Egypt's interim rulers have given police the power to enter university campuses to quell protests without seeking prior permission, after a student was killed in clashes.
Students who support the new military-installed authorities and those who oppose it have clashed regularly in Cairo and elsewhere since the army ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi on July 3.
The military-installed cabinet said on Thursday police may now enter campuses "without seeking permissions in case of threats and to confront protests that could harm students".
Previously, police had to obtain permission from the prosecutor general or university authorities before entering campuses or dormitories to deal with demonstrators or fighting.
The move came after a student hit by birdshot in the chest and neck was killed overnight at an Al-Azhar University dorm in Cairo's Nasr City district, a security official and a medic said.
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The clashes were between supporters and opponents of the new army-installed authorities, security officials said, adding that groups of students also confronted each other at Cairo University on Thursday.
Meanwhile, a court in the capital sentenced 38 Al-Azhar University students to 18 months in prison for "participating in violence" at the campus in October, state new agency MENA reported.
The authorities are engaged in a crackdown on Morsi's Islamist supporters in which more than 1000 people have been killed since the middle of August and thousands more arrested.
Among initiatives announced by the cabinet on Thursday was boosting the powers of the police and military to help fight "terrorism."
Islamist militants have stepped up attacks in the restive Sinai since Morsi's ouster and have also targeted security forces outside the peninsula.
On Wednesday, a car bomb in the Sinai killed 11 soldiers and wounded 34, and another blast in Cairo wounded four policemen.
The Sinai attack was the deadliest in the region bordering Gaza and Israel since an August 19 ambush on a security convoy killed 25 police in the north Sinai town of Rafah.
And on Thursday, a police officer was shot dead north of Cairo while on a mission to arrest militants suspected of assassinating a senior security official on Sunday.
