Egypt Protests Continue As Mubarak Refuses To Quit

Protests to oust recalcitrant Egypt’s leader Hosni Mubarak have continued with the country’s most  prominent democracy advocate, Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei, taking up a bullhorn Sunday  and calling for President Mubarak to resign, reports The Associated Press.

ElBaradei spoke to thousands of protesters who defied a curfew for a third night. Fighter jets  streaked low overhead and police returned to the capital’s streets — high-profile displays of  authority over a situation spiraling out of control.

ElBaradei’s appearance in Tahrir, or Liberation Square underscored the jockeying for leadership of  the mass protest movement that erupted seemingly out of nowhere in the past week to shake the Arab  world’s most populous nation.

Now in their sixth day, the protests have come to be centered in the square, where demonstrators  have camped since Friday. Up to 10,000 protesters gathered there Sunday, and even after the 4 p.m.  curfew, they numbered in the thousands, including families with young children, addressing Mubarak  with their chants of “Leave, leave, leave.”

“You are the owners of this revolution. You are the future,” ElBaradei told the crowd after  nightfall. “Our essential demand is the departure of the regime and the beginning of a new Egypt in  which every Egyptian lives in virtue, freedom and dignity.”

In a further sign of Mubarak’s teetering position after three decades in power, his top ally — the  United States — called for an “orderly transition to democracy.”

Asked if Washington supports Mubarak as Egypt’s leader, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton  avoided a direct answer, telling Fox News: “We have been very clear that we want to see a  transition to democracy, and we want to see the kind of steps taken that will bring that about.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged the Egyptian government to implement democratic reforms and  stop violence against protesters.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his Cabinet that he was “anxiously following” the  crisis, saying Israel’s three-decade-old peace agreement with Egypt must be preserved.

Protesters have shrugged off Mubarak’s gestures of reform, including the sacking of his Cabinet and  the appointment of a vice president and a new prime minister — both seen as figures from the heart  of his regime.