Just a week after scientists reported with alarm that 97 percent of Greenland had seen ice melting on the surface in mid-July, new data shows that after a brief refreeze much of the massive ice sheet has again seen melt.

Temperatures again warmed above freezing at key points between July 24-31, according to data provided to NBC News by Konrad Steffen, director of the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research.

Thomas Mote, a climatologist at the University of Georgia at Athens, added that satellite imagery showed that the week peaked on Saturday with 74 percent of the giant ice sheet seeing melt. 

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Typically, about a quarter of the ice sheet has melt on any given day in July, he noted.

"This event was almost as impressive as earlier this month, but didn't have quite as much melt in the north and northwest," Mote told NBC News.

"The big issue is simply the total amount of melt going on this summer, as opposed to any one day," he said. "Overall, we've had much earlier-than-normal and more extensive melting on Greenland this summer."

Like the mid-July melt, this one coincided with an "impressive ridge" of warm air sitting over Greenland, Mote noted.

Related story: 97 percent of Greenland sees ice melt

Mote said he's anxious to see satellite data at the end of summer showing any change to Greenland's total ice mass. "I would expect a very large loss of mass from the ice sheet this summer," he said.

Greenland ice cores do reveal that such thaws have happened every 150 years or so, but the fear now is that it might occur much more frequently due to warming sea and air temperatures. 

"If we continue to observe melting events like this in upcoming years, it will be worrisome," NASA glaciologist Lora Koenig said last week when the first data were released.

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Two car bombs ripped into a busy intersection and a public square in Baghdad on Tuesday, killing at least 19 people a week after a wave of deadly bombings highlighted Iraq's struggle with militant groups.

Clouds of dark smoke rose above the center of the capital where the bombs exploded just minutes apart, leaving dead and wounded lying in the street and slumped inside a damaged minibus, witnesses and police said.

Violence in Iraq has coincided with intensifying bloodshed in neighboring Syria, where Iraqi officials warn some Sunni Muslim insurgents are heading, and with calls by al-Qaida's local Iraqi affiliate for a renewed campaign of attacks.

Three young men in blood-stained T-shirts searched for a friend near the wreckage of one of Tuesday's blasts in Baghdad and women in traditional abaya gowns screamed out the name of a missing relative, a Reuters reporter at the scene said.

"We were in a patrol when we heard the first explosion. The second explosion hit another square, and we went to help... There was a minibus with six dead passengers inside it," said Ahmed Hassan, a police officer.

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The explosions followed attacks and bombings in Baghdad and across the country on July 23 that killed more than 100 people in a coordinated surge of violence against mostly Shi'ite Muslim targets. An al-Qaida affiliate known as the Islamic State of Iraq claimed responsibility.

Wave of attacks kills more than 100 across Iraq

Violence has eased since sectarian killings reached their height in 2006-2007 when tens of thousands of Sunnis and Shiites were slain.

But insurgents have carried out a major attack at least once a month since the last U.S. troops left Iraq in December, nine years after the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

US vets mix regret, detachment on Iraq violence

Al-Qaida often targets Shiite pilgrims or religious sites in an attempt to stir up sectarian tensions or to show that Iraq's armed forces are unable to protect civilians.

Last month was one of the bloodiest since the U.S. withdrawal, with at least 237 people killed and 603 wounded.

Iraq's violence often feeds into political tensions.

Full international coverage from NBCNews.com

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a Shiite, is fending off attempts by Sunni and Kurdish rivals to vote him out of office, threatening to scuttle a fragile power-sharing agreement.

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On the run and with three countries seeking his arrest, the captain of an anti-whaling group is claiming Germany was ready to sacrifice him to Japan and that a former crew member convicted by Japan had become a traitor by providing "false evidence."

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society founder Paul Watson said he was in "a safe place" after fleeing house arrest in Germany earlier this month when he learned that Japan was also seeking his extradition. Watson was being held on an earlier extradition request from Costa Rica.

With its own "Whale Wars" TV show on the Animal Planet network, Sea Shepherd is best known for its annual clashes with Japan's whaling fleet.

In 2010, Peter Bethune, the captain of one of its ships, was put on trial in Japan for boarding a Japanese whaling ship.

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In his letter to supporters, Watson said Germany and Japan had conspired against him.

"The German government said I betrayed their trust by leaving Germany, yet they had already betrayed my trust," he stated. "The German politicians had made up their minds politically before the German court had made a decision, and during the time I was held in Germany, the Japanese negotiated with Germany to file for an extradition order to Japan on fabricated evidence provided by former Sea Shepherd Crewmember, Peter Bethune."

Watson then accused Bethune of cooperating "to provide false evidence to the Japanese Coast Guard to blame me for the boarding actions, despite the on-camera documentation that I specifically advised against the boarding by Bethune."

Bethune countered in comments to NBC News that "to blame me for his (Watson's) predicament is farcical."

"I had Paul's express permission to run the mission and board the Shonan Maru," he added. "For him to say he was against it or he ordered me not to is false.  Japan has so much evidence against Paul -- various press releases, statements by Paul, footage."

"I have not seen any footage where he says don't go," Bethune said in response to the allegation of video showing Watson advising him not to board. "Paul asked my to skydive off the helicopter onto the Nisshin Maru (another Japanese ship) for goodness sake."

Bethune was convicted but given a suspended sentence, and has since returned to his native New Zealand and started his own environmental group, Earthrace Conservation.

Watson was detained in Germany in May on a Costa Rican warrant accusing him of endangering the crew of a Costa Rican fishing vessel in 2002.

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MOSCOW -- Russian investigators charged street protest leader Alexei Navalny with theft Tuesday and banned him from leaving the country, threatening a heavy jail term in what supporters say is a growing crackdown on dissent by President Vladimir Putin.

Navalny, an anti-corruption blogger who has organized demonstrations that have dented Putin's authority, dismissed the charge as absurd and other opposition leaders accused Putin of using KGB-style tactics to try to silence his critics.

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Other moves which the opposition depict as a crackdown on dissent since Putin began a six-year term in May include a law increasing fines for protesters, closer controls of the Internet and tighter rules for foreign-funded campaign and lobby groups.

Russia's federal Investigative Committee said in a statement that Navalny, 36, had been charged over the theft of timber from a state firm while he was advising a regional governor in 2009, and he could face a 10-year sentence.

"I have been charged and ordered not to leave," Navalny said after emerging from the Investigative Committee headquarters, where he had been summoned for the presentation of what he had expected would be a less severe charge.

"This is really quite absurd and very strange because they have completely changed the essence of the accusation, compared to what it was before," Navalny, who had been questioned repeatedly since the case was opened in 2010, told reporters.

He made clear he would not be silenced. "I will continue to do what I have been doing, and in this sense nothing changes for me," said Navalny, who is also a lawyer. "We believe that what is happening now is illegal. We will use the methods of legal defense at our disposal. What else can we do?"

From March 2012: Anti-Putin activists pay high price, but refuse to back down

Leading voice of dissent
Navalny is one of the few people seen as capable of emerging as a viable leader of the fractious opposition, although critics say he has nationalist tendencies.

He gained prominence by fighting corruption at state-controlled companies and used the Internet to do so, appealing to a tech-savvy generation of urban Russians who have turned away from the mainstream media.

Before parliamentary elections last December he helped to energize a struggling opposition, popularizing a phrase referring to the ruling United Russia party, then headed by Putin, as the "party of swindlers and thieves."

'Serious problems' with vote that kept Putin in power, monitors say

He was also among the leaders of large protests prompted by allegations of fraud in the election on behalf of United Russia, which saw its big majority in parliament cut to a handful of seats despite the accusations that it had cheated.

'Mortal fear'
"This case has been fabricated from beginning to end," said Boris Nemtsov, a former deputy prime minister who is a prominent Putin opponent. "The true reason for what is happening is Putin's mortal fear of losing power. ... He is wildly afraid of the opposition, including Navalny."

More Europe coverage from NBCNews.com

In a reference to the Cheka secret police, a precursor of the Soviet KGB, Nemtsov said: "Putin is using traditional Chekist methods. ... Fabricated cases, charges, arrests, jail."

Putin won a presidential election on March 4 despite the largest protests since the start of his 12-year rule, during which he has served as president for eight years and as prime minister for four. At times attendance at the rallies reached more than 100,000, witnesses said, although they have become less frequent since Putin returned to power.

But opponents say a series of steps he has taken in recent months to tighten control show the former KGB agent is worried about losing his grip on the world's largest country.

Punk rockers go on trial over anti-Putin church protest

Tough censorship law
Putin, who has repeatedly warned against rocking the boat in speeches since his election, signed a law on Monday toughening punishment for defamation and another on Tuesday that opponents say could be used to censor the Internet.

More Russia coverage from NBCNews.com

In a case which critics say will indicate how he plans to treat opponents during his new term, three women from the punk band "Pussy Riot" went on trial Monday over an unsanctioned protest performance at the altar of Russia's main cathedral, where they called on the Virgin Mary to "throw Putin out!"

Their trial entered its second day Tuesday in a Moscow court, and they face up to seven years in jail over a protest they say was aimed against the close relationship between Putin and the Russian Orthodox Church.

Navalny had been detained and served brief terms in custody several times over administrative offenses linked to the protests, but had never been charged with a more serious crime.

Complete international coverage on NBCNews.com

Lawyers for Navalny had said Friday they expected he would be charged over the case in Kirov province. But they had expected him to face a different charge punishable by up to five years in jail, rather than 10.

The Investigative Committee said more than 10,000 cubic meters of timber were stolen as the result of a plot between Navalny and two company chiefs, causing the regional government to lose more than 16 million roubles ($497,000).

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Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

LONDON -- A British teenager was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of making "malicious" remarks, after a death threat to U.K. Olympic medal hopeful Tom Daley appeared on Twitter. 

The profanity-strewn tweets -- on an account NBC News has chosen not to identify -- also included the claim that the athlete had let down his dead father after Daley came fourth in the men's synchronized 10-meter dive.

Daley rose to fame in the U.K. when he competed at the 2008 Beijing Games at the age of 14.

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Shortly after Monday's final, a message appeared on the Twitter account saying, “@TomDaley1994 you let your dad down i hope you know that.” 

The account was available to only confirmed followers Tuesday, but retweets of some of the messages showed the abuse continued with one talking about drowning Daley in a swimming pool.

The messages are part of an increasing trend in which celebrities and others are abused by so-called "trolls," who send abusive messages behind the seeming anonymity of social media sites.

Daley retweeted the message about his father and said “After giving it my all...you get idiot's sending me this.”

He then retweeted a number of messages from people calling for the Twitter account involved to be banned.

More London 2012 coverage from NBCNews.com

Daley still has a chance of a medal in the individual diving event.

Daley’s father Rob, 40, died from brain cancer in May 2011.

'Dad was so supportive'
Before the Olympics, Daley spoke to BBC News about how his father "gave me all the inspiration that I've needed.”

“Winning a medal would make all the struggles that I've had worthwhile. It's been my dream since a very young age to compete at an Olympics,” Daley said.

“I'm doing it for myself and my dad. It was both our dreams from a very young age. I always wanted to do it and Dad was so supportive of everything. It would make it extra special to do it for him,” he added.

Don't tweet if you want TV, London Olympic fans told

As news of the offensive tweet began to spread, a message directed at Daley appeared on the Twitter account saying “I'm sorry mate i just wanted you to win cause its the olympics I'm just annoyed we didn't win I'm sorry tom accept my apology.”

“Please i don't want to be hated I'm just sorry you didn't win i was rooting for you pal to do britain all proud just so upset,” it added.

The brief description of the Twitter account holder, who has nearly 50,000 followers, apparently quotes another tweeter as saying he was “gorgeous and the sweetest boy ever."

Dorset Police said in a message on its Twitter account that a “17-year-old man arrested this morning at a guest house in the Weymouth area” in relation to “tweets to @TomDaley1994,” adding that the investigation was ongoing.

A spokeswoman for Dorset Police told NBCNews.com that the teen was held on suspicion of making "malicious communications."

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Updated 7:17 a.m. ET: WARSAW, Poland -- Capping a weeklong foreign trip, Mitt Romney on Tuesday praised the people of Poland for marching toward "economic liberty and smaller government" rather than "heeding the false promise of a government-dominated economy."

In a speech Tuesday in Poland's capital, Warsaw, the Republican presidential candidate also lauded Poland for its higher living standards and strong military.

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The presumptive Republican nominee’s thee-country trip had been intended to project the image of a leader ready to stand on the world's stage but has been sidelined somewhat over alleged missteps in Britain and Israel.

Romney's comments in Poland fit into his campaign's themes of smaller government, reduced federal spending and fewer regulations on business. He says Poland is thriving because it sought to "stimulate innovation, attract investment, expand trade and live within its means."

Romney compliments Olympic preparation after tizzy in British press

Romney said Poland's success was a reminder that "free enterprise can propel an economy and transform a society."

Earlier Tuesday, Romney met with Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski. The two men discussed the longstanding ties between the two nations as well as the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan.

Poland has also been a significant contributor to military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"On behalf of our countrymen, I express deep appreciation for your willingness to fight with us, to stand with us, and to be our friends in times of crisis and military conflict," Romney said.

"Poland has excellent ties with the United States, regardless of which American party is in power," Sikorski said. "We remember Ronald Reagan's warm feelings for Poland's Solidarity and also the fact that we joined (NATO) during Bill Clinton's term."

The two-day trip to Poland is aimed at Polish-American and Catholic voters in the United States and highlighted Romney's stance toward Russia. He has labeled Russia as America's "No. 1 geopolitical foe," a characterization that's not unwelcome in a country that still fears Russia. Poles generally have been skeptical of President Barack Obama's "reset" with Russia, and Romney has cited Polish concerns in his criticism of Obama.

As a former Soviet Bloc nation that has been subjugated by bigger European powers throughout history, Poland remains particularly worried about Russian policy.

Full international coverage on NBCNews.com

Romney received words of encouragement on his visit to Poland on Monday from Lech Walesa, a former union leader and ex-Polish president, who said: "I wish you to be successful because this success is needed for the United States of course, but for Europe and the rest of the world too. Governor Romney, get your success. Be successful."

But Solidarity, the union led by Walesa in the 1980s that helped topple communism in Poland, distanced itself from Romney, who it said "supported attacks on trade unions and employees' rights."

Romney angers Palestinians
Earlier, Romney was forced to fight off controversy after he called Jerusalem the Israeli capital and said later that differences in culture powered Israel's economic success compared with the Palestinians.

Both comments angered Palestinian leaders, just days after Romney annoyed Britons during a stop in London by questioning their readiness to host the Olympic Games.

The United States is the dominant broker in efforts -- paralyzed since 2008 -- to set up a Palestinian state through negotiations with Israel, and Palestinian leaders do not want to antagonize key players, including Romney.

More on London 2012: Hosting the Olympic Games

However, Romney's comments on Sunday about Jerusalem prompted a strong response.

The Palestinians want to establish a capital in east Jerusalem, captured and annexed by Israel in 1967. Most of the world, including the United States, does not recognize the annexation. Every U.S. administration since Lyndon Johnson has decided to keep the American embassy in Tel Aviv.

McCain: Israeli-Palestinian differences have 'nothing to do with cultures'

But on Sunday, Romney said flat out that Jerusalem is Israel's capital and strongly suggested he would move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem if he were president, supporting two key Israeli demands.

The fate of Jerusalem is one of the main sticking points in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will not give up any part of the city, taking a harder line than two of his predecessors who were ready to discuss partition.

Previous U.S. presidential candidates, including then-Sen. Obama in June 2008, have referred to Jerusalem as Israel's capital ahead of elections, only to row back when taking power and suggest the issue should be resolved by negotiations.

Romney: US has duty to protect Israel

Seeking American Jewish and fundamentalist Christian votes, Romney has criticized Obama on Israel, alleging last year that the president had "thrown Israel under a bus" in pushing hard for a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians.

In 2008, Obama won 78 percent of the Jewish vote, a lead into which Romney's campaign would love to make inroads.

Romney points to 'culture' gap
Romney pointed to the big difference in wealth between Israel and the Palestinians and suggested Israel's culture was the reason for the gap.

More coverage of the Middle East and North Africa on NBCNews.com

"If you could learn anything from the economic history of the world, it's this: culture makes all the difference," he told a fundraising event in Jerusalem.

The chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat said that Romney's comments amounted to "a racist statement that shows a lack of knowledge."

He added, "Everyone knows that the Palestinians cannot reach their full potential given the Israeli restrictions imposed on them."

Mitt Romney visits Western Wall, one of holiest sites in Judaism

A senior aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Nabil Abu Rdeineh, said Romney's statements were unhelpful, stood in the way of a peace settlement and "contradict the previous positions held by the American administration."

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a chief Romney foreign policy surrogate, appeared to differ with Romney even as he tried to defend him.

"I am sure that Gov. Romney was not talking about difference in cultures, or difference in anybody superior or inferior," McCain said Monday in Tampa, Fla. "What I'm sure Gov. Romney was talking was that the Israeli economy has grown and prospered in a dramatic fashion. And unfortunately, the Palestinians have not had that same economic development."

White House: Some 'scratching their heads' over Romney comments

McCain continued: "And that goes to the leadership of the Palestinians. ... And we also know that the Palestinian people have not been blessed with the kind of government that has lower regulations, less taxes, entrepreneurship, which have caused the Israeli economy to be one of the world's most successful. It has nothing to do with cultures. It has nothing to do with superiority or inferiority."

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

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Updated at 11:10 a.m. ET: NEW DELHI -- Half of India's 1.2 billion people were without power Tuesday as the grids covering 19 states broke down, the second major blackout in as many days.

Stretching from Assam, near China, to the Himalayas and the northwestern deserts of Rajasthan, the outage was the worst to hit India in more than a decade and embarrassed the government, which has failed to build up enough power capacity to meet soaring demand.

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The power loss includes grid failures in northern, eastern and northeastern India.

"Even before we could figure out the reason for yesterday's failure, we had more grid failures today," said R. N. Nayak, chairman of the state-run Power Grid Corporation. 

By the afternoon rush hour, only about 40 percent of power was back up. Electricity had not been restored to all of the sweltering capital, New Delhi, and streets were clogged with commuters trying to get home.

"It's certainly shameful. Power is a very basic amenity and situations like these should not occur," said Unnayan Amitabh, 19, an intern with HSBC bank in New Delhi, as he was giving up on the underground train system and flagging down an auto-rickshaw to get home.

"They (politicians) talk about big ticket reforms but can't get something as essential as power supply right," Amitabh said.

Temperatures in New Delhi have been about average for this time of year, hovering in the 90s with some rain. But the rains from the June-September monsoon season, which is the primary source of irrigation for most of India's farmlands, have been about 20 percent below average up to this point, according to The Economic Times, India's top financial paper.

Among the states hit hard are agricultural areas such as wheat-belt Punjab and Uttar Pradesh in the Ganges plains, which has a larger population than Brazil. With less rain to irrigate crops, more farmers resort to electric pumps to draw water from wells.

Dozens die as blaze engulfs overnight train in India

Miners trapped
Two hundred miners were stranded in three deep coal shafts in the state of West Bengal when their electric elevators stopped working. Eastern Coalfields Limited official Niladri Roy said workers at the mines, one of which is 3,000 feet deep, were not in danger and were being taken out.

Train stations in Kolkata were swamped and traffic jammed the streets after government offices closed early in the dilapidated coastal city of 5 million people.

The power failed in some major city hospitals and office buildings had to fire up diesel generators.

By mid-evening, services had been restored on the New Delhi metro system. 

"At one level it is not all that dramatic because most people do have backups because our power system is prone to breakdowns. What is dramatic today is that it has happened across the country," Himangshu Watts, the energy editor for The Economic Times told NBC News.

"In big cities like Delhi all the hospitals will have backup generation. ... What I'm concerned about (is) what would happen in ... surgery in a small town," he said.

PhotoBlog: India's new president takes office

Power cuts at major hospitals
Nineteen of India's 28 states with a total population of more than 600 million people suffered outages on Tuesday, India's NDTV said, with the lights out even at major hospitals in Kolkata.

Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde blamed the system collapse on some states drawing more than their share of electricity from the overstretched grid. Asia's third-largest economy suffers a peak-hour power deficit of about 10 percent, dragging on economic growth.

"This is the second day that something like this has happened. I've given instructions that whoever overdraws power will be punished," Shinde said.

A staffer at the Indian Ministry of Power told NBC News that Tuesday's outage, which occurred just after 2 p.m. (4:30 a.m. ET), was still being repaired.

On Monday, India was forced to buy extra power from the tiny neighboring kingdom of Bhutan to help it recover from that blackout, which hit more than 300 million people.

Creaky infrastructure
Power shortages and a creaky road and rail network have also weighed heavily on the country's efforts to industrialize. Grappling with the slowest economic growth in nine years, India recently scaled back a target to pump $1 trillion into infrastructure over the next five years.

Full coverage of international news on NBCNews.com

Major industries have dedicated power plants or large diesel generators and are shielded from outages -- but the inconsistent supply hits investment and disrupts small businesses.

High consumption of heavily subsidized diesel by farmers and businesses has fueled a gaping fiscal deficit that the government has vowed to tackle to restore confidence in the economy. But the poor monsoon season means a subsidy cut is politically difficult.

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

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Updated at 5:39 a.m. ET: LONDON -- Olympic spectators traveling to the Games in London faced delays Tuesday after a faulty train temporarily forced the closure of one of the busiest underground links to the Olympic Park.

There have been concerns over whether London's public transport system, the busiest in Europe, would be able to handle the rush of spectators attending the Games.

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The system appeared to cope well with the crowds on Monday.

Operator Transport for London told NBC News in a statement that the Central Line service, which stretches east to west across the city, was temporarily halted east of Liverpool Street station on Tuesday after a driver reported smelling smoke.

The driver's train was taken out of service at Leyton, one stop to the east of the Stratford station which is being used as the hub for people arriving at the Olympic Park.

London Olympic VIP lanes not needed as many turn to public transit

Alternate routes
Although Transport for London told NBC that Central Line services resumed within hours, the line continued to suffer delays. Staff advised Olympic fans to travel to the park via a number of other rail routes, Transport for London said in a statement.

More on London 2012: Hosting the Games

British Transport Police said the problem may have been due to smoke coming from the train's brakes.

London's entire transit network handles an average of 12 million trips a day. 

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

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BAMAKO, Mali -- An al-Qaida-linked Islamist militant group in control of northern Mali stoned to death a couple accused of engaging in extramarital affairs, the group's spokesman said.

The couple were publicly executed in the remote town of Aguelhok, near the vast West African nation's northern border with Algeria, on Sunday, a spokesman for the Ansar Dine group told Reuters.

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"These two people were married and had extra-conjugal relations. Our men on the ground in Aguelhok applied shariah (Islamic law)," said Sanda Ould Bounama, reached by telephone on Monday.

"They both died right away and even asked for this application. We don't have to answer to anyone over the application of shariah," he said.

Al-Qaida-linked fighters destroy 'end of the world' gate in Timbuktu

A local government official told the AFP news agency that he was on the scene. "The Islamists took the unmarried couple to the center of Aguelhok. The couple was placed in two holes and the Islamists stoned them to death," he said.

"The woman fainted after the first few blows," he said. The man shouted out once and then was silent, he added.

Coup topples 'incompetent regime': Soldiers seize power in Mali

Most people living in northern Mali have long practiced Islam, but frustrations with the strict form of shariah being imposed by Islamists have sparked several protests in recent months.

Ansar Dine and well-armed allies, including al-Qaida splinter group MUJWA, have hijacked a separatist uprising by local Tuareg rebels and now control two-thirds of Mali's desert north, territory that includes the regions of Gao, Kidal and Timbuktu.

NYT: African Afghanistan? Thousands flee Mali as jihadists tighten their grip

Western and African governments are struggling to muster a response to the crisis as politicians in the capital Bamako continue to squabble over how the country should be governed after a March coup removed the country's president.

NBCNews.com staff contributed to this report from Reuters.

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Peru has again become the top producer of pure cocaine in the world, outpacing Colombia, where output fell by an estimated 25 percent in a year, according to a White House report issued Monday.

Drug czar Gil Kerlikowske, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, said Monday that potential cocaine production in Colombia was down by 72 percent since 2001. Colombia now ranks third, behind Bolivia in addition to Peru.

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"Potential production of pure cocaine in Colombia is down to 195 metric tons (in 2011) from 700 metric tons in 2001, the lowest production potential level since 1994 and the first time since 1995 that Colombia is producing less cocaine than either Peru or Bolivia," Kerlikowske said in a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. 

In the 1980s and 1990s, Peru was the leading producer of cocaine. 

The United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime released an estimate last week that Colombia could produce 345 metric tons of cocaine in 2011. 

Kerlikowske' s office said the drop in Colombia cocaine production has coincided with a decline in U.S. cocaine overdose deaths, positive workplace drug tests, the purity of cocaine available for street purchase and domestic cocaine seizures. 

"Let me add some context to these results. They didn't happen overnight, there was a sustained effort requiring nearly a decade of steady, strategic pressure across more than one administration in both the United States and Colombia." 

But while he called the decrease in production in South America was encouraging, he said the fight against Mexico's drug cartels "pose a significant challenge."

"These numbers are certainly heartening, but they should not distract us from the fact that the transnational criminal organizations that supply cocaine are a threat to civil society everywhere, as we've seen with our southern neighbor Mexico," he added. "This Administration condemns the gruesome drug-related violence and is committed to partnering with the Mexican government to disrupt the cartels that commit such brutality."

Mexico's drug war: No sign of 'light at the end of the tunnel'

Plan Colombia
Kerlikowske said the decline in Colombian cocaine production is largely the result of Plan Colombia, a $7.5 billion U.S.-backed effort launched in 1999 to help the South American government crack down on a left-wing insurgency and drug organizations. 

"The results are historic and have tremendous implications, not just for the United States and the Western Hemisphere, really globally," Kerlikowske said. 

"We don't just have a far safer Colombia, we have a vibrant Colombia that is an active partner in helping with the drug and criminal issue in the region," he added.

Colombia President Juan Manuel Santos said the decline is part of his country's overall strategy of cutting off funding sources for drug traffickers. Speaking in the town of Rio Negro, north of Bogota, Colombia, he said it was good news that Colombia is now third in cocaine production. 

Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzon said the government is also making strides in seizing cocaine, pointing to the confiscation of about 300 tons of the drug in the last two years. 

U.S. Ambassador Michael McKinley told El Tiempo newspaper that "the numbers demonstrate historic advances in ending the fight against drugs in Colombia." 

Speaking Monday, Kerlikowske said while the decline in Colombian production is a positive development, it is not a sign that powerful and deadly drug cartels are going out of business. Instead, he said, these groups, including those waging a drug war against each other and the government in Mexico, will "turn to anything illegal that makes money."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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LONDON -- One of Saudi Arabia's first two female Olympians will compete in judo after a deal was reached on an acceptable design for her Islamic headscarf, or hijab, officials said on Monday.

Wojdan Ali Seraj Abdulrahim Shaherkani had said she would not compete in the +78 kilograms (172 pounds) category on Friday unless she was allowed to wear the hijab, but judo officials had refused her request, saying it would be dangerous.

"All three parties agreed this afternoon on the headscarf and she will compete," Razan Baker, a spokeswoman for the Saudi National Olympic Committee, told Reuters. "They agreed on a design and she will compete wearing this design."

---

Shaherkani and Sarah Attar, an 800-meter runner, are the first Saudi women to take part in the Olympics.

Saudi Arabia was one of three countries, along with Brunei and Qatar, never to have sent female athletes to the Olympics. After talks with the IOC, all three sent delegations this year that include women.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Many of London’s dedicated Olympic road lanes, designed to whisk competitors and VIP guests to the Games without being stuck in traffic, have been turned off because many are using public transport instead.

Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, told ITV News on Monday that "a lot" of road lanes dedicated to officials and athletes have been empty, prompting traffic planners to switch off electronic signals prohibiting private cars.

His announcement came as Britain’s prime minister, David Cameron, took an underground train on his journey to watch the men’s diving event at the Aquatic Centre in the Olympic Park, east London.

---

“We've been able to turn off a lot of the Games lanes because so many people are going by public transport," Johnson said.

Military drafted in to fill empty seats at London Olympics

“It turns out a lot of the Olympic bureaucrat types who could go in the Games lanes are using public transport.

“[IOC President] Jacques Rogge, himself, today took the [Docklands Light Railway] and I'm proud to say and a lot of them are doing that, that is good news.”

Read the full story at ITV News

His comments came on the first full weekday of the London Olympics, on which many feared congestion and chaos would ensue. However, none of the transport problems materialized, and many Londoners found underground trains and main stations were quieter than usual – not least because transit planners issued dire warnings of possible long lines.

London Bridge station, a big commuter terminus expected to be busy because of equestrian events at nearby Greenwich Park, was described by BBC London producer Jane Bradley on Twitter as “practically empty” during Monday morning’s commute.

Inside London's Olympic Village: World's top athletes to share college dorm-style rooms

Many VIPs, particularly corporate sponsors, have used ordinary traffic lanes rather than dedicated Olympic Lanes amid fear of public criticism. On Friday, Britain’s transport minister Justine Greening called for sponsors to set an example by using ordinary traffic lanes or public transport.

“I think the prime minister has been absolutely right to encourage ministers to use public transport,” she told reporters. “I have done and I am doing. We want everybody to use it," Greening said.

“I think it would be great if the sponsors could give public transport a go. Frankly, it is a great way to get to the Games; it will get them there quickly, reliably and quickly. We encourage everybody to use public transport.”

The next major test of London’s infrastructure is due on Friday – the first full day of athletics in Stratford's 80,000-seat Olympic stadium.

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ROME – The ancient amphitheater has lasted as an iconic landmark of Rome for almost  2,000 years. It survived the fall of the Roman Empire, countless invasions, World War II bombings and hordes of tourists, who regularly try to nip off pieces of it to take home as souvenirs.

The Colosseum, it has seemed, was just like the city of Rome: eternal.

But a careful and lengthy examination of its structural stability, carried out by Italian geologists, provided a damning verdict: the Colosseum is in fact slanting on one side by 16 inches, and might need urgent repairs before it starts leaning like the Tower of Pisa.  

---

Researchers at Rome's La Sapienza University and the environmental geology institute IGAG first noticed the anomaly one year ago. They now fear there may be a crack in the base below the amphitheater.

"The slab of concrete on which the Colosseum rests, which is like a 13 meter (42 foot) thick oval doughnut, may have a fracture inside it," Giorgio Monti, from La Sapienza's construction technology department, told Italy’s daily newspaper Corriere della Sera. 

The study will continue for another year, but critics are already taking note of the unruly and busy traffic that flows by just a few feet from the Colosseum on a daily basis.

The Colosseum sits in the middle of an important artery that connects the Roman Forum to the Circus Maximus. Tourists and Romans use it heavily, and have turned it into the biggest and most glorified roundabout in the world.  

Fabio Fumagalli, a research coordinator at La Sapienza University, said cars produce more damage than the nearby subway.

“Cars subject the monument to constant vibrations, and speed up its decay, while subway trains at least pass by with intervals of many minutes.”

News of the slanting monument re-ignited criticism over delays in long-planned renovation. There hasn’t been an overall refurbishing of the Colosseum in 73 years, and recent attempts by private sponsors to pay for its re-styling have been met with fierce resistance by government officials, who fought their bid as fiercely as the lions that once roamed in the arena.

Diego della Valle, the Italian designer behind the shoe brand Tod’s, offered to pay $34 million for a face-lift of the Colosseum in exchange for exclusive rights to its image for 15 years.

Despite the initial reluctance by the officials, who felt that selling off the monument to a shoemaker would make gladiators turn in their graves, the deal was finally granted for the sake of the monument.  

Since the beginning of the year, several stones have fallen off the Colosseum, proving it is in urgent need of repair. Following many delays the restoration works were set to start on July 31, but the date has already been moved once, this time to December.

If the Colosseum has been standing there for 2,080 years almost 2,000 years*, officials seem to reason, it can survive another few months.

Correction: Thanks for your comments. We stand corrected. The Colosseum was built around 70-80 AD (not B.C.) so it is almost 2,000 years old - not 2,080 years old. 

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NAIROBI, Kenya - Kenyan police have arrested a Venezuelan diplomat over the killing of the country's acting ambassador in her official residence, the High Court heard Monday.

Venezuela's acting ambassador and charge d'affaires, Olga Fonseca, was found dead in her official residence on Friday. Police said she was strangled, though the motive is unclear.

---

Dwight Sagaray, first secretary at the Venezuelan Embassy, was arrested on Saturday and Kenyan police on Monday made a court application to hold him in custody for another 14 days.

"The suspect was arrested by the police after his diplomatic immunity was waived," deputy prosecutor Tabitha Ouya told the courtroom.

'Investigation is incomplete'
Sagaray, wearing a yellow and green baseball jacket, appeared composed as Venezuelan officials observed the proceedings.

"The investigation is incomplete and (we) require more time to secure crucial evidence and apprehend other suspects," Ouya said.

According to Kenya Capital FM News, Ouya said authorities needed to interrogate more witnesses and also awaited the results of DNA samples taken at the scene of the crime.

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Jotham Arwa, the lawyer representing Sagaray, said the suspect was also a student at the University of Nairobi, Capital FM News said. 

Sagaray was arrested along with five Kenyans who worked at the Embassy but it was unclear whether the local suspects have been charged or released.

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Kenyan Foreign Ministry officials said local staff at the residence had complained to its Diplomatic Police Unit after the new envoy fired them.

Fonseca had sacked them after they refused to retract sexual harassment claims against the former head of the Venezuelan Embassy, the employees said.

Fonseca, 57, had only been the country since July 15, the EFE news agency reported.

Full international news coverage from NBCNews.com

Jose Miguel Reyes, administrative assistant at the Venezuelan Embassy, told EFE that the servants "were never fired," but they had "refused to acknowledge Fonseca's authority" and kept working at the residence anyway.

Judge Florence Muchemi will rule Tuesday whether to remand Sagaray in custody or release him on bail.

Post-mortem results and DNA analysis have not yet reached police investigators, according to court documents.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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U.S. auditors have concluded that more than $200 million was wasted on a program to train Iraqi police that Baghdad says is neither needed nor wanted. 

The Police Development Program -- which was drawn up to be the single largest State Department program in the world -- was envisioned as a five-year, multibillion-dollar push to train security forces after the U.S. military left last December. But Iraqi political leaders, anxious to keep their distance from the Americans, were unenthusiastic. 

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A report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, which was released Monday, found that the American Embassy in Baghdad never got a written commitment from Iraq to participate. Now, facing what the report called Baghdad's "disinterest" in the project, the embassy is gutting what was supposed to be the centerpiece of ongoing U.S. training efforts in Iraq. 

According to the report, the embassy plans to turn over the $108 million Baghdad Police College Annex to Iraqis by the end of the year and will stop training at a $98 million site at the U.S. consulate in the southern city of Basra. Additionally, the number of advisers has been cut by nearly 90 percent - from 350 to 36. 

"A major lesson learned from Iraq is that host country buy-in to proposed programs is essential to the long-term success of relief and reconstruction activities. The (Police Development Program) experience powerfully underscores that point," auditors wrote in a 41-page summary of their inspection. An advance copy was provided to The Associated Press. 

"An overarching question is why expensive construction was initiated at both of these facilities without a formal programmatic agreement in place at the time construction began," the report stated.

US official: Up to $8 billion wasted rebuilding Iraq

Auditors noted that it "has clearly been difficult" for American diplomats to secure a solid commitment from Iraq's government to participate in the training program. Still, the report concluded, "the decision to embark on a major program absent Iraqi buy-in has been costly" and resulted in "a de facto waste." 

From Afghan base to chicken-coop
In a parallel development, The Wall Street Journal reported over the weekend that several U.S.-funded border police stations in Afghanistan had been abandoned or lay unoccupied, according to an American watchdog. (The Wall Street Journal operates behind a paywall) 

The report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction found most of the facilities on three of four bases it inspected "were either unoccupied or weren't used for the intended purposes," the newspaper reported.  One was being used as a chicken-coop, it added.

Shoddy construction and no water supply were at issue in the abandoned or uninhabited bases in eastern Nangahar province, which is in a region that is home to a crucial military supply line. 

The contract to build the four bases was worth nearly $19 million, the newspaper added. 

Largest embassy in world
The findings by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction call into question funding needs at the largest U.S. embassy in the world, as the Obama administration prepares its new spending plan for the 2013 fiscal year that begins Oct 1. While auditors said it's unknown how much the embassy in Baghdad is requesting, additional money for the police program "may not be needed." 

Despite years and billions of dollars of training, Iraq's police force remains a vulnerable target for militants. On Sunday, seven police were killed and nine more wounded in bombings and shootings near the former al-Qaida stronghold of Fallujah, about 40 miles west of Baghdad. It appeared to be the latest strike by the Sunni insurgency as it seeks to reclaim areas where U.S. troops ousted them. 

In a July 26 letter responding to a draft of the report, acting Assistant Secretary of State Carol Z. Perez said the embassy will need an unspecified amount of additional funding this year to continue training Iraqi police into 2013. She disputed the finding that the funds have been wasted, noting Iraqis will continue to use the Baghdad Police College Annex for training. 

From July 23: More than 100 killed on Iraq's bloodiest day of year

Moreover, Perez said, the embassy has been assured by Principal Deputy Interior Minister Adnan al-Asadi that Iraq is committed to a streamlined version of the training program. U.S. diplomats will continue working with top security officials, she said, "to ensure that our police assistance efforts meet mutual goals and objectives and to sustain senior-level Iraqi commitment to the program." 

The auditors, however, said those assurances fall far short of a written commitment, and quoted al-Asadi as telling U.S. inspectors that the police training program is "useless." 

Al-Asadi "also indicated that Iraqi police officers had expressed their opinion that the training received to date was not beneficial," the audit said. 

Al-Asadi could not immediately be reached for comment Sunday and his spokesman declined to discuss the report. But a key member of parliament's security oversight committee said that U.S. training programs are no longer needed by Iraqi police. 

"The Iraqi federal police went through many training courses, in many fields, and that resulted in having many experts and specialist academies," Shiite lawmaker Hakim al-Zamili said. "At this point, we don't need the American expertise, because of the expertise we have now." 

Auditors said the U.S. has spent about $8 billion to train and equip Iraqi police since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. At that time, there were about 58,000 police in Iraq. The report said that number had grown to 412,000 by 2010. Other estimates put the size of Iraq's federal, local and border police force at 650,000. 

The training was led by the American military until last October, just six weeks before U.S. troops left Iraq for good. The embassy took over the program, but with what Monday's report described as "mixed results." 

Iraq orders Voice of America, BBC to close

Iraq's self-rule northern Kurdish region has embraced the program and, as a result, half of the remaining 36 U.S. advisers assigned to police training will be based in the Kurdish capital of Irbil, 215 miles north of Baghdad. 

But restive politics in the central government, whose factions are reluctant to be seen as dependent on American help, have prompted officials to keep the U.S. trainers at arms' length. Some Iraqi officers have been told to skip the police training sessions, the audit said, citing one who blamed "lukewarm relations between the Americans and Iraqis (that) has created some distance between them." 

Stephanie Sanok, who was at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad from 2009 to 2010 and is an expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, called the police training program "doomed from the beginning" because American officials never made sure Iraqis supported it. 

"The U.S. government has a tendency to go ahead with programs that it has decreed are in the host country's best interests," Sanok said. "This was such an expensive program, and there was plenty of time to get the Iraqi government to help shape it in such a way that they could eventually take it over. But we never got that buy-in." 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Updated at 11:32 a.m. ET: Fierce battles between government forces and opposition fighters in Syria’s commercial hub Aleppo have forced an estimated 200,000 civilians to flee the city, according to aid groups.

U.N. Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos, citing reports from the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, said Sunday that she was "extremely concerned by the impact of shelling and use of tanks and other heavy weapons on people in Aleppo."

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"Life in Aleppo has become unbearable. I'm in my car and I'm leaving right now," a Syrian writer told The Associated Press as he got ready to drive away. "There's shelling night and day, every day," he said over the telephone on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

He painted a dire picture of daily life in the embattled city, torn between the government forces and those of the rebels.

"Bread, gasoline and gas are being sold on the black market at very high prices," he said. "Many things are in shortage."

The past two weeks have seen forces of President Bashar Assad struggle to maintain their grip on the country after a major rebel advance into the two main cities, Aleppo and Damascus, and a July 18 explosion that killed four top security officials.

Government forces have succeeded in imposing their grip on Damascus but rebel fighters gained control of parts of Aleppo, a city of 2.5 million people, where journalists have toured neighborhoods dotted with Free Syrian Army checkpoints flying black and white Islamist banners.

Since the rebel assault on Aleppo began a week ago, about 192 people have been killed, mostly civilians, according to the activist group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Some 19,000 people have died since the uprising began, the group says.

The battle for Aleppo, once a bastion of support for Assad's regime, is critical in the struggle for Syria's future. Rebels already control large sections of the neighboring Idlib province, which borders Turkey, and if a major metropolis fell to them it could possibly create the nucleus of some kind of "liberated" territory that could receive further support from the international community — much the way eastern Libya became a rebel sanctuary during the fight against Moammar Gadhafi last year.

Saudis mum on aid center for Syrian rebels

Yet Syria's rebels are still massively outgunned and it seems just a matter of time before Assad's massed forces outside the city crush them, much the way a similar rebel assault on Damascus over a week ago was quashed.

Civilians in need
Amos, of the United Nations, said the violence in the Aleppo region made it difficult for aid agencies to reach civilians in need.

"Many people have sought temporary shelter in schools and other public buildings in safer areas. They urgently need food, mattresses and blankets, hygiene supplies and drinking water," she said in a statement.

"I call on all parties to the fighting to ensure that they do not target civilians and that they allow humanitarian organizations safe access to bring urgent and life-saving help to people caught up in the fighting," Amos added.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said attacks on Aleppo showed Assad lacked the legitimacy to rule.

"If they continue this kind of tragic attack on their own people in Aleppo, I think it ultimately will be a nail in Assad's own coffin," Panetta said, speaking to reporters at the start of a weeklong trip to the Middle East and North Africa.

Rebels dismayed over US statement on Syrian conflict

"What Assad has been doing to his own people and what he continues to do to his own people makes clear that his regime is coming to an end," he said, adding, "It's no longer a question of whether he's coming to an end, it's when."

Scenes of destruction in Aleppo
Fighting for the past several days has focused on the Salaheddine district in the southwest of Aleppo, where government troops have been backed by helicopter gunships.

Rebel fighters, patrolling opposition districts in flat-bed trucks flying green-white-and-black "independence" flags, said they were holding off Assad's forces in Salaheddine. However, the government said it had pushed them out.

"Complete control of Salaheddine has been (won back) from those mercenary gunmen," an unidentified military officer told Syrian state television late Sunday. "In a few days safety and security will return to the city of Aleppo."

Analysts: Syria 'armed to the teeth' with chemical weapons

Reuters journalists in the city were not able to approach the district after nightfall on Sunday to verify whether rebels had been pushed out. The Syrian Observatory for Human rights said fighting was continuing there.

The government also declared victory Sunday in the battle for the capital, which the rebels assaulted in force two weeks ago but have been repulsed in unprecedented fighting.

Cars entering one Aleppo district came under fire from snipers and a Reuters photographer saw three bodies lying in the street. Unable to move them to hospital for fear of shelling, residents had placed frozen water bottles on two of the corpses to slow their decomposition in the baking heat.

A burned-out tank lay in the street, while nearby another one had been captured intact and covered in tarpaulin. Burned cars could be seen in many streets, some marked with "shabbiha" - a reference to pro-Assad militiamen.

Syrian regime’s thugs face retribution

Near the center of town, most shops were shuttered, some with "Strike" painted over them. The only shop doing business was a bakery selling subsidized bread, where the line stretched around the block.

Syria's top diplomat in Britain defects
In London, the British Foreign Office said Monday that Syria's most senior diplomat in the country had defected.

Khaled al-Ayoubi, the embassy's charge d'affaires, told officials that he was not willing to represent Assad's regime any longer.

Full international news coverage on NBCNews.com

"Mr. al-Ayoubi has told us that he is no longer willing to represent a regime that has committed such violent and oppressive acts against its own people," the Foreign Office said. "We urge others around Bashar Al-Assad to follow Mr. al-Ayoubi's example; to disassociate themselves from the crimes being committed against the Syrian people and to support a peaceful and free future for Syria."

Al-Ayoubi's departure represents the latest in a series of diplomatic and other defections from Assad's regime.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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