APTOPIX Mideast Egypt Protest
An Egyptian protester flashes the V-sign as riot police use water canon against protesters in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Jan. 28, 2011. Egyptian anti-gove...
An Egyptian protester flashes the V-sign as riot police use water canon against protesters in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Jan. 28, 2011. Egyptian anti-government activists clashed with police for a second day Wednesday in defiance of an official ban on any protests but beefed up police forces on the streets quickly moved in and used tear gas and beatings to disperse demonstrations. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)
APTOPIX Mideast Egypt Protest
Anti-government protestors gather outside the ruling National Democratic Party headquarters, as it is engulfed by flames in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Jan...
Anti-government protestors gather outside the ruling National Democratic Party headquarters, as it is engulfed by flames in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Jan. 28, 2011. Tens of thousands of anti-government protesters poured into the streets of Egypt Friday, stoning and confronting police who fired back with rubber bullets and tear gas in the most violent and chaotic scenes yet in the challenge to President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule. (AP Photo/Tara Todras-Whitehill)
Embattled President Hosni Mubarak says he has asked his Cabinet to resign in his first appearance on television since protests erupted demanding his ouster.
He says he will press ahead with social, economic and political reforms. He calls anti-government protests part of plot to destabilize Egypt and destroy the legitimacy of his regime.
He is defending security forces' crackdown on protesters.
Protesters have seized the streets of Cairo, battling police with stones and firebombs, burning down the ruling party headquarters, and defying a night curfew enforced by a military deployment. It is the peak of unrest posing the most dire threat to Mubarak in his three decades of authoritarian rule.
