Egypt's Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq resigned on Thursday and the military asked a former transport minister to form a new government. Shafiq was appointed prime minister by Hosni Mubarak in his final days in office before he was ousted on February 11 after an 18-day popular uprising which shook the Middle East. There have since been protests and political pressure for Shafiq to step down. One Shafiq aide said appointing Essam Sharaf as prime minister would defuse calls for another mass demonstration on Friday after a first modest reshuffle by Shafiq failed to mollify protesters. The Muslim Brotherhood and other political groupings had also been calling for Shafiq and his government to step aside and the army, in an apparent response had vowed to halt any "counter-revolution" from hijacking Egypt s revolution.
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