CAIRO (Reuters) – Military police battled demonstrators in Cairo’s Tahrir Square early Sunday, the third day of clashes that have killed 10 people and injured hundreds, only days after the first free election most Egyptians can remember.

Egyptian television showed military police advancing from behind their barriers and fighting protesters in the square, the hub of the uprising that overthrew President Hosni Mubarak, at around 1 a.m.

CAIRO (Reuters) – Soldiers baton-charged demonstrators in Cairo’s Tahrir Square on Saturday a day after street clashes killed eight people and wounded more than 300, marring the first free election most Egyptians can remember.

The violence highlights the tensions in Egypt 10 months after a popular revolt toppled President Hosni Mubarak.

CAIRO (Reuters) – A leading Islamist presidential hopeful said on Thursday the army had no right to meddle in drawing up Egypt’s new constitution and said the elected parliament, on course for an Islamist majority, should control the drafting process.

Abdel Moneim Abul Futuh, who was turfed out of the Muslim Brotherhood after defying its decision not to run for the presidency, also told Reuters he did not expect even hardline Islamist parliamentarians to demand new Islamic ideas be written into the constitution beyond those already in the old one.

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt’s new prime minister said on Tuesday the ruling army would grant him extra powers, and appointed a finance minister along with most other cabinet members, state media reported.

Kamal al-Ganzouri has been struggling to put together a cabinet since Egypt’s military rulers brought him out of retirement to lead a new interim government nearly two weeks ago.

CAIRO (Reuters) – The Muslim Brotherhood promised Egyptians voting in a run-off on Tuesday it would work in a broad coalition if its party wins parliamentary elections, saying it hoped to avoid a showdown with the ruling military council.

Brotherhood leader Mohammed Badie, whose party led the first phase of voting last week, played down suggestions that Islamists would try to dominate parliament when it gets to work after the staggered election is completed in January.

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt’s new prime minister said on Tuesday the ruling army would grant him extra powers, the state news agency reported, after critics accused the military of failing to give the last cabinet enough clout.

Kamal al-Ganzouri, who has been forming a “government of national salvation,” said the army would issue a decree “within hours” to hand the premier “presidential powers except those concerning the judiciary and armed forces.”

CAIRO/ALEXANDRIA, Egypt (Reuters) – The Muslim Brotherhood said on Wednesday it was leading in the initial count of results from the first round of Egypt’s parliamentary election and one source in its party said it had secured 40 percent of votes cast for party lists.

A member of the rival liberal Egyptian Bloc also said that in Cairo, one area that voted on Monday and Tuesday, the list led by the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) had 40 to 50 percent of votes. His Bloc had 20 to 30 percent, he said.

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egyptians voted on Monday in their first election since a popular revolt ousted Hosni Mubarak, amid fears the generals who replaced the deposed leader would try to cling on to power.

In the nine months since the end of Mubarak’s 30-year rule, political change in Egypt has faltered, with the military apparently more focussed on preserving its power and privilege than on fostering any democratic transformation.

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egyptians flocked to polling stations on Monday for their first free election in living memory, part of a transition born in revolutionary euphoria but now tinged by distrust of the generals who replaced Hosni Mubarak.

“This is the first real election in 30 years. Egyptians are making history,” said Walid Atta, 34, an engineer waiting to vote at a school on his way to work in Alexandria.