Cairo Offices Stormed As Death Toll Rises

Egyptian authorities on Thursday significantly raised the death toll from clashes the previous day between police and supporters of the ousted Islamist president, saying more than 500 people died and laying bare the extent of the violence that swept much of the country.

Despite the government's declaration of a nighttime curfew and a state of emergency, violence continued into the next day.

Angry men presumed to be supporters of deposed President Mohammed Morsi stormed and torched two buildings housing the provincial government of Giza, the city across the Nile from Cairo.

The death toll, which stood at 525, according to the latest Health Ministry figures, makes Wednesday by far the deadliest day since the 2011 popular uprising that toppled longtime ruler and autocrat Hosni Mubarak - a grim milestone that does not bode well for the future of a nation roiled in turmoil and divisions for the past two years.

Health Ministry spokesman Khaled el-Khateeb put the number of the injured on Wednesday at 3,717.

Meantime, President Barack Obama has scrapped joint U.S.-Egypt military exercises scheduled for next month, saying American cooperation with the Egyptian government cannot continue when civilians are being killed in the streets.

He directed his national security team to see what additional steps the U.S. might take going forward. It was Obama's first statement on the rapidly deteriorating situation in Egypt