Egypt: One killed in riots after emergency law imposed
A man was shot dead today in a fifth day of violence in Egypt that has killed 50 people and prompted the Islamist president to declare a state of emergency in an attempt to end a wave of unrest sweeping the Arab world's biggest nation.
Emergency rule announced by President Mohamed Mursi yesterday covers the cities of Port Said, Ismailia and Suez. The army has already been deployed in two of those cities and cabinet approved a measure to let soldiers arrest civilians.
Mursi's call for a national dialogue meeting today to help end the crisis was spurned by his main opponents.
They accuse Mursi of hijacking the revolution, listening only to his Islamist allies and breaking a promise to be a president for all Egyptians. Islamists say their rivals want to overthrow by undemocratic means Egypt's first freely elected leader.
Anti-Mursi protesters were out on the streets again in Cairo and elsewhere today, the second anniversary of one of the bloodiest days in the revolution that erupted on January 25, 2011, and ended Mubarak's iron rule 18 days later.
COMMENTS >
Egyptian army allowed to arrest civilians
