CAIRO — With protests raging, egypt’s president named his intelligence chief as his first-ever vice president on saturday, setting the stage for a successor as chaos engulfed the capital. soldiers stood by — a few even joining the demonstrators — and the death toll from five days of anti-government fury rose sharply to 74. saturday’s fast-moving developments across the north african nation marked a sharp turning point in president hosni mubarak’s three-decade rule of egypt.
looters rip heads off 2 mummies at egyptian museum cairo — would-be looters broke into cairo’s famed egyptian museum, ripping the heads off two mummies and damaging about 10 small artifacts before being caught and detained by army soldiers, egypt’s antiquities chief said saturday. zahi hawass said the vandals did not manage to steal any of the museum’s antiquities, and that the prized collection was now safe and under military guard.
obama calls for restraint, reform in egypt washington — president barack obama issued a plea for restraint in egypt after meeting with national security aides saturday to assess the cairo government’s response to widespread protests threatening the stability of the country. a white house statement said obama “reiterated our focus on opposing violence and calling for restraint, supporting universal rights, and supporting concrete steps that advance political reform within egypt.” in turnabout, dems say gop has dropped job focus washington — republicans won dozens of elections last fall after claiming democrats had focused too little on creating jobs. now gop lawmakers stand accused of the same charge, using their new house majority to push to repeal the president’s health care law, restrict abortions and highlight other social issues important to their most conservative supporters. republican leaders say they have a jobs agenda, kicked off by their attempt to unravel what they call the democrats’ “jobs-killing” health overhaul.
russia identifies airport bomber as caucasus man moscow — the suicide bomber who killed 35 people at moscow’s busiest airport was deliberately targeting foreigners, investigators said saturday, which would mark an ominous new tactic by separatist militants in southern russia if he was recruited by an islamist terror cell. federal investigators know the identity of the bomber, a 20-year-old native of the volatile caucausus region, where islamist insurgents have been battling for years for a breakaway state.
train crash in germany kills 10, injures 43 berlin — the german news agency dapd reports a head-on train crash in the country’s east killed 10 people and injured 43 others, 18 of them seriously. dapd early sunday cited local police as saying that a passenger and a cargo train crashed head-on near the town of oschersleben in saxony-anhalt state.
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