An Egyptian-American filmmaker arrested amid ongoing protests in Cairo has been released, her lawyer said Friday, but three American college students accused of violence were still behind bars.
There were no immediate details about the release of documentarian Jehane Noujaim, which was confirmed by her lawyer, Ragia Omran.
Film producer Karim Amer said Wednesday that Noujaim -- whose works include "The Control Room," about Al-Jazeera and the United States during the early days of the Iraq War -- was arrested while filming close to the Interior Ministry building in Cairo.
A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, David Lynfield, said Thursday that U.S. diplomats were in touch with Egyptian authorities about her case.
The three college students -- Derrik Sweeney, Gregory Porter and Luke Gates -- were ordered released Thursday, said Adel Saeed, the spokesman of the general prosecutor, but late in the day, they remained in police custody. Read More
Syria: Six Elite Pilots 'Killed In Ambush' - 25th Nov 2011
Six elite military pilots were among 10 killed in an ambush in the restive Homs province of Syria, the country's military has said.
In a rare television statement, the armed forces confirmed the deaths which occurred on Thursday, marking a dangerous escalation in violence.
It said the "terrorist" attack was proof there was foreign involvement in the eight-month revolt against President Bashar al Assad's rule.
"An armed terrorist group undertook an evil assassination plot that martyred six pilots, a technical officer and three other personnel on an air force base between Homs and Palmyra," the military spokesman said on state television.
International pressure has been mounting on President Assad to curb violence, but the statement warned that the army will "hit back" at any attempt to cause chaos.
The deaths come as Syria misses a deadline imposed by the Arab League to sign a deal allowing monitors into the country. Read More
People shop for electronics during Black Friday sales at the Best Buy store in Westbury, N. Y. on Friday. Bargain hunters flocked to U.S. stores late Thursday and overnight Friday. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)
Black Friday, the biggest U.S. shopping day, has taken some unfortunate turns — including at one Los Angeles-area Wal-Mart where a woman allegedly used pepper spray to gain an edge over fellow shoppers and injured 20 people.
The pepper-spray incident happened shortly after the store opened Thursday evening as shoppers prowled the aisles for discounts.
Elsewhere, police in Fayetteville, N.C., were searching for two suspects after gunshots rang out at a local mall early Friday. And two women in upstate New York were facing charges after a fight broke out at a Wal-Mart.
But for the most part, Black Friday has been largely peaceful, with hundreds of people lining up overnight in search of bargains at stores such as Best Buy, Target, and Abercrombie & Fitch, which opened at midnight ET following the U.S. Thanksgiving
Canadian retailers were staging their own Black Friday specials in an effort to slow cross-border shopping.
In New York and St. Petersburg, Fla., reports said shopping areas were busy, with lineups as long as 2,000 people waiting for stores to open. The attraction, of course, was cut-rate prices, some as much as 70 per cent off, often the lowest of the year.
"It's hard times, so, any discount helps," one man told The Associated Press in Seminole, Fla.
He was hoping to land a cheap TV and laptop.
Merchants bank on Black Friday to start the holiday shopping season, when they can make 25 to 40 per cent of their annual revenue. Despite the beleaguered U.S. economy, consumer spending in the holiday season is expected to be almost $500 billion US, about three per cent more than last year.
Lose 1 in 5 shoppers
Canadian retailers were concerned that Canadian shoppers, too, might try to cash in at U.S. shopping outlets along the border. They were expected to try to keep shoppers at home.
Sally Ritchie of the Retail Council of Canada told The Canadian Press she expects stores to aggressively combat the cross-border shopping craze.
She says there will be such things as big discounts and extended store hours to satisfy that need here in Canada.
Canadian retailers can expect to lose one of every five shoppers to U.S. Black Friday-Cyber Monday discounts, with 30 per cent shopping for the holidays, the Globe and Mail reported Friday, citing an Angus Reid poll for UPS Canada.
Since the Canadian dollar rose close to parity, adding to the lure of shopping in the U.S., retailers in Canada began touting their own Black Friday deals.
But that hasn't kept many budget-conscious Canadians from making the trek south.
Bargain hunting in Michigan
Melissa Morang, the marketing and sponsorship director at Great Lakes Crossing Outlets in Auburn Hills, Mich., estimated Canadians occupied 85 per cent of the hotel rooms on the property.
Morang said Canadians were first in line when the mega-mall opened at 9 p.m. Thursday. She said Canadians were also first inside a year ago when, as an experiment, the mall opened its doors at midnight.
"A significant amount of our business [Friday] has been from our Canadian friends," Morang told CBC News early Friday.
Vim Mistry drove down from Burlington, Ont., and stayed with American family about 30 minutes from the Michigan mall.
"Worth the drive? Absolutely. It has been for the last three years. The deals, they’re actually pretty good," she said.
"It’s a complete zoo. It’s been a complete zoo since 12:30 a.m. when we got here."
In the U.S., the Gap was reported to be offering discounts of 20 to 60 per cent on many items.
Old Navy has pea coats for $29 US and jeans for $15. Toys R Us was selling a Transformers Ultimate Optimus Prime action figure for $30 off at $47.99 and a Power Wheels Barbie vehicle for $120 off at $199.99. Best Buy had a $499 42-inch LCD HDTV for $199 and a $400 Asus Transformer 10-inch tablet computer for $249.99.
According to the International Council of Shopping Centers, about 34 per cent of U.S. consumers plan to shop on Black Friday, a rise from 31 per cent last year.
SANA, Yemen — A day after President Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen handed over power to his deputy, effectively ending his 33 years of autocratic rule, his loyalists were accused of killing protesters on Thursday in an escalation of violence that raised questions about who is controlling the government’s militias.
At least five people were killed after gunmen in plain clothes opened fire on a rally intended to protest the power transfer agreement. It was the highest death toll in Sana, the capital, in weeks of protest marches.
Afterward, young activists posted what they said was a video of the attack, It showed a group of men, including at least one holding a picture of Mr. Saleh, firing machine guns and throwing rocks as protesters ran for cover.
Later, in a confusing twist, Mr. Saleh made a rare acknowledgment of the protesters’ claims, saying in a statement released through Yemen’s official Saba news agency that he condemned the violence. He also called for an investigation “to bring the perpetrators of this crime to justice.”
The killings — and Mr. Saleh’s public response to them — seemed to indicate that for the moment, Mr. Saleh intended to keep his hands in Yemen’s affairs. The developments occurred as the protesters, angered at the terms of the deal between Mr. Saleh and the mainstream opposition, fought among themselves and as opposition leaders jockeyed for positions in a new unity government.
Many of the protesters are particularly angry over clauses in the agreement that call on Yemeni lawmakers to grant Mr. Saleh and his aides immunity from prosecution. “Shame, shame,” they chanted.
The unrest caused one potential candidate for the new government to reconsider: Mohammed Basendwa, an opposition leader who had been rumored to be in the running for prime minister. “I don’t want it,” he said on Thursday. “This period is very critical and difficult. I might succeed. I might not.”
Violence elsewhere in the capital reinforced a feeling of unease. Mortar shells struck several buildings near the Parliament building, and clashes were reported in the northern part of the city between government troops and fighters loyal to a general who defected in the spring.
The agreement that Mr. Saleh signed on Wednesday raised hopes that his exit would end the 10-month political crisis, which began with street protests that called on him to leave power. The country had approached the brink of civil war as the government’s security forces killed protesters and fought with rivals of Mr. Saleh’s who command their own fighters.
By Thursday morning, it became clear that the circumstances of Mr. Saleh’s departure had aggravated rather than quieted the conflicts. At Change Square, a tent city in Sana that has become one of the focal points of the revolt, young activists fought with members of the Islamist opposition party, Islah, in a rare public show of discord.
“People think Islah sold out the revolution,” said Osamah Shamsan, one of the activists. “The square is in a mess. We all knew this was bound to happen.”
Within hours, dozens of the protesters who had marched from the square were brought back to a field hospital there in ambulances or on motorcycles.
Several of the wounded protesters said the gunmen were the plainclothes enforcers who have served as the government’s principal tool against the demonstrations.
“They were the thugs,” said Thiya Ayab, 21, who sat on a gurney with a bleeding wound in his thigh. “I just heard bullets.”
Nearby, photographers and onlookers crowded around the bodies of four young men, their names written on pieces of paper on their chests.
In his statement, Mr. Saleh said he would call on the interior minister to investigate the death of the “martyrs.” There were concerns, however, that Mr. Saleh’s statement was just more political maneuvering.
“With one order, he can stop these things,” said Abdul Rashid al-Faqih, a Yemeni human rights activist. “I think he’s trying to play two roles. He wants to satisfy the international community, but he didn’t take any steps on the ground to stop the mechanisms of attack on the protesters.”
“What happened today,” Mr. Faqih added, “is an indicator that he doesn’t want these things to stop.”
Protest leaders said large demonstrations were planned in cities throughout Yemen on Friday. They said that the marchers would continue to demand that any promises of immunity be revoked.
Opposition leaders like Mr. Basendwa, who argue that the agreement is necessary to move the country forward, have been forced to reckon with the anger that is mounting in the streets.
“They have every right to march,” he said. “Thousands of people have been killed. They have every right to be angry.”
Security officials say clashes between Christian protesters and Egyptian security forces have resumed, with hundreds pelting the police with rocks outside a central Cairo hospital.
Days of protest in Egypt, ahead of elections expected to produce big wins for the Muslim Brotherhood, have stirred fears in Israel about bilateral ties and the future of the countries' peace treaty.
Israel had largely avoided comment on the unrest, which has seen dozens of Egyptians killed, but with protesters showing no signs of calling off their demonstrations, officials here have started to show concern.
On Wednesday, Israel's civil defence minister Matan Vilnai urged Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, who heads Egypt's ruling military council, to bring the situation under control.
"The situation is problematic, sensitive and unclear. Tantawi is trying to avoid chaos and transfer power in the mostly orderly way possible," Vilnai told Israeli military radio.
"We hope that he will succeed... otherwise we will see general chaos and that will be very bad for Egypt."
Vilnai said Israeli officials were in "permanent contact" with members of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), including Tantawi.
"I know him and he has no desire to stay in power," Vilnai added.
Egypt has been rocked in recent days by widespread protests, which come days before the first post-revolution elections, calling on the SCAF to guarantee a faster transition to civilian rule.
Protesters accuse the military of abusing its power and trying to write laws that would shield it from civilian oversight.
In Israel, the demonstrations and the elections have reawakened fears about the future of Egypt, bilateral relations and the country's peace treaty with the Jewish state.
Israeli officials and media commentators have made no secret of their concern about the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood, expected to perform well in the elections scheduled to begin on November 28.
"It's our main concern," Vilnai said Wednesday.
The top-selling Yediot Aharonot on Wednesday headlined its front page "Between Cairo and Tehran" in reference to the rise of Islamist forces in Egypt.
And the Maariv newspaper reported that Israel's army chief Benny Gantz "has presented to the security cabinet a scenario involving the cancellation of the peace treaty" between Egypt and Israel.
The report was denied by the military and Vilnai said it was premature to talk about the treaty being annulled.
"The cancellation of the treaty is not today -- and I stress the word today -- a reality," he said.
But he acknowledged Israel fears a serious degradation in ties with Cairo once a new government comes to power.
"But when Egyptian government stabilises after a long electoral process, we expect it will seriously undermine the accord," he said.
Nati Sharoni, a reserve general and president of a left-leaning Israeli think tank, sounded a more upbeat note, saying he expected the treaty to survive Egypt's upheaval and elections.
"The treaty will hold up fine, not for love of Israel but because it is in Egypt's fundamental interests," he said.
Danny Yatom, a former member of Israel's intelligence service Mossad, shared Sharoni's assessment.
"The accord is sponsored by the United States and the Egyptian army will continue to depend on American technology and subsidies after the elections," he said.
Still, Israeli officials are taking seriously the possibility of the treaty being cancelled or at least modified.
Israeli daily Haaretz reported the developments in Syria and Egypt formed the core of an annual presentation by all Israel's intelligence agencies to the country's security cabinet.
The newspaper also said Egyptian officials, including intelligence chief Murad Muwafi, have been at pains to reassure Israel, telling their counterparts the treaty is not in danger.
CAIRO — The outskirts of Tahrir Square, the iconic landmark of Egypt’s revolution, plunged into chaos on Wednesday, after attempts by the Egyptian military, religious clerics and doctors failed to stanch a fifth day of fighting that has posed the greatest crisis to the country since the fall of President Hosni Mubarak in February.
The fighting in darkened streets, suffused with tear gas and eerily illuminated by the flashing lights of police cars and the floodlights of armored personnel carriers, seemed to stand as a metaphor for a political transition that has careened into deep uncertainty just days before elections that were supposed to anchor the shift from military to civilian rule.
The military that seized power with Mr. Mubarak’s fall rebuffed protesters’ demands to surrender authority this week, and the political elite has seemed paralyzed or defensive over the unrest. The discontent in Tahrir Square has broadened from demands for the generals to cede control and anger over bloodshed into dissatisfaction with a transition that has delivered precious little since the uprising’s heady days in February.
“This is a revolution of the hungry!” declared Amr Ali Mohammed, a 23-year-old protester taking a break from the battle with the police. “Egyptians have had enough.”
The sense of uncertainty that prevailed in Egypt echoed some of the most anxious days of the uprising that began in January against Mr. Mubarak’s nearly 30 years of rule. Though life went on in much of the capital, the protests demonstrated a resilience they had lacked for months, and episodes of dissent have erupted in other parts of the country, including Alexandria, Egypt’s second-largest city. Neither politicians nor the military seemed ready to embrace a drastic step that many insisted was needed to end the unrest.
By nightfall, crowds rivaled their size on past days, anchored by a demand that has become the anthem since the crisis began: the fall of Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, the de facto leader and longtime colleague of Mr. Mubarak. In the square’s side streets, youths fought the police to the backdrop of unending ambulance sirens.
“If he leaves it like this and stays silent, it will be a disaster,” said Suleiman Mahmoud, as he stood in a street that looked like a symbol for urban distress — pools of stagnant water strewn with rocks, shattered glass, trash and fallen tree branches. “He’ll pay the price, and the country will pay the price. Stubbornness is not a solution.”
With political leaders tentative, and signs that the military was unable to exert control over the police, other voices emerged in the country on Wednesday, demanding some kind of action. Most important was the grand imam of Al Azhar, an institution that is a prominent seat of religious scholarship long co-opted by the government but now seeking a more independent role.
The grand imam, Sheik Ahmed al-Tayyeb, called on the police not to fire on protesters, “no matter what the reason.” He urged protesters to restrain themselves and demanded that the military, whose relations with the Interior Ministry and its loathed police forces have long been strained, do everything it could to prevent more clashes.
“Al Azhar reminds everybody that dialogue stained with blood is doomed, and its fruit will be bitter in the throats of everyone,” the cleric’s statement said.
His warnings were echoed abroad, in a sign of growing international concern over the crisis in the Arab world’s most populous country. The French Foreign Ministry condemned what it called “the excessive use of force against demonstrators,” and Navi Pillay, the United Nations human rights chief, called for an independent investigation into the bloodshed, which has left 38 people dead and hundreds wounded since it began Saturday.
A sentiment pronounced often here has become a refrain of sorts in moments of crisis: a foreign hand. With parliamentary elections scheduled to begin on Monday, the Muslim Brotherhood, the most powerful and well-organized Islamic movement in Egypt, suggested in a statement on Wednesday that “there has been a plan to create chaos,” and Field Marshal Tantawi made the same contention in an address to the country on Tuesday night.
Even some onlookers at Wednesday’s events in the square struggled to make sense of the turn of events.
At least five protesters have been shot dead by loyalists of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh in the capital, Sanaa, reports say.
They were protesting against a power transfer deal that promises Mr Saleh immunity from prosecution.
The president has condemned the violence and ordered an investigation into the killings.
On Wednesday, he signed the deal in Saudi Arabia under which he will step down after some 30 years in power.
He has agreed to hand power to his deputy.
Mr Saleh "condemned the violence that left casualties today in the capital Sanaa" and "ordered the ministry of interior to carry out an immediate and full investigation and to bring those responsible for this crime to justice, whatever party they belong to," the state Saba news agency reported.
Many others were wounded in the clashes, reports say.
An AFP correspondent said the protesters were shot at by armed civilians, whom they described as Mr Saleh's "thugs", as they marched towards the city centre.
"Government loyalists opened fire on a demonstration from rooftops, from inside shops and from a passing car," Ibrahim Ali, a 22-year-old man at a local hospital who had been wounded in the knee, told Reuters news agency.
At least four bodies taken from the scene of the shooting were visible at a nearby hospital, correspondents say.
Activists had called for a mass rally to protest against the promise of immunity for Mr Saleh.
Bloody crackdown
A crackdown on anti-government protests, which began in February, has left hundreds of people dead and thousands wounded in Yemen.
President Saleh - who has governed since 1978 - came close to signing the deal several times in the past, only to pull out at the last minute.
Under the plan, the 69-year-old leader will hand over power to deputy Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi in return for immunity from prosecution.
Mr Hadi is then expected to form a national unity government and also call for early presidential elections within 90 days.
The deal envisages that Mr Saleh will remain as honorary president for three months after signing the agreement.
Cairo (CNN) -- Military police poured into Cairo's Tahrir Square on Wednesday in hopes of stopping clashes between protesters and police, as the Egyptian government said a truce had been declared through a group of clerics.
The truce lasted about three hours.
CNN saw military police lined up, separating protesters from the police.
But after a period of calm, some protesters began throwing rocks at soldiers. Riot police responded with tear gas.
Some army soldiers tried to stop security forces from shooting tear gas, but they were outnumbered.
On state-run TV, the government said religious scholars were on their way "to form a human shield between the protesters and the security forces."
CNN saw no sign of a human shield of clerics. But along the barricades separating protesters from security forces, some clerics were talking to protesters, trying to negotiate.
Egypt's grand mufti, the country's highest religious official, called on police to put down their weapons and "never aim" firearms at the Egyptian people. In an audio message aired by Egyptian state TV, he called for a "peaceful protest for Egypt's sake."
Protesters reached Fahmi Street, which leads to the Interior Ministry, and were trying to surround the ministry, state-run Al-Masriya TV said.
Earlier, police pulled back from Mohamed Mahmoud Street, the site of clashes throughout the five days of the latest uprising.
Adel Saeed, spokesman for the Egyptian general prosecutor's office, said "a truce has been reached between the protesters and the security forces at the Ministry of Interior through several leading religious scholars."
It was not immediately clear who may have been represented in the discussions to which Saeed referred.
Mohamed Mahmoud Street leads from Tahrir Square -- the center of the protests that toppled Hosni Mubarak as president in February and of the most recent demonstrations -- toward the Interior Ministry.
During a lull in the street battles earlier Wednesday, CNN saw riot police embracing and kissing some young people who were taking part in the demonstrations. Minutes later, rocks and tear gas were in the air again.
Protesters erected barriers using debris from burned-out cars and large trash bins in case the battles resumed.
Crowds have packed Tahrir Square since Saturday, calling for the nation's military rulers to step down immediately. The demonstrations Wednesday were a vociferous rejection of Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, field marshal of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, who delivered an address Tuesday aimed at calming the protests.
The military started firing tear gas so we all ran in different directions and I lost her," Amer said. "She called me and said she was arrested by military. " A CNN e-mail to noujaimfilms.com, which lists Noujaim as director, was not immediately returned.
Meanwhile, the mother of at least one of the American students detained in Egypt said Wednesday that she was able to speak to him briefly in a telephone call arranged by U.S. diplomats.
"He sounded scared, but he said he was OK," Joy Sweeney said of her son, Derrik Sweeney, one of three American college students being held for questioning in an Egyptian courthouse, accused by authorities of throwing Molotov cocktails in Tahrir Square.
An official from the U.S. consular office visited the students, said U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Katharina Gollner-Sweet.
The chaos and fighting have raised new questions about Egypt's future less than a week before parliamentary elections are set to begin.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay called on Egypt "to end the clearly excessive use of force."
"Some of the images coming out of Tahrir, including the brutal beating of already subdued protesters, are deeply shocking, as are the reports of unarmed protesters being shot in the head," Pillay said in a statement. "There should be a prompt, impartial and independent investigation, and accountability for those found responsible for the abuses that have taken place should be ensured."
After Mubarak's ouster, military leaders took control with the promise that eventually a civilian government would be elected and take over.
Demonstrators say they are concerned the military, which would continue to be Egypt's top authority until a president is in place, wants to keep a grip on the country.
Many also have voiced anger about a proposed constitutional change that would shield the military's budget from scrutiny by civilian powers. They say they worry the military would become a state within a state.
Members of the nation's Cabinet offered to resign Monday, with one minister citing concern over the violence in Tahrir Square.
Tantawi of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces said the resignations were accepted, but the current government will remain as a caretaker until a prime minister is named to form a new government.
Speaking Tuesday on Egyptian TV, Tantawi said the armed forces were "only concerned about the security of the country and the interests of the country," and want to "establish democracy for the people of Egypt.cnn.com
An Egyptian-American filmmaker arrested amid ongoing protests in Cairo has been released, her lawyer said Friday, but three American college students accused of violence were still behind bars. 
People shop for electronics during Black Friday sales at the Best Buy store in Westbury, N. Y. on Friday. Bargain hunters flocked to U.S. stores late Thursday and overnight Friday. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters) 
