Egypt turmoil: 5,000 inmates flee prison amid riots

About 5,000 Egyptian prisoners broke out of a prison in the Fayyoum Govenorate amid the nationwide riots on Saturday night, reports said. Earlier on Saturday night, a building of Egypt's ruling National Democratic Party in downtown Cairo was set on fire for the second time. Protesters marched towards the Tahrir square in downtown Cairo carrying dead bodies on Saturday night after the curfew was clamped at 4 pm. Leaders from the US, UK, France and Germany have urged Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak to avoid violence and enact reforms as protests continue. Vigilante groups in Cairo have set up checkpoints amid reports of widespread looting. Streets are on the brink of anarchy. Mr Mubarak has appointed a vice-president as he struggles to regain control after five days of protests. It is now believed at least 100 people have died since Tuesday. US President Barack Obama met national security officials on Saturday to discuss the situation in Egypt. 

Protests against Hosni Mubarak continues for 7th consecutive day

Protests against Egypt President Hosni Mubarak have been continued for 7th consecutive day and death toll has reached 150. The country was in the grip of increasing lawlessness as gangs of armed men helped free thousands of prisoners and looters rampaged malls, banks and jewellery stores, even as many army men 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. Taking advantage of the fluid situation, armed gangs fired at guards in four prisons, including in Alexandria and Aswan, and helped thousands of inmates to flee. An estimated 5,000 inmates broke free from a jail in El Fayoum, south of Cairo, killing a senior police officer, media reports said. A special Air India aircraft is flying over 300 Indians to Mumbai, Indian Ambassador R Swaminathan said. They will reach Mumbai tomorrow morning, he said. The Indian mission is making arrangements for those wishing to return home.

No special privileges for Raymond Davis in Pakistan

The US on Sunday mounted a defence for an American facing a double murder charge for shooting two Pakistani men in Lahore, saying he was a member of the US mission's staff and entitled to diplomatic immunity. A statement issued by the US embassy on Sunday evening said: "The US diplomat detained in Lahore is a member of the US embassy's technical and administrative staff, and therefore entitled to full criminal immunity and cannot be lawfully arrested or detained in accordance with the Vienna Convention".  The embassy noted that the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations provides diplomatic immunity to all diplomats around the world. Deputy Prosecutor General of Punjab, Rana Bakhtiar said on Sunday that Raymond Davis had fired the bullets from the back thus it was not a case of ‘self defense’ as he had stated earlier. Rana also said that Davis, charged with murder of two motorcyclists in Lahore, did not hold any special privileges as a diplomat. Referring to Article 49-2 of the Vienna Convention, he said that diplomatic officials only hold privilege when they are on duty, but Davis was in Pakistan on a business visa. Davis is being described by the American media as a security contractor from a Florida-based firm, Hyperion Protective Consultants, LLC. That Foreign Office and the US embassy were not on the same page on the issue of status of the accused was obvious from an FO press release that mentioned Davis as a US ‘functionary’, and not a diplomat.