Students from Ain Shams, Cairo, and Al-Azhar universities protested today in front of the Israeli embassy in Giza, calling for the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador.

Correction: No clashes happened in Ain Shams on the same scale as 2006. The plainclothes thugs were indeed brought to campus, and there was a stand off. But no fighting happened as MBs decided to withdraw from the elections.

In Luxor, officers and corporals insulted and physically assaulted two judges at the airport, while in Cairo 600 students at the Engineering Faculty of Ain Shams University staged a sit in protesting police assault against a female colleague, El-Badeel reports.

For continuous updates on police torture, check out the Torture in Egypt Diigo group.

The protests, according to my source, prevented the University President from leaving campus till the afternoon. One woman protester passed out and was transferred to the hospital.

UPDATE: More information in this Al-Masry Al-Youm report.

Two journalists have filed a series of complaints against both campus security at Ain Shams University and its president, Ahmad Zaki Badr, and say that guards obstructed them from reporting on student demonstrations last week, blocking one man’s entrance to the campus and violently beating another who made it inside.
Aboul Seoud Muhammad, a journalist with Al-Masry Al-Youm, says that security forces barred him from entering the campus when he went to cover the demonstrations protesting vote-rigging and state interference in student body elections.
“I gave the security officers at the gates my card saying that I am a journalist and a member of the syndicate, but they said that I couldn’t enter unless I had a special pass,” Muhammad told Daily News Egypt. “I knew this wasn’t right, so I called the President of the University, Ahmad Zaki Badr, and he said he would send someone from the public relations (PR) office down to escort me in to the campus.
“I waited for two hours and no one came,” he added. “I called the president’s office and the PR office again and again and no one ever came down.”
While he stood waiting outside the university, Muhammad says he saw Amr Sharaf, a photographer from Al Dostour, come stumbling out. He had been badly beaten.
“He was badly hurt and had wounds on his head,” says Muhammad. “He said he had been beaten by a police officer.
“We tried to take a picture of Amr Sharaf and his wounds but the security officers said we couldn’t because it would tarnish the reputation of the university.”

Moreover, Al-Masry Al-Youm reports on mass protests on several campuses yesterday in Ain Shams, Fayoum, Ganoub el-Wadi and others over variety of issues including the increase in education fees and text books prices, vote rigging in student elections.

You can also find more background reports on the violations that marred the past student union elections here and here.

The same scenario was repeated earlier in October, when thugs were brought into campus in a campaign of terror against activist students protesting their expulsion from the official student union elections on orders from the security.

The list of candidates certified to run in the elections should have been announced by 3pm. As of the time of writing, it hasn’t. The student activists smelt a fish, expecting the delay to be related to the security going through the names, putting their final touch, and eleminating names of political activists. Demonstrations broke out on campus. The university gate has been reportedly smashed. The students are currently on a sit in, waiting for the lists to be publicized.

The Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression has issued a statement denouncing security violations against students in Helwan, Ain Shams and Cairo universities.

UPDATE: The lists were announced sometime after 8pm. About 200 Muslim Brothers were banned by security, according to a MB student I spoke to over the phone. Demonstrations broke out, and the students tried to go out on the streets, only to be met by the Central Security Forces. The troops clashed with protesters violently at the gates of the university. The standoff ended around 9:30pm.

UPDATE: The AFTEE has issued another statement denouncing the security forces’ assaults on students.