For years, millions of Egyptians have relied on their sense of humor and self-mockery as a way of surviving tough living conditions. Such sarcasm can be seen at its best in Tahrir Square, where tens of thousands are calling for the ousting of President Hosni Mubarak and his ruling regime.

A rumor that has spread through Egyptian state television is that protesters in Tahrir are being paid by a "foreign element" to camp in the square and cause unrest. Others found a funny side to Mubarak's persistence in holding on to power: A protester with big afro held a sign saying, "Mubarak, leave so I can go home and cut my hair."

The word "leave" was the most common in the signs raised in the square. Some activists wrote it in three languages. One protester wrote in the hieroglyphics of ancient Egypt to express his frustration: "Since you [Mubarak] are a Pharaoh, we're writing you in the hieroglyphic language you might understand."

Both the Egyptian foreign ministry and the opposition Muslim Brotherhood have said the popular protest movement sweeping the country has nothing to do with Iran, or Islam.

But that hasn't stopped Iranian officials from continuing to try and cast the uprising as an "Islamic awakening" in the tradition of their own 1979 Islamic Revolution.

On Tuesday, a spokesman for the foreign ministry praised the "justice-seeking" protest movement sweeping Egypt and warned against the meddling of foreign powers in Egypt's affairs.

"Anyone who tries to interfere in the internal affairs of this country and cause a diversion on the path of the popular movement will have to deal with the Egyptian nation," Ramin Mehmanparast told a news conference, according to state television.

When asked specifically about the Egyptian foreign ministry's statements, Mehmanparast questioned the authority of the ministry to speak for the people.

"A great movement is taking place in Egypt, and the first step of this movement was to question the trust and authorities of a person who controlled the government," he said. "Therefore, if someone is not to be trusted from the Egyptian people's point of view, their remarks will definitely have no authority for us."

Many in the Iranian opposition, however, have accused members of the government of being hypocritical in their support of protests in Egypt and Tunisia after brutally cracking down on Iranians who went to the streets following the 2009 disputed presidential elections.

While foreign tourists were flying out of Cairo in the masses amid the mass demonstrations against the government of President Hosni Mubarak, lining up at Cairo International Airport to get on the first flight out, 37-year old Belgian consultant Floris Van Cauwelaert was trying to get on a flight into Cairo to get a first-hand glimpse of the dramatic events unfolding in the Egyptian capital.

He was the regular guy who'd grown tired of watching history on TV instead of experiencing it in real life.

"I was lying in bed saying to myself: 'I should be in Egypt now'," he told Babylon & Beyond. "I was so enthusiastic about what was going on there. So I bought the ticket the next day not really thinking about how I was going to do this. When I was on the plane I thought to myself: 'What am I doing?'"

Police barracks in Rafah, the town in North Sinai that borders the Gaza strip, came under attack early Monday when a group of unknown perpetrators fired rocket-propelled grenades at the building, Egyptian media reported.

According to Agence France-Presse, at  least one Egyptian police officer was injured. Meanwhile, a reporter in North Sinai for Egyptian state-run TV named the victim as Muhammad Ahmad Mahmud, 21, but didn't mention his profession. 

The attackers were deterred by tribesmen in the area who identified them as members of "extremist religious groups and foreign elements from the other side of the border," added the reporter, speaking on Egypt's Channel 1.

Sinai Bedouins' testy relations with Egyptian authorities have been heightened by days of nationwide political unrest. 

Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei said Sunday that he will not negotiate with the Egyptian government until President Hosni Mubarak steps down.

"The whole idea was to move that regime to a new regime," ElBaradei said on CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS." "Mubarak continues to be a symbol of that old regime, and I will not give any legitimacy to that existing regime."

ElBaradei's comments came as Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman met in Cairo with some opposition figures, including members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood and a representative of ElBaradei's National Assn. for Change. Mubarak has said that he plans to remain in office until elections in September but that he will not run again.

ElBaradei, the former director of the International Atomic Energy Agency who has emerged as a figurehead for the country's fractured opposition, said the transition process should not be managed solely by the outgoing regime.

"There has to be heavy engagement by the people, by the civilians," he said. "So we are not in the greatest situation right now.  It's a very opaque situation, and it's a very tense situation."

He proposed the creation of a transitional presidential council that would prepare the country for free and fair elections. That council could include Suleiman or an army representative, as well as a civilian representative, he said.

ElBaradei said any elections before "the right people establish parties and engage" would be "fake democracy."

RELATED

Muslim Brotherhood joins talks on Egypt crisis; departure of Hosni Mubarak remains sticking point

U.S. reaction: Applause for negotiations in Egypt

The day a nation's fear dissolved

-- Alexandra Zavis

Photo: Mohamed ElBaradei on CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS." Credit: CNN

In video footage captured at Tahrir Square on Thursday morning, Egyptian anti-government demonstrator Salma Said explains why President Hosni Mubarak must step down and what government policies protesters camping out in Tahrir want out the door.

"I have lived all my life and I haven't seen a president but Mubarak," says the 20-something Said. "All of us suffer from his regime ... the emergency law, the injustice and inequality, and the police brutality --  it's the thing that affects us as young the most." 

On the topic of police brutality, Said gives the example of 28-year old Egyptian Khaled Said, who allegedly died at the hands of the police in Alexandria last year and has become a symbol for anti-government demonstrators.

Said says she is proud of how far the protesters have been able to push their demands, but stresses that there is still much left to do until Egypt is restored.

"I am proud at this point but our job isn't over yet. We still have a lot to do," she said.

The segment was the second interview filmed as part of an upcoming documentary "Zero Silence," about young people in the Middle East who are tired of the authoritarian regimes they live under, and who are using the Internet to aid them in creating change.

-- Alexandra Sandels in Beirut

Video: Protester Salma Said speaks out. Credit: YouTube / Zero Silence Project

Just one Friday ago, immediately after the afternoon call to prayer, a few thousand protestors were repelled from a mosque in Giza by rubber bullets, water hoses and clouds of tear gas.  A stone’s throw away were young mothers with babies, sweepers gathering the trash and men hawking sweet potatoes and plump tomatoes.  I saw two young men walking  arm in arm when one stopped to choose a big onion — for later, I was told, when the eyes and throat burn from tear gas.  It was a lovely Cairene street scene filled with vivid colors and more than a little irony so I whipped out my tiny Coolpix.

I filmed as a distraught man came up close to the screen and ranted about his government.  An undercover policeman built like a bookcase thwacked the man hard against the head and then turned and demanded I erase it. I did.  So much for free speech. He was actually bigger than a bookcase. Nearby a canister of white smoke unfurled its sting. A small boy ran to douse it with water. The tear gas burned and my heart raced.

The revolution had begun.

Egypt's newly appointed vice president plans to meet a group of prominent figures Saturday to discuss a proposed solution to the country's crisis in which he would assume the president's powers for an interim period, a member of the group said.

Diaa Rashwan told Reuters news agency Friday that he and others had been invited to see Vice President Omar Suleiman, an ex-intelligence chief who has the confidence of Washington, to discuss an article of the constitution allowing President Hosni Mubarak to hand powers to his deputy.

Algerian opposition activists are not impressed by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who announced on Thursday plans to lift the 19-year state of emergency "very soon" even as he used the powers granted him by the emergency law to ban protest marches in the capital.

"I don't think this government is serious about implementing democracy in Algeria," Rachid Malawi, head of the independent union of civil servants, told Reuters. 

Iran's spiritual and political leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the popular uprisings against Western-backed autocrats in Tunisia and Egypt represent an "irreversible defeat" for the United States.

Speaking amid heightened security during the Friday sermon at Tehran University, Khamenei went on to draw comparisons between Iran's Islamic Revolution and the recent Arab protest movements, characterizing the protests in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen and around the region as an "Islamic awakening."

He also accused the United States of propping up corrupt leaders in the region in order to protect its own interests and those of its ally Israel.

"This is a war between two willpowers: the willpower of the people and the willpower of their enemies," he said. "The Israelis and the U.S. are more concerned about what would happen to their interests in post-Mubarak regime."

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said in an interview with ABC News Thursday that if he were to give in to demands for his resignation the country would descend into chaos and be at risk of Islamic radicals' seizing control.

"I am fed up. After 62 years in public service, I have had enough. I want to go," Mubarak told ABC News' Christiane Amanpour in an interview at the  presidential palace in Cairo. But he said that if he were to leave now, "there would be chaos."

More images are coming from the battle lines at Tahrir Square, where volunteers have set up a field hospital to treat the wounded after fierce clashes between demonstrators and knife- and club-wielding supporters of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak earlier Wednesday. Eyewitnesses say protesters remain resilient and that they've set up barricades near the Egyptian Museum and other crossing points into the square to keep the pro-Mubarak supporters out. Eyewitnesses say the demonstrators were gaining ground late Wednesday night while the pro-Mubarak demonstrators on the other hand have plummeted in number. 

The images below, taken at Tahrir Square on Wednesday night by an American visiting Cairo, show wounded demonstrators being treated at a makeshift hospital that's been set up by volunteers near the battle lines.