Friday protests in Tahrir Square
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Thousands of protesters gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Friday to express their opposition to a draft constitution they say is being imposed on Egypt by the country's Islamist President, Mohamed Mursi.
On Thursday night, an Islamist-led assembly raced through approval of the new document to end a crisis over Mursi's newly-expanded powers.
In an interview broadcast on state television on Thursday, Mursi said a controversial decree halting court challenges to his decisions, which sparked eight days of protests and violence by Egyptians calling him a new dictator, was "for an exceptional stage", aimed at speeding up the democratic transition.
He said the decree would expire as soon as the constitution was approved in a referendum.
But the opposition has cried foul. Liberals, leftists, Christians, more moderate Muslims and others had withdrawn from the assembly, saying their voices were not being heard.
Thousands of protesters gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Friday to express their opposition to a draft constitution they say is being imposed on Egypt by the country's Islamist President, Mohamed Mursi.
On Thursday night, an Islamist-led assembly raced through approval of the new document to end a crisis over Mursi's newly-expanded powers.
In an interview broadcast on state television on Thursday, Mursi said a controversial decree halting court challenges to his decisions, which sparked eight days of protests and violence by Egyptians calling him a new dictator, was "for an exceptional stage", aimed at speeding up the democratic transition.
He said the decree would expire as soon as the constitution was approved in a referendum.
But the opposition has cried foul. Liberals, leftists, Christians, more moderate Muslims and others had withdrawn from the assembly, saying their voices were not being heard.
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