Relative calm in Tahrir

A state of relative calm prevailed in downtown Cairo's Tahrir Square on the first sit-in day organized by 15 political powers and groups against the constitutional declaration issued by President Mohamed Morsi on Thursday. Protesters have erected 25 tents in the square's central garden and blocked all streets to traffic. On Friday, 15 political powers issued a joint statement announcing an open-ended sit-in to call for revoking the new constitutional declaration, dissolving the Constituent Assembly, holding national dialogue to set up a new constitution-writing body, sacking the government of Hisham Qandil and restructuring the Interior Ministry.