EGYPT: Mubarak, there is no way but the way out. Do it while you can and before the country destruct itself!

 

 'Revolution of the people': Egyptians return to streets
Mubarak fires cabinet, appoints new vice president, prime minister but refuses to step down; scores killed, thousands wounded; mummies destroyed at museum.

CAIRO — Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak named a vice president Saturday for the first time since coming to power nearly 30 years ago — a clear step toward setting up a successor in the midst of the biggest anti-government protests of his regime.

After five days of protests, Cairo was engulfed in chaos.

NBC News' Richard Engel reported dramatic scenes of tanks and armored personnel carriers fanning out across the city of 18 million, guarding key government buildings. He told msnbc there was rampant looting and protesters, many smeared in red, screaming and yelling in the streets.

Lawlessness was spreading fast. At least three people were killed as they stormed the Interior Ministry on Saturday. Protesters carried their bodies through the crowd. At least 62 have died nationwide since the uprising. Officials say an additional 2,000 people have been injured. 

Residents of affluent neighborhoods were boarding up their houses against gangs of thugs roaming the streets with knives and sticks and gunfire was heard in some neighborhoods. 

The museum in central Cairo, which has the world's biggest collection of Pharaonic antiquities, is adjacent to the headquarters of the ruling National Democratic Party that protesters had earlier set ablaze. Flames were seen still pouring out of the party headquarters early Saturday. 

"I felt deeply sorry today when I came this morning to the Egyptian Museum and found that some had tried to raid the museum by force last night," Zahi Hawass, chairman of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said Saturday. 

"Egyptian citizens tried to prevent them and were joined by the tourism police, but some (looters) managed to enter from above and they destroyed two of the mummies," he said. He added looters had also ransacked the ticket office. 

The two-story museum, built in 1902, houses tens of thousands of objects in its galleries and storerooms, including most of the King Tutankhamen collection.

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