CAIRO - Egypt's newly appointed Cabinet held its maiden plenary meeting Monday amid pledges to release protesters held since the start of the popular uprising on January 25. Egypt Monday shortened by an hour a curfew imposed in three cities amid anti-regime protests to run from 8:00pm (18:00GMT) to 6:00am, cutting the restrictions by three hours, State television said. The curfew has been in effect since January 28 in Cairo, Alexandria and Suez. The Cabinet held its first full meeting following two meetings with President Hosni Mubarak earlier in the day in which he had talks with Speaker of the People's Assembly, head of the Shura Council and the chief judge of the Cassation Court, according to the official Middle East News Agency (MENA). The agency gave no further details on the meetings. However, it is widely thought that they tackled the appeals against MPs in 159 constituencies nationwide as the court will start to review them. Later in the day, Mubarak held an extended meeting with the new Cabinet and the newly appointed chief of the Intelligence Service Murad Muwafi. Following widespread international outrage, a Google executive was expected to be released last night, Egyptian official television reported. Wael Ghonim, Google's head of marketing for the Middle East and North Africa, had travelled to Egypt from his home in Dubai and was believed arrested January 27. Ghonim was arrested after joining the protests in central Cairo, according to Amnesty International investigators who spoke to eyewitnesses. More detainees are expected to walk free soon, according to senior officials. The release of political prisoners has been a key demand of opposition representatives who met newly appointed Vice President Omar Suleiman on Sunday. They also are looking immediately for greater press freedom, a lifting of emergency laws, and restraint in the use of force against anti-Government protesters, in addition to comprehensive political reforms. Government spokesman Magdi Radi said there had been so much instability because “some groups” may be holding detainees without the Government's authorisation. Protest leaders say the security services have been responsible for widespread detentions and beatings. Keen to get traffic moving around the Square, the Army tried to further squeeze the area the protesters occupied. Protesters rushed out of their tents to surround soldiers attempting to corral them into a smaller area. Wary of the Army's attempt to gain ground, dozens of protesters have slept inside the tracks of the Army's vehicles. "The Army is getting restless and so are the protesters. The Army wants to squeeze us into a small circle in the middle of the square to get the traffic moving again," Mohamed Shalaby, 27, a protester, told Reuters by phone. The nation got back to work on Sunday and banks reopened after a week-long crisis with lines of customers seeking access to their accounts. The Egyptian Stock Exchange will reopen next Sunday, said Seri Syam, the chairman of the Exchange. Minister of Interior Mahmoud Wagdi Monday paid a visit to the Central Police Troops headquarters in southern Cairo, where he asked them to fasten their re-deploy in Cairo streets.
