America shame on you! This is a revolution, not a coup!"
Cairo (ANTARA News/AFP) - Hundreds of thousands rallied across Egypt on Sunday in support of the popular military overthrow of President Mohamed Moursi as the interim government said it would announce a new prime minister within a day.

Staged two days after Islamist rallies exploded into bloodshed, the protests came as a senior official said a new prime minister would be announced on Monday.

Interim president Adly Mansour was leaning towards appointing centre-left lawyer Ziad Bahaa Eldin as prime minister and Nobel Laureate Mohamed ElBaradei as vice president, the president`s media advisor Ahmed al-Muslimani told AFP

If confirmed, Mansour has gone for a technocrat without the baggage of ElBaradei, whose candidacy outraged Salafi Islamists in a loose coalition that backed president Mohamed Morsi`s overthrow by the military on Wednesday.

The Salafis say ElBaradei, viewed as an ardent secularist and top opponent to Islamist Morsi, would have been a divisive premier.

The son of a prominent writer, Bahaa Eldin would be handed the enormous task of bringing a semblance of unity to the new Egypt, just days after the military ousted Morsi.

The development came as protests swelled to an estimated 250,000 in Cairo`s Tahrir Square, epicentre of the 2011 revolution which toppled Hosni Mubarak.

Wave after wave of military aircraft skimmed over the capital, with one formation leaving behind long trails of smoke in black, white and red ; the colours of the Egyptian flag.

"We are on the street to show the world that it was a popular revolution and not a coup that overthrew" Morsi on Wednesday, said a beaming teacher who gave her name as Magda.

Many banners showed the protesters` anger with the United States for what they perceive as its support for Morsi, as well as American media coverage depicting his ouster as a coup.

"America shame on you! This is a revolution, not a coup!" read one, echoing a chant heard in Tahrir, again and again. Others carried portraits of army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the general behind Morsi`s ouster.

President Barack Obama insisted overnight that the United States was "not aligned" with any political party or group in Egypt following Morsi`s ouster.

"The future path of Egypt can only be determined by the Egyptian people," the White House quoted him as saying.

The Tamarod movement, which engineered the June 30 rallies that culminated in Morsi`s overthrow, had led calls for people to gather at Tahrir and Ittihadiya presidential palace to "complete the revolution".
(U.T008)

Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2013