Protests again turn violent in Egypt

Egyptians protesting police inaction during a soccer riot in the city of Port Said which led to 74 deaths on Thursday surrounded the Interior Ministry in Cairo on Friday, while police in the city of Suez resorted to live fire to hold back crowds trying to break into a police station, killing at least two civilians. Protesters are holding up the violence as proof that the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) is incompetent and should immediately hand over power to a civilian government. Hundreds of people, both riot police and civilians, have been wounded in street clashes in the last 48 hours, and tensions remained high ahead of Friday prayers in mosques, the traditional start of demonstrations in many Moslem majority countries.

"We are not going to leave this time," said Sami Adel, a 23-year-old member of the "Ultras," group which often clashes with police. A pamphlet printed by the group and widely distributed in Cairo declared that “the crimes committed against the revolutionary forces will not stop the revolution or scare the revolutionaries."

In related news, Adel Imam, an Egyptian comic regarded as the most famous actor in the Arab world and appointed as a goodwill ambassador by the UN, has been sentenced to three months in jail with hard labor for "defaming Islam" in several roles he’s played on stage and in movies.

"I will appeal the ruling," Imam told AFP. "Some people seeking fame filed a suit against me over works I have done which they consider insulting to Islam, and this is of course not true. All the works in which I have starred went through the censors. Had they been found to be defamatory, the censors would have banned them."

"In the course of his rich career, he has mixed humour with sadness to portray ordinary people who are victims of injustice and poverty," the UN Refugee Agency says in a biography on its website. "For all these reasons, Imam became a symbol for people promoting tolerance and human rights in the Arab world."