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Mubarak hangs on to power as protests, looting convulse Egypt

By the CNN Wire Staff
  • NEW: Roughly 1,000 inmates escape from a prison southwest of Cairo, state-run Nile TV reports
  • Egypt's ambassador to U.S. says his communication with the Obama administration stops
  • Mubarak appoints two new leaders; one is the powerful intelligence chief
  • Egyptians fearful of anarchy start arming themselves


Cairo, Egypt (CNN) -- Relative calm settled on Cairo in the hours before sunrise on Sunday, after tens of thousands of demonstrators defied a curfew on Saturday to demand change and new fears of anarchy spread as President Hosni Mubarak clung to power.

As Mubarak tried to redeem his 30-year rule, the world's attention fell on central Cairo, where the Army was deployed to replace police forces that clashed brutally with demonstrators. But with many Cairo neighborhoods left without any security, Egyptians began to feel the sting of politics cutting into personal safety.


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Roughly 1,000 inmates escaped from Prison Demu in Fayoum, southwest of Cairo, state-run Nile TV reported early Sunday.


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Anti-government demonstrators have taken to the streets in Egypt since Tuesday. The protests come weeks after similar disturbances sparked a revolution in Tunisia, forcing then-President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to flee the country.


Tunisia-inspired demonstrations have also taken place in Algeria, Yemen and Jordan.


"This is a change of personnel and we are talking about the change of a regime," ElBaradei, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, told Al-Jazeera television of Mubarak's government reshuffle. "The Egyptian people are saying one thing: President Hosni Mubarak must leave. We have to move towards a democratic state."



The clashes injured at least 60 people, Ali said.


Several officials were killed at Prison Demu as inmates escaped -- at least one after being fired on by prisoners -- Nile TV reported Sunday, though it did not say how many died.


Chaos reigned at Alexandria's short-staffed hospitals, where injured protesters were furious at doctors for not treating them quickly enough.










Egypt's ambassador to U.S., Sameh Shoukry, said Saturday that his communication with the Obama administration had come to a halt on Saturday.

"I certainly had very minute-by-minute conversations yesterday with members of the administration, there had been messages going back and forth," Shoukry told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. "Today there has been a lack of communication. I have not received any direct communication and I have not received any instructions to conduct any."

British Prime Minister David Cameron spoke to Mubarak on Saturday, according to a statement from his office.

Cameron released a joint statement on Egypt with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel calling on Mubarak to bring about a "process of transformation" and to hold "free and fair elections."

"It is essential that the further political, economic and social reforms President Mubarak has promised are implemented fully and quickly and meet the aspirations of the Egyptian people," the statement said. "The Egyptian people have legitimate grievances and a longing for a just and better future."


The consequences of the unrest started surfacing Saturday as Egypt's Central Bank announced the closure of all banks as well as the stock market on Sunday, state-run television reported. And midyear university examinations were postponed.


Egyptians and activists in cities around the world, including New York, Washington, London, Geneva and Toronto, staged protests Saturday in support of those in Egypt and demanded that Mubarak step down.

The international outcry followed a brutal crackdown Friday when thousands of riot and plainclothes police clashed violently with the protesters, firing water cannons, rubber bullets and tear gas with force and impunity.







Mubarak said, "These protests arose to express a legitimate demand for more democracy, need for a greater social safety net, and the improvement of living standards, fighting poverty and rampant corruption.

"I understand these legitimate demands of the people and I truly understand the depth of their worries and burdens, and I will not part from them ever and I will work for them every day," he said. "But regardless of what problems we face, this does not justify violence or lawlessness."




CNN's Nic Robertson, Ben Wedeman, Frederik Pleitgen, Ivan Watson, Housam Ahmed, Caroline Faraj and Saad Abedine and journalist Ian Lee contributed to this report

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