openDemocracy, a wesbite that publishes posts by prominent academics and journalists and encourages debate about world politics and culture, has published as part of its Arab Awakening section a guide to the best blogs in the Arab world for 2011. These include very important and popular blogs such as Nawaat, Jadaliyya, Mamfakinch and the Arabist.

Nawaat was this time last year an incredibly important resource, not just for Tunisians but for everyone who wanted to …

If you know Alaa's case, you can skip this recap and jump to the horizontal line below. If you watched the interview with Yousri Fouda on OnTv, you can skip this post entirely.

Alaa was released on remand on Sunday 25th of December after spending 56 days in custody. Along with 27 other suspects who were accused of attacking the Maspero building and army forces protecting it. Read the full list of accusations here.

What …

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Last night in Mohamed Mahmoud I sat on top of a wall to watch the battle between the police and protesters and after 5 minutes of watching skilful kids throwing back tear gas canisters at the police. We were showered with 4 or 5 simultaneously. Suddenly, I heard a hiss behind me, so I jumped and tried to remain low to avoid the smoke, behind a utility box to avoid anything falling on my head …

تسجيلات صوتية للمتظاهرين في مسيرة و في التحرير اليوم.

هتافات:

أعمل ريتويت وأتكلم بلسان علاء

I have to highlight how important it is that Michael Nabil is not a suspect in a violent crime. The military courts are trying him over a blog post that criticises the army, not killing or stabbing anyone.

Michael has passed the 50 days mark in his hunger strike.

He was referred to a mental hospital for observation for 45 days when his court appointed lawyers defended him saying that he is suffering from mental …

Graffiti artist Aly el-Halabi was arrested & referred to military prosecution. He is being held for 7 days pending investigations.The artist is also an activist in the 6th of April movement.

This is happening despite promises by Tantawi, head of SCAF, that civilians won't be tried in military courts. It has become the rule that SCAF doesn't fulfil its promises.

There is hardly a wall in Cairo (perhaps in the entire country) that isn't covered …

Many people were screaming, women were crying and running almost immediately and add to that the fact once the beating started with sticks, within a few minutes we started hearing gunfire which it seems like -- from some of the casualties I saw -- were not blank rounds.

They were live rounds being used very, very quickly. It was an incredibly violent show of force ... it was chaos for a while.

It was absolutely enraging. Within a …

ساعتها كنت بقيت عند هيلتون رمسيس على النيل، و أغلب الناس ال فضلت كانت معي، كنت واقفة في وسط الطريقة باحاول أفهم ال بيحصل، فجأة لقينا ناس بتزعق فينا علشان نطلع على الرصيف، جرينا، لقينا مدرعتين جيش بيرجوا بسرعة جنونية في وسط الشارع ال مليان ناس. الأول افتكرتهم جنود أغبياء و هيموتونا بغباءهم. و بعدين المدرعات ابتدت تجري بسرعة مجنونة رايح جاي في الشارع، تجري في زيج زاج، تشوف مجموعة بتحاول تهرب فتجري وراهم، تطلع …