Breaking: Egyptian Military Asks Protesters to Stop

Just got this on Houston Chron alerts, coming from the AP at 4:07 am Central (just a little after noon in Cairo):

CAIRO — The Egyptian military called Wednesday for an end to more than a week of demonstrations demanding President Hosni Mubarak step down immediately after nearly 30 years in power.

“Your message has arrived, your demands became known,” military spokesman Ismail Etman said on state television in an address directed to young protesters. “You are capable of bringing normal life to Egypt.”

Internet service also began returning to Egypt after days of an unprecedented cutoff by the government.

Mubarak’s embattled regime and the powerful military appear to be making a unified push to end a street movement to drive the 82-year-old leader out.

Note: I saw this news alert early in the morning and missed a few words in the first sentence so it read like “the military calls for Mubarak to step down.” My apologies if you read the original title of this post, which I went back and corrected immediately. The military have asked the protesters to stop, not the other way around.

Minkoff Minx will have a morning post up shortly, so I’ll just leave this here until then for anyone who’s up this early in the meantime.

Update, via Huffington Post/Reuters — Yemeni President won’t seek re-election either:

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, a key U.S. ally against al Qaeda, said on Wednesday he will not seek to extend his presidency in a move that would end his three-decade rule when his current term expires in 2013.

Eyeing protests that brought down Tunisia’s leader and threaten to topple Egypt’s president, Saleh also vowed not to pass on the reins of government to his son, but asked the opposition to hold down on protests.

“I present these concessions in the interests of the country. The interests of the country come before our personal interests,” Saleh told his parliament, Shoura Council and members of the military.

“I call on the opposition to freeze all planned protests, rallies and sit-ins,” Saleh said.