Larry Hagman, who became a TV icon with his starring roles on Dallas and I Dream of Jeannie, died from complications of cancer on Friday in Dallas, Texas. "It was a peaceful passing, just as he had wished for," Hagman's family wrote in a statement. Hagman, who was on TV again this year on TNT's reboot of Dallas, is survived by his wife of nearly 60 years, actress Maj Axelsson.

Who says you need a union to strike? On Black Friday, Walmart workers went on a coordinated, multi-store walkout across the country. Thousands of workers took to the picket line to protest the wages, benefits, and treatment of employees at the world's largest retailer. The union-backed group OUR Walmart says it organized roughly 1,000 protests in 46 states across the country, with nine strikers arrested in California. So far the efforts have not seemed to affect the company's huge profits. By 11 a.m., Walmart had already reported its best Black Friday ever, and said that 5,000 items were processed per second during Thursday shopping.

Protesters rallied in Cairo on Friday against President Mohamed Morsi’s recent expansion of powers, with rioters torching the office of the Muslim Brotherhood and police eventually firing tear gas into the crowd to quell the protests. Morsi decreed on Thursday that his decisions are now above judicial review and blocked legal challenges to the assembly that is writing the new Constitution, although he insisted in a speech on Friday that he would never use his powers for causes against the revolution. In response, crowds have gathered in Tahrir Square—the heart of the 2011 revolution—and called for a "coup," chanting “the people want the regime down” and “no to a new dictator.”

This is quickly becoming America’s most violent holiday. Millions of shoppers flocked to stores for Black Friday deals, but some seemed to take them too seriously. Two people were shot outside a Walmart in Tallahassee, Fla., over a parking space. The store closed after the incident—only to quickly reopen. The victims are expected to make a full recovery. In a separate act of mall madness, a man in San Antonio pulled a gun on a line-cutting shopper. Meanwhile, at Walmart stores across the country, workers took to the picket line to protest the store’s wages and treatment of workers in the first coordinated strike of its kind.

Officials say that a 20-year-old Palestinian was killed and nine others wounded after a clashing with Israeli soldiers on Thursday in the southeast Gaza Strip. Gaza’s leadership claims that the agreement includes a promise by Israel to halt “incursions” into the buffer zone along Gaza’s northern and eastern borders where Palestinians have previously not been allowed. The Palestinian News Agency said that a group of perhaps as many as 300 Palestinians went to a border area to pray and ended up throwing stones at soldiers, who responded with gunfire. An Israeli military spokesman said only that there were demonstrations on the Gaza side and that Israeli forcers fired warning shots, but that no incursion occurred. The Hamas prime minister in Gaza has repeatedly urged gunmen to respect the ceasefire.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is asking Hewlett Packard to explain how its equipment wound up in Syria, a country that is subject to U.S. sanctions. Company officials responded in a letter released on Friday, saying they had not authorized any sales to Syria, and believe the products were delivered through either a reseller or a distributor. Area SpA, an Italian company, is believed to have installed the equipment about a year ago as part of monitoring system designed to track people within the country. Hewlett Packard told the SEC that it ended its relationship with Area SpA in April.

The European Union failed to agree on a budget on Friday after British Prime Minister David Cameron accused the organization of "living in a parallel universe." Cameron, along with his German counterpart, wanted the organization to make further spending cuts. "We're not going to be tough on budgets at home just to come here and sign up to an increase," Cameron said after the talks were scuttled. The U.K. has imposed austerity measures, slashing its administrative budget by a third and its civil service by 10 percent. The prime minister said the European Commission's failure to find cost savings was an insult to taxpayers.

Now there's an enigma. Code-breakers may finally have met their match in a mysterious handwritten note found on a dead carrier pigeon. Experts say the note—and the bird—date back to World War II, but they can’t figure out what the message means. The bird was probably carrying the message from British units stationed in France around the D-Day invasion, when it got lost and died in a chimney in Surrey, England. The pigeon was found in 1982. The mesage was sent to cryptographers last month after sustained pressure from "pigeon fanciers," according to The New York Times. A historian at the Government Communications Headquarters says cryptographers probably won’t be able to crack the code unless they find out who the note was from, and where it was going.

What’s a more beloved pastime than Instagramming a picture of your dinner? Apparently, Instagramming a picture of your Thanksgiving Day dinner. According to the photo-sharing service, Thursday broke the site’s record for most photo shares in a day. Users uploaded over 10 million photos on Thanksgiving, and also set a record rate of 226 photos per second at 12:40 p.m., PST. Now all you have to do is find the perfect filter to really bring out those turkey hues.

Take note for your office Oscar pool: The much-anticipated film version of Les Miserables premiered for media and guild members on Friday night, and the reviews were rapturous. Anne Hathaway in particular, who plays a supporting role in the musical as Fantine, was pegged by the crowd as an Oscar frontrunner; critic Dave Karger called her rendition of "I Dreamed a Dream" a "showstopper." Oscar glory wouldn't be a huge surprise—director Tom Hooper led his previous movie, The King's Speech, to a Best Picture win in 2010. Les Miserables opens in the U.S. on Christmas Day.

Good thing he never told GOP primary voters. Jim Messina, President Obama’s campaign manager, is now saying that Utah Governor Jon Huntsman was thought to be the biggest threat to Obama’s reelection chances. Huntsman was one of the first Republican candidates to drop out of the primary race after he placed third in the New Hampshire primary. “We were honest about our concerns about Huntsman. I think Huntsman would have been a very tough general-election candidate,” Messina said. “We looked at his profile in a general election and thought he would have been difficult.”

BP will announce a major restructuring of its oil and gas production unit, the second such restructuring since the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, sources told Reuters on Friday. The move will undo measures that CEO Bob Dudley put in place after the 2010 spill and will help free him up from close oversight of day-to-day operations. Lamar McKay, head of BP’s U.S. operations, will be made head of the reformed exploration and production unit. Dudley broke the E&P division into three units when he took over as CEO, as the previous decentralized model had been blamed for giving managers incentives to put profit before safety. BP shares have not recovered since the Macondo well was capped.

Here’s some news to be thankful for: the Crawley family and their staff will be returning for a fourth season of Downton Abbey, U.K network operator ITV announced Friday. The fourth season will return in the fall of 2013 and will take place in the 1920s, ITV said. “Viewers can look forward to more drama, comedy, love, hatred, jealousy, rivalry, ambition, despair, and romance,” Gareth Neame, managing director of NBCUniversal said. The third season has averaged a whopping 9.7 million viewers at its competitive Sunday night slot, beating out popular shows like the X Factor. Now that's classy.

Several people have been arrested in the Tel Aviv bus bombing that injured 21, Israeli authorities announced on Thursday. A handful of Palestinians from the West Bank and an Arab individual with Israeli citizenship were taken into custody for Wednesday’s bombing, which injured at least 20 people and is being considered a terrorist attack. Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, said the suspects were arrested within hours of the bombing. It was the first attack in Tel Aviv in six years. The names of the suspects haven’t been released.

The Congolese army on Thursday began fighting back against a vast swarm of rebels who had overtaken Goma and several other cities in the north, pounding the area and causing tens of thousands of civilians to flee. According to witnesses, government troops and local militia ambushed the rebels outside the city of Sake, about 15 miles west of Goma, as residents fled the area, causing some aid workers to worry about a coming refugee crisis. It was unclear by nightfall which side controlled the town. While the M23, the rebel group, has been accused of atrocities in the area around Goma, one of the local militia who aided the government on Thursday have been accused of massacring civilians.

The Seaside Heights, N.J., roller coaster that was knocked off of the boardwalk and partially submerged in the ocean during Hurricane Sandy might remain in the ocean to be used as a tourist attraction. Forty of the 44 seafront rides were damaged by the storm, and demolition crews have removed the remains of the boardwalk. But Mayor Bill Akers has asked the Coast Guard to find out whether the coaster is structurally stable, adding that it would make “a great tourist attraction.” Construction work on a replacement boardwalk is set to begin next year.

That's not a good start to Thanksgiving. Halle Berry's ex-boyfriend, Gabriel Aubrey, and her fiancé, Oliver Martinez, got into a knock-down, drag-out fight Thursday morning when Aubrey brought their daughter back to Berry's home to celebrate the holiday. Aubrey sustained a broken rib and bruises on his face, while Martinez may have broken his hand and suffered a head injury. Tensions have been bubbling up around a custody battle between Aubrey and Berry, who wants to relocate to France with their daughter. Aubrey was arrested for battery and has been ordered to stay 100 feet away from his ex.

A clown collapsed in front of spectators at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and was pronounced dead at the hospital on Thursday. The 67-year-old man went into cardiac arrest while making balloon animals at the corner of Sixth Avenue and West 39th Street. A Macy’s spokesman said the store was “saddened to report” that a parade marcher had had a medical emergency, but he did not say if the man was a Macy’s employee. A civilian NYPD worker also was pronounced dead at the hospital after suffering an apparent heart attack on the parade route.

Well over 40,000 people have been killed in the 20 months since the fighting broke out, according to a violence-monitoring organization. The head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that nearly half of the deaths were civilians—and he said that the actual death toll will probably be much higher. “The rebels and the government lie about how many of their forces have died to make it look like they are winning,” he said. Additionally, he noted that 10,000 to 15,000 people have been arrested in recent months and their fates are still unknown. The Observatory has been keeping count since the regime began killing protesters in March 2011.