Egypt army chief warns state could collapse

By MAGGIE MICHAEL and HAMZA HENDAWI | Associated Press – 1 hr 22 mins ago

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  Violence flares in Egypt

PORT SAID, Egypt (AP) — Thousands of mourners chanting for the downfall of Egypt's president marched in funerals again Tuesday in the restive city of Port Said as the army chief warned the state could collapse if the latest political crisis drags on.

Troops in Port Said and Suez, two riot-torn cities along the strategic Suez Canal, stood by and watched Monday night as thousands took to the streets in direct defiance of a night curfew and a state of emergency declared by President Mohammed Morsi a day earlier. Residents of the two cities and Ismailiya, a third city also under the emergency, marched just as the curfew came into force at 9 p.m.

The display of contempt for Morsi's decision was tantamount to an outright rebellion that many worried could spread to other parts of the country. Already, protesters across much of Egypt are battling police, cutting off roads and railway lines, and besieging government offices and police stations as part of a growing revolt against Morsi and his Islamist group, the Muslim Brotherhood group.

At least 60 people have been killed since Friday.

"As long as the president's hands are stained in blood, he must leave," said Port Said lawyer Mohammed el-Assfouri as he stood outside the city's Mariam mosque where mourners prayed for the dead.

Morsi's opponents accuse Islamists of monopolizing power and failing to live up to the ideals of the pro-democracy uprising that ousted authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak two years ago.

In Cairo, intense fighting for days around central Tahrir Square engulfed two landmark hotels and forced the U.S. Embassy to suspend public services on Tuesday. The lobby of the five-star Semiramis along the Nile was trashed after clashes on the street outside spilled into the hotel early Tuesday morning, when armed, masked men attempted to rob it.

My Response

Men and women are born to be free. This enslavement of the human race in some countries around the world is horrific. We see so many pictures of men and women and children in utter despair and anguish because of megalomaniac who wants power. The idea of enslavement of people came to an end in America with the brave decision of Abraham Lincoln to free the Black man. Indeed, it was and will always remain historic.

Even now, American leaders are not listening to the voice of the people, Our leaders have their own agenda that they push, leaving aside the promises that they made to their constituents. Like it or not, the people voted for Obama, rather than Romney. And yet the house still puts forth the ideas of Romney  What arrogance!