From NPR News in Washington, I'm Nora Raum.
A roadside bomb exploded during a Shiite Muslim procession in northwestern Pakistan today. Police officials say at least seven people were killed including four children. Shiites are in the minority in Pakistan, and are often targeted by Sunni extremists who consider them heretics. In neighboring Afghanistan today, hundreds of Shiite and Sunni Muslims fought each other at Kabul University. Police say at least one student was killed. And in Lebanon, officials say they arrested five Syrian men who planned to attack the Shiite Muslim procession tomorrow.
Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood is calling for major demonstrations next week in support of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi. Morsi is facing criticism in Egypt and from the international community for a decree granting him sweeping new powers. Kimberly Adams reports from Cairo anti-Morsi protesters continue to stage round-the-clock demonstrations.
As night fell in Tahrir Square, a group of protesters chanted against President Morsi. Activists are using Tahrir to stage a sit-in and are calling for a large protest on Tuesday to demand that Morsi rescind his new decree and dissolve the Islamist dominated assembly writing the new constitution. Now the Muslim Brotherhood is calling for its supporters to come out on Tuesday as well to demonstrate for the President but in a different location. Morsi aides say the new edict which restricts the power of the judiciary was necessary to prevent Mubarak-era judges from sidelining the revolution. For NPR News, I'm Kimberly Adams, Cairo.
Thousands of people gathered in Bangkok today to demand the Prime Minister of Thailand step down. Police used tear gas to stop demonstrators from throwing stones。 Dozens of protesters were arrested. They claim the Thai government is corrupt.
There is a fresh diplomatic effort to resolve the crisis in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. NPR's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton reports African leaders are meeting after rebels seized control of a strategic city and pushed deeper into territory once held by Congolese government forces.
Representatives of 11 African countries are attending the Congo summit in Uganda. The M23 rebels are demanding direct talks with Congolese President Joseph Kabila. He says he will only negotiate with neighboring Rwanda, which Congo and UN experts accused of backing the rebels. After seizing control of Goma, the provincial stronghold, the rebels have made more military gains in eastern Congo. The UN peacekeeping mission has countered criticism for failing to stop them. The UN says its role is to protect the civilians and it cannot do the job of UN-backed Congolese troops who fled the rebel advance. Ofeibea Quist-Arcton, NPR News, Accra.
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Investigators are trying to find out what caused a natural gas explosion in Springfield, Massachusetts yesterday. A strip club was destroyed and several buildings nearby were damaged, including one housing a daycare center. Eighteen people were injured, many of them, first responders, sent to the area after reports of a gas odor.
Actor Larry Hagman has died at a hospital in Dallas following complications from throat cancer. NPR's Rebecca Abrahams reports Hagman was best known as the man Americans loved to hate, the star of the TV series, Dallas.
Fort Worth native Hagman caught the acting bug from his mother Mary Martin, Broadway's original Peter Pan. In 1965, he emerged as a star himself in the hit show, I Dream of Jeannie. In 1978, he played the formidable Texas oil baron JR Ewing on Dallas. The character Hagman described, a so nasty, he quipped, I can't remember half the people I slept with, stabbed in the back, or driven to suicide. The show was a pop culture phenomenon and in 1980 had everyone asking who shot JR.
I came to Dallas to find out confidentially who shot JR.
Even President, Jimmy Carter.
Hagman fought liver cancer for years and in 2011 announced that he had throat cancer. He was 81 years old. Rebecca Abrahams, NPR News.
Hector Macho Camacho died this morning. Doctors at a hospital in San Juan, Puerto Rico, say the 50-year-old boxer died shortly after being taken off life support. He had been declared brain dead Thursday after being shot in the face early in the week. Police say no arrests have been made.
I'm Nora, NPR News, in Washington.