China blocks Internet searches for 'Egypt'

Almaty. February 1. Kazakhstan Today - China has been blocking Internet searches for the word 'Egypt', the agency reports.

The country's Communist Party has ordered Internet censors to block the word "Egypt" from Twitter-like micro-blogging sites out of apparent concern events in the Middle East will stoke unrest closer to home, Reuters reported.

Chinese authorities are also busy having comments on the crisis in Egypt scrubbed from those sites, The Wall Street Journal informed.

China has close diplomatic relations with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's administration - which may not last the groundswell demanding his ouster. More than 100 people have died in six days of often violent protests.

Restricting information on websites has been common in China in recent years, most recently in the wake of the failed pro-democracy movement in Iran in 2009. The country also cracked down on social media coverage of the riots that engulfed the northwestern Chinese region of Xinjiang that same year.

As informed earlier, more than 100 people have been killed in Egypt in five days of unprecedented protests that have rocked the Arab world.

On Sunday, more than 1,000 protesters gathered in central Cairo, demanding President Hosni Mubarak step down and dismissing his appointment of a vice president, Reuters reported.

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