Mubarak names two top leaders

CAIRO, Egypt – Looting spread across Egypt and President Hosni Mubarak appointed a vice president as protesters swarmed into the streets for a fifth day, burning buildings, ransacking police offices and marching joyfully past tanks and soldiers.

Demonstrations aimed at ending Mubarak’s 30 years in power were eclipsed for many by a growing fear of lawlessness. Reports spread that escaped prisoners and thugs from the ruling party were roaming the capital and other cities on motorcycles.

State television reported that 74 people were killed in clashes over the last two days.

In a speech early Saturday, Mubarak refused to step down but said he was asking for the resignation of the entire government. Later in the day, he appointed Ahmed Shafik, a retired air force general and former minister of civil aviation, as prime minister and Omar Suleiman, head of intelligence, as vice president. It is the first time since he took power that Mubarak has had a vice president.

In Suleiman, Mubarak is turning to a trusted ruling party ally during one of the nation’s worst political crises. Suleiman is respected by the West and is regarded as a skilled diplomat. He has for years been Egypt’s main negotiator with the Palestinians, and he was credited with taking security measures on a visit to Ethiopia in 1995 that saved Mubarak from assassination.

He has the military background that has defined Egyptian leaders since Gamal Abdel Nasser seized power in a 1952 coup. His appointment also suggests that Mubarak’s son, Gamal, whom many regarded as a likely successor, may, at least in the short term, not be in contention.

But the protests have changed Egypt enough that Suleiman could be no more than a transitional figure.

“Egyptians will not accept Suleiman as leader of the country after Mubarak because of his connection to the old regime,” said Mustafa Labbad, director of the Al Shaq Center for Regional and Strategic Studies.

Others view Suleiman a wise political choice.

“When you end the Mubarak regime,” said Hisham Kassem, a journalist and political analyst, “you will need a powerful man during the transition, and he is a powerful man.”

The appointments of Shafik and Suleiman did little to appease tens of thousands of protesters or Nobel laureate Mohamed ElBaradei, the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, who for many has come to symbolize the opposition movement.

“This is a change of personnel, and we are talking about the change of a regime,” ElBaradei told Al-Jazeera satellite television. “The Egyptian people are saying one thing: President Hosni Mubarak must leave. We have to move towards a democratic state.”

But there was no clear indication how the opposition, including ElBaradei, the Muslim Brotherhood and protest organizers, such as the April 6th Youth movement, were going to turn a mass street movement into a strategically unified force.

In Cairo, demonstrators gathered for a second day outside the Interior Ministry – home of the much reviled police. Security forces bunkered inside the ministry shot and killed three demonstrators.

The headquarters of the ruling National Democratic Party, set alight Friday, continued to burn. Curators of the adjacent Egyptian Museum’s ancient artifacts feared they could be damaged if the party headquarters collapsed on the museum.

Army troops secured the museum and its grounds early Saturday after young Egyptians armed with clubs set up a cordon around it to protect it. But before protective measures were taken, vandals had gotten inside and tore the heads off two mummies.

Outside the museum, demonstrators chanted: “Wake up, Mubarak. This is your last day in power!”

Their rage, however, had over the previous 24 hours been calmed by soldiers and tanks of the country’s respected military. Protesters laughed and joked with soldiers, posing for pictures with one another while raising Egyptian flags.

The army had filled a vacuum of retreating policemen, who camped in neighborhoods and along the Nile corniche, where charred cars sat along roadsides.