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<font size=4><b>Hosni Mubarak resigns as president <br><br>
</b></font><font size=3>Egyptian president stands down and hands over
power to the Supreme Council for the Armed Forces.<br>
Last Modified: 11 Feb 2011 16:39 GMT <br>
<a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/02/201121125158705862.html" eudora="autourl">
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/02/201121125158705862.html<br>
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<img src="http://english.aljazeera.net/mritems/Images/2011/2/11/201121111531838360_20.jpg" width=680 height=450 alt="[]">
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<b>Pro-democracy protesters in Tahrir Square have vowed to take the
protests to a 'last and final stage' [AFP]</b> <br><br>
Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, has resigned from his post,
handing over power to the armed forces.<br><br>
Omar Suleiman, the vice-president, announced in a televised address that
the president was "waiving" his office, and had handed over
authority to the Supreme Council of the armed forces.<br><br>
Suleiman's short statement was received with a roar of approval and by
celebratory chanting and flag-waving from a crowd of hundreds of
thousands in Cairo's Tahrir Square, as well by pro-democracy campaigners
who attended protests across the country on Friday.<br><br>
The crowd in Tahrir chanted "We have brought down the
regime", while many were seen crying, cheering and embracing
one another.<br><br>
Mohamed ElBaradei, an opposition leader, hailed the moment as being the
"greatest day of my life", in comments to the Associated Press
news agency.<br><br>
"The country has been liberated after decades of repression,'' he
said.<br><br>
"Tonight, after all of these weeks of frustration, of violence, of
intimidation ... today the people of Egypt undoubtedly [feel they] have
been heard, not only by the president, but by people all around the
world," our correspondent at Tahrir Square reported, following the
announcement.<br><br>
"The sense of euphoria is simply indescribable," our
correspondent at Mubarak's Heliopolis presidential palace, where at least
ten thousand pro-democracy activists had gathered, said.<br><br>
"I have waited, I have worked all my adult life to see the power of
the people come to the fore and show itself. I am speechless." Dina
Magdi, a pro-democracy campaigner in Tahrir Square told Al
Jazeera.<br><br>
"The moment is not only about Mubarak stepping down, it is also
about people's power to bring about the change that no-one ... thought
possible."<br><br>
In Alexandria, Egypt's second city, our correspondent described an
"explosion of emotion". He said that hundreds of thousands were
celebrating in the streets.<br><br>
Pro-democracy activists in the Egyptian capital and elsewhere had earlier
marched on presidential palaces, state television buildings and other
government installations on Friday, the 18th consecutive day of
protests.<br><br>
<b>Anger at state television<br><br>
</b>At the state television building earlier in the day, thousands had
blocked people from entering or leaving, accusing the broadcaster of
supporting the current government and of not truthfully reporting on the
protests.<br><br>
"The military has stood aside and people are flooding through [a gap
where barbed wire has been moved aside]," Al Jazeera's correspondent
at the state television building reported.<br><br>
He said that "a lot of anger [was] generated" after Mubarak's
speech last night, where he repeated his vow to complete his term as
president.<br><br>
<b>'Gaining momentum'<br><br>
</b>Outside the palace in Heliopolis, where at least ten thousand
protesters had gathered in Cairo, another Al Jazeera correspondent
reported that there was a strong military presence, but that there was
"no indication that the military want[ed] to crack down on
protesters".<br>
<a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/spotlight/anger-in-egypt/">
<img src="http://english.aljazeera.net/mritems/Images/2011/2/11/2011211142622742371_21.jpg" width=300 height=198 alt="[]">
</a> <br>
<b>Click here for more of Al Jazeera's special coverage</b> <br><br>
She said that army officers had engaged in dialogue with protesters, and
that remarks had been largely "friendly".<br><br>
Tanks and military personnel had been deployed to bolster barricades
around the palace.<br><br>
Our correspondent said the crowd in Heliopolis was "gaining momentum
by the moment", and that the crowd had gone into a frenzy when two
helicopters were seen in the air around the palace grounds.<br><br>
"By all accounts this is a highly civilised gathering. people are
separated from the palace by merely a barbed wire ... but nobody has even
attempted to cross that wire," she said.<br><br>
As crowds grew outside the palace, Mubarak left Cairo on Friday for the
Red Sea resort of Sharm al-Shaikh, according to sources who spoke to Al
Jazeera.<br><br>
In Tahrir Square, hundreds of thousands of protesters gathered, chanting
slogans against Mubarak and calling for the military to join them in
their demands.<br><br>
Our correspondent at the square said the "masses" of
pro-democracy campaigners there appeared to have "clear
resolution" and "bigger resolve" to achieve their goals
than ever before.<br><br>
However, he also said that protesters were "confused by mixed
messages" coming from the army, which has at times told them that
their demands will be met, yet in communiques and other statements
supported Mubarak's staying in power until at least September.<br><br>
<b>Army statement<br><br>
</b>In a
<a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/02/201121111330706342.html">
statement</a> read out on state television at midday on Friday, the
military announced that it would lift a 30-year-old
<a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/02/201121161511674298.html">
emergency law</a> but only "as soon as the current circumstances
end".<br>
IN VIDEO <br><br>
<br>
<b>Thousands are laying siege to state television's office<br><br>
</b>The military said it would also guarantee changes to the constitution
as well as a free and fair election, and it called for normal business
activity to resume.<br><br>
Al Jazeera's correspondent in Tahrir Square said people there were hugely
disappointed with that army statement, and had vowed to take the protests
to "a last and final stage".<br><br>
"They're frustrated, they're angry, and they say protests need to go
beyond Liberation [Tahrir] Square, to the doorstep of political
institutions," she said.<br><br>
Protest organisers have called for 20 million people to come out on
"Farewell Friday" in a final attempt to force Mubarak to step
down. <br><br>
<b>Alexandria protests<br><br>
</b>Hossam El Hamalawy, a pro-democracy organiser and member of the
Socialist Studies Centre, said protesters were heading towards the
presidential palace from multiple directions, calling on the army to side
with them and remove Mubarak.<br><br>
"People are extremely angry after yesterday's speech," he told
Al Jazeera. "Anything can happen at the moment. There is
self-restraint all over but at the same time I honestly can't tell you
what the next step will be ... At this time, we don't trust them [the
army commanders] at all."<br><br>
An Al Jazeera reporter overlooking Tahrir said the side streets leading
into the square were filling up with crowds.<br><br>
"It's an incredible scene. From what I can judge, there are more
people here today than yesterday night," she said.<br>
<img src="http://english.aljazeera.net/mritems/imagecache/218/330/mritems/Images/2011/2/11/2011211143413116797_20.jpg" alt="[]">
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<b>Hundreds of thousands of protesters havehered<br>
in the port city of Alexandria [AFP]</b> <br><br>
"The military has not gone into the square except some top
commanders, one asking people to go home ... I don't see any kind of
tensions between the people and the army but all of this might change
very soon if the army is seen as not being on the side of the
people."<br><br>
Hundreds of thousands were participating in Friday prayers outside a
mosque in downtown Alexandria, Egypt's second biggest city.<br><br>
Thousands of pro-democracy campaigners also gathered outside a
presidential palace in Alexandria.<br><br>
Egyptian television reported that large angry crowds were heading from
Giza, adjacent to Cairo, towards Tahrir Square and some would march on
the presidential palace.<br><br>
Protests are also being held in the cities of Mansoura, Mahala, Tanta,
Ismailia, and Suez, with thousands in attendance.<br><br>
Violence was reported in the north Sinai town of el-Arish, where
protesters attempted to storm a police station. At least one person was
killed, and 20 wounded in that attack, our correspondent said.<br><br>
<b>Dismay at earlier statement<br><br>
</b>In a televised
<a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/video/middleeast/2011/02/2011210234022306527.html#">
address </a>to the nation on Thursday, Mubarak said he was handing
"the functions of the president" to Vice-President Omar
Suleiman. But the move means he retains his title of president.<br><br>
Halfway through his much-awaited speech late at night, anticipation
turned into anger among protesters camped in
<a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/02/201121103522508343.html">
Tahrir Square</a> who began taking off their shoes and waving them in the
air.<br><br>
Immediately after Mubarak's speech, Suleiman called on the protesters to
"go home" and asked Egyptians to "unite and look to the
future."<br><br>
<a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/02/20112913546831171.html">
Union workers have joined</a> the protests over the past few days,
effectively crippling transportation and several industries, and dealing
a sharper blow to Mubarak’s embattled regime.<br><br>
<br><br>
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