Egypt’s highest court suspends work in faceoff with president

The Constitutional Court in Egypt suspended work indefinitely Sunday after President Momahed Morsi sent his supporters to lay siege to the court’s premises before it could adjudicate on the legality of the panel that drafted the country’s new constitution. On Saturday, Morsi set a national referendum to take place Dec. 15 to endorse the controversial new charter by drafted by an Islamist-majority panel from which liberals, leftists and Christians had walked out. They accused the Islamists of hijacking the process. The high court has now joined the other judges and prosecutors and the hundreds of thousands of protesters in demonstrating against Morsi’s assumption of dictatorial powers.