CAIRO (updated) - Two Egyptians on Tuesday set themselves on fire near, one of them near Parliament, security sources said, the latest cases echoing an act of self-immolation in Tunisia that triggered mass protests. "The 40-year-old lawyer, Mohamed Farouk Hassan, shouted slogans against rising prices before setting himself alight near the People's Assembly before he was carried by an ambulance to a nearby hosiptal," one source said. The severity of his injuries was not clear yet. He added that Hassan was from the nearby negibourhood suburb of el-Sayyeda Zeinabin Islamic Cairo. "He is now receiving treatment in el-Munira Hospital," the source said. A hospital official said the hospital had been informed of the imminent arrival of a victim of burns, but did not have details. On Monday, an Egyptian, aged about 50, poured petrol over himself and lit it after protesting against poor living conditions. His injuries were described as minor. Similar cases were reported in Algeria and Mauritania. In Alexandria, an unemployed youth also torched himself on teh roof of the building where he lives in el-Muntazah area after allegedly failing to find a job. "A 25-year-old man called Ahmed Hashem was admitted to the Academic Hospital today (yesterday) with severe burns after he set himself on fire," a Health Ministry official said. He added that Hasehm was in a serious condition. Like Tunisians, whose public protests led to the ousting of President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, Arabs in many countries are frustrated by soaring prices, poverty, high unemployment and authoritarian systems of rule that give them no voice. Political activists throughout the Arab world say they have been inspired by the example of Tunisia, the first country in decades where an Arab leader was toppled by public protests. The protests in Tunisia erupted after the suicide of 26-year-old vegetable trader Mohamed Bouazizi, who set himself on fire on December 17 because police seized his grocery cart. Bouazizi died weeks later of his burns, becoming a martyr to crowds of students and the unemployed protesting against poor living conditions. Ben Ali had visited him in hospital, a gesture that failed to win him public sympathy. There have been other self-immolation cases across the region, apparently inspired by Tunisia's Bouazizi.
