Egypt arrests six Al-Jazeera English journalists

Egyptian police on Monday arrested six foreign journalists working for Al-Jazeera English news channel at their Cairo hotel after authorities forbade them covering anti-regime protests, the channel said.

The nationalities of the arrested Al-Jazeera employees are "Australian, Portuguese and British," an Al-Jazeera spokesman said, without specifying how many of each nationality had been arrested.

The arrests came after Egypt on Sunday moved to shut down Al-Jazeera's coverage of mass protests against President Hosni Mubarak's regime, but the pan-Arab broadcaster vowed that it would not be silenced.

Outgoing information minister Anas al-Fikki on Sunday "ordered the closure of all activities by Al-Jazeera in the Arab republic of Egypt and the annulment of its licences," state media said.

The press cards of all Al-Jazeera staff in Egypt were also being withdrawn, it added.

Al-Jazeera said earlier that the shutdown of its Egyptian operations - on day six of unprecedented and often violent street protests - was aimed at "censoring and silencing the voices of the Egyptian people."