• CAIRO (AP) -- With a military deadline for a resolution to Egypt's political crisis looming, the country braced for a showdown Wednesday after embattled President Mohammed Morsi insisted he will not step down in the face of demands by millions of protesters, vowing to protect his "constitutional legitimacy" with his life.
• On the streets, the sense that both sides are ready to fight to the end sharpened, with overnight clashes between supporters of the Islamist president and opponents that left at least 23 dead, most of them in a single incident of fighting outside Cairo University.
• The violence came just hours before a deadline set by the military was to expire Wednesday for Morsi to find a solution with the opposition or the army would impose its own political plan. The draft would see the military suspend the constitution, disband parliament and install a new leadership.
• With his political fate hanging in the balance, Morsi demanded in a speech late Tuesday that the powerful armed forces withdraw their ultimatum, saying he rejected all "dictates" -- from home or abroad.
• In an emotional address aired live to the nation, the Islamist leader who a year ago was inaugurated as Egypt's first freely elected president accused loyalists of his ousted autocratic predecessor Hosni Mubarak of exploiting the wave of protests to topple his regime and thwart democracy.
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• PARIS (AP) -- The plane carrying Bolivian President Evo Morales has taken off from Vienna's airport after it was rerouted there amid suggestions NSA leaker Edward Snowden might be on board.
• Bolivian and Austrian officials both say Snowden was not on Morales' plane, which left Moscow on Tuesday following a summit. Morales had suggested that his government would be willing to consider granting asylum to the American. Snowden is believed to be in a Moscow airport transit area, seeking asylum from one of more

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