CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian security forces fired tear gas to disperse a small group of hardline Islamist protesters who were attempting to scale the walls of the state security headquarters in a Cairo suburb late Thursday night. Around 2,000 protesters from several Salafi Islamist groups had staged a protest earlier on Thursday night outside the security headquarters against what they said was a return to the force's pre-revolution methods.

By David Alexander CAIRO (Reuters) - U.S. Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel underscored Washington's military commitment to Egypt on Wednesday and pledged American support as Egyptian forces evolve to address new and shifting security threats, U.S. defence officials said. "I wanted to stop in Egypt to ... reaffirm American commitment to Egypt's emerging democracy, encourage the democratic and economic reforms that are underway here," Hagel told reporters after a day of meetings with Egyptian officials.

By Paul Taylor and Shaimaa Fayed CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian judges accused President Mohamed Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood on Wednesday of trying to clamp down on judicial independence by conducting a campaign ostensibly aimed at rooting out corruption. A rift between Egypt's Islamist rulers and the judiciary is steadily widening amid a broader struggle over the future character of the country following the 2011 uprising that overthrew autocratic President Hosni Mubarak.

By Paul Taylor CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi's Islamist allies acted on Tuesday to defuse a row over attempts to force out thousands of judges, sending a bitterly opposed judicial reform bill to a parliamentary committee for further consideration. After emergency talks with the Supreme Judicial Council and the prosecutor general on Monday, Mursi's office issued a late-night statement saying the president considered protecting the independence of the judiciary was his constitutional duty.