Mark Memmott

There's word from Rock Hill, S.C., that Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain says he'll be making an announcement on Saturday about the future of his presidential bid, The Associated Press reports.

Meanwhile, here's a related bit of news to consider: His campaign just launched a "Women for Cain" effort, chaired by the candidate's wife Gloria.

As the webpage says:

Results from the first round of voting in Egypt's parliamentary elections are being announced this hour. Already, according to al-Jazeera and other news outlets, there's word from the head of Egypt's Elections High commission that 62 percent of eligible voters cast ballots.

The Associated Press adds that Abdel-Mooaez Ibrahim called the number "the highest since the time of pharaohs."

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's visit to Myanmar, where she has pledged with opposition leader Aung Sang Suu Kyi to continue the push for democracy and respect for human rights there, has focused attention on that long-oppressed Asian nation.

Dogs who have served alongside U.S. military personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan now typically go on to live with their handlers in the civilian world after their service days are over, as All Things Considered reported in August.

That's a change from the past, when many combat dogs were euthanized once they were done working with the military.

The nation's unemployment rate fell to 8.6 percent in November from 9 percent in October as payrolls went up by 120,000 jobs, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says.

The worst is over in Utah, where winds that topped 100 mph Thursday toppled trucks trees and power lines.

And things should be calmer in Southern California too, where "freakishly powerful winds" on Thursday stunned people and left behind shredded rooftops and "yards littered with downed trees," as the Los Angeles Times says.

"Pakistani officials at a border coordination center gave the go-ahead to American airstrikes that inadvertently killed 24 Pakistan troops, unaware that their own forces were in the area, according to U.S. officials briefed on the preliminary investigation," The Wall Street Journal reports this morning.

A Pakistani official quoted by Reuters says that's not true.

Sometimes a picture does indeed tell the story.

In this case, a photo taken today when Hillary Rodham Clinton had a private dinner in Myanmar with Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi speaks volumes about the purpose and meaning of the first visit to the country by an American secretary of state in more than five decades.

We're a day late, but some stories just beg to be passed along:

"Utah Duck Hunter Shot In Buttocks By His Dog." (The Salt Lake Tribune)

It seems two guys and a dog were out hunting on Sunday. One man was in their boat with the canine. A loaded shotgun was lying across the bow pointed toward the other guy, who was in the water. Fido got excited, stepped on the gun and ... a little while later doctors were plucking 27 pieces of birdshot out of a butt.

An Afghan woman who was sentenced to prison after being raped by a relative — because in the eyes of authorities she had committed adultery — has been pardoned by President Hamid Karzai.

But her freedom comes with a price, according to news reports: She must become the second wife of the man who attacked her. Karzai's office says the woman and her attacker both have agreed to the marriage.

Our new boss started work today and if you're interested in what NPR CEO and President Gary Knell is thinking as he settles into the job:

-- He's due on Talk of the Nation just after 2 p.m. ET, and will be answering questions from callers. When we get closer to the time he's scheduled to be on, we'll embed an audio player in this post so that we can stream the conversation. To find a station that broadcasts or streams the show, click here.

The National Weather Service has clocked winds above 90 mph around Centerville, Utah, today — "monster winds" that are blowing with hurricane-force and have overturned semi-trailer rigs, toppled trees and knocked out power, The Salt Lake Tribune reports.

The newspaper adds that:

Good morning.

Our early headlines:

-- Signs Signal Pause In Stock Market Rally.

-- Jobless Claims Pop Above 400,000.

-- Obama, Presidents Clinton And Bush To Mark 'World AIDS Day'.

The number of Americans filing first-time claims for jobless benefits rose by 6,000 last week, to 402,000, the Employment and Training Administration just reported.

They've basically been hovering around that 400,000 mark all year — another sign that while the economy appears to be growing slowly, it isn't advancing fast enough to boost job growth.

The ONE Campaign will be live-streaming at 10 a.m. ET as President Obama, former President Bill Clinton, former President George W. Bush and others take part in a forum on "The Beginning of the End of AIDS" at George Washington University.

It's one of many events marking World AIDS Day.

Charged this week with trying to trade methamphetamine for sex with a man, former Arapahoe County (Colo.) sheriff Patrick Sullivan is now sitting in jail.

More specifically, he's being held in the county's Patrick J. Sullivan Jr. Detention Facility. That's right. It's named after him. His bail has been set at $500,000.

Three days of big gains, including the best day for the Dow Jones industrial average in more than two years, look like they'll be followed today by a bit of a pause in the latest stock market rally on Wall Street.

The first civil lawsuit brought by an alleged victim of Jerry Sandusky is from a man who says he was sexually abused as a young boy more than 100 times by the former Penn State assistant football coach.

A Democratic state representative in Arizona thinks it's wrong for a Scottsdale gun club to be giving folks, including children, a chance to have their photos taken with Santa Claus while "holding pistols and military-style rifles," The Associated Press says.

State Rep. Steve Farley says "to involve machine guns and Santa in a celebration in the birth of Jesus Christ is the worst kind of heresy I can imagine."

Tuesday's attack on the British embassy in Tehran by Iranian "students" has led the U.K. to order the expulsion of all Iranian diplomats and the closing of Iran's embassy in London, the BBC reports.

Foreign Secretary William Hague told Parliament that "if any country makes it impossible for us to operate on their soil they cannot expect to have a functioning embassy here."

The nation's private employers boosted their payrolls by 206,000 jobs this month, according to the widely watched ADP National Employment Report.

That's well above the 130,000 increase that economists had been expecting the report would show, Reuters reports.

Good morning.

Our early headlines:

-- Central Banks Join To Battle Credit Crisis, Stocks Surge.

-- Police Clear Occupy Camps In Los Angeles And Philadelphia.

Hillary Rodham Clinton has arrived in Myanmar for the first visit in more than 50 years by a U.S. secretary of state to the country also known as Burma — an isolated nation known for its brutal military dictatorship, but where there have been recent moves that may signal its leaders are ready to pay greater respect to human rights and give people a say in how they're governed.

The Federal Reserve and five of the world's other major central banks just announced "coordinated actions ... to ease strains in financial markets" and make more credit available to consumers and businesses by pumping money into the global financial system.

In a statement released at 8 a.m. ET, the Fed says:

"A huge spectrum" of government workers in the United Kingdom are striking today to show their anger over austerity plans.

As NPR's Philip Reeves told Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep earlier, "teachers, lecturers, immigration staff, tax officials, ambulance crews, midwifes, road sweepers, weather forecasters, librarians and many more" are planning to take part in what's being called Britain's biggest general strike in a generation.

The Occupy L.A. campsite near Los Angeles' city hall is "in shambles" this morning after police moved in to clear out protesters who had been ordered to leave, the Los Angeles Times writes. Tents have been "uprooted and strewn all over," the newspaper says.

The doctor found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the 2009 death of pop star Michael Jackson was just sentenced to four years in prison.

(New material based on NPR reporting added to the top of this post at 12:30 p.m. ET.)

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain is reassessing his campaign but still plans to move ahead at this time, his Iowa campaign director tells The Associated Press and NPR.