Internet and SMS services reportedly disrupted and Muslim Brotherhood members arrested ahead of planned demonstrations.
Al-Jazeera
"Internet and mobile phone text message users in Egypt have reported a major disruption to services as the country prepares for a new wave of protests against the 30-year rule of Hosni Mubarak, the president.
Anti-government protesters have called for mass protests after noon prayers on Friday as they increase the pressure on the fourth day of the most serious unrest in decades.
The Associated Press news agency reported that an elite special counterterrorism force had been deployed at strategic points around Cairo in the hours before the planned protests as Egypt's interior ministry warned of "decisive measures".
Meanwhile, a lawyer for the opposition Muslim Brotherhood said that two senior members of the officially banned group had been detained overnight.
"The police detained Dr Essam El-Erian and Dr Mohamed Mursi, and there were others also detained. Many people, it's hard to figure out the exact number," Abdel-Moniem Abdel-Maksoud told the Reuters news agency.
"The reason is of course known: it's what is expected to happen tomorrow."
El-Erian is the Brotherhood's main spokesman and Mursi is a prominent Brotherhood leader.
'Popular calls'
El-Erian had earlier warned the Mubarak government of the consequences of a breakdown of the situation "if the government continued to turn a deaf ear to popular calls".
"The protest rallies will not stop while Friday will be another 'day of wrath'," he said. ...."
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