NPR 2011-01-02

A powerful bomb exploded outside a Coptic Christian 1 church in Alexandria, Egypt this morning as worshipers emerged from a New Year's Mass. Twenty-one people were killed. Speaking through an interpreter, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak condemned 2 the attack. He said militants 3 may be attempting to provoke sectarian violence.

"This sinful act is part of a series of efforts to drive a wedge between Copts and Muslims, but Allah has aborted 4 the plotters' plans and turned it against them. We are all in this together and will face up to terrorism and defeat it."

The attack prompted angry demonstrations 5 later in the day by young Christians 6, who hurled 7 rocks at the police outside the church. Police responded with rubber bullets and tear gas. Eygpt has seen growing tensions between its Muslim majority and Christian minority.

President Obama condemned the attack, saying the perpetrators were clearly targeting Christian worshipers and must be brought to justice. He said the US is prepared to offer any necessary assistance to the Egyptian government.

President Obama starts the New Year with a massage 8 to politians as well as the American people at large. NPR's Paul Brown reports the president is pushing cooperation in the New Year with a divided Congress.

In his first weekly address of 2011, the president says when the lawmakers return to Washington, they need to be ready to make serious decisions about how to help the economy recover in the short term and how to help the US stay competitive in the long run, and he says he's ready to work with Democrats 9 and Republicans.

"I'm willing to work with anyone of either party who's got a good idea and the commitment to see it through. And we should all expect you to hold us accountable for our progress or our failure to deliver."

Mr. Obama warns that the economic recovery is still fragile. He shares his New Year's resolution to do all he can to help the economy create jobs and strengthen the middle class. Paul Brown, NPR News.

An apartment fire in Redmond, Washington took the lives of five people last night, including four children under the age of ten. NPR's Martin Kaste reports.

Police in the Seattle suburb say the fire started a couple of hours into the New Year and moved through three units of a 12-apartment building. Officer Matt Peringer says the investigators 10 are just starting the process of looking for the cause.

"The scope of an investigation 11 like this is awfully 12 big, and, including making sure that the structure is strong enough to support firefighters going through it and investigators and so on, so everybody's just kind of taking the appropriate amount of time that they need to make sure that it is safe."

The five fatalities 13 included four children and one 32-year-old man. A 30-year-old woman was hospitalized. Police have not yet released their identities, nor have they confirmed whether all the victims were in the same family. Martin Kaste, NPR News, Seattle.

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The US Capitol was evacuated 14 today when a plane entered restricted airspace. The FAA says a Piedmont Airlines flight from Hilton Head, South Carolina had lost radio contact as it approached Washington's Reagan National Airport. Fighter jets were scrambled 15. Air traffic controllers reestablished contact with the plane, and it landed safely at Reagan.

Three people have died in Russia's far north after a airliner 16 caught fire and exploded before takeoff. Peter Van Dyk reports from Moscow that 43 people were injured, including six who were badly burned.

There were more than 120 passengers and crew aboard the Tupolev Tu154 as it taxied at the airport in the western Siberian oil town of Surgut. An emergency ministry's spokesman said the fire started in one of the three engines and spread before the plane exploded. Most of the people escaped before the explosion, and most of those hospitalized were suffering from smoke inhalation. The aircraft belonged to a regional airline and was bound for Moscow. The rear engines planes have been the workhorse of Soviet 17 and post-Soviet air travel since the 1970s. Aeroflot withdrew all its Tu154s from service a year ago over safety concerns, and last month two people were killed when one crashed at a Moscow airport after its engines failed. For NPR News, I'm Peter Van Dyk in Moscow.

Inmates 18 rioted at a low-security prison in England today. The riot broke out at around midnight after some of the prisoners had refused to submit to breathalyzer tests. Large amounts of alcohol were later recovered. There were no immediate 19 reports of injuries. The prison is located about 60 miles south of London.

I'm Nora Raum, NPR News in Washington.