Protesters clash with police in Cairo. Number of dead reaches 38

(23 Nov 2011) SHOTLIST 1. Protester running down the road throwing a smoking tear gas canister 2. Protesters throwing stones, pan to right smoke in the street 3. More of protesters throwing stones and smoking tear gas canisters 4. Wide of the protesters in smoke filled street 5. Protesters shouting slogan, UPSOUND (Arabic): "The people demand the fall of Tantawi (Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi)!" 6. Injured man on a motorbike, ambulances rushing past 7. People carry injured protester 8. A protester showing spent tear gas cartridges 9. Injured protester on stretcher 10. Doctor attending to an injured protester 11. Another injured protester wheeled on stretcher 12. Injured protester on the ground surrounded by protesters and medical staff 13. Various of ambulances arriving and leaving STORYLINE Egyptian police clashed with anti-government protesters for a fifth day in central Cairo on Wednesday as a rights group raised the overall death toll from the ongoing unrest to 38. The clashes came one day after tens of thousands of protesters in Tahrir Square rejected a promise by Egypt's military ruler to speed up a presidential election to the first half of next year. Wednesday's street battles centered around the heavily fortified Interior Ministry, near the iconic square, with police and army troops using tear gas and rubber bullets to keep the protesters from storming the ministry, a sprawling complex that has for long been associated with the hated police and Mubarak's former regime. The protesters say they have no wish to storm the ministry but were preventing the police and army from evicting them from Tahrir by pinning them down a safe distance away from the massive plaza. The protesters were seen throwing back smoking tear gas canisters and stones. Ambulances rushed to the square. Several injured protesters were treated by the doctors at the scene, while others were carried by their friends or wheeled on stretchers. Elnadeem Centre, an Egyptian rights group known for its careful research of victims of police violence, said late on Tuesday that the number of protesters killed in clashes nationwide since Saturday is 38, nine more than the Health Ministry's death toll. The clashes also have left at least 2,000 protesters wounded, mostly from gas inhalation or injuries caused by rubber bullets fired by the army and the police. The police deny using live ammunition. The military previously has floated late next year or early 2013 as the likely date for the vote, the last step in the process of transferring power to a civilian government after Hosni Mubarak was forced to step down. In a televised address late Tuesday, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi did not set a date for handing authority to a civilian government, but instead offered a referendum on the immediate return of the armed forces to their barracks. The Tahrir crowd, along with protesters in a string of other cities across the nation, want Tantawi to step down immediately in favour of an interim civilian council to run the nation's affairs until elections for a new parliament and president are held. The five days of clashes are the longest spate of uninterrupted violence since the 18-day uprising that toppled the former regime in February, deepening the country's economic and security woes. The unrest also threatens to cloud the country's first post-Mubarak parliamentary elections since Mubarak's February ouster, which are scheduled to begin on November 28. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...