Updated at 8:50 am ET: PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- A U.S. drone killed eight suspected Islamist militants in northwest Pakistan on Sunday, security officials said. 

A drone missile struck a house in the Shawal Valley where militants were reported to be hiding in the North Waziristan tribal region near the Afghan border. 

"Two missiles were fired on a house. Eight militants were killed," said a local intelligence official.

"The area is considered a stronghold of local and foreign militants, but it is not clear at the moment who were killed in the latest drone strike," said a security official in Miranshah, North Waziristan.

The Taliban in North Waziristan had banned an anti-polio immunization campaign in protest over U.S. drone strikes, which they claim are killing civilians.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Right-wing Swiss politician Alexander Müller is out of a party post as well as his private job after using Twitter to call for “Kristallnacht … this time for mosques.”

The Zurich man also faces a criminal investigation and police searched his home and confiscated his computer, according to media reports and his own blog.

The prosecutor’s office said Müller, 37, admitted tweeting in response to the May acquittal on hate-speech charges of a Muslim man who said it was "Sharia-compliant” for a  man to beat his wife if she refused to have sex with him, the newspaper Tages Anzeiger (Daily News) and others said. Otherwise, Aziz Osmanoglu had said, the man might be unfaithful.

Müller tweeted from his @dailytalk account, “Maybe we need a new Kristallnacht … this time against the mosques.”

The tweet was erased, but newspapers, including 20 Minuten, recovered it and other posts.

Müller also had tweeted that “we should take this pack out of the country. I do not want to live with such people” and “I would like to stand certain people up against the wall and shoot them. Less dirt on the earth would be good.”

Müller’s tweets now are open only to confirmed followers, according to his Twitter profile page.

On Wednesday, Müller held a news conference in which he apologized and resigned from the Swiss People's Party executive committee for Zurich districts 7 and 8 and from his seat on the local school board.

Roger Liebi, the party's Zurich leader, said the comments were “unacceptable.”

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Müller said in his blog that he was fired from his job at a credit insurance firm after his employers learned of his tweets through the media.

Abdel Azziz Qaasem Illi, spokesman for Islamic Central Switzerland, was quoted in Islamaphobia Today as saying that Müller's party is no friend to religious Muslims. In 2009, the party had supported a constitutional ban against the construction of minarets in Switzerland.

Islamaphobia Today reported that Illi said statements against Jews are avoided in Switzerland, but "it is more common to hear anti-Muslim hate speech.”

Dr. Herbert Winter, president of the Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities, called Muller’s Twitter statement “totally unacceptable,” the Jewish Telegraph Agency reported. He said it was “very offensive” to both the Jewish and Muslim communities because it “implies that Muslims deserve Kristallnacht treatment as the Jews deserved it in 1938.”

Kristallnacht, or “the night of broken glass,” took place Nov. 9-10, 1938, when mobs throughout Germany and parts of Austria killed nearly 100 Jews, ransacked and burned more than 1,000 synagogues, destroyed more than 7,000 Jewish-owned businesses, and vandalized Jewish cemeteries and schools, the Jewish Telegraph Agency news group explained. Some 30,000 Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps, JTA said.

Msnbc.com's Jim Gold contributed to this article. Follow him on Facebook here. 

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CAIRO -- Egypt, lovingly called the “Mother of the World” by its people, turned a new page in its fabled history Saturday.

It saw the first ever democratically elected civilian president take the oath of office, not once but twice.

After President Mohammed Morsi swore in officially before the General Assembly of the Constitutional  Court, he addressed the nation from Cairo University and swore his oath of office a second time before the currently dissolved parliament.  He then attended an official military ceremony celebrating his inauguration.

The nation watched and this is what its citizens had to say.

“The speech was beautiful but the most important thing to us is carrying it out,” said Sayed Mohamed, taxi driver. “The most important thing we need is work. Security brings work, work brings money, money brings tourism. Morsi is trying to gather all the Muslims, all the Christians, all the institutions.  He came through the ballot box, we have to stand by him and have patience.”

Ever pragmatic, most Egyptians prefer action to words.

Islamist Mohammed Morsi sworn in as Egypt president

“It’s a new era for all Egyptians," said Mohamed Sayed, 42, a bank employee. “The government’s character will appear in time, whether they are good or bad. We want them to be just. We want them to change the image of the old days that everybody had. When I hear the words (Morsi) says, will he carry them out? For how many thousands of years have people have been talking,  but what do they do?”

Egyptian Presidency / EPA

The head of the military council, Field Marshal Hussein Tantaw, left, presents the 'shield of the Armed Forces,' the Egyptian military's highest honor, to Egyptian President President Mohammed Morsi during a ceremony Saturday at a military base in Cairo.

Hiba al Bandari, a fashionably dressed middle-age Egyptian woman, found in Morsi’s populist message a sign of hope and change.

“Today is a great day in Egypt,” said Hiba al Bandari. “Most Egyptians are happy about practicing democracy and I hope it will be much better in the future.  We are expecting much from this president.  He gave Egyptians and himself a chance of one hundred days to see what will happen.  He promised to work with all people and movements. This is the first time in Egypt. In the past, nobody has done this.  All the past rulers governed alone. But today he is talking to the people from those on the bottom to those on top. His speech was democratic.”

Others expressed deep concern about Morsi’s ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.

As Morsi takes office, many fear the 'Islamization of Egyptian society'

Miyvin Sedqi, a 29-year-old software engineer, worried, “I don’t feel they are ones who can represent all the different trends in Egypt, they don’t believe in democracy and are not open to different opinions.  I’m kind of skeptical of what they are going to do. I don’t want them to succeed, because they are mixing religion with politics, but I don’t want them to fail as well because it would be bad for the revolution.”

Mona al Tahawy, columnist, found no reason for jubilation in today’s transfer of power.

New York-area politicians condemn Egypt's new leader over bid to free terrorist

“I think today was a big charade. I don’t think it was a historical day at all. I think it was the culmination of weeks of negotiation between (the ruling military council) and the Muslim Brotherhood. I’ve seen no reason to celebrate whatsoever today.”

Al Tahawy says Morsi’s presidency is a speed bump on the road to fulfilling the goals of the revolution.

“He took an oath today to respect institutions that have curbed his power, so I don’t know what he can do without a constitution, without a parliament and without clear delineation of what his powers are.  Many of us are continuing as if the revolution is continuing and this is just an obstacle in the way.

Charlene Gubash is NBC News' producer in Cairo.

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JERUSALEM -- Yitzhak Shamir, the hawkish Israeli leader who balked at the idea of trading occupied land for peace with the Palestinians, died on Saturday after a long illness. He was 96.

He was twice prime minister in the 1980s and early 1990s. Rather than seek accommodation with the Palestinians, Shamir championed new Jewish settlements.

Israeli media said Shamir, who had Alzheimer's disease, died at a nursing home in Herzliya Saturday..

Shamir served as prime minister for seven years, from 1983-84 and 1986-92, leading his party to election victories twice, despite lacking much of the outward charm and charisma that characterizes many modern politicians.

"Yitzhak Shamir was a brave warrior for Israel, before and after its inception. He was a great patriot and his enormous contribution will be forever etched in our chronicles," President Shimon Peres said in a statement obtained by YNet news of Israel.

"Yitzhak Shamir belongs to a generation of giants, who founded the State of Israel and fought for the freedom of the Jewish people in its land," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. "He led Israel with deep loyalty to both the people and the land."

Gilada Diamant, Shamir's daughter, said that her father "belonged to a different generation of leaders, people with values and beliefs. I hope that we have more people like him in the future. His political doing has undoubtedly left its mark on the State of Israel.

"Dad was an amazing man, a family man in the fullest sense of the word, a man who dedicated himself to the State of Israel but never forgot his family, not even for a moment. He was a special man," she added. 

Uncompromising figure
Barely over 5 feet tall and built like a block of granite, Shamir projected an image of uncompromising solidity at a time when Palestinians rose up in the West Bank and Gaza, demanding an end to Israeli occupation.

AFP - Getty Images

An April 15, 1992, photo shows Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir attending a street-naming ceremony commemorating deceased members of the "Lehi," the underground that fought the British in Petah Tikva.

Defeated in the 1992 election, he stepped down as head of the Likud party and watched from the sidelines as his successor, Yitzhak Rabin, negotiated interim land-for-peace agreements with the Palestinians.

The agreements, including Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's recognition of Israel, did nothing to ease his suspicion. In a 1997 interview with the New York-based Jewish Post, he declared: "The Arabs will always dream to destroy us. I do not believe that they will recognize us as part of this region." 

He embraced the ideology of the Revisionists -- that Israel is the sole owner of all of the biblical Holy Land, made up of Israel, the West Bank and Jordan.

The Labor movement, in power for Israel's first three decades, agreed to a 1947 U.N.-proposed partition plan to allow the creation of the Jewish state alongside a Palestinian entity. To Shamir and other Revisionists, that was tantamount to treason.

In later years, asked his view of territorial compromise for peace, Shamir said often that Israel had already given up 80 percent of the Land of Israel — a reference to Jordan.

Born Yitzhak Jazernicki in Poland in 1915, he moved to pre-state Palestine in 1935. He joined Lehi, the most hardline of three Jewish movements resisting British mandatory authorities, taking over the Lehi leadership after the British killed its founder.

Captured twice, he escaped from two British detention camps and returned to resistance action. The second camp was in Djibouti, in Africa.

After Israel was founded in 1948, Shamir was in business for a few years before entering a career in Israel's Mossad spy agency.

In the mid-1960s he emerged to join the right-wing Herut party, which evolved into the present-day Likud. 

Shamir succeeded Menahem Begin as prime minister in 1983 in the aftermath of Israel's disastrous 1982 invasion of Lebanon.

His term was marked by the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation, and the 1991 Gulf war, when Iraq fired 39 Scud missiles at Israel.

Arguing with the US
During the Gulf war, Shamir went along with American demands not to retaliate for the Iraqi missile strikes. After the war, the United States stepped up pressure to start a Middle East process that could lead in only one direction — compromise with the Arabs.

Exasperated by Shamir's stubborn refusal to go along with their plans for a regional settlement, then-U.S. Secretary of State James Baker once went on television, recited the switchboard number of the White House and told Shamir to call when he got serious about peace.

In the end, American pressure bent even Shamir. Despite his deep mistrust of Arab intentions, he agreed to attend the 1991 Middle East peace conference in Madrid, sponsored by the United States and Russia.

Shamir hotly rejected the deals his successors made with the Palestinians, in which Israel turned over control of some West Bank land to the Palestinians.

His pleasure at the 1996 election victory of Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu soured when Netanyahu continued to negotiate with the Palestinians and carry out land-for-security deals.

Before the 1999 election, Shamir resigned from the Likud and joined a new right-wing block called National Union, headed by Begin's son, Ze'ev Binyamin.

The party, which rejected any turnover of land to the Palestinians, won only four seats in parliament, though it had seven members of the outgoing legislature on its list.

In 2001, Shamir was given his nation's highest civilian honor, the Israel Prize awarded annually to outstanding citizens in several fields.

Shamir will receive a state funeral, which has been set for Monday, YNet reported. He will be laid to rest in the Nation's Great cemetery on Mount Hertz. 

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Islamists rebels of Ansar Dine, seen on April 24, 2012 near Timbuktu, Mali, have destroyed the tomb of Saint Sidi Mahmoud.

DAKAR -- Armed fighters of Mali's al-Qaida-linked Ansar Dine Islamist group on Saturday destroyed mausoleums in the ancient trading city of Timbuktu, classified as a UNESCO World Heritage site, witnesses said. 

The attack came just four days after UNESCO agreed to a request by the West African state to place Timbuktu on its list of heritage sites in danger following the seizure of its northern two-thirds in April by separatist and Islamist rebels. 

"They have already completely destroyed the mausoleum of Sidi Mahmoud (Ben Amar) and two others. They said they would continue all day and destroy all 16," local Malian journalist Yeya Tandina said by telephone of the 16 most prized resting grounds of local saints in the town. 

 "They are armed and have surrounded the sites with pick-up trucks. The population is just looking on helplessly," he said, adding that the Islamists were currently taking pick-axes to the mausoleum of Sidi El Mokhtar, another cherished local saint. 

 "It looks as if it is a direct reaction to the UNESCO decision," Timbuktu deputy Sandy Haidara said by telephone, confirming the attacks. 

 UN: Ancient treasures of Timbuktu under threat in Mali unrest

Since government forces were routed in April, Ansar Dine and other Islamist groups with links to al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) have gained the upper hand over less well-armed Tuaregs whose goal is a secular, independent northern state. 

Ansar Dine is pushing for strict sharia, Islamic law, across the whole of the country and deems un-Islamic the shrines of Timbuktu, an expression of the local Sufi brand of the religion. 

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Egypt's first Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi, took his oath of office on Saturday, ending six decades of rule by former military men although the generals in charge since Hosni Mubarak was ousted last year have already curbed his powers. 

Morsi was sworn in before the Supreme Constitutional Court, rather than parliament as is usual. The Islamist-led lower house was dissolved by the same court shortly before this month's run-off presidential election.  

"I swear by Almighty God that I will sincerely protect the republican system and that I respect the constitution and the rule of law," Morsi said, after making the same declaration a day earlier in front of tens of thousands of people in Tahrir Square.

Egypt, Mother of the World, turns new page; citizens await results

"I will look after the interests of the people and protect the independence of the nation and safety of its territory," he said before the head of the constitutional court Farouk Soltan and other judges. 

'The will of the people'
He was speaking in the court building next to the Cairo hospital where the jailed former president has been moved. 

Morsi said a civilian and constitutional state had been "born today," in his comments after swearing the oath. The ceremony was broadcast by state media. 

As Morsi takes office, many fear the 'Islamization of Egyptian society'

One of the judges, Maher Sami, began the ceremony by saying that event had "no parallel in all of Egypt's history and was created by the will of the people." 

In his inaugural address to the nation, Morsi began by paying tribute to the martyrs of the revolution and vowed to honor their sacrifices through his work and the administration's work.

He reiterated points he has made repeatedly before about working to strengthen Egypt's economy and restarting investment and trade. 

Israel treaty safe
He also said Egypt would abide by all of its international treaties and obligations -- meaning the 33-year-old peace treaty with Israel -- and promised to work to make Egypt a modern civil state that upholds laws and abides by the constitution.

"We carry a message of peace to the world," Morsi said in a segment intended to reassure the world that his tenure posed no threat to regional order.

New York-area politicians condemn Egypt's new leader over bid to free terrorist

He struck a rather defiant tone by saying on more than one occasion that the Egyptian people had democratically elected a parliament and that the will of the people must be respected.

He promised the state would be made up of democratic institutions and that the military would return to its bases and its role of defending the country. He promised to strengthen and develop the Armed Forces and to keep Egypt's judiciary independent.

On foreign policy, Morsi said he we would stand with the Palestinian people until they achieved their legitimate rights and sovereignty over their land. He added that he would work to help Palestinian national reconciliation.

Morsi said Egypt stood with the people of Syria and that the bloodshed must end. In a nod to Arab monarchies, he promised Egypt would not attempt to export its revolution to other countries and that Egypt would not accept other countries interfering in its domestic affairs. 

On Friday, Morsi defied the ruling generals by reading a symbolic oath of office in Tahrir Square, where Egypt's revolution was born. 

"Everybody is hearing me now. The government ... the military and the police. ... No power above this power," he told the tens of thousands of mostly Islamist supporters packing the square. "I reaffirm to you I will not give up any of the president's authorities. I can't afford to do this. I don't have that right." 

Post-revolution Egyptians to US: Stay out

At one point, Morsi opened his jacket to show the crowd he was not wearing a bulletproof vest, then declared he "fears no one but God." 

"We love you Morsi!" the crowd roared in response as the 60-year-old U.S.-trained engineer left the podium to get closer to the cheering crowd. 

AFP - Getty Images

An image grab taken from Egypt's Nile TV shows Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi taking the oath of office during a swearing-in ceremony at the Constitutional Court in Cairo Saturday.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Carlo Angerer / NBC News

Hans Gritzbach, has had a connection to the American military installation near his home in Heidelberg, Germany for over 60 years. "I owe a lot to the Americans. They paved the way for what I am today," he said.

HEIDELBERG, Germany – For more than 26 years, Hans Gritzbach has been taking care of a little garden outside the building of the U.S. Army's European headquarters. 

A special NBC News series: What The World Thinks of U.S. Click here for more information

The military installation has been part of Gritzbach's lifeblood for more than 60 years.

But when the leaves begin to fall in the autumn of 2013, the U.S. Army is scheduled to shut down its Campbell Barracks in Gritzbach's home city.

For the 86-year-old German, an era will come to an end with the U.S. troop pullout.

"I owe a lot to the Americans. They paved the way for what I am today," the widower said in a soft, choked voice.

---

From refugee to part of a community
With all of his belongings in no more than a cardboard box, Gritzbach arrived in Heidelberg in 1947, shortly after the end of World War II. He was a “displaced person” or refugee. His family was expelled from what used to be Czechoslovakia because they belonged to a minority group of ethnic Germans.

When he arrived in post-war Germany, the young man had no work training and no profession, but he was given a job with the U.S. forces in Heidelberg.

Over the course of his 39-year career as a civilian employee with the U.S. Army in Europe, he worked as a quartermaster, in the finance department and the engineering division.

As the U.S. military in Europe shrinks, it leaves behind many friends in Germany. "It makes me sad because friends are leaving," said Hans Gritzbach, 86, choking back tears. "And now at my age, looking back, I realize that the Americans were wonderful people." NBC's Andy Eckardt reports.

After he retired, Gritzbach stayed on with the military community and took up volunteer work with his wife, Hilde, who passed away five years ago.  

Weather and health permitting, the German visits his "American friends" three to four times a week to water the plants, do some weeding and simply engage in some small talk.

But now, his rose bushes, as well as the flowers and shrubs from the little garden he’s tended all these years, are being given new homes in local backyards before the military installation shuts down completely.

Troop reduction
Since the end of the 1980s, the U.S. Army in Europe has divested more than 570 military installations, including military barracks, housing areas and isolated radar positions.

By 2015, more major garrisons are expected to be returned in Germany – Heidelberg, Mannheim, Bamberg and Schweinfurt – which the Army says will save $300 million per year.

Carlo Angerer / NBC News

Daniel Welch, has been working for the U.S. military as a "local national employee" in Heidelberg, Germany since 1980 and expects to lose his job next year.

Earlier this year, the Pentagon announced defense cuts of $487 billion over the next decade, as the United States seeks to move to a smaller, leaner and more agile force, putting a new strategic focus on the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region.

The Defense Department in January said that it would remove two of the four U.S. combat brigades stationed in Europe as part of its military restructuring. 

Long gone are the demands of the Cold War, when the Soviet bloc and the United States faced off across the walls, fences and barbed wire of the Iron Curtain.

"Now we are trying to become more effective and more efficient in terms of cost savings, by consolidating and by combining garrisons," the commander of the U.S. Army in Europe, Lt.Gen. Mark Phillip Hertling, told NBC News.

Impact on German economy
Yet, for many local hires the drawdown will have severe consequences.

55-year-old Daniel Welch, who has been working for the military as a “local national employee” since 1980 and runs the Army’s environmental division in the greater Heidelberg area, expects to lose his job next year.

"I still have a mortgage to pay off and my daughter is planning to go to college in the U.S., I will need to find a new job somewhere," Welch said.

Back in 1954, his American father met his German mother in Heilbronn during his first deployment to Germany.

"Of course it is emotional," said Welch. "Part of you is closing. The school I attended, the housing area where I grew up, even the church where my parents got married, all closed, all gone."

NBC News speaks with citizens from around the globe, asking the question, 'What Does America Mean to You?'

City officials in Heidelberg expect annual financial losses of up to $25 million, as a result of the closures of U.S. bases in the region.

"We estimate that a total of about 1,000 civilian jobs will be lost, when the nearly 8,000 service members pull out," said Diana Scharl, a spokesperson for the city of Heidelberg.

At the auto dealership across the street from the military installation, the future looks grim too. Fred Ambrosio, 62, expects to close his Liberty Car sales in Heidelberg by September 2013. Like many local businesses, he tailored his car dealership to U.S. customer needs – and with regular troop rotation intervals over the past decades, his business was doing well.

But now, the immediate future does not look rosy.

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"The closures in and around Heidelberg have been a real hardship on my income. I have lost about 60 percent of my turnover, and every month it is getting worse," Ambrosio said.

Fred has come up with a backup plan and will move his business and six employees to Grafenwoehr, where the U.S. Army still maintains its largest training facility in Europe.

Emotional farewell
But while many locals have been able to prepare for the changes and some have already found new jobs, it is still a difficult farewell for most.

"The military installation in Heidelberg was like a second home to me and my wife," said Gritzbach, the retiree. He started to cry as he talked about the memories of the “good old days.” He cut three roses to put on his wife's grave and waved good-bye as he walked off.

"It is so sad. I have gone through many bitter phases in my life, but this will be one of the most emotional and most difficult farewells of all," Gritzbach said.

This story is part of a series by msnbc.com and NBC News "What the World Thinks of US". The series aims to check the pulse on current perceptions of America's global stature during the election year and ahead of our annual Independence Day.

Share your thoughts about this story and our series on Twitter using #AmericaMeans 

Stories in the series: 

How I see America, from a former Gitmo prisoner

Bye, bye, GI: Deep impact for many Germans as US troops downsize

Post-revolution Egypt to US: Stay out 

Iran's dentist to the stars offers views on US

For many Pakistanis, 'USA' means 'drones' 

One man's mission: Promote Chinese patriotism in the face of Western onslaught

In South Africa: 'My head says China is number one, my heart says America'

Not all Thais are Gaga about America

Family moves from the Bronx to Jerusalem, but US remains land of 'liberty and freedom'

Palestinian: US supports 'an apartheid system that is suffocating us' 

Afghans are 'no different from any American

 

Handout / Reuters

Demonstrators protest against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad after Friday prayers in Habeet, near Idlib, Friday

Updated 1:30 p.m. ET: Major Western and Arab powers meeting in Geneva on Saturday adopted a watered-down version of special envoy Kofi Annan's Syria peace plan that leaves open whether President Bashar al-Assad can be part of the transition government.

"It is for the people of Syria to come to a political agreement." Annan said. "I will doubt that the Syrians who have fought so hard to have independence ... will select people with blood on their hands to lead them," he said.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the deal in Geneva "paves the way" for a post-Assad unity government. Assad should hear "loudly and clearly" that his days are numbered, she said. "It is now incumbent on Russia and China to show Assad the writing on the wall," Clinton said.

Russia had refused to back a provision that would call for Assad to step down, insisting that outsiders cannot order a political solution for Syria.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov underscored the point that the plan does not require Assad's ouster, saying there is "no attempt in the document to impose on the Syrian people any type of transitional process."

Lavrov warned that there is an attempt to provoke a spiral of violence and incite sectarian hatred in Syria.

A transitional governing body could include members of the current government and opposition and would be formed by mutual consent, Reuters reported. The pact calls for constitutional reform and free and fair elections, Reuters reported.

Annan said the Syria action group nations did not set a time for its next meeting.

On Friday, Syrian troops shelled a suburb of Damascus, killing an estimated 125 civilians and 60 soldiers, Syrian human rights activists said. The uprising in Syria since March of last year has killed some 14,000 people. 

Syria on Saturday retook control of the restive Damascus suburb of Douma, where fleeing residents said most civilians had cleared out.

Syria retakes Damascus suburb

Foreign ministers from Western powers and Arab countries attended the meeting convened by Annan to try to forge a common strategy to end the 16 month-old conflict in Syria but differences remained over the fate of Assad.

Clinton held talks on Friday night in St. Petersburg with Lavrov but failed to resolve differences, Reuters said.

Russia, Assad's main ally, insists that any transition plan must not be imposed on Syria by foreign powers.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, arriving for the talks, told Reuters that it was “absolutely essential that the violence stops and that a political transition can begin.”

“Kofi Annan made reasonable propositions and I hope that they will be upheld and that's the point of today's discussions,” he added.

Syria rebels: Assad forces bombard towns as 170 tanks mass near city

Hopes have centered on persuading Russia — Syria's most important ally, protector and arms supplier — to agree to a plan that would end the four-decade rule of the Assad family dynasty.

But the Russians want Syria alone to be the master of its fate, at a time when Assad's regime and the opposition are increasingly bitterly polarized.

"Ultimately, we want to stop the bloodshed in Syria. If that comes through political dialogue, we are willing to do that," said Khalid Saleh, a spokesman for the Syrian National Council, a coalition of Syrian opposition groups based in Istanbul, Turkey. "We are not willing to negotiate (with) Mr. Assad and those who have murdered Syrians. We are not going to negotiate unless they leave Syria."

Turkey sends military convoys toward Syrian border

International tensions also heightened last week after Syria shot down a Turkish warplane, leading to Turkey setting up anti-aircraft guns on its border with its neighbor. 

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Hai Do / AFP - Getty Images file

Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, the blind Egyptian cleric jailed for life over the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, is shown at a 1993 press conference.

On the eve of his inauguration, Egyptian president-elect Mohammed Morsi pledged before tens of thousands of Islamist followers on Friday to free the “Blind Sheik” jailed in the U.S. for a plot to bomb New York City landmarks.

Morsi, Egypt’s first Islamist and civilian president-elect, promised to work for the release of convicted terrorist Omar Abdel-Rahman, the militant Egyptian cleric currently serving a life sentence for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

Morsi, 60, also promised to free the detained Egyptian protesters facing military tribunals.

“I will do everything in my power to secure the freedom of detainees, including Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman,” Morsi said in his first speech to the nation in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, the Telegraph reported. 

New York-area politicians condemn Egypt's new leader over vow to free terrorist

Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., said Rahman isn’t going anywhere.

“President Morsi’s offensive statements are an insult to the memories of the victims of the World Trade Center bombing,” Schumer said in a prepared statement. “He is off to a very bad start. Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman is a terrorist who planned to killed innocent Americans, and rest assured he will stay right where he belongs  –  in jail for the rest of his life.”

Related: Post-revolution Egyptians to US: Stay out

Rahman is connected to a slew of terrorist attacks, including a plot to assassinate then-Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, the slaughter of 58 foreign tourists and four Egyptians in Luxor in 1997, and a plan to set off five bombs in 10 minutes to blow up the United Nations, the Lincoln and Holland tunnels, the George Washington Bridge and a federal building housing the FBI.

Rahman was arrested in June 1993, along with nine of his followers. In October 1995, he was convicted of seditious conspiracy and was sentenced the next year to life in prison. 

Morsi, a U.S.-trained engineer who initially was a back-up candidate for the Muslin Brotherhood, underscored several times in his speech that the people were the source of power and decision-making, not the institutions. 

His spokesman, Yasser Ali, told the Associated Press the president-elect wants to stand with the thousands who have camped in the square for over a week to express concern about the power grabs.

"He wants to show unity with his people over issues of the transition, which is now ending," Ali said.

Many in the crowd were delighted by Morsi's speech, chanting "We love you Morsi" and "Oh marshal tell the truth, Morsi is your president, or not," referring to the head of the ruling military panel Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi.

This article includes reporting by The Associated Press.

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Amr Nabil / AP

Egypt's President-elect Mohammed Morsi waves to supporters at Tahrir Square, the focal point of Egyptian uprising, in Cairo on Friday, June 29, 2012.

Today my best and oldest friend in Egypt told me she is going abroad to prepare paperwork in the event she decides to leave her country. It's very painful to even write that sentence and even harder to reread it. My friend is Egyptian, a devout Muslim, a patriot and yet she is preparing a plan B of escape, as so many others here have done, because she fears Egypt is turning into another Iran.

Post-revolution Egyptians to US: Stay out

Among her concerns, she mentions female self-appointed moral police, veiled from head to toe, admonishing other women that they will go to hell unless they dress conservatively. I arrived in Egypt a long time ago. To give you an idea just how long ago, NBC used an old telex machine and an even older poorly functioning landline to communicate abroad. My friend helped me master the essential skill of typing my message on a thin paper strip that I would then re-feed through the machine. Suffice to say, she was the most patient of teachers.

One of the most impressive sights to me at the time was seeing unveiled and veiled women walking down the street together, arm in arm, no judgment and no pressure to dress a certain way. In those days, most women were unveiled. As a foreigner, I always felt welcomed and only distinguished as an American by the fact that almost every cab driver would give me the thumbs up sign, upon learning my nationality, and say cheerfully, "America, number one!" 

But Egypt is changing. Today, Egypt's President-elect Mohammed Morsi punctuated his first speech to the nation with a promise to work for the release of convicted terrorist, Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman. Morsi addressed tens of thousands of Muslim Brotherhood and Salafist followers in Tahrir Square, taking an unofficial oath of office before the people who put him there. He described it as the real oath rather than the oath that he will take tomorrow before the general assembly of the Constitutional Court, rejecting the legal decision that dismantled an illegitimately constituted parliament and rejecting the military's additions to the constitution that would prevent him from controlling the military.

Egypt elections only the beginning of a transitional process

Morsi underlined several times that the people were the source of power and decision-making, not the institutions. Despite the fact that he initially addressed all Egyptians, Muslim and Christian, men and women, and all countries in the free world, Muslim and non-Muslim, his message was in fact directed to the hardcore constituency in front of him, fervent Islamists who would eventually like to see Egypt become an Islamic state governed by Islamic religious law. 

Although President-elect Morsi repeated a message of love for all Egyptians, the vast majority of Egyptians have little in common with the Islamists who now crowd Tahrir Square. 

"He handed power to the mob," lamented a Coptic Christian viewer on a talk show following the speech.

Many felt it was improper to take the oath of office in Tahrir Square rather than before the Constitutional Court. "It's basically very amateurish," said Hisham Kassem, veteran publisher. "He made lots of mistakes to the point you think he's going to be a trial-and-error president... making a promise to hand over Omar Abdul Rahman, the first man to attack the World Trade Center. He will never be released. He is just going to annoy the Americans now," Kassem said.

"[Taking the oath of office in Tahrir] eroded his legitimacy. If he is banking on the street, it's not very savvy, his presidency will collapse in a year if he banks on that," Kassem added.

Analysis: Egypt's big turn under the Muslim Brotherhood

Morsi's impassioned speech is more likely to add to the atmosphere of uncertainty rather than quell it. By telling the crowded square that they were the source of power, Morsi thumbed his nose at the military generals who are trying to deny him control over the Ministry of Defense and the judiciary that has dissolved the parliament due to party members competing for independent seats.  

Most Egyptians just want to get the country -- which many say is close to the brink of economic collapse -- back on track. They would rather hear about plans for restoring tourism, creating jobs and ending bottled gas and gasoline shortages than stoking anger against the military. Most would rather see Tahrir Square become a main thoroughfare, open to traffic. Instead, Morsi has further empowered the party faithful who are camped out there. 

During the past week, the president-elect has reached out to those who are most apprehensive of a Muslim Brotherhood president, Egypt's eight million Coptic Christians, by meeting with their religious leaders.

"We are worried about the Islamization of Egyptian society," said Father Fafic Greiche, a church spokesman, in an interview with Vatican Radio. He also met with opposition parties and youth groups to discuss forming a new government that people hope will be representative of Egypt's women and secular and socially progressive groups. 

The Muslim Brotherhood party also went on the offensive to stem fears women have about the rise to power of an Islamist. A party spokesman posted a message on the official website blaming other parties for a deliberate smear campaign by linking "individuals attacking women or girls or women's hairdressers claiming to be religious police" to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Female Member of Parliament Azza al Garf condemned the severe sexual attack on a British journalism student in Tahrir Square on the day Morsi was declared president and demanded perpetrators be brought to justice. Ironically, Al Garf herself has been sued by a women's rights non-governmental organization for wanting to reverse Egyptian laws that criminalize sexual harassment and female genital mutilation. 

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Lefteris Pitarakis / AP File

Egyptian anti-government protesters gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square to watch a screen showing U.S. President Barack Obama live on a TV broadcast from Washington DC, speaking about the situation in Egypt on Feb. 2, 2011, in the midst of the revolution.

CAIRO – There is a local advertisement in the arrivals hall at Cairo International Airport. The ad shows a picture of Egypt's iconic Tahrir Square, packed during the revolution, with a quote from U.S. President Barack Obama: "We should raise our children to be like Egyptian youth.”

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The quote from Obama was shortly after Egyptians had revolted and toppled long-time dictator and American ally Hosni Mubarak. The ad reflects a sense of pride Egyptians have about how they inspired the world, including the U.S. president. It also shows how a genuine acknowledgment from the U.S. goes a long way in Egypt.

But when it comes to their attitudes about America’s involvement in their country’s affairs, few Egyptians view the U.S. favorably, and or more importantly, with any trust.

U.S. seen as a meddler
Egypt's relationship with America goes back decades. But Egypt was cemented as a cornerstone of U.S. policy in the Middle East after its Camp David Peace Treaty with Israel. Following that, the U.S. bankrolled the Mubarak regime and the military that sustained the regime for 30 years.

---

That’s not lost on ordinary Egyptians. They may not know the intricacies of U.S. policy in Egypt, but intuitively they know that the U.S. backed and legitimized the man who oppressed them for three decades.

NBC News

Alaa El Din Mohamed, a taxi cab driver in Cairo, shares his views about the U.S..

So it should come as no surprise that most Egyptians view U.S. involvement in Egypt negatively.

A recent Gallup poll found 81 percent of Egyptians oppose American aid to political groups. And 84 percent of Egyptians surveyed doubt the U.S. is serious about spreading democracy in the region. The overwhelming majority of Egyptians reject both U.S. aid to civil society organizations and economic assistance to the country as a whole. They see U.S. aid as instruments used to manipulate Egypt’s domestic and foreign policies.

Alaa El Din Mohamed, a 34-year-old taxi driver, summed up his current views on the U.S.

“We are looking out for our country’s interests. For Egypt's interests we want stability, we want to work, we want to advance forward. We don't have any problems with the U.S., but we're just interested in our own country,” he said. “We want to be able to stand on our own two feet.  We want to look forward and then afterwards we can think about the U.S.”

And yet, despite the negative attitude, the U.S. as a country and Americans as a people remain symbols of democracy, freedom and modernity in the eyes of many ordinary Egyptians.

NBC News speaks with citizens from around the globe, asking the question, 'What Does America Mean to You?'

“The U.S. is a developed, advanced country and organized. Everything there is civilized that's what comes to my mind in regards to the U.S.,” Hala Abdel Rahman, a 50-year-old housewife, said when asked about her impressions of the country. “We would hope and wish that Egypt can become a developed country like the U.S.”

Many Egyptians are still drawn to the idea of the U.S. as the “land of opportunity” with thousands going there yearly to pursue educational opportunities and seek a better life.

Living in America still resonates loudly with Egyptians who believe most Americans enjoy a decent quality of life. In fact, many here draw a distinction between Americans and American foreign policy.

NBC News

Mona Bayoumi had high hopes for U.S. President Barack Obama and how he could improve things in the Middle East, but she said she's been disappointed.

“America as a people and stuff are really good people, they have values and are good people,” said Mohamed, the cab driver. “But the most important thing is they don’t interfere in our country.”

Feeling let down by Obama
During the Egyptian revolution, I remember seeing a poster in Cairo’s Tahrir Square that read, “Yes We Can, Too,” playing off of Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign slogan that change is possible.

Today, many people in Egypt feel let down by Obama who they believe was slow to respond to the Egyptian people’s own calls for change during the revolution. Others believe Obama hasn’t followed through on his promise to change how the U.S. deals with the Middle East – from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to Iran.

Mona Bayoumi, a 25-year-old administrator a Cairo arts college, believes there is a gap between what the U.S. promises and what it does.

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“At the beginning when President Obama first came, we had a lot of hope that things would improve and be fixed – especially with Iraq and Iran,” said Bayoumi. “But we waited for something to happen and we didn't see anything...To be honest nothing that we expected to happen happened and nothing that we wanted happened.”

In a country of 85 million people, gauging the public’s attitudes is always a challenge.

But the underlying principle in how Egyptians view the U.S. is simple. After decades of being on the receiving end of U.S. foreign policy that arguably didn’t improve the quality of their lives, nor advance their own interests, Egyptians want to chart their own future with as little help from Washington as possible.

Whether the U.S. lets them is a whole different question.

This story is part of a series by msnbc.com and NBC News "What the World Thinks of US". The series aims to check the pulse on current perceptions of America's global stature during the election year and ahead of our annual Independence Day.

Share your thoughts about this story and our series on Twitter using #AmericaMeans 

Stories in the series: 

How I see America, from a former Gitmo prisoner

Bye, bye, GI: Deep impact for many Germans as US troops downsize

Post-revolution Egypt to US: Stay out 

Iran's dentist to the stars offers views on US

For many Pakistanis, 'USA' means 'drones' 

One man's mission: Promote Chinese patriotism in the face of Western onslaught

In South Africa: 'My head says China is number one, my heart says America'

Not all Thais are Gaga about America

Family moves from the Bronx to Jerusalem, but US remains land of 'liberty and freedom'

Palestinian: US supports 'an apartheid system that is suffocating us' 

Afghans are 'no different from any American

 

A Vietnamese immigrant has been charged in New York over an alleged role in helping al-Qaida in Yemen.

Minh Quang Pham was arrested in Britain. He is accused of traveling to Yemen to train with members of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP. 

Pham is also accused of helping the group with its online propaganda efforts. Investigators said he was in Yemen from December 2010 through July 2011.

See the original report at NBCNewYork.com

Sources familiar with the case said he met with numerous leaders of AQAP in Yemen, including the terror group's then leader, Anwar al-Awlaki, and Samir Khan, editor of its English-language magazine "Inspire," and took a loyalty oath. Both Americans-turned-terror leaders were killed in a drone strike last September.

"The defendant not only pledged an oath to al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, and received military training from AQAP, he also helped design and disseminate its propaganda,"New York FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Janice K. Fedarcyk said.

Security officials have said AQAP has become the leading overseas terror threat to the U.S. 

Watch US News videos on msnbc.com

Two underwear bomb plots, including one that targeted a Detroit-bound jetliner, as well as a plot to bomb cargo planes in 2010, originated in Yemen.

As for Pham, the court papers said he played a role in creating online propaganda for AQAP. He is charged with conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. 

Jonathan Dienst is WNBC's chief investigative reporter. Shimon Prokupecz is WNBC's investigative producer.

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Neil Hall / Reuters

A police officer stands guard outside Ecuador's Embassy in London where WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has taken refuge on June 22.

LONDON - Julian Assange will not leave his embassy refuge on Friday to enter a British police station as part of his extradition process to be questioned in Sweden about sex-crime allegations, a lawyer for the WikiLeaks founder said.

Assange, 40, has been holed-up in Ecuador's embassy in London since he made a surprise application for political asylum last week.

In a statement in front of the embassy, Assange's lawyer Susan Benn confirmed he would not comply with the police request to surrender himself and would remain in the embassy while evidence for his application for his political asylum is processed.

NBC News partner ITV News's coverage of Assange: 'Not going near a police station soon'

She said there is a "legal process in place which would involve Julian being taken to the U.S." if he is extradited to Sweden to answer rape allegations. It is "only a matter of time" before the U.S. attempts to extradite Mr Assange," Benn added.

Assange risks being arrested the moment he steps outside the red-brick building after breaching bail terms, keeping both his supporters and police puzzled as to what he might do next.

On Thursday, British police summoned Assange to a London police station, demanding he leave the embassy.

But Assange later told BBC television in a telephone interview: "Our advice is that asylum law both internationally and domestically in the UK takes precedence to extradition law, so the answer is almost certainly not."

UK police demand Assange leave Ecuador embassy

Police said they had formally "served a surrender notice upon a 40-year-old man that requires him to attend a police station at date and time of our choosing."

"He remains in breach of his bail conditions, failing to surrender would be a further breach of conditions and he is liable to arrest," the police statement added.

The statement, in line with British policy, did not name the person but media quoted sources identifying him as Assange.

WikiLeaks' Assange says Ecuador 'quite supportive'

The BBC reported the extradition unit delivered a note to Assange and the Ecuadorean embassy. The embassy declined to comment. 

Assange denies any wrongdoing in Sweden and says he fears that if extradited there he could be sent on to the United States, where he could face criminal charges punishable by death.

Assange enraged Washington in 2010 when his WikiLeaks website published secret U.S. diplomatic cables.

Easily recognisable by his white-yellow hair, and known for his unpredictable behaviour, Assange caused a media storm in Britain with his asylum bid. Ecuador's ambassador has in the meantime flown home to discuss whether to grant him asylum but the decision has yet to be made.

By diplomatic convention, police cannot enter the embassy without authorisation from Ecuador. But even if Quito granted him asylum, he has no way of travelling to Ecuador without passing through London and exposing himself to arrest. 

Msnbc.com's F. Brinley Bruton and Reuters contributed to this report. 

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TEHRAN, Iran – Prior to the Islamic revolution, Iran and America shared very good relations. The former Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, had an army with modern hardware supplied by the U.S. There were direct flights between New York City and Tehran and the city was full of hotels run by major American chains.

A special NBC News series: What The World Thinks of U.S. Click here for more information

But the once-friendly relations between the two nations came to a screeching halt in 1979 when cleric-led radicals ousted the U.S.-backed shah and the subsequent Iran hostage crisis when 52 Americans were held in the U.S. embassy for 444 days. 

These days, Iranians’ relations with America are somewhat schizophrenic – the government is stridently anti-American, but many Iranians are not. 

That is the opposite of other countries in the region where governments receive large amounts of money and military hardware from the U.S., but whose people generally dislike America.

Tehran’s dentist to the stars
A popular dentist in an affluent part of Tehran represents the love-hate relationship many Iranians feel toward the U.S.

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In his Park Avenue-style dental practice, the latest Newsweek, Time and Architectural Digest magazines are on offer in the waiting room. A large flat-screen TV sits on the wall, along with an expansive fish tank and a framed dentistry degree from New York University. 

Iranians are consumers who love brand names – even when it comes to their dental care. When a friend of mine introduced me to the dentist, he told me he is the guy to go to if I wanted to brag about where I get my teeth cleaned. He is, in essence, Tehran’s equivalent of a Beverly Hills “dentist to the stars.”

A large part of his reputation comes not just from the fact that he has all the latest, modern dentistry equipment, but that he was trained in the U.S. and offers Western-style service. He was educated in dentistry at NYU and lived, worked and studied from the East Coast to West Coast.

Reuters

Coffee mugs bearing pictures of the late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs are on sale as a man works on a MacBook at a shop in northern Tehran on Jan.19, 2012. Despite the fact that Apple observes a U.S. embargo that restricts the sale of their goods in Iran, their products are wildly popular there.

Sporting fashionable glasses, a crisp blue button-down shirt and tie, the dentist, who is in his mid-40s, agreed to speak with me on the condition of anonymity.  

“I am who I am because of my education in the States,” said the dentist. “I am very American, but my view on U.S. politics is very different.”

I asked him what he thought about the tough economic sanctions being imposed on Iran – which block access to the international banking system and hurt sales of Iranian crude oil – as a way to persuade Tehran to abandon its nuclear program.

Iranians feel the pain of sanctions: 'Everything has doubled in price'

“Why are there sanctions against Iran?” he said. “Wasn’t it America that helped Iran fire up its nuclear program 35 years ago? The sanctions just hurt ordinary people.” 

At the same time, he praised Iranians’ resilience.

“After 30 years of sanctions, embargoes, war and threats of war, Iran has kept its head above water,” he said. “Most other countries would have collapsed, but Iranians have found ways to circumvent these problems; they help each other.”

NBC News speaks with citizens from around the globe, asking the question, 'What Does America Mean to You?'

The dentist believes that one reason for  misunderstanding between America and Iran is that Americans have little real information on Iran – that they know only what they see on TV, which is often a very small part of the bigger picture.

For years, he says, he tried to convince American colleagues to give lectures on dentistry in Iran, but that they were reluctant to do so because of their perceptions. When one of them finally agreed to come, and experienced the famous Iranian hospitality and warmth, his perception of Iran changed very quickly.

Asked why he came back to Iran about eight years ago after spending most of his life in the States, he said he just felt like something was missing, adding that he loves Tehran because it’s like New York City – a noisy, fast-paced 24/7 place.

Steve Jobs photos on the wall
The desire for brand names in Iran that signify Western quality goes beyond dentistry. 

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Mohsen, who agreed to speak with me on condition that only his first name be used, owns an electrical goods store in Tehran selling mostly black market Apple products. (Typically, Apple, as well as other imported goods that would be subject to U.S. embargoes, come into Iran via Dubai and the Persian Gulf. They are sold openly in stores in Tehran). 

He said that most Iranians love American products and culture and that personally he longs for the day that the two countries have normal relations.

Then a frown appeared on his face. “But,” he said, “they do things that even rub a moderate person, like me, the wrong way.”

“I read an article yesterday about an Iranian-American who went into an Apple store in the States and wanted to buy an iPad to send to her uncle in Tehran. When the sales person found out she was Iranian and wanted to send the iPad to Iran, the store refused to sell it to her,” he said.

“This is crazy! I sell 50 iPads and iPhones here a week. I have a picture of Steve Jobs on the wall! These sorts of things don’t do any good for relations between Iranian and American people.” 

The story Mohsen related was widely reported in the U.S. An Apple employee in Atlanta declined to sell an iPad to an Iranian-American customer, citing company policy that aims to comply with U.S. trade sanctions with Iran that can lead to individual fines of up to $250,000.  

Iran trade sanctions get personal in Apple stores  

In the meantime, Mohsen’s Apple products will have to remain on the black market. 

Still, not all Iranians have such a moderate view towards the U.S. Hussein, a hard-line student at Tehran University, has a very negative view of the States. (He also spoke on condition that only his first name be used.)

“All America has done is try to bully Iran, chip away at its nuclear rights and steal our oil,” Hussein said.

“I don’t think we should be talking to the Americans because ultimately they want our demise,” he said. “Throughout history, they have interfered in our country, only harming us. We have nothing in common.”

This story is part of a series by msnbc.com and NBC News "What the World Thinks of US". The series aims to check the pulse on current perceptions of America's global stature during the election year and ahead of our annual Independence Day.

Share your thoughts about this story and our series on Twitter using #AmericaMeans 

Stories in the series: 

How I see America, from a former Gitmo prisoner

Bye, bye, GI: Deep impact for many Germans as US troops downsize

Post-revolution Egypt to US: Stay out 

Iran's dentist to the stars offers views on US

For many Pakistanis, 'USA' means 'drones' 

One man's mission: Promote Chinese patriotism in the face of Western onslaught

In South Africa: 'My head says China is number one, my heart says America'

Not all Thais are Gaga about America

Family moves from the Bronx to Jerusalem, but US remains land of 'liberty and freedom'

Palestinian: US supports 'an apartheid system that is suffocating us' 

Afghans are 'no different from any American

 

EDITOR'S NOTE: Image supplied by the opposition Shaam News Network.

Bodies of people allegedly killed by government forces in Douma, Syria, on Thursday.

ANTAKYA, Turkey - Syrian helicopter gunships reportedly bombarded a strategic town in northern Syria overnight and tanks moved close to the commercial hub and its largest city Aleppo, rebel fighters said on Friday. 

Meanwhile, anti-regime groups reported what one called a "hideous massacre" in Douma, outside of Damascus, and distributed a video and photograph purportedly showing the aftermath of a killing that left more than 50 dead, including women and children.  Journalists do not operate freely in Syria so there was no way of confirming the report. 

A senior rebel officer said around 170 Syrian tanks had assembled at an infantry school near the village of Musalmieh northeast of the city of Aleppo, just 19 miles from the Turkish border but were keeping well clear of new Turkish air defenses installed to curb Syrian action near its frontiers.

"They're either preparing to move to the border to counter the Turkish deployment or attack the rebellious (Syrian) towns and villages in and around the border zone north of Aleppo," General Mustafa al-Sheikh, head of the Higher Military Council, a grouping of senior officers who defected from Assad's forces, told Reuters by telephone from the border. 

Turkey sends military convoys toward Syrian border

Omar Abdallah, an activist in Idlib coordinating with the Free Syrian Army said: "After taking hits in rural Aleppo and Idlib, the army is re-grouping ... There is speculation that these forces intend to ring Aleppo starting July 1." 

Turkish commanders inspected the missile batteries deployed on the border region on Thursday following Syria's shooting down of a Turkish warplane a week ago, which has sharply raised tensions between the two nations. 

Massacre?
Meantime, Syrians in the besieged city of Douma wrapped mangled and bloodied corpses in white burial shrouds early on Friday, according to video posted online.

Contains graphic images: Link to YouTube video, unverified by msnbc.com

"A massacre has been committed in the city of Douma, killing more than 50 in this bloody day, where Assad mafias and death squads launch aggressive attacks, bombardment of the city, and executions," U.S.-based anti-Assad Syrian Expatriates said a statement. 

Douma is predominantly Sunni community that has become as a focus of resistance to the Assad government.

The group gave details for the killings of 10 members of the same family, including four chidren, their mothers and grandmother.  More than 200 were wounded, the group said. 

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 190 people, including 125 civilians, were killed on Thursday throughout the country.

The United States, Britain and France have said that Assad is responsible for the violence, which the United Nations estimates has killed at least 10,000 people, and is no longer fit to govern. Russia and China, however, reject what they describe as Western calls for "regime change." 

Turkish deployments 
The Turkish deployments, a graphic warning to President Bashar al-Assad, coincide with rising violence across Syria and increasingly urgent international efforts to forge a peace deal as the nation slips into full-blown war. 

As the Turkish-Syrian dimension ratcheted up further pressure, peace envoy Kofi Annan said on Friday he was "optimistic" that crisis talks in Geneva on Saturday would produce an acceptable outcome, which has so far proved elusive. 

Turkey to help 'liberate the Syrians from dictatorship'

Regional analysts said that while neither Turkey nor its NATO allies appeared to have any appetite to enforce a formal no-fly zone over Syrian territory, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan had made it clear Assad would be risking what he called the 'wrath' of Turkey if its aircraft strayed close to its borders. 

Recently, there were clashes close to the border between Syrian forces and rebels. Last weekend, Damascus said "terrorists" infiltrating from Turkey were killed and there have been reports of Syrian forces shooting into camps for refugees in Turkey. 

Turkey, sheltering some 34,000 Syrian refugees and providing bases for the rebel Free Syria Army (FSA), is in the forefront of the efforts to bring down Assad. 

Syrian tanks mass 
Rebel sources in Turkey's Hatay region said Assad's helicopters attacked Saraqeb, a strategic town deep in Idlib province, but kept away from the area directly along the Turkish border in the rural regions of Idlib and Aleppo provinces. 

Neither Turkey, which fears a local clash escalating into a regional sectarian conflagration, nor Syria, has any interest in a confrontation on their shared border. 

Ankara, which has the second biggest army in NATO, called an emergency NATO meeting after its warplane was shot down. 

Turkey has in the past talked about creating a humanitarian corridor on Syrian territory if refugee flows became dangerously unmanageable or the scale of killing in Syria became intolerable. But it had always said this would require international endorsement. 

"NATO just doesn't look like it's in the mood," David Hartwell, Middle East analyst, IHS Jane's, said. "What you might get is the Turks forcing a de facto no-fly zone." 

Erdogan announced earlier this week that he had issued new rules of engagement to his border troops and said any Syrian military elements approaching Turkish borders and deemed a threat would be treated as a target. But he failed, perhaps deliberately, to specify how close Syrian forces could come to the border before becoming vulnerable. 

"The Syrians might accept a very narrow zone along the border. Syria will remain very reluctant to get involved in any conflict with Turkey. They would be up against a very serious military foe," Malcolm Chalmers, research director at Britain's Royal United Services Institute, said. 

The world has been accused by Syrian opposition activists of inertia over the bloodshed. Diplomacy has failed to produce agreement between Western powers, backing the opposition, and Russia, which has used its U.N. veto to block Western and Sunni Arab moves to drive Assad from power. 

Reuters and msnbc.com's F. Brinley Bruton contributed to this report.

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Interpol via AP

Britain's High Court on Thursday blocked a U.S. bid to extradite Shawn Sullivan to Minnesota, saying the state's restrictive treatment program for sex offenders was too draconian.

LONDON -- Minnesota prosecutors' efforts to have a convicted sexual predator brought to trial in the United States were thwarted on Thursday when Britain's High Court dropped extradition proceedings, saying the U.S. hadn't guaranteed the suspect would be kept out a program some deem draconian. 

Shawn Sullivan, 43, is accused of molesting two girls and raping a third in the 1990s in Minnesota. Sullivan fled the United States and eventually ended up in London, where authorities caught up to him two years ago. 

Judges Alan Moses and David Eady said in a ruling finalized Thursday that if Sullivan were returned to the U.S., he could face a real risk of being placed in the state's civil commitment program -- which provides for the indefinite detention of people found to be sexually dangerous -- and suffer "a flagrant denial of his rights." 

'Slap in the face'
One of Sullivan's accusers called the decision "a slap in the face." 

"That whole argument is just irrational," Jessica Schaefer, 29, told The Associated Press. Sullivan allegedly molested her and her cousin when they were both 11.

"It's just another loophole in the justice system that caters to the criminals. All they have to do is find a loophole or a technicality and they walk. ... "I feel like I'm just pleading for justice, and I'm not getting anywhere." 

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The AP does not identify alleged victims of sexual assault without their consent. The Minnesota women Sullivan is accused of attacking as children agreed to let the AP use their names. 

Two Minnesota prosecutors in the counties where Sullivan faces charges defended their decision not to guarantee Sullivan would be kept out of the program, saying it was "not in the interests of public safety." 

"I think it's way beyond reasonableness for them to interfere in how we conduct business," said Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman. 

Irish conviction
Sullivan escaped to Ireland as prosecutors prepared to file charges, and while staying there was convicted of sexually assaulting two 12-year-old girls. Sullivan, a dual U.S.-Irish citizen, moved to London using an Irish passport that spelled his last name in Gaelic as "O'Suilleabhain." 

The British judges made clear in an earlier decision that they would have supported Sullivan's extradition had it not been for the sex treatment program, which they described as among the toughest in the U.S. 

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The program, which began in its current form in the mid-1990s, allows courts to commit a person for sex offender treatment if a judge decides the person is sexually psychopathic or sexually dangerous. As of April 1, 641 people were in Minnesota's program. 

The program faces constitutional challenges by some who say it holds people indefinitely after their prison sentences. One 64-year-old man received a provisional discharge earlier this year when he was allowed to move into a Minneapolis-area halfway house. Only one other person was ever released from the program, and was soon taken back into custody on a violation. 

The justices in London outlined a litany of concerns in their June 20 decision, noting offenders don't have to be mentally ill to be committed; their offenses don't have to be recent; and in some cases, they don't even have to have been convicted of a crime. 

UK judge Moses said on Thursday that "the United States will not provide an assurance," thus allowing Sullivan's appeal, according to The Independent newspaper.

"The appellant will be discharged from the proceedings," the judge said, according to the paper.

'Open the floodgates'
Officials with the Minnesota Department of Human Services said they don't know of any instances where someone without a criminal conviction has been placed in the program, though they acknowledged it's theoretically possible. 

Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom, who charged Sullivan with molesting the 11-year-old girls, said authorities hadn't decided whether to pursue civil commitment. However, he said making such a guarantee "could open the floodgates." 

"It's a very slippery slope to go down once you start making agreements," Backstrom said.

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Peter Wold, Sullivan's criminal defense attorney in Minnesota, said the British judges balked at the prospect of indefinite detention. "That offended them, and it should offend a lot of people, to have the prospect of people being committed with no end in sight," he said. 

Human rights concerns periodically complicate efforts by U.S. prosecutors to extradite suspects. For example, European Union countries typically won't extradite suspects who could face capital punishment to the U.S. unless American prosecutors give assurances they won't seek the death penalty. 

Still, Bruce Zagaris, a Washington, D.C.,-based attorney specializing in international criminal law, said this was one of the first cases he had seen in which the U.K. has said no to extradition. 

"I think foreign courts no longer give us the benefit of the doubt," Zagaris said.

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Sullivan still faces a civil case in Minnesota, and Michael Hall III, the attorney representing the three alleged victims, said he expects that to go forward. He said significant punitive damages are possible. 

Sullivan's attorney in the civil case was out of the office Thursday and did not return a message. 

Hannah Treziok, who was 14 when she says Sullivan raped her, said she was disappointed with the British court's ruling but that she had prepared herself for this possibility. 

"The reality is, we, the victims, have for 18 years been fighting the good fight, and there is no shame in that," she said. "Even though it is not the exact outcome that we desired ... we brought him out of the shadows and exposed him for who and what he really is." 

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

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Erin Conway-Smith/AP, file

Chimpanzees sit in an enclosure at the Chimp Eden rehabilitation center, near Nelspruit, South Africa in this Feb 2011 photo.

An American studying chimpanzee behavior in South Africa was “fighting for his life” after he was attacked by two of the animals, according to a report.

The chimpanzees dragged the man for more than a mile, under a fence and into their enclosure at Jane Goodall Institute Chimp Eden near Nelspruit, The Telegraph newspaper reported.

The paper said the victim of the attack had not been named. However, it said it understood he was a “young university student from the United States who had been observing the animals at the reserve for several weeks.”

Jeffrey Wicks, a spokesman for private ambulance firm Netcare911, told the Telegraph that witnesses said the man was leading a group of tourists when the attack happened.

"A ranger at a chimpanzee sanctuary near Nelspruit is fighting for his life after he was attacked by two frenzied animals while leading a tour group at the park this afternoon," he added. "According to eyewitnesses, two chimpanzees grabbed the man by his feet and pulled him under the perimeter fence and into the enclosure."

Armed escorts for paramedics
Paramedics needed armed escorts as they went in to treat the victim, NBC’s Rohit Kachroo reported. It was unclear whether this caused any delay.

The victim was stabilized at the scene and taken by ambulance to a private hospital in Nelspruit, NBC said. There have been no similar attacks at the reserve, which opened more than six years ago.

David Oosthuizen, Jane Goodall Institute executive director, confirmed the reserve was on lock down following the incident, The Telegraph said.

"We understand that the gentleman is stable and we really feel for him," he told the paper. "This has been very upsetting for everyone – it is just horrific. We are an organization that's respected worldwide for the work we do so anything like this is very bad."

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He added that some of the animals kept there had been abused before they were rescued and taken to the institute.

"These chimpanzees have six times the strength of a human being so you have to respect them and we certainly do," he said.

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The United States on Thursday gave China and Singapore six-month reprieves from sanctions over importing Iranian oil.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton commended the two Asian countries for "significantly" reducing the oil purchases. Eighteen other governments have received similar waivers designed to pressure Iran to curb its nuclear program by choking off its oil revenues.

The West believes Iran aims to develop nuclear weapons. Tehran says its nuclear activities are solely for peaceful purposes such as generating electricity and medical isotopes.

Reductions by all 20 countries showed that Iran was paying a high price for its nuclear program, Clinton said.

"Their cumulative actions are a clear demonstration to Iran's government that Iran's continued violation of its international nuclear obligations carries an enormous economic cost," Clinton said in a statement.

“According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), Iran's crude oil exports in 2011 were approximately 2.5 million barrels per day, and have dropped to roughly 1.5 million barrels per day, which in real terms means almost $8 billion in lost revenues every quarter,” she said. “When the European Union oil embargo goes into effect July 1, Iran's leaders will understand even more fully the urgency of the choice they face and the unity of the international community.”

Alexander F. Yuan / AP

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is shown in Beijing on May 4.

Belgium, Britain, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, India, Malaysia, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and Turkey earlier received waivers.

The latest waivers came as an American deadline arrived for banks to stop processing petroleum transactions with Tehran.

China buys up to a fifth of Iran's oil exports and Singapore buys Iranian fuel oil.

The Republican chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee said the Obama administration was giving Beijing a "free pass."

"The administration likes to pat itself on the back for supposedly being strong on Iran sanctions," said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, of Florida. "But actions speak louder than words, and today the administration has granted a free pass to Iran's biggest enabler, China, which purchases more Iranian crude than any other country."

Technical talks over Iran’s nuclear program resume in Turkey next week.

This article includes reporting by Reuters and The Associated Press. 

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