EGYPT: More than 160,000 foreigners have evacuated

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Egypt’s official news agency is reporting that more than 160,000 foreigners have left the country since the start of mass protests demanding President Hosni Mubarak’s ouster.

Airport officials told the Middle East News Agency on Friday that departure figure reflected departures only through Cairo airport. It did not include the number of tourists who left from smaller airports at the popular Red Sea resorts of Sharm el-Sheikh and Hurghada, or the port city of Alexandria.

On Thursday, Egypt’s new vice president had said that 1 million tourists left the country since demonstrations began Jan. 25.

Foreigners have fled Egypt on commercial flights, but foreign governments have also sent dozens of charter flights to evacuate their citizens from the country as protests turned violent.

-- Molly Hennessy-Fiske