Egypt Protests: Second Day Of Violence Rocks Cairo, 9 Killed

CAIRO, Dec 17 (Reuters) - Eight people have beenkilled as clashes between troops and protesters in central Cairospilled over into a second day, Egyptian state television saidon Saturday.

It also said that 303 people had been wounded in the unrestin the capital, whose centre has turned into a smoke-filledbattleground in some of the most violent clashes since a popularuprising ousted President Hosni Mubarak last February.

Egypt's Dar al-Iftah, the body that issues Islamic fatwas(edicts), said one of its senior officials, Emad Effat, wasamong the dead, state news agency MENA said.

Clashes around government offices and parliament raged onafter nightfall on Friday, with protesters throwing petrol bombsand stones at soldiers who used batons and what witnesses saidappeared to be electric cattle prods.

The violence has sharpened tensions between the ruling armyand its opponents, and clouded a parliamentary vote set to bringIslamists, long repressed by Mubarak, to the verge of power.