The webmasters at both Stuff and the Herald haven't caught up with it yet (Saturday, 6.45am), but Hosni Mubarak's reign as President of Egypt is over - Aljazeera reports:
Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, has resigned from his post, handing over power to the armed forces.
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.
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.
The crowd in Tahrir chanted "We have brought down the regime", while many were seen crying, cheering and embracing one another.
Mohamed ElBaradei, an opposition leader, hailed the moment as being the "greatest day of my life", in comments to the Associated Press news agency.
"The country has been liberated after decades of repression,'' he said.
"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.
"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.
"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.
"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."
This is a momentous day for Egypt.
UPDATE: Stuff now has the story, interestingly timed at 6.10am. But it's only gone online in the last ten minutes (7.30am) ...
9 comments:
Excellent that he has caved quietly. Farewell Friday with 20 million pissed off on the streets had the potential for a really ugly outcome.
Puts all the other regional despots on notice.
Quite so PM, and they are plentiful there. We have whanau in Ethiopia; how long before the people there rise up against the regime?
But, the guys with the guns are in charge, as they have been for the last 50 or so years.
The more things change the more things stay the same!
Mubarak will enjoy his retirement on the Egyptian riviera no doubt.
TV3 has just flashed a ribbon at 8:10
And the Herald website is finally running a story, even if it's from AP. Sure, this story has broken in the early hours of the morning, but it seems that the New Zealand MSM has been caught napping; quite literally. Thank goodness that bloggers, like rust, never sleep!
The impression I got from the Beeb is that he went to one of the resort spots and the army took over when he left. he announcement was made by the Vice President who no one wants to take over.
Be careful what you celebrate. The ONLY hope for stability is the Egyptian military. If they are purged by the Islamists then you will look back and wish to God Mubarak was still in power.
The place all this could have happened but for Obama's incompetence is Teheran.
Of course the shallow short sighted western media thinks events in Egypt are just wonderful.
I'm not celebrating anything.
One form of dictatorship for another.
I suspect that the mullahs in Iran might not be that happy right now, as will the regime in Syria.
I'm also mindful of the law of unintended and unexpected consequences.
The tourism dollar is obviously going to take a hard whack..surely serious economic repercussions there.
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