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 Thousands of anti-government protesters, some hurling rocks and climbing atop an armored police truck, clashed with riot police Tuesday in the center of Cairo in a Tunisia-inspired demonstration to demand the end of Hosni Mubarak's nearly 30 years in power. Three people were killed in confrontations around the country.

After a day of violence, thousands of demonstrators stood their ground in downtown Cairo's vast Tahrir Square, steps away from parliament and other government buildings. They promised to camp out overnight, setting the stage for an even more dramatic confrontation.

Throughout the day, police blasted crowds with water cannons and set upon them with batons and acrid clouds of tear gas in an attempt to clear demonstrators crying out "Down with Mubarak" and demanding an end to Egypt's grinding poverty, corruption, unemployment and police abuses.

Tuesday's demonstration, the largest Egypt has seen for years, began peacefully, with police showing unusual restraint in what appeared to be a calculated strategy by the government to avoid further sullying the image of a security apparatus widely criticized as corrupt and violent.

With discontent growing over economic woes, and the toppling of Tunisia's president still resonating in the region, Egypt's government — which normally responds with swift retribution to any dissent — needed to tread carefully.

But as crowds filled Tahrir Square — waving Egyptian and ... >>>