Egypt

Fears are growing that the country may be headed toward civil war. The interim government and the military leaders who ousted President Mohammed Morsi have been cracking down on his supporters. Hundreds have died and thousands have been wounded. Twenty-five off-duty police officers were killed Monday.

The army has kept several large squares locked down on Sunday in an effort to prevent further demonstrations, a day after security forces stormed a mosque where supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi were holed up.

The Obama administration is deploring the military-backed interim government's use of violence against protesters, but it's not punishing the Egyptian military by cutting off aid.

The ancient spiritual practice of Sufism incorporates all kinds of activities, including music, to achieve a state in which the practitioner loses the ego. Riad Abdel-Gawad creates new Sufi music by translating sacred chants to the violin.

The Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters are back in the streets. The government has said it will use live ammunition to protect public buildings and security forces. After Wednesday's crackdown left more than 600 people dead and nearly 4,000 wounded, the country is is shedding more blood.

On Thursday, more than 200 bodies of those killed in a crackdown on protesters by the Egyptian military were being prepared for burial at the El-Iman mosque in Cairo. Some mourners said the government was pressuring them to say the dead committed suicide or died of natural causes.

While the president did not say the U.S. will cut off aid to Egypt, he did say that joint military exercises scheduled for September have been canceled. He called on Egypt's leaders to lift a state of emergency and to take steps to stop the violence and respect human rights.

"It's difficult to see a path out of this crisis, at least not without more people dying," NPR's Leila Fadel reports. Wednesday's crackdown on supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi left hundreds dead and several thousand people wounded.

Scores were killed when security forces cleared sites where supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi had been camped. Vice President Mohamed ElBaradei, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has resigned in protest over what he says was unnecessary bloodshed.

Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi led the recent ouster of Egypt's democratically elected president. Seven years earlier, he was a student at the U.S. Army War College and wrote a paper called "Democracy in the Middle East." He's the latest in a series of U.S.-trained military officers to topple a civilian government.