It's hard to look at the images coming out of Syria today. They show the bloodied bodies of dozens of children strewn on the floors of morgues. Some of them are just babies, their gazes frozen, still wearing the outfits they had on when they were killed by government forces. In one image, there are so many dead children on a single rug, their limbs are overlapping. One of them is a little girl covered in blood. She's wearing a pink shirt dress with a yellow duckling.

As we've told you on this blog, the images from Syria are distributed by the opposition and taken by citizen journalists. But this time, we have confirmation from United Nations observers on the ground that this massacre in Houla did happen, yesterday.

According to the U.N., their observers visited the city today and counted bodies: More than 32 children under the age of 10 and 60 adults. Some of them killed during the shelling, but others, reports the BBC, were "summarily executed, or butchered" by a regime militia.

"This appalling and brutal crime involving indiscriminate and disproportionate use of force is a flagrant violation of international law and of the commitments of the Syrian Government to cease the use of heavy weapons in population centers and violence in all its forms," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement. "Those responsible for perpetrating this crime must be held to account."

The United States said it was "horrified" by the killings.

"These acts serve as a vile testament to an illegitimate regime that responds to peaceful political protest with unspeakable and inhuman brutality," said Erin Pelton, of the president's National Security Council.

The U.N. estimates that 9,000 people have been killed since the uprising against the regime of Bashar Assad began in Syria about 14 months ago. Since then, the international community has attempted to negotiate a ceasefire. But all of them — including the lastest one brokered by international peace envoy Kofi Annan — have fallen short.

The New York Times reports that the Annan peace plan, which the regime had approved, may be at a breaking point:

"A man in a black knitted mask who appeared on one YouTube video, for example, said it was time 'to prepare for vengeance against this awful sectarian regime.'

"The rebel Free Syrian Army, the loose federation of armed militias across the country, issued a statement saying it was no longer committed to the United Nations truce because the plan was merely buying time for the government to kill civilians and destroy cities and villages.

"'We won't allow truce after truce, which prolongs the crisis for years,' the statement said."

What happens next is unclear, but as we reported yesterday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban said that at the moment the international community does not have a plan-B for Syria.

The BBC reports that Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague said "he would seek a strong global response." Hague said he would call for an urgent session of the U.N.'s Security Council.

Update at 10:35 p.m. ET. The Images:

Note that we did not publish any of the images we described. If you're so inclined, the videos from where those images were taken, were collected by @Brown_Moses on his blog. Be warned — they are gruesome.

Like many Americans, we plan to take Memorial Day off. And while a three-day weekend is always fun, this holiday is a somber one.

We were reminded of that reading an Op-Ed from Tom Manion in today's Wall Street Journal. Manion served in the military for 30 years and his son, Travis Manion, was killed in Iraq when he was just 26-years-old.

Manion delivers an emotional piece that attempts to answer a complex question: Why do they serve?

His son had an easy answer, telling him that "If not me, then who?"

But the sacrifices are enormous and many times tragic. Yet even after a decade of war, Americans still volunteer to serve. That, writes Manion, is the "essence of our country."

We encourage you to click over and read the full piece.

We'll leave you with a stunning photograph taken in Boston today, where 33,000 American flags were planted to represent the Massachusetts soldiers killed since the civil war:

We'll be back Tuesday, unless breaking news warrants an early return. Meanwhile, you may see posts from our weekend crew.

Did you know most people smile when they are frustrated?

Look at this picture:

The one on the right came from frustration; the one on the left is genuine.

But when researchers asked participants to act frustrated, 90 percent didn't smile; however, when researchers made participants frustrated, 90 percent smiled.

That's what Ehsan Hoque, a graduate student in the Affective Computing Group of MIT's Media Lab, reports in a paper published in the journal IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing. For the experiment Hoque put participants in two scenarios: They were shown a video of a cute baby or they were given a long form to fill out. When they pressed submit, all the information was lost.

In both scenarios, participants smiled and their reactions were recorded. The findings were surprising. Among them:

— Humans were lousy at distinguishing the subtleties of smiles. Hoque found that computers fared better at distinguishing frustration from delight when fed an algorithm derived from the findings in the study.

— The timing of a smile is crucial. MIT explains in its press release:

"While people may not know exactly what cues they are responding to, timing does have a lot to do with how people interpret expressions, he says. For example, former British prime minister Gordon Brown was widely seen as having a phony smile, largely because of the unnatural timing of his grin, Hoque says. Similarly, a campaign commercial for former presidential candidate Herman Cain featured a smile that developed so slowly — it took nine seconds to appear — that it was widely parodied, including a spoof by comedian Stephen Colbert. 'Getting the timing right is very crucial if you want to be perceived as sincere and genuine with your smiles,' Hoque says."

Researchers found that real smiles tend to appear gradually, while frustrated smiles came and went quickly.

— Different smiles use different muscles. Wired UK reports:

"A second differentiator is the muscle groups used in the smiles. The algorithm tracked movements made by different facial muscle groups. These were then quantified using the Facial Action Coding System — a tool developed in the 1970s which provides the foundation for most facial recognition systems. Feigned smiles tend to be made using the voluntary "zygomatic" major muscles which lift the corners of the mouth. Genuine smiles involve involuntary muscles that raise the cheeks and cause wrinkles around the eyes."

The study, the researchers said, could be useful in teaching people with Autism how to better read expressions.

If you want to know more, this video explains the study and its findings at length:

Does Dish Network have the right to offer a commercial-free experience for its customers? Or does that infringe on broadcasters' copyrights?

As you might expect, CBS, NBC and Fox are not very happy at the prospect and filed suit yesterday against the TV provider to stop it from rolling out its "AutoHop" service.

The service, which works with a digital video recorder, automatically skips over commercials for programming from the four major broadcast networks. As the AP reports, Dish says the service has seen a "groundswell of support from consumers."

But, as CNN Money reports, CBS, NBC and Fox issued a "damning court filing" in which it "chastised Dish Network for its 'bootleg broadcast video on-demand service' that makes 'an unauthorized copy' of the entire primetime broadcast schedule. Fox said AutoHop 'will ultimately destroy the advertising-supported ecosystem.'"

Mashable notes that Dish defended itself by filing a countersuit asking a court for an all-clear to launch and also said in a statement that consumers "should be able to fairly choose for themselves what they do and do not want to watch"

In a statement Fox told Mashable that it "had no choice but to file suit."

Today, The Los Angeles Times' Jon Healey weighed in on the legal side of it all. Healey says that in order to keep "AutoHop" off the market, it "may have to persuade a federal judge to roll back the precedent the Supreme Court set in 1984 when it declared Sony's Betamax video recorder to be a legal product."

At issue here will be whether Dish is considered to be doing the recording or whether the customer is the one doing it. Healey says the service prompts, the customer is the one who decides to record.

A troubled Spanish lender has asked the government for 19 billion euros ($24 billion) of public money to keep the bank from collapsing.

As The New York Times reports, this is far beyond what the government was expecting when it took over Bankia and "its portfolio of delinquent real estate loans."

There are conflicting reports as to whether Spain has already agreed to hand over the bailout. The Wall Street Journal reports that the number "Bankia presented Friday have already been agreed with the government." The Financial Times reports the same thing, but El País, Spain's biggest paper, says at this moment it is a request, still pending approval from economy ministry and the Bank of Spain.

The New York Times reports:

"Bankia's announcement came as Standard & Poor's, the credit ratings agency, downgraded Bankia and two other banks, Banco Popular and Bankinter, to 'junk' status and lowered the ratings of two other Spanish banks also staggered by mounting bad loans. A junk rating could make it even harder for Bankia to borrow its way out of trouble.

"The rising fear now is that the recent steady trickle of deposits from Spain's banks, which are suffering from the bursting of Spain's real estate bubble, to institutions outside the country could eventually turn into the sort of bank run that almost brought the financial world to its knees after the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008."

Providing background, The Guardian reports that Bankia was partly nationalized two weeks ago, when the country provided a 4.5 billion-euro injection of cash. But the estimates of how much more money the bank, which holds 10 percent of Spanish deposits, needed to survive have "been spiralling at an alarming rate."

The big question here, the Times adds, is where this bailout will come from. Will Spain be able to afford it? Or will the European Union have to step in?

"Analysts increasingly see Spain's banks needing a bailout from the European Stability Mechanism," The Guardian reports. "French president François Hollande also believes that will be necessary, though the Spanish government continues to deny it."

In its periodic report on Iran's nuclear program, the United Nation's nuclear watchdog said it found traces of uranium enriched to a level higher than it had previously reported.

NPR's Mike Shuster filed this report for our Newscast unit:

"When International Atomic Energy Agency monitors carry out routine inspections of Iran's nuclear facilities, they take environmental samples to help them determine the nature of uranium enrichment underway.

"It is well know that Iran has manufactured thousands of pounds of 3.5 percent low-enriched uranium, and hundreds of pounds of 20 percent low-enriched uranium.

"Now the agency reports, its inspectors have detected particles of 27 percent enriched uranium.

"The IAEA found these particles at the Fordow enrichment facility, which is the plant buried in a mountain side not far from the city of Qom.

"The agency asked for an explanation, and earlier this month, Iran said that technical reasons beyond the control of those who run the plant were responsible.

"The agency has asked for more details."

This development comes a day after world powers agreed to continued negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program next month in Moscow. Iran has maintained that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. But the country has come under increased pressure from U.S. and other world powers because they want Iran to open up its nuclear programs for inspection and to give up any effort it may have to enrich uranium to anything near weapons-grade.

For South Sudan, 2011 was monumental. After decades of war, South Sudan became its own nation.

But as NPR's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton has told us, that process of emerging from a conflict with its northern neighbor that left it poor and isolated, has been fraught with more fighting.

Yet sometimes there are signs of hope and normalcy: On Sunday, Ofeibea reported that despite continued bombings, children headed to school. And today we have news that during their Congress, the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) admitted South Sudan as its 209th member.

That means South Sudan is now eligible to play in the qualifiers for the 2015 Africa Cup as well as the 2018 World Cup.

There's not much more we can add to what the chief soccer official in South Sudan said during his acceptance speech. The BBC reports:

"'I want to assure you that we are going to follow the statutes and regulations of Fifa and obey the law of our good game,' said South Sudan FA president Oliver Mori Benjamin in an acceptance speech.

"'In particular, we are still suffering from war, so we promise that we will develop football to fight against war, hunger and poverty.

"'I want to assure you that in my state in South Sudan, Abyei, we are still in a war zone but I promise in a few days, we are going to raise the flag of Fifa in Abyei for the good of our people.'"

Five years in prison. Then five years of probation and wearing an electronic monitoring device. The shame of being a registered sex offender. Not being able to get a job. His dream of playing in the NFL destroyed, possibly forever.

Brian Banks, now 26, has gone through all that.

Then Thursday, the California man's rape conviction was dismissed. His accuser, who last year sent Banks a message on Facebook suggesting that they "let bygones be bygones," had been videotaped saying she lied about being raped. Wanetta Gibson's previous statements to police about the alleged 2002 incident had been the only evidence against Banks — there was no physical evidence that Banks had raped her. With the change in her story, prosecutors and a judge agreed, there was no case.

Having his name cleared made for "the greatest day of my life," Banks told Southern California Public Radio's Patt Morrison. Not only does the conviction come off his record, but the electronic monitor comes off his ankle and he no longer has to register as a sex offender.

The former high school football star, who once seemed to be on the way to playing for the University of Southern California, says he now wants to pursue that lifelong dream of playing in the NFL.

Raises Questions; Read More:

Navi Pillay, the UN's Commissioner for Human Rights, wrapped up a five day visit to tense Zimbabwe this week, at the invitation of the coalition government. She has this startling advice for western nations that are punishing Zimbabwe over its poor human rights record: suspend international sanctions.

Pillay says the economic punishment has caused banks and investors to think twice about putting their money in Zimbabwe and that affects business. While the sanctions do target individuals, the overall effect hurts all poor Zimbabweans, who must also face political instability and crushing drought.

In a speech in Harare, Pillay related this example: since 2005, Zimbabwe's maternal mortality rate has zoomed up by 40 percent. She says during the same six year time frame, there've been more outbreaks of typhoid and cholera because fewer people can't get to clean water. Other factors may play a role in the disasters, but Pillay maintains the sanctions harm Zimbabweans.

This view is dramatically opposed by Human Rights Watch. In February, the group observed that while Zimbabwe began taking small steps toward political reform with the formation of a unity government in 2009, the country's human rights record is abysmal.

Daniel Bekele of HRW says Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe's political party continues to commit "grave human rights abuses against all perceived opponents." He says lifting the sanctions will only reinforce repression.

The U.S. first imposed "targeted sanctions" on certain Zimbabwean businesses and individuals in 2002, as CNN notes. That's when Congress and the Bush Administration first blocked Mugabe's travel to the U.S., following his government's violent land reforms that seized farms from white Zimbabweans and reallocated them to blacks.

Pillay is fully aware of international outrage against Mugabe, pointing out that when white landowners were evicted, "tens of thousands" of black farmworkers also lost their jobs and were instantly thrown into poverty. Still, she says, a better place to address the land grabs and Mugabe's frightening human rights violations are through courts of law, as AP notes.

By any definition, the situation in Syria is atrocious with an estimated 10,000 people killed since the uprising started more than a year ago. The latest international effort to reach a ceasefire is on the ropes.

And, last night, during an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour, the U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon seem to give little hope for a resolution.

Amanpour pressed Ban, saying the U.N. keeps stating that the situation in the country is unacceptable, but "what is the plan B?" she asked. "What will be the absolute solution to stopping this carnage?"

"At this time, we don't have any plan B," Ban said. "The joint special envoy Kofi Annan has proposed six peace proposals, among which the complete cessation of violence is number one. Unfortunately, this has not been implemented while with the deployment of monitoring missions, we have seen some dampening effect."

The interview came the same day that the U.N. issued a report that found both sides of the conflict were guilty of committing "gross human rights violations." The report, however, found that the majority of violations were committed by the regime of President Bashar Assad.

Here's news that could affect both the economy and the presidential race:

Consumer confidence has improved "in each of the past nine monthly surveys" and is now at "its highest level since October 2007," according to the latest Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan Survey of Consumers. The most recent recession officially began in December 2007, and lasted into early summer 2009.

Since consumers purchase about 70 percent of all the goods and services that businesses produce, they are a critical driving force for the economy. And, since many consumers also vote, how they feel could help determine which candidate gets their support.

But Richard Curtin, chief economist for the survey, notes in his analysis that "consumer confidence was nearly as high in the past two years before the gains were reversed. While gas prices and economic policy debates played a role in the pull backs, changes in job expectations also had a critical impact."

Jeff Neely, the regional official at the General Services Administration who hosted a 2010 taxpayer-funded conference in Las Vegas that became a scandal as details about excessive spending, gifts and lavish parties were revealed, has left his job at the agency.

"GSA spokesman Adam Elkington would not say whether Neely resigned or was fired from the agency that is in charge of federal buildings and supplies," The Associated Press says.

As we've reported, more than $800,000 was spent on the four-day conference, which included appearances by a mind-reader and clown, and nearly $150,000 spent on food and beverages, and commemorative coins that cost more than $6,000.

The scandal led to GSA Administrator Martha Johnson's resignation.

In 1970 a young girl lost her banana-seat bike. Lisa Brown was riding it across a rickety bridge in Cape Cod, Mass., when she and the bike tumbled into a little river. The bike sank into the muck and was gone.

Until, that is, the now adult Brown's wife, Deirdre Oringer, came across a rusted bike — banana seat and all — in the woods near where Brown's two-wheeler went into the Herring River.

That discovery happened nearly a year ago, as the Cape Cod Times reported last June, and as it "dramatically" recounted in this quite funny video.

So why mention it now?

Because it seems that Britain's Daily Mail just discovered the story and decided that the headline should be:

" 'It was like finding a long lost friend': Lesbian reunited with bike she lost FOUR DECADES ago after her wife spots it in muddy stream."

As Gawker, which is having some fun at the Mail's expense, says: "What will the lesbians do next?"

Update at 2:05 p.m. ET: Our friend Bill Chappell reminds us of the post he did last October about a man who was reunited with his racing bike after 26 years.

On Morning Edition, NPR's Frank Langfitt reported about a Chinese company's $2.6 billion purchase of North America's second-largest movie theater chain. Now, he tells us how the movie-going experience has changed in China in recent years:

When I first moved to Beijing in 1997, going to the movies wasn't really an option. Many of the theaters were decades-old, the acoustics lousy and ticket prices too high — so high in fact that most Chinese didn't go. To the degree I remember attending movies back then, I recall mostly sitting alone in the dark.

It was depressing.

Making matters worse, China had a strict quota and delay on Hollywood releases to protect its domestic film industry, so you couldn't actually see what you wanted to anyway. It was easier to pick up a bootleg DVD on the street, even if it had been shot on a hand-held, video camera in a theater in Kuala Lumpur. The quality of those DVDs wasn't very good — or so I was told. The audio often included people in the audience munching popcorn. Sometimes, the picture would be obscured by someone getting up to go the bathroom.

My wife, Julie, and I are avid movie-goers, so the only way we saw movies in theaters back then was when we traveled to other countries in Asia. It was so rare, it felt like an event. I remember seeing Gladiator in Seoul. Tomorrow Never Dies in Jakarta, Good Will Hunting on a lay-over in Singapore and Coyote Ugly (don't ask) in Bangkok.

We left China in 2002 and returned last year to Shanghai for my job.

Stadium Seating, IMAX Screens And 3D; Read More:

Happy Friday! Here are some of the stories we're looking at:

Live: Space X Craft Approaching Space Station For Docking Attempt.

Egypt May Be Headed To Runoff Between Islamist And Former Mubarek Aide.

Hurricane Bud Expected To Make Landfall Tonight On Mexico's Pacific Coast; Tropical Storm Beryl May Form This Weekend Off Florida's Atlantic Coast. (NHC)

Suspect In New York Child's Disappearance May Soon Make First Court Appearance. (CNN)

Jurors In Edwards Corruption Trial Will Review More Evidence, Start Sixth Day Of Deliberations. (Los Angeles Times)

Norwegian Accused Mass Shooter Says He Won't Appeal A Guilty Verdict As Long As Court Finds Him Sane. (BBC)

Italian Doctors Use Tiny Artificial Heart To Save Baby's Life. (Reuters)

Few Answers In Russian Jet Crash Prompt Conspiracy Rumors. (Christian Science Monitor)

Fistfight In Ukrainian Parliament Won't Lead to Quick End Of Session. (Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty)

Kayaker Takes On 189-Foot Waterfall In Washington State - And Lives. (ABC)

As Egyptian officials count ballots from this week's first-ever free presidential election in that country, the Muslim Brotherhood is claiming its candidate got the most votes and will likely be in a runoff next month against ousted President Hosni Mubarak's last prime minister.

From Cairo, NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson cautions that officials are advising against "believing statements by groups claiming to know who won." Official results aren't due to be released until next Tuesday.

But The New York Times says that "several independent vote counts" signal that a runoff "appears almost certain to pit the two most polarizing figures against each other in a reversion to the decades-old power struggle between Egypt's secular-minded military elite and its longstanding Islamist opposition."

And the Times adds that "it was clear as early as Thursday night that a plurality of votes went to Mohamed Morsi, the American-educated engineer nominated by the Brotherhood." Then, earlier today, it began to look as if "second place would go to Ahmed Shafik, a former Air Force general who briefly served as Mr. Mubarak's last prime minister." (Note: NPR follows Associated Press style — Shafiq — on the spelling of the former prime minister's last name.)

According to The Associated Press, "exit polls by several Arab television stations also suggested the Brotherhood's Morsi was ahead of the pack of 13 candidates."

There will be a runoff, most likely over the two days of June 16-17, if no one candidate gets a majority the votes. Click here for a four-minute explanation of Egypt's elections.

The historic first docking of a commercial spacecraft at the International Space Station orbiting above Earth happened without a hitch today, as SpaceX's Dragon capsule arrived with supplies for the crew orbiting high above Earth.

Just before 10 a.m. ET, astronauts aboard the space station successfully grabbed the capsule with a robotic arm. A little after noon ET, the pulled the Dragon into its docking space.

NASA was webcasting, and we have embedded its feed in this post (our apologies if you're on a device that doesn't support the player).

Earlier this week on All Things Considered, NPR's Nell Greenfieldboyce reported about the historic mission. If everything goes as planned, SpaceX will have done something that only government space agencies have done before — and will kick off what's expected to be a new era of commercial space flight.

Update at 12:10 p.m. ET. Dragon Has Docked:

Dragon has finished docking with the International Space Station. That makes SpaceX the first private company to dock a cargo spacecraft to the space station.

That happened at exactly 12:02 p.m. ET, according to NASA.

Update at 10:40 a.m. ET. "Big Moment":

Capturing Dragon "was a big moment for SpaceX and a big moment for NASA too," NPR's Nell Greenfieldboyce said on Morning Edition a short time ago. "No private spaceship has ... ever reached a station before. It's a first for SpaceX and a first for the world."

And in just a few years, Nell added, Dragon could be ready to take people into space, not just supplies.

Update at 10:15 a.m. ET. More Details.

According to NASA, "capture" occurred as the space station was "251 miles over northwest Australia."

Who's aboard the space station now? NASA has bios of the six-man crew posted here. Commander Oleg Kononenko was born in what is now Turkmenistan. The Americans on board are NASA astronauts Donald Pettit and Joseph Acaba. Other flight engineers are Andre Kuipers (from The Netherlands), Gennady Padalka (born in Russia) and Sergei Revin (also Russian).

Update at 9:56 a.m. ET: Dragon's Been Grabbed:

The crew of the space station just grabbed the spacecraft with a robotic arm. Next up: Docking, which will take another couple hours. "Capture is confirmed," NASA announced.

Update at 9:45 a.m. ET. Capture At 10:02 a.m. ET?

NASA now estimates the first opportunity to use the robotic arm to grab Dragon will come at 10:02 a.m. ET.

Update at 9:30 a.m. ET. OK Given To Draw Near: Controllers have given the go-ahead for the spacecraft to approach to within about 30 feet of the space station. That's the point where astronauts on the space station should be able to reach out and grab it with a robotic arm.

Update at 9:20 a.m. ET. Ninety Feet Away: Dragon is now about 90 feet from the station. NASA is determining whether it can now close to about 30 feet — the point where grappling can take place.

Update at 9 a.m. ET. Not Quite Yet: Dragon has drawn closer, but is still going through some preliminary maneuvers.

Dozens of federal mine safety inspectors descended into 43 coal mines in three Appalachian states Wednesday in a massive, one-day blitz targeting mines once owned by Massey Energy.

A spokeswoman for the Mine Safety and Health Administration confirmed the sweep Thursday but did not provide many details.

All the mines involved are in West Virginia, Virginia and Kentucky and are now owned by Alpha Natural Resources, which absorbed Massey Energy after a disastrous explosion killed 29 coal miners at Massey's Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia in 2010.

The mines targeted for these surprise "impact" inspections represent 30 percent of all the coal mines Alpha now operates.

A source familiar with the inspections says they were focused on conveyor belts used to transport coal underground. The source is not authorized to discuss the inspections publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

A fire involving a conveyor belt in Massey's Aracoma Alma Mine [PDF] in West Virginia in 2006 led to the deaths of two coal miners, corporate criminal charges against the company and more than $4 million in civil and criminal fines.

MSHA spokeswoman Amy Louviere confirms that Wednesday's inspection blitz was prompted by a recent incident involving a burning conveyor belt at Alpha's Road Fork No. 51 mine in Wyoming County, W. Va., which was also once owned by Massey.

That incident included smoke but no fire, according to NPR's source. MSHA decided to then quickly target the other former Massey mines for surprise inspections "because of the serious nature of the incident," according to Louviere.

According to MSHA records, Road Fork No. 51 was cited this week for a number of "serious and substantial" mine safety violations classified as "unwarrantable failures" considered "aggravated conduct constituting more than ordinary negligence." The citations involve fire safety procedures and equipment and regulations governing conveyor belts. But detailed descriptions of the violations are not included in MSHA records available to the public.

"We are still investigating at Road Fork, so it would be premature to speculate whether the circumstances are similar to what happened at Aracoma," Louviere says.

As for Wednesday's inspection blitz, Louviere adds that "no violations as serious as this one [at Road Fork No. 51] were found ... but the number and nature of citations and orders issued are still under review."

Alpha has made much of its "Running Right" safety program since its takeover of Massey last year. Thousands of former Massey employees have gone through Alpha safety training, and the company has pledged to improve on Massey's safety record, which was one of the worst in the industry. By some measures, the company's overall safety record has improved.

But late last year, Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., said on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives that Alpha has displayed "some troubling contradictions that merit a careful watch."

Some former Massey executives responsible for managing and overseeing some of the company's most troubled mines continue to work for Alpha.

Earlier this month, Alpha announced the creation of a mine safety and health foundation, which is part of a $209 million settlement with the Justice Department stemming from the Upper Big Branch Mine disaster. The settlement kept the company from facing corporate criminal charges for the tragedy, which occurred before the Massey acquisition.

In the announcement, Alpha CEO Kevin Crutchfield said, "The safety of our employees is the highest value of our company, and mine safety and health is imperative to the success of our industry."

MSHA has staged a number of surprise "impact" inspections since the Upper Big Branch explosion, but none have focused on so many mines owned by a single company on a single day.

Update at 11:03 p.m. ET. Mine Owner's Comment:

Alpha spokesman Ted Pile has provided a company response:

"The situation at the Road Fork No. 51 Mine incident was not a life-threatening situation. When they detected smoke, our people immediately took the proper actions to assure the safety of all miners while the source was investigated. They did exactly what they were supposed to do proficiently and professionally. An incident like this, while troubling, is always investigated for root causes and for corrective actions that can be undertaken to prevent them from reoccurring in any of the mines in our system."

Pile also confirmed the inspection blitz Wednesday and adds:

"We were subject to more than 4,600 inspector days in the first quarter, so inspection activity is always high and that's probably the case for most underground coal mines."

Update at 10:55 p.m. ET. 'Slipping Conveyor Belt' Caused Evacuation:

Alpha filed a document with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday that provides more details about the conveyor belt incident that triggered Wednesday's blast inspections.

The incident at Road Fork No. 51 Mine on May 18 involved smoke generated by "a slipping conveyor belt." MSHA considered the situation so threatening that it issued what is known as an "imminent danger" order, forcing evacuation of that section of the mine. Alpha's SEC filing says no fire was discovered and no injuries resulted.

The co-owner of a propaganda firm that received about $120 million in Pentagon contracts since 2009 has admitted to running a misinformation campaign against USA Today journalists.

Leonie Industries put out a statement today saying the campaign was run by Camille Chidiac, who owns 49 percent of the company, using "non-Leonie funds to participate in the online activity."

"This was the act of an individual, not the company," the statement reads. "Leonie was not aware of and did not authorize Mr. Chidiac's online activity concerning the reporters."

The misinformation campaign stems from articles the paper ran in February that exposed criticism for the millions of dollars spent on "poorly tracked marketing and propaganda campaigns" in Iraq and Afghanistan.

USA Today reports that in his campaign against the reporters, Chidiac created "fan sites" with URLs matching the names of the reporter and editor who worked on the stories and then filled those sites with content that criticized the journalist's past reporting. One expert quoted by the paper called it a "sophisticated reputation attack."

Today, Chidiac came clean telling USA Today, "I recognize and deeply regret that my actions have caused concerns for Leonie and the U.S. military. This was never my intention. As an immediate corrective action, I am in the process of completely divesting my remaining minority ownership from Leonie."

Of course the bigger question here is whether the U.S. government or its contractors had turned its propaganda machine on American citizens. (The Smith-Mundt Act of 1948 severely limits the propaganda the U.S. can use nationally.) Leonie tried to distance itself from Chidiac. In its statement, Leonie said Chidac has stepped down in 2008 as president of the company. But USA Today points out that Chidiac "has continued to represent Leonie at various conferences..."

The Pentagon told the paper that it was "deeply disappointed to read this disclosure from Leonie Industries," adding that "smear campaigns — online or anywhere else — are intolerable, and we reject this kind of behavior..."

On tonight's All Things Considered, Robert Siegel talks with three prominent Egyptians. One of them, Dalia Ziada, is an activist and founder of the Justice Party.

Robert asked how the last two days have felt, how it felt to see many of her fellow Egyptians cast their first ballot. She said:

"It feels like celebrating a festival or something everyone is very is very excited about the idea of having a new president but [everyone is] very confused as well.

"This confusion itself is a success of the dream we've been dreaming for so long — to have a president who is coming from among the people, whom we can judge, whom we can hold accountable. He's not coming from a supreme authority. He's just a human like us."

Here's audio of the rest of the interviews: