Cairo Tahrir Square Live Blog

Timothy Garton Ash from the Guardian writes: Egypt a year on: This is not the Tahrir dream, but there's much to be won.

The country is torn between an entrenched security state, politically savvy Islamists and anxious revolutionaries.

A year on from the fall of Hosni Mubarak, this is not what the young revolutionaries of Tahrir dreamed of. It's not what we western secular liberals dreamed of. It's not, in its consequences, another 1989. But nor is it 1979 in Iran, a rainbow revolution rapidly degenerating into an oppressive Islamic theocracy.

It's Egypt 2012. Even secular liberal and Coptic friends say that a pragmatic Islamist government, wrangling a gradual reduction of the hypertrophied military, security and bureaucratic state, may be the best they can expect in the near future.

If those of us who live in more prosperous and free countries want to help Egypt's transition – and realistically, that help will only be at the margins – we need to start by understanding what is happening on the ground, in all its dusty, pot-holed complexity. We have nothing to lose but our cliches.

[The Guardian]

The US has demanded "clarification" over Cairo's apparent plans to put dozens of pro-democracy activists, including 19 US citizens, on trial over charges of illegal funding of aid groups.

Victoria Nuland, the US state department spokeswoman, said on Monday that Washington was "deeply concerned" over the developments, which threatened to further strain the country's ties with Egypt's military rulers.

"We have seen media reports that judicial officials in Egypt intend to forward a number of cases involving US-funded NGOs to the Cairo criminal court," Nuland said.

"We are deeply concerned by these reports and are seeking clarification from the government of Egypt."

A top official at Freedom House, one of the groups targeted, called Egypt's handling of the matter "a disaster".

A judicial source in Cairo, the capital, told the AFP news agency that 44 people, including Egyptians, would be tried over the alleged illegal funding of aid groups, a day after the US said it would review $1.3bn aid to Egypt over the crackdown.

Cairo's Tahrir Square looks to be filled with people as Egypt marks first anniversary of revolution that toppled Mubarak.

Demonstrations have also been planned in Nahia area of Cairo.

This is the area from where the first protests leading to the revolution kicked off.