Main developments since Mubarak's speech
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Cairo: Here are the main developments in Egypt since President Hosni Mubarak made a speech late on Thursday in which he delegated power to his vice president, Omar Suleiman, but stopped short of resigning.
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10
- Mubarak says in a televised speech that he will hand over power to his deputy and Egypt's former intelligence supremo, Suleiman, but stops short of resigning. With his voice sometimes trembling, and visibly moved, he says he will "not ever accept foreign diktats."
- In Cairo's Tahrir Square, or Liberation Square, an estimated 200,000 protesters begin by waving flags and dancing with joy at the prospect that Mubarak will go, and end up waving their shoes and hurling insults at Mubarak after his speech.
- Demonstrators call for the army to join them in opposing the regime.
- Suleiman tells protesters and strikers to head home or back to work, in his first speech after Mubarak delegated presidential powers to him.
- Suleiman is the "de facto head of state" of Egypt, the Egyptian ambassador to the United States says.
- The time for Egypt to change government "is now," chief European Union diplomat Catherine Ashton says.
- Leading dissident Mohamed ElBaradei warns that his country is about to "explode" and urges the army to take the side of the people.
- US President Barack Obama warns Mubarak has failed to lay out credible, concrete and irreversible change and said Cairo must spell out a clear path to democracy.
- Human Rights Watch warns that Mubarak's speech only promises "cosmetic changes."
- Tens of thousands spend the night in Tahrir Square and in front of the nearby parliament.
- German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle says Mubarak's speech "was not the hoped-for step forward."
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 11
- Demonstrators awake in Tahrir Square, preparing for what could be their biggest protest yet against Mubarak's rule.
- Smaller crowds mount protests outside Mubarak's presidential palace and state television headquarters.
- Three army officers shed their weapons and uniforms and join the protesters in central Cairo.
- The army throws its weight behind Mubarak while trying to reassure anti-regime protesters and says it will guarantee free and fair elections. It also calls on demonstrators to go home and back to work.
- Egyptian demonstrators react with anger after the military throws its weight behind Mubarak. "You have disappointed us, all our hopes rested in you," shouts one protester. The crowd chants slogans calling for Mubarak to be tried.
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