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| Protesters, police clash in 2 Egyptian cities |
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The violence in the Nile Delta city of Mansoura and the Suez Canal city of Port Said came as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was in Cairo talking with opposition figures ahead of his meeting with the president and defense minister on Sunday.
The two cities outside Cairo have been calling for a civil disobedience campaign to bring down President Mohammed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood group. Protesters and opposition parties accuse Morsi and the Brotherhood of trying to monopolize power and of reneging on promises of reform. They also want parts of a new constitution amended and are calling for the formation of a more inclusive government.
Calls for strikes coincide with a diesel crisis that has caused microbuses, taxi drivers and truck drivers to wait in fuel lines for hours every day across Egypt. The political turmoil has rocked the country's economy and the government is struggling to contain a rush on the U.S. dollar by worried residents as well as a decline in foreign reserves, which threatens to affect the government's ability to provide for subsidies that millions of Egyptians rely on for survival.
One of the country's most prominent opposition coalitions is calling on people to boycott parliamentary elections slated to begin in April for the 546-seat legislature. The National Salvation Front says the vote will only further polarize the nation and that elections cannot take place during the current climate of violence.
The elections commission on Saturday announced procedures for elections, including an eight-day window starting March 9 for candidates to register to run.
Since the second anniversary of Egypt's uprising in late January, more than 70 people have been killed in clashes with police.
Egypt's Interior Ministry, which oversees the country's police force, said a protester died and dozens were wounded before dawn Saturday in Mansoura where about 400 people protested outside the local council office. The ministry said protesters were chanting anti-government slogans before they cut off a main road and threw firebombs at the building.
Activists there told The Associated Press that a protester, Hossam Eldin Abdullah Abdelazim, was killed when an armored police vehicle crushed him to death during the clashes. A quiet funeral was held for him on Saturday.
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.jpg "The body of Hossam Eldin Abdullah Abdelazim, 14, who died when an armored police vehicle crushed him, is carried for burial from the international hospital in Mansoura, in the Nile Delta province of Dakahliya, Egypt, Saturday, March 2, 2013.")