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EGYPT ON THE EDGE
EGYPT ON THE EDGE Egypt Death Toll Passes 100 As Protests Continue 'WHAT WE HAVE BEGUN CANNOT GO BACK' Tens Of Thousands Defy Curfew.. ElBaradei Addresses Massive Crowd.. Military Jets Circle Above U.S. Embassy Urges Americans To Leave.. Al Jazeera Banned.. Police Return To Cairo Streets.. Hundreds Of Judges Join Protests.. Obama Calls For 'Orderly Transition'.. Gangs of armed men attacked at least four jails across Egypt before dawn Sunday, helping to free hundreds of Muslim militants and thousands of other inmates as police vanished from the streets of Cairo and other cities. The U.S. Embassy in Cairo told its citizens in Egypt to consider leaving the country as soon as possible, and said it had authorized the voluntary departure of dependents and non-emergency employees, a display of Washington's escalating concern about the stability of its closest Arab ally. Al Jazeera was ordered to shut down in Cairo. According to Reuters, more than 100 have died since the protests began. The army sent hundreds more troops and armored vehicles onto the streets of Cairo and other cities but appeared to be taking little action against gangs of young men with guns and large sticks who were smashing cars and robbing people. At least one Nile-side shopping mall in Cairo was on fire after being looted the previous day. The Arab world's most populous nation appeared to be swiftly moving closer to a point at which it either dissolves into widespread chaos or the military expands its presence and control of the streets. The demonstrators from all segments of Egyptian society have taken to the streets for nearly a week calling for President Hosni Mubarak, 82, to step down. Mubarak named his intelligence chief, former army general Omar Suleiman, to the new role of vice president on Saturday, a move that perpetuated the overriding role of military men in Egyptian politics. Many people have set up private vigilante groups in front of their homes…. People are afraid. This is no longer just a political movement with protesters on the streets, but there is a basic collapse of law and order
Getty Images- CAIRO, EGYPT - JANUARY 30: Opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei arrives to speak to supporters in Tahrir Square on January 30, 2011 in Cairo, Egypt. Cairo remained in a state of flux and marchers continued to protest in the streets and defy curfew, demanding the resignation of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarek.
Getty Images - CAIRO, EGYPT - JANUARY 30: Opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei waves to supporters in Tahrir Square on January 30, 2011 in Cairo, Egypt.
Egyptian Nobel Peace laureate and democracy advocate Mohamed ElBaradei addresses the protesters at Tahrir Square in Cairo after dark on Jan.30. - Khalil Hamra / AP
Getty Images CAIRO, EGYPT - JANUARY 30: Protestors sit down to block the entry of army tanks to Tahrir Square on January 30, 2011 in Cairo, Egypt. Cairo remained in a state of flux and marchers continued to protest in the streets and defy curfew, demanding the resignation of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarek.
Getty Images CAIRO, EGYPT - JANUARY 30: People in Tahrir Square celebrate after hearing an incorrect rumour that President Hosni Mubarak had left the country on January 30, 2011 in Cairo, Egypt.
Getty Images CAIRO, EGYPT - JANUARY 30: Protestors stand under a placard in Tahrir Square on January 30, 2011 in Cairo, Egypt.
Reuters Pictures In this still image taken from video, Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak (2nd L)and Vice President Omar Suleiman (2nd R) hold a meeting with top commanders in Cairo, January 30, 2011.
Getty Images CAIRO, EGYPT - JANUARY 30: A man in Tahrir Square holds a placard on January 30, 2011 in Cairo, Egypt.
Getty Images - CAIRO, EGYPT - JANUARY 30: Anti-government protesters chant and sing in Tahrir Square January 30, 2011 in Cairo, Egypt. Cairo remained in a state of flux and marchers continued to protest in the streets and defy curfew, demanding the resignation of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarek. As President Mubarak struggles to regain control after five days of protests he has appointed Omar Suleiman as vice-president.
Getty Images - CAIRO, EGYPT - JANUARY 30: A boy in Tahrir Square holds doctored photographs of President Hosni Mubarak on January 30, 2011 in Cairo, Egypt.
Getty Images CAIRO, EGYPT - JANUARY 30: A man in Tahrir Square holds a placard calling for President Hosni Mubarak to ''go out'' on January 30, 2011 in Cairo, Egypt.
Getty Images CAIRO, EGYPT - JANUARY 30: Exhausted Egyptians rest on the grass in in Tahrir Square after days of protests on January 30, 2011 in Cairo, Egypt.
Getty Images CAIRO, EGYPT - JANUARY 30: Thousands of Egyptians gather in a mass protest against the Egyptian government in Tahrir Square during the late afternoon January 30, 2011 in Cairo, Egypt.
Protesters conduct Islamic prayers in Cairo's Tahrir Square at sundown on Jan. 30. - Chris Hondros / Getty Images
Egyptians show bullets allegedly fired by the army in central Cairo on Jan. 30. - Felipe Trueba / EPA
A mother with child watches thousands of Egyptian protesters gather at Tahrir Square in Cairo on Jan. 30. The army sent hundreds more troops and armored vehicles onto the streets of Cairo and other cities but appeared to be taking little action against mass protests. - Amr Nabil / AP
An Egyptian soldier tries to stop anti-government protesters as they walk towards Tahrir Square in Cairo. - Emilio Morenatti / AP
An Al-Jazeera TV news employee staffs the bureau in Cairo on Jan. 30. Egypt has ordered a shutdown of Al-Jazeera's operations, the official MENA news agency said, after the channel gave blanket coverage to ongoing anti-government protests. - Mohammed Abed / AFP - Getty Images
A senior army officer salutes a crowd of cheering protesters. - Yannis Behrakis / Reuters
Demonstartors are demanding that President Hosni Mubarak step down. This man wears a T-shirt reading 'Down With Mubarak'. It bears a cross and a crescent as a sign of unity between Christians and Muslims [AFP]
An army officer who joined anti-government protesters tears up a picture of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. - Ahmed Gumaa / AP
An injured protester is helped into a mosque that was used as a make-shift triage clinic. - Tara Todras-whitehill / AP
Egyptians surround an injured protester in downtown Cairo.- Ahmed Ali / AP
JANUARY 30: As demonstrations in Egypt continue, visages of President Hosni Mubarak are defaced and burned in Beirut, Lebanon and Istanbul, Turkey. (AFP/Getty Images
A protester touches the weapon of a soldier in downtown Cairo, January 30, 2011. President Hosni Mubarak, clinging to power despite unprecedented demands for an end to his 30-year rule, met on Sunday with the powerful military which is widely seen as holding the key to Egypt's future.
Chris Hondros / Getty Images An Egyptian Army soldier is a handed a flower by an anti-government protesters in Tahrir Square in Cairo.
Chris Hondros / Getty Images An Egyptian Army soldier (center) prays along with anti-government protesters during the afternoon in Tahrir Square Jan. 30.
Miguel Medina / AFP - Getty Images Egyptian soldiers read the newspaper as they sit atop their Abrams tank as demonstrators begin to gather in Tahrir Square in the capital Cairo.
Miguel Medina / AFP - Getty Images Egyptian demonstrators greet soldiers as they arrive in Tahrir Square in Cairo, on Jan. 30, on the sixth day of protests against long term President Hosni Mubarak's regime.
JANUARY 30: As demonstrations continue in Cairo, a man walks through the charred remains of a burned government building the city. (Chris Hondros/Getty Images
Egyptians holding up defaced posters of President Hosni Mubarak protest in Tahrir Square in Cairo on January 30. (Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images
Egyptians pray for victims killed during protests as they gather at Tahrir Square in Cairo on January 30, on the sixth day of angry revolt against Hosni Mubarak's regime amid increasing lawlessness, a rising death toll and a spate of jail breaks. (Miguel Medina/AFP/Getty Images)
Prison doors are open wide, and looters walk away with goods as smoke billows from the riot-hit Abu Zaabel prison in Cairo after a mass breakout by convicts amid the nationwide revolt, January 30. (AFP/Getty Images
Men add fuel to a fire burning in front of party headquarters in Tahrir Square in Cairo, where protests continued into the night. (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/MCT
A soldier stands guard at the Egyptian National Museum in Cairo on Saturday. Earlier in the day, would-be looters broke into the famed 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. (Cai Yang/Xinhua)
The streets of downtown Cairo, near Tahrir Square, were filled with celebration on Saturday as civilians rode around town on military tanks following word of changes in the government's structure. The Egyptian Army was present, but no riot police. (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/MCT)
An injured man is carried through the streets of downtown Cairo on Saturday, January 29. (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/MCT
Egyptian protesters take time out from demonstrating against President Hosni Mubara, to pray in the street next to deployed Egyptian military vehicles in Cairo's Tahrir square on Saturday. (Scott Nelson/The New York Times)
Protesters plea with an Egyptian solider inside a military armored personnel carrier that was providing coverage, to use their weapons against riot police during a clash near Egypt's Interior Ministry in Cairo on Saturday. The soldiers refused to open fire on the security police, while the police defending the ministry battered the protesters with tear gas, buckshot and rubber bullets. (Scott Nelson/The New York Times)
Egyptians carry an injured demonstrator during clashes with riot police in Cairo on January 29. (Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images
Protesters throw firebombs at riot police after police shot at protesters accompanying the funeral procession of an anti-government protester killed yesterday, in a street near Tahrir square in downtown Cairo. (Ben Curtis/Associated Press)
An anti-government protester cries out after seeing the body of another who was shot by police moments before, in Tahrir square in downtown Cairo, January 29. (Ben Curtis/Associated Press)
Egyptian demonstrators demanding the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak carry the body of a dead comrade wrapped in the Egyptian flag during his funeral in Cairo on January 29. (Khaleed Desouki/AFP/Getty Images)
Protestors carry an army captain on their shoulders after he tore up a poster of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Tahrir Square on January 29. (Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)
A man stands in front of a burning armored vehicle in central Cairo on January 29. (Khaled Desouki/AFP/Getty Images
Demonstrators celebrate as they stand atop an armored vehicle on Saturday. Hundreds of anti-government protesters returned to the streets of central Cairo, chanting slogans against Hosni Mubarak and attacking police just hours after the Egyptian president fired his Cabinet and promised reforms but refused to step down. (Amr Nabil/Associated Press)
Anti-government protesters begin to camp out in Tahrir square in Cairo on Saturday. (Ben Curtis/Associated Press
Protestors stand on top of army tanks in Tahrir Square on January 29. (Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images