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| Egypt's ruling generals to partially lift emergency law | |
| (40 minutes later) | |
| Egypt's military ruler has said the decades-old state of emergency will be lifted partially on Wednesday, the first anniversary of the uprising against former President Hosni Mubarak. | |
| Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi said the law would still be applied in cases of "thuggery", without giving any details. | |
| The military has used the term "thugs" to justify the crackdown on people demanding a return to civilian rule. | |
| Egypt has been governed under emergency law almost continuously since 1967. | |
| It gave the authorities extensive powers to suspend basic rights, such as prohibiting protests, censoring the media, monitoring personal communications, and detaining people indefinitely without charge. | It gave the authorities extensive powers to suspend basic rights, such as prohibiting protests, censoring the media, monitoring personal communications, and detaining people indefinitely without charge. |
| Mr Mubarak repeatedly broke promises to lift the state of emergency, which has been in place without interruption since the assassination of President Anwar Sadat in 1981. | |
| Field Marshal Tantawi's announcement came a day after the lower house of Egypt's parliament held its first session since Mr Mubarak stepped down and the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces took power. | |
| "Today, after the people said their word and chose their MPs in the People's Assembly to assume legislative and monitoring tasks, I took a decision to end the state of emergency in the entire republic except in confronting the crimes of thuggery," he said in a televised address. | |
| "This decision will take effect on the morning of 25 January." | |
| Correspondents say the partial lifting of the emergency law is unlikely to satisfy pro-democracy protesters and human rights groups. | |
| Last year, the generals widened the scope of the emergency law to include labour strikes, traffic disruption and spreading false information. |