Egypt unrest toll touches 150; thousands of prisoners flee
Egypt was in the grip of increasing lawlessness on Sunday as gangs of armed men helped free thousands of prisoners and looters rampaged malls, banks and jewellery stores, even as many armymen doffed uniforms to join the uprising against President Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule that has claimed at least 150 lives in six days. An embattled Mubarak, 82, visited the military headquarters and held hectic parleys with top commanders, a day after he showed first signs of handing over power by naming intelligence chief and his close confidant Omar Suleiman as Vice President.
Qatar-based Al-Jazeera channel put the death toll at 150 and said that 4,000 people had been injured since the unprecedented mass protests against Mubarak's autocratic regime began on Tuesday, while some other reports said over 100 had been killed. For the first time, a large number of judges also joined the mass protests threatening to destabilise the world's most populous Arab State.