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Egypt Protests Clash; Egypt death toll rises to 53, streets now calm

The death toll from clashes in Egypt rose to 53 on Monday as calm returned to the streets after one of the bloodiest days since the military toppled Islamist President Mohamed Mursi in July. Traffic flowed normally in central Cairo where thousands of Mursi supporters had battled security forces and army supporters on the anniversary of the 1973 war with Israel. Security forces had regained full control of Egypt, which signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979. In addition to the dead, the Health Ministry said 271 people had been wounded in the clashes. Most of the casualties were Mursi supporters.

Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood has urged Egyptians to stage more protests against the army takeover from Tuesday and gather on Cairo's Tahrir Square on Friday. Security forces smashed pro-Mursi protest camps in Cairo on August 14, killing hundreds of people. In an ensuing crackdown, many Muslim Brotherhood leaders were arrested in an attempt to decapitate Egypt's oldest Islamist movement. Political tensions since the army unseated Mursi on July 3 have unnerved foreign investors and hammered tourism, a pillar of the economy, but there is no sign of reconciliation between the Brotherhood and the army-backed government.

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