Southern Sudan's referendum commission said Sunday that more than 99 percent of voters in the south opted to secede from the country's north in a vote held earlier this month.

The unemployed 24-year-old was arguing with a police officer when the man struck him across the face — a blow that seemed to sting for months.

"He stole my dignity with that slap," said Hassanein, who does odd jobs to make money. "We could never stand up to those officers before because we were afraid. But we're no longer willing to be silenced by our fear."

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood and other opposition groups have authorized leading dissident Mohammed ElBaradei to negotiate with embattled President Hosni Mubarak's regime, an Islamist leader said Sunday.

The National Coalition for Change, which groups several opposition movements including the banned Brotherhood around ElBaradei, has authorized the Nobel peace laureate with "negotiating with the authorities," Saad al-Katatni told AFP.

The United States started organizing Sunday the evacuation of its nationals from Egypt as an angry anti-government revolt raged into a sixth day amid increasing lawlessness and mass jail breaks.

"The U.S. embassy in Cairo informs U.S. citizens in Egypt who wish to depart that the department of state is making arrangements to provide transportation to safehaven locations in Europe," an embassy statement said, as other countries issued travel warnings and tourists scrambled for flights out.

Saudi King Abdullah has told U.S. President Barack Obama that there should be no bargaining on Egypt's stability and the security of its people, the Saudi press agency said Sunday.

SPA said that Obama phoned the king in Morocco, where he is recuperating from surgery, and that both leaders were not happy with the chaotic situation and looting.

Thousands of inmates escaped prisons across Egypt on Sunday, including at least one jail that housed Muslim militants northwest of Cairo, adding to the chaos engulfing the country as anti-government protests continue to demand the ouster of longtime authoritarian President Hosni Mubarak.

Security officials said the prisoners escaped overnight from four jails after starting fires and clashing with guards. The inmates were helped by gangs of armed men who attacked the prisons, firing at guards in gunbattles that lasted hours.

Israel is carefully watching developments in Egypt and its efforts are focused on maintaining the "stability and security" of the region, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.

"We are attentively following what is going on in Egypt and in our region," Netanyahu told reporters at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting after holding late-night talks with top intelligence brass and key ministers.

British Prime Minister David Cameron, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Egypt's Hosni Mubarak to avoid violence "at all costs" in a joint statement Saturday.

The three leaders called on Egypt's embattled president to commit to change in response to what they said were the "legitimate grievances" of his people.

Leading Egyptian dissident Mohammed ElBaradei said on Saturday that the appointment of a vice president and a new prime minister in Egypt was not enough to end a revolt against President Hosni Mubarak's rule.

He also urged Mubarak to leave Egypt as soon as possible for the good of the country, in comments to Al-Jazeera television.

Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi spoke by telephone with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Saturday, the fifth day of protests calling for the end of Mubarak's regime, the Libyan news agency Jana reported.

Without giving details of their conversation, the news agency said Gaddafi called Mubarak "to reassure himself on the situation in Egypt."