Baradei not confirmed as Egypt PM

Cairo (Agencies): Egypt's new president has backed away from an announcement that pro-reform leader Mohamed El Baradei would be the interim prime minister. A spokesman for interim President Adly Mansour, Ahmed el-Musilamani, told reporters on Saturday that consultations were continuing, denying that the appointment of the Nobel Peace laureate was ever certain. However, reporters gathered at the presidential palace were ushered into a room where they were told by an official to wait for the president who would arrive shortly to announce El Baradei's appointment. A senior opposition official, Munir Fakhry Abdelnur, tells the Associated Press that the reversal occurred because the ultraconservative Salafi el-Nour party objected to El Baradei's appointment and mediation was underway. The announcement takes place amid a widening crisis in Egypt as clashes killed at least 36 people across the country. Pipeline bombed Meanwhile, a group of militants bombed early Sunday a pipeline in North Sinai that provides natural gas to Jordan, security sources said. "The gunmen bombed part of the pipeline in Lehfin area in North Sinai and another part of the pipeline north of Arish International Airport," a security source told Xinhua. The attacks came after the Egyptian army ousted Islamist-oriented president Mohamed Morsi on Wednesday. Clashes on Saturday between Morsi's Islamist supporters and his opponents celebrating his ouster killed at least 35 and injured over 1,400 across the country.