LA Times – Protesters fanned out to shut off key government buildings in Cairo on Friday as the Egyptian army, under pressure from all sides, issued a statement pledging to guarantee President Hosni Mubarak‘s promise to lift emergency law and ensure free elections.

But Egypt’s biggest crisis in years continued to spin out of control despite the government’s fumbling efforts to once more reassert control of the situation and find common ground with the protesters, who rose up 18 days ago against Mubarak’s 30-year-reign.

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