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Egyptian riot police violently broke up a reformist demonstration in downtown Cairo today, assaulting protesters with batons, rounding up journalists and smashing their equipment.

The demonstration was organized by Egypt's April 6 youth movement (the group organized a general strike on April 6, 2008, hence the name). Demonstrators gathered in front of the Shura Council -- the upper house of the Egyptian parliament -- to demand constitutional reforms, the kind that would make it easier for opposition candidates like Mohamed ElBaradei to run for president.

Conventional wisdom on Mir Hossein Mousavi's statement on the Ashura protests is that he offered a bold rebuke of the Iranian regime's recent brutality.

That analysis isn't entirely wrong. Mousavi condemns the regime harshly for killing and beating and torturing demonstrators. In a savvy bit of rhetorical judo, he acknowledges that some demonstrators took "unacceptable" actions -- chanting anti-Khamenei slogans, for example, and tearing down street signs bearing his name -- but then argued the regime brought that behavior on itself.

Witnesses in Tehran report loud chants of allahu akbar from the rooftops tonight, while down below, on the streets, the regime has deployed hundreds of police officers to prevent possible protests.

The regime was trying to preempt what it anticipated would become another day of street protests in the capital. We haven't heard any reports of demonstrations; whether that's because the show of force was effective, or simply because there were no rallies planned, I'm not sure.

Thousands of pro-government protesters took to the streets this afternoon in Tehran and other Iranian cities.

The protests were organized by the regime. Demonstrators, dressed in black, chanted slogans like "Death to Mousavi" and carried portraits of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. AFP puts the size of the crowd in the "hundreds of thousands," and reports that some state-owned businesses bussed their employees to the rallies; public schools also sent students.

When the Iranian opposition first took to the streets, in the days and weeks after Iran's election, they had a clear demand: Protesters believed the election was stolen, and they wanted their votes to count; they demanded either a recount -- a real one, not the token recount allowed by the regime -- or a new election.

Six months later, it is hard to say what, exactly, the opposition wants. Its ostensible leaders, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, have modest aims. They want Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to step aside; they want democratic reforms within the framework of the Islamic Republic. But there is also a more revolutionary wing of the Green Movement, one that wants to topple the entire system -- and it's unclear how the opposition will reconcile those competing views.

The Iranian regime rounded up thousands of opposition figures during the last 24 hours -- including the sister of Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi -- and conservative MPs are demanding the judiciary apply "the maximum punishment."

The list of detainees has grown significantly since yesterday, when opposition Web sites were reporting only seven people in custody. More than 1,500 people are reportedly in custody, according to the New York Times.

Nooshin Ebadi, Shirin Ebadi's sister, was arrested after intelligence agents raided her house in Tehran. The regime also arrested Reza al-Basha, a 27-year-old Syrian journalist working for Dubai TV, and Mashallah Shamsolvaezin, an award-winning Iranian journalist.

Yesterday's arrests are clearly a response to this weekend's bloody protests in Tehran, which left at least 10 protesters dead and hundreds injured.

Clashes between opposition protesters in Tehran continued overnight; police have now killed at least ten people and wounded hundreds more, and the regime has rounded up a number of prominent opposition leaders, according to witnesses and opposition Web sites.

Police used tear gas to disperse hundreds of protesters who continued demonstrating into the early morning hours. Opposition Web sites reported that yesterday's clashes extended well outside of Tehran; reformists reported demonstrations in Shiraz, Tabriz, Isfahan, Najafabad, and several other cities around the country.

Most of the deaths happened yesterday, when riot police opened fire on groups of protesters. The victims haven't been identified -- except for Seyed Ali Mousavi, the nephew of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi.

Mousavi's family says it cannot hold a funeral for Ali because his body was mysteriously removed from the hospital.

Opposition Web sites claim that at least four people have been killed today in Tehran during pro-reform protests.

Thousands of Iranians are using Ashura ceremonies as an opportunity to stage pro-reform protests in the capital. (As always, it's impossible for anyone to accurately count the number of protesters.)

The opposition Web site Jaras claims that police opened fire on one group of protesters, killing four of them. Other opposition sites report that police are now refusing orders to shoot. One of the victims, an elderly man, was reportedly shot in the head in downtown Tehran; the others were killed near Kalej bridge.

Demonstrators have fought back against security forces, according to the AP, which reports protesters throwing stones at police and Basij and setting their vehicles on fire.

Azizollah Rajabzadeh, the Tehran police chief, denied that any protesters have been killed, according to Iranian state media.

Hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Qom today for Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri's funeral; the ceremony quickly turned into an anti-regime protest, with demonstrators chanting slogans and opposition leaders reportedly in attendance.

Pictures and video showed big crowds, but it's impossible to say exactly how many people attended: We've seen estimates from "hundreds of thousands" to "one million." The Iranian government placed tight restrictions on journalists. Newspapers in Tehran were told not to run front-page items about Montazeri's death; several Iranian media outlets were barred from even covering the funeral. (Iran's state-run Press TV carried only a brief item on Montazeri.)

Montazeri was buried at the Masoumeh shrine, the burial place of many important Shi'a religious figures.

Following up on yesterday's post about those Iranian protesters who allegedly burned photos of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini: Tehran's prosecutor, Abbas Jafari Dolatabadai, told reporters that several people have been arrested over the incident. Dolatabadai refused to say how many people had been arrested.

Reformist Web sites continue to speculate that this incident will give the regime a pretext to arrest Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi. We've heard similar speculation before, though. Arresting the two men poses a huge political risk for the regime; it would strengthen the Green Movement just as many analysts believe it's beginning to falter.

Update, 10:56 a.m.: Iranian police have fired warning shots at protesters, according to Reuters. It sounds like today's protest has been rather more violent than previous demonstrations.

Update, 10:39 a.m.: Two more videos of protesters are available here and here. (Not going to embed them because there's already a lot of media on this page.)

One thing that occurs to me: Many of the images I've seen today, and many of the reports we've received from inside Iran, talk about students and protests on university campuses. It seems like -- much moreso than previous protests -- today's unrest is largely student-driven. The folks over at Enduring America make a similar point, noting that today's protest hasn't achieved the kind of popular support that previous demonstrations did.

A couple of Iranian contacts tell us that Internet access has been greatly restricted in Iran ahead of tomorrow's expected pro-democracy protests. E-mail services, in particular, have been targeted, with many Iranians forced to use proxy servers to get around the restrictions. Reformist Web sites have also been blocked.

Internet access will be totally shut off tomorrow, as will mobile phone service, according to a telecommunications ministry official who spoke to Reuters.

The BBC reports that foreign press permits have been revoked from Dec. 7-9; reporters are barred from leaving their offices on those days.

About 200 members of Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox community hit the streets today to protest the Karta parking lot, a garage in downtown Jerusalem that operates on the Sabbath, and also against the Intel plant which has been a target of protests for weeks.

This is the fourth consecutive Saturday protest at the Intel plant. Reports say it was peaceful, unlike previous weeks, when police were injured and passing cars were stoned. (At a counter-protest last week, thousands of Jerusalem residents chanted "Iran is here - we're sick of haredi violence.")

I'll repeat the question I posed last month: How does rioting not violate the Sabbath rules?

Benjamin Netanyahu's ten-month partial settlement freeze appears to be a political disaster at home, a mixed success with the "international community," and a total flop in Palestine and in the Arab world.

None of those reactions are unexpected, of course; instead, they serve to reinforce that the freeze is likely to be a one-time political stunt, and a short-term public-relations win for Netanyahu (at the expense of Israel's long-term interests).

The latest developments: Netanyahu held a two-hour meeting yesterday with the leaders of 22 settlements in the West Bank. It was a contentious meeting, to say the least, with several settlers telling Netanyahu they wouldn't cooperate with the freeze. Right-wing leaders are expected to protest next week by blocking major highways throughout the country, an echo of their protests over the Gaza disengagement in 2005.

Michael Slackman is being sensational when he compares yesterday's riot at the Algerian embassy to the Egyptian bread riots of the 1970s. The bread riots involved hundreds of thousands of people; hundreds were killed, and the government had to deploy the army to quell the protests.

Yesterday's riot, while ugly, involved a few hundred people, and a few dozen injuries, mostly to police officers. Al-Masry Al-Youm puts the numbers slightly higher (عربي): One thousand protesters clashing with roughly 5,000 police officers.

But Slackman's larger point is interesting: The Egyptian government, rather than trying to quell the anti-Algerian sentiment in the country, is stoking it.

First, to our readers in Egypt, Algeria and Sudan: If you have any stories about the security situation this week, we'd love to hear from you, in the comments section or via e-mail.

Al-Jazeera reports that a small group of protesters, throwing stones and homemade firebombs, tried to attack the Algerian embassy (عربي) on Brazil Street in Cairo's normally-peaceful Zamalek district. They were repelled by a large group of riot police, and the embassy is now cordoned off. Several police vehicles were reportedly destroyed in the clash; no word on injuries.

I guess you could say the protests in Iran actually started last night: As usual, thousands of Iranians took to their rooftops the night before to chant "Allahu akbar" and "Death to the dictator." Here's video (h/t Andrew Sullivan):

Thousands of people took to the streets in Kabul today -- and elsewhere around Afghanistan -- to protest against an alleged desecration of the Qur'an.

The protesters say U.S. soldiers burned a copy of the Qur'an during a raid on a house in Maidan Wardak province. Al-Jazeera reports that the protest blocked traffic in Kabul for more than an hour.

No injuries were reported, though some protesters threw stones at police. One man chanted, "Death to America, down with Israel"; another carried a sign that read "No to democracy. We just want Islam."

It should be a slow weekend in the Middle East because of Rosh Hashanah and Eid al-Fitr. That should give me some time to finally read the Goldstone Report and post some thoughts. We've posted a copy of the report (pdf) if you want to take a look -- it weighs in at 574 pages.

Anyway, on to the news.

Iran's official IRNA news agency says "several protesters" were detained after yesterday's Qods Day protests.

Col. Mahdi Ahmadi, a spokesman for Tehran's police department, said the protesters threw rocks at police and set motorcycles on fire. He didn't say exactly how many protesters were arrested.

Hundreds of people remain in jail for protesting Iran's June election.

3:18 p.m.: The flow of news from Iran has slowed considerably -- makes sense, because it's almost midnight in Tehran. #iranelection is still trending on Twitter, but there's very little new information being shared.

We'll keep an eye on the situation throughout the evening (U.S. time) and keep you posted.

Here's the White House's reaction to Ahmadinejad's Holocaust-denying speech:

The president's press secretary, Robert Gibbs, said that by denying that the Holocaust took place was "ignorant, hateful and would isolate Iran further from the world."

"Obviously, we condemn what he said," Mr. Gibbs told reporters.

I'll post some wrap-up thoughts on the protests later tonight.

1:08 p.m.: Not Qods Day-related, but Ahmadinejad plans to bring all five of Iran's religious minority MPs to the U.N. General Assembly meeting next week. Iran has Jews! And Christians! (No gays, though.)

12:54 p.m.: Tehran Bureau explains how the regime kept protesters away from Tehran University, where Friday prayers were being held:

To prevent the Green Movement's supporters from penetrating Tehran University, public buses had been used to block all the streets around the campus. Security forces, the Basij militia, and plainclothes agents used tear gas and pepper spray to disperse the demonstrators.