Hosni Mubarak: target of protests in Cairo (UPDATE)

As thousands of Egyptians defied a ban on protests Thursday and returned to Egypt's streets, calling for President Hosni Mubarak to resign, trading was suspended on the Cairo stock exchange and the Egyptian pound fell to its lowest level against the dollar in six years.

And in one of many flashpoints, as unrest continued to spill over onto the streets of several Egyptian cities despite a security crackdown, angry demonstrators torched a police post in the eastern city of Suez.

Hundreds of protesters have been arrested in two days of Tunisia-inspired and unprecedented mass protests against Mubarak''s autocratic regime that has so far left at least six people dead.

Egypt witnessed a second ''day of anger'' against Mubarak's three decades of rule Wednesday as thousands of protesters took to streets, shouting slogans like ''Down with Hosni Mubarak, down with the tyrant," "We don''t want you!"

Mubarak, 82, has been in power since 1981 and hasn't said whether he will run in the September elections.

Mohamed ElBaradei, a Nobel laureate and prominent Egyptian reform campaigner, is set to return to the country as anti-government activists plan a new massive rally in the capital.

ElBaradei, considered the most high-profile opponent of the Mubarak regime, called on Egyptians to participate in the protests.

He told Newsweek on the eve of his return that despite U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's assessment that Egypt is "stable," the country now only sees "pseudo-stability" because "real stability only comes with a democratically elected government."

ElBaradei now lives in Vienna and is the former head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency.