A woman waves the Egyptian flag during a protest supporting ousted president Mohamed Morsi in Cairo’s Nasr City area. European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said Tuesday that she had met with deposed Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, the first contact he has had with an independent official since he was taken into military custody almost a month ago. 
 
 July 31, 2013 A woman waves the Egyptian flag during a protest supporting ousted president Mohamed Morsi in Cairo’s Nasr City area. European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said Tuesday that she had met with deposed Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, the first contact he has had with an independent official since he was taken into military custody almost a month ago. Mohammed Saber/European Pressphoto Agency 
 
 European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton met Monday night with deposed Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, two days after clashes between security forces and Morsi supporters left about 80 dead. Last week, prosecutors announced that Morsi was being investigated over allegations of espionage and murder — accusations that his supporters have dismissed as politically motivated. 
 
 European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton met Monday night with deposed Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, two days after clashes between security forces and Morsi supporters left about 80 dead. Last week, prosecutors announced that Morsi was being investigated over allegations of espionage and murder — accusations that his supporters have dismissed as politically motivated. 
 
 European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton met Monday night with deposed Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, two days after clashes between security forces and Morsi supporters left about 80 dead. Last week, prosecutors announced that Morsi was being investigated over allegations of espionage and murder — accusations that his supporters have dismissed as politically motivated. 
 
 European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said Tuesday that she had met with deposed Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, the first contact he has had with an independent official since he was taken into military custody almost a month ago. 
 
 By allowing the meeting, Egypt’s military signaled that it may be willing to work with Morsi toward a political solution to the country’s ongoing crisis, which has spawned repeated violence between security forces and the ousted president’s supporters. Ashton, a low-key British diplomat, said she was taken by military helicopter late Monday to meet with Morsi. She declined to go into detail about her two-hour conversation with him, but she said he had access to newspapers and television and was in good condition. 
 
 “He’s well, and we had a friendly and open and very frank discussion,” Ashton said at a brief news conference Tuesday. She told reporters that she did not know precisely where Morsi, who has been held incommunicado since his July 3 ouster, is being detained. 
 
 Last week, prosecutors announced that Morsi is under investigation over allegations of espionage and murder, accusations that his supporters in the Muslim Brotherhood have dismissed as politically motivated. Criminal charges based on the allegations could carry the death penalty. 
 
 After her meeting with Morsi, Ashton met Tuesday with Egypt’s interim vice president, Mohamed ElBaradei, a liberal leader and key interlocutor for the military-backed interim government. He said at a joint appearance with Ashton that he thought Morsi had “failed” during his year in power but that his Muslim Brotherhood allies should be part of the new political “road map” going forward. 
 
 “We would very much like them to be part of the political process,” said ElBaradei, a Nobel laureate and former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency who has been slow to criticize the security forces’ crackdown on pro-Morsi demonstrations. 
 
 Ashton’s two-day visit appeared to have at least temporarily calmed the tense capital after a weekend of violence left at least 80 pro-Morsi demonstrators and a police officer dead, according to the Health Ministry. Morsi’s supporters rallied in Cairo on Tuesday night and marched toward the military intelligence headquarters, although no violence had been reported by early Wednesday. 
 
 During her trip, Ashton met with a wide range of Egyptian political figures, including Gen. Abdel Fatah al-Sissi, the commander of the armed forces; liberal activists and politicians who supported the coup; and a hard-line Islamist party that backed Morsi’s removal but has since wavered in its support for the military. She also met with representatives of the Muslim Brotherhood. 
 
 Ashton said Monday that she hoped the meetings would facilitate conversations that might lead to a political solution. But she stressed that Egyptians, and particularly those in power, must ensure that the country moves forward along a democratic path. 
 
 “In all of my conversations, we have emphasized a few things,” Ashton said. “First of all, we are here to help. We are not here to impose. The people of Egypt will determine their own future.” 
 
 Although Ashton has sometimes struggled during her E.U. tenure to publicly articulate a unified message on behalf of the bloc’s 28 member nations, she is known as a charming envoy behind closed doors. She has previously been involved in tough international negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. 
 
 In Cairo on Tuesday, her reticence about the substance of her conversation with Morsi appeared at least partly intended to help jump-start discussions between the interim government and the ousted Brotherhood-backed leaders. 
 
 Officials from the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, from which Morsi hails, told Ashton that any political solution for Egypt must be based on “the return of the president,” the party said in a statement. 
 
 The statement said the demonstrations in support of Morsi would not stop until “constitutional legitimacy” was restored. His backers have used that phrase to refer to returning him to power, as well as to reinstating the country’s Islamist-dominated parliament and the constitution ratified under Morsi through a popular referendum. 
 
 U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel spoke by telephone Tuesday with Sissi, a Hagel spokesman said, adding that the secretary urged “restraint” in dealing with protesters and called for “an inclusive reconciliation process.” 
 
 Sharaf al-Hourani contributed to this report. ||||| Article Excerpt 
 
 CAIRO—The European Union's top diplomat met with Mohammed Morsi late Monday night in what people close to the ousted president said was his first meeting with someone outside Egypt's military since he was deposed nearly a month ago. 
 
 Catherine Ashton, the EU's high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, had an in-depth conversation during her two-hour meeting with Mr. Morsi at an undisclosed location, said Michael Mann, Ms. Ashton's spokesman. 
 
 Ms. Ashton's comments about her meeting with Mr. Morsi are the first news of the former president's condition from a source outside the military in nearly a month. 
 
 His ... ||||| Egypt crisis: Cairo quiet but tense as death toll rises 
 
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 Cairo is reported quiet but tense after a crackdown on Islamists which left hundreds dead and drew international condemnation. 
 
 At least 525 people died when Egyptian security forces stormed two camps which supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi set up in the city last month. 
 
 A state of emergency was declared after the bloodiest day in Egypt since the pro-democracy uprising two years ago. 
 
 US Secretary of State John Kerry said the events were "deplorable". 
 
 They were "a real blow to reconciliation efforts" he added, while EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also criticised the use of force. 
 
 Egyptians awoke to a frightening and uncertain future, the BBC's Bethany Bell reports from Cairo. 
 
 Continue reading the main story At the scene Hundreds of people gathered at the mosque this morning, mostly relatives of those killed. There are dozens of bodies wrapped in white shrouds inside the mosque. I counted 70 bodies and then I stopped when I realised this was less than half. Relatives' nerves are frayed as they try to figure out how they can bury their loved ones while ensuring they get proper documentation. Families tell me that hospitals refused to provide documents about the real cause of death. There is an upside-down burnt-out car outside the mosque. People here say it belonged to a policeman who passed by and tried to shoot. He was taken away. While we were here, we heard gunshots as a military vehicle sped by, apparently shooting in the air to clear the street. Some people are now setting up barricades to the block the roads around the mosque. 
 
 Even after the state of emergency curfew on Thursday morning, there was very little traffic on the central streets and the bridges across the Nile, she says. 
 
 'Serious blow' 
 
 The BBC's Khaled Ezzelarab reported seeing at least 140 bodies wrapped in shrouds at Eman mosque close to the main protest camp at Rabaa al-Adawiya Square. 
 
 Refuse collectors could be seen clearing the remains of the camp, while soldiers dismantled scaffolding. Charred posters of Mr Morsi lay in heaps of debris. 
 
 The demonstrators had been demanding the reinstatement of Mr Morsi, who was removed by the military on 3 July. 
 
 The Muslim Brotherhood, which backed the sit-ins near the mosque and in Nahda Square, says the true number of people killed on Wednesday is more than 2,000. 
 
 Giving an update on the death toll, the military-backed interim government said 137 people had died near the mosque, 57 in Nahda Square and 29 in Helwan, in the south of the city. The other 198 deaths occurred in the provinces. 
 
 Continue reading the main story Wednesday's casualties Official death toll: 525, with at least 137 killed near Cairo's Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque; 57 at Cairo's Nahda Square; 29 in Cairo suburb of Helwan; 198 in other provinces; 43 security personnel 
 
 BBC correspondent saw more than 140 bodies from the clashes at Rabaa al-Adawiya 
 
 Muslim Brotherhood says more than 2,000 people were killed 
 
 The dead include three journalists and a daughter of a Muslim Brotherhood leader, Asmaa El-Beltagi 
 
 Official figures speak of 3,572 injured across Egypt 
 
 At least 43 police officers are reportedly among the dead. A further 3,572 people were injured. 
 
 The Muslim Brotherhood is likely to continue with its protests, says BBC Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen. 
 
 They waited 80 years to take power in Egypt and they feel that power was taken away from them unjustly, he adds. 
 
 Mr Kerry said Egypt's political reconciliation efforts had suffered a "serious blow". 
 
 "This is a pivotal moment for all Egyptians," he said. "The path toward violence leads only to greater instability, economic disaster and suffering." 
 
 The office of UN chief Ban Ki-moon said he regretted that the Egyptian authorities had chosen to use force while "the vast majority of the Egyptian people want their country to go forward peacefully in an Egyptian-led process towards prosperity and democracy". 
 
 "Strongly" condemning the violence, Mrs Ashton said that "only a concerted effort by all Egyptians and the international community might lead the country back on a path to inclusive democracy". 
 
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 In other reaction 
 
 Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss a "very serious massacre" 
 
 French President Francois Hollande summoned the Egyptian ambassador to Paris for talks 
 
 Denmark suspended funding for two development projects run in collaboration with the Egyptian government and said it would urge the EU to take similar measures 
 
 The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain said they understood the Egyptian government's need to restore order 
 
 British Prime Minister David Cameron said the violence was "not going to solve anything" and there needed to be "compromise from all sides" 
 
 In a televised address, Egyptian Interim Prime Minister Hazem Beblawi defended the operation, saying the authorities had to restore security. 
 
 Expressing regret for the loss of life, he said the state of national emergency would be lifted as soon as possible. 
 
 Continue reading the main story Emergency law in Egypt Curfew in Cairo and other provinces from 19:00 local time (17:00 GMT) to 06:00 local time daily 
 
 Arrest of suspects deemed dangerous to public order 
 
 Army to help police maintain security 
 
 Limited movement of people and traffic 
 
 Surveillance on messages and monitoring of media 
 
 The measure imposes a curfew in Cairo and several other provinces between 19:00 local time (17:00 GMT) and 06:00. 
 
 Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim said the police had "dealt professionally" with the protesters, and accused the pro-Morsi protesters of firing birdshot at police. 
 
 Leaders detained 
 
 Following the violence, Vice-President Mohammed ElBaradei announced his resignation from the interim government, saying he could not "shoulder the responsibility for a single drop of blood". 
 
 Reports said the smaller camp in Nahda Square was cleared quickly but clashes raged for several hours around the main camp near the Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque. 
 
 Mobs later carried out reprisal attacks on government buildings and police stations as well as churches belonging to the country's Coptic Christian minority. 
 
 Continue reading the main story Crisis timeline 3 Jul: President Mohammed Morsi deposed by military after mass protests 
 
 President Mohammed Morsi deposed by military after mass protests 4 Jul: Pro-Morsi protesters gather at the Rabaa al-Adawiya and Nahda sites in Cairo 
 
 Pro-Morsi protesters gather at the Rabaa al-Adawiya and Nahda sites in Cairo 27 Jul: More than 70 people killed in clashes with security forces at Rabaa al-Adawiya 
 
 More than 70 people killed in clashes with security forces at Rabaa al-Adawiya 14 Aug: Security forces move in to clear both camps 
 
 Egyptian TV said that by evening the security forces had seized full control of the site, and were allowing protesters there to leave. 
 
 But several Muslim Brotherhood leaders were reportedly detained, including Essam El-Erian and Mohamed El-Beltagi. 
 
 Speaking before his reported arrest, Mr Beltagi said his daughter Asmaa, 17, had been killed in the clashes. 
 
 Three members of the media were killed: Sky News cameraman Mick Deane, Gulf News reporter Habiba Ahmed Abd Elaziz (who was not working at the time) and Ahmed Abdel Gawad, who wrote for Egyptian state-run daily Al-Akhbar. 
 
 Mr Morsi - Egypt's first freely elected president - is currently in custody at an undisclosed location, accused of murders during a prison breakout in 2011.
– Under circumstances that sound straight out of a Le Carre novel, Mohamed Morsi has met with an outsider for the first time since being dumped by Egypt's military, holding a midnight meeting with the European Union's top diplomat at an "undisclosed location" last night, the Wall Street Journal. Though many have feared for Morsi's well-being after almost a month in captivity, Catherine Ashton, the EU's foreign affairs and security policy chief, reports that he is well and has access to TV and newspapers, Reuters reports. The pair had a "very long and in-depth conversation," Ashton says. Ashton, who has met with several other Egyptian political figures while in the country, says she wasn't there to help Morsi break out, but rather to facilitate discussions toward a peaceful end to the country's political unrest, the Washington Post reports. "First of all, we are here to help. We are not here to impose," she says. "The people of Egypt will determine their own future." But will Morsi play ball? "He's a very proud man," says a source close to the former leader, per the Journal. "I think the idea of doing anything on (the) army's terms will not work with him."