[00:00.100]From VOA Learning English,
[00:06.570]this is In the News.
[00:08.590]Tens of thousands of Egyptians on Friday
[00:12.330]answered calls for a "Day of Rage"
[00:15.810]with protests across the country.
[00:18.800]The marches were the idea
[00:21.410]of the Muslim Brotherhood movement
[00:23.930]of ousted President Mohamed Morsi.
[00:26.840]They took place two days after Egyptian police
[00:31.690]destroyed two large pro-Morsi camps in Cairo.
[00:37.060]The police operation left hundreds dead
[00:41.250]and thousands wounded.
[00:43.310]The protesters were demanding
[00:45.850]that Egypt's new government release the ousted president
[00:50.350]and other leaders of the Brotherhood.
[00:53.360]The Egyptian army has held Mr. Morsi
[00:57.550]since it removed him from office early last month.
[01:01.780]In recent days, violence between civilian groups
[01:06.950]has increased.
[01:08.400]Christians reported that their religious centers
[01:12.270]were attacked on Thursday.
[01:14.630]Some Egyptians raided and set fire
[01:18.290]to two government offices in Giza,
[01:21.250]a city across the Nile River from Cairo.
[01:24.720]Government employee Fehmi Hassan says
[01:29.080]the attackers were supporters of the ousted president.
[01:33.560]"Today, about a thousand supporters
[01:35.900]came and broke the exterior fence
[01:37.810]and hurled stones at the building,
[01:39.280]and they set fire to the governor's office,
[01:41.650]the auditing office and all the governor's cars."
[01:44.460]The United Nations Security Council
[01:46.940]held an emergency meeting
[01:49.150]to discuss the violence in Egypt.
[01:51.790]The Council expressed sympathy to the victims
[01:55.560]and regret for the loss of life.
[01:58.840]It also called for an end to violence by all groups in Egypt.
[02:05.290]The United States and other countries
[02:09.300]have condemned attacks on Mr. Morsi's supporters.
[02:14.290]On Thursday, President Obama
[02:17.510]criticized the violence.
[02:19.630]He also cancelled a major joint military exercise with Egypt.
[02:26.210]"While we want to sustain our relationship with Egypt,
[02:29.430]our traditional cooperation cannot continue
[02:32.540]as usual when civilians are being killed
[02:35.120]in the streets and rights are being rolled back."
[02:37.640]Some observers have criticized Mr. Obama's statements on Egypt.
[02:42.690]They say the United States is showing support
[02:47.080]for the Egyptian military
[02:49.160]if it does not take stronger action.
[02:52.010]Saba Mahmood is with the University of California at Berkeley.
[02:57.600]She says the United States can pressure
[03:01.530]the military-supported government in Egypt
[03:05.060]to end the violence.
[03:06.820]"If the United States is actually
[03:09.150]interested in instituting any kind of democratic change,
[03:13.120]they hold a very crucial card in this, which is
[03:16.910]over $1.8 billion of annual military aid
[03:21.290]that the United States gives to Egypt.
[03:23.830]They can simply say
[03:25.140]that we will suspend that aid
[03:27.260]unless there is an immediate dissolution
[03:29.880]of this intense violence."
[03:31.860]Others see hope for the competing forces in Egypt
[03:36.070]to avoid civil war and carry out the reforms
[03:40.340]that Egyptians wanted in 2011.
[03:43.740]That year, Egypt's military
[03:46.680]answered huge protests
[03:48.940]by supporting the ouster of long-time President Hosni Mubarak.
[03:54.180]Stephen Zunes chairs the Middle Eastern Studies program
[03:59.460]at the University of San Francisco.
[04:01.660]He says civil society has been growing stronger in Egypt
[04:07.390]and across the Arab world.
[04:09.630]"More and more people realize
[04:11.240]that they are ultimately those
[04:12.950]who must decide their own fate.
[04:14.830]And so as tragic as the recent events have been,
[04:19.980]it is just not the final word."
[04:21.840]Professor Zunes says it is not only the Islamists
[04:26.340]who are affected by the suppression of dissent.
[04:29.410]And he says democracy will come to Egypt
[04:33.310]not by suppressing Islamists
[04:35.870]but by organizing democratic forces.
[04:39.240]"The younger generation of Egyptians
[04:41.650]do want a future
[04:43.770]that is based on democracy and social justice."
[04:47.340]And that's In the News from VOA Learning English,
[04:52.030]written by Onka Dekker. I'm Steve Ember.