Egypt opposition snubs Mursi plan to ease decree crisis

Opponents of Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi will press ahead with a protest on Tuesday to demand the scrapping of a decree extending his powers, rejecting the Islamist’s attempt to defuse a crisis that has brought violence back to Cairo’s streets.

Mursi was accused of giving himself the powers of a modern-day pharaoh when he issued the decree last week that prevents legal challenges to any decision he takes until a new parliament is elected.

The president tried to ease tensions on Monday by agreeing to a compromise proposed by senior judges on the Supreme Judicial Council limiting the scope of presidential decisions that are immune from a court challenge.

But protesters camped out in Tahrir Square, the heart of the uprising that unseated Hosni Mubarak almost two years ago, said they would not leave until the decree was scrapped entirely. …

The crisis, the biggest since Mursi took office in June, has exposed deep divisions in the nation between Islamists and their opponents. It threatens to undermine Egypt’s fragile economic recovery, signaled by an initial deal reached last week for a $4.8 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund.