Mass anti-Morsi rally in Egyptian capital

One person has been killed and hundreds injured after an estimated 200,000 people crammed into Tahrir Square in the Egyptian capital to protest against President Mohamed Morsi, who last week granted himself sweeping powers.

Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Thousands march to Tahrir as pressure piles on Egyptu2019s Mursi. Net / photo.

One person has been killed and hundreds injured after an estimated 200,000 people crammed into Tahrir Square in the Egyptian capital to protest against President Mohamed Morsi, who last week granted himself sweeping powers.In the biggest protest against Egypt’s new president thus far, people demanded an end to Morsi’s new powers on Tuesday and into the early hours of Wednesday morning.One person died of a heart attack after inhaling tear gas as protesters and riot police clashed in Cairo near Tahrir Square, the focal point of the uprising that toppled former President Hosni Mubarak nearly two years ago. "The people want the regime to fall,” the crowds chanted.In the Mediterranean city of Alexandria protesters attacked the local office of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood movement, while In Mahalla, north of Cairo, anti-Morsi protesters held a large rally.Al Jazeera’s Hoda Abel-Hamid, reporting from Cairo on Tuesday night, said there were no indications that Morsi was going to rescind the decree extending his powers."We are hearing reports of different influential Egyptians who are trying to come up with a solution, some sort of common ground that would be acceptable,” she said.A rival rally in Cairo by the Muslim Brotherhood in support of the president was called off to "avoid potential unrest” but that has done little to heal the division among supporters and foes of Morsi."The Muslim Brotherhood stole the revolution” read one banner in Tahrir.Another said the president was "pushing the people to civil disobedience”."The Muslim Brotherhood are liars,” read another.The demonstrations come a day after Morsi met the country’s senior judges in a bid to defuse the crisis over the decree,  which has sparked deadly clashes and prompted judges and journalists to call for strike.On Monday, Morsi met with the nation’s top judges and tried to win their acceptance of his decrees. But the move was dismissed by many in the opposition and the judiciary as providing no real concessions.The senior judges who met Morsi were in an "emergency session” on Tuesday night, according to our correspondent, "trying to come up with one united stance”.Agencies