CAIRO — Thousands of anti-government protesters massed at several locations in the Egyptian capital Tuesday, chanting against President Hosni Mubarak and calling for an end to poverty in the first Tunisian-inspired protest in the country.
It was the biggest demonstration Egypt had seen in years and police showed unusual restraint in what appeared to be a concerted government effort not to provoke a Tunisia-like mass revolt.
The demonstrators sang the national anthem and carried banners denouncing Mubarak and saying the Egyptian elections were fraudulent. The organizers and opposition supporters -- drawing on the popular uprising in Tunisia -- dubbed the planned rallies, expected mainly in Cairo and Alexandria, as "the day of revolution against torture, poverty, corruption and unemployment."
The rally call spread on Facebook and Twitter, with 90,000 saying they would attend. Downtown Cairo came to a standstill with a massive security presence.
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