Evening Edition

The orders came after the elderly generals now ruling the country met some of the young Internet activists who triggered the revolt against Mubarak, reportedly promising a referendum on a new constitution within two months.

European governments, meanwhile, moved on Egyptian requests to freeze the assets of several officials of the ousted regime amid accusations that they had salted away billions of dollars in ill-gotten assets.

The upheaval of recent weeks and media coverage of days of violent clashes have combined to scare off visitors and stifle Egypt’s key tourism industry, threatening thousands of jobs.

Inspired by the success of political protests in bringing down the regime, workers in several public and private sector industries have launched a wave of strikes to demand pay rises.

While the civilian cabinet met for the first time since Mubarak’s downfall, the generals made it clear where authority now lies, issuing a proclamation setting a six-month timetable to prepare democratic elections.

The latest moves spelled the end of the political system that underpinned Mubarak’s 30-year rule which ended on Friday when he was driven from power after an 18-day pro-democracy uprising.

State and private newspapers also report a heated argument between Mubarak’s two sons — Alaa, the eldest, and Gamal, the president’s presumed successor — with the former accusing the latter of “sullying the image” of their father.

On February 10, a day before Mubarak’s nearly three decades in power came to a sudden end, “there was great confusion, even impotence, at the presidential palace,” the state-owned Al-Ahram wrote.

As the elderly generals and the youthful online campaigners sought to map out the country’s future, a wave strikes and protests swept several public and private sector industries as workers pressed demands for pay rises.

In the shadow of the Great Pyramid of Giza, hundreds of tour guides gathered to urge tourists to return to the country, holding up banners in English, French, Russian and German that: “Egypt loves you.”

Clashes between police and protesters also erupted in the city of Taez, south of Sanaa, where thousands of people joined demonstrations against Saleh, witnesses said.

In Sanaa, around 3,000 protesters marched from Sanaa University towards Al-Tahrir square in the city centre demanding that Saleh — in power for 32 years — step down, an AFP reporter said.

The report by the Fars news agency said a number of people were also wounded by the gunfire and blamed the outlawed former rebel group, the People’s Mujahedeen.

“The illegal gathering of seditionists, Monafeghin (hypocrites), monarchists and thugs in some streets caused the riots, but the presence of the people forced the elements of sedition and Monafeghin to leave,” the news agency said, using the regime’s standard term of abuse for the People’s Mujahedeen.

Police moved in when crowds of opposition supporters gathered in the capital’s Azadi (Freedom) Square began chanting “Death to the Dictator!” — a slogan used against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad after disputed official results from a 2009 presidential election gave him a second term.

The website of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, kaleme.com, said that according to “unconfirmed reports, hundreds of protesters were arrested in Tehran.”

The clashes broke out at Tehran’s prominent Azadi (Freedom) Square when crowds of opposition supporters began chanting “Death to Dictator!” — a slogan used by protesters against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad after the disputed 2009 presidential election.

Witnesses said police fired tear gas and also shot paintballs at protesters who had gathered despite a ban by authorities.

Washington meanwhile called on Algeria’s security forces to show restraint, a day after nationwide protests against President Abdelaziz Bouteflika that reportedly led to dozens of arrests and police attacks on journalists.

“We reaffirm our support for the universal rights of the Algerian people, including assembly and expression,” State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said in a statement.

Ahmed Ounaies resigned Sunday in a blow to the new authority a day before a visit by European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton to focus on democratic reforms since the removal of the strongman leader in a popular uprising.

The interim government meanwhile rushed security forces to coastal areas to stop a Europe-bound exodus of people fleeing poverty, a government source said, with thousands of immigrants flooding to Italy in recent days.

Outfitted in heavy white space suits and clunky boots, the Russian and Italian volunteers left their capsule and took their first careful steps on the red sands of Mars — all without ever leaving a Moscow research centre.

Grainy footage of their space walk, replete with crackly sound interference reminiscent of trips to the Moon, was watched live by top Russian and European space officials at Russia’s real-life space control centre outside Moscow.

Seven enchanted but exhausted couples smooched their way to a new world record in Thailand with the longest continuous kiss lasting more than 32 hours — and kept going.

The contestants broke the previous world record of 32 hours seven minutes and 14 seconds set in Germany and were vying to become the last ones locking lips for a prize of about $3,250 cash and a diamond ring, organisers said.

While Japan was expected to fall behind a surging China in the year, the data underlined the weak state of a Japanese economy burdened by deflation, soft domestic demand and pressured by the industrialised world’s biggest debt.

“It is difficult for the deflation-plagued Japanese economy to achieve self-sustained growth,” said Naoki Murakami, chief economist at Monex Securities.

Kicking off what is sure to be a long and brutal political battle over election-year spending, Obama’s plan bets that economic growth can help forestall savage spending cuts that could derail the recovery.

With the country facing a projected budget shortfall of $1.65 trillion this year, the proposal — which has to be combed over and approved by Congress — relies heavily on increased tax revenues to slash the deficit next few years.

Designed to supply mankind’s outpost in orbit, the Johannes Kepler will be hoisted by an Ariane 5 ES super-rocket from Kourou, French Guiana. Liftoff is pencilled for 2208 GMT.

A successful mission will boost the case for scientists who want the ATV to be the template of a manned spacecraft, placing ESA on an equal footing with the United States, Russia and China.

“Singapore has made a dramatic entry to the casino gaming market,” financial consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers said in a report estimating the city-state’s casino gaming market at $2.8 billion in 2010.

The first casino opened in Malaysian-controlled Resorts World Sentosa on February 14, 2010, with US-based Las Vegas Sands following two months later as the world economy was still clawing itself out of recession.

Speaking on the eve of the mobile phone industry’s annual get-together in Barcelona, Nokia chief Stephen Elop defended the tie-up with the US software giant, saying it would bring billions in value to the Finnish company, which has seen its market share squeezed by Apple’s iPhone and phones using Google’s Android operating system.

Nokia and Microsoft technical teams “are working together next week to solidify the timing of the first Nokia Windows Phone product,” said Jo Harlow, Nokia’s executive vice president in charge of smart devices.

The Irish will curse themselves for their ill-disciplne as the visitors landed six penalties – including five from Morgan Parra – as the hosts outscored the French three tries to one.

The hosts’ tries came from Fergus McFadden, with his first try for his country, Tomas O’Leary, who had been unable to train all week because of an injury worry, and Jamie Heaslip, who was returning from injury.

“We need a government that finally does what every other American has to do in their households and their businesses, and that’s to live within our means,” House Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor said in a statement.

“Instead, President Obama’s budget doubles down on the bad habits of the past four years by calling for more taxes, spending and borrowing of money that we simply do not have,” said Cantor.

The government said in a statement that the offer was more than two times over-subscribed by domestic and foreign investors, and the sale raised 95 billion rubles ($3.2 billion).

It said the offering was the most “successful offering of share capital in the Russian market” since the global financial crisis.

“This is how the miners felt,” said a visitor riding down a narrow elevator shaft into the depths of the Chiflon del Diablo (Draft of the Devil) mine near the coastal city of Lota.

Visitors can venture as far as about 50 meters (160 feet) down into the coal mine, which operated from 1884 to 1997, when the government shut down less profitable mining operations.

An opposition website said dozens were arrested while taking part in the banned protests, which amounted to a test of strength for the reformist opposition in the Islamic state.

By late evening, chants of “Allahu Akbar” (God is Greatest) echoed from Tehran rooftops in scenes reminiscent of 2009 protests against the disputed reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Eight people were killed in those mass street demonstrations which lasted about a month and resulted in many arrests and several executions.

It was a very different scene I witnessed 30 years ago when Egypt last lost a president with the assassination of President Anwar Sadat, which brought Hosni Mubarak to power.

On Friday, the day Mubarak bowed to popular pressure and resigned, the streets outside the presidential palace in northeast Cairo were packed with jubilant crowds, celebrating the success of the popular uprising.

The clashes occurred while President Ali Abdullah Saleh and the main opposition group were preparing for talks that the government hoped would help avert an Egypt-style revolt in the Arabian Peninsula state, a vital U.S. ally against al Qaeda.

Saleh postponed a visit to the United States planned for later this month “due to the current circumstances in the region,” the state news agency Saba said, without elaborating.

France is president of the Group of 20 leading developed and developing economies this year. The group’s finance ministers meet in Paris on Friday and Saturday with commodities high on the agenda.

But as with an earlier French-backed push for a global tax on financial transactions, there is no consensus for radical measures beyond more reporting requirements for traders.

The trade surplus shrank to $6.5 billion from $13.1 billion in December, well short of forecasts for a $10.7 billion gap.

Global stocks and commodity prices climbed higher, with the surprisingly strong imports highlighting China’s massive appetite for raw materials and its solid export growth hinting at solidifying recoveries in the U.S. and European economies.

The divide over which indicators should be used to measure imbalances — a starting point for dictating what needs to be done to make the world economy work better — is the latest sign of renewed discord in the group of leading powers.

President Nicolas Sarkozy has had to scale down his ambitions to revamp the international monetary system during a year-long stewardship of the G20, instead focusing on targeted reforms like the list of indicators and commodity regulation.

But Republicans, who accuse Obama of being a tax-and-spend Democrat, said the president had not gone far enough in curbing costs.

They aim to make the 2012 presidential election a referendum on his fiscal track record and threaten fights over a legal limit on the U.S. debt and how to fund the government in the short-term.

Lawmakers rejected an identical proposal a year ago, ahead of the mid-term elections, saying any change in farm supports should be delayed until an overhaul in 2012.

Farmers enjoy strong support from lawmakers, including from the Midwest with its strong contingent of Republicans. Despite some pressure from the Tea Party caucus to cut spending, it is unlikely Congress will have an appetite for big changes in farm supports, according to a lobbyist for a large farm group.

Obama’s 2012 budget request sent to Congress on Monday proposes to raise $129 billion over 10 years by limiting deferral of taxes on income earned abroad and curtailing what the White House calls abuse of foreign tax credits, among other provisions.

Last year’s budget proposal was similar, seeking to raise about $122 billion by tightening tax loopholes.

While cutting other spending, Obama aggressively accelerated efforts to upgrade aging roads, bridges and introduce high-speed rail with a six-year, $556 billion package.

“It’s really about a big vision, a bold vision, an innovative vision,” Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told reporters.

President Barack Obama, as part of his 2012 budget proposal, called for cutting the number of years drugmakers could exclusively market brand-name biologic drugs to 7 years from 12.

He also set his sights on ending controversial “pay-for-delay” deals that affect traditional, chemical drugs by giving the U.S. Federal Trade Commission power to block them. Under such pacts, brand-name and generic drugmakers settle patent challenges with payoffs that delay lower-cost rivals from reaching the market.

Obama, in his budget for the 2012 fiscal year, proposed spending just $16 billion in Iraq — a significant decrease as U.S. diplomats take over from combat troops under a security agreement between the two countries.

Obama had put total U.S. war costs in both countries at about $160 billion in budget requests for both 2010 and 2011.

The intervention by Senator Charles Schumer, a senior Democrat and a member of the Senate Banking Committee, is the latest indication that getting approvals for a deal on both sides of the Atlantic will not be easy.

Schumer told reporters he met with NYSE Euronext Chief Executive Duncan Niederauer — who would lead the combined entity — on Friday and again on Saturday.

The proposed tie-up between NYSE Euronext and Deutsche Boerse along with the London Stock Exchange’s move for Canada’s TMX Group has prompted talk the global exchange market is set to shrink to two or three big players. But a reluctance by many Asian nations to cede control to foreign ownership and the struggle to improve capital market integration means their exchanges are unlikely to have a seat at the table.

“I just don’t think they’re ready for consolidation – all of the deals aside from ASX-SGX are happening on a transatlantic basis, in the places where people have felt competitive pressure with costs coming down and electronic trading gone up,” said London-based Niki Beattie, managing director of trading consultancy Market Structure.

Starbucks, the world’s biggest coffee chain, has been looking for growth beyond its namesake cafes and wants to be a big player in the new and fast-growing single-serve coffee segment. Green Mountain dominates the U.S. single-cup market with its Keurig brewer.

Starbucks said on Sunday that it planned to announce a new product for the single-cup coffee market in the near future, reviving speculation of a tie-up between the two companies.

The data confirmed Japan lost its place to China last year as the world’s second-largest economy and highlighted Tokyo’s increasing reliance on its giant neighbor, which buys nearly a fifth of Japan’s exports.

Gross domestic product (GDP) shrank 0.3 percent in the October-December period from the previous quarter, slightly less than a 0.5 percent fall expected by markets but still the first contraction in five quarters.

Finance ministers from the 17 countries that use the euro and the President of the European Central Bank Jean-Claude Trichet meet to make progress on a new, comprehensive response to the sovereign debt crisis.

They will be joined on Monday evening by ministers from the 10 non-euro zone members of the European Union to discuss the European Stability Mechanism, which is to take over crisis resolution from mid-2013.

The 747-8 Intercontinental will seat 467 passengers, 51 more than the current version of the 747, and burn less fuel while offering passengers more comfort, the U.S. planemaker says.

“Of all the airplanes that we’ve built, there is one that is identified more closely with Boeing than any other, and that’s the 747,” said James Albaugh, head of Boeing’s commercial airplane unit, introducing the plane to a crowd of almost 10,000 Boeing employees, their families and a select group of industry VIPs.