Mubarak Resigns from Ruling Party, Yet Retains Power

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has resigned from Egypt's ruling party.  However, Mubarak will remain as the leader of Egypt.

More from CBS:

His son, Gamal Mubarak, and the National Democratic Party's secretary-general, Safwat el-Sharif, have also resigned from the party, in a new gesture to protesters carrying out a 12-day-old wave of anti-government demonstrations.

State TV said the ruling party's six-member Steering Committee of the General Secretariat stepped down and was replaced. The council was the party's highest decision-making body, and el-Sharif and other outgoing members were some of the most powerful (and to many Egyptians, unpopular) political figures in the regime.

El-Sharif was replaced by Hossam Badrawi, member of the liberal wing of the party who had been sidelined within the NDP ranks in recent years because of his sharp criticisms of some policies. 

This comes as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, speaking today at an international security conference in Munich, signaled that U.S. support has swung behind a transition headed by the recently-named vice president, Omar Suleiman.

Please bookmark!