The 18-year-old, from Clacton, was accused of intentionally encouraging or assisting in the commission of an offence under the Serious Crime Act 2007, Essex police said. 
 
 She allegedly sent a message on BBM on Monday Aug 8 encouraging friends in the seaside town to copy scenes of violence and looting that were spreading across England. 
 
 The unnamed teenager has been bailed to appear at Colchester Magistrates’ Court on Sept 1. 
 
 Her case is among the first in which police have specifically cited BBM. A 27-year-old man from Southampton was also charged with inciting violence via the service yesterday. 
 
 Attention has focused on BBM, provided to BlackBerry owners by the Canadian firm RIM, since it emerged that users were passing around messages that encouraged rioting by appointment. 
 
 BlackBerry smartphones are especially popular among urban teenagers, accounting for 37 per cent of the market according to Ofcom. They are cheap compared to rival smartphones and the built-in BBM service offers a very low cost alternative to text messaging. 
 
 It presents a particular challenge to police attempting to track disturbances, because it acts as a hybrid of traditional text messaging and a social network such as Twitter: communication is quasi-private, but it is possible to “broadcast” messages to many users. 
 
 On Monday, RIM pledged to help investigators “in any way we can”, but David Lammy, the Labour MP for Tottenham, called for BBM to be shut down at the height of the disturbances. 
 
 He was backed last night by the Tory MP Louise Mensch, who suggested on Twitter that communication networks should be shut down during riots. 
 
 “If riot info and fear is spreading by Facebook and Twitter, shut them off for an hour or two, then restore. World won't implode,” she said. 
 
 Police already have powers to access stored data and monitor social networks in real time under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act, and the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act. Nevertheless, in his speech to Parliament yesterday, David Cameron said new powers were under consideration. 
 
 “We are working with the police, the intelligence services and industry to look at whether it would be right to stop people communicating via these websites and services when we know they are plotting violence, disorder and criminality,” he said. ||||| Egyptians and Tunisians took revenge for Khaled Said and Bouazizi by peacefully toppling their murdering regimes, not stealing DVD players. Mosa’ab Elshamy 
 
 mosaaberizing 
 
 The morning after this post was published, Sarah Carr, a Cairene blogger who is a dual citizen of Egypt and Britain, wrote a blog post about the riots, “Love Me, I’m a Looter,” which began with the observation that she is from a south London suburb where riots broke out on Monday. “I’m from Croydon,” she explained. “Someone has to be.” 
 
 As the riots in London continued for a third night on Monday, Egyptian bloggers, watching events unfold on live television, debated the meaning of the violent confrontations between young people and the police, which reminded some of them of their own pitched battles on the streets of Cairo a few months ago. 
 
 Just a few minutes after one CNN correspondent, Dan Rivers, was forced to scurry behind police lines — as bottles were thrown at him and his cameraman in the south London neighborhood of Peckham — the reporter suggested that the riots had seemed to gain a kind of “momentum” through social networking. The dynamic, Mr. Rivers said, reminded him of the way protests had built and spread through cities in the Middle East earlier this year. 
 
 Watching Mr. Rivers report from Peckham, an Egyptian blogger and activist who writes as Zeinobia commented, “The CNN reporter in London is acting as if he is in war zone.” Moments later, she added, “Oh, God, they are attacking the CNN crew in London and it was a live action.” 
 
 Trying to get her head around the mayhem, Zeinobia — who took part in the protests that forced Hosni Mubarak from power — asked her followers on Twitter to explain what was happening. A Cairo radio anchor, who writes as LinaNileFM on the social network, responded, “Riots broke out in North London over a police shooting, started peacefully then turned violent with cars and buildings burnt down.” 
 
 As she switched between coverage of London’s riots on CNN and Al Jazeera, Zeinobia wrote, “To be honest I do not understand why protesters would set shops and houses on fire.” 
 
 To be honest I do not understand why protesters would set shops and houses on fire by all measures Zeinobia 
 
 Zeinobia 
 
 Just before Mr. Rivers suggested to viewers of CNN that the rioters in London seemed to be more interested in looting than protesting, Zeinobia made a similar observation from a much greater distance, writing, “I am sorry but you do not loot to object the murder of a young man, you are using his murder.” 
 
 I am sorry but you do not loot to object the murder of a young man , you are using his murder Zeinobia 
 
 Zeinobia 
 
 Mosa’ab Elshamy, another Cairene blogger and activist who played a role in the protest movement in Egypt, took a similar view of what was happening in London, writing on Twitter: 
 
 Buildings are on fire, shops are being looted while many “activists” on my timeline are cheering on, calling it a revolution. 
 
 After images circulated that showed a London electronics shop being looted, the Egyptian blogger added that even though police brutality sparked revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia, “Egyptians and Tunisians took revenge for Khaled Said and Bouazizi by peacefully toppling their murdering regimes, not stealing DVD players.” 
 
 Later, after he was rebuked by another activist blogger, Nora Shalaby, for “simplifying” the London riots, Mr. Elshamy observed that the “thugs” in Egypt who were deployed to attack protesters on behalf of the Mubarak regime “had nothing to do with the revolution and were stopped by people — Londoners need to do that.” 
 
 A bit later, Ms. Shalaby replied, “I don’t support looting or burning but when you marginalize a community for decades you have to except something like this to happen.” 
 
 @mosaaberizing I dont support looting or burning but when u marginalize a community 4 decades u have to except something like this to happen Nora Shalaby 
 
 norashalaby 
 
 Another prominent Egyptian blogger, Alaa Abd El Fattah, who has been outspoken in his hatred for the impunity with which Egyptian police officers have gotten away with murder in the past, also joined the debate, commenting, “seems to happen periodically in Europe, police kills poor boy, riots erupt, hours later nobody talks about police killers just looters.” A short time later, he added, “the point being, when the event is injustice committed by a state against an already marginalized community expect trouble.” 
 
 Mostafa Hussein, another blogger and activist, pointed out, simply, “2011 is an exceptional year.” He then added some criticism of the British state broadcaster’s coverage of the riots that seemed to echo what was said in January and February of Egyptian state television reports: “BBC is making it sound like young people have a single aim and that’s to loot and vandalise. Nothing or very little on why they are doing so.” ||||| Less than a year before London hosts the 2012 Games, scenes of rioting and looting a few miles from the main Olympic site have raised concerns about security and policing for the event. 
 
 Firefighters look at a burned-out building in Tottenham, north London, Sunday, Aug. 7, 2011, after a demonstration against the death of a local man turned violent and cars and shops were set ablaze. One... (Associated Press) 
 
 Local inhabitants view the shell of a burnt-out car in Enfield, north London, Monday, Aug. 8, 2011. New unrest erupted in various locations in London late Sunday, one day after rioting and looting took... (Associated Press) 
 
 Smashed glass doors and windows and wrecked shutters on the shop front of a betting shop and a jewelry shop in Enfield, north London, Monday, Aug. 8, 2011. Violence broke out in the gritty north London... (Associated Press) 
 
 Images of buildings and vehicles in flames broadcast around the world are also poor publicity for the capital as it prepares to stage the games for a third time. 
 
 The unrest, which started Saturday night in the Tottenham area of north London after a police shooting, spread closer to the Olympic complex Monday when scattered violence broke out in the Hackney area of east London. 
 
 "You can imagine how stretched the police would be if this were to occur during the Olympics," said Tony Travers, a local government expert at the London School of Economics. "So I think this will create a worry within City Hall and the Home Office. 
 
 "It's not so much that this might happen again _ unlikely _ as that it reminds the people in charge that while the Olympic Games are going on, any other major event is going to be complicated." 
 
 Groups of youths, many wearing hoods and masks, attacked shops and windows in Hackney. Police in riot gear were pelted with pieces of wood and other objects. 
 
 The government said more than 200 people had been arrested and more than two dozen charged over three days of trouble. Police said at least 35 police officers were injured. 
 
 Sports also felt the impact, with two soccer matches called off because police needed to focus its resources on the violence. East London's West Ham said police told it to postpone the League Cup match against Aldershot on Tuesday because "all major public events in London were to be rearranged," while south London side Charlton said its cup match against Reading was being called off "on safety grounds" on advice from the police. 
 
 Hackney is one of the five boroughs encompassing the Olympic Park, a 1-square-mile site that will be the centerpiece of the games, which start on July 27, 2012. Monday's violence took place about 4 miles from the park. 
 
 The park includes the Olympic Stadium, which will host the opening and closing ceremonies and track and field competition, as well as the velodrome, aquatics center, basketball arena, handball arena and main press and broadcast center. 
 
 Other Olympic venues are located at various sites around the capital, including Hyde Park (triathlon), Horse Guards Parade (beach volleyball), Wembley Stadium (football) and Wimbledon (tennis). There has been no violence in those areas. 
 
 For civic leaders and Olympic organizers, the violence was an unwelcome reminder of London's volatility, less than two weeks after the city celebrated the one-year countdown to the games with great fanfare. 
 
 The International Olympic Committee said it had confidence in British authorities. 
 
 "Security at the Olympic Games is a top priority for the IOC," spokesman Mark Adams said. "It is, however, directly handled by the local authorities, as they know best what is appropriate and proportionate. We are confident they will do a good job in this domain." 
 
 The London organizing committee for the Olympics, declined to comment on the trouble, in what appeared to be an attempt to avoid making any links between the violence and the games. 
 
 Two police cars and a double-decker bus were set on fire Saturday, stores were looted and several buildings along Tottenham's main street _ five miles from the Olympic Park _ were reduced to smoldering shells. 
 
 The unrest was sparked by a police shooting, but some blamed unemployment, insensitive policing and opportunistic looting for the worst violence the city has seen in years. 
 
 Police and politicians insisted the disorder was the work of a criminal minority and not a sign of social tensions or security lapses ahead of the 2012 Games. 
 
 Britain was already preparing a massive security operation for the Olympics, but most of the attention has been on the threat of international terrorism. About 12,000 police officers will be on duty each day of the games, which have a security budget of at least $770 million. 
 
 A day after London was awarded the games in 2005, suicide bombers attacked London's transport network, killing 52 people. The British government is planning for the national terror threat to be "severe" during the Olympics, meaning an attempted attack is highly likely. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Associated Press writers Jill Lawless, Meera Selva and Danica Kirka contributed to this report. ||||| Police ordered soccer clubs in London to postpone matches as violence and looting spread across the British capital Monday for a third night with buildings being set ablaze. 
 
 A masked youth pulls a burning garbage bin set on fire by rioters in Hackney, east London, Monday Aug. 8, 2011. Youths set fire to shops and vehicles in a host of areas of London _ which will host next... (Associated Press) 
 
 A building burns as a riot police officer watches in Croydon, south London, Monday, Aug. 8, 2011. Violence and looting spread across some of London's most impoverished neighborhoods on Monday, with youths... (Associated Press) 
 
 British riot police officers are deployed during riots in Hackney, east London, Monday Aug. 8, 2011. Youths set fire to shops and vehicles in a host of areas of London _ which will host next summer's... (Associated Press) 
 
 British police officers charge rioters, during riots in Hackney, east London, Monday Aug. 8, 2011. Youths set fire to shops and vehicles in a host of areas of London _ which will host next summer's Olympic... (Associated Press) 
 
 As police struggled to contain the spiraling disorder, League Cup matches due to take place at West Ham and Charlton on Tuesday were postponed due to security resources being stretched. 
 
 England's friendly against the Netherlands on Wednesday at Wembley Stadium in north London is also under threat, although officials will meet with police 24 hours before the match to discuss the situation. 
 
 West Ham, though, said police told it to postpone the League Cup match against Aldershot on Tuesday because "all major public events in London were to be rearranged." 
 
 The east London club said it was "because of the need to focus police resources elsewhere." 
 
 "Whilst neither the club or police anticipate any issues around the game itself, the club has to comply with the police request," West Ham said. 
 
 South London side Charlton said its cup match against Reading was being called off "on safety grounds" on advice from the police. 
 
 The violence, which is unrelated to any soccer issues, began late Saturday near Tottenham's ground in north London when a peaceful protest against the fatal police shooting of a man in disputed circumstances degenerated into a rampage. 
 
 The damage at Tottenham's White Hart Lane stadium was limited to a ticket office, which remains closed. 
 
 But Tottenham announced that stadium tours have been canceled for "safety reasons," while the neighborhood's main shopping street remains cordoned off on Monday, with steam still rising from burnt-out buildings. 
 
 The opening game of the Premier League season, however, is still due to go ahead. 
 
 "Following the disturbances in Tottenham over the weekend, the club has been in ongoing discussions with the necessary authorities regarding this coming weekend's Premier League fixture against Everton," Tottenham said in a statement. "We can advise fans that at this stage the game is going ahead and the Club is doing everything it can to ensure that this remains the position." 
 
 Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy said the club is "deeply saddened" by the weekend rioting, in which buildings in the area were torched and police officers injured. 
 
 "The club is committed to supporting its community with help with both the physical clean up of our area and the longer term rebuilding of the community spirit," Levy said. "It is more critical than ever that community, business and political leaders _ local and national, public and private _ now work closely together to support the regeneration of this area and we shall certainly look to play our part in that." 
 
 But there has also been anger directed against the club among locals since Levy unveiled plans last year to bid for the right to move into the Olympic Stadium in east London after the 2012 Games. Although the stadium was awarded to rival club West Ham, Tottenham is still challenging that decision in court. 
 
 The club also announced last month that it was still looking to resurrect plans to build a new stadium next to its current home by applying for public funding. 
 
 Levy did not directly refer to the club's future in Tottenham in Monday's statement condemning the weekend violence. ||||| Twitter and Facebook may have enjoyed gushing praise for its roles in catalyzing revolutions across the Middle East, but another social network is emerging as a conduit for mayehm in this weekend's riots in London on Saturday night and Sunday evening: BlackBerry Messenger, known better to thumb-typers as BBM. 
 
 Over the weekend the Daily Mail's Ian Gallagher and Steven Farrell blamed the pandemonium on Twitter, citing a retweeted picture of burning police car as the fuel that flamed the violence. "As the rioting escalated, trouble-makers on Twitter seemed keen to orchestrate the violence, bringing scores more people into the area. One user calling himself 'English Frank' urged attacks on the police, saying: 'Everyone up and roll to Tottenham f*** the 50 [police]. I hope 1 dead tonight,'" added Gallagher and Farrell. 
 
 Looking into Twitter's role, Neal Mann, a Freelance Journalist for Sky News, tried locating the originating Tweets on his Twitter account @fieldproducer, with no success. "Still waiting to see any hard evidence that looters used Twitter to organise, haven't seen a single tweet. Surely not all locked accounts..." Eventually, he found Tweets indicating more happened on BBM than Twitter. "Tweeted at 10am Sunday --> RT @OhioV1 So there has been a bbm broadcast sent around telling people to link up at Enfield Town Station @ 4pm." And, he also found what he believes is an organizing BBM message. 
 
 On his blog Urban Mashup, social media strategist Jonathan Akwue made a longer case for why BBM played a bigger role in organizing looters: 
 
 Well, it appears that BBM messages have been circulating since Thursday’s shooting of Duggan by the police. These have fuelled the anger of the youths that have taken to the streets. BBM was also the channel used to spread the word that the riot had started, and from what I can tell on Twitter, it appears to be the means by which communications continue to be shared. 
 
 Unlike Twitter or Facebook, BBM is much more private. Only BlackBerry users can message with each other, explains The Telegraph's Mathew Holehouser. "Crucially, in order to communicate users have to exchange their phones’ PINs, meaning their messages are private--unlike Twitter or Facebook. Conversations can be held between multiple people simultaneously in 'group chat' sessions." Given the barriers to reading and following a BBM conversation, it presents a useful organizational tool for those planning an event like this. "I am not a security intelligence expert so I don’t know the extent to which the police are able to monitor the BBM network, but Canadian police officers have previously complained that criminals prefer using Blackberry Messenger because it is harder to wiretap," explains Urban Mashup. 
 
 And unlike in the U.S., BlackBerrys remain more popular in the U.K. than iPhones or Andriods, reports TechCrunch's Matt Butcher. "Using BlackBerry handsets--the smartphone of choice for the majority (37%) of British teens, according to last week's Ofcom study," adds The Guardian's Josh Halliday. The phone costs less than other smart phones, and BBM is basically free to users and faster than text messaging, making it an attractive mobile device for London's youth. 
 
 While there may have been planning via BBM, other aspects of the event seeped out through other social networks like Facebook and Twitter. It proved especially helpful as a way for journalists and onlookers to follow the news, explains Holhouse. "A BBC crew were attacked while delivering a live broadcast, forcing the channel and Sky News to withdraw their satellite trucks. In their absence, many turned to Twitter for a stream of eyewitness reports and photographs posted by local residents." And following the death of Mark Duggan, whose murder acted as the catalyst for the event, people flocked to Facebook to commemorate his passing. The page now has more than 8,500 fans. 
 
 Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments or send an email to the author at rgreenfield at theatlantic dot com. You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire. ||||| CAIRO — At least 73 people were killed in a brawl between rival groups of soccer fans after a match in the city of Port Said on Wednesday, the bloodiest outbreak of lawlessness since the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak one year ago. 
 
 The riot refocused attention on the failure of the transitional government to re-establish a sense of order and stability in the streets and threatened to provoke a new crisis for Egypt’s halting political transition. The deadliest soccer riot anywhere in more than 15 years, it also illuminated the potential for savagery among the organized groups of die-hard fans known here as ultras who have added a volatile element to the street protests since Mr. Mubarak’s exit. 
 
 Leading members of the newly elected Parliament accused the military-led government of deliberately allowing the violence to escalate to justify its expansive police powers and undermine the revolution. Lawmakers demanded high-level resignations and threatened a vote of no confidence in the military-appointed cabinet, and Parliament scheduled an emergency session on Thursday to discuss the episode. 
 
 “The reason for this tragedy is the deliberate neglect and absence of the military and the police,” said Essam el Erian, a senior lawmaker from the Muslim Brotherhood’s political arm, which leads the chamber. 
 
 He accused security forces of “a plot against democratic transition” and of “a revenge against us” for seeking to end the so-called emergency law allowing extralegal detention. 
 
 “This will not pass without punishment, a thousand punishments,” he warned. 
 
 Politicians, fans and Egyptian soccer officials all faulted the police for failing to conduct the standard gate searches to prevent fans from bringing knives, clubs or other weapons into the match. 
 
 The first flurries of violence, by all accounts, occurred about midway through the match between the historical rivals El Masry of Port Said and Al Ahly of Cairo. The visiting Ahly fans displayed a sign questioning the virility of Port Said fans, and the game was halted temporarily because of scuffles in the stands. 
 
 After El Masry came from behind to win in a 3-1 upset, its fans stormed the field, chasing Al Ahly’s players back to their locker room and attacking its fans with knives, clubs and stones. The police around the stadium appeared unable or unwilling to control the violence, and video footage showed officers standing idle as the melee exploded. 
 
 Mohammed Abu Trika, a star player with Al Ahly, said that the police had done nothing. “People here are dying, and no one is doing a thing. It’s like a war,” he said in an interview on Al Ahly’s satellite channel. “Is life this cheap?” 
 
 Soon locker rooms had transformed into makeshift field hospitals. Bloody bodies littered the field. Health Ministry officials said that some people had died of knife wounds and many of blows to the head. Some were thrown down from high in the stands. Others were trampled by stampeding fans rushing to escape. 
 
 An official of the Port Said morgue said at least a few of those killed were members of the security forces, The Associated Press reported. 
 
 Egypt’s military rulers sent helicopters and military vehicles to Port Said to carry the Ahly players and fans, the injured and the dead back to Cairo. Other soldiers and tanks were deployed around the city to help keep the peace. 
 
 In a rare impromptu statement, Egypt’s top military officer, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, vowed in a phone call to Al Ahly’s satellite channel that the military would apprehend those responsible and that the victims would be compensated. 
 
 “We will get through this stage. Egypt will be stable,” he said. “We have a road map to transfer power to elected civilians. If anyone is plotting instability in Egypt, they will not succeed. Everyone will get what they deserve.” 
 
 Others sought to associate the rioting fans with political protests in the streets. “This is a plot to topple the state,” said Kamel Abu Ali, president of the Masry club, who resigned over the deaths. “The police have to come back strongly, and we must let them do their job,” he continued, in a television interview. “When a thug is being punished, we shouldn’t defend him.” 
 
 The bloodshed was believed to be the deadliest soccer match since 1996, when 78 people died in a stampede after a match in Guatemala City. 
 
 In Cairo, the die-hard fans of the capital’s Zamalek club, usually archrivals of Al Ahly, abandoned a match in midgame in solidarity with the team, burning their signs as they usually do at the end. The match was called off, and by the end of the night, the league had suspended its schedule. 
 
 Apolitical before last year’s uprising, the fans, or ultras, were known for their rowdy behavior, obscene chants and apparently endless enthusiasm for clashes with the often-brutal Egyptian police. 
 
 The ultras joined the revolt against Mr. Mubarak on the first day of protests, taunting and harassing the police as they tried to crack down on thousands of other marchers heading for Cairo’s Tahrir Square. Protest organizers said that they had played a more central role in the “battle of the camels,” helping to beat back mobs of Mubarak supporters in a daylong battle of rocks and gasoline bombs. Thursday is the anniversary of that event, a turning point in the Egyptian revolt. 
 
 By 2 a.m. Thursday, a new wave of protests had begun, blaming the military-led government for allowing the deaths of the fans. There were reports of marchers’ making their way through Port Said and chanting for the fall of the military council and clashes with police officers firing tear gas in the city of Suez. 
 
 In Cairo, demonstrators against military rule who had been camped out by the state television building moved their vigil to the Ahly headquarters. Then they marched to the train station, where hundreds were gathering to receive returning survivors.
– Fires blazed across London as riots continued unabated into a third night in Britain's capital city and even beyond. Metropolitan Police's Twitter feed says that more than 225 people have been arrested, but the official response is coming under fire and one pub manager tells the BBC that the scene is "an absolute war zone." The latest: British PM David Cameron cut short a vacation in Italy, and was returning home overnight, notes NPR. He'll meet with his emergency response team first thing. Over at the Atlantic, Rebecca Greenfield parses the role of the BlackBerry in the spread of the riots, noting that the device is hugely popular in the UK, and BlackBerry Messenger allows much more private messaging. RIM is said to be cooperating with police in figuring out whether the BlackBerry played a role in organizing. London's 2012 Olympics loom large over the riots, notes the AP. "You can imagine how stretched the police would be if this were to occur during the Olympics," says an expert. British police were calling off soccer matches and many public events, reports the AP, because, as one club was told, "of the need to focus police resources elsewhere." Egyptian bloggers are watching the events in London, and giving their two cents, notes the New York Times. One take: "Egyptians and Tunisians took revenge for Khaled Said and Bouazizi by peacefully toppling their murdering regimes, not stealing DVD players."