At the epicenter of the protest that brought down the three-decade regime of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, young men and women took to the streets again today — only this time, with a different agenda. Armed with brooms, gloves and trash bags, they launched a massive cleanup following 18 straight days of unrest that debilitated the country.

“We’re taking care of the square, and then we’ll clean up the whole country,” Mohammed El Tayeb said while standing amid the volunteer cleaning crews sweeping up Tahrir Square. “This is a beautiful country. Now it’s ours and we’re going to take care of it.” 

aljazeera:

General Hassan El-Rawani, the head of the army’s central command, speaks to the masses in Tahrir Square urging them to leave the square, they chant back at him

“We are not leaving, He [Mubarak] is leaving”.

tiffanihillin:

massive list of media resources::::

soupsoup:

Watch : Live stream of Al-Jazeera English

Google Crisis Response Portal

Egyptian Bloggers

Egyptian News Websites

Arabic Language Websites (Thank you Political Notebook)

Liveblogs

Twitter

Tumblr

Facebook

Quora

Egypt News Aggregators

Infographics

Video Feeds

Audio

Images

Internet Liberation

Ham Radio

Ground Resources

Background and Additional Reading

This post will be updated as more resources become available

A longer standoff will also give him time to rally support from other Arab governments. That support would likely be robust and sincere, since nearly every Arab government — except maybe those in Lebanon and Iraq — should be very worried about what happened here this week. It took a solid month to place Tunisia’s Zine Abidine Ben Ali in jeopardy. Mubarak, even if he survives this, has been placed into open crisis in less than a week. Jordan’s King Abdullah has already dissolved his government in a panicky attempt to assuage protesters angry with its economic policies and ordered immediate reform as a proactive step.

But there’s a deeply personal element to Mubarak’s latest appeal to his people, one that could very well resonate with ordinary Egyptians and rob the protesters of at least some of their popular support. A genuine war hero, Mubarak actually is viewed as a father figure by many Egyptians, who often forgive his faults and blame his underlings for endemic problems like corruption and police brutality. Even those who are happy to see him go might not see the need to have him humiliated.

Four Decades of Egyptian Politics

theatlantic:

foreignaffairsmagazine:

Look back at four decades of Egyptian politics in real time with this special Foreign Affairs collection, Egypt in Crisis.

Must reads include articles by former president Anwar el-Sadat, Middle East expert Fouad Ajami, and former Secretary-General of the United Nations Boutros Boutros-Ghali.

Excellent background. Worth a read, if you have the time.