Cairo

CAIRO, Egypt -- Thousands of cane-wielding riot police clubbed and arrested protesters and journalists yesterday as the Egyptian government clamped down bloodily on a demonstration to support two pro-reform judges. Toting shields and sticks, police and plain-clothes security men flooded the streets of the capital in the morning, sealing off roads, closing subway stations and waiting for protesters. As chanting bands of demonstrators attempted to coalesce into a street protest, the riot police swarmed.

CAIRO, Egypt -- Thousands of riot police officers sealed off access to the High Court yesterday, beating and arresting protesters who had turned out to support two judges facing a disciplinary panel because they had accused the government of election fraud. The huge show of force, appearing larger even than what was deployed in the Sinai after four bombings there this week, seemed to signal that President Hosni Mubarak's government had reached a breaking point over dissent. The focus was a relatively small demonstration over the treatment of the two judges and in support of more than 80 judges who had been staging a sit-in for more than a week at the stately old Judge's Club to demand an independent judiciary.

CAIRO -- Egyptian riot police armed with clubs and water cannons stormed a downtown square packed with Sudanese war refugees before dawn yesterday in an attack that a human rights group said left 23 people dead. About 2,000 Sudanese had been living for months in a dilapidated tent city near the offices of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, demanding to be resettled abroad. Their protest was viewed by many Cairo residents as an eyesore in one of the city's upscale areas. Thousands of Egyptian riot police massed around the square early yesterday and tried to force the demonstrators onto buses.

CAIRO -- Bald, chubby underachiever Omar Shamshoon works each day at the local nuclear power plant owned by vulturelike millionaire Mahrooey Bey. Every evening, Omar comes home to a family that includes his blue-haired wife, Mona, hyper-smart daughter, Beesa, and troublemaking son, Badr. Along the way, wacky hijinks invariably ensue, involving the moronic police chief, the television clown and Omar's disturbingly perfect neighbor. Sound familiar? This may not: Omar doesn't drink beer.

PICK UP AN EXPERT HITCH- hiker when you visit Vicksburg National Military Park in Mississippi. Like the military park in Gettysburg, Pa., Vicksburg has licensed tour guides who can ride in your car and provide personalized tours of the Civil War battlefields. Complexities of strategy and position, details of human drama and information customized to your interests are available through the service, offered only at these two parks. Guides must pass written and oral tests on the military actions before being certified to lead visitors in the one-on-one programs.

Heather Ford's old grocery routine used to start every Sunday at the kitchen table. Working with a pad of paper, a pen and four or five supermarket circulars, the 46-year-old McDonogh School teacher and mother of three boys would flip through pages and pages of advertised sales to carefully arrange her family's grocery list for the week. She clipped coupons, went shopping Monday and then started all over again keeping an eye out for deals. It was a tedious practice Ford discontinued last month.

CAIRO, Egypt - Egyptian police were interrogating a 33-year-old biochemist last night who was seized in connection with last week's London bombings, as relatives denied that he had anything to do with the deadly suicide blasts. Cairo police seized Magdy el-Nashar at his parents' home in Bassateen, a poor suburb of the capital, the Egyptian Interior Ministry said in a statement. The doctoral graduate, who had once studied chemical engineering in North Carolina, denied any connection with the London attacks and said that he was in Cairo on vacation, the ministry reported.

CAIRO - The two young women were breathless as they ran toward my cafe table outside the Nile Hilton hotel. Both were journalists for the opposition newspaper Al-Dustour. They were late for our meeting because they'd been dodging government security men. Abir al-Askiri and Shaimaa Abol Kheir were in trouble because they filed a lawsuit against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Egyptian Interior Minister Habib al-Adli and a group of government security police. Their complaint: Thugs from Mr. Mubarak's ruling party had beaten and groped them along with women who were peacefully demonstrating for democracy May 25. But that was not all. Ms. al-Askiri, who was panting under her yellow head scarf and red blouse, recalled how government intelligence agents visited her parents' apartment recently and told them they would be arrested if she didn't drop the lawsuit.

CAIRO, Egypt - Stung by criticism at home and abroad of their commitment to democracy, Egypt's leaders are taking an unusual tack in a country unaccustomed to dissent: They are publicly defending themselves. In rare back-to-back news appearances yesterday, Egypt's prime minister and the son of longtime President Hosni Mubarak took pains to convey that the world's largest Arab country is making progress toward free elections and an open society. "The situation is changing, and changing for the better," said Gamal Mubarak, who holds a top post in the ruling party.

CAIRO, Egypt - Hundreds of pro-democracy demonstrators denounced Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak yesterday at a rally in the capital while organizers said scores of activists were arrested in other cities. The action by about 250 protesters - small by the standards of mass rallies in Lebanon or Bahrain - was a notable act of dissent in Egypt's strict political confines, extending a regional wave of pro-democracy activities in recent months. The rally drew intense scrutiny from authorities, who surrounded it with more than 1,000 helmeted riot police and plainclothes intelligence officers.