Update 2:40 p.m.: Reuters now reports that the army council is delaying their acceptance of the cabinet's resignation until they agree on a new prime minister. 

Updated 2:14 p.m.:  After months of criticism for its perceived ineffectiveness and a weekend of lethal protests, Egypt's cabinet offered its resignation to the ruling army council yesterday, and the council has accepted it today, Al Jazeera reports. The cabinet's decision comes after increasingly violent confrontations between protesters and police left over 30 people dead this weekend. The Associated Press report notes:

Prime Minister Essam Sharaf's government has come under consistent criticism from across the political spectrum since it came to office in March for its perceived inefficiency and its subordination to the military.

The protesters have taken to Tahrir Square, as they did to oust the former president Hosni Mubarak, to resist the army's attempt to retain power over the new government that will be chosen in elections scheduled for November 28. So make that two governments that the protesters in Tahrir have now taken out, though in this case the army is their real target and it remains in tact. The country's culture minister had already resigned in protest over the cabinet's violent handling of the protests. Al Jazeera reports that while some observers said the resignation is just further proof of the cabinet's ineffectiveness, others see it as an opportunity for a unity government to step in and end the violence. 

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