Tens of Thousands Rally Against Morsi Power Grab

Suspicious of claims that power expansion is only temporary

ens of thousands of Egyptians opposed to President Mohammed Morsi's recent effort to expand his power descended on central Cairo to voice outrage over the move.

Large numbers gathered in Tahrir Square on Tuesday, many of them secularists and liberals, in a rejection of an attempt by the Islamist-backed president to mollify his critics in a statement on the eve of the protests.

Yasser Ali, Mr. Morsi's spokesman, told national television audiences that the constitutional declaration that endowed near absolute power on the president was temporary and limited only to the president's highest-level decisions.