Tahrir Square

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.

EL-ARISH, Egypt - Islamist militants driving vehicles mounted with machine guns opened fire on a police checkpoint in Egypt's Sinai peninsula Sunday, killing two policemen and injuring a third in a daring attack, security officials said. Militants have stepped up their activity in Sinai since last year's uprising, taking advantage of a security vacuum after many members of the hated police force disappeared from the streets. The lawlessness in the Sinai has been complicated by sour relations between the local Bedouin tribes and the security agencies, who were accused of mistreating them under the old regime of Hosni Mubarak.

CAIRO - The massive crowds of rebellious youths have long since left Tahrir Square, which is jammed again with honking cars and trucks stuck in endless gridlock. Egypt's revolution is stuck in gridlock, too, trapped by a standoff between seculars and Islamists. The Egyptian military is worsening the tensions. As elections approach, the generals are trying to ensure they will continue their dominant role even after the voting. Why have things gone so wrong? I asked three leaders of the Tahrir revolt - whom I had interviewed during the heady days of the Arab Spring.

As young revolutionaries once again battle Egyptian security forces in Tahrir Square, only one group stands to emerge victorious from the melee: the Islamist cadres of the Muslim Brotherhood. Although the current violence has pitted revolutionary youth against the army, the real tussle is between the Brotherhood and the council of generals that is now ruling the country. Unable to think strategically, and (mercifully) unwilling to murder thousands, the generals have been outfoxed by the Islamists.

GREG PORTER was known at La Salle College High School for his debating prowess, finishing seventh in a national contest one year. Perhaps today, the Glenside native, now 19, might use his skills to talk himself out of charges brought against him and two other U.S. collegians by the Egyptian authorities. Porter, a Drexel University sophomore studying at the American University in Cairo, was arrested Monday night during the chaos of the Tahrir Square protests, Drexel announced in a news release.

CAIRO - Army troops firing in the air clashed Sunday with stone-throwing protesters in the strategic city of Suez after crowds blocked a key highway to push for faster reform efforts. The military crackdown threatened to escalate tensions in Suez, alongside the famous canal about 80 miles east of Cairo, which has been hit by days of unrest over calls for swifter action against officials linked to former President Hosni Mubarak. In Cairo, protesters blocked access to the Egyptian capital's largest government building and threatened to expand sit-ins to other sites.

CAIRO - A police action intended to roust a few hundred protesters out of Tahrir Square instead drew thousands of people into the streets Saturday, where they battled riot police for hours in the most violent manifestation yet of the growing anger at the military-led interim government. Coming just nine days before the scheduled beginning of parliamentary elections, the clashes were the biggest since the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak in February. Even as the military appeared to soften its demands for special powers and protections in the future Egyptian Constitution, a major complaint of the protesters, the crowd only grew as word of the clashes spread.

AN EGYPTIAN court yesterday ordered the release of a Drexel University student and two other Americans who had been arrested and interrogated by a prosecutor in Cairo for allegedly throwing firebombs at police during a pro-democracy protest. But the Drexel student, Gregory Porter, 19, of Glenside, Montgomery County, was still in police custody last night, according to Theodore Simon, a Philadelphia-based criminal-defense attorney representing Porter's family. Despite the court order, it was not yet clear when Porter would be freed, Simon told the Daily News last night.

CAIRO - Egypt's cabinet offered its resignation Monday to Egypt's transitional military rulers as security forces carried out an increasingly lethal crackdown on three days of street protests, reviving the uncertainty about Egypt's future that marked the earliest days of the Arab Spring. Egypt's military had been seen as the linchpin of the political transition after the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak. It was the institution that Egypt's Islamists hoped would steer the country to early elections they were poised to dominate.

CAIRO - Egypt's military ruler attempted to bolster public support Tuesday by partially lifting a reviled 30-year-old emergency law the day before the anniversary of the revolution that overthrew Hosni Mubarak's police state. In a nationally televised address, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi said: "I have taken a decision to end" emergency law. The general quickly noted, however, that the measure would still apply to "thuggery," a catchall term used to target activists and antigovernment demonstrators.