Fifty arrested for organizing protests in Cairo

Police have arrested 50 members of the opposition group the Muslim Brotherhood for organizing protests in Cairo against Israel's military incursion into the Gaza Strip. A security official said that yesterday's arrests followed calls by the outlawed Brotherhood to its members and to other opposition groups to stage more demonstrations to protest against the Israeli offensive. Demonstrations have been held across Egypt since Israel moved its troops into Gaza on 27 December. In some cases, police have clashed with protesters and made arrests. The country has a border with Gaza, where more than 500 Palestinians have been killed and about 2,000 wounded as a result of the Israeli offensive. Israel says the objective of the incursion is to prevent Palestinian fighters from firing rockets at its southern towns. Hamas, the militant Palestinian organization that runs the Gaza Strip, has ideological ties to Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, the country's strongest opposition group. The arrests in Cairo, however, did not stop some 3,500 Muslim Brotherhood members from taking to the streets in the city of Assiut, some 200 miles south of the Egyptian capital, yesterday. The protesters chanted anti-Israel slogans and blocked off the city's main roads. Large numbers of riot police were deployed in the city, but there were no reports of clashes or arrests. Protesters throughout the Arab world have been criticizing Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian President, and other Arab governments for failing to take a stronger stand against Israel.