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| Travel ban imposed on Morsi, army tightens grip |
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.jpg) CAIRO (AP) — Egyptian officials have issued a travel ban against President Mohammed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood chief and deputy chief.
The deadline on the military's ultimatum to Morsi has expired, with 48 hours passing since the time it was issued.
Giant cheering crowds of Morsi's opponents have been gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square and other locations nationwide, waving flags furiously in expectation that the military will act to remove the president after the deadline ends.
The military has not said it would act immediately at the stroke of the deadline's expiration. But it has said it will impose its own political plan if Morsi failed to satisfy the protesters' demands.
The army chief of staff met earlier Wednesday with a key opposition leader and top Muslim and Coptic Christian clerics in a sign the military is preparing to implement its political "road map" as a deadline approached for President Mohammed Morsi to either yield to public demands for reform or step aside.
State media reported that the "road map" would include a new interim leadership, installed by the military, and a suspension of the constitution and the parliament.
The BBC reported that the army asked all but essential staff to leave the state TV building ahead of the deadline, which expired around 5 p.m. local time (11 a.m. ET.), while Reuters quotes the army as saying that it has set no schedule for delivering statements or speeches.
Morsi, the country's first freely elected president, has vowed not to step down in the face of three days of massive street demonstrations calling for his ouster.
At least 39 people have died since the protests began on Sunday. Many of the latest deaths occurred after gunfire erupted outside Cairo University in Giza, where pro-Morsi demonstrators gathered to show support for the president, who comes from the 85-year-old Muslim Brotherhood, the Associated Press reported.
The meeting between opposition groups and army chief Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi was announced by opposition spokesman Khaled Dwoud in a live telephone interview with state television.
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