CNN news 2011-02-15
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First up, scenes of a revolution in Egypt, a country that, for the first time in almost 30 years, will be getting a new leader. For more than two weeks, protesters called for President Hosni Mubarak to resign his office. On Thursday night, Mubarak said he would stay through an election in the fall. On Friday, Mubarak stepped down.
For now, Egypt's military is in charge. The government is reporting to a council of military leaders, just like it had been reporting to Mubarak. That council dissolved Egypt's parliament and suspended the country's constitution. It says it will run things for six months or until elections are held. So the big question on a lot of people's minds is what happens now? What's next for a country that's going through this kind of revolution? Shelby Lin has some of the answers.
Revolution isn't always glamorous, and the trash pickup that got underway in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Saturday proved just that. Volunteers, though, were happy to clear out the debris and garbage that accumulated during the 18-day Egyptian uprising.
We are cleaning the new Egypt, our new Egypt.
A day later, Egyptians continued to celebrate the end of three decades of Hosni Mubarak rule.
I am proud to be an Egyptian. I made a revolution; we had changed the world.
Egypt's military has assumed control of the country. It says it is committed to the democratic process and will honor its international treaties, including its landmark 1978 peace treaty with neighboring Israel. Former CIA Chief Michael Hayden is optimistic the extensive ties between the American and Egyptian militaries could produce a positive effect on Egypt's move towards democracy.
They've seen a very professional military. That's ours. Very responsive to civilian control in a pluralistic democracy.
The head of Egypt's military council is Defense Minister Mohammed Hussein Tantawi, shown here with U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. The Pentagon says Gates and Tantawi have spoken since the fall of the Mubarak government. I'm Shelby Lin, reporting from Atlanta.
People who are unhappy with their government in another Middle Eastern nation seem to be getting inspiration from what happened in Egypt. Hundreds of protesters marched through the streets of Yemen this weekend, chanting "first Mubarak, now Ali." They were talking about Yemen's president, Ali Abdullah Saleh. The protesters marched toward the presidential palace yesterday, but they were blocked by security forces before they could get there. There were reports of fighting between the protesters and police. Groups of people who support Yemen's president were out in the streets, too. Police tried to keep the pro-government and anti-government groups away from each other.
Sticking with politics, but bringing it back to the U.S. now, we have the results of the straw poll at this weekend's CPAC, or Conservative Political Action Conference. This poll is the chance for the thousands of conservatives, those who attend the conference, to name their preference for president in 2012. Just because someone wins the CPAC poll though, doesn't necessarily mean he or she will get the Republican Party's presidential nomination. But a lot of people do pay attention to the results. And this year's winner was Texas Congressman Ron Paul. He came away with 30 percent of the vote. Second place was former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, who had 23 percent. None of the other candidates got more than 6 percent.