埃及警方将使用实弹袭击抗议者

Egyptian police are threatening to use live ammunition to protect themselves against anti-government protesters who say they will not give up their fight.

The Muslim Brotherhood is defying the interim government and calling for another big protest rally after Friday prayers to demand the reinstatement of ousted President Mohamed Morsi.

Meanwhile, French President Francois Hollande plans to speak by phone separately to German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron Friday to discuss the events in Egypt.

Egyptian authorities accuse the Brotherhood and Morsi supporters of terrorism and sabotage. The Brotherhood says the country is returning to military tyranny.

On Wednesday, Egyptian police used guns, armored vehicles and bulldozers to destroy two large Cairo protest camps. The official death toll from that violence stands at 638, but the Brotherhood puts it in the thousands.

Journalists and witnesses report seeing makeshift morgues and improvised hospitals with blood-covered floors loaded with bodies.

U.S. President Barack Obama has canceled next month's scheduled military exercises with Egypt, an event Egypt always eagerly anticipates.