Clashes before uprising anniversary

Egyptian riot police fired tear gas and clashed with dozens of protesters all day today as they tried to tear down a cement wall built to prevent demonstrators from reaching the parliament and the Cabinet building in central Cairo. Some in the crowd threw rocks and Molotov cocktails.

The violence came on the eve of the second anniversary of Egypt’s uprising which toppled long-time authoritarian President Hosni Mubarak. Three weeks of mass protests that erupted on January 25 2011 eventually forced Mubarak out of office.