U.S. President Barack Obama expressed "deep concern" Thursday over the recent deadly political protests in Egypt, in a call to his counterpart Mohamed Morsi, the White House said.Obama also told Morsi that it was "essential for Egyptian leaders across the political spectrum to put aside their differences and come together to agree on a path that will move Egypt forward," the White House said in a statement.Morsi earlier defied calls to curb his sweeping powers or suspend proposed changes to the

NEW BATAAN, Philippines (AFP) ― Nearly 200,000 people were homeless and 475 confirmed dead after the Philippines’ worst typhoon this year, officials said Thursday, as the government appealed for international help.Typhoon Bopha ploughed across Mindanao island on Tuesday, flattening whole towns in its path as hurricane-force winds brought torrential rain that triggered a deadly combination of floods and landslides.Erinea Cantilla and her family of six walked barefoot for two days in a vain search

Five demonstrators died overnight Thursday in the worst violence since Mohamed Morsi became Egypt's first Islamist president in June.The five were killed by gunfire or buckshot as nearly 350 others were wounded when allies and foes of Morsi clashed around the presidential palace in Cairo, state news agency MENA said.They started off by lobbing fire bombs and rocks at each other on Wednesday as their simmering standoff over the president's expanded powers and a new constitution turned violent.Mor

The U.S. president leads it, of course, and then there's Pope Benedict XVI, and Angela Merkel, and Facebook's founder, and other global rainmakers on Forbes' ranking of the mightiest earthlings.But the magazine's 2012 list of the world's most powerful people also features folks who might raise an eyebrow or two: a Mexican drug baron, and the pudgy-faced young leader of North Korea, a hermit state assailed for pursuing a nuclear program at the expense of feeding its very poor people.Last year's N

At least 325 people were killed and hundreds remain missing in the Philippines following the deadliest typhoon to hit the country this year, the civil defense chief said Thursday."We have 325 dead and this is expected to rise because many more are missing," civil defense chief Benito Ramos told a news conference.He did not give a fresh total for the number of missing after Typhoon Bopha ravaged the southern island of Mindanao on Tuesday.However he noted that both figures were "rising rapidly fro

Supporters and opponents of Egyptian leader Mohammed Morsi fought with rocks, firebombs and sticks outside the presidential palace in Cairo on Wednesday, as a new round of protests deepened the country's political crisis.Mohamed ElBaradei, a leading opposition advocate of reform and democracy, said Morsi's rule was ``no different'' from that of former President Hosni Mubarak, whose authoritarian regime was toppled in an uprising nearly two years ago. ``In fact, it is perhaps even worse,'' the No

BEIRUT (AP) ― Syria’s civil war is closing in on President Bashar Assad’s seat of power in Damascus with clashes between government forces and rebels flaring around the city Tuesday, raising fears the capital will become the next major battlefield in the 20-month-old conflict.Numerous reports emerged of at least a dozen people killed near the ancient city and elsewhere, and the regime said nine students and a teacher died from rebel mortar fire on a school. The state news agency originally said

JERUSALEM (AFP) ― The EU has yet to see any signs that Israel is planning to axe plans to build settler homes in a highly contentious strip of West Bank land near Jerusalem, despite huge pressure, a top official said Tuesday.“We’ve not had any signal or message back, for the time being, to indicate that this message has been heard and has been acted upon,” Andrew Standley, the European Union’s ambassador to Israel told reporters.“There have been in fact, to the contrary, further messages or anno

CAIRO (AFP) ― Tens of thousands of Egyptian demonstrators encircled the presidential palace Tuesday after riot police failed to keep them at bay with tear gas, in a growing crisis over President Mohammed Morsi’s decree widening his powers.The protesters cut through barbed wire a few hundred meters from the palace, prompting police to fire the tear gas before retreating and allowing demonstrators to reach the palace walls, AFP correspondents said.Morsi himself was not in the palace, a presidentia