22 November 2011 Last updated at 00:44 GMT
Q&A: Egypt's new protests
After deadly clashes between protesters and security forces in Egypt, the BBC's Yolande Knell reports on what lies behind the latest round of protests.
Why are the protesters back?
Protesters run away from tear gas during clashes with riot police near Tahrir Square The unrest has centred on Cairo's Tahrir Square
Protesters are angry at the slow pace of reforms and are demanding the end of military rule. While many welcomed the hand-over of power to the army after President Hosni Mubarak stepped down in February, disenchantment has steadily risen.
The ruling generals are all appointees of Mr Mubarak and have been overseeing the rocky transition to democracy for the past nine months. Activists feel they have failed to dismantle remnants of the old regime or deal with the faltering economy and festering social problems, seeking instead to consolidate their hold on power.
There have been signs that the military is seeking to oversee the priority for the next parliament - the formation of a committee to draw up a new constitution. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (Scaf) is seeking to have veto power over this body, to enjoy a special role as "protectors" of the constitution and to insert provisions that would keep the defence budget a secret.
Who are the demonstrators?
Dissatisfaction is highest among the youth groups that joined the anti-Mubarak revolution and feel they have been marginalised and isolated. Liberals have long expressed grievances with the army, which has put 12,000 civilians on trial in military courts and is accused of torturing detainees.
Greater numbers of Islamists, who expect to be the main winners in planned parliamentary elections and see the military trying to hold sway, are now raising their voices.
The military has floated a timetable that places the full hand-over of power in late 2012 or early 2013, after a new constitution is approved and presidential elections have taken place.
Initially, protesters wanted a precise date to be set. However, a rising number are now calling for Field Marshal Tantawi and the Scaf to immediately step down in favour of an interim civilian council. Their demands also include presidential elections by 2013 and a full inquiry into the latest violence.
Protesters maintain that they will remain in Tahrir Square, the symbolic heart of the Egyptian revolution, until their demands are met. While the military has permitted mass rallies there, it has repeatedly acted to prevent long-term sit-ins that close down the centre of the capital.
Can an election happen now?
The first parliamentary elections to be held after the revolution are due to begin on 28 November and last for several months.
Before the current unrest, concerns were already being raised about whether security could be guaranteed during the long, complicated process of voting. The latest protests and the bitter atmosphere that accompanies them throw that further into doubt.
The ruling military has insisted that it is sticking to the timetable for elections and has appealed to the newly formed political parties, which have been preparing for the vote, to help clear the square and contain the situation.
Is there a way out?
It is hard to predict exactly what will happen now. Emergency meetings have been taking place among the ruling generals on how to proceed. So far they have found that brute force only intensifies activists' anger. The interim cabinet's decision to submit its resignation is a sign of how tough their position has become.
A big test for the protesters is whether they can again draw out the huge numbers that were seen in Tahrir Square during the revolution. This would increase pressure on the military to meet their demands.
)The Egyptian elite are pretty weak though, and the Muslim radicals too radical for the people at least for now and too small in number to run the country, so the people are stuck with the military or chaos. I expect them to choose the military.
Egypt military pledges faster power transfer
Last Modified: 22 Nov 2011 22:08/Al Jazeera
Egypt's ruling generals have said they are prepared to hold a referendum on immediately transferring power to civilian authority if people demand it.
In a televised address to the nation on Tuesday, Field Marshal Muhammed Hussein Tantawi, head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), said the body is committed to holding parliamentary elections as scheduled, with the first round to begin on November 28, and to elect a president before July 2012.
....Tantawi also announced that he had accepted the resignation of the interim prime minister, Essam Sharaf.
As Tantawi finished his speech, a crowd reaching as many as 100,000 in Cairo's central Tahrir Square signalled their disapproval by chanting "Irhal!" or "Leave!" ...<cont>
Egyptian protesters reject military's timetable for elections
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 22 November 2011 20.51 GMT
Protesters at the mass rally in Tahrir Square calling for the departure of Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces.
Egypt's revolution was plunged into fresh uncertainty after hundreds of thousands of angry demonstrators rejected a promise by the country's military council on Tuesday to accelerate the transition to civilian rule.
In an extraordinary display of people power, protesters at a mass rally in Cairo's Tahrir Square demanded the immediate departure of Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, the head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (Scaf), just as they had demanded President Hosni Mubarak's humiliating exit in February.
"We are not leaving, he leaves," the crowd chanted.
Tantawi, who served as Mubarak's defence minister for two decades, appeared on state television in full military uniform to announce that a first round of parliamentary elections would go ahead as planned next week and that presidential elections – seen as crucial to real civilian rule – would be brought forward to next summer.
Previously the military had floated late next year or early 2013 as the date for transferring power.
Tantawi said he was accepting the resignation of the civilian caretaker government led by Essam Sharaf, and that he was sorry for the estimated 30 people who had died in the latest unrest.
Egyptian media reported that Sharaf could be replaced as the head of a new government of national salvation by Mohamed ElBaradei, the former chief UN weapons inspector. ...<cont>
