http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41506482/ns/world_news-mideastn_africa/?gt1=43001Sources tell NBC News that Vice President Suleiman to take over as leader
CAIRO — Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak is to step down, two sources told NBC News on Thursday.
Following an all-day meeting of the country's supreme military council, the army said all the protesters' demands would be met and a further statement was expected to be made later Thursday, clarifying the situation.
Mubarak was also due to address the nation.
NBC News said a high-ranking source inside the president's office said that Mubarak would step down and the newly appointed vice president, Omar Suleiman, would take over. This was then confirmed by a second source.
It came as protesters defied government threats of a military crackdown with doctors in white lab coats and lawyers in black robes streaming into Cairo's Tahrir Square Thursday and labor unrest spread across the country.
The strikes had given powerful momentum to Egypt's wave of anti-government protests — now in their 17th day — and with its efforts to manage the crisis failing, the government threatened the army could impose martial law.
The protests, which have focused on demanding Mubarak's ouster, have tapped into the even deeper well of anger over economic woes, including inflation, unemployment, corruption, low wages and wide economic disparities between rich and poor.
On Thursday, they set fire to the local headquarters of state security, the main post office and the governor's offices, which had already been partially burned the day before. It appeared police and soldiers were not intervening.
The unconfirmed reports that Mubarak could go came after the regime seemed to be threatening a military crackdown.
Speaking to the Arab news network Al-Arabiya on Thursday, Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said that if "adventurers" take over the process of reform the military "will be compelled to defend the constitution and national security ... and we'll find ourselves in a very grave situation."
The night earlier, he was more explicit, saying in an interview with "PBS NewsHour" that there would be chaos if Mubarak stepped down immediately.
"Do we want the armed forces to assume the responsibility of stabilizing the nation through imposing martial law, and army in the streets?" he said.
It was the second coup warning to the protesters this week, with Prime Minister Omar Suleiman making similar threats Tuesday.
..A protest group, responding to Suleiman's remarks, said Wednesday that there was "a clear threat to the protesters in Tahrir Square."
"We do not accept his threat, on the contrary, the demonstrators will continue and will not stop until we overthrow this tyrant regime," the April 6 Youth movement said in a statement emailed to its Facebook followers.
