Updated at 9:13 a.m. ET: After the dramatic nighttime escape of Chen Guangcheng from house arrest in his Chinese village, one of the first people to know that the blind lawyer was safe in Beijing was thousands of miles away — in Midland, Texas.

Pastor Bob Fu, 44, says he knew of Chen’s escape three days before the security guards surrounding the house discovered it. He says he was among the first to receive and post a 15-minute video of Chen, made in hiding, appealing to Chinese President Wen Jiabao to bring to justice the local officials who illegally imprisoned him and his family for months. Fu says he also had a hand in preparing U.S. officials for Chen’s escape and arrival at the U.S. Embassy, while also helping lay the groundwork for alternatives, the details of which he says he cannot divulge.

Fu knows China’s security apparatus from personal experience. He made his own escape from China, arriving in the United States as a refugee with his wife and newborn son 16 years ago.

Now, through his Midland-based nonprofit China Aid, Fu is one of the leading voices on behalf of religious freedom in China, connected with activists in his home country and respected on Capitol Hill.

"Bob Fu is one of the most credible people you’ll ever find about what is going on in China," said Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., who chairs the Human Rights Subcommittee within the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Congressional-Executive Commission on China. "He’s very well connected and knows people inside of China who are the agents of reform — people like Chen who (take action) because they want a better China."

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According to tax documents, China Aid has raised several million dollars to fund legal counsel for "house church Christians," financial support for the families of jailed dissidents and publicity for human rights cases in China. In extreme cases, China Aid has helped fund "logistics" for an underground railway, Fu says.

In China, worship is allowed only in state-sanctioned churches, mosques and synagogues. Evangelizing outside those sites and worshipping in independent churches, often called "house churches," is prohibited.

China censors 'Shawshank' as Clinton heads to Beijing amid dissident drama

Fu’s activism goes back to the Tiananmen protests of 1989, when he led a group of fellow students from Liaocheng University in Shandong province to join the massive rallies in the capital. After the crackdown on demonstrators he was one of many student activists required to attend special political study sessions and write self-criticism day after day. He worried that he would be forced to leave his hard-won position at the university.

During this time, Fu said, he read a book given to him by American missionaries who were teaching English in China. It was the story of a famous Chinese intellectual who was addicted to opium in the early 1900s, but was able to shake the drug after he converted to Christianity.

"I was really, really struck by the story," Fu said, in an interview with msnbc.com. "I came to the realization if you want to change China, the first thing you need to do is change people’s hearts. And if you want to change other people’s hearts, you first you have to change yourself."

Fu and his wife, Heidi Cai, began holding underground worship services and Bible studies, he said. At the same time, he was teaching English at the Communist Party School in Beijing.

"I was God’s double-agent," he said, chuckling.

In 1996, they were arrested and held in jail for two months, and then placed under house arrest, Fu said. Then they received word that they soon would be jailed again, he said, in the “sweep” that preceded China’s Oct. 10 National Day.

By this time, Fu’s wife was pregnant with their first child, he said, but without the necessary permission from the government, which controls when a woman is allowed to have her one child. If she had been found out, she would be forced to have an abortion, Fu said.

So in the dark of night, Fu escaped through a second-story bathroom window and Cai left in disguise, he said. They fled to the countryside, Fu said, where they were protected by "house church brothers and sisters."

Fu said that with the shelter of this network, the help of a Christian policeman and travel documents obtained by a highly placed businessman, they were able to join a tour that went to Thailand and then Hong Kong, which was still under British control. Just three days before the territory was transferred to Chinese sovereignty, Fu and his wife were give refugee status, and flew to the United States.

NBC sources: Blind activist is under US protection

Fu and Cai lived in a suburb of Philadelphia, where he started China Aid in his garage while attending Westminster Theological Seminary. They later moved to Midland, Texas, where they are raising their three children.

What prompted Fu to set up China Aid was a 2002 crackdown on a group of Christians in a house church in Hubei province that led to many arrests, among them five people who were sentenced to death, he said.

Fu and a group of contacts in the Christian, dissident and exile communities started publicizing the case and raising money, he said. Ultimately, Fu said, they used the funds to pay for 58 lawyers to defend the accused. They contacted the media, making the front page of The New York Times and The Washington Post.

"That year, all the five death sentences were overturned," Fu said. "It was a major legal victory, and even the 'evil cult' charge was removed."

A group of activists who came of age as he did during the Tiananmen movement, are now human rights lawyers, many of them Christian, he said. Fu said he taps into this network, and links them to Washington by picking up the phone.

'Little ants'
Fu compares himself and fellow human rights activists to "little ants" forcing "one case after another into courts, moving around and mobilizing and going through all the technical procedures" in place under China’s laws, but often not observed or even taken seriously by officials. 

"We want to move the pile of dirt with 1 million ants," he said.

"I had never envisioned or wanted to establish (a nonprofit) like this," he said, but now that China Aid is nearly 10 years old, Fu is gratified by some success. "We can help the persecuted, and we did advance rule of law," he said.

China Aid is doggedly following and publicizing many human rights cases around China, Fu said.

"You can write to imprisoned Christians to encourage them and to let them know that you are praying for them," through China Aid, the website says.

Video reveals blind Chinese activist's plight

Fu’s group also prints and distributes Bibles in China.

For Fu, the escape of Chen was a major triumph, but it also has generated new concerns — for the wife and daughter of Chen, and for those who helped get Chen to safety.

In an opinion piece published in the Washington Post on Monday, Fu calls out the bravery of one such supporter, He "Pearl" Peirong, who drove Chen the 300 miles to Beijing after he escaped over a compound wall in Shandong.

"I am awed by the courage of those who helped Chen escape. Pearl told me she is willing to die with Chen because he is such a 'pure-hearted courageous person'," Fu wrote. "I was talking to her last week when she said 'guobao laile,'— that state security had arrived."

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White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan on Monday spoke openly -- and at great length -- about what has long been one of the government’s most controversial official secrets:  the use of remotely piloted drones to kill suspected terrorists.

In doing so, he became the first U.S. government official to acknowledge that the drone strikes sometimes kill innocent people, though he characterized such deaths as  “exceedingly rare.” But a new analysis by an independent Washington think tank estimates that more than 300 civilians have been killed by drones since President Barack Obama took office.

In a major speech on the anniversary of Osama bin Laden’s death during a raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan, by U.S. Navy SEALs, Brennan proclaimed that al-Qaida is now "on the path to its destruction."  But the headline was what he had to say about the drone program — long a forbidden subject for senior U.S. officials  — and how the U.S. government uses it.

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“The United States conducts targeted strikes against specific al-Qaida terrorists, sometimes using remotely piloted aircraft, often referred to publicly as drones,” said Brennan, in his speech at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, a Washington, D.C., foreign policy think tank.  

While it has been openly reported in the press for years, the use by the CIA of pilotless drones to kill members of al-Qaida has long been officially classified,  prompting government officials to talk obliquely about “lethal operations” and “removal” of terrorists. They have done so even as Obama has dramatically escalated the number of such attacks and made them the central component of the administration’s counterterrorism efforts.

One U.S. intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told NBC News that the speech represents “a pretty big sea change for us” in terms of what officials will now be permitted to talk about. But the official said that while Brennan’s speech had been carefully vetted throughout the U.S. intelligence and national security community, there had been no formal declassification of the drone program. “The president can declassify anything he wants,” said the official, adding that Brennan – as the representative of the president — can speak about anything his boss wants him to discuss.   

Under Obama, there have been an estimated 250 drone strikes in northwest Pakistan that have killed as many as 2,345 people, according to an analysis by the New America Foundation, a Washington think tank that closely tracks the program. Such strikes have generated a storm of protest in Pakistan and stepped up demands by the Pakistani government to halt them.   

In what he described as an effort to be more open with the American people, Brennan on Monday described an elaborate process under which senior government officials select targets for drone strikes. They must first determine whether a prospective target is a bona fide member of al-Qaida or “associated forces” and poses a “significant threat” to U.S. interests.  The “lethal action” strikes are not used for “punishing terrorists for past crimes” or “seeking vengeance.” Instead, they are used to “stop plots” and “prevent future attacks,” citing as one example, targeting individuals  who possess “unique operational skills.”

Read more reporting by Michael Isikoff in 'The Isikoff Files'

Brennan  said the use of drones gives U.S. intelligence agencies the ability to use “laser-like” precision against the terrorists. But he acknowledged that "innocent civilians have been killed in these strikes." He said such instances have been "exceedingly rare, but it has happened.

“When it does, it pains us and we regret it deeply, as we do any time innocents are killed in war," he added. 

That passage of his speech alone was significant. In June 2011, Brennan said that in the previous year of operations in the government’s then-unspecified program to eliminate al-Qaida members, “There hasn’t been a single collateral death because of the exceptional proficiency, precision of the capabilities we’ve been able to develop.”   

Brennan later changed that statement in response to questions by the New York Times, spurred in part by  reports about a May 6 strike in Pakistan that  hit a religious school, an adjourning restaurant and a house, killing 18 people. Although 12 militants were allegedly killed, British and Pakistani journalists on the scene reported that six civilians also died in the strike.

In Brennan’s adjusted statement last year, he said, “Fortunately, for more than a year, due to our discretion and precision, the U.S. government has not found credible evidence of collateral deaths resulting from U.S. counterterrorism operations outside of Afghanistan or Iraq.”

Brennan did not give any details on Monday about how rare civilian deaths have been. But according to the analysis by the New America Foundation, which relies heavily on local media and other reports from observers in Pakistan, about 17 percent of those who have been killed by drones since the program effectively began in 2004 were “non-militants.”  The foundation estimated that the  “non-military fatality rate” has since dropped to about 13 percent under Obama – as drone strikes have become more frequent and more precise.

Those numbers translate to 471 civilian deaths, including 309 under Obama.

Human rights groups — who have challenged the administration to be more open about its drone program — were not satisfied with the new details provided by Brennan’s speech.

“It is not enough that care is taken to avoid harm to innocent civilians,” said Raha Wala, an official with Human Rights First. “Brennan's assertion that any 'member' of al-Qaida or 'associated forces' is legally targetable is wrong. Under the laws of armed conflict, only members of the enemy's armed forces, or those directly participating in hostilities or who perform a continuous combat function, may be targeted.”

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The International Committee of the Red Cross condemned the murder of its staff member, Khalil Rasjed Dale, and asked Pakistani media not to broadcast a video of his execution.

"We are devastated," ICRC Director-General Yves Daccord said in a statement. "Khalil was a trusted and very experienced Red Cross staff member who significantly contributed to the humanitarian cause."

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Dale's beheaded body was found by the roadside on Sunday in the southwestern Pakistan city of Quetta, police and Red Cross officials said. Dale, 60, who was a British doctor, was abducted by suspected militants on Jan. 5 while on his way home from work.

Police discovered Dale wrapped in plastic near a western bypass road in the capital of southwestern Baluchistan province where Baluch separatist militants are fighting a protracted insurgency for more autonomy.

His name was written on the white plastic bag with black marker.

"A sharp knife was used to sever his head from the body," said Safdar Hussain, the first doctor to examine the body. "He was killed about 12 hours ago."

According to The Guardian, a note left with the body read: "This is the body of Khalil who we have slaughtered for not paying a ransom." The note went on to say a video of the execution would also be released.

The newspaper reported that the Red Cross's policy is not to pay ransoms as part of "a consistent and systematic approach that keeps people safe wherever they are."

"We did everything possible to try to get Khalil out and we are very sad that our efforts failed," ICRC's spokesman Sean Maguire told the BBC.

Dale had worked for the ICRC and the British Red Cross in Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq before coming to Pakistan. He had been managing a health program for Baluchistan for almost a year when he was abducted, the ICRC statement said.

At least four foreigners are currently being held in Pakistan, The Guardian wrote.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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The face of Australia on Monday got some needed protection in parts of the country. While nearly a plague in South Australia, the iconic koala was listed as "vulnerable" in Queensland and New South Wales due to crashing numbers, dwindling habitat and other threats.

"On a species as iconic as the koala, I really don't think I could have credibly said to the Australian people, 'Oh don't worry, you might not have any more in Queensland the way things are going, but you can go to South Australia if you want to see one'," Environment Minister Tony Burke told reporters of his decision.

"In Victoria and South Australia, koalas have actually been in such high numbers they've been eating themselves out of habitat," the Australian Broadcasting Corp. quoted him as saying. "There's what you call population control measures going on there ... like sterilization."

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"But in places like NSW and Queensland," he added, "their numbers have been taking a massive hit" -- a 40 percent drop in Queensland and a decline of about a third in New South Wales over the last 20 years.

PhotoBlog: Threats to an iconic species

While not listed as "endangered" -- the most threatened status -- the vulnerable listing will still provide protections.

"If someone wants to make a development there is a tougher hurdle as a result of a species being endangered," Burke said.

Besides habitat loss and urban development, koalas face threats from vehicle strikes, dog attacks, and disease, Burke said.

The Australian Koala Foundation welcomed the listing, but argued that the population in Victoria is much less than the government estimates and should also be protected.

The foundation "is shocked and saddened that the koalas in Victoria have been left unprotected," Foundation Director Deborah Tabart said in a blog post. "It is disheartening to read that the minister has fallen for the old and sad myth that koalas in Victoria have 'eaten themselves out of house and home'."

Whereas the Australian government estimates there are 200,000 koalas across the country, the foundation believes the number is around 100,000.

Tabart told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that she felt Victoria was left out due to industry pressure.

"Because I have been in my job for so long and I sat through the Senate inquiries last year, I know industry is afraid of a listing and I know they have lobbied very hard," she said. "The logging industry, the development industry and forestry all pleaded with the senators last year, please do not list."

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Gareth Williams, the British cyberspy who was found dead in a padlocked duffel bag, probably suffocated or was poisoned, a forensic pathologist testified Monday.

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Williams' body was found in the bag in the bathtub of his apartment in London in August 2010. The unusual of his death — Williams, 31, a math prodigy who worked as a code breaker for the British spy service MI6, was discovered naked and showing no signs of a struggle — has transfixed Britain as details of Williams' transvestism and sexual fantasies have emerged.

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Speaking at an official inquest into Williams' death in August 2010, the pathologist, Benjamin Swift, said the precise cause of death couldn't be pinpointed because the body was badly decomposed after having been in the bag for more than a week before it was found, The Guardian reported. But he said  asphyxiation or poisoning were the "foremost contenders."

Spy death inquiry looks at bondage link

Other experts have testified that it was highly likely that another person, or even two, was involved in the case, citing the near-impossibility of Williams' being able to lock himself into the bag.

UK cops close to arrest over British spy found dead in a bag?

That has spawned any number of conspiracy theories that Williams may have been assassinated by foreign agents or terrorists. But MI6 said it believed his death had nothing to do with his work or that it had covered it up.

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Libya's former prime minister and oil minister Shukri Ghanem, a prominent defector from Moammar Gadhafi's government, drowned in the River Danube, Vienna police said on Monday, but a Libyan security source suggested he could have been murdered.

Ghanem's fully-clothed body was found in the Danube in Vienna on Sunday, a few hundred yards from his home. According to a preliminary autopsy there were no indications of foul play or suicide, spokesman Roman Hahslinger told reporters.

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A Libyan security source said they were investigating the death and believed he could have been pushed into the Danube by former Gadhafi agents.

Former Libyan oil minister found floating in Danube

His body was found at 8:40 a.m. on Sunday by a passerby near the entertainment area known as Copa Cagrana, where a footpath winds along the riverbank. He had spent Saturday evening watching television with his daughter.

The daughter noticed at around 10 a.m. that her father was no longer at home, police said.

The former Gadhafi confidant, who was also close to Gadhafi's son Saif al-Islam, was privy to potentially damaging information on oil deals with Western governments.

Ghanem, 69, had been chairman of Libya's state-owned National Oil Corporation (NOC) before defecting last year several months after opponents of Gadhafi had risen up against the Libyan leader and begun a rebellion.

Saad Djebbar, a UK-based Algerian lawyer who knew Ghanem and advised the Libyan government during the Lockerbie affair, told Reuters Ghanem was not the sort of man to kill himself. "It's a very mysterious death," he said.

"He was worried about the future course of politics in Libya but he would not be the kind of man for suicide. He was very well introduced internationally and had lots of connections.".

"Shokri Ghanem definitely is one of the guys who knew a lot and was one of the most powerful guys in the old regime," said David Bachmann, an Austrian Chamber of Commerce official based in Tripoli who knew Ghanem well.

As NOC chairman since 2006, Ghanem helped steer Libya's oil policy and held the high-profile job of representing Libya at OPEC meetings, often visiting Vienna for meetings in that role.

After making a final break with the Gadhafi administration last year, Ghanem first appeared in Rome, saying he had defected because of the "unbearable violence" being used by government forces to try to put down the rebellion.

He had been working of late as an energy consultant in Vienna, where two daughters and their families also live.

Hahsinger said police had been unaware of any "concrete" threats against Ghanem.

Ghanem was still closely associated with Gadhafi's rule by Libya's new leaders and had ruled out returning home.

"Definitely there were people there who did not like him or who thought that he had stolen billions and now he is in safety in Vienna, having a nice life," Bachmann said, adding it was common knowledge that Ghanem was often in Vienna.

Bachmann said he would not have been surprised to read that former Libyan rebels had taken revenge on Ghanem, but said Gadhafi allies could also have held a grudge.

"The problem was he was sitting between the chairs. For the old guys (in the Gadhafi regime) he was a defector, a kind of a rat. For the rebels he was also a rat because he did not defect early enough," Bachmann said.

A woman who answered the phone at his home in a high-rise apartment block and identified herself as his daughter said: "Today we are still in a state of shock...right now I'm sorry I can't talk more."

Bachmann said Ghanem had many friends in Austria and Italy and spent time shuttling between Vienna and Rome while trying to lead a quiet life.

"He was 69 and was not a stupid guy. You figure out you have no political future and at a certain moment you say 'OK, let's finish this Libya story and try to enjoy my family and my grandkids and that's it'."

Ghanem, who studied at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in Boston in the early 1970s, stood out among his fellow graduate students for his sharp intellect and infectious humor.

While American students there worried about soaring petrol prices during the OPEC oil embargo of 1973, he eagerly explained and defended the Arab view of the emerging new world energy order.

At an alumni reunion in 2004, he impressed his former classmates with his insider's account of the economic reforms he planned to introduce with the help of Gadhafi's son Saif al-Islam, whom he had mentored at OPEC headquarters at a time when the now-captured son wanted to make a name for himself outside of Libya.

Ghanem said Saif al-Islam had persuaded his father to reform but he wasn't sure how far reforms could go. He said he only wanted to stay in office as long as he could modernize the economy. If Gadhafi didn't keep him, Ghanem said, he would happily retire to write one or two books on economics he had in mind.

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There is a very big problem at London's Heathrow Airport. Planes land but it sometimes takes hours of waiting in line before travelers are let in. 

On April 22, I arrived from New York City to complete chaos. It was a Sunday morning at around 6:30 a.m. and I was tired after a seven-hour flight.

A crush of humanity greeted me in the immigration hall. Lines didn't just wind around, they stretched back outside the waiting area down into unknown, never-before-seen corridors. Travelers wore looks of shock, horror and fury depending on how much time they had already logged waiting. 

 

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There were people who had traveled long distances, already exhausting their patience during the journey, and others who had traveled just a short distance — Heathrow is less than a three-hour flight from Madrid, Paris, Frankfurt and other major European cities. Most of the latter group would end up spending more time in line as they did on a plane.

Long immigration lines are often a part of international travel, but rarely, if ever, like this. In the last several months, the system at Heathrow, with alarming regularity, has come undone. 

The problem is so grave that London’s mayor, the outspoken Boris Johnson, on Sunday wrote a letter to Theresa May, the secretary of the Home Office, the UK’s equivalent to the Department of Homeland Security.

He did not mince his words. “It is quite clear that because of problems at the UK Border, London and the UK’s reputation as a welcoming city in which to do business or travel are at stake," Johnson said, according to the copy of the letter given to NBC News. 

Hanging over the debate is the London 2012 Olympics. If Heathrow is having a hard time coping with run-of-the-mill travel numbers — more than 69 million people moved through the airport in 2011 — what will officials do when a large portion of the estimated millions of people expected to descend on the city try to cram themselves through ahead of the Games?

UK border patrol says British citizens as well those from the European Union have a target waiting time of 25 minutes and foreign nationals will wait 45 minutes. But over the last few months there have been numerous delays well over those targets.

Over the weekend the head of UK's Border Force, Brian Moore, responded to complaints and seemed to dismiss the severity of the problem.

"Despite what you are hearing for the moment we are doing a really, really good job at achieving [target waiting times]. We don’t always get it right and occasionally there are disruptions to passengers for lots of reasons,” he said on British television. 

For example, Moore said unpredictable “flight bunching” sometimes causes a deluge of passengers. At other times people “aren’t presented to the right immigration desk.”

However, in Monday's Daily Telegraph, there were reports that the Home Office was actively trying to cover up the problem.  Marc Owen, director of the UK Border Agency, contacted BAA, the company that operates Heathrow, and instructed them not to hand out leaflets directing complaints to the Border Agency, the Telegraph reported.

“The leaflet is not all right with us.  It is both inflammatory and likely to increase tensions in our arrival halls,” the newspaper quoted him as saying. 

BAA's press office declined to comment on the leaflets, but they did say this in a statement: “Immigration is a matter for the home office. Immigration waiting times during peak periods at Heathrow recently have been unacceptable.” The press agent then offered to give me the Home Office’s number — just in case I needed it.

In three months the world descends upon this city for the 2012 Summer Olympics. The Border Agency insists that staffing will be increased to handle the millions of people visiting the UK during that time.  Hopefully, it works. 

London’s image is on the line. It would be a real shame if it was tarnished before anyone even got through the door.

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An overloaded double-decked ferry carrying mostly farmers and their families capsized in the Dhubri district of the northeastern Indian state of Assam on Monday, killing at least 103 people, police said.

About 100 people were rescued from the ship carrying about 300 passengers, which sank during a storm in the Brahmaputra River, Assam police chief Jayanta Narayan Choudhury told Reuters.

Reports on the number of dead and missing varied immediately after the accident.

People were sitting on the roof of the ferry when it tipped over in a storm in a remote region of the state, close to China and Bangladesh, police said.

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"Our rescue efforts have been hampered by bad weather, it is still raining heavily and there is almost zero visibility in the area," P.C. Saloi, a police officer at the scene, told Reuters. Rescue operations were called off late at night and were set to begin again at sun up.

Eyewitnesses told police the vessel was old and broke in two after capsizing in the swollen river, one of Asia's largest. Smaller boats often get into trouble on the river, but the ferry was the largest to sink in recent years.

"I could see people being swept away as the river current was very strong," a witness, Rahul Karmakar, told AFP.

The boat was overloaded with people and sacks of rice, among other goods, and carried no lifeboats or life jackets, the police officer told Reuters..

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who represents Assam in the upper house of parliament, said he was "shocked and grieved" by the accident.

Rescue workers said they had contacted colleagues downstream in Bangladesh to help in the search for survivors. 

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Dozens of earprints – in addition to DNA samples and fingerprints gathered at the crime scenes – helped investigators tie the suspect to at least 96 break-ins between July 2009 and July 2011 in northern Germany.

The 33-year-old suspect, who is a Macedonian citizen, is accused of stealing jewellery, cash and high-end electronic devices worth a total of $650,000. He was arrested in December 2011 after allegedly breaking into a building in the northern German city of Kiel but has now been identified as the suspect in series of burglaries.

"Earprints are almost as unique as fingerprints and can be important evidence, as this case shows," Hamburg police spokeswoman Ulrike Sweden told NBC News.

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Updated at 11:15 a.m. ET: Blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng is under U.S. protection after a bold escape from 19 months under house arrest, sources told NBC News on Monday, a revelation that looked sure to complicate Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's looming trip to Beijing.

"My sources tell me that Chen is, indeed, under U.S. protection in Beijing.  Now we don't know whether that means he's actually within the walls of the American Embassy compound, or in a diplomatic safe house, but he's definitely in U.S. hands there," NBC News Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Andrea Mitchell said on TODAY Monday.

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The United States has not given any public confirmation of reports that Chen, who reportedly slipped away from under the noses of guards and surveillance equipment around his village home in Shandong province on April 22, fled to the U.S. Embassy.

Rights group: China, US in talks over blind activist Chen Guangcheng

Chen, a self-schooled legal advocate who campaigned against abortions forced under China's "one child" policy, was held under extra-legal detention in his village home in Linyi from September 2010, when he was released from jail for charges he said were spurious. 

Chen's wife, Yuan Weijing, and child did not escape with him, and human rights activists have voiced worry that they and Chen's other relatives might have suffered abuse at the hands of police and officials angry about his escape. 

The questions surrounding the activist are casting a pall over the upcoming high-level meeting in Beijing, which would have been challenging for Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner even without a human rights dispute.

Read more China coverage on our Behind The Wall blog

"There are very delicate negotiations under way ... in advance of Hillary Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's annual talks this week," Mitchell said.

The May 3-4 Strategic & Economic Dialogue is the last of such annual consultations before political seasons heat up in the United States and China, giving leaders in both countries less flexibility over contentious economic and security issues.

The United States goes into full campaign mode for the November presidential election, while China's ruling Communist Party enters a leadership transition in the fall that has been complicated by a scandal that toppled senior leader Bo Xilai.

Bob Fu, whose religious and political rights advocacy group ChinaAid who has been the chief source of information about Chen, said he had confirmed "intensive talks" between the United States and China began right after the activist took shelter in the embassy.

"I was told the Chinese top leaders have been deliberating a decision to be made very soon," Fu said on Sunday by telephone from Texas. A "Chinese official response (is) expected in the next day or so," he added.

Who is Fu? Chinese exile is 'God's double agent'

The European Union, meanwhile, urged China show "utmost restraint" over Chen.

"We call on the Chinese authorities to exercise utmost restraint in dealing with the matter, including avoiding harassment of his family members or any person associated with him," the Delegation of the European Union to China said in a statement. "Human rights defenders should be treated in full compliance with Chinese laws and constitution." 

China has declined direct public comment on Chen's reported escape.

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

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Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has joined a chorus of voices warning against rushing into war with Iran, telling a conference in New York City there was still time to stop Tehran's suspected nuclear program using sanctions and diplomacy.

"There is enough time to try different avenues of pressure to change the balance of power with Iran without the need for a direct military confrontation with Iran," Olmert told a crowd of 1,000 mostly American Jews at the a conference organized by the Jerusalem Post.

---

Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. Israel, like the West, believes that Tehran is developing weapons technology, but there is intense debate over whether international economic sanctions accompanying the current round of negotiations might prevent Iran from developing a bomb, or whether at some point a military strike should be launched.

Olmert -- dogged during his time in office by a string of corruption scandals, which played a part in his resignation -- went further than criticizing Israel's stance on Iran.  He said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not prepared make a real compromise with the Palestinians, was disrespectful to the U.S. and disrespectful of the world community precisely at a time when the country needed international support, the newspaper reported.

"A nation has the right to determine what it should do to defend itself," The News York Times quoted Olmert as saying.  "But when at the same time we ask the United States and other countries to provide us with the means to do it, no one is entirely independent to act, irrespective of the positions and attitudes and policies of other countries."

Olmert's comments -- which elicited boos and shouts of "naive" and "Neville Chamberlain" -- come days after the former chief of the Israeli security agency indicated the government was lying about how effective a military strike would be.

The former head of Israel's Shin Bet security agency last week accused the country's political leaders of exaggerating the effectiveness of a possible military attack on Iran, in a striking indication of Israel's turmoil over how to deal with the Iranian nuclear program.

Israel ex-spy warns against 'messianic' Iran war

Yuval Diskin said Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak-- who have been saber-rattling for months -- have their judgment clouded by "messianic feelings" and should not be trusted to lead policy on Iran. Diskin, who headed Shin Bet until last year, said a strike might actually accelerate the Iranian program.

"I don't have faith in the current leadership of Israel to lead us to an event of this magnitude, of war with Iran," Diskin said at a public meeting Friday, video of which was posted on the Internet the next day and quickly became the lead news item in Israel.

"I do not believe in a leadership that makes decisions based on Messianic feelings," he continued. "I have seen them up close. They are not messiahs, these two, and they are not the people that I personally trust to lead Israel into such an event."

Shin Bet addresses security in Israel and the Palestinian Territories only and is not involved in international affairs.

Duncan Golestani, NBC News, F. Brinley Bruton, msnbc.com, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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ENSENADA, Mexico - Eric Lamb was doing safety patrol on a 124-mile yacht race when he spotted a boat that appeared too close to Mexico's Coronado Islands. He never got there.

As his twin-engine boat neared the uninhabited islands just south of San Diego, he stumbled on sailboat shards that were mostly no more than six inches long strewn over about two square miles. He saw a small refrigerator, a white seat cushion and empty containers of yogurt and soy milk.

---

Over several hours, a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter directed him in his search and led him to two dead bodies floating with their backs up, badly scraped and bruised. The Coast Guard recovered a third body and the fourth member of the crew was missing early Monday in California's second deadly accident this month involving an ocean race.

Lamb, 62, said the 37-foot yacht looked like it "had gone through a blender."

"It was real obvious it had been hit just because the debris was so small," he said Sunday.

Three sailors were killed in the accident and a fourth was missing, officials said. The Coast Guard, Mexican navy and civilian vessels scoured the waters off the shore of both countries for the fourth sailor before suspending their search Sunday evening.

Hundreds of race participants held a moment of silence at the Newport Ocean Sailing Association's award ceremony, many of them stunned and puzzled. Skies were clear and winds were light when the boat went missing on the course from Newport Beach, Calif., to Ensenada.

3 dead, 1 missing in accident during Newport-Ensenada sailing race

A GPS race tracking system indicated the Aegean disappeared about 1:30 a.m. PT (4:30 a.m. ET) Saturday, said Rich Roberts, a spokesman for the race organizer. Race organizers weren't closely monitoring the race at that hour but a disappearing signal is no cause for alarm because receivers occasionally suffer glitches, he said.

"Somebody may have thought the thing was broken," Roberts said.

Lamb, who has been patrolling the race for eight years as captain for a private company, saw the debris nine hours later, called the Coast Guard, and searched for identifying information. He and a partner found a life raft with a registration number and a panel with the ship's name.

'Horrified'
The Coast Guard said conditions were fine for sailing, with good visibility and moderate ocean swells of 6-to-8 feet. Officials have not determined the cause of the accident, and would not speculate on what ship, if any, might have collided with the sailboat.

Race officials said they had few explanations for what may have happened to the Aegean other than it must have collided with a ship like a freighter or tanker that did not see the smaller vessel.

The episode immediately sparked a debate over safety of ocean races.

"Quite honestly, I'm amazed it hasn't happened before," said Lamb. "You get 200 boats out there, they lose their way, and they're just bobbing around."

Gary Jobson, president of the U.S. Sailing Association, said his group will appoint an independent panel to investigate.

"I'm horrified. I've done a lot of sailboat racing and I've hit logs in the water, and I've seen a man go overboard, but this takes the whole thing to a new level," Jobson said. "We need to take a step back and take a deep breath with what we're doing. Something is going wrong here."

Chuck Iverson, commodore of the sailing association, said the collision was a "fluke," noting how common night races are along Mexico's Baja California coast.

Shipping lanes crossed
The race goes through shipping lanes and it's possible for a large ship to hit a sailboat and not even know it, especially at night, said Roberts, the race spokesman. Two race participants who were in the area at the time the Aegean vanished told The Associated Press they saw or heard a freighter.

The deaths are the first fatalities in the race's 65 years. The race attracted 675 boats at its peak in 1983 before falling on hard times several years ago amid fears of Mexico's drug-fueled violence.

Participation has picked up recently, reaching 213 boats this year. The winner, Robert Lane of Long Beach Yacht Club, finished Saturday in 23 hours, 26 minutes, 40 seconds.

The race attracts sailors of all skills, including some who are new to long distances. The Aegean competed in one of the lower categories, which allows participants to use their motors when winds drop to a certain level.

Watch US News videos on msnbc.com

Two of the dead were William Reed Johnson Jr., 57, of Torrance, Calif., and Joseph Lester Stewart, 64, of Bradenton, Fla. The San Diego County Medical Examiner's office was withholding the name of the third sailor pending notification of relatives.

The Aegean is registered to Theo Mavromatis, 49, of Redondo Beach, Calif. The race sponsor didn't know if he was aboard but Gary Gilpin at Marina Sailing, which rents out the Aegean when Mavromatis isn't using it, said the 49-year-old skipper took the yacht out earlier in the week for the competition.

Gilpin said Mavromatis, an engineer, was an experienced sailor who had won the Newport to Ensenada race in the past.

The deaths come two weeks after five sailors died in the waters off Northern California when their 38-foot yacht was hit by powerful waves, smashed into rocks and capsized during a race. Three sailors survived the wreck and the body of another was quickly recovered. Four remained missing until one body was recovered Thursday.

The accident near the Farallon Islands, about 27 miles west of San Francisco, prompted the Coast Guard to temporarily stop races in ocean waters outside San Francisco Bay. The Coast Guard said the suspension will allow it and the offshore racing community to study the accident and race procedures to determine whether changes are needed to improve safety. U.S. Sailing, the governing body of yacht racing, is leading the safety review, which is expected to be completed within the next month.

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ABBOTTABAD, Pakistan -- A year after Osama bin Laden was found and killed in Pakistan, one key question has yet to be answered: how did the world's most wanted man manage to move and live, undetected, in this country for so long?

Journalists, analysts, and others have been working to fill in the narrative holes over the last 12 months. Leaked and strategically released nuggets of information have helped to paint a vague picture of what life was like inside the Abbottabad compound where bin Laden spent his final years, living with three of his wives, and several children and grandchildren. We've learned of the austere conditions inside the home, the restricted lifestyle led by all inside, and the discipline with which the head of al-Qaida communicated with a trusted few. But the crucial questions -- how he got to that compound in the first place and who helped him to do so -- remain unanswered.

Kamran Bokhari, vice-president for Middle Eastern and South Asian Affairs at Stratfor, a global intelligence company, believes the idea that bin Laden moved around without a network of individuals organizing his transportation and logistics is simply not possible.

"If you're a six-foot-five Arab, and the most wanted man on the planet, you can't just walk into a place like Pakistan without support," Bokhari said. "So what's the nature of that support?"

---

U.S. officials publicly state they have no evidence that any Pakistani institutional leaders had any knowledge of bin Laden's presence here, nor played any role in helping to move him. Privately, however, some admit that the deep mistrust between the two nations has led to strong, lingering suspicions within many in the U.S. that Pakistan's premier intelligence agency -- Inter-Services Intelligence, or the ISI -- must have known, at some level.

"There are deep suspicions on both sides," says retired General Mahmud Ali Durrani, a former national security advisor and ambassador to the United States. "I think the biggest concern in the U.S., if I put it in a phrase, is that Pakistan is hunting with the hounds and running with the hares. That is the perception."

Panetta recalls nail-biting moments of bin Laden raid

That perception has not been helped by what seem to be Pakistan's action priorities over the last year. The prevailing public dialogue among military and government officials in the immediate raid aftermath focused on how the U.S. had managed to breach Pakistan's borders, not how bin Laden had. The Pakistani doctor who ran a fake vaccination program in Abbottabad for the CIA in an effort to secure DNA samples from inside the bin Laden compound was swiftly tracked down, arrested, and remains in detention, possibly to stand trial for treason. Authorities quietly began work after dark to demolish the compound in February, keeping press behind a security cordon half a mile away, and after a year in custody, the widows and their families were shuttled out of their house in the dead of night and deported to Saudi Arabia.

Pakistan did immediately launch a formal commission with wide-reaching powers soon after the raid, pledging to investigate both the U.S. border breach and bin Laden's presence here. The Abbottabad Commission, as it's come to be known here, has enjoyed unparalleled access to anyone and everyone associated directly or peripherally with either issue, interviewing over 100 witnesses over the last year, including bin Laden's widows, the detained doctor who worked for the CIA, and high-level Pakistani officials.  But there is no working deadline and expectations vary as to how blunt and definitive an account commission members will be able to put forth.

"Given how previous commissions in Pakistan have behaved, I'm not really hopeful that much will come out of this," Bokhari said. "This is not like the 9/11 Commission or anything similar elsewhere in other countries where there's a process and transparency and rule of law."

'Embarrassment'
Durrani, who's been in touch with members of the commission, says the length of time it's taken for them to compile findings speaks to their determination to fulfill their mandate to the best of their ability.

"If the report comes out tomorrow and it's a whitewash, then people will ask -- what have you done?" Durrani said. "They [the commission members] are keen to get to the bottom of this, to find out what happened, why it happened, who's at fault, and what needs to be done so we don't have such embarrassment and such issues in the future."

Driving the investigators' query is a widely-held belief here in Pakistan that bin Laden was never here at all -- that the entire raid was an effort by the U.S. to defame and destabilize Pakistan's security establishment. Residents of Abbottabad with whom NBC News spoke reiterated that skepticism, saying they don't believe the U.S. claim that bin Laden was living in their midst, particularly in the absence of any evidence of his death.

Low expectations
Commission members have been reluctant to speak with the media until their findings are complete, but the head of the commission, retired Supreme Court Judge Javed Iqbal, confirmed to NBC News that one of the key issues his team is investigating is whether bin Laden was ever really here at all.

PhotoBlog: Abbottabad -- One year after Osama bin Laden raid

Despite low expectations for the pending report, Bokhari admits the commission is tasked with an enormously difficult job, one that will have repercussions for generations to come in the form of Pakistan's official narrative of this historic event.

"This is the biggest event in recent history since the fall of the Soviet Union -- 9/11 and its impact, the killing of Osama bin Laden -- so I'm not surprised it's taken them this long to come up with a report," Bokhari said. "It may take decades before anybody can actually come up with a comprehensive view of what was really happening."

 

The few specifics that have emerged from Pakistan in the last year in effect lead to more questions officials here must attempt to answer, through the commission or otherwise.

The U.S. moved quickly on the message-control front after the Abbottabad raid, releasing selective video clips and pieces of information from the "treasure trove" of evidence seized from bin Laden's compound. An NBC News team was given an exclusive briefing by a senior U.S. counterterrorism official on currently classified intelligence from the raid, including details of the role bin Laden played in al-Qaida from his hideout in Pakistan, who he was in touch with, and more on the life he lived within that compound. Those details will air on Discovery Channel on Tuesday as part of a one-hour special on the anniversary of the U.S. raid.

But the details from within Pakistan have been few and far between. A rare piece of evidence -- a confidential interrogation report of bin Laden's youngest wife, Amal, obtained by NBC News -- did reveal some surprising details about the family's life on the run after the attacks of September 11.

According to the report, Amal told investigators that the family scattered after 9/11, bouncing from house to house and place to place in Pakistan. In her complicated timeline, she moved across multiple residences in the southern mega-city of Karachi, then moved on to Peshawar to link up with her husband. From there, the family moved to Swat, then to Haripur, and finally settled in the Abbottabad home for about six years until the U.S. raid that killed her husband.

"These people are fanatics. They're ideological but keep in mind that they are also very professional at what they do," Bokhari explained. "They're in a business where if you make a small error in judgment it can easily translate to death for many people. There are people waiting for you to make a mistake. You have to be highly disciplined."

Co-conspirators?
But the pace of movement believed to have been followed by bin Laden and his family -- traversing entire provinces in Pakistan, and including rural, tribal, settled, and urban areas while remaining completely undetected -- would be difficult without some sort of network of support. Current and former Pakistani officials and analysts have offered up the possibility of "rogue or retired" elements from within Pakistan's military or intelligence establishment as possible facilitators or co-conspirators helping to hide bin Laden.

The nature of Pakistan's retired uniformed corps, many of whom stay involved with the work of the agencies long after they leave as the new leadership continues to make use of their experience and contacts, albeit in unofficial capacities and with limited authority. As the largest employer in Pakistan, it follows that the Pakistan army also has the largest pool of retirees, some of whom spent significant time working closely with and gaining the trust of jihadi groups in the 1980s and 1990s.

"If it's a retired network of people, what I call the 'Pakistani Blackwater,' that's not that bad. It's bad, but not that bad," Bokhari said. "But if it's someone who's serving, or more than one person, then [Pakistan's leaders] have a leak in [their] system and that's terrifying. Anyone who's a very nationalistic, Pakistani leader who doesn't want al-Qaida or the CIA to be able to get into their house will want to get to the bottom of that."

Bin Laden's widow's condition worsens, brother says

As potentially worrying or damaging as some of the information in the commission's report may be for Pakistan's institutions, it is also widely believed that the organizations cannot survive without taking a hard look at their own potential faults, and admitting mistakes where they did occur. The military and intelligence establishments were already raked over the coals by the government and media after last year's raid in Abbottabad, and are now under the highest level of scrutiny in the country's history.

A failure, at this point, to produce a credible, official version of events will only damage Pakistan, according to Durrani.

"Pakistan wants to move forwards not backwards. They have to get to the bottom of this, in their own interest," he says. "If they don't, it will be another major issue buried in the sands of history. And people will forever be looking for answers."

NBC's Fakhar Rehman contributed to this report from Abbottabad.

 

 

OBO, Central African Republic - In a bare concrete room in a far-flung corner of Central African Republic, U.S. special forces and Ugandan soldiers map out the hunt for one of Africa's most wanted rebel leaders hiding in an area the size of California.

The building belonged to the town of Obo's doctor until he was murdered last year by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) while transporting medicines by road. Now it serves as an operational center in one of America's latest military ventures in Africa.

The mission is clear.

---

"(The) focus is the removal of Joseph Kony and senior Lord's Resistance Army leadership from the battlefield," said Captain Ken Wright, a navy SEAL in command of the roughly 100-strong force which deployed in October.

Kony has evaded capture for nearly three decades, kidnapping tens of thousands of children to fill his militia's ranks and serve as sex slaves as he moves through the bush. Thousands more have died in the wake of his brutal army.

The deployment of elite American forces to help track Kony and his senior commanders in the dense equatorial jungle across a region that spans several countries has raised hopes the sadistic warlord's days are numbered.

The troops are armed but do not patrol the surrounding forests and are allowed to engage the LRA only in self-defense.

Instead, their focus is on improving intelligence on LRA positions gathered both electronically and from tips.

By meshing stories from hunters and nomadic cattle herders of encounters with the rebels together with sophisticated surveillance imagery, allied forces chart suspected rebel activity and coordinate the regional armies' pursuit of Kony.

"You look at patterns to see where LRA might be moving, historic areas where they might operate, so we can predict where they're going and try and head them off and most effectively use the forces on the ground," Captain Gregory, a 29-year-old Texan hidden behind sunglasses and a wide brimmed hat told Reuters.

For many of the U.S. troops who have recently served in Afghanistan and Iraq, the humid jungles of central Africa are unfamiliar territory.

Their deployment raised expectations locally that U.S. drones would be unearthing Kony. They are not, and this hostile environment is throwing up unforeseen challenges.

"Some of the gear we have here is affected by the vegetation ... and acts differently from in the desert. Vegetation absorbs signals and sounds," Gregory said.

International bad guy
Kony, a self-styled mystic leader who at one time was bent on ruling Uganda by the Ten Commandments, fled his native northern Uganda in 2005, roaming first the lawless expanses of South Sudan and then the isolated northeastern tip of Congo.

In December 2008, after last-ditch peace talks failed, Ugandan paratroopers and fighter jets struck the LRA's Congo hideouts. Kony slipped through the net, raising suspicions he had been tipped off. He and many of his combatants moved north into the Central African Republic.

Kony was thrust back into the spotlight earlier this year when a video, "Kony 2012," highlighting the chilling mutilations, rapes and murders carried out by his spell-bound fighters went viral on the Internet.

Bruce Wharton, deputy assistant secretary in the Department of State's Africa bureau said the deployment of special forces was in part a response to legislation in 2010 calling on the Obama administration to do more to tackle Kony.

"I think Kony, for lack of an ideology, for lack of a political agenda, for lack of an intellectually identifiable cause, and for the brutality with which he operates, is at the top of the list of international bad guys," Wharton said.

Asked whether hunting Kony offered a convenient way of expanding the U.S. military footprint in Africa, Wharton told Reuters: "I absolutely think that as soon as this mission is accomplished the roughly 100 troops will go away."

Facing war crimes charges, Kony has transformed himself from a one-time altar boy to a master of jungle survival and evasion. His fighters have become increasingly savvy in concealing their movements, wading through crocodile-infested rivers and walking backwards and in loops to disguise their tracks.

The vicious and often drugged rebels first struck Obo in the early hours of March 6, 2009. They targeted the town's Catholic mission, abducting 76 people.

"We were told they were coming but we didn't believe they would attack the town," said Obo resident Ricardo Dimanche who runs a community radio project urging LRA fighters to give up their weapons.

"The next year they started attacking the small villages around us. Displaced people started flooding in," said Dimanche.

Underscoring the challenge facing the American and regional troops, the LRA launched almost as many attacks in the first three months of this year in CAR as in all of last year, according to U.N. data.

"Nobody has peace of mind now," said Dimanche.

U.S. military officials are reluctant to bet on if and when they might snare Kony.

"The global effort to try to find Osama bin Laden took 10 years with an extraordinary level of effort ... the highest priority for the international intelligence community, and it still took 10 years to find him," General Carter Ham, commander of the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) told a media briefing in Germany ahead of the tightly controlled trip.

"So this is a tough mission."

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As the French journalist Romeo Langlois dropped down from a helicopter into the Colombian jungle alongside anti-narcotics forces on Saturday, an unfriendly group of heavily-armed guerrillas awaited them.

Langlois, a French citizen living in Colombia, was making a documentary for news channel France24 about the Colombian government’s attempts to dismantle drug labs in the jungles of Caqueta. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, earns much of its money producing coca, which thrives in the heat and humidity of southern Colombia.

A brutal firefight ensued, according to media reports, and Langlois was shot. He has since been taken hostage, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe told reporters on Sunday, according to Reuters.

---

Langlois, who has been in Colombia about 12 years, removed his bulletproof vest and helmet and ran toward the rebels, possibly in a bid to prove he was not a member of the armed forces, said Pinzon after speaking to one of the soldiers with the journalist.

The FARC, dressed in civilian clothes, shot at the troops from nearby houses, Pinzon said. Heavy rains in the area made it difficult for reinforcements to immediately aid the troops.

Three troops and a police officer were killed during the firefight. Five cocaine labs used to produce coca paste were destroyed. That's a small dent in an operation where one FARC division produces thousands of pounds of cocaine every week. (One pound of cocaine nets tens of of thousands of dollars on the street.) The FARC, which produces much of the world's cocaine, moves the drugs north, through Ecuador, to Mexico where they are sold to drug cartels, according to the BBC.

After the firefight, the FARC guerillas retreated into the jungle. No FARC fighters were killed.

France24 is working with officials to find Langlois and is in contact with his family.

"We know that it is a dangerous region. We are of course concerned but we trust Romeo, who knows the region well and has a lot of experience," said Nahida Nakad, head of the channel’s foreign audiovisual editorial operations, in the statement.

Langlois’ disappearance could prompt international pressure on the FARC which won some goodwill when it released 10 members of the armed forces this month after they had been held hostage in jungle camps for more than a decade, Reuters reported.

FARC, founded in 1964, is one of the last Marxist guerilla groups in the Americas, according to France24. Labeled a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union, it has relied on the drug trade and hostages to pay for weapons, food and uniforms.

One of the group’s most famous hostages was Ingrid Betancourt, a French-Colombian politician who was held hostage for more than six years. She was released in 2008.

Ingrid Betancourt: Profile of a Hostage

The FARC has made gestures toward peace in recent months, according to the BBC. The group’s leadership has also pledged to stop taking hostages for ransom.

But Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos warned there has not been enough evidence that FARC truly intends to give up on taking hostages, according to France24.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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CAIRO — Egypt's Islamist-dominated parliament said Sunday it was suspending sessions for a week to protest the ruling military's failure to heed repeated calls for the dismissal of the government.

Anger against the country's military rulers also spilled into the streets where a protester was killed late Saturday in a demonstration outside the Ministry of Defense. Protesters clashed for three hours with unidentified assailants supporting the military, throwing rocks, firebombs and glass bottles.

The parliament seated three months ago has been demanding it be allowed to form a Cabinet to replace the one appointed by the country's military rulers late last year. That Cabinet is headed by Prime Minister Kamal el-Ganzouri, a holdover from the era of authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak who was ousted in a popular uprising 14 months ago.

Parliament Speaker Saad el-Katatni of the powerful Muslim Brotherhood announced the suspension after lawmakers spoke in a televised session against el-Ganzouri's government and the ruling generals.

---

"It is my responsibility as speaker of the People's Assembly (parliament) to safeguard the chamber's dignity and that of its members. There must be a solution to this crisis," el-Katatni told lawmakers before he adjourned the session until May 6.

The legislature's move is likely to fuel tensions between the generals and the Brotherhood, which controls just under half the seats in parliament. It also brings into focus the ambiguity of parliament's actual powers at a time when the ruling generals enjoy near absolute executive powers.

Brotherhood vs military
The Brotherhood and the military are already at odds over what was widely seen as an attempt by the Brotherhood-led Islamists in parliament to dominate a 100-member panel that was to draft a new constitution.

A court disbanded the panel and consultations are under way between political parties and the ruling generals over the composition of a new panel.

Egypt's military ruler, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, has hinted in several public comments in recent weeks that the powerful military would not allow the Brotherhood to dominate the country, a response to what is widely seen as the group's hunger for power after 60 years operating illegally and subject to government crackdowns.

The credibility of the Brotherhood was dented when it announced it was fielding a candidate in presidential elections, reversing an earlier decision to stay out of the May 23-24 race. An expected runoff will be held on June 16-17 and a winner will be announced on June 21. The military has promised to hand over power by July 1.

El-Ganzouri, who is in his late 70s, served as prime minister during the 1990s under Mubarak.

Saturday night's clashes took place when the unidentified assailants set upon the protesters.

Attack on protesters
Neither army troops or police attempted to stop the street battle, witnesses said. They also reported hearing gunshots.

Many of those outside the Defense Ministry were supporters of an ultraconservative Islamist angered by his disqualification from running in next month's presidential election. Hazem Salah Abu Ismail was thrown out of the race because officials ruled his late mother had dual Egyptian-U.S. citizenship in violation of eligibility rules.

Security officials said the dead protester was one of Abu Ismail's supporters. There was no official confirmation of the protester's death, or information about how he died. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Demonstrations in Egypt have frequently been attacked by unidentified assailants, particularly protests which are near or outside the Defense Ministry.

Rights and pro-democracy activists have blamed the attacks on undercover police, petty criminals on the police payroll, plainclothes army soldiers or supporters of the ousted Mubarak regime.

Mubarak-era generals took over the reins of power when their patron stepped down in February last year. Opposition to their rule has built up after they were blamed for killing protesters, jailing critics and putting at least 10,000 civilians on trial before military tribunals.

They have also launched a systematic campaign to undermine the youth groups credited with Mubarak's stunning ouster, using the state media to portray them as irresponsible and linked to foreign powers.

"Crushing peaceful demonstrations, whether we agree with them or not, is a continuation of a regime that has not been removed yet," Egypt's top reform leader Mohamed ElBaradei wrote in his Twitter account. "Will we this time see those involved in violence brought to account whether they from inside or outside the regime?"
 

Copyright © 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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QUETTA, Pakistan —The beheaded body of a kidnapped British doctor working for the International Committee of the Red Cross was found by the roadside on Sunday in the southwestern Pakistan city of Quetta, police and Red Cross officials said.

Khalil Rasjed Dale, 60, was abducted by suspected militants on Jan 5 while on his way home from work.

"The ICRC condemns in the strongest possible terms this barbaric act," ICRC Director-General Yves Daccord said in a statement. "All of us at the ICRC and at the British Red Cross share the grief and outrage of Khalil's family and friends."

British Foreign Secretary William Hague also condemned the killing.

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"This was a senseless and cruel act, targeting someone whose role was to help the people of Pakistan, and causing immeasurable pain to those who knew Mr. Dale," Hague said in the statement.

A senior police officer said the Pakistan Taliban had claimed responsibility for the killing, saying a ransom had not been paid.

Police discovered Dale wrapped in plastic near a western bypass road. His name was written on the white plastic bag with black marker.

A sharp knife was used to sever his head from the body," said Safdar Hussain, the first doctor to examine the body. "He was killed about 12 hours ago."

Dale is only the third Westerner killed in such a fashion in Pakistan. The others include Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002 and Piotr Stanczak, a Polish geologist, in 2009.

The Pakistan Taliban has been fighting a bloody insurgency against the Pakistani state since its formation in 2007. It is close to al Qaida and it claimed credit for a failed car bomb attempt in New York's Times Square in May 2010.

Quetta is the capital of southwestern Baluchistan, Pakistan's biggest but poorest province, where Baluch separatist militants are fighting a protracted insurgency for more autonomy and control over the area's natural resources.

Pro-Taliban militants are also active in the province, which shares borders with Afghanistan and Iran.

Dale had worked for the ICRC and the British Red Cross in Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq before coming to Pakistan. He had been managing a health program for Baluchistan for almost a year when he was abducted, the ICRC statement said.

"We are devastated," Daccord said. "Khalil was a trusted and very experienced Red Cross staff member who significantly contributed to the humanitarian cause."

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