Hundreds of Egyptians stage March on cabinet to protest emergency law

Several hundred protesters set out from Cairo’s Tahrir Square Monday marching towards the nearby Cabinet building to protest at the extension of Egypt’s longstanding emergency law. Protesters chanted slogans against the draconian law, which had represented a mainstay of the ousted regime of former president Hosni Mubarak. They held banners aloft reading, "The emergency law killed Khaled Said" and "No to the emergency law." Demonstrators also condemned a law banning labour strikes, issued last March by the interim Cabinet and the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF). The transitional government and SCAF recently extended the use of the emergency law - which was limited in 2010 to combating terrorism and drug trafficking - widening its scope to include disrupting traffic, broadcasting unsubstantiated rumours, possessing and/or selling weapons, and hindering the functioning of the state.