Hundreds of protesters spent the night in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, an AFP reporter said on Saturday, after mass nationwide rallies to press the new military rulers to make good on promises of reform. Dozens of tents were pitched in the square — the focus of protests that ousted veteran president Hosni Mubarak in February — and traffic was blocked around the usually busy plaza where music blasted from loudspeakers.
Pro-democracy activists who had handled security at Friday’s mass rally, were still guarding the entrances to the square, searching anyone walking in. Among the key demands raised at Friday’s protests were an end to military trials of civilians, the dismissal and prosecution of police officers accused of killing protesters, and thorough and transparent trials for former regime officials