With opposition demonstrations taking place in 20 regions of the country, the Egyptian government responded by ordering 39,000 employees of state-owned television to demonstrate against the opposition.

The government is attempting to ensure acceptance of a constitutional amendment that allows more than one candidate to run for president, but with restrictions.

The paper described the mood among the television station’s employees as “angry following strict instructions … to be present in front of the television building in a demonstration to support Mubarak.” …

The paper indicated the government was bribing people to vote in favor of the amendment, saying “the price of each vote costs between 30 pounds ($6) and a pill of Viagra.”

In other news from Egypt, first lady Laura Bush raised some eyebrows when she defended Egyptian president Mubarak’s effort to keep democratic reform slow in his country:

“To act like you can just go from here to there overnight is naive, for one thing. And especially I don’t want Americans trying to tell people how you’re going to go from here to here in no time,” she said, gesturing a great distance with her hands. “Because we know that that’s not easy and we know that it’s – in many cases – not even possible.”

Hello From the land of the Pharaohs Egypt quips:

It seems that Mrs Bush knows a lot more than chocolate pudding and children books. Today, the first lady of the US endorsed president Mubarak’s decision to ammend the Egyptian constitution citing that reform should come slowly. Her statement infuriated Egypt’s opposition with a muslim brotherhood spokesman saying that “Mrs. Bush statement does not represent the US administration”. Ummmmm, a muslim brotherhood member is defending the US administration, that’s pretty interesting!