Cairo

According to a transcript of this morning's statement, President Barack Obama failed to mention the storming of the U.S. embassy in Cairo yesterday. His statement focused on the loss of an American ambassador and other embassy workers yesterday in Benghazi, Libya.

Here's video of the U.S. embassy in Cairo being mobbed yesterday:

Despite the violence from street protests that left some 38 people dead over the last two weeks, Egyptians went to the polls today for the first round of parliamentary elections.

Yesterday, three American students were arrested in Cairo for participating in riots that have to date killed 38. A spokesman at the justice ministry claims that the three were throwing Molotov cocktails from the top of an American University in Cairo building near Tahrir Square. The three are studying in Egypt this semester at the AUC as part of their respective home universities’ study abroad programs.

There was another attack on Coptic Christians today as they marched through the Cairo neighborhood of Shoubra.

Former Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak has reportedly been placed under detention in his hospital room in Sharm el-Sheikh. Mubarak has been there since last night, when he is thought to have had a heart attack. The AP reports:

The Washington Post reports that Egyptian military forces broke up protests early this morning in Cairo's Tahrir Square. At least two civilians were killed and another 15 were seriously wounded. The protests followed a day of peaceful demonstrations, which continued after the 2 a.m. curfew and into the early morning:

The seemingly interminable reign of President Hosni Mubarak has suppressed Egypt’s domestic political scene for decades. The Pharaoh, as he is known, has held an iron grip on power since the assassination of Anwar el-Sadat in 1981. In recent weeks, however, Egyptians have been expressing tempered enthusiasm that political change may be in the air. Their inspiration: the man whom the West should blame if Iran gets a nuclear weapon.