Egyptians to State: Stuff Your Empty Promises

Protesters still demanding Mubarak quit
By Mary Papenfuss,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 7, 2011 1:30 AM CST
Egyptians to State: Stuff Your Empty Promises
An Egyptian anti-Mubarak protester holds a sign in Arabic reading: "If you love Egypt you don't sit still" at Tahrir square in Cairo.   (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Angry protesters say promises of major changes from Egypt's leaders in talks yesterday didn't go far enough to quell the national uprising. "Our demands are still the same," said a spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood, one of six groups that met with government leaders. "They only responded to some of our demands, but in a superficial way." Government leaders have so far refused a key demand of protesters: that President Hosni Mubarak step aside immediately, notes the BBC.

Government negotiators, led by Vice President Omar Suleiman, did, however, agree to press and Internet freedoms, to release busted protesters and stop harassing demonstrators, and to roll back emergency law when order is restored. Participants also agreed to form a joint committee to suggest constitutional amendments, according to local media. Protests continue today. President Obama said yesterday that Egypt can't go "back to what it once was." While the US will not dictate what must be done, he warned Mubarak that "the time is now for you to start making a change." (More Egypt stories.)

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