2 students arrested in Cairo return home

At least two of three American students arrested during protests in Cairo are back in the United States, after an Egyptian court ordered their release.

The young men were arrested on the roof of a university building near Cairo's iconic Tahrir Square last Sunday after officials accused them of throwing firebombs at security forces fighting with protesters.

Gregory Porter, 19, was greeted by his parents and other relatives Saturday evening when he landed at Philadelphia International Airport. He took no questions, but he said he was thankful for the help he and the other American students received from the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, administrators at the university they were attending there, and attorneys in Egypt and the United States.

"I'm just so thankful to be back, to be in Philadelphia right now," said Porter, who is from nearby Glenside, Pa., and attends Drexel University.

Luke Gates, 21, arrived in the United States on a flight Saturday, said Mark Land, a spokesman for Indiana University, where Gates is a student. Land declined to specify the airport but said Gates' parents told him they expect their son to arrive home in Indiana soon. His parents have declined to talk with the media.

The third American, Derrik Sweeney, 19, a Georgetown University student from Jefferson City, Mo., was expected to arrive in Missouri late Saturday night.

All were studying at the American University in Cairo.

Meanwhile, fresh clashes between Egyptian security forces and protesters, demanding the military step down, broke out yesterday outside the cabinet building, leaving one man dead, as violence threatened to overshadow next week's parliamentary elections.

And Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, the head of the ruling military council that took power after Hosni Mubarak's ouster in February, met with opposition leader and Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei and presidential hopeful Amr Moussa, the former head of the Arab League. Egyptian state TV reported the meetings but gave no details.

The new prime minister, Kamal el-Ganzouri, whose appointment by the military on Friday touched off a wave of anger among protesters accusing the army of trying to perpetuate the old regime, also held a series of meetings trying to sway youth groups to his side.