World

Young supporters of Russian President Vladimir Putin have staged several protests this month outside Mormon meeting houses, claiming that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is an "authoritarian sect" with connections to the CIA and FBI.

The protesters are members of the Young Guard, a youth organization of Putin's United Russia Party. They insist their actions have nothing to do with Mitt Romney, the Republican candidate and Mormon who called Russia the "No. 1 geopolitical foe" of the U.S.

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ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

Since the drug war in Mexico began in 2006, more than 50,000 people have been killed and organized crime has infiltrated, in one way or another, virtually every part of society. Many children have lost family members or become victims themselves. Cartels have also begun recruiting kids to work, often as mules. Even those young people who don't feel the drug war directly have to confront its effects on TV and at school, where bullies imitate narco-traffickers.

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ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

And I'm Melissa Block.

Huge crowds thronged Cairo's iconic Tahrir Square on Tuesday voicing their opposition to what they see as a power grab by President Mohamed Morsi. Robert Siegel talks to Leila Fadel.

The pace of destruction of the Brazilian Amazon is at its lowest rate in more than two decades, Brazil's National Institute for Space Research said in a new report released Tuesday.

As feared, the news that "Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi has not given any signal that he is backing down from most of his power grab" has lead to more protests and more violence in the streets of Cairo.

Claims that former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was poisoned with a radioactive substance before his death in 2004 are now literally being put to the test.

Arafat's grave was briefly opened today so that samples could be taken from his remains.