Backers of Egypt's Morsi defy calls to clear streets

Thousands of supporters of Egypt's ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi Thursday celebrated Eid al-Fitr, the end of the holy month of Ramadan, defying government calls for them to go home. However there was no immediate sign the government was preparing to carry out its Wednesday threat to remove Islamist protest camps set up to demand Morsi's reinstatement following his ouster by the army on July 3. Under a cloud of balloons, thousands of men, women and children attended the dawn prayer marking the end of the fasting month in the Rabaa al-Adawiya and Al-Nahda squares, where Morsi supporters have been camped for weeks. The army-installed government vowed on Wednesday to remove the protest camps, saying it had refrained from doing so out of "solicitude for the holy month of Ramadan". But leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood from which Morsi hails called for rallies "until victory", raising fears of further bloody confrontations.