Egyptian military says only dialogue can avert disaster


CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's military, stepping into a crisis pitting Islamist President Mohamed Mursi against opponents who accuse him of grabbing excessive power, said on Saturday only dialogue could avert "catastrophe".


State broadcasters interrupted their programs to read out an army statement telling feuding factions that a solution to the upheaval in the most populous Arab nation should not contradict "legitimacy and the rules of democracy".


That sounded like a swipe at protesters who have besieged the palace of the freely elected president and called for his removal, going beyond mainstream opposition demands for him to retract a decree that expanded his powers.


The statement also called for a "serious" national dialogue - perhaps one more credible than talks convened by Mursi on Saturday in the absence of opposition leaders. They insist he must first scrap his November 22 decree, defer next week's popular vote on a new constitution and allow the text to be revised.


Deep rifts have emerged over the destiny of a country of 83 million where the end of Hosni Mubarak's 30 years of military-backed one-man rule led to a messy army-led transition, during which the Muslim Brotherhood and its allies won two elections. Many Egyptians crave stability and economic recovery.


The spokesman for the main Islamist coalition demanded that the referendum go ahead on time on the constitution drafted by an Islamist-led assembly from which liberals had walked out.


The army, which ran Egypt for months after Mubarak fell in February 2011, again cast itself primarily as the neutral guarantor of the nation. A military source said there was no plan to retake control of the country or its turbulent streets.


"DARK TUNNEL"


"The armed forces affirm that dialogue is the best and only way to reach consensus," the statement said. "The opposite of that will bring us to a dark tunnel that will result in catastrophe and that is something we will not allow."


Mursi's office said the president opened his "national dialogue" with about 40 political and other public figures discussing "means to reach a solution to differences over the referendum...and the constitutional decree".


Prime Minister Hisham Kandil told an Egyptian television channel that the talks had led to creating a committee to review Mursi's November 22 decree and to work out legal ways to postpone the referendum. He said a new decree could be issued.


"All options are on the table to reach consensus," he said, adding that it was vital to take action to shore up Egypt's economy that has been battered by the turmoil.


The main opposition coalition, the National Salvation Front, which boycotted Mursi's dialogue repeated its call on Saturday for scrapping the decree and the referendum on the constitution.


Instability in Egypt worries the West, especially the United States, which has given Cairo billions of dollars in military and other aid since it made peace with Israel in 1979.


The army might be pushing the opposition to join dialogue and Mursi to do more to draw them in, said Hassan Abu Taleb of the Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies.


He discounted the chance of direct military intervention, adding: "They realize that interfering again in a situation of civil combat will squeeze them between two rocks."


However, the military did seem poised to take a more active role in security arrangements for the December 15 referendum.


A cabinet source said the cabinet had discussed reviving the army's ability to make arrests if it were called upon to back up police, who are normally in charge of election security.


According to the state-run daily al-Ahram, an expanded military security role might extend to the next parliamentary election and, at the president's discretion, even beyond that.


The army issued its statement while protesters were still camped out by the gates of the presidential palace.


The tens of thousands of Mursi foes who surged past tanks and barbed wire to reach the palace gates on Friday night had dispersed. But a hard core stayed overnight in a score of tents.


"LEAVE"


Some had spray-painted "Down with Mursi" on tanks of the elite Republican Guard posted there after clashes between rival groups killed at least seven people and wounded 350 this week.


Others draped the tanks with posters of Mursi and the word "Leave" scored across his face in red letters.


"We are no longer calling for scrapping the decree and delaying the referendum," Samir Fayez, a Christian protester at the palace, said. "We have one demand in five letters: leave."


Nearby, a Mursi supporter named Mohamed Hassan was quietly observing the scene. He suggested that the Muslim Brotherhood and its ultra-orthodox Salafi Islamist allies could easily overwhelm their foes if they chose to mobilize their base.


"The Brotherhood and Salafis by themselves are few but they have millions of supporters who are at home and haven't taken it to the streets yet," murmured the 40-year-old engineer.


The Muslim Brotherhood's supreme guide, Mohamed Badie, denounced opposition protests that have swirled around the walls of Mursi's palace, saying they "ruin legitimacy".


Badie said eight people, all of them Brotherhood members, had been killed this week and urged the interior minister to explain why police had failed to prevent assailants from torching the organization's headquarters and 28 other offices.


"Get angry with the Brotherhood and hate us as much as you like, but be reasonable and preserve Egypt's unity," he told a news conference. "We hope everyone gets back to dialogue."


The well-organized Brotherhood, which thrust Mursi from obscurity to power, remains his surest source of support.


(Additional reporting by Edmund Blair, Omar Fahmy and Yasmine Saleh; Editing by Stephen Powell)



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The Era of Twitter Without Instagram Has Now Begun












We know everyone is a little bummed about all those filtered photos disappearing from your Twitter streams this weekend, but let’s not get all worked up about it: They are disappearing, and there is no scandal.


RELATED: Why You Can’t See Instagram Photos on Twitter Anymore












TechCrunch’s  Drew Olanoff got a little too excited on Friday and thought a single in-stream photo meant that Instagram was allowing its Twitter cards back on Twitter and thought the two services were planning a sudden reunion. You may have seen some, too, but a Facebook spokesperson assured users these Instagram photos on Twitter were the last holdouts in the switchover. ”What you are seeing now may be some sort of regression depending on the mobile client, but we’re checking in with the engineers,” read Facebook’s statement, via Talking Points Memo’s Carl Franzen.


RELATED: How to Get Over the Twitter-Instagram War on Photos


Which means the end of this particular social-media marriage is upon us. Despite the immediate user backlash, Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom has made it pretty clear that the photo-sharing app doesn’t plan on making nice with Twitter. In case you hadn’t accepted the reality of Silicon Valley competition the first time around, this photo-friendly weekend might be the time to check out our handy three-step guide to getting over it. 


Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News


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Alicia Keys (Almost) Gets Auctioned Off in N.Y.C.















12/07/2012 at 06:35 PM EST







Jennifer Hudson and Alicia Keys at the Black Ball "REDUX"


Stephen Lovekin/Child12/Wireimage


Alicia Keys was definitely on fire Thursday night.

The Grammy-winning singer hosted, performed – and was nearly auctioned off – at the Black Ball "REDUX," an annual event for her organization Keep A Child Alive, which assists those affected by AIDS in Africa, held at New York's legendary Apollo Theatre. The event, which was rescheduled due to Hurricane Sandy, honored Oprah Winfrey for her work in Africa and India and raised $2.9 million.

Keys took to the red carpet in a floor-length, form-fitting Alaia gown and could hardly control her excitement over her new album Girl on Fire, which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard charts this week. "It's a joy that I can't even express," the singer said of her fifth chart-topping album.

And she was just as enthused over the recent Grammy nominations announced this week. Asked who she's rooting for, Keys started singing R&B star Frank Ocean's hit single "Thinking About You." "I'm so excited for him!" she said.

Padma Lakshmi, Bonnie Raitt, Gayle King and Keys's husband Swizz Beatz also hit the carpet before heading inside for the show, where guests dined on Moroccan lamb chops and steak tartare taquitos, crafted by celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson.

Before taking the stage with Jennifer Hudson and Raitt, Keys gave the award to Winfrey, who had never been to the famous Harlem theatre. But it was during the auction, hosted by Whoopi Goldberg, that the singer got an offer she had to refuse.

One wealthy guest said he'd up his bid from $100,000 to $250,000 for a trip to South Africa – if Keys would join him and his friends. "I'll go for a little more," Keys quipped. – Janine Rayford

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Dow, S&P rise on jobs, but Apple bites Nasdaq again

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Dow and the S&P 500 advanced modestly on Friday, though another sell-off in Apple depressed technology shares and kept the Nasdaq negative, overshadowing a sharply better-than-expected jobs report.


Trading was light, continuing the week's trend of slight moves and anemic volume. The S&P 500 ended up a mere 0.1 percent for the week, following several volatile sessions that repeatedly pushed it in and out of positive territory. The benchmark index is just 3.8 percent below the 2012 intraday high of 1,474.51 reached in mid-September.


Equities opened higher after the non-farm payrolls report, which showed 146,000 jobs added in November, far more than had been expected, while the U.S. unemployment rate dropped to 7.7 percent. A sour reading on consumer sentiment caused an erosion of those gains, though markets rebounded going into the close.


The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index for early December fell to its lowest level since August. Sentiment fell on growing concerns over the "fiscal cliff" debates in Washington, which have been a major factor preventing broader moves as well.


"We're not as concerned as we were a few months ago because of improvement like you can see in the employment number, but there's such a wild card over the cliff," said Bruce McCain, chief investment strategist at Key Private Bank in Cleveland, Ohio. "There are such concerns about what could happen that markets will be overhung until a resolution is more certain."


One of the biggest drags on the Nasdaq was Apple which fell 2.6 percent to $533.25, extending its losses for the week to 8.9 percent. This was the worst week for the stock since May 2010, and with the losses, the stock of the largest U.S. company by market value is now down 24.4 percent from an all-time intraday high reached in late September.


In Friday's session, Apple's 50-day moving average fell to $599.52 - below its 200-day moving average at $601.38. The weakness drove the S&P information technology sector <.gspt> lower. The index fell 0.6 percent and was the weakest of the S&P 500's 10 major industry sectors on Friday.


The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> gained 81.09 points, or 0.62 percent, to 13,155.13 at the close. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> rose 4.13 points, or 0.29 percent, to 1,418.07. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> slipped 11.23 points, or 0.38 percent, to close at 2,978.04.


For the week, the Nasdaq is down 1.1 percent, hurt largely by the decline in Apple.


The Dow, which does not count Apple as a component, rose 1 percent for its third straight week of gains. The S&P 500 is also up for three straight weeks, rising 4.3 percent over that period.


The equity market has regained most of the ground it lost following President Barack Obama's re-election as markets turned their focus to the coming "fiscal cliff." Market response to the macroeconomic data remained muted as negotiations continued to command investor attention.


U.S. House Speaker John Boehner said that talks this week with President Barack Obama produced no progress, and he renewed his demand that the president provide a new offer to avert the series of tax increases and spending cuts that are likely to hurt economic demand in 2013.


Material shares <.gspm> were the strongest performers of the day, with that index up 0.8 percent. Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Co gained 2.9 percent to $31.70 while Dow Chemical added 2.2 percent to $30.30.


Amarin Corp fell 18.9 percent to $9.69 after the biopharmaceutical company raised $100 million in financing to help it launch its heart drug, Vascepa, but disappointed investors, who had hoped for a sale or partnership.


CombiMatrix Corp shares more than quadrupled, soaring 336.6 percent to $8.60 after the company said two studies published in a medical journal favored technology it uses for prenatal diagnosis of genetic abnormalities over traditional technologies.


About 52 percent of shares listed on the New York Stock Exchange closed higher while slightly more than 50 percent of Nasdaq-listed stocks closed lower.


Volume was light, with about 5.47 billion shares changing hands on the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq and NYSE MKT, below the daily average so far this year of about 6.48 billion shares.


(Editing by Jan Paschal)



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Egyptian opposition to shun Mursi's national dialogue


CAIRO (Reuters) - Prime Minister Mohamed Mursi was expected to press ahead on Saturday with talks on ways to end Egypt's worst crisis since he took office even though the country's main opposition leaders have vowed to stay away.


Cairo and other cities have been rocked by violent protests since November 22, when Mursi promulgated a decree awarding himself sweeping powers that put him above the law.


The upheaval in the most populous Arab nation, following the fall of Hosni Mubarak last year, worries the West, in particular the United States, which has given it billions of dollars in military and other aid since Egypt made peace with Israel in 1979.


Mursi's deputy raised the possibility that a referendum set for December 15 on a new constitution opposed by liberals might be delayed. But the concession only goes part-way towards meeting the demands of the opposition, who also want Mursi to scrap the decree awarding himself wide powers.


On Friday, large crowds of protesters surged around the presidential palace, breaking through barbed wire barricades and climbing on tanks guarding the seat of Egypt's first freely elected president, who took office in June.


As the night wore on, tens of thousands of opposition supporters were still at the palace, waving flags and urging Mursi to "Leave, leave".


"AS LONG AS IT TAKES"


"We will stay here for as long as it takes and will continue to organize protests elsewhere until President Mursi cancels his constitutional decree and postpones the referendum," said Ahmed Essam, 28, a computer engineer and a member of the liberal Dostour party.


Vice President Mahmoud Mekky issued a statement saying the president was prepared to postpone the referendum if that could be done without legal challenge.


Mursi's planned dialogue meeting was expected to go ahead on Saturday in the absence of most opposition factions. "Everything will be on the table," a presidential source said.


Mursi could be joined by some senior judiciary figures and politicians such as Ayman Nour, one of the candidates in Mubarak's only multi-candidate presidential race, in 2005, in which he was unsurprisingly trounced.


The opposition has demanded that Mursi rescind the decree giving himself wide powers and delay the vote set for December 15 on a constitution drafted by an Islamist-led assembly which they say fails to meet the aspirations of all Egyptians.


EXPAT VOTE DELAYED


The state news agency reported that the election committee had postponed the start of voting for Egyptians abroad until Wednesday, instead of Saturday as planned. It did not say whether this would affect the timing of voting within Egypt.


Ahmed Said, leader of the liberal Free Egyptians Party, told Reuters that delaying expatriate voting was intended to seem like a concession but would not change the opposition's stance.


The opposition organized marches converging on the palace which Republican Guard units had ringed with tanks and barbed wire on Thursday after violence between supporters and opponents of Mursi killed seven people and wounded 350.


Islamists, who had obeyed a military order for demonstrators to leave the palace environs, held funerals on Friday at Cairo's al-Azhar mosque for six Mursi partisans who were among the dead.


"With our blood and souls, we sacrifice to Islam," they chanted.


A group led by leftist opposition leader Hamdeen Sabahy has called for an open-ended protest at the palace.


Some pro-Mursi demonstrators gathered in a mosque not far from the palace, but said they would not march towards the palace to avoid a repeat of the violence that took place on Wednesday night.


In a speech late on Thursday, Mursi had refused to retract his decree or cancel the referendum on the constitution, but offered talks on the way forward after the referendum.


The National Salvation Front, the main opposition coalition, said it would not join the dialogue. The Front's coordinator, Mohamed ElBaradei, a Nobel peace laureate, dismissed the offer as "arm-twisting and imposition of a fait accompli".


ElBaradei said that if Mursi were to scrap the decree with which he awarded himself extra powers and postpone the referendum "he will unite the national forces".


Murad Ali, spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, said opposition reactions were sad: "What exit to this crisis do they have other than dialogue?" he asked.


(Additional reporting by Omar Fahmy; Writing by Giles Elgood; Editing by Michael Roddy)



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Zynga moves to enter US gambling market












NEW YORK (AP) — Online games company Zynga said it has asked Nevada gambling regulators for a decision that could pave the way for it to enter the U.S. gambling market.


This follows Zynga’s October disclosure that it has signed a deal to offer online poker and casino games, played with real money, in the U.K. It plans to launch those games in the first half of 2013.












Zynga Inc. said in an email late Wednesday that it is seeking an “application for a preliminary finding of suitability” from the Nevada Gaming Control Board. This, the company says, is part of its plan to enter regulated “real-money gaming,” that is, gambling markets.


Zynga has not said what it plans to do with a gaming license. But the company, whose games are played primarily on Facebook, has faltered in recent months and is looking for additional revenue sources beyond online games such as “FarmVille 2″ and “Words With Friends.”


The San Francisco-based company says the process with Nevada regulators should take 12 to 18 months. If Zynga passes the first regulatory hurdle, it can then apply for a gaming license in the state. That, the company said, takes two to three months.


Zynga’s stock rose 17 cents, or 7.1 percent, to close Thursday at $ 2.49. The company went public about a year ago, when its stock priced at $ 10 per share.


Gaming News Headlines – Yahoo! News


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Michelle Obama's Grammy Nod: The Beekeeper Gets Credit, Too!, She Says















12/06/2012 at 05:45 PM EST



Her husband already has two Grammys on the shelf, but for First Lady Michelle Obama, her first nomination is still an honor – one for which she shares the credit.

Mrs. Obama, who is nominated in the spoken-word category for her book American Grown, says in a statement to PEOPLE: "This nomination is such an honor not just for me, but for everybody who contributed to the garden and the audio book, from the National Parks Service employees to our White House chefs to our beekeeper."

The book – part gardening how-to, part cookbook, part White House history – is, "So close to my heart because it tells the story of our White House Kitchen Garden and gardens all around the country," she says, "as well as what Americans are doing to make sure our kids are growing up healthy."

No official word on whether Mrs. Obama will attend the glittery music-awards ceremony in February (her husband never did; neither did Hillary or Bill Clinton when their audiobooks won), but the First Lady says she hopes the nomination alone "keeps the conversation going about how we can all work together to ensure a healthy future for all our nation's children."

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Celebrations planned as Wash. legalizes marijuana


SEATTLE (AP) — Legal marijuana possession becomes a reality under Washington state law on Thursday, and some people planned to celebrate the new law by breaking it.


Voters in Washington and Colorado last month made those the first states to decriminalize and regulate the recreational use of marijuana. Washington's law takes effect Thursday and allows adults to have up to an ounce of pot — but it bans public use of marijuana, which is punishable by a fine, just like drinking in public.


Nevertheless, some people planned to gather at 12:01 a.m. PST Thursday to smoke in public beneath Seattle's Space Needle. Others planned a midnight party outside the Seattle headquarters of Hempfest, the 21-year-old festival that attracts tens of thousands of pot fans every summer.


"This is a big day because all our lives we've been living under the iron curtain of prohibition," said Hempfest director Vivian McPeak. "The whole world sees that prohibition just took a body blow."


In another sweeping change for Washington, Gov. Chris Gregoire on Wednesday signed into law a measure that legalizes same-sex marriage. The state joins several others that allow gay and lesbian couples to wed.


That law also takes effect Thursday, when gay and lesbian couples can start picking up their wedding certificates and licenses at county auditors' offices. Those offices in King County, the state's largest and home to Seattle, and Thurston County, home to the state capital of Olympia, planned to open the earliest, at 12:01 a.m. Thursday, to start issuing marriage licenses. Because the state has a three-day waiting period, the earliest that weddings can take place is Sunday.


The Seattle Police Department provided this public marijuana use enforcement guidance to its officers via email Wednesday night: "Until further notice, officers shall not take any enforcement action — other than to issue a verbal warning — for a violation of Initiative 502."


Thanks to a 2003 law, marijuana enforcement remains the department's lowest priority. Even before I-502 passed on Nov. 6, police rarely busted people at Hempfest, despite widespread pot use, and the city attorney here doesn't prosecute people for having small amounts of marijuana.


Officers will be advising people to take their weed inside, police spokesman Jonah Spangenthal-Lee wrote on the SPD Blotter. "The police department believes that, under state law, you may responsibly get baked, order some pizzas and enjoy a 'Lord of the Rings' marathon in the privacy of your own home, if you want to."


Washington's new law decriminalizes possession of up to an ounce for those over 21, but for now selling marijuana remains illegal. I-502 gives the state a year to come up with a system of state-licensed growers, processors and retail stores, with the marijuana taxed 25 percent at each stage. Analysts have estimated that a legal pot market could bring Washington hundreds of millions of dollars a year in new tax revenue for schools, health care and basic government functions.


But marijuana remains illegal under federal law. That means federal agents can still arrest people for it, and it's banned from federal properties, including military bases and national parks.


The Justice Department has not said whether it will sue to try to block the regulatory schemes in Washington and Colorado from taking effect.


"The department's responsibility to enforce the Controlled Substances Act remains unchanged," said a statement issued Wednesday by the Seattle U.S. attorney's office. "Neither states nor the executive branch can nullify a statute passed by Congress" — a non-issue, since the measures passed in Washington and Colorado don't "nullify" federal law, which federal agents remain free to enforce.


The legal question is whether the establishment of a regulated marijuana market would "frustrate the purpose" of the federal pot prohibition, and many constitutional law scholars say it very likely would.


That leaves the political question of whether the administration wants to try to block the regulatory system, even though it would remain legal to possess up to an ounce of marijuana.


Colorado's measure, as far as decriminalizing possession goes, is set to take effect by Jan. 5. That state's regulatory scheme is due to be up and running by October 2013.


___(equals)


Johnson can be reached at https://twitter.com/GeneAPseattle


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Apple's gains lift tech in quiet day before jobs data

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks closed modestly higher on Thursday, a day ahead of the key monthly jobs report, as a rebound in shares of Apple helped boost technology shares.


Traders were reluctant to bet heavily a day before the Friday release of the November employment report. Just 5.62 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, shy of the 6.48 billion daily average this year.


Investors are also keeping watch on the "fiscal cliff" negotiations in Washington to see if lawmakers can reach a deal to avoid a series of spending cuts and tax hikes beginning in January.


"Right now we're just drifting, waiting to learn about the cliff and jobs," said Donald Selkin, chief market strategist at National Securities in New York. "The only stabilizing factor is that Apple is higher again, which is lending some support to the broader market."


Apple climbed 1.6 percent to $547.24, reversing losses incurred at the open. The stock was coming off its biggest one-day drop in four years on Wednesday, which occurred on concerns about higher capital gains taxes in 2013 and the company's tablet computer market share.


The S&P technology index <.gspt> was the best performing of the S&P 500's 10 major sectors, gaining 0.8 percent. Semiconductor stocks rallied a day after Broadcom forecast fourth-quarter revenue at the high end of its target range. Broadcom's stock rose 3.2 percent to $33.36 while the PHLX semiconductor index <.sox> rose 1.1 percent.


The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> rose 39.55 points, or 0.30 percent, to 13,074.04 at the close. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> added 4.66 points, or 0.33 percent, to 1,413.94. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> gained 15.57 points, or 0.52 percent, to close at 2,989.27.


Monthly payroll numbers, which will be released by the Labor Department before the market opens on Friday, are expected to show a sharp slowdown in jobs growth, though that is largely due to the impact of Superstorm Sandy, which devastated the U.S. Northeast in late October and early November. The unemployment rate is seen holding steady at 7.9 percent.


Broader moves were limited, however, as traders focused on the "fiscal cliff" debate. About three weeks remain before higher tax rates would go into effect, which economists worry would dampen economic growth. Legislators are trying to come up with a deal to avoid some of the negative effects on the economy while still reducing the U.S. budget deficit.


While Republican leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives insist that raising tax rates on the rich is not negotiable, some GOP lawmakers now see it as inevitable to avoid the fiscal cliff.


Without action from Congress, tax cuts on capital gains and dividends will expire at the end of 2012. This has given investors a reason to sell certain stocks such as Apple that have done extremely well in recent years.


The CBOE Volatility Index <.vix>, known as the VIX, rose 0.7 percent, "a reflection of the anxiety people have about the jobs report and skepticism over the cliff," Selkin said.


An S&P index of consumer discretionary shares <.gspd> gained 0.6 percent, lifted by Starbucks Corp shares' advance of 5.7 percent to $53.70 after Baird upgraded the stock to "outperform."


H&R Block climbed 5.1 percent to $18.26 after the company reported a quarterly loss that was narrower than expected.


Sirius XM Radio shares rose 0.7 percent to $2.79 after its board approved a $2 billion stock repurchase and declared a special dividend that gave a big payout to its largest shareholder, Liberty Media . Shares of Liberty climbed 2.7 percent to $109.24.


Garmin shares jumped 5.7 percent to $41.99 after Standard & Poor's said it would add the navigation device maker to the S&P 500 index. Garmin will replace R.R. Donnelley & Sons after the close of trading on December 11.


Slightly more than 50 percent of the stocks traded on the New York Stock Exchange closed higher, while the number of advancing and declining stocks was about even on the Nasdaq.


(Editing by Jan Paschal)



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Egypt demonstrators reject Mursi call for dialogue


CAIRO (Reuters) - Demonstrators rejected a call from Egypt's Islamist President Mohamed Mursi for a national dialogue after deadly clashes around his palace, demanding the "downfall of the regime" - the chant that brought down Hosni Mubarak.


Mursi said in a televised speech late on Thursday that plans were on track for a referendum on a new constitution on December 15 despite clashes that killed seven people. He proposed a meeting on Saturday with political leaders, "revolutionary youth" and legal figures to discuss the way forward after that.


But a leading activist group rejected the offer, and fresh demonstrations were called for Friday.


The "April 6" movement, which played a prominent role in igniting the revolt against Mubarak said on its Facebook page that Friday's protests would deliver a "red card" to Mursi.


Egypt has been plunged into turmoil since Mursi issued a decree on November 22 awarding himself wide powers and shielding his decisions from judicial review.


His Islamist supporters say the decree was necessary to prevent Mubarak-era judges from interfering with reforms. A constitution drawn up by a body dominated by Islamists is due to be put to a referendum next week.


The opposition has demanded that Mursi scrap his decree, postpone the referendum and redraft the constitution.


In his address, Mursi said: "I call for a full, productive dialogue with all figures and heads of parties, revolutionary youth and senior legal figures to meet this Saturday."


Several thousand opposition protesters near the palace waved their shoes in derision after his speech and shouted "Killer, killer" and "We won't go, he will go" - another of the slogans used against Mubarak in last year's revolt.


The Cairo headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood, the group that propelled Mursi to victory in a June election, was set ablaze. Other offices of its political party were attacked.


TENTATIVE CONCESSION


The United States, worried about the stability of an Arab partner which has a peace deal with Israel and which receives $1.3 billion a year in U.S. military aid, had urged dialogue.


Mursi said his entire decree would lapse after the constitutional referendum, regardless of its result.


He said a new constituent assembly would be formed to redraft the constitution if Egyptians rejected the one written in the past six months.


The Republican Guard, an elite unit whose duties include protecting the presidential palace, restored peace on Thursday after a night of violence outside the palace, ordering rival demonstrators to leave by mid-afternoon.


Mursi supporters withdrew, but opposition protesters remained, kept away by a barbed wire barricade guarded by tanks. By evening their numbers had swelled to several thousand.


Thousands of supporters and opponents of Mursi had fought well into Thursday's early hours, using rocks, petrol bombs and guns. Officials said 350 were wounded in the violence. Six of the dead were Mursi supporters, the Muslim Brotherhood said.


Opposition groups have called for protests after Friday prayers aimed at "the downfall of the militia regime", a dig at what they see as the Brotherhood's organized street muscle.


A communique from a leftist group urged protesters to gather at mosques and squares across Egypt, and to stage marches in Cairo and its sister city Giza, converging on the presidential palace. "Egyptian blood is a red line," the communique said.


Hardline Islamist Salafis also summoned their supporters to protest against what they consider biased coverage of the crisis by some private Egyptian satellite television channels.


Since Mursi issued his decree, six of his advisers have resigned. Essam al-Amir, the director of state television, quit on Thursday, as did a Christian official at the presidency.


The Brotherhood's supreme guide, Mohamed Badie, called for unity, saying divisions "only serve the nation's enemies".


The Islamists, who have won presidential and parliamentary elections since Mubarak was overthrown, are confident they can win the referendum and the parliamentary election to follow.


As well as relying on his Brotherhood power base, Mursi may also tap into a popular yearning for stability and economic revival after almost two years of political turmoil.


Egypt's pound hit an eight-year low on Thursday, reversing gains made on hopes that a $4.8 billion IMF loan would stabilize the economy. The stock market fell 4.6 percent.


(Additional reporting by Edmund Blair and Marwa Awad; Writing by Alistair Lyon and Peter Graff; Editing by Louise Ireland)



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