Egypt: Mubarak refuses to quit, hands powers to VP

CAIRO (By HAMZA HENDAWI and SARAH EL DEEB, Associated Press) – Egypt's Hosni Mubarak refused to step down or leave the country and instead handed most of his powers to his vice president Thursday, enraging protesters who warned the country could explode in violence and pleaded for the military to take action to push him out.

The rapidly moving events raised the question of whether a rift had opened between Mubarak and the military command over the spiraling mass uprising demanding the president go. Hours earlier, a council of the military's top generals announced it had stepped in to secure the country, and a senior commander announced to protesters in Tahrir Square that all their demands would soon be met, raising cries of victory that Mubarak was on his way out.