Following the resignation of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Friday, a spokesman for the opposition  in Yemen called for similar change there.

"Mubarak's fall proves that oppression and use of force can not add life to the current regimes," said Mohammed Al-Qubati, a spokesman for Yemen's largest opposition coalition, the Joint Meeting Parties, on CNN. The "time for change has come." 

Former Egyptian presidential candidate Ayman Nour, who finished second to longtime President Hosni Mubarak in 2005, said the nation had been reborn Friday and that the Egyptian army understood its mission to prepare for civilian rule.

“This is the greatest day in the history of Egypt, that will not be repeated. This nation has been born again. These people have been born again, and this is a new Egypt,” Nour told Al Jazeera television Friday.

"We look forward to the transition period which is a period that will take us to a civilian state that will meet our legitimate demands of having a civilian free country," he said, adding that the new government would be based on human rights.

Many protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square carried  signs Thursday that referred to President Hosni Mubarak and the number 70 billion.

Egypt's embattled president and his family's net worth is estimated at between $40 and $70 billion, according to experts' estimates.

Amaney Jamal, a political science professor at Princeton University, told ABC News that Mubarak's estimated net worth is comparable with that of other leaders in Persian Gulf countries.

Jamal said that Mubarak's assets were most likely in banks outside Egypt, possibly in Britain and Switzerland.

"This is the pattern of other Middle Eastern dictators so their wealth will not be taken during a transition. These leaders plan on this," she said.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague, who is in Bahrain, said the British government was "studying very closely" comments by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Vice President Omar Suleiman earlier today concerning the formation of the new government.

"t is not immediately clear what powers are being handed over and what the full implications are," Hague said in a statement e-mailed to Bloomberg News. "We think the solution to this has to be owned by the Egyptian people themselves."

RELATED

Mubarak refuses to step down, delegates some powers

Before speech, protesters told demands met

Full coverage of the uprising in Egypt: News, photos, video and more

— Molly Hennessy-Fiske

Photo: British Foreign Secretary William Hague at a news conference with his Bahraini counterpart in Manama. Credit: Adam Jan/Agence-France Presse/Getty Images

Recent video footage from the anti-government demonstrators' headquarters in Tahrir Square shows Egyptian blogger and activist Sandmonkey (who recently revealed his identity after an alleged police beating) reflecting on the revolution and his future political hopes.

Asked whether he thinks President Hosni Mubarak will resign anytime soon he stresses that, above all, Egyptians want to elect their own president and leaders. He expresses careful skepticism about the Egypt-related political twists and turns that are currently unfolding in the country and in the State Department.

"I have no idea...there is a big difference between whether Mubarak's days are counted and whether the regime's days are counted. Because the Americans have called for a peaceful transition of power which is very specific language. It doesn't entail democracy, democratic elections anywhere in that sentence." 

The video was filmed last week on the day of the million-day march, which drew huge crowds to Tahrir Square. The blogger says Egyptian authorities were doing their best to stop people, including himself, from descending on Cairo and the square by shutting down major roads around the country. Desperate efforts done in vain.

"The regime has tried its hardest to prevent us all from coming here today. They have shut down all major roads going into the country ... they almost prevented me from coming in ... now they're boxing people in, but it's not working. People are ... showing up. People are not afraid," he said.

--Alexandra Sandels in Beirut

Video credit: YouTube/Zero Silence Project

For years, millions of Egyptians have relied on their sense of humor and self-mockery as a way of surviving tough living conditions. Such sarcasm can be seen at its best in Tahrir Square, where tens of thousands are calling for the ousting of President Hosni Mubarak and his ruling regime.

A rumor that has spread through Egyptian state television is that protesters in Tahrir are being paid by a "foreign element" to camp in the square and cause unrest. Others found a funny side to Mubarak's persistence in holding on to power: A protester with big afro held a sign saying, "Mubarak, leave so I can go home and cut my hair."

The word "leave" was the most common in the signs raised in the square. Some activists wrote it in three languages. One protester wrote in the hieroglyphics of ancient Egypt to express his frustration: "Since you [Mubarak] are a Pharaoh, we're writing you in the hieroglyphic language you might understand."

Both the Egyptian foreign ministry and the opposition Muslim Brotherhood have said the popular protest movement sweeping the country has nothing to do with Iran, or Islam.

But that hasn't stopped Iranian officials from continuing to try and cast the uprising as an "Islamic awakening" in the tradition of their own 1979 Islamic Revolution.

On Tuesday, a spokesman for the foreign ministry praised the "justice-seeking" protest movement sweeping Egypt and warned against the meddling of foreign powers in Egypt's affairs.

"Anyone who tries to interfere in the internal affairs of this country and cause a diversion on the path of the popular movement will have to deal with the Egyptian nation," Ramin Mehmanparast told a news conference, according to state television.

When asked specifically about the Egyptian foreign ministry's statements, Mehmanparast questioned the authority of the ministry to speak for the people.

"A great movement is taking place in Egypt, and the first step of this movement was to question the trust and authorities of a person who controlled the government," he said. "Therefore, if someone is not to be trusted from the Egyptian people's point of view, their remarks will definitely have no authority for us."

Many in the Iranian opposition, however, have accused members of the government of being hypocritical in their support of protests in Egypt and Tunisia after brutally cracking down on Iranians who went to the streets following the 2009 disputed presidential elections.

While foreign tourists were flying out of Cairo in the masses amid the mass demonstrations against the government of President Hosni Mubarak, lining up at Cairo International Airport to get on the first flight out, 37-year old Belgian consultant Floris Van Cauwelaert was trying to get on a flight into Cairo to get a first-hand glimpse of the dramatic events unfolding in the Egyptian capital.

He was the regular guy who'd grown tired of watching history on TV instead of experiencing it in real life.

"I was lying in bed saying to myself: 'I should be in Egypt now'," he told Babylon & Beyond. "I was so enthusiastic about what was going on there. So I bought the ticket the next day not really thinking about how I was going to do this. When I was on the plane I thought to myself: 'What am I doing?'"

Police barracks in Rafah, the town in North Sinai that borders the Gaza strip, came under attack early Monday when a group of unknown perpetrators fired rocket-propelled grenades at the building, Egyptian media reported.

According to Agence France-Presse, at  least one Egyptian police officer was injured. Meanwhile, a reporter in North Sinai for Egyptian state-run TV named the victim as Muhammad Ahmad Mahmud, 21, but didn't mention his profession. 

The attackers were deterred by tribesmen in the area who identified them as members of "extremist religious groups and foreign elements from the other side of the border," added the reporter, speaking on Egypt's Channel 1.

Sinai Bedouins' testy relations with Egyptian authorities have been heightened by days of nationwide political unrest. 

Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei said Sunday that he will not negotiate with the Egyptian government until President Hosni Mubarak steps down.

"The whole idea was to move that regime to a new regime," ElBaradei said on CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS." "Mubarak continues to be a symbol of that old regime, and I will not give any legitimacy to that existing regime."

ElBaradei's comments came as Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman met in Cairo with some opposition figures, including members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood and a representative of ElBaradei's National Assn. for Change. Mubarak has said that he plans to remain in office until elections in September but that he will not run again.

ElBaradei, the former director of the International Atomic Energy Agency who has emerged as a figurehead for the country's fractured opposition, said the transition process should not be managed solely by the outgoing regime.

"There has to be heavy engagement by the people, by the civilians," he said. "So we are not in the greatest situation right now.  It's a very opaque situation, and it's a very tense situation."

He proposed the creation of a transitional presidential council that would prepare the country for free and fair elections. That council could include Suleiman or an army representative, as well as a civilian representative, he said.

ElBaradei said any elections before "the right people establish parties and engage" would be "fake democracy."

RELATED

Muslim Brotherhood joins talks on Egypt crisis; departure of Hosni Mubarak remains sticking point

U.S. reaction: Applause for negotiations in Egypt

The day a nation's fear dissolved

-- Alexandra Zavis

Photo: Mohamed ElBaradei on CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS." Credit: CNN

In video footage captured at Tahrir Square on Thursday morning, Egyptian anti-government demonstrator Salma Said explains why President Hosni Mubarak must step down and what government policies protesters camping out in Tahrir want out the door.

"I have lived all my life and I haven't seen a president but Mubarak," says the 20-something Said. "All of us suffer from his regime ... the emergency law, the injustice and inequality, and the police brutality --  it's the thing that affects us as young the most." 

On the topic of police brutality, Said gives the example of 28-year old Egyptian Khaled Said, who allegedly died at the hands of the police in Alexandria last year and has become a symbol for anti-government demonstrators.

Said says she is proud of how far the protesters have been able to push their demands, but stresses that there is still much left to do until Egypt is restored.

"I am proud at this point but our job isn't over yet. We still have a lot to do," she said.

The segment was the second interview filmed as part of an upcoming documentary "Zero Silence," about young people in the Middle East who are tired of the authoritarian regimes they live under, and who are using the Internet to aid them in creating change.

-- Alexandra Sandels in Beirut

Video: Protester Salma Said speaks out. Credit: YouTube / Zero Silence Project

Just one Friday ago, immediately after the afternoon call to prayer, a few thousand protestors were repelled from a mosque in Giza by rubber bullets, water hoses and clouds of tear gas.  A stone’s throw away were young mothers with babies, sweepers gathering the trash and men hawking sweet potatoes and plump tomatoes.  I saw two young men walking  arm in arm when one stopped to choose a big onion — for later, I was told, when the eyes and throat burn from tear gas.  It was a lovely Cairene street scene filled with vivid colors and more than a little irony so I whipped out my tiny Coolpix.

I filmed as a distraught man came up close to the screen and ranted about his government.  An undercover policeman built like a bookcase thwacked the man hard against the head and then turned and demanded I erase it. I did.  So much for free speech. He was actually bigger than a bookcase. Nearby a canister of white smoke unfurled its sting. A small boy ran to douse it with water. The tear gas burned and my heart raced.

The revolution had begun.