The BBC has the White House reaction to today’s games – Egypt protests: Obama impatient for credible transition

US President Barack Obama says the Egyptian government has yet to put forward a “credible, concrete and unequivocal” path to democracy.

He said Egyptians “remain unconvinced that the government is serious about a genuine transition to democracy”.

Egypt’s President Mubarak has said he plans to stay in office until September’s polls, but pledged to hand over some powers.

Anti-government protesters have reacted angrily to Mr Mubarak’s address.

“The Egyptian people have been told that there was a transition of authority, but it is not yet clear that this transition is immediate, meaningful or sufficient,” said Mr Obama.

“The Egyptian government must put forward a credible, concrete and unequivocal path toward genuine democracy, and they have not yet seized that opportunity,” he said.

In his nationally televised address earlier, President Mubarak had said he would delegate some powers to Vice-President Omar Suleiman, but the details remained unclear.

His comments confounded earlier reports that he was preparing to stand down immediately.

From the sequence of the announcements it would appear that the Egyptian military thought they had a deal that would involve Mubarak leaving, and putting Suleiman in charge. Suleiman seemed to confirm this deal. Based on this the US make a statement that reflected this deal having been struck.

Part of the deal was Mubarak making a speech to formally announce the deal, but Mubarak didn’t change his position at all. He says he is going to stay until the elections in the Fall.

Needless to say, the protesters are having none of it, and the White House is thoroughly PO’ed about being gamed by the Egyptians. It sounds like the military cut a deal with the US and couldn’t pull it off, because Mubarak won’t leave. This puts the military in the position having to consider “doing something” about Mubarak.

The protests are expanding, and today’s “drama” will probably increase the turn out on Friday.

The second half of the race began at 3:35AM PST at Dawson when Hugh Neff headed out again. Only the first nine of the teams behind him are within 12 hours of his lead, and Hans Gatt is two hours and 41 minutes behind, but this is the worst part of the trail, and ultimately it is up to the dogs, which is why it is called a “sled dog race”.

It is about 150 miles to Eagle, Alaska on the other side of American Summit. There is a four-hour mandatory lay-over in Eagle, and you hope that you don’t have to drop any dogs, because the only way to get to Eagle in the winter is by dog sled or aircraft, there is no road.

Update 11:30PM CST: Christine Roalofs (9), the current Red Lantern, has apparently stopped for a break about 40 miles from Dawson. The GPS showed her moving earlier in the day, but her position hasn’t changed in the last couple of hours. She left Scroggie Creek with 10 dogs at 8PM CST on the 9^th.

Beyond Dawson

1 Hugh Neff (8)
2 Hans Gatt (13)
3 Ken Anderson (18)
4 Brent Sass (22)
5 Sebastian Schnuelle (11)
4 Brent Sass (22)
5 Sebastian Schnuelle (11)
6 Allen Moore (24)^I
7 Wade Marrs (15)^I
8 Dallas Seavey (3)^I
9 Dan Kaduce (10)
10 Kelley Griffin (1)

At Dawson

11 Joshua Cadzow (16)
12 Jodi Bailey (17)^R
13 Mike Ellis (5)
14 David Dalton (23)
15 Johannes Rygh (6)^R
16 Clint Warnke (25)^I
17 Tamara Rose (12)^I
18 Jerry Joinson (21)^R
19 Didier Moggia (7)
20 Kyla Durham (14)^R
21 Hank DeBruin (19)^I

Beyond Scroggie Creek

22 Christine Roalofs (9)^R [earlier report of arrival was in error]

The Mushers in bold are former winners of the Yukon Quest, the numbers in parentheses are their Bib numbers, the small “I” indicates a Quest rookie who has competed in the Iditarod, and the small “R” indicates a total rookie.

Note: This post will be updated during the day, and the map changed on all posts to reflect the current situation.

All posts on the Yukon Quest can be seen by selecting “Yukon Quest” from the Category box on the right sidebar.