<p>Opponents of President Mohamed Morsi clashed with Egyptian police on Tuesday as thousands of protesters stepped up pressure on the Islamist to scrap a decree they say threatens the nation with a new era of autocracy.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Police fired tear gas at stone-throwing youths in streets off Cairo’s Tahrir Square, centre of the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak last year. <br /><br />A 52-year-old protester died after inhaling the gas, the second fatality since Morsi announced the decree expanding his powers and preventing court challenges to his decisions last week.<br /><br />Tuesday’s protest called by leftists, liberals and other groups marked a deepening of the worst crisis since the Muslim Brotherhood politician was elected in June, and exposed a divide between the newly-empowered Islamists and their opponents. Some protesters have camped out since Friday in the square, and violence has flared around the country, including in a town north of Cairo where a Muslim Brotherhood youth was killed in clashes on Sunday. Hundreds more have been injured. <br /><br />Morsi’s move has also provoked a rebellion by judges and battered confidence in an economy struggling to recover from two years of turmoil. Hundreds of lawyers gathered outside their union building in downtown Cairo chanting: “Leave, leave.”<br /><br />Opponents have accused Morsi of behaving like a modern-day pharaoh. His administration has defended the decree as an effort to speed up reforms and complete a democratic transformation. <br /><br />Opponents say it shows he has dictatorial instincts. “The people want to bring down the regime,” protesters chanted, echoing slogans used in the anti-Mubarak uprising. “We don’t want a dictatorship again. The Mubarak regime was a dictatorship. We had a revolution to have justice and freedom,” said 32-year-old Ahmed Husseini.<br /><br />The protest was a show of strength by the non-Islamist opposition, whose fractious ranks have been pushed together by the crisis. <br /></p>
<p>Opponents of President Mohamed Morsi clashed with Egyptian police on Tuesday as thousands of protesters stepped up pressure on the Islamist to scrap a decree they say threatens the nation with a new era of autocracy.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Police fired tear gas at stone-throwing youths in streets off Cairo’s Tahrir Square, centre of the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak last year. <br /><br />A 52-year-old protester died after inhaling the gas, the second fatality since Morsi announced the decree expanding his powers and preventing court challenges to his decisions last week.<br /><br />Tuesday’s protest called by leftists, liberals and other groups marked a deepening of the worst crisis since the Muslim Brotherhood politician was elected in June, and exposed a divide between the newly-empowered Islamists and their opponents. Some protesters have camped out since Friday in the square, and violence has flared around the country, including in a town north of Cairo where a Muslim Brotherhood youth was killed in clashes on Sunday. Hundreds more have been injured. <br /><br />Morsi’s move has also provoked a rebellion by judges and battered confidence in an economy struggling to recover from two years of turmoil. Hundreds of lawyers gathered outside their union building in downtown Cairo chanting: “Leave, leave.”<br /><br />Opponents have accused Morsi of behaving like a modern-day pharaoh. His administration has defended the decree as an effort to speed up reforms and complete a democratic transformation. <br /><br />Opponents say it shows he has dictatorial instincts. “The people want to bring down the regime,” protesters chanted, echoing slogans used in the anti-Mubarak uprising. “We don’t want a dictatorship again. The Mubarak regime was a dictatorship. We had a revolution to have justice and freedom,” said 32-year-old Ahmed Husseini.<br /><br />The protest was a show of strength by the non-Islamist opposition, whose fractious ranks have been pushed together by the crisis. <br /></p>