The final verdict in the case of banning the Center for Trade Unions and Workers’ Services will be issued on 30 March by the State Council in Giza… Please show up in Solidarity…

[Kamal Abbas, the director of the CTUWS. Photo by Hossam el-Hamalawy.]

The Center for Socialist Studies is holding a public talk on the struggle of civil servants in Egypt today, Monday 7pm, featuring the leaders of the Real Estate Tax Collectors’ Strike, and the Social Security employees’ protests… For more details, click on the poster below…

Despite the stormy weather and heavy rain, thousands took part in San Francisco’s Chinese New Year Parade…

I took more photos which I’ll be uploading in the coming few days…
It’s the Year of the Rat… Kol sana wentom tayyebeen…

I’d like to thank Comrade Yaman for blogging about my friend Khaled Hamza’s arrest.. Abu Aardvark also posted in solidarity…
And here’s a Reuters report…
The editor of an Egyptian Web site run by the opposition Muslim Brotherhood has been remanded in custody for 15 days after two recent meetings with foreign human rights activists, the [...]

From the Dutch Progressive/Symphonic Metal scene…

Stream of Passion: Passion…

Police Captain Islam Nabih and Corporal Reda Fathi—two of Mubarak’s sadist pigs who tortured and sodomized Emad Kabeer in Boulaq el-Dakrour Police Station and were sentenced to three years in prison—are appealing against the verdict on 2 March…

Fellow bloggers and anti-torture activists are urged to show up in court in solidarity with Emad…

From Al-Jazeera…
A series of at least 10 explosions hit the home to the US embassy and Iraqi government ministries on Saturday, causing a siren to sound warning people to take cover.
Major Brad Leighton, a US military spokesman, said: “I can confirm that we did receive indirect fire and that it was multiple round.”
Mirembe Nantongo, [...]

Fantastic blog…

I received the following SMSs from Nora…
Heavy security in front of Arab League, tahrir sq. to counter planned Gaza Solidarity protest.
Was covering today’s gaza solidarity protest at Arab League. 5 security men circled me, threatened to confiscate my camera, pushed every1 away.
News 1 protester called Akram arrested.
Protest aborted by security services. Some [...]

The preliminary program of the coming Cairo Anti-War Conference and Social Forum is now available online… Click on the poster below to download it..

The registration form is also available here…
A flickr group for the conference is now up and working.. I urge all the comrades to start uploading photos they have of the previous conferences [...]

A political poster on Telegraph Avenue, Berkeley…

Former CIA officer Robert Baer, whose books inspired George Clooney’s Syriana, gave a talk yesterday at the UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism… Here are some of the quotes I wrote down…
“If you want to make difference, don’t join the CIA. Go join the American Enterprise Institute; they are making the policy today.
“Washington has become [...]

Retrospective Exhibition
Vanessa B. Korany (1981-2007)

Feb. 24th-28th
Ewart Gallery, AUC
Opening - Vernissage, Sunday Feb. 24th, 6:00-8:30 p.m.
Before her passing away in a tragic car accident in Sinai, Vanessa was an aspiring artist, designer, and an M.A. student in Development Studies at the AUC. Please join her family and friends on this occasion of the exhibition of her [...]