ROUGH CUT - NO REPORTER NARRATION<br/> <br />STORY: Opponents of President Mohamed Mursi clashed with Egyptian police on Tuesday (November 27) 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 />Police fired tear gas at stone-throwing youths in streets off Cairo's Tahrir Square, center of the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak last year. A 52-year-old protester died after inhaling the gas, the second fatality since Mursi 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.<br/> <br />Some protesters have been 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 />Mursi's move has also provoked a rebellion by judges and battered confidence in an economy struggling to recover from two years of turmoil.<br/> <br />Opponents have accused Mursi of behaving like a modern-day pharaoh. The United States, a big benefactor to Egypt's military, has expressed its concerns about more turbulence in a country that has a peace treaty with Israel.<br/> <br />Mursi's administration has defended his decree as an effort to speed up reforms and complete a democratic transformation. Opponents say it shows he has dictatorial instincts.
