As crowds swell in Cairo, military in crisis talks

As crowds swell in Cairo, military in crisis talks

CAIRO (AP) — A swelling crowd of tens of thousands filled Cairo’s Tahrir Square Tuesday, answering the call for a million people to turn out and intensify pressure on Egypt’s military leaders to hand over power to a civilian government. The ruling military council held crisis talks with political parties across the spectrum to try to defuse growing cries for a “second revolution.” The military head of state, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, was expected to address the nation imminently as protests in Cairo and other major cities carried on for a fourth day. Security forces stayed out of Tahrir itself to lower the temperature. But there were clashes on side streets leading to the square that was the epicenter of the uprising that ousted longtime authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak in February.