Move comes after the former Egyptian president said he would defend himself against "unjust campaign". 
 
 The pre-recorded message was Mubarak's first public pronouncement since leaving office on February 11 [Reuters] Egypt's public prosecutor has summoned Hosni Mubarak, the former Egyptian president, and his sons as part of investigations into the killing of protesters and the alleged embezzlement of public funds. Mubarak's sons, Gamal and Alaa, have also been summoned in the embezzlement investigation, the prosecutor said in a statement on Sunday. Ahmed Nazif, the country's former prime minister, has also been detained for 15 days as part of investigations into misuse of public funds, the public prosecutor's statement said. "The phrasing of this has got to be looked at very carefully," reported Al Jazeera's Mike Hanna, in Cairo. "The word 'summoned' was not strictly used as a direct translation. What the prosecutor general has said is that he 'requests and requires' the deposed president and his two sons to answer questions relating to financial irregularities and also to the role that they played in the military crackdown that led to a number of deaths of protesters during Egypt's revolution." Hanna said that while Mubarak and his sons have only so far been requested to appear for questioning, there is weight behind the statement. "The prosecutor general has said as well that he has now notified the interior ministry of his request. This now gives this request real muscle. The assumption is that if it not obeyed or recognised, then steps could be taken to order the arrest of Mubarak and his sons." If Mubarak's questioning is to be part of a protracted and ongoing investigation process, as it appears to be, then it remains unclear whether this will appease protesters who have called for Mubarak to be immediately arrested, Hanna said. The prosecutor's office, meanwhile, also said that it had sequestered land belonging to Prince AlWaleed bin Talal, a Saudi billionaire. The land, in Toshka, in the south of the country, is part of a desert reclamation project, but the prosecutor did not immediately make it clear what the motivation behind the move was. Mubarak hits out at critics Earlier on Sunday, Mubarak, who was ousted after an 18-day popular uprising, said that he would co-operate with the country's general prosecutor during the corruption investigation, and defend himself against a campaign of "distortions, lies and incitement". In his first public message since being forced from office on February 11, Mubarak said he felt "a lot of pain" due to the "unjust campaign" against him and his family. "I cannot stay silent regarding the incitement campaign against me," he said in the pre-recorded audio message that was aired on Al Arabiya television on Sunday. Mubarak said that he had given up his position as president in "the interest of the country", and that he has "decided to stay away from politics". He said he had "waited for weeks" for the general prosecutor's office to conduct its investigations, and asserted that he did not own any assets abroad. "I agree to submit any written letters to help the general prosecutor and foreign ministry to ask any government in the world to expose my assents abroad since I took office," he said. "I want to make sure that the Egyptian people know I only own assets in a bank account inside the country." He said that he would submit written approval to the authorities to allow them to investigate his own and his family members' possible ownership of assets abroad. "All the assets I own and my sons are far from any allegations of corruption," he said. "After the legal process is complete, I reserve the right to legally pursue those who engaged in lies and distortions against me." The message was recorded at Mubarak's residence in Sharm al Shaikh on Saturday. Thousands of people gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square to protest against Mubarak's remarks, with demonstrators decrying his denials of wrongdoing. ||||| CAIRO — Egypt’s security forces shot and killed at least two protesters and wounded dozens before dawn Saturday in an attempt to disperse peaceful demonstrators spending the night in the capital’s iconic Tahrir Square, officials and witnesses said. 
 
 The crackdown was the most brutal since the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak on Feb. 11 and since the military started running the country. 
 
 While the square seethed with anger and betrayal, several protest leaders issued restrained statements that appeared to be aimed at de-escalating the confrontation and heading off further violence. 
 
 Early Sunday, a military curfew ended with no confrontation as more than a thousand protesters remained in the square, even after the ruling military council had vowed to clear them out with “firmness and force.” 
 
 The military tried to play down the violence, denying that anyone had been killed, and to distance itself from it, insisting that those who had raided the square were police officers under the control of the Interior Ministry. 
 
 And in a page that could have been taken from Mr. Mubarak’s manual, the military also asserted that the protesters had been infiltrated by “thugs” and “outlaws.” A senior military officer said the troublemakers were sent by Mubarak loyalists. 
 
 But the army’s version of events was contradicted even by its own government: a report from the Ministry of Health said one person had died. 
 
 Doctors at the Qasr el-Aini Hospital backed witnesses’ reports that two people had been fatally shot on Saturday; they said they had also treated 35 people for injuries sustained in the clash. Human rights lawyers said 42 protesters had been detained and later interrogated on charges of violating the national curfew, and also of violating a ban on protests enacted by the cabinet on March 24. 
 
 The protest began Friday, when tens of thousands of people turned out in Tahrir Square to protest the military’s tactics, which activists said included the torture of protesters, the abuse of women and the detention of thousands of people. The protest was one of the largest since Mr. Mubarak was ousted. 
 
 As another night, another curfew and another possible confrontation approached on Saturday, protest leaders condemned the crackdown, but also offered words clearly intended to turn down the temperature in the square. 
 
 Mohamed ElBaradei, an opposition leader and potential presidential candidate, posted a statement to his Facebook page that said: “The continuation of trust between the people and the army is a red line in order to protect the nation. Dialogue is the only alternative.” 
 
 The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s best organized political force, which had endorsed the protest on Friday, issued a statement on Saturday under the heading, “The Army and the People Are One Hand,” a popular chant among protesters when they were calling on the military to take their side during the revolution. 
 
 “The union that happened between the army and the people during the great revolution must continue and be stronger,” the statement said. 
 
 The Coalition of Youth of the Revolution, an association of groups that had helped organize the revolution, said it would suspend any dialogue with the military until the crackdown was investigated and people were held accountable. 
 
 But a member of the coalition, Islam Lotfy, while saying that the group defended “everyone’s right to protest,” conceded that “we didn’t think it was the right time for a sit-in.” 
 
 Despite these messages, many remained in the square, setting up tents as night fell on Saturday and attesting to the decentralization of what had begun as, and in many ways still is, a people’s protest. And even the opposition leaders who issued conciliatory statements may be quietly counting on those in the square to turn up the political pressure on the military. 
 
 The army has been struggling for weeks to establish control in a country frustrated by increasing poverty and decades of strong-arm rule. It has announced new elections, a central demand of demonstrators, but has still faced labor protests and weekly demonstrations by those pushing it to move faster to make democratic changes. The accusations of rights abuses have led some protesters to say that they had overthrown a dictator but not the dictatorship. 
 
 There was evidence of that on Saturday morning, when gunfire was heard in downtown Cairo for over two hours as several thousand riot police officers, uniformed soldiers and military police officers stormed the square. 
 
 “It was raining bullets,” said Houssam, 26, who did not want to give his last name for security reasons, while wandering the square at midday looking for friends he had lost in the predawn melee. “It was an enormous amount of shooting. I didn’t know what was going on.” 
 
 Security officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity confirmed that the military used live ammunition, tear gas and rubber bullets against protesters, who said they were chased down narrow side streets as they tried to flee. 
 
 Protesters regained control of the square by sunrise, forcing security forces back under a barrage of stones and setting fire to three of their vehicles. 
 
 By midday, the square was sealed behind makeshift barricades of barbed wire and metal girders and littered with stones from the early morning clashes. 
 
 Protesters said they were joined by as many as two dozen uniformed defectors from the armed forces, dubbed “free soldiers,” who tried to protect the protesters. 
 
 While politicians and protest leaders were more measured, the mood in the square was outrage. 
 
 “The military leaders are corrupt, ignorant criminals!” shouted one protester, Essam, who would not give his last name for fear of reprisals. “The next protest, we must leave Tahrir and go to the Ministry of Defense.”
– Hosni Mubarak today gave his first public message since being ousted from the Egyptian presidency, defending himself and his family against “unjust” allegations of corruption. He agreed to cooperate with Egypt’s general prosecutor during the corruption investigation, but called the campaign against him “distortions, lies, and incitement,” Al Jazeera reports. Also today, Egypt’s public prosecutor summoned Mubarak and his sons as part of the investigation into alleged embezzlement and killings of protesters. Meanwhile, protests in Egypt once again turned violent, with security forces killing at least two protesters and wounding dozens more yesterday in Tahrir Square, the New York Times reports. Also yesterday, at least one protester was killed in Yemen, the Times adds. In Syria, a human rights organization says 28 were killed when security forces fired on peaceful gatherings. That report comes on the heels of reports from Friday that 37 were killed, Sky News notes.