Egyptian protesters continue to fill Cairo’s central Tahrir Square over the ruling military council’s refusal to immediately transfer power to a civilian government. In a televised address on Tuesday, the head of Egypt’s military council, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, said he has accepted the prime minister’s resignation and that the military is ready to relinquish power if Egyptians call for that in a referendum. But protests only intensified after Tantawi’s speech, and security forces unleashed a barrage of tear gas. At least 38 people have reportedly been killed, and more than 2,000 wounded nationwide since Saturday in the military government’s crackdown. The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has called for an independent probe into the deaths.