Hassan Amar/AP

An Egyptian activist covers her face with the petition for "Tamarod," Arabic for "rebel," a campaign calling for 15 million signatures expressing "no confidence" in Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi and calling for early presidential elections, during a protest in Tahrir Square in Cairo on May 17.

CAIRO – Once again, a handful of activists has managed to galvanize and inspire Egypt’s grumbling masses in a way no opposition political parties have been able to.

Their concept is simple. They are inviting the Egyptian electorate to sign a petition expressing “no confidence” in President Mohamed Morsi, a move they hope will trigger early presidential elections.

The response has been eye-opening. So far, 6,000 volunteers for the grassroots campaign dubbed “Tamarod” or “Rebel” have collected over 2 million signatures, according to the group’s spokesman Mahmoud Badr. Egypt’s electorate numbers about 50 million, with half of those voting in the last presidential election.

The movement has grown quickly, with opposition parties announcing support, widespread press coverage and black and white leaflets plastered across nearly every Cairo neighborhood. The “Rebel” Facebook page has attracted 150,000 “likes” in one month.

At a busy intersection in Mohandiseen, an upper-middle class Cairo neighborhood, at least 20 people stopped last Thursday to sign the leaflets and jot down national ID numbers to verify their identity.

Mohamed Muslemany / NBC News

Egyptian volunteer Basma Sherif, 24, hands out 'Rebel' petitions calling for no confidence in President Morsi and calling for early elections.

“Yesterday was even more crowded,” said Basma Sherif, as she handed out forms.

“There were accidents because people were leaving their cars in traffic to come and sign,” said Sherif, a 24-year-old insurance company employee. 

People from all walks of life and throughout Egypt are signing the petition – from upper class educated elites to truck drivers and housekeepers – even people who voted for Morsi in the last election are now taking part in the campaign.

"People come from the cars to sign – poor, rich, middle class, everybody has one opinion,” said Sherif.

Those signing the petition were anxious for change. “I don’t want Morsi,” said Khaled Mostafa, a 27-year-old lab technician.  “There is no security, no stability and their economic program failed… If we get several million signatures, we will have early elections.” 

Amal Ragab, a middle-aged human resources manager, said that the revolution that toppled Mubarak made her believe people have the power to bring down a president.  “For us, the Muslim Brotherhood is much worse and weaker than Mubarak with all of his power and security apparatus,” she added. 

The group’s goal is to collect 15 million signatures, almost 3 million more than the number of votes Morsi received when he was elected by a narrow margin in June last year. They plan to deliver the petition for early elections to the Supreme Constitutional Court, Egypt’s highest court, on June 30, the one-year anniversary of Morsi’s inauguration, and to hold a massive demonstration in front of the presidential palace that day. 

A symbolic move
But even diehard supporters admit there are no legal grounds to call for early elections based on a “no confidence” petition. They say the campaign is really meant to prove that Morsi has lost his majority and, with it, his legitimacy.   

Hamza Abdullah, a 37-year-old lawyer who has been coordinating the campaign in three Cairo districts was carrying an armload of signed petitions on Thursday. 

“This is a peaceful way to apply pressure and prove that people are against Morsi,” he said. “It is not legally binding, but it is like a poll to prove that he is not popular and not approved as president of Egypt.” 

Oliver Weiken/EPA

Protesters call for the removal of the Egyptian government in Tahrir Square in Cairo on May 17.

Not so fast, say Muslim Brotherhood 
Members of the ruling Muslim Brotherhood, however, pooh-pooh the challenge.

Dr. Mohamed Beltagy, a senior leader of the Brotherhood’s political arm, issued a statement calling the petition “no more than a public survey,” saying it was useless unless organizers “transform the millions of participants they’re talking about into a political party.” 

Others gave veiled warnings. “If some want to toss out the constitution, then they should admit their aim and bear the consequences because it is a complete and utter crime,” Essam Arian, deputy chairman of the Muslim Brotherhood, told the Al Fajr newspaper. 

A lawyer for the Brotherhood, Abdel Moneim Abdel Maksoud, said that, “Hijacking a political democratic legitimacy constitutes a violation of the law.” And one Brotherhood-linked group launched a rhyming pro-Morsi petition called Tagarod, or “Impartiality.”  

Egypt’s prime minister, which operates under the president, was more receptive.

Alaa al Hadidi, the prime minister’s spokesman, said he views the grassroots movement as a sign of growth.  “I am happy because before, nobody spoke, nobody cared, nobody was interested.  Now everybody feels that they own the country and have a stake.” 

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NBC News complete coverage of Egypt 

An al Qaeda-linked cell disrupted in Egypt was planning suicide attacks on the French and U.S. embassies, the state news agency MENA reported, according to Reuters.

In light of this news and last week’s stabbing of a U.S. citizen on the embassy’s perimeter, the U.S. Embassy in Cairo alerted U.S. citizens to exercise “elevated awareness.”

“The knife attack on the Embassy's perimeter, along with weekend media reports acknowledging that Egyptian authorities have disrupted a terror cell possibly targeting Egyptian and Western interests, serve as yet another reminder of the need to exercise good situational awareness,” read a statement from the embassy, which was obtained by NBC News. 

According to Reuters, authorities announced Saturday they had captured three Egyptians with al Qaeda links, saying they had been found in possession of 22 pounds of explosive materials.

"The investigations revealed that the suspects were intending to carry out terrorist bomb operations inside Egypt via suicide operations, penetrating the security cordon in front of the American and French embassies with a car bomb," MENA said, citing a source in the state security prosecutor's office, according to Reuters.

MENA said the suspects had escaped from prison in 2011, during the revolts that removed Hosni Mubarak from power.

Reuters contributed to this report.

This story was originally published on Wed May 15, 2013 2:33 PM EDT

TEL AVIV — Israel’s Negev Desert is alive – with locusts.

Huge swarms of the newly hatched critters have begun marching across the sand, devouring everything in their path.

With the help of high-tech irrigation methods, much of Israel’s desert has been transformed into lush farmland that supplies supermarkets across the country with fresh produce. But the swarm of locusts, which locals say is the worst infestation in decades, is threatening crops and farms.

Israel’s Agriculture Ministry has deployed pickup trucks, planes and helicopters to spray pesticides on the locusts before they can inflict more damage.

“They are easy targets now, but in two or three days when their wings develop, it will be a disaster,” said Lior Katari, one of the Agriculture Ministry’s coordinators.

Adult locusts arrived in the area in March. Scientists say they likely originated in Sudan and crossed from Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula into Israel. Then they mated and laid billions of eggs in the sand which are now hatching.

Teams of exterminators are working from sunrise to sunset, spraying the millions of young locusts as they move across the ground.

NBC News spent a few hours with a team of sprayers equipped with a large tank of insecticide in a 4 x 4 pickup truck on Sunday. They received constant updates from observers in helicopters and colleagues on the ground telling them where to go.

“Quickly, we need to go to Revavim! It’s full of them,” said Yigal Maria, a specialist exterminator drafted from northern Israel to help out, referring to a small community near the border with Egypt.

His assistant, Yuval Bashari, leaned out of the window with a spray gun, dousing the locusts with pesticides.

“Look over there, you see all that green? It’s locusts! Can you believe it?” Bashari shouted.  

The ground was covered with what looked like a slow-moving green carpet. Millions of locusts, all moving in the same direction, made a loud rustling sound as they devoured everything in their path.

The spray team started to circle the swarm, moving slowly from the outer edge inwards. The locusts panicked, trying to leap out of the way of the vehicle and the milky white spray. Many perished under the wheels of the vehicle. It took about 30 minutes to finish them off.

“Let’s go, we are finished here,” Maria shouted.  “We need to eat something before they call us again.”

Dave Copeland / NBC News

Golan Cohen, owner of an organic herb farm, supervises volunteer workers covering his vines on Sunday.

The insecticides worked – but that doesn’t help organic farmers who can’t use pesticides.

“They were eating the weeds at first, they were small, so we ignored them,” said Golan Cohen, the owner of an organic farm that grows desert herbs used in the United States for medical research.

But when things got bad, they resorted to non-invasive, but also less effective, means to ward off the menace.

“At first we just made noise, banging pots and shouting – and it worked,” said Dror Cohen-Chen, a worker on Cohen’s farm near the Egyptian border. But that technique didn’t last long.

“The next day we came back and they had destroyed everything,” said Cohen.

As he spoke, a busload of volunteers turned up to help.   

“It’s really warming the heart to see [the volunteers]. It’s strengthening us, because we had a very hard week of struggling with the locusts.”

Eli Hanev, a sunburned and dust-covered local, had been up since dawn spraying pesticides in another area. He sauntered up to the organic farm, a 9mm pistol on his hip.

“Three thousand years ago God sent the Egyptians a plague of locusts, now we are getting them back….” he said, the rest of his sentence drowned out by a helicopter swooping low overhead.

Related: 

• PhotoBlog: Farmers fight back against swarming locusts
• UN urges: Eat more insects! (Seriously) 
• Full Israel coverage from NBC News

This story was originally published on Mon May 13, 2013 3:25 PM EDT

AFP - Getty Images

An image grab taken from Egyptian state TV shows ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak sitting behind bars during his retrial at the Police Academy in Cairo on Saturday.

CAIRO -- Former president Hosni Mubarak was back in court on Saturday for a retrial on charges of complicity in the murder of protesters, reopening a case that has shown the difficulty of transitional justice in post-revolutionary Egypt.

Mubarak and his former interior minister, Habib el-Adli, were convicted and sentenced to life in prison last June for failing to stop the killing during the 2011 uprising that swept him from power.

The retrial was ordered after a court in January accepted appeals from the prosecution and the defense.

Mubarak, 85, sat upright on a hospital gurney as he was wheeled into a cage where the defendants appear. Dressed in white prison uniforms, his two sons, Alaa and Gamal, stood alongside him. They face charges of corruption.

Wearing dark, aviator sunglasses, the deposed autocrat raised his arm to confirm his presence as Judge Ahmed al-Rasheedy read a list of the accused. "Present," said Mubarak. He waved his arm in denial when asked by the judge for his response to the charges read out by the prosecution.

The session was broadcast live on state television.

Held at a police academy on the outskirts of Cairo under tight security, the retrial had been due to begin last month but was aborted when the previous judge recused himself.

Mubarak is being held at Tora Prison on the outskirts of Cairo. He remains in jail despite release orders because he faces charges in a separate corruption case.

Mubarak, Adli and four of his former top aides are accused of involvement in the killing of more than 800 protesters who died in the 18-day uprising. Two other Interior Ministry officials face lesser charges.

First ruler toppled in Arab Spring
Mubarak's imprisonment last June was a historic moment -- he was the first ruler toppled by the Arab Spring revolts to stand trial in person.

Slideshow: Egypt's revolution and the fall of Mubarak

Ahmed Youssef / EPA

Eighteen days of popular protest culminated in the downfall of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak on Feb. 11, 2011.

Launch slideshow

But the case exposed the difficulties of attaining justice in a country whose judiciary and security forces are still largely controlled by figures appointed during his era.

The prosecution had complained that the Interior Ministry had failed to cooperate in providing evidence.

Adli's four aides were exonerated due to the weakness of the evidence, and the judge convicted Mubarak and Adli on the grounds of their failure to stop the killing, rather than actually ordering it.

Outside the court, a small group of protesters gathered under a baking sun held aloft banners demanding justice.

"Your mother misses you, Ahmed," read one banner, referring to a demonstrator killed in 2011. A rival group of a dozen Mubarak loyalists held aloft pictures of the former president dressed in military uniform and business suits.

Many Egyptians have been frustrated by the failure of courts to bring officials to account for the violence during the uprising and for what they see as decades of corruption and police abuses preceding it.

On Wednesday, an appeals court refused the prosecution's appeal of a verdict that exonerated two dozen defendants over an incident during the revolt in which men on camels and horses attacked protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square.

Related:

• 'There is no food': Post-revolutionary economic turmoil dashes hopes in Egypt
• Some Egyptians warm to jailed former president Mubarak ahead of trial
• Video: Egyptian women reveal horror of sexual assaults
• Full Egypt coverage on NBCNews.com

CAIRO, Egypt -- An American academic was being treated in a Cairo hospital Thursday after being stabbed in the neck near the U.S. Embassy, prosecutors and diplomatic officials in Egypt said.

Christopher Stone, a fellow at the American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE) was attacked outside the perimeter of the building about noon local time (3 a.m. ET), Embassy officials said.

Police immediately apprehended the suspect and he is in custody where he is suspected of attempted murder, the Egyptian prosecutor’s office said.

Stone’s identity was confirmed by San Antonio-based ARCE. 

Prosecutors said Stone told them he had gone to the embassy to finish some paperwork for his wife when he was challenged by a young man who asked him twice about his nationality.

The suspect, who is unemployed, then stabbed the victim in the neck, prosecutors said.

According to an online biography, Stone is on sabbatical in Cairo as a research fellow for ARCE. He is associate professor of Arabic and head of the Arabic Program at the City University in New York, according to the biography on the university’s website.

NBC News' Alastair Jamieson contributed to this report.

Oliver Weiken / EPA

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi gesturing during an interview Saturday.

CAIRO - Islamist members of the Muslim Brotherhood were given greater influence in Egypt’s government on Tuesday when President Mohamed Morsi reshuffled his cabinet in response to demands for change.

Opposition parties and many citizens have complained of mismanagement and have urged changes, including the removal of Prime Minister Hesham Kandil.

The limited reshuffle is unlikely to satisfy his opponents or help build political consensus in the country, which is still struggling to establish a stable system in the wake of the 2011 Arab Spring revolution that removed Hosni Mubarak from power.

Two of the ousted ministers were involved in crucial talks with the IMF over a $4.8 billion loan to Egypt, Reuters reported.

Nine new ministers were named, including Amr Darrag, a senior official in the Muslim Brotherhood movement’s Freedom and Justice Party, who was appointed planning minister, according to Reuters.

Another Brotherhood member, Yehya Hamed, was named investment minister, and Ahmed el-Gezawi, an FJP member, took over agriculture, lifting the movement's share to around a third of the cabinet's 35 portfolios.

Fayyad Abdel Moneim, a specialist in Islamic economics, was appointed as finance minister, replacing Al-Mursi Al-Sayed Hegaz, Reuters said.

Amr Moussa, Egypt's former foreign minister, former head of the Arab League and currently one of the leaders of the opposition National Salvation Front, said in a statement: “The cabinet reshuffle has not added or changed much. We will need another reshuffle soon."

“We need [a] national-unity-based government with high expertise so people can trust it. The challenges are huge," he added. "Therefore the current government will not be able to handle the situation. The current reshuffle reflects another complete Brotherhood-ization. Wouldn't it have been more useful to take a bigger step towards national cooperation and unity?”

Morsi announced on April 20 that he would carry out the reshuffle to replace a government widely criticized for failing to get the economy moving nine months into his presidency.

"The reshuffle is unlikely to signal any real shift in policy, particularly from an economic perspective," Said Hirsh, a London-based economist, told Reuters. "If anything, it deals a blow to demands for political consensus which the government seems to have ignored." 

Reuters and NBC News' Alastair Jamieson contributed to this report.

Related:

• Egyptians fear wave of vigilantism
• Some Egyptians warm to jailed former president Mubarak ahead of retrial
• Cairo women reveal horror of sex assault

Charlene Gubash / NBC News

Hany Sayed, 40, and his wife Layla Ali, 30, sit with four of their five children in the two-room windowless shack they were forced to move into after he lost his job as a carpenter's assistant.

CAIRO, Egypt — Egypt’s revolution has not been kind to Hany Sayed and his family. 

When Sayed lost his job as a carpenter’s assistant in the capital six months ago, he, his wife and their five children were forced out of their three-bedroom home and into a two-room shed used to store saddles and tack.

Together the couple earn $143 a month, most of which is spent on food. Still, the children, aged 2 to 13, rarely eat meat or chicken. A doctor at a free clinic told them that the children were calcium and iron deficient and needed extra vitamins, which Sayed said he cannot afford. 

Even the youngest children don’t drink milk, only water and tea, he said.

“Sometimes when we watch them sleep, we just cry,” said the 40-year-old, who now works mucking out stables.  “We see there is no food and we don’t know what to do.”  

Slideshow: Egypt's revolution and the fall of Mubarak

Ahmed Youssef / EPA

Eighteen days of popular protest culminated in the downfall of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak on Feb. 11, 2011.

Launch slideshow

Sayed and his family would be forgiven for expecting better. When the Arab world's most populous country rose up to depose President Hosni Mubarak two years ago, the desire for change went beyond the political – hopes ran high that a new regime would usher in a revitalized economic era.

Protesters that helped bring down the old government adopted the slogan: “Bread, freedom and social justice!”  

So when Mohammed Morsi came to power in June on promises of economic and political reform, as well as and help for the poorest, many thought their lot would improve.

But instead of getting better, the economy has stagnated, the country’s currency lost much of its value and inflation bumped up food prices.

While the government subsidizes basic types of bread, other staples are becoming more expensive: Kidney bean prices grew by nearly 24 percent in the year to March, onions were up 12 percent,  and tomatoes 10.1 percent, according to Egypt Independent newspaper. 

Dr. Nadia Belhaj Hassine, of the International Development Research Centre, a Canadian organization that supports researchers and experts in the developing world, cited a slew of issues that help ensure families like the Sayeds are stuck in crushing poverty. They include the global downturn, regional turmoil and Islamist rhetoric frightening away international investors.

But she also blamed the “huge problem of inexperienced government.”

“They are not aware of what has been done in the past and what should be done,” she said.  “They don’t have any vision about what kind of economic reforms to undertake in the short and long term and how to improve the investment environment.”

Officials at Egypt’s planning and finance ministries did not respond to requests for comment.

Some hope a $4.8-billion International Monetary Fund loan will help stabilize the economy, but the deal has not been signed. Foreign reserves, which were $36 billion in 2011, now stand at $13.5 billion, just enough for three months of such crucial imports as wheat and gas.  

Slideshow: Elections in Egypt

Ahmed Ali / AP

Egypt holds its first elections since the fall of Hosni Mubarak.

Launch slideshow

Meanwhile, the Egyptian pound has lost 13 percent of its value against the dollar in the past year.  This makes essentials more expensive, which hits families like the Sayeds directly.

Life is difficult, and looks to getting worse for many, according to Gian Pietro Bordignon, World Food Program country director.  

Around a quarter of the population lives below the poverty line, with another 20 percent hovering just above it. And while there are no statistics for the period 2012/2013, indications are that malnutrition rates of around 30 percent are also on the increase, he said.

Poverty and malnutrition has visible and long-term effects, he added.

“Without essential nutrients, minerals, vitamins, children cannot grow their brain potential. They have a lower academic performance,” he said. “Malnutrition is not only a personal problem of human suffering but impacts the nation as a whole.” 

It isn’t only meat, milk and new clothes that have disappeared from the Sayeds’ lives. The chance of a better future is also fading: All five children stopped going to school when even the meager expenses needed for free education became too much.  

“I feel sad when I see my friends go to school,” daughter Fatma, 13, said.

Her father has darker thoughts: “Sometimes, I even think of selling my kidney to live.”

Related:

Egyptians fear wave of vigilantism

Egypt's Mubarak ordered back to prison ahead of retrial

Full Egypt coverage from NBC News

Mohamed El-shahed / AFP - Getty Images

Muslim Brotherhood supporters throw stones towards opponents during clashes on April 19, in central Cairo.

Khaled Elfiqi / EPA

Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood members throw stones towards members of the anti-muslim brotherhood (top) during clashes in central Cairo, April 19.

Mostafa Elshemy / AP

Egyptian protesters clash near a bus belonging to Muslim Brotherhood supporters burns after it was reportedly set alight by anti- government protesters in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, April 19.

Mohamed Abd El Ghany / Reuters

Muslim Brotherhood members hit an anti-government protester during clashes near Cairo's Tahrir Square, April 19.

Clashes erupted Friday between several hundred opponents and supporters of Egypt’s Islamist president during a rally by his allies calling on him to “cleanse the judiciary” of alleged supporters of the old regime. Four people were hurt the violent clashes following a call by the Muslim Brotherhood to demonstrate outside the Supreme Court. 

TEL AVIV – Israel’s Red Sea resort of Eilat was hit by two rockets fired from Egypt’s Sinai peninsula Wednesday, but there were was no sign of damage or injury.

Hardline Islamic militant group Magles Shoura al-Mujahddin claimed responsibility in a statement on its website, Reuters reported.

Noa Eliyah / AFP/Getty Images

Israeli policemen inspect the site of a rocket explosion in Eilat, Wednesday.

The statement said the attack was in retaliation for what it described as the Israeli army's attack on protesters demonstrating over the death of a Palestinian prisoner.

Local television showed the casing of the one of the rockets lying in sand at a construction site in the resort city, Al Jazeera reported.

Israel’s military said the rockets caused neither damage nor injury.

The peninsula was demilitarized during the rule of dictator Hosni Mubarak, but since he was swept from power in the 2011 Arab Spring, Islamic militants have begun activities in the region.

Reuters added:

Ran Shauli / AP

The scene of a rocket attack in Eilat, Israel, Wednesday.

Israel deployed an Iron Dome anti-rocket battery in Eilat some two weeks ago, a period coinciding with the Jewish Passover holiday when the city at the tip of Gulf of Aqaba is packed with vacationers.

But on Wednesday, the system did not intercept the incoming missiles ``for operational reasons'', a military spokeswoman said, without elaborating.

Egypt's military said it was still investigating whether the rockets had come from Egypt.

"We are still investigating to see if they were delivered from Egyptian territories but nothing is confirmed yet," a senior military official told agency AFP.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Tarek El Gabbas / AP

Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, second right, waves at his supporters, at a hearing in Cairo, Egypt, Saturday, April 13, 2013.

The retrial of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was aborted on Saturday when the presiding judge withdrew from the case and referred it to another court, causing an indefinite delay that sparked anger in the courtroom.

Lawyers said that while the transfer would give prosecutors more time to draw on new evidence in an unpublished fact-finding commission's report into the repression, it could delay the case by months, increasing the risk that Mubarak, 84, may never be finally convicted and sentenced.

"Egypt cannot close the door on the former regime until there is justice for the martyrs of our revolution," said Mohamed Rashwan, a prosecution attorney and member of the Egyptian Lawyers' Union, which had petitioned to have the judge removed from the case. Two years had passed since Mubarak's fall and justice was taking too long, Rashwan said.

"The people demand the execution of Mubarak!" frustrated relatives of demonstrators killed in the 2011 uprising that overthrew him chanted in court after presiding Judge Mustafa Hassan Abdullah announced the decision at the opening session.

Outside the heavily guarded compound, pro-Mubarak demonstrators outnumbered opponents. The two small groups were kept well apart by a police cordon and there were no incidents.

Mubarak, who ruled Egypt for almost 30 years before being toppled by 18 days of Arab Spring pro-democracy unrest, waved and smiled to supporters from the defendants' cage in the courtroom before the brief hearing began.

He was flown by helicopter from a military hospital where he has been detained to the police academy used as a courthouse, and wheeled from an ambulance into the building lying on a hospital trolley wearing a white tracksuit.

Mubarak, former interior minister Habib al-Adli and four top aides face a retrial for complicity in the murder of more than 800 protesters after the highest appeals court accepted appeals by both the defense and the prosecution in January. Two other senior interior ministry officials face lesser charges.

The presiding judge was appointed under Mubarak and so were most of the current judiciary, a factor that has complicated transitional justice in Egypt. The judge said he had decided to refer the case to the Cairo appeals court as he felt "unease" in reviewing the case. He did not explain his decision further.

He had previously acquitted top former Mubarak era officials of orchestrating violence when thugs riding camels attacked pro-democracy activists in Cairo's central Tahrir Square.

"We ask for the harshest possible sentence on Mubarak due to the cruel crimes he committed against the protesters, but we are happy with the judge's decision to withdraw as we had worries about him given his ruling (on) the camel attack case," said Mohamed Abdel Wahab, a lawyer for the victims. His comment reflected a widespread mixture of relief and frustration.

COMPETING DEMONSTRATIONS

It was the first time Mubarak, who wore gold-rimmed aviator sunglasses in court, had been seen in public since he and Adli were convicted last June on grounds of failing to stop the killing, rather than actually ordering it.

Mubarak's two sons, Alaa and Gamal, were also in court to be retried on separate charges of financial corruption.

Propped up on a gurney in a cage with the other defendants, he looked fitter and more relaxed than on previous appearances in the dock, holding animated conversations with his son Gamal, and occasionally smiling and waving to people in the courtroom.

Judge Mahmoud el-Hafnawy of the prosecutor general's office ordered an urgent medical report on the former president to determine whether he was now fit enough to be sent to prison.

Prosecutors accuse Mubarak of giving orders to Adli to open fire with live ammunition against protesters to suppress demonstrations across the Arab world's most populous country.

Mubarak and his interior minister were sentenced to life imprisonment at their first trial but the appeals court upheld complaints stemming from the weakness of the evidence offered by the prosecution.

Outside the court, pro-Mubarak demonstrators chanted "thirty years without destruction!" in reference to accusations that the Muslim Brotherhood movement which won free elections after his ouster are destroying the country.

"Look at the country now," said a supporter who gave his name as Ibrahim. "We are going bankrupt. The whole country is suffering from this economic crisis, from this lack of security."

Across the square, relatives of victims of Mubarak's security forces held posters of young men killed in the revolt.

Mahmoud Saleh, whose son Mostafa was killed during revolution, said: "He who kills must be killed. This is what we want from the trial."

Mubarak became the first ruler toppled by the Arab Spring uprisings to stand trial in person. That irked Gulf Arab rulers in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, of whom the former air force commander had been a loyal ally for decades.

But the case has also exposed the difficulties of justice in a country where the judiciary and security forces are still largely run by men whose positions date to the Mubarak era.

The prosecution complained that the interior ministry had failed to cooperate in providing evidence, leading to the acquittal of six senior ministry officials tried with Mubarak.

Mohamed Gomaa, 50, an IT specialist whose son Hussein, 23, was killed in the uprising, said: "Major reforms are needed in the entire justice system. Until then, we can only hope to God for a fair trial for Mubarak. I have no confidence in the judiciary."

Amr Abdallah Dalsh / Reuters

A protester against former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak holds dolls depicting Mubarak and his sons Alaa and Gamal, and former Interior Minister Habib al-Adly being hung.

Related:

• Mubarak trial: Dismay in Egypt over those left off the hook
• In Cairo, cheers and fears over Mubarak sentencing
• Tahrir Square occupied as anger grows over Mubarak verdict