Despite talk of concessions, Egyptian military cracking down

By Shashank Bengali | McClatchy Newspapers

CAIRO — Besieged by two weeks of protests, Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak's regime has offered once-unthinkable political concessions and started negotiations with its fiercest adversaries.


Some things in Egypt, however, don't change so quickly.

The Egyptian military has rounded up scores of human rights activists, protest organizers and journalists in recent days without formal charges, according to watchdog groups and accounts by the detainees. While most arrests have been brief — lasting fewer than 24 hours — experts say they're a sign that the regime's notorious tradition of extrajudicial detentions is continuing even as Mubarak appears to be on his way out of power.

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