Tahrir Square

CAIRO - An assailant stabbed an American man on Thursday while they were standing outside the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, security officials said. The area around the U.S. Embassy has been the site of anti-American incidents and violence in the past, but stabbings are uncommon despite political unrest that has roiled Egypt since the 2011 uprising. Embassy spokesman David Ranz confirmed that a U.S. citizen was stabbed, and said he was immediately rushed to the hospital. His condition was not known.

CAIRO - Thousands of demonstrators barricaded themselves in Cairo's central square with burned-out troop carriers and barbed wire Saturday and demanded the removal of the military council ruling Egypt, infuriated after soldiers stormed their protest camp overnight, killing at least one person and injuring 71 others. In a sign the confrontation could escalate, the military warned Saturday evening that it would clear Tahrir Square of protesters "with all force and decisiveness" for life to get back to normal.

The Drexel University sophomore who was arrested by police in Cairo along with two other Americans after allegedly throwing Molotov cocktails during a pro-democracy protest left Egypt Friday night and was flying home, his attorney said. "I am pleased and thankful to report that Gregory Porter is in the air," said Theodore Simon, a lawyer who has been speaking for the family. Porter, 19, left Cairo Friday evening, he said. He would not release further details of his client's itinerary.

On Jan. 26, my wife, Julia, and I left for Egypt on a trip organized for Smith College alumni. Our 24-person group arrived at our hotel in downtown Cairo two days after the first major protest. That evening, we met with our local tour director, Nora, a lovely 29-year-old Egyptian, to review our 17-day itinerary, which began with four nights in Cairo. Because a second demonstration was scheduled to take place after midday prayers the next day, Friday, our plans were changed. Instead of visiting the Egyptian Museum two blocks away, we would go to nearby Giza to see the great pyramids.

The Drexel University sophomore who was arrested by police in Cairo along with two other Americans after allegedly throwing Molotov cocktails during a pro-democracy protest left Egypt Friday night and was flying home, his attorney said. "I am pleased and thankful to report that Gregory Porter is in the air," said Theodore Simon, a lawyer for the family. Porter, 19, left Cairo Friday evening, he said. He would not release further details of his client's itinerary. The two other students arrested along with his client have also been released and are safe, said Simon.

What started as a winter getaway to visit family in Cairo ended up as a brush with history for Shereen Abou-Gharbia and her mother - eyewitnesses to events that could help reshape the Middle East. Abou-Gharbia and her mother, Lamaat Shalaby, both of Chester County, arrived in Cairo on Jan. 26, the day after the first demonstrations in the city's Tahrir Square. They were intending to meet Shereen's father, Magid Abou-Gharbia, a professor at the Temple University School of Pharmacy, who had been scheduled to arrive later and speak in Luxor, about 450 miles south of Cairo, but wound up canceling.

CAIRO - Egypt's president on Tuesday acknowledged the widespread problem of sexual harassment in his country, ordering his interior minister to investigate a rash of assaults during the weekend's Muslim holiday. Mohammed Morsi acted after his government reported 735 police complaints about sexual harassment over the four-day Eid al-Adha holiday, which ended Monday. In a statement, Morsi stressed the need to fight "all phenomena of moral chaos and abuses, especially harassment in Egyptian streets.

CAIRO - Supporters and opponents of Egypt's Islamist president battled in the streets near Tahrir Square on Friday as an Islamist rally demanding a purge of the judiciary devolved into violence. The rally centered on a contentious aspect of the country's deep political polarization - the courts. Islamist backers of President Mohammed Morsi say the judiciary is infused with former regime loyalists who are blocking his policies, while opponents fear Islamists want to take over the courts and get rid of secular-minded judges to consolidate the Muslim Brotherhood's power.

CAIRO - Tens of thousands of protesters massed outside the presidential palace and in Tahrir Square in Cairo on Tuesday, as Egyptians voiced their opposition to President Mohammed Morsi for a 12th straight day. The deepening political crisis has pitted Morsi, the country's first democratically elected president, and his Islamist backers against a broad alliance of young liberals, judges, human-rights groups, and loyalists of the former government....

CAIRO - Massive clashes raged yesterday in downtown Cairo, drawing Christians angry over a recent church attack, hard-line Muslims and Egyptian security forces. At least 24 people were killed and more than 200 injured in the worst sectarian violence since the uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak in February. The violence lasted late into the night, bringing out a deployment of more than 1,000 security forces and armored vehicles to defend the state television building along the Nile.