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CAIRO (AP) — Facing a popular uprising, Egypt’s president firedhis Cabinet early today after protesters engulfed his country inchaos — battling police with stones and firebombs, burning downthe ruling party headquarters and defying a night curfew enforcedby the army.

In a nationally televised address at midnight, President HosniMubarak made vague promises of social reform but did not offer tostep down himself. he also defended his security forces –outraging protesters calling for an end to his nearly 30-yearregime.

‘We want Mubarak to go and instead he is digging in further,”protester Kamal Mohammad said. ‘He thinks it is calming down thesituation but he is just angering people more.”

Pouring onto the streets after Friday noon prayers, protestersignored extreme government measures that included cutting off theInternet and mobile-phone services in Cairo and other areas,calling the army into the streets and imposing a nationwidenighttime curfew.

Egypt’s crackdown on demonstrators drew harsh criticism from theObama administration and even a threat Friday to reduce a $1.5billion foreign aid program if Washington’s most important Arabally escalates the use of force.

Stepping up the pressure, President Barack Obama told a newsconference he called Mubarak immediately after his TV address andurged the Egyptian leader to take ‘concrete steps” to expand rightsand refrain from violence against protesters.

‘The United States will continue to stand up for the rights ofthe Egyptian people and work with their government in pursuit of afuture that is more just, more free and more hopeful,” he said.

Throughout Friday, flames rose in cities across Egypt, includingAlexandria, Suez, Assiut and Port Said, and security officials saidthere were protests in 11 of the country’s 28 provinces.

Calling the anti-government protests ‘part of a bigger plot toshake the stability and destroy legitimacy” of Egypt’s politicalsystem, a somber-look Mubarak said: ‘We aspire for more democracy,more effort to combat unemployment and poverty and combatcorruption.”

Still, his words were likely to be interpreted as an attempt tocling to power rather than a pledge to take concrete steps to solveEgypt’s pressing problems — poverty, unemployment and rising foodprices.

‘Out, out, out!” protesters chanted in violent, chaotic scenesof battles with riot police and the army — which was sent onto thestreets for the first time Friday during the crisis.

Protesters seized the streets of Cairo, battling police withstones and firebombs and burning down the ruling partyheadquarters. many defied a 6 p.m. curfew and crowds remained onthe streets long after midnight, where buildings and tires werestill burning and there was widespread looting.

At least one protester was killed Friday, bringing the toll forthe week to eight. Demonstrators were seen dragging bloodied,unconsciousness protesters to waiting cars and on to hospitals, butno official number of wounded was announced.

Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei, a leading pro-democracyadvocate, was soaked with a water cannon and briefly trapped insidea mosque after joining the protests. he was later placed underhouse arrest.

In the capital, hundreds of young men carted away televisions,fans and stereo equipment looted from the National DemocraticParty, near the Egyptian Museum, home of King Tutankhamun’streasures. Young men formed a human barricade in front of themuseum to protect one of Egypt’s most important touristattractions.

Others around the city looted banks, smashed cars, tore downstreet signs and pelted armored riot police vehicles with pavingstones torn from roadways.

‘We are the ones who will bring change,” declared 21-year-oldAhmed Sharif. ‘If we do nothing, things will get worse. Change mustcome!” he screamed through a surgical mask he wore to ward off thetear gas.

Egypt’s national airline halted flights for at least 12 hoursand a Cairo Airport official said some international airlines hadcanceled flights to the capital, at least overnight. there werelong lines at many supermarkets and employees limited bread salesto 10 rolls per person.

Options appeared to be dwindling for Mubarak, an 82-year-oldformer air force commander who until this week maintained whatlooked like rock-solid control of the most populous Arab nation andthe cultural heart of the region.

The scenes of anarchy along the Nile played out on televisionand computer screens from Algiers to Riyadh, two weeks to the dayafter protesters in Tunisia drove out their autocratic president.Images of the protests in Tunisia emboldened Egyptians to take tothe streets in demonstrations organized over mobile phone, Facebookand Twitter.

The government cut off the Internet and mobile-phone services,but that did not keep tens of thousands of protesters from allwalks of life from joining in rallies after Friday prayers. Thedemonstrators were united in rage against a regime seen as corrupt,abusive and uncaring toward the nearly half of Egypt’s 80 millionpeople who live below the poverty line.

‘All these people want to bring down the government. That’s ourbasic desire,” said protester Wagdy Syed, 30. ‘They have no morals,no respect, and no good economic sense.”

Egypt has been one of the United States’ closest allies in theregion since President Anwar Sadat made peace with Israel at CampDavid in 1977.

Mubarak kept that deal after Sadat’s assassination and has beena close partner of every U.S. president since Jimmy Carter, helpingWashington on issues that range from suppressing Islamist violenceto counterbalancing the rise of Iran’s anti-American Shiitetheocracy.

The Mubarak government boasts about economic achievements:rising GDP and a surging private sector led by a construction boomand vibrant, seemingly recession-proof banks.

But many say the fruits of growth have been funneled almostentirely to a politically connected elite, leaving averageEgyptians surrounded by unattainable symbols of wealth as theystruggle to find jobs, pay daily bills and find affordablehousing.

Friday’s unrest began when tens of thousands poured into thestreets after noon prayers, stoning and confronting police whofired back with rubber bullets and tear gas. Demonstrators wieldingrocks, glass and sticks chased hundreds of riot police away fromthe main square in downtown Cairo and several of the policemenstripped off their uniforms and badges and joined thedemonstrators.

The uprising united the economically struggling and theprosperous, the secular and the religious. But the country’s mostpopular opposition group, the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, hadlittle overt presence on the streets despite a call for its membersto turn out.

Young men in one downtown square clambered onto a statue ofTalat Harb, a pioneering Egyptian economist, and unfurled a largegreen banner that proclaimed ‘The Middle Class” in white Arabiclettering.

Women dressed in black veils and wide, flowing robes followedwomen with expensive hairdos, tight jeans and Americansneakers.

The crowd included Christian men with key rings with crossesswinging from their pockets and young men dressed in fast-foodrestaurant uniforms.

When a man sporting a long beard and a white robe began chantingan Islamist slogan, he was grabbed and shaken by another protestertelling him to keep the slogans patriotic and not religious.

In downtown Cairo, people on balconies tossed cans of Pepsi andbottles of water to protesters on the streets below to douse theireyes, as well as onions and lemons to sniff, to cut the sting ofthe tear gas.

Junior lawmakers in the ruling party called in to nationalEgyptian TV calling on calm in the city.

Some of the most serious violence Friday was in Suez, whereprotesters seized weapons stored in a police station and asked thepolicemen inside to leave the building before they burned it down.they also set ablaze about 20 police trucks parked nearby.Demonstrators exchanged fire with policemen trying to stop themfrom storming another police station and one protester was killedin the gun battle.

In Assiut in southern Egypt, several thousand demonstratorsclashed with police that set upon them with batons and sticks,chasing them through side streets.

Mubarak has not said yet whether he will stand for anothersix-year term as president in elections this year. he has neverappointed a deputy and is thought to be grooming his son Gamal tosucceed him despite popular opposition. according to leaked U.S.memos, hereditary succession also does not meet with the approvalof the powerful military.

Associated Press reporters Sarah El Deeb, Maggie Michael andDiaa Hadid contributed to this report.

Mubarak fires Cabinet