BEIJING—Last week, the New York Times published a report about working conditions at factories producing Apple products in China.  Under the spotlight was Foxconn Technology, a key manufacturer for Apple and “China’s largest exporter and one of the nation’s biggest employers, with 1.2 million workers,” responsible for churning out tens of millions of iPhones and iPads sold around the world.

The article focused specifically on Foxconn’s Chengdu factory, where employees have complained about nonstop shifts, arduous overtime, crowded dormitories, mental health (nearly twenty workers at Foxconn have committed suicide over two years), and a hazardous working environment that's led to at least one explosion, in May 2011.

The New York Times report was also published in Chinese in the well-respected business and economic news weekly Caixin, where Chinese readers could post comments in response to the story. 

Since it was released over the Lunar New Year festival, a week-long holiday which brings the country to a rare standstill, reaction seemed relatively muted.  As we write this, there were 650 comments on Caixin’s Weibo page (a Twitter-like Chinese microblog)--compared to the 1,770 comments on the Times’ website. 

---

A cynical reaction in China
On Caixin’s Weibo site, some of the comments condemned Apple’s corporate practices, but many also criticized the Chinese government for failing to protect its own citizens.

“Labor protection and social security is not only the responsibility of corporations.  If the government had regulations and supervised the corporations, then they cannot be that irresponsible,” wrote one person. 

A significant number also captured a sentiment that was cynical but perhaps very pragmatic of many Chinese: 

“If they don’t work for Apple, those workers don’t have anywhere to shed their sweat and blood.”

“Why not kick Apple out?  Tens of thousands of people will lose their jobs.“

“They are criticizing Apple only, because Apple is a huge target.  The migrant workers hired by state-owned enterprises here can hardly be as good as Apple’s.  Take care of your own workers before you pay attention to other people’s suppliers.”

All of which was bolstered by something this week that explains--in part--why the response in China might not be as outraged as those in the West might expect.

Workers want those jobs
On Monday, tens of thousands of people lined up outside a job agency to apply for an estimated 100,000 new jobs Foxconn is seeking to fill at its factory in Zhengzhou, the capital of central Henan province. 

Foxconn wants to double its current workforce of 130,000 at the Zhengzhou plant, which it opened last year.  The facility already churns out 200,000 iPhones a day and is part of Foxconn’s grand plan to make Zhengzhou the world’s largest smartphone manufacturing base.

The basic starting salary advertised--according to a report posted on M.I.C. Gadget, a blogsite about tech and other related matters in China—is 1,650 yuan a month ($261), which includes dorm housing and food.

The pay is lower than comparable salaries Foxconn pays workers at its Shenzhen factory in southern China.  But that may be a sacrifice Henan workers are willing to make initially. 

With a population in excess of 100 million, Henan is China’s most populous province.  A fifth of them are migrant workers who travel widely to find jobs in the country’s more prosperous regions like the south or coast.

With additional reporting from Bo Gu.

Pakistan’s security services are directly assisting the Taliban in Afghanistan and know where senior militant leaders are hiding, the BBC reported on Tuesday.

The British news service cited a leaked secret NATO report compiled from thousands of interrogations.

According to the report, the Taliban remain defiant in the midst of allied bombardment and also still maintain wide support among Afghans.

---

Taliban talks: Another Karzai tiff with the US?

The BBC story comes after a series of reports that the United States, NATO and the Afghan government plan talks with the Taliban in an effort to end the 10-year war in Afghanistan. It also comes amid tensions between the United States and Pakistan.

Defense Secretary Panetta told CBS’ "60 Minutes" on Sunday that he remains convinced that someone in the Pakistani government must have had an idea that a person of interest was in the compound where Osama bin Laden was killed. In the interview, Panetta acknowledged a Pakistani doctor, Shakil Afridi, provided information to the United States that helped identify the al-Qaida leader. After the raid, Pakistan arrested Afridi and has accused him of treason.  

And last November, Pakistan shut down NATO supply routes into Afghanistan after a NATO raid killed 28 Pakistani troops at a remote outpost. The Pakistani government also ordered a U.S. drone base closed.

According to the BBC's correspondent in Kabul, Quentin Sommerville, the leaked report for the first time exposes ties between the Pakistani intelligence service, known as ISI, and the Taliban.

Though alleged in the past, Pakistan has denied any direct links with the Taliban.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen alluded to ISI ties to militants fighting in Afghanistan during testimony in September 2011, according to NBC.

He called the Haqqani Network, a close ally of the Taliban, the "veritable arm” of the ISI, and said that the ISI is using other “proxies” to attack in Afghanistan.

NATO spokesman Lt. Col. Jimmie Cummings told the BBC that the report was a “classified internal document not meant to be released to the public.”

According to the BBC, the report, based on 27,000 interrogations with captured Taliban, al-Qaida and other fighters, states: "As this document is derived directly from insurgents it should be considered informational and not necessarily analytical."

 

 

Msnbc.com staff and NBC News' Courtney Kube contributed to this report. 

More from msnbc.com and NBC News:

• Arab League to UN: Take 'rapid' action on Syria
• Afghan women keep pushing to have voices heard
• Britain sending advanced warship to Falklands
• Yemen: US airstrikes kill 15 suspected al-Qaida militants
• Gazans break (dance)ing boundaries
• Costa Concordia removal could take up to a year

Police in Tasmania, Australia, are investigating whether personal watercraft riders broke any laws when they raced through a pod of dolphins near Hobart.

Video footage apparently shot by an onlooker shows two personal watercraft, each with a man and a woman on board, coming up behind the pod before racing through them on Saturday in Frederick Henry Bay, The Mercury newspaper of Tasmania reported.

---

Witnesses said the watercraft managed to separate a pod of about 30 dolphins, according to Australian Broadcasting Corp.

According to Marine and Safety Tasmania, Jet-Skiers and boaters must not exceed 8 knots within 100 meters (330 feet) of dolphins and they must withdraw immediately if the animals show signs of disturbance, The Mercury reported.

Inspector Stuart Scott told the newspaper police would be interviewing the watercraft riders to determine if marine mammal protection laws were broken.

One of the riders, Todd Tatnell, claimed they did nothing wrong and that the dolphins had been following them before and after the video was taken. He denied that the dolphins were distressed.

"It's just been blown right out of proportion over nothing really," he was quoted as saying by the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

"We were only just playing with the dolphins as you do when you go out on the boat and Jet Skis and they'll come and play with you all the time."

Wildlife biologist Kris Carlyon of the Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and the Environment told The Mercury it’s likely the marine mammals were scared away and would not  return.

"The dolphins will have felt harassed and basically will clear out, at least in the short term," said Carlyon.

More from msnbc.com and NBC News:

• Arab League to UN: Take 'rapid' action on Syria
• Afghan women keep pushing to have voices heard
• Britain sending advanced warship to Falklands
• Yemen: US airstrikes kill 15 suspected al-Qaida militants
• Gazans break (dance)ing boundaries

Britain's HMS Dauntless, touted as one of the most sophisticated warships in the world, will set sail to the disputed Falkland Islands in coming weeks in what the government called a routine operation.

---

The futuristic destroyer will replace the frigate HMS Montrose, the Ministry of Defense said on Tuesday. The deployment has long been planned but comes as tensions rise between Britain and Argentina over the status of the islands, which are a British dependency.

The Dauntless, armed with anti-aircraft and anti-ballistic capability, could "take out all of South America's fighter aircraft let alone Argentina's," one Navy source told the U.K.'s Telegraph.

The news comes shortly before Prince William, heir to the British throne, is due to arrive in the Falkland Islands as part of his air force training.

Britain accuses Argentina of 'colonialism'

Foreign Secretary William Hague told Sky News that while HMS Dauntless's deployment is routine, the British ship "packs a very considerable punch."

A Royal Navy spokesman downplayed the $1 billion destroyer's deployment and rejected that it was a sign of escalation in the tensions between the two countries.

"The Royal Navy has had a continuous presence in the south Atlantic for many years. The deployment of HMS Dauntless to the south Atlantic has been long planned, is entirely routine and replaces another ship on patrol," he told the Guardian.

Last month, Argentina persuaded Brazil, Uruguay and Chile to join a Mercosur trade group resolution to turn away any ship flying the Falklands'flag — which depicts a sheep and a ship along with the United Kingdom's red, white and blue Union Jack.

Argentina claims sovereignty of the Falklands, 290 miles (460 kilometers) east of its coast. U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron has also recently stressed that the people of the Falklands must decide their own future and said Argentina is taking a colonialist approach to the islands' residents.

London's Foreign Office said Tuesday that junior minister Jeremy Browne will travel to the islands in June to mark the 30th anniversary of Britain's brief 1982 war with Argentina over the territory. Browne will be the first foreign minister to visit the Falklands since 2008. Prime Minister David Cameron's office said the British leader had no plans to visit.

Earlier this month, Britain announced that Prince Harry will visit Brazil in March as part of the U.K.'s effort to strengthen ties with Latin America.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

More from msnbc.com and NBC News:

• US spy chief: Syria's Assad cannot hold power
• Yemen: US airstrikes kill 15 suspected al-Qaida militants
• Gazans break (dance)ing boundaries
• Tourists banned from U.S. over Twitter jokes?
• Americans take refuge at Cairo embassy
• Costa Concordia removal could take up to a year

 

 KABUL, Afghanistan – With increased pressure for a U.S. and NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan by the end of 2014 and potential peace talks with the Taliban, many Afghan women fear their newfound rights could be jeopardized.

Since 2001, Afghan women have made many gains after years of being ostracized and banished from society under the Taliban. Now women are back in the workforce, back in schools and have a sizable representation in the government – things that were all forbidden during the Taliban’s five-year rule.

---

 

But the gains are fragile and only represent a small percentage of the population. 
 
According to one United Nations estimate, nearly 90 percent of Afghan women suffer from some sort of domestic abuse – some analysts believe that number may be even higher –  making Afghanistan one of the most dangerous places to be a woman.   

And although the Afghan constitution provides women equal rights, various government agencies, institutions and many individuals do not abide by those rules.

The latest shocking example of that is the news that a young woman in northern Afghanistan was murdered by her husband and mother-in-law for giving birth to a third daughter and not a son.

Stories like that one, as well as fears about what negotiations with the Taliban could mean for women’s rights, have urged Afghan female parliamentarian, Shinkai Karokhail, and dozens of Afghan women activists from all walks of life, to share their concerns with President Hamid Karzai to try to make him an active player in their plight.

Pushing for action
“Day by day we are a witness of more violence against women around the country,” Karokhail said. “Not only women should raise their voice, what about the president [him]self?” 

This past month Karzai invited the women activists to his palace along with religious leaders from the country.  Karzai requested the religious leadership’s attendance because he knows they are the most influential element in this conservative Islamic society.  The group of women shared stories of the hardships faced by Afghan females, presenting him with a photo album of women and girls maimed, exploited or killed because of cultural and religious ignorance.

According to those who attended the meeting, the pictures and stories “visibly moved” the president. And it drove him to suggest that religious leaders work with women to encourage awareness among Afghans about the importance of women’s rights.
 
“[They] have to give awareness of the real Islam,” Karokhail said of Afghanistan’s religious elite. “Because in Islam we have lots of rights for women, but what Afghans are doing [is the] opposite of that.”
 
Karzai announced this past weekend that he will hold a conference in February focused on Eliminating Violence against Women, an announcement welcomed by the international community. 

Karokhail hopes by working with religious elders they can begin an awareness campaign by using the media, mosques and even the legislature to educate Afghans that the Islamic religion forbids such treatment of women.

Uphill battle to end violence against women
But it’s not just the Taliban they have to convince. Their mission is to help change a cultural mindset – a mentality that has been affected by three-decades of constant war.

On the streets of Kabul, the country’s capital, 35-year-old Shekaib, an Afghan man, admitted to NBC News that women have been treated badly by the various regimes that took control.

“Their rights have been stepped on,” Shekaib said. “The international community helped many Afghan women raise their voices against those who stepped on their rights.”
 
But he says that if the international community abandons the cause for Afghan women when the foreigners leave, those women will suffer from the same hands they spoke up against.

“I am sure if they leave the situation will get bad and unsafe for [women],” he said. 
 
Although foreign governments and their militaries now seldom bring up the plight of Afghan women as they try to wind down their efforts in Afghanistan.  Afghan women and their supporters know that if they don’t keep speaking up and fighting for their own rights their future may be as bleak as their past.
 
“Women have the most to lose,” said Manezha Naderi the executive director for “Women for Afghan Women” which provides shelter for abused women throughout the country.  “History has shown that they lose the most – their education, their freedom and the same thing can happen again.”
 
Naderi, an Afghan-American, has been working in Afghanistan since 2003 and is worried by the lack of interest shown lately by the international community.
 
“Afghan women are human beings and Afghan women were part of the reason we came here,” she says.  “We have a responsibility to make it right for the women and children.”
 
Naderi has made Afghanistan her home now and is raising three daughters here.  She says she can’t give up on this cause because she is now fighting for them as well. 
 
“I’m not going to give up now, or tomorrow, or ever in my life,” she said.  “Women’s rights can’t be shoved under the rug.”
 
She just hopes the world will listen.

LONDON - Britain took the rare step of stripping former Royal Bank of Scotland chief Fred Goodwin of his knighthood, following intense criticism of his role in RBS' near-collapse during the 2008 credit crisis, and public anger towards wealthy bankers.

"The failure of RBS played an important role in the financial crisis of 2008-9 which, together with other macroeconomic factors, triggered the worst recession in the U.K. since the Second World War and imposed significant direct costs on British taxpayers and businesses," the government said in a statement.

---

"Fred Goodwin was the dominant decision maker at RBS at the time," the statement added. "In reaching this decision, it was recognised that widespread concern about Fred Goodwin's decisions meant that the retention of a Knighthood for 'services to banking' could not be sustained."

• Wall Street pay, bonuses to plummet this year

Goodwin was awarded the knighthood in 2004 but resigned in October 2008 as the bank was failing, provoking the public's fury by leaving with 16 million pounds ($25 million) in pension benefits. Billions in taxpayer funds were used to bailout the stricken bank. 

The government said it would soon be announced that Goodwin's knighthood had been "cancelled and annulled." 

The Scottish banker spearheaded RBS' disastrous acquisition of Dutch bank ABN AMRO, which nearly caused the collapse of RBS during the 2008 crisis.

RBS ended up having to be propped up with 45 billion pounds ($71 billion) of taxpayers' money, with the government finishing up with an 83 percent stake in the bank.

Goodwin told a committee at the House of Commons that he "could not be more sorry" for what had happened at RBS, BBC reported.

• Expert who foresaw '08 crash warns of tough decade

It is very rare for Britain to remove people of their knighthoods, and Goodwin joins the ranks of figures such as former Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu who forfeited an honorary knighthood.

The woes of RBS have come to symbolize for many in Britain more serious problems with the country's banking industry.

Many are still angry at the fact that bankers are continuing to get paid millions while elsewhere thousands lose their jobs as the economy weakens.

• European bank boss leaves huge bonus on table

On Sunday, the current chief executive of RBS - Stephen Hester - was forced to decline a million pound share bonus after the award had been attacked by all major British political parties.

Reuters, The Associated Press and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.

More from msnbc.com and NBC News:

• US spy chief: Syria's Assad cannot hold power
• Yemen: US airstrikes kill 15 suspected al-Qaida militants
• Gazans break (dance)ing boundaries
• Tourists banned from U.S. over Twitter jokes?
• Americans take refuge at Cairo embassy
• Costa Concordia removal could take up to a year

LONDON -- Six rowers whose boat capsized in the Atlantic Ocean while attempting to row from Morocco to Barbados were rescued on Monday.

Falmouth Coastguard said Tuesday that the rowers capsized 520 miles from Barbados and climbed onto a life raft tethered to their boat.  Coast guards from Britain and Martinique launched a rescue mission after the rowers contacted their support team by satellite phone.  The men were picked up by a cargo ship before the coast guards reached them.

---

Falmouth Coastguard said the cargo ship is now taking the rowers to Gibraltar.

"Earlier today the Sara G (boat) capsized," a statement on the rowers' website said on Monday.  "All crew are said to be safe and well, and tethered to the Sara G in a liferaft."

The men were taking part in the Atlantic Odyssey Challenge to row from Morocco to Barbados in less than 30 days. Their boat capsized 27 days into their journey.

More from msnbc.com and NBC News:

• UN putting Syria on 'path to civil war', Russia says
• Yemen: US airstrikes kill 15 suspected al-Qaida militants
• Gazans break (dance)ing boundaries
• Tourists banned from U.S. over Twitter jokes?
• Americans take refuge at Cairo embassy
• Costa Concordia removal could take up to a year

The Associated Press and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.

Updated at 1:35 p.m. ET Wednesday: Amnesty International urges Russia to stop its “unconscionable” obstruction of U.N. efforts to help end the bloodshed in Syria. “Russia’s threats to abort a binding U.N. Security Council resolution on Syria for the second time are utterly irresponsible. Russia bears a heavy responsibility for allowing the brutal crackdown on legitimate dissent in Syria to continue unchecked,” said José Luis Díaz, Amnesty International's representative to the U.N. in New York.

---

Updated at 4:45 p.m. ET: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged the Security Council to adopt the Arab League plan for a political process to end the violence in Syria, saying it would be different from U.N. efforts to pacify Libya.

The Arab League plan calls for Syrian President Bashar Assad to transfer his powers to his deputy to prepare for elections.

"I know that some members here may be concerned that the Security Council is headed toward another Libya," she said. "That is a false analogy."

Updated at 3:45 p.m. ET: Western and Arab nations launched a major diplomatic offensive at the U.N. on Tuesday in hopes of overcoming Russia's opposition to a resolution demanding that Syrian President Bashar Assad relinquish power, The Associated Press reported.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and the British and French foreign ministers traveled to New York for the afternoon Security Council session on the situation in Syria.

Nabil Elaraby, the chief of the Arab League, called on the Security Council to take 'rapid and decisive action' on Syria, Reuters reported

"Realizing the hopes of the Syrian people is in your hands," Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassem Bin Jabr Al Thani told council members, asking them to adopt the resolution, based on the Arab League's peace plan for the country. "It is part of your responsibility under the (U.N.) charter," he said, according to The Associated Press. 

Updated at 12:35 p.m. ET: Syrian leader Bashar Assad cannot sustain his hold on power and it is a matter of time before his leadership falls, U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told senators, according to Reuters.

"I personally believe it's a question of time before Assad falls, but that's the issue, it could be a long time," Clapper told a Senate intelligence committee hearing. "Protraction of these demonstrations, the opposition continues to be fragmented, but I do not see how he can sustain his rule of Syria."

Meanwhile, British newspaper the Guardian reported that a copy of the draft U.N. resolution demanding Assad step aside tried to address Russian concerns that the vote could open the door to western military intervention.

The draft obtained by the newspaper said the council is "reaffirming its strong commitment to the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of Syria, emphasising the need to resolve the current crisis in Syria peacefully, and stressing that nothing in this resolution compels states to resort to the use of force or the threat of force," according to the newspaper.

•  World Blog: Latest violence could signal new phase in Syria conflict

The draft did not entirely exclude the possibility of military action, however, the newspaper reported.

Published at 8:30 a.m. ET: A senior Russian diplomat warned Tuesday that a draft U.N. resolution demanding Syrian President Bashar Assad step aside is a "path to civil war," as Syrian troops crushed pockets of resistance by rebel soldiers on the outskirts of Damascus.

The U.N. Security Council was to meet Tuesday to discuss the draft, backed by Western and some Arab powers. But Russia would likely veto any punitive action.

"The Western draft Security Council resolution on Syria does not lead to a search for compromise," Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov wrote on Twitter. "Pushing this resolution is a path to civil war."

Russia has been one of Assad's strongest backers as he tries to crush an uprising that began nearly 11 months ago. In October, Moscow vetoed the first council attempt to condemn Syria's crackdown and has shown little sign of budging in its opposition.

The draft text of the resolution, seen by The Associated Press, insists there will be no use of foreign forces in the country. It calls on Assad's regime to immediately put "an end to all human rights violations and attacks against those exercising their rights to freedom of expression."

It calls on Assad to delegate his "full authority to his deputy" to allow a national unity government to lead transition to a democratic system. The text, the drafting of which has been led by Morocco, insists it does not compel "states to resort to the use of force, or the threat of force."

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday he hoped the Security Council would reflect international will when it deliberates the resolution.

"I sincerely hope the Security Council will be united and speak in a coherent manner reflecting the wishes of the international community," Ban told reporters in the Jordanian capital Amman. "This is crucially important."

China, which like Russia has a veto in the council, also has reservations about the draft. Russia and China vetoed a European-drafted resolution in October that condemned Syria and threatened it with sanctions.

"I don't think we can go on like this," Ban said.

Syria's crackdown on protesters and anti-government fighters had gone on despite a now-suspended Arab League monitoring mission and action was needed to stop the bloodshed, he said.

"Even with the monitoring missions having been there, more than a few hundred have been killed ... every day tens of people are killed ... this should stop immediately," Ban said. "It is crucially important for the Security Council to act on this."

Escalating violence
Meanwhile Tuesday, government troops were deploying in "massive numbers" to the suburbs of Damascus, the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told NBC News. The group said at least 11 people had been killed as of Tuesday morning.

• Story: Gunfire 'everywhere': Street battles rage in Damascus suburbs

The Observatory, which supports the Free Syrian Army, said government forces were targeting civilians who were aiding defectors, NBC reported.

Fighting has escalated in the past several days with at least 100 people killed on Monday alone.

The office of U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay voiced alarm on Tuesday at the escalating violence and called on Syrian authorities to "stop the killing of civilians" while also urging opposition forces to show restraint.

"It does look like there's a very dangerous and alarming escalation taking place including right in the suburbs of Damascus," U.N. human rights spokesman Rupert Colville told a news briefing in Geneva.

"So once again we urge the Syrian authorities to stop the killing of civilians in Syria. And we also urge the opposition fighters to take extreme caution too and ensure that there is no more unnecessary killing," he said.

More than 5,000 people have been killed in the uprising as of mid-December, according to Pillay's office.

Despite "high rates of casualties" since then, it has been impossible to verify incidents and lists of victims compiled by five or six human rights groups on the ground, Colville said.

More from msnbc.com and NBC News:

• Latest violence could signal new phase in Syria conflict
• Gazans break (dance)ing boundaries
• Tourists banned from U.S. over Twitter jokes?
• Americans take refuge at Cairo embassy
• Street battles rage in Damascus suburbs
• Costa Concordia removal could take up to a year

NBC News, msnbc.com staff, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Updated at 11:17 a.m. ET: Yemeni security and military officials revised the number of suspected militants killed in a U.S. airstrike Tuesday down to four people killed, and said one of the victims was a man suspected of involvement in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole.

Tribal officials in the southern Abyan province said the strike hit the militants late Monday as they were holding an important meeting at the school. Yemeni security officials had originally put the death toll at 15 people but later lowered that figure. They also said 12 militants were wounded in the strikes.

They said one of the suspected militants killed was named Abdel-Monem al-Fathani who was involved in the bombing of the USS Cole, which killed 17 American sailors and injured 39 others. The attack on the U.S. destroyer occurred while it was in the Yemeni port of Aden for refueling.

---

A Western official in Washington confirmed the U.S. carried out a strike against suspected leaders from al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, saying initial indications were that five people were killed. The official did not say where the strike occurred or specify whether it was carried out by a drone or a warplane.

Updated at 9:15 a.m. ET: U.S. airstrikes targeting leaders from Yemen's active al-Qaida branch killed 15 suspected militants, Yemeni officials said on Tuesday.

Yemeni security and military officials said missiles struck a school and a car in Abyan province in an area between Lauder and Mood where the militants were believed to be hiding.

NBC News also reported Tuesday that members of a Yemeni tribe had kidnapped six United Nations aid workers. They were demanding money and the release of one of their members from jail.

According to NBC, the U.N. aid workers include a German, French, Colombian, Iraqi and Lebanese.

A Western official in Washington confirmed the U.S. carried out a strike against suspected leaders from al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, but said initial indications were that five people were killed. The official did not say where the strike occurred or specify whether it was carried out by a drone or a warplane.

All the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to release the information.

Also Tuesday, Yemen's information minister, Ali al-Amrani, escaped an assassination attempt in the capital Sanaa, an aide said.

Unidentified assailants opened fire on the minister's car after the weekly cabinet meeting and then fled, Amrani's secretary, Abdel-Basset al-Qaedi, said.

The minister was not hurt, he said.

Updated at 2:33 a.m. ET: At least 11 people, including several alleged local al-Qaida leaders, were killed in an overnight airstrike in southern Yemen, local residents said Tuesday.

They said an unidentified drone attacked two vehicles east of the city of Lauder in Abyan province in southern Yemen.

A tribal leader said at least four of those killed were local al-Qaida leaders. Residents said no civilians were hurt in the airstrike.

The United States has used drones repeatedly to attack al-Qaida militants in Yemen. Last September, a U.S. drone killed U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, described by U.S. officials as "chief of external operations" for al-Qaida in Yemen.

• NYT: US drones provoke outrage in Iraq

Al-Qaida has exploited unrest and protests against President Ali Abdullah Saleh to strengthen its hold on remote areas in southern Yemen in recent months.

An opposition-led government has been set up in Yemen after Saleh agreed in November to transfer authority to his deputy ahead of presidential elections in February.

• Yemeni president arrives in US for medical treatment

But protests have continued and activists are pressing on with demands that Saleh be tried for alleged killings of demonstrators and that the government is purged of members of his family.

More from msnbc.com and NBC News:

• Latest violence could signal new phase in Syria conflict
• Gazans break (dance)ing boundaries
• Tourists banned from U.S. over Twitter jokes?
• Americans take refuge at Cairo embassy
• Street battles rage in Damascus suburbs
• Costa Concordia removal could take up to a year

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

CAIRO -- With fighting now encroaching the suburbs of the Syrian capital, the conflict is entering into a new dimension for the first time in nearly 10 months.

The Syrian military has regained control of the Damascus suburbs after rebel fighters over the weekend made strong advances around the capital, threatening the grip of President Bashar al Assad. The Syrian News Agency say security forces attacked "terrorist hideouts" in the Damascus countryside -- a loosely veiled acknowledgment that the fighting is now on the doorsteps of the capital.

But the attention on the capital and its outlying areas is a sign that rebel fighters who are part of the loosely knit Free Syrian Army have grown more brazen in their attacks as they go on the offensive against government troops. The fighting near the capital comes as a spike in violence has left several hundreds of people dead over the past five days. Both the government and opposition activists continue to blame each other for the violence that only seems to be escalating.

---

Syrian opposition fighters say the spike in violence is a sign that Assad's regime is desperate and launching whatever counter offensive it can to crush a stubborn uprising against his rule. Syrian analysts say with the international community convening at the U.N. to discuss the Syria crisis, the regime sees a window of opportunity in which it can resort to violence before pressure and possibly action is ratcheted up against Damascus rendering it impossible to continue on the same path.

An Arab League monitoring mission tasked with making sure Syria complies with an Arab peace plan to end the violence has been suspended. Syrian opposition says this has given Assad the greenlight to crack down in the blackout of media and monitors.

Read more: Gunfire 'everywhere': Street battles rage in Damascus suburbs

Some Syrians say the Free Syrian Army has grown in strength as more supporters and defectors join its ranks buoyed by its will to fight on despite being overpowered and outnumbered. As their numbers grow, the Syrian military is increasingly fatigued and weary, according to opposition members. Time is the regime's enemy, they say.

But Syria's fault lines are now spilling over into the international arena. U.N. Security Council members are convening in New York on Tuesday to discuss endorsing an Arab League plan that calls on Assad to hand over power immediately. The biggest objection so far has come from Russia which sees such attempts as interference in Syrian domestic affairs.

Russia instead has gone on its own diplomatic offensive, offering to host negotiations between the Assad government and all of the opposition forces. But a member of the Syrian opposition tells me Russia's efforts are only so that it does not appear as an obstacle to the will of the international community without offering an alternative. The Syrian opposition will not enter into any dialogue with Assad's government without preconditions. At the top of its list of demands? The President must agree to step down from power immediately.

More from msnbc.com and NBC News:

• Gazans break (dance)ing boundaries
• Tourists banned from U.S. over Twitter jokes?
• Americans take refuge at Cairo embassy
• Street battles rage in Damascus suburbs
• Costa Concordia removal could take up to a year

GAZA STRIP – In Hamas-ruled Gaza, where Islamic fundamentalism controls every aspect of daily life in the city that has been under an Israeli-imposed siege since June 2007, a group of eight young men from the Nuseirat refugee camp are breaking boundaries by break dancing.

The Camps Breakerz took their moves out onto the rundown streets of Gaza for the first time this month, even though members have been practicing together since 2005.

The dancers released a video on YouTube that shows them doing elaborate dance moves – from spinning head stands to arms stands and flips in “I heart Gaza” t-shirts all over Gaza. 

"When I danced in the street I felt free for the first time in my life. I challenged the conservative society and mainly I challenged the Israeli siege," said Mohammed al-Ghrize, otherwise known as “Funk,” who brought together the Camps Breakerz crew.

---

Challenging strict code
Ghrize, a 25-year-old who works as a nurse, was introduced to the world of break dancing at the age of 16 when he lived with his family in Saudi Arabia. Since returning to his homeland in Gaza, he searched for others who shared his passion for dancing. "It took me two years to persuade seven people to establish a break dancing crew, two of which are my own brothers," he said.

Over the past five years Hamas has imposed a strict code of conduct in Gaza, forcing residents to follow strict Islamic law.  The laws have restricted women from social activities like riding on the backs of motorbikes and smoking traditional shisha pipes in public spaces. They have even restricted men from working in women’s hair salons – believing that men cutting women’s hair is immodest.

In a new attempt by the fundamentalist militant Muslim group to crack down on behavior it sees as contrary to its conservative interpretation of Islam, Hamas banned Gaza youth from participating in the Palestinian version of "American Idol."  Their reasoning was because Muslims can only sing and dance to the sound of drums – not any modern instruments.

"Because I know it's very hard for our conservative society to accept our Westernized hobby, we introduced break dancing as a kind of sport," Ghrize explained. “We even managed to convince Hamas to regard break dancing as a sport by performing in their sports events and dancing only to the beats of the drums.”

The group understands that in a society struggling under the ongoing Israeli blockade, break dancing can be viewed as a waste of time and seen as lacking respect for the Gazan reality. The Nuseirat refugee camp where Ghrize lives is home to 66,000 refugees, even though it was initially built to accommodate 16,000 people. And conditions are grim: According to the U.N. 90 percent of the water there is “unfit for human consumption.”

So for the members of the group, dancing is a welcome distraction.  

"We regard our activities as another form of resistance against the occupation; all of our sketches are inspired by our people's tragedies, especially children. Break dancing for us is a way of expressing our freedom.”

Ghrize studied nursing and works at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza. “All members of our crew are very well-educated,” he said. 

At the end of video the crew recently released, the dancers names, nicknames, ages, job and special moves are listed. They range from “Chino,” a 22-year-old cook whose specialty is “style break beat,” to “Dark,” a 26-year-old teacher whose specialty is “combos,” to “Fox,” a 15-year-old student who likes “power moves.”

One of the many obstacles the Camps Breakerz faced was finding a place to train, especially after the Nuseirat refugee camp’s community center was destroyed by an Israeli raid during the war on Gaza in 2008.

"We have a dream," Ghrize said, "that one day we will have our own center where we can teach children to break dance and give them a stage to express their feelings."

The Camps Breakerz hope to go to the U.S., where break dancing originated, to meet other break dancers who will help them grow, excel and become an internationally recognized group. They want to eventually be able to compete internationally among the best break dancers in the world.

"I wish I lived in a free liberal country where I can practice the thing I love most without any political or fundamentalist boundaries."

Related link: Gaza youths find escape in free running 
 

Several American citizens have taken shelter in the U.S. Embassy in Cairo amid a sharpening dispute between Washington and Egypt's military-led authorities over U.S.-funded pro-democracy groups in the country, the State Department said on Monday.

"We can confirm that a handful of U.S. citizens have opted to stay in the embassy compound in Cairo while waiting for permission to depart Egypt," State Department spokeswoman Kate Starr said.

According to The New York Times, colleagues confirmed at least two American citizens were being protected at the embassy from potential arrest.

---

The unusual step of offering U.S. citizens diplomatic refuge follows Cairo's crackdown on non-governmental organizations, including several funded by the U.S. government, which saw travel bans imposed on six American staffers including a son of U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

State Department officials said they did not believe the Americans were in any physical danger, but said they had "concerns given the fact that they want to leave the country and were disallowed."

"There is no expectation any of these individuals are seeking to avoid any kind of judicial process," State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said. "Our view is that these people ought to be able to travel freely, that we need to expedite the process of whatever kind of formal registration is ultimately going to be allowed for them, if their property needs to be returned, and that it is in the interest of Egypt's democratic transition not only for international democracy NGOs to be able to operate but for Egyptian democracy NGOs to be able to operate, and that they have already played a strong role in supporting the good elections that have already taken place, and there are more elections coming up."

Raids and crackdown
Egyptian police first raided the groups in late December as part of an investigation into foreign funding of 17 pro-democracy and human rights groups, part of what civil society groups say has been a broader crackdown on critics of the army's heavy-handed tactics in dealing with street unrest.

Washington has strongly criticized the Egyptian move, which has cast a pall over U.S.-Egypt relations as the most populous Arab nation reaches a critical stage in its uncertain transition away from authoritarian rule.

Leading U.S. lawmakers have also voiced outrage over the incident, and American officials have repeatedly warned that Washington may have to take a fresh look at U.S. aid to Egypt's military, which now runs about $1.3 billion per year.

The six U.S. citizens hit with travel bans work with the National Democratic Institute and International Republican Institute. Both receive U.S. public funding and are loosely affiliated with the two major political parties in Washington.

The State Department did not provide details on the Americans sheltering in the embassy, although officials at the NDI said none of their staff had been relocated.

U.S. officials said an Egyptian military delegation was expected in Washington this week for regular talks, which are nevertheless expected to focus in large part on the impasse over the NGOs.

U.S. expresses concern over restrictions
President Barack Obama spoke with the head of Egypt's ruling military council, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, on January 20 and stressed the importance of the NGOs, as well as Egypt's request for $3.2 billion in support from the International Monetary Fund.

In a weekend call to Tantawi, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta urged the Egyptians to take steps to lift the travel ban on Americans wishing to leave the country, and expressed concern over restrictions placed on NGOs, the Pentagon said.

The Obama administration is finalizing its budget for the 2013 fiscal year, which will be presented on February 13 and is expected to include continued assistance for Egypt's military, albeit subject to new conditions imposed by U.S. lawmakers.

Those include evidence that Egyptian military authorities are committed to holding free and fair elections and implementing policies to protect freedom of expression, association, and religion, and due process of law.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Updated at 2:19 p.m. ET: Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will join British and French foreign ministers at the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday to push an Arab-backed condemnation of Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime.

"The status quo is unsustainable," Clinton said in a statement. "The longer the Assad regime continues its attacks on the Syrian people and stands in the way of a peaceful transition, the greater the concern that instability will escalate and spill over throughout the region."

Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby and Qatar's prime minister are due to plead with the 15-nation Security Council to back the league's plan for Assad to transfer powers to his deputy to prepare for free elections.

Assad's regime is intensifying an assault against army defectors and protesters. The U.N. has said more than 5,400 people have been killed in violence since March. At least 190 additional people were killed in the past five days.

Updated at 7:40 a.m. ET: Street battles raged at the gates of the Syrian capital on Monday as President Bashar Assad's troops sought to consolidate their grip on suburbs that rebel fighters had taken only a few miles from the center of government power. Syrian forces also heavily shelled the restive city of Homs.

Russia, a U.N. Security Council member and one of Syria's few allies, said President Bashar Assad's government agreed to talks in Moscow to end the Syrian crisis, but a major opposition body rejected any dialogue with him, demanding he step down.

---

The new fighting and Russian diplomacy came as the Arab League and France prepared to lobby the Security Council to act on a peace plan that would remove Assad from power, in a bid to staunch the flow of blood from Syria's attempt to crush a popular uprising and armed insurgency against Assad.

Activists and residents said Syrian troops now had control of Hamouriyeh, one of several districts where they have used armored vehicles and artillery to beat back rebels who came as close as 5 miles to Damascus.

An activist said the Free Syrian Army - a force of military defectors with links to Syria's divided political opposition - mounted scattered attacks on government troops who advanced through the district of Saqba, held by rebels just days ago.

"Street fighting has been raging since dawn," he said, adding tanks were moving through a central avenue of the neighborhood. "The sound of gunfire is everywhere."

Updated at 4:58 a.m. ET:Troops seized eastern suburbs of Damascus from rebels late on Sunday, opposition activists said, after two days of fighting only a few miles from President Bashar Assad's center of power.

"The Free Syrian Army has made a tactical withdrawal," an activist named Kamal told Reuters by phone from the eastern al-Ghouta area on the edge of the capital. "Regime forces have re-occupied the suburbs and started making house-to-house arrests."

A spokesman for the Free Syrian Army of defectors fighting Assad's forces appeared to confirm that account.

"Tanks have gone in but they do not know where the Free Syrian Army is. We are still operating close to Damascus," said Maher al-Naimi, who spoke to Reuters from Turkey.

Meanwhile, Syria's state news agency reported Monday that a "terrorist" group had blown up a gas pipeline.

The rising bloodshed added urgency to Arab and Western diplomatic efforts to end the 10-month conflict.

Checkpoints
In the past two weeks, army dissidents have become more visible, seizing several suburbs on the eastern edge of Damascus and setting up checkpoints where masked men wearing military attire and wielding assault rifles stop motorists and protect anti-regime protests.

Their presence so close to the capital is astonishing in tightly controlled Syria and suggests the Assad regime may either be losing control or setting up a trap for the fighters before going on the offensive.

• Outside Syria's capital, suburbs look like a war zone

Activists said earlier on Sunday soldiers had moved into the suburbs at dawn, along with at least 50 tanks and other armored vehicles. At least 19 civilians and rebel fighters were killed in that initial attack, they said.

Fighters had taken over districts less than five miles from the heart of the city. The areas have seen repeated protests against Assad's rule and crackdowns by troops during the uprising.

"It's urban war. There are bodies in the street," said an activist speaking from the suburb of Kfar Batna.

Residents of central Damascus reported seeing soldiers and police deployed around main squares.

The escalating bloodshed prompted the Arab League to suspend the work of its monitors on Saturday. Arab foreign ministers, who have urged Assad to step down and make way for a government of national unity, will discuss the crisis on February 5.

Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby left for New York where he will brief representatives of the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday to seek support for the Arab peace plan.

He will be joined by Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, whose country heads the League's committee charged with overseeing Syria.

Elaraby said he hoped to overcome resistance from Beijing and Moscow over endorsing the Arab proposals.

A Syrian government official said the Arab League decision to suspend monitoring would "put pressure on (Security Council) deliberations with the aim of calling for foreign intervention and encouraging armed groups to increase violence".

Assad blames the violence on foreign-backed militants.

The uprising against Assad, which began with largely peaceful demonstrations, has grown increasingly militarized recently as more frustrated protesters and army defectors have taken up arms.

• 'I will disappear,' says Syrian who dares to speak out

The opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported 41 civilian deaths across Syria on Sunday, including 14 in Homs province and 12 in the city of Hama. Thirty-one soldiers and members of the security forces were also killed, most in two attacks by deserters in the northern province of Idlib, it said.

State news agency SANA reported the military funerals of 28 soldiers and police on Saturday and another 23 on Sunday.

After mass demonstrations against his rule erupted last spring, Assad launched a military crackdown. Growing numbers of army deserters and gunmen have joined the protesters in a country of 23 million people regarded as a pivotal state at the heart of the Middle East.

• Syria rejects peace plan, brands it a 'conspiracy'

"The current battles taking place in and around Damascus may not yet lead to the unraveling of the regime, but the illusion of normalcy that the Assads have sought hard to maintain in the capital since the beginning of the revolution has surely unraveled," said Ammar Abdulhamid, a U.S.-based Syrian dissident.

"Once illusions unravel, reality soon follows," he wrote in his blog Sunday.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Talks between the Afghan Taliban and the United States in Qatar almost failed as the Taliban leadership reportedly refused to accept the U.S. demand of a ceasefire before  swapping prisoners.

Sources in the Afghan Taliban said the Taliban had set up an office in Qatar hoping that it would help in a prisoners' swap, especially for their five top commanders held at the Guantanamo Bay base since 2002.

---

The Taliban sources said their talks with the U.S. had been going for the past few years in exchange for an American soldier, Bowe Bergdahl, captured by Taliban militants in Afghanistan's Paktika province in June 2009, bordering Pakistan's South Waziristan. 

Maulvi Sangeen, a senior commander of the powerful Haqqani terror network, had initially claimed responsibility for kidnapping the U.S. soldier.

The Taliban sources said U.S. officials had earlier promised them they would exchange prisoners and later start peace talks.

However, according to the sources, the U.S. demanded that the Taliban announce a ceasefire in Afghanistan before any prisoner swap, which they said their central leadership had turned down.

STORY: Family of captured US soldier hopeful

"Our stance is the same. We will announce a ceasefire when the foreign forces start their withdrawal from Afghanistan," a Taliban source said.

The Afghan Taliban leadership is also worried about the reaction from their field commanders and fighters if a ceasefire were announced without getting anything to show in exchange.

Some members of the 140-strong Taliban delegation that went to Qatar had started leaving after no breakthrough was seen in talks with the U.S.

The Israeli military says a drone that can fly as far as Iran has crashed in central Israel on a routine experimental flight.

The military says there were no injuries in Sunday's crash, and it was investigating the incident.

---

The Heron TP drone is also known locally as the Eitan. It has a wingspan of 86 feet (26 meters), making it the size of a Boeing 737 passenger jet. It is the largest unmanned aircraft in Israel's military arsenal.

The drone figures to be featured prominently in any potential Israeli operation against Iran and its expanding nuclear program.

Heron TP could provide surveillance, jam enemy communications and connect ground control and manned air force planes. It's unclear if is could carry a deployable payload in a potential strike.

More from msnbc.com and NBC News:

• 17th body found on wrecked Italy cruise ship
• Poll ruling sparks street clashes in Senegal
• Sources: No planned rescue for kidnapped American
• Twisty road to US-Pakistan re-engagement

• Australia PM reunited with shoe lost at protest

The Associated Press contributed to this report.