There's was an explosion followed by gunfire in Kabul on Friday, as NPR's Sean Carberry and other journalists report from the Afghan capital.

Reuters says the explosion occurred "at about 4 p.m. local time in a downtown district. ... There was no word on any casualties." The BBC reports gunfire could be heard near the headquarters of the Afghan intelligence service.

Representatives of President Bashar Assad's regime have agreed "in principle" to attend an international peace conference aimed at ending more than two years of brutal warfare in Syria, Russia's foreign ministry said Friday.

Monday's tornado in Moore, Okla., killed 24 people and caused an estimated $2.2 billion worth of damage. As the community reflects on what happened, one question is: How did so many manage to survive such devastating destruction?

Lifelong Oklahoman Kristi Freeman has seen her share of tornadoes, but she says the twister that tore through her neighborhood Monday was something else.

"This tornado was like a monster. It was like something that was alive. It destroyed your peace, your comfort," she says.

As the residents of Moore, Okla., and surrounding communities continue to recover from Monday's devastating tornado that killed at least 24 people and injured more than 375, we're keeping an eye on the news from there:

The daily lowdown on books, publishing, and the occasional author behaving badly.

(Most recent update: 10:50 a.m. ET.)

Miracle is the word that comes to Dan Sligh's mind after he and his wife, Sally, survived a plunge off a highway bridge in Washington State on Thursday evening.

Some photos on Twitter ended Anthony Weiner's congressional career. The latest online image was not quite as damaging. Weiner has launched his campaign to be mayor of New York City. A gorgeous city skyline showed up on his homepage. But it wasn't of New York. It was Pittsburgh's skyline.

Fracking is a way of bringing up natural gas by pumping water and chemicals into the ground. Germany's powerful beer industry is worried that fracking would pollute groundwater.

The collapse sent people and vehicles into the water Thursday night. Authorities say there were no fatalities. The bridge, about an hour north of Seattle, lost its northernmost span — taking out all lanes in both directions.

The Iranian presidential election is just weeks away, and voters are faced with a very narrow range of pro-regime candidates to choose from. All the high-profile or independent candidates have been eliminated by the Guardian Council. One man considered unfit to run has already held the post of president.