain appointments, in response to pro-democracy protests. But the ultimate authority remains with the king.

    "I've always voted, but this time it is more important," said Dr. Mohammed Ennabli as he lined up to vote in the affluent Agdal neighborhood of Rabat. "Before it was the king who chose, now it is the people who choose."

    Zacarias Garcia / EPA

    A man prepares the table with the traditional couscous for the people in charge of a polling station in a school in Rabat on November 25.

    Many people, however, scorned a process they say has been going on for decades without any tangible effect on their lives.

    "I won't vote, the promises are never kept — with or without the new constitution, it is the same," said Abdallah Cherachaoui, an unemployed 45 year old in the lower income district of Akkari. "They are laughing at us." Read the full story.

    Previously on PhotoBlog:

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