Photo Gallery Violence Erupts on Egypt's Streets
Violent protests have rocked Egypt since Thursday when President Mohammed Morsi issued controversial decrees that granted the leader near absolute new powers. Here, a protester throws a rock in central Cairo on Sunday.
There are signs that Morsi may seek a compromise to ease tensions with his opponents. In a statement issued on Sunday evening, his office said the decrees were necessary for a proper transition to democracy and stressed that they would not be permanent. Here, Morsi speaks during a press conference in a file photo.
A number of activists have set up tents in Cairo's Tahrir Square since protests began on Friday.
Clashes between supporters of Morsi's Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, opposition parties and police have been reported across the country since Friday, resulting in some 500 injuries and the death of a teenage boy. Here, riot police fire tear gas during clashes in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Sunday. .
A police truck burns during a protest on Fiday in Cairo.
Anti-Morsi protesters on Saturday chanted slogans in front of the Supreme Judicial Council building in Cairo. The country's top judicial body on Monday urged judges and prosecutors to head back to work ahead of a meeting with Morsi scheduled for the same day.
Amid the ongoing clashes, the Egyptian stock market index reportedly dropped 9.59 percentage points on Sunday, the first day of trading since the edicts were announced. The steep drop was among the biggest since the uncertain times since former dictator Hosni Mubarak was toppled last year.
The move came directly after Morsi was widely praised for helping to broker a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, ending some eight days of violence in the Gaza Strip. Critics say that Morsi has used that momentum to sieze greater powers, which could endanger Egypt's transition to democracy. Here, a protest gathering in Tahrir Square.
Security forces clash with protesters in Cairo on Sunday. There are fears that the current unrest could destablize Egypt's fragile democratic development.
Opposition leaders, including prominent Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohamed ElBaradei, have refused to cooperate with Morsi until the edicts have been scrapped. "He grabbed full power for himself," he told SPIEGEL in an interview published on Monday. "Not even the pharaohs had so much authority, to say nothing of his predecessor Hosni Mubarak. This is a catastrophe -- it a mockery of the revolution that brought him to power and an act that leads one to fear the worst."
