Jump to September 2012 archive page: 1 2 3 ... 15

  • Russian Orthodox Church to Pussy Riot punk band: Repent before appeal

    Maxim Shemetov / Reuters

    Members of the female punk band Pussy Riot (from right) Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Yekaterina Samutsevich and Maria Alyokhina sit in a glass-walled cage after a court hearing in Moscow, Aug. 17.

    By NBC News and news services

    MOSCOW -- The Russian Orthodox Church on Sunday called for members of the Pussy Riot punk band to repent, on the eve of an appeal court hearing they hope will quash their two-year jail sentences for performing an anti-Kremlin song in Moscow's main cathedral.


    The three women - who belted out a "punk prayer" criticizing President Vladimir Putin's close ties to the Russian Orthodox Church - were convicted of "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred" by a district court on Aug. 17.

    The tough jail sentences they received saw the West sharply criticize Putin and the Kremlin because of doubts over the independence of the judiciary, and global celebrities, including British musician Paul McCartney and U.S. pop singer Madonna, called for leniency for the women.

    Vladimir Legoida, a senior church spokesman, said their stunt "must not remain unpunished whatever the justification," but said that any repentance, if expressed, should be taken into account.

    Protesters put head covers on sculptures in Norway to show their continued support of the jailed Russian punk rock group called "Pussy Riot." NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.

    "The church sincerely wishes for the repentance of those who desecrated a holy place, certainly it would benefit their souls," Legoida said in a speech.

    "If any words of the convicts indicate repentance ... we would wish that they are not left unnoticed and those who violated the law get a chance to mend their ways."

    A church statement after the August verdict indicated that the clergy would back a pardon or a reduced sentence, but that would have required Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, Maria Alyokhina, 24, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, to admit their guilt, something their lawyers say they will not do.

    "If they (the church) mean repentance in the sense of a crime ... it definitely won't happen. Our clients won't admit guilt. A call for that is pointless," lawyer Mark Feigin told independent television channel Dozhd on Sunday.

    Watch World News videos on NBCNews.com

    Earlier this month, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said that keeping the women in prison any longer would be "unproductive" — a statement that encouraged hopes the appeals court could set them free. But skeptics pointed at the Kremlin's ongoing crackdown on dissent, saying that their release would be unlikely.

    A recent official opinion poll showed that more than half of Russians are critical of what Pussy Riot did and consider their two-year jail sentence to be a just one, with less than a third saying the opposite.

    Members of the band Pussy Riot, arrested in February after storming a Moscow cathedral, were sentenced to two years in jail Friday. NBC's Duncan Golestani reports.

    The trio's legal team and relatives hold out little hope that the sentences - which they believe are excessively harsh - will be quashed or reduced at the hearing scheduled for Monday, whether they repent or not.

    "The sentence is predetermined; their repentance will not affect it in any way," Stanislav Samutsevich, father of one of the jailed women, told Reuters.

    "The fact the church is calling for that is nothing but a public relations move to sustain their reputation in the eyes of the public, as the church says it is separate from the state."

    Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, has called Putin's 12-year rule a "miracle of God" and backed his presidential election campaign earlier this year.

    Kirill dismissed criticism of his backing for the Kremlin on Friday, telling students that close ties between the church and state helped protect and develop society.

    Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

    Previous stories:

    Russia PM Medvedev: Pussy Riot members should be freed
    Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi calls for release of Russian punk band Pussy Riot

    More world stories from NBC News:

    Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

    59 comments

    Show more
    Explore related topics: , , , , ,

  • 7.1 magnitude earthquake strikes Colombia

    By NBC News and news services

    Updated at 2:08 p.m. ET: A 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck southwestern Colombia on Sunday, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.   

    The large earthquake rattled residents in the southwest of the Andean nation, but there were no reports of deaths or major damage, authorities said.

    "The USGS has received lots of reports that the quake was felt, but no reports of damage or injuries," USGS geophysicist Paul Caruso told NBC News.

    The quake was centered 28 miles (45 km) south of Popayan, Colombia, close to the Ecuador border, with a depth of about 103 miles, Colombian officials said.

    Its preliminary magnitude of 7.4 was later updated to 7.2, and then 7.1.

    "So far there are no reports that there has been damage to any part of the country, only reports that it was felt," Jaime Raigosa, coordinator of the National Seismological Network, said. "Fortunately, the quake was deep."

    The quake struck at 11:31 a.m. local time. It was centered at a depth of about 103 miles, Colombian officials said.

    The quake was felt in neighboring Ecuador but authorities reported no damage there.

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

    More world stories from NBC News:

    Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

     

  • Afghan 'insider' attack marks grim milestone for US troop deaths

    In light of recent attacks, troops are told to "build trust, but make sure you have a bodyguard present." NBC's Richard Engel reports.

    By NBC News staff and wire reports

    Updated at 5:54 p.m. ET: An apparent insider attack by Afghan forces has killed a U.S. service member and a contractor, officials said Sunday – bringing the total number of U.S. troops killed inside Afghanistan to 2,000 according to some measures.

    A U.S. official confirmed the latest death in the 11-year-old conflict on Sunday.

    The American service member killed was a soldier. The American contractor was working as a trainer for either the Afghan army or police, according to NBC News.

    On Saturday night, an Afghan soldier approached Americans, killing a soldier and a contractor; with that, the number of soldiers killed in Afghanistan is around 2,100 in the United States' 11-year-war in the country. Insider attacks have become increasingly common – and no one seems to have a good answer about how to stop them. NBC's Lester Holt and Richard Engel report from Kabul.

    The attack happened Saturday at a checkpoint on a highway in Wardak Province, a defense official said. Two Afghan National Army soldiers approached the checkpoint and had a brief conversation with the troops there. One of the ANA soldiers then shot and killed the American service members and the contractor, officials told NBC News.

    With a suspected "insider" attack at a checkpoint. the US military has suffered its 2,000th death in the war in Afghanistan.  NBC's Atia Abawi and Mike Viqueira report.

    A brief firefight ensued, and left at least three Afghan Army soldiers dead - including the initial shooter, officials said.

    The Afghan military claimed the Americans were killed by a mortar attack, but the American military insisted that is not true, that the Afghan soldier opened fire and they returned fire.

    The dead U.S. soldier was identified as Sgt. 1st Class Riley G. Stephens, 39, of Tolar, Texas. Stephens was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne), based at Fort Bragg, N.C.

     

    The U.S. toll in Afghanistan has climbed steadily in recent months with a spate of attacks by Afghan army and police against American and NATO troops, and questions about whether allied countries will achieve their aim of helping the Afghan government and its forces stand on their own after most foreign troops depart in little more than two years. The U.S. is preparing to withdraw most of its combat forces by the end of 2014.

    The Associated Press reported Sunday that the latest death was the 2,000th member of the U.S. armed services killed inside Afghanistan since the U.S.-led invasion on Oct. 7, 2001.  However, that AP figure did not include those who died after sustaining injuries in Afghanistan or those killed in other countries as part of the same campaign against al-Qaida and the Taliban.

    TODAY's Lester Holt heads down the road to Sangasar, the physical and spiritual heart of the Taliban. He speaks with American and Afghan soldiers along the way.

    According to icasualties.org, an independent monitoring organization which uses the wider definition, the latest death brings the toll of U.S. service members to 2035. At least a further 1,190 coalition troops have also died in the Afghanistan war, it says.

    The Brookings Institution, a Washington-based research center, said 40.2 percent of the deaths were caused by improvised explosive devices, with the majority of those after 2009 when President Barack Obama ordered a surge of 33,000 troops to combat heightened Taliban activity. According to the Washington-based research center, the second highest cause, 30.6 percent, was hostile fire.

    Tracking civilian deaths is much more difficult. According to the U.N., 13,431 civilians were killed in the Afghan conflict between 2007, when the U.N. began keeping statistics, and the end of August. Going back to the U.S.-led invasion in 2001, most estimates put the number of Afghan deaths in the war at more than 20,000.

    The 2001 invasion targeted al-Qaida and its Taliban allies after the Sept. 11 attacks, which claimed nearly 3,000 lives in the United States.

    "The tally is modest by the standards of war historically, but every fatality is a tragedy and 11 years is too long," Michael O'Hanlon, a fellow at the Brookings, told the AP. "All that is internalized, however, in an American public that has been watching this campaign for a long time. More newsworthy right now are the insider attacks and the sense of hopelessness they convey to many. "

    Attacks by Afghan soldiers or police — or insurgents disguised in their uniforms — have killed 52 American and other NATO troops so far this year.

    The so-called insider attacks are considered one of the most serious threats to the U.S. exit strategy from the country. In its latest incarnation, that strategy has focused on training Afghan forces to take over security nationwide — allowing most foreign troops to go home by the end of 2014.

    As American troops draw out of Afghanistan, officials say the removal plan is on track but that time is precious and the Taliban threat is worrisome. NBC's Lester Holt reports.

    Although Obama has pledged that most U.S. combat troops will leave by the end of 2014, American, NATO and allied troops are still dying in Afghanistan at a rate of one a day.

    Even with 33,000 American troops back home, the U.S.-led coalition will still have 108,000 troops — including 68,000 from the U.S. — fighting in Afghanistan at the end of this year. Many of those will be training the Afghan National Security Forces that are to replace them.

    "There is a challenge for the administration," O'Hanlon said, "to remind people in the face of such bad news why this campaign requires more perseverance."

    The Associated Press and NBC News' Courtney Kube and Atia Abawi, in Kabul, contributed to this report.

    More world stories from NBC News:

    Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

     

  • Chemical plant explosions in Japan kill one, may cripple global diaper output

    Jiji Press / AFP - Getty Images

    A cloud of smoke rises from a chemical plant in Himeji city, Hyogo prefecture on Saturday.

    By NBC News staff and wire services

    OSAKA — Explosions at a chemical plant in Hyogo Prefecture on Saturday killed a firefighter and injured dozens of people, the Japan Times reported, citing local fire department and police officials said. Global production of diapers could be affected because the plant made a key ingredient in a resin used in them, Japanese media reported.

     


    A fire broke out about 2 p.m. after an abnormal chemical reaction at Nippon Shokubai Co.'s plant in Himeji, the Japan Times said.

    The first explosion occurred about 2:40 p.m. as firefighters were spraying an acrylic acid tank with water, and the second followed shortly afterward, the Times said, citing Nippon Shokubai. The blasts set ablaze a fire engine.

    A 28-year-old firefighter was killed and at least 30 people were reported injured.

    Nippon Shokubai is one of the world's biggest makers of acrylic acid, the main ingredient of a resin called SAP, which is used in diapers.

    The plant produces about 20 percent of the world's SAP and 10 percent of global output of acrylic acid.

    Operations at the plant are likely to be halted for a long time and other makers of SAP resins are operating on a full-production footing, leaving little room for back-up production, the Nikkei business daily said on Sunday.

    This article includes reporting from NBC News staff and Reuters.

    Kyodo News / AP

    Black smoke rises Saturday at a Nippon Shokubai Co. chemical plant in the coastal industrial area of Himeji, about 370 miles west of Tokyo.

    More world stories from NBC News:

    Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

     

     

     

  • Spain, Portugal hit with anti-austerity protests

    Sergio Perez / Reuters

    Protestors shout slogans as they fill up Neptuno Square during a demonstration against government austerity measures in Madrid.

    By NBC News wire services

    MADRID — Tens of thousands of Spaniards and Portuguese rallied in the streets of their countries’ capitals Saturday to protest enduring deep economic pain from austerity cuts.


    In Madrid, demonstrators approached parliament for the third time this week to vent their anger against tax hikes, government spending cuts and the highest unemployment rate among the 17 nations that use the euro currency.

    The boisterous crowds in the Spanish capital let off ear-splitting whistles near parliament and yelled ‘‘Fire them, fire them!’’ -- referring to the conservative government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.

    Rajoy’s administration presented a 2013 draft budget on Friday that will cut overall spending by 40 billion euros ($51.7 billion), freezing the salaries of public workers, cutting spending for unemployment benefits and even reducing spending for Spain’s royal family next year by 4 percent.

    Pablo Rodriguez, a 24-year-old student doing a master’s in agricultural development in Denmark, said the austerity measures and bad economy mean most of his friends in Spain are unemployed or doing work they didn’t train for.

    Andres Kudacki / AP

    A picture of Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is seen during the demonstration in Madrid.

    Spain's unemployment rate is almost 25 percent, and more than half of people under 24 are jobless.

    ‘‘I would love to work here, but there is nothing for me here,’’ Rodriguez said. ‘‘By the time the economy improves it will be too late. I will be settled somewhere else with a family. One of the disasters in Spain is they spent so much to educate me and so many others and they will lose us.’’

    He doubts he will put his education to use in Spain until he is 35 or 40, if ever, will probably get job abroad and stay.

    In Lisbon, retired banker Antonio Trinidade said the budget cuts Portugal is locked into in return for the nation’s €78 billion ($101 billion) bailout are making the country’s economy the worst he has seen in his lifetime. His pension has been cut, and he said countless young Portuguese are increasingly heading abroad because they can’t make a living at home.

    ‘‘The government and the troika controlling what we do because of the bailout just want to cut more and more and rob from us,’’ Trinidade said, referring to the troika of creditors -- the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund. ‘‘The young don’t have any future, and the country is on the edge of an abyss. I'm getting toward the end of my life, but these people in their 20s or 30s don’t have jobs, or a future.’’

    In Spain, Rajoy has an absolute majority and has pushed through waves of austerity measures over the last nine months -- trying to prevent Spain from being forced into the same kind of bailouts taken by Portugal, Ireland and Greece.

    The protests near Spain’s parliament turned violent Tuesday and Wednesday nights when protesters clashed with riot police, who barricaded entry to the streets surrounding government buildings. Dozens of people were arrested and injured.

    Investors worried about Spain’s economic viability have forced up the interest rate they are willing to pay to buy Spanish bonds. The country’s banks hurting from a property boom that went bust are set to get help soon from a €100 billion ($129 billion) financial lifeline from the eurozone, and Rajoy is pondering whether to ask for help from the ECB to buy Spanish bonds.

    Finance Minister Cristobal Montoro said Saturday that the budget cuts for next year were necessary to ease market tensions and try to bring down high interest rates Spain must pay to get investors to buy its bonds.

    More world stories from NBC News:

    Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

  • Ancient Syrian market being consumed in fire started by fighting

    As Rebels in Syria have launched a massive attack on the country's largest city, Aleppo, which is 40 miles from the Turkish border, calling it a decisive battle. Fighting raged in the treasured marketplace and a World Heritage site from the 14 century was burned to ashes. NBC's Ann Curry reports.

    By NBC News and wire services

    Hundreds of shops in the ancient covered market in Aleppo, Syria, were burning Saturday as fighting between rebels and state forces in Syria's largest city threatened to destroy the U.N. World Heritage Site. 

    Activists speaking via Skype said army snipers were making it difficult to approach the Souk al-Madina, the medieval market of vaulted stone alleyways and carved wooden facades in the Old City, once a major tourist attraction, Reuters reported.

    Activists said the fire might have been started by shelling and gunfire, and estimated that between 700 and 1,000 shops had been destroyed so far. The accounts were difficult to verify because of government restrictions on foreign media.

    Shaam News Network via AP

    In this image taken from video obtained from Shaam News Network, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, a fire rages at the medieval market in Aleppo, Syria.


    Aleppo's Old City is one of several locations in Syria declared World Heritage Sites by UNESCO, the United Nations cultural agency.

    UNESCO believes five of Syria's six World Heritage  Sites -- which include the ancient desert city of Palmyra, the Crac des Chevaliers crusader fortress, and parts of old Damascus -- have been affected by the fighting.

    The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Syrian forces and rebels blamed each other for the blaze.

    The uprising-turned-civil war has killed more than 30,000 people, according to activist groups. 

    Rebels fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad on Thursday announced a new offensive in Aleppo, Syria's commercial hub of 2.5 million people, but neither side has appeared to make significant gains. 

    The Syrian conflict grinds on. Cities are under attack leaving them crushed by heavy shelling. NBC's Bill Neely reports.

    Text messages attributed to the army were sent to all Syrian mobile phones when the offensive was announced.

    "To those who have implicated themselves against the state: Those who have offered you money have left you with two options: You will be killed fighting the state or it will kill you to get rid of you," one message read. "The state is more merciful than you. Think and decide. The Syrian Army." 

    Activists also reported heavy clashes at Bab Antakya, a stone gateway to Aleppo's Old City, which sits on ancient trade routes and survived a parade of rulers throughout its construction between the 12th and 17th centuries. 

    "No one is actually making gains here, it is just fighting and more fighting, and terrified people are fleeing," said an activist contacted by telephone who declined to be identified. 

    He said in some districts bodies were lying in the streets and residents would not collect them, fearing snipers.

    By noon on Saturday, more than 40 people had been killed in fighting across Syria, according to the Observatory.

    Syria's military deadlock is also reflected diplomatically, with foreign powers stalemated over how to act. Western states and Gulf Arab countries back the opposition but most seem reluctant to interfere, while Russia, China and Iran back Assad.

    The revolt, which began in March 2011 as peaceful protests, has become an armed insurgency, with rebels holding ground in Aleppo and rural towns of northern Syria.

    The fighting has crept closer to Syria's border zones, and some bullets and rockets have hit neighboring Lebanon, Iraq and Turkey. Ankara warned it would take action if its territory was again hit -- a mortar bomb hit a town on its southeastern frontier on Friday.

    Activists reported fresh clashes in the capital Damascus and its suburbs and said security forces were torching homes as helicopters buzzed overhead. 

    The bloodied bodies of at least 12 men were found in Damascus's northwestern suburb of Qudsaya. A video published by showed rows of men, some of them apparently shot, laid in a room whose walls were spattered with blood.

    Some Damascus residents have accused government forces of summary executions in rebel districts.

    Reuters contributed to this report.

    More world stories from NBC News:

    Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

    Assad has long defended the fierce crackdown, arguing that he has been fighting Islamist militants funded from abroad.

     

  • Gitmo's youngest and last Western detainee returned to Canada

    Reuters

    Omar Khadr is seen at left in an undated family handout photo and in the most recent artist rendering from a courtroom.

    By NBC News staff and wire services

    A one-time teen al-Qaida fighter who was also Guantanamo Bay’s youngest prisoner and last Westerner has been transferred to his native Canada on Saturday, the Canadian government confirmed.


    Canadian Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said Omar Khadr, 26, was flown from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on Saturday on a U.S. government plane and transferred to Millhaven maximum-security prison in Bath, Ontario.

    Khadr's case has been controversial both in Canada and abroad given his age when he was captured, the nature of his detention and hearing, and the reluctance of Canadian officials to accept his return.

    "I am satisfied the Correctional Service of Canada can administer Omar Khadr’s sentence in a manner which recognizes the serious nature of the crimes that he has committed and ensure the safety of Canadians is protected during incarceration,” Toews said.

    A U.S. war crimes tribunal in 2010 sentenced Khadr to 40 years in prison, although he was expected to serve just a few more years under a deal that included his admission he was an al-Qaida conspirator who murdered a U.S. soldier.

    Khadr was 15 when he was captured in 2002 in Afghanistan, and has spent a decade at Guantanamo, the U.S. naval base in Cuba.

    Khadr admitted planting 10 roadside bombs in Afghanistan as part of an al-Qaida cell and throwing a grenade that killed an American special forces medic, Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer of Albuquerque, N.M.

    Over a decade since the war began, TODAY's Lester Holt visits the battlefields outside Kandahar Province and the Horn of Panjwai to see where things stand.

    Khadr was the first person since World War II to be prosecuted in a war crimes tribunal for acts committed as a juvenile. He was the youngest prisoner still at Guantanamo, but younger boys were previously held there.

    Khadr, born in Toronto, was taken to Afghanistan by his father, Ahmed Said Khadr, himself a senior al-Qaida member and confidant of Osama Bin Laden.

    Bin Laden apprenticed the boy to a group of bomb makers who opened fire when U.S. troops came to their compound. Khadr was captured in the firefight, during which he was blinded in one eye and shot twice in the back.

    In a written statement, Toews said Canada received Khadr's application for transfer from the United States on April 13. He said U.S. officials assured Canada it would receive a videocopy of an interview with Khadr, but it, along with other videos of interviews and unedited reports, was not sent until this month.

    Former Canadian Ambassador Gar Pardy, however, said Canada's Conservative government -- which cultivates an image of being tough on crime -- dragged out the transfer.

    "I think the government was mainly very mean-spirited in how it handled the case," Pardy said to CTV News.

    Toews said he continues to be concerned that Khadr "idealizes" his father and denies Ahmed Khadr's association with al-Qaida. The Canadian public safety minister said he is also troubled by how "radicalized" Khadr has become from his time in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Guantanamo Bay.

    Girls in Afghanistan were not allowed to attend school under Taliban rule, but now millions of girls across the country attend classes. It's a dramatic social change the Taliban is still fighting. NBC's Richard Engel reports.

    “From the age of 15 to 26, he has been in some kind of jail, incarcerated. He has had no normal adolescent development at all,” CBC’s Susan Ormiston told CBC News.

    Khadr's defense team and human rights groups had argued he was a "child soldier" who should have been sent home long ago for rehabilitation and challenged the notion that a battlefield killing amounted to a war crime.

    Khadr was prohibited under the deal from calling witnesses at his sentencing hearing that would support defense claims that he was a "child soldier," forced into fighting the U.S. by a radical father who was an associate of bin Laden.

    Khadr's sentence will expire on Oct. 30, 2018.

    The U.S. Department of Defense also confirmed Saturday that it transferred Khadr to Canada, leaving 166 detainees at Guantanamo.

    In the 2008 presidential election campaign, President Barack Obama promised to close the Guantanamo prison during his term, but that pledge has gone unfulfilled amid security concerns and opposition from Congress, which enacted laws making it more difficult to transfer prisoners from Guantanamo.

    Reuters contributed to this report. 

    More content from NBCNews.com:

    Follow US News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

     

  • After decades in exile, Libyan president Magarief ready to die for democracy

    Libya's new president, Mohammed Magarief, tells NBC's Ann Curry that the recent trouble in Libya is the unfortunate price of creating a democracy after decades of dictator-rule. Magarief lived in exile for 20 years in Atlanta before returning to Libya and becoming president.

    By Becky Bratu, NBC News

    He was wanted by Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, he survived seven assassination attempts and he lived in exile in Atlanta for two decades, but now that he is the new president of Libya, Mohamed Magarief says he is ready to sacrifice his life for his homeland.


    "I'm determined. I'm determined to even sacrifice my life for that ... to see Libya as free, democratic," Magarief, an economist and former Libyan ambassador to India, told NBC's Ann Curry in an exclusive interview.

    Libyan president to NBC: Anti-Islam film had 'nothing to do with' US Consulate attack

    "I have always been ready to sacrifice my life for-- for my dream of Libya," he said.

    Magarief's dream of a democratic Libya began to take shape in 1980 with the founding of the National Front for the Salvation of Libya, a group that pushed for democratic reforms in Libya and opposed Gadhafi's rule.

    Magarief, who participated in the group alongside former Libyan diplomats, ambassadors and army generals, said that was his first jump into the fire.

    "I started in 1980, when I decide to defect from the regime and call for, openly, for its downfall and toppling and participated with my colleagues for so many years in a very comprehensive program of action to achieve this, to topple Gadhafi and to build a new democratic Libya," he said.

    Because of his open opposition of the regime, Magarief was forced into exile, first to Morocco, where Gadhafi went after his family and friends, even killing and disappearing some of those linked to him. When Morocco decided to extradite him to Libya, Magarief sought refuge in Egypt.

    In an interview with NBC's Ann Curry, Libya's president Mohammed Magarief said there's 'no doubt' the attack that killed four Americans in Libya was preplanned, and not a result of the controversial anti-Islam movie that sparked violent protests.

    He lived in Egypt for seven years, but had to seek refuge yet again when former Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak wanted to send him back to Libya, where he was still wanted. In 1991, Magarief and his family moved to Atlanta, where he lived until Gadhafi was toppled in October, 2011.

    "I didn't leave home to stay for good in Atlanta. I left my home to return, to hope to return to it after it's liberated from Gadhafi. Having  being liberated now, it's my duty to, it's my dream and my hopes to return to my home, Libya, and to die there, to be buried in Libya," he said.

    A transitional leader
    Libya's national assembly picked     Magarief as its president in August. He is the leader of the National Front party, an offshoot of the old opposition movement he helped start. Magarief, who is from Benghazi, won 113 votes against independent Ali Zidan, who got 85 votes.

    The path Magarief envisions for Libya includes free and open elections and a new constitution. He said he has no desire to stay in power beyond the transitional period, and hopes his successor will be a democratically elected leader. Magarief disagrees with the idea that fundamentalists will be allowed to fill the power vacuum in Libya following the toppling of Gadhafi, adding that Libyans will stand against extremist views.

    "These fundamentalists, these extremists, these trends that are, first of all, it has nothing to do with true Islam, real Islam," he said. "The interpretation that these people introduced is not accepted by majority of Muslims."

    Magarief discounted claims that the deadly attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi earlier this month was in response to an anti-Islam movie produced in California and available on YouTube. He noted that the assault happened on Sept. 11 and that the video had been available for months before that.

    "Reaction should have been, if it was genuine, .... six months earlier. So it was postponed until the 11th of September," he said. "They chose this date, 11th of September to carry a certain message."

    "We consider the United States as a friend, not only a friend, a strong friend, who stood with us in our moment of need," he added.

    Magarief admitted it would not be easy for Libya to shake off the legacy that decades of Gadhafi's dictatorship has left behind, but he strongly believes that every country deserves to enjoy democracy.

    "This should not continue. If it continues, we'll all pay a heavy price. The solution is freedom, is democracy," he said. "Giving people the chance to -- and I'm sure we'll mature. We'll mature quickly, very quickly. And we'll prove that we are responsible human beings, who deserve freedom and democracy."

    More world stories from NBC News:

    Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

     

  • Israelis are prepared -- or not -- for an Iran attack

    Bernat Armangue / AP

    An Israeli woman talks on the phone after collecting gas masks for her family in a shopping mall in Jerusalem in this Aug. 22 photo.

    By Martin Fletcher, NBC News correspondent

    TEL AVIV – Did you know:

    See our full coverage on international hot spots crucial to U.S. foreign policy ahead of elections in our At the Brink series here. And on Sunday, Sept. 30, and Monday, Oct. 1, tune into special coverage on all NBC News platforms from NBC's team of anchors and correspondents deployed in five countries across the region.
    • If a bomb explodes near you with a little bang, that's a sign it is carrying chemical or biological weapons? A loud bang means a conventional warhead.
    • If an attack is chemical, you will know right away? But if it's biological you'll only find out after a few days.
    • If it is nuclear, you should lie down and cover your head? And don't get up when the first blast wave passes over you because it will be followed by a second wave.

    Useful, eh?

    All these facts are good to know if you are in Israel and war with Iran, and its proxies Hezbollah and Hamas, were to break out around you.

    Report: Iran mulls 'pre-emptive attack' against Israel; commander warns of 'World War III'

    Or if something happened with Syria, Iran's ally, which has large stockpiles of biological and conventional weapons.

    With the latest opinion polls showing that half of Israelis fear for the continued existence of their state if war breaks out with Iran, and with more than half rating the chance of such a war within a year as "medium" or "high,” the more you know about what the war would entail, the better.

    Here are some more facts:

    • If you suck a bead made of castor oil, it could kill you. It contains ricin, a lethal poison.
    • After Chernobyl, it took 25 years before Welsh sheep could be eaten because the nuclear radiation settled over Wales as it drifted most of the way round the world.
    • And cigarettes contain polonium 210, the poison used to murder the Soviet ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko.

    Probably no country in the world is as prepared as Israel for such an attack, with every home built in the last 21 years possessing a mandatory bomb shelter. City centers have vast public shelters with special rooms set up for non-conventional attacks. And citizens are instructed in how to protect their bomb shelters against chemical and biological warfare.

    Mistakes happen
    But mistakes can happen, as I can personally attest. 

    One evening in the winter of 1991 during the first Gulf War, with Iraqi Scud missiles rocketing over Jordan toward Israel, the bomb alarm sounded. My family quickly locked themselves in our bomb shelter, and I raced through the dark, silent streets to broadcast from our NBC News studio.

    Israel's Netanyahu: Draw 'clear red line' to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons

    This had become routine. I spent all night in the studio, responding to the many alarms, and went home around 5a.m. I didn't check on the family because I knew where the Scuds had fallen and none were near my home.

    This one time, however, with 30 minutes to go before my next live broadcast hit, I had a sense that something was wrong. For the first time after an attack, I called home to see how my wife and my three sons, all aged below six, were faring.

    In an attempt to convey what he sees as a threat to Israel's existence, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used a cartoon to illustrate how close he says Iran is to developing a nuclear weapon. In a speech at the United Nations General Assembly he asked the world to help stop them. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.

    No answer. I called again. No answer. Twenty-five minutes to go before my next “live hit” on TV with Tom Brokaw. I felt sick with worry. What could have happened?

    I ran downstairs, jumped into my car and raced home. I figured a 10-minute drive, five minutes at home and 10 minutes back, I'd be in the studio with seconds to spare.

    Life-saving decision
    Ends up, because of that calculation, I saved my family's lives.

    When the all-clear sounded, my wife, our three sons, my sister-in-law and the dog, a schnauzer called Tofi, couldn't get out of the shelter.

    The heavy steel lock would not budge. They hung on it and pulled and tried and tried but could not open the door. When I arrived home, about two hours after they had entered the bomb shelter, I heard faint cries of "help, help."

    Instead of pushing the handle up, they had been pulling it down, locking it instead of opening it.

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tells the UN general assembly Thursday that sanctions are not stopping Iran's nuclear program.

    I was able to open the door from the outside and all was well.

    But if I had stuck to my usual routine and not called home and just returned at 5 a.m., after leaving them at 8 p.m. the night before, they would have been dead.

    It's simple math: An adult breathes about one cubic meter of air per hour, children more. Five people in a small room of about nine cubic meters would begin to lose air after two hours. Seven hours? They'd have all been dead.

    A miracle? Sixth sense? Whatever, it's a warning of what can go wrong in times of stress. And however prepared Israelis are for what awaits them, accidents happen. When Iraq attacked Israel in 1991, far more people died of heart attacks than Scud rockets.

    Country on edge
    Since that time, every apartment built in Israel must have a blast-proof room that protects citizens from conventional blasts and also, with plastic and tape, can protect against chemical and biological weapons too. Walls and doors are approximately 8-12 inches thick and doors and windows are airtight.

    Every citizen has, in theory, a gas mask. In practice, there aren't enough to go around.

    Everybody asks, do you think there will be war with Iran? Nobody knows, and if you see Israel’s crowded cafes, the bustling streets, the crammed beaches, you may think that nobody cares.

    Yet Israel is a country on edge. Most seem to have bought Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s line that the price to pay to stop Iran from building a nuclear bomb is much lower than the price to be paid if Iran has the bomb.

    Fueling those thoughts are memories of what happened when the Nazis killed 6 million Jews. Today, there are approximately 6 million Jews in Israel. Few Israelis can argue against Netanyahu's insistence of: Never again.

    And yet, I don't know anyone here who has prepared their bomb shelter. They're all a mess, used to store boxes, suitcases, footballs and wine. They are used as computer rooms, bicycle storage, play rooms. The attitude is, for the most part, we'll worry about it when the time comes.

    Until then, live life.

    More world stories from NBC News:

    Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

     

  • Trial of pope's former butler over leaked papers gets under way

    Vincenzo Pinto/AFP - Getty Images

    This file picture taken on Oct. 10, 2006 shows Pope Benedict XVI with his then butler Paolo Gabriele (right) in St Peter's Square, Rome.

    By Claudio Lavanga, NBC News

    VATICAN CITY - One of the most sensational trials to be held in the Vatican for centuries got under way Saturday with Benedict XVI’s former butler, Paolo Gabriele, standing accused of leaking confidential documents from the pope’s apartments to the media.


    Some of the documents suggested the existence of a web of corruption, nepotism and cronyism linked to the awarding of contracts for the maintenance of the Vatican estate. Others showed signs of widespread infighting among cardinals. 

    Gabriele could be given a sentence of up to four years in prison if found guilty of “aggravated theft.”  

    The Vatican State does not actually have a prison -- only security cells for temporary confinement. But, according to a 1929 agreement with “neighboring” Italy, anyone sentenced in the Vatican will serve their time there.

    Vatican says the 'butler did it,' orders trial

    The public trial is taking place in the Vatican’s tribunal, a small courtroom in a 19th century building in Piazza San Marta.

    Gabiele was in the courtroom Saturday, dressed in a gray suit. Journalists in the small pool allowed in the room said he looked tense but laughed with his lawyer at one stage. He did not betray any other emotions.

    The judges said it would be a short trial, and could be over in as little as four hearings, meaning that a verdict could be reached by the end of next week.

    At the hearing, which only lasted two hours, it emerged the documents and IT material seized from the butler's house filled 82 boxes, though this does not mean all of it was confidential. 

    “Vatileaks,” as the case has become known, is expected to be the biggest trial held by world’s smallest state for centuries.

    “Vatican judges usually have to deal with a maximum of 30 crimes per year,” Professor Giovanni Giacobbe, a Vatican legal expert, told journalists Thursday. “Mostly petty crimes like pickpocketing that are dealt with within a day.”

    Pope Benedict's butler, Paolo Gabriele, has been arrested for stealing confidential documents and leaking papal secrets. The Vatican says this is "the beginning of a large investigation." NBC's Michelle Kosinski reports.

    The biggest crime to emerge from St. Peter’s Square in recent memory -- the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II in 1981 -- was tried in an Italian court, while the 1998 killing of a Swiss Guard commander and his wife never went to trial as the Swiss Guard who pulled the trigger turned the gun on himself.

    The Vatican’s penal law is based on an Italian code, which dates back to 1889.

    Unlike in the United States and other countries, a defendant here is not required to enter a plea, “like they do in Perry Mason,” Giacobbe joked.

    Pope Benedict: 'Sadness in my heart' over butler leak scandal

    Defendants are also not asked to take an oath before testifying.

    Gabriele, a 46-year-old father of three, has already admitted his role in the conspiracy, and may now pray his confession will lead to a reduced sentence or even a papal pardon.

    He was one of the very few people to have access to the pope’s private chambers and was caught red-handed when a stash of secret documents was found in his apartment, along with a cheque of $130,000, a rare 16th century edition of the Aeneid and a gold nugget, all presents sent to the Pope.

    He was held for 53 days in a Vatican cell before being put under house arrest.

    Gabriele confessed and claimed “he felt like an agent of the Holy Spirit,” seeking to expose and root out the "evil and corruption" in the Catholic church. 

     

     

     

  • Al-Qaida group al-Shabab withdraws from its last stronghold in Somalia

    Stringer / AFP - Getty Images

    The al-Qaida-allied al-Shebab militant group said it had left the city of Kismayo, seen above Friday, after it was attacked by a Kenya-Somalia force.

    By NBC News wire serives

    MOGADISHU, Somalia -- Somalia's al-Shabab rebels withdrew from the southern Somali city of Kismayo overnight, the rebel group and residents said Saturday, a day after Kenyan and Somali government forces attacked the militants' last bastion.


    “We moved out our fighters ... from Kismayo at midnight,'' al-Shabab spokesman, Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage, told Reuters.

    He threatened to strike back soon. “The enemies have not yet entered the town. Let them enter  Kismayo which will soon turn into a battlefield,” he said.

    African Union troops from Kenya, Uganda and Burundi have combined over the last 18 months to kick al-Shabab out of the Somali capital Mogadishu and take a series of smaller towns that the insurgents fled to.

    Al-Shabab, which formally merged with al-Qaida in February, had earned money by collecting taxes on goods arriving at the Indian Ocean port, so the loss of the stronghold is a double blow to the armed fundamentalist group that began attacks in 2007 and went on to control all but a few blocks of the capital.

    D-Day for al-Qaida in Somalia? Troops storm beaches at last stronghold

    The assault is likely to send al-Shabab fighters underground. Hardcore fighters may unleash suicide bombs and ambushes but less dedicated fighters could melt back into their communities, further reducing al-Shabab's strength.

    At an international one-day summit Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron said the world would "pay a price" if it fails to help Somalia overcome terrorism, piracy and starvation. ITV's Lee Comley reports. 

     

    Born in the USA, but now among Somalia's Islamist terrorists

    The African Union force said that some al-Shabab fighters have already contacted military officials in recent days, saying they wanted to defect from al-Shabab.

    Expert: War on terror at 'critical' point as al-Qaida looks to regroup in Africa

    Speaking on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York Friday, Kenya's Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi called the entry of Kenyan forces into the Somali port "a significant victory."

    "This is a major blow to them and we think it's positive for the region and for Somalia," he said. 

    More world stories from NBC News:

    Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

     

  • Honduran soldiers deployed to public buses

    Orlando Sierra / AFP - Getty Images

    An Army soldier stands guard on a bus in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Sept. 28, 2012. Honduras has the world's highest murder rate, at 92 deaths per 100,000 people, according to the United Nations.

    Associated Press reports — Honduras' government is assigning soldiers to ride buses in urban areas as a way to free police officers for foot patrols in neighborhoods afflicted by crime and insecurity.

    President Porfirio Lobo says there will be at least two soldiers on each bus on 20 routes in the capital and in the city of San Pedro Sula. He says the move is "in response to outcry from various sectors of society."

    Officials say the deployment will eventually extend throughout Honduras.

    On Tuesday, the government extended a nearly year-old national state of emergency for six months, allowing troop deployments in civilian areas.

    The new operation is the second time Honduran soldiers have been placed on public buses, which are frequently targeted by gang members who rob and extort passengers and drivers.

    Reuters

    A soldier boards a public bus in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Sept. 28.

    EPA

    Honduran President Porfirio Lobo, lower right, attends a ceremony for military members to be deployed on public transport buses in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Sept. 28.

    •Sign up for the NBCNews.com Photos Newsletter

  • Exclusive Parisian hotel 'won't be open to Chinese tourists'?

    By NBC News staff

    The founder of the French fashion label Zadig & Voltaire said an exclusive Parisian hotel the company plans to open in 2014 will not be open to Chinese tourists, according to Vogue UK. The label later said the comment by the brand's founder and owner, Thierry Gillier, was misunderstood.


    The hotel will be located in a private mansion on the city's Left Bank.

    "This was a project dear to our hearts," the brand's founder and owner, Thierry Gillier, told WWD. "It will be a slightly private hotel, not open to everybody, with 40 rooms. We are going to select guests. It won't be open to Chinese tourists, for example. There is a lot of demand in Paris -- many people are looking for quiet hotels with a certain privacy."

    According to French newspaper Liberation, the label later asked WWD to remove the reference to Chinese tourists from its article, stressing that Gillier's words were misinterpreted and he was referring to "mass tourism." The magazine complied with the request, changing the phrase "Chinese tourists" to "busloads of tourists." 

    More world stories from NBC News:

    Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

  • Four leopards a week being killed in India for skins, experts estimate

    TRAFFIC

    These leopard and tiger skins, with fake mouths, were photographed for sale in Myanmar, which neighbors India.

    By Miguel Llanos, NBC News

    While India has struggled to protect its declining tiger population, its leopards have been getting even less protection, or attention for that matter. A study released Friday recognized that flaw, estimating that at least four leopards are being killed each week, double the official reports, with their skins then smuggled to parts of Asia.

    "Even though reports of illegal trade in leopard body parts are disturbingly frequent, the level of threat to leopards in the country has previously been unrecognized, and has fallen into our collective 'blind spot'," study co-author Rashid Raza, the India coordinator for the TRAFFIC wildlife trade monitoring network, said in a statement with the study.

    At least 2,300 leopards were killed and then their body parts trafficked between 2001 and 2010, the study estimates.

    Official reports of seizures account for nearly half that number, with the rest an estimate based on statistical analysis of "undetected trade" patterns by TRAFFIC, which is funded by the World Wildlife Fund and the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

    The WWF said it was time to focus more efforts on leopards. They have been "overshadowed by the trade in another of the country’s national icons, the tiger," noted WWF-India President Divyabhanusinh Chavda.

    Mks Pasha / TRAFFIC

    Leopards are widespread across India but not abundant, with experts agreeing that their population is in serious decline.

    The report cited numerous cases of leopard skins from India that were for sale in nearby Myanmar, Laos and Tibetan regions of China.

    Much of the illegal trade is thought to go through the "porous" border with Nepal, the experts said.

    The report noted that while no reliable estimates of leopard numbers in India exist, they are considered widespread but not abundant.

    "There has been a long standing anxiety among biologists and conservationists that the leopard in India is in serious decline," the experts stated.

    TRAFFIC

    This leopard skin was used to make a rug.

    Leopards, like tigers, do have protected status in India, but many Indians consider both animals a threat. Some rural villagers have lost livestock, or even their lives, to leopards and tigers. 

    The report's authors said that conflict isn't a reason to turn a blind eye to a potential extinction.

    "There is still a disproportionate emphasis on the problem that the leopard causes in comparison to the crisis that the leopard is facing," the report stated.

    The plight of India's tigers is probably even worse: just 1,700 are estimated to be left in the wild, nearly half the number from a decade ago and a fraction of the 100,000 estimated a century ago. Worldwide, only 4,000 tigers are thought to be left in the wild.

    But other data suggests more leopards are being killed than tigers. The nonprofit Project Tiger reports cases of leopards killed for skins far exceeded tiger poachings in each year between 1998 and 2003.

    TRAFFIC and the WWF, after listing ways for India to crack down on trafficking, said a lack of action could lead leopards down that same path.

    "Without an effective strategy to assess and tackle the threats posed by illegal trade," said Chavda, "the danger is that leopard numbers may decline rapidly as happened previously to the tiger."

    More world stories from NBC News:

    Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

     

     

     

  • Deutsche Bank employees evacuated after white powder found in building

    Hendrik Schmidt/EPA

    Deutsche Bank employees leave their office in security clothes in Schkanditz, Germany, Sept. 28, after an envelope with white powder was found in the building.

    By Reuters

    Forty Deutsche Bank employees from an office in the eastern German town of Schkeuditz near Leipzig are undergoing health checks after a letter containing a white powder was found at their building, local German police said on Friday.


    Around 700 people were evacuated from the building, a spokesman for West Saxony police said. The substance, which was found in an envelope, and employees who may have come into contact with it were being checked, police said.

    Photographs from local media show firemen and local police wearing protective clothing and gas masks.

    A Deutsche Bank spokesman said he could not confirm the details from the police but said the building housed back-office operations for Germany's biggest lender.

    The Deutsche spokesman further said the health of its employees was a priority for the bank and that it was cooperating with authorities.

    Local paper Leipziger Volkszeitung in its online edition said the incident may be linked to an ongoing wage dispute at the offices.

    More world stories from NBC News:

    Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • Residents inundated by rainstorm in Malaga, Spain

    Sergio Torres / AP

    A man removes flood water from his house in Villanueva del Rosario, Spain, Sept. 28, 2012. Seven people were killed and hundreds evacuated after flash floods caused by torrential rain swept through the southern Spanish regions of Andalucia and Murcia, emergency services said.

    Jorge Guerrero / AFP - Getty Images

    People pull a cupboard in the flooded streets of Villanueva del Trabuco, Spain, Sept. 28.

    Jorge Guerrero / AFP - Getty Images

    A man walks over a car covered with mud from flooding in Villanueva del Trabuco, Spain, Sept. 28.

    Jorge Guerrero / AFP - Getty Images

    People clean the sidewalk in front of their home in Bobadilla, Spain, Sept. 28.

    Jorge Zapata / EPA

    The Lata Bridge lies along the shoreline after being dragged by floodwater in Alora, Spain, Sept. 28.

    •Sign up for the NBCNews.com Photos Newsletter

  • UK teacher who fled with teen student to France arrested

    UK police via AFP - Getty Images

    Megan Stammers and Jeremy Forrest appear in this composite image supplied by police in the U.K.

    By Ian Johnston, NBC News

    An English man has been arrested on suspicion of child abduction after he was found in France with a 15-year-old high school student, police said Friday.

    A statement on the Sussex Police website said Megan Stammers and Jeremy Forrest, a 30-year-old math teacher, were found “safe and well” at 1:15 p.m. local time in France (7:15 a.m. ET).


    “Mr Forrest has been arrested on suspicion of child abduction and Megan has been taken into protection,” the statement said. “Their families have been informed and arrangements will now be made for Megan and Jeremy's safe return.”

    In an interview with ITV News, Martin Stammers said he was “thrilled, delighted, overjoyed.”

    “The most amazing thing at the moment,” he said, touching his chest, “is the joy in here that she’s safe and well … you cannot describe the relief.”

    Police: UK teen thought to have run away to France with her math teacher

    Stammers praised police and also people using social media sites to raise awareness about his daughter.

    Megan’s sister Brooke Stammers expressed her joy at the news in several messages on Twitter.

    “Absolutely on top of the world of the world right now, to know our Megan is safe and sound! Love you so much my beautiful sister xxxxxx,” she said in one.

    “All our hope and faith came through so strong and our positivity stuck out!” she added.

    Before they were found, Forrest’s father Jim had made an emotional appeal for Forrest or Megan to get in touch, ITV News reported.

    “There are a lot of people back home who are desperate to hear from you. All I’m asking is for one of you to make a call or send an email to let us know that you are both safe,” he said. “We are all … we are all here for you both. We just need to hear from you.”

    More world stories from NBC News:

    Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

     

     

     

     

     

  • More details on video showing dramatic firefight in Afghanistan

    Video captures an American soldier getting caught in gunfire with the Taliban in Afghanistan. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.

    By Eric Zuckerman, NBC News

     

    A dramatic video posted Wednesday on YouTube shows a U.S. soldier surviving a firefight with the Taliban in Afghanistan’s Kunar Province.


    The video, which was captured by a camera mounted to the soldier’s helmet, shows the cameraman pinned down by machine gun fire, getting shot several times and yelling, “I’m hit! I’m hit!”

    “I got hit a total of four times,” the cameraman wrote in his description of the video, which was provided to NBC News by the curator of a YouTube channel originally started to share about 100 videos from his own tour in Afghanistan and which now posts videos submitted by other combat veterans. The video was also posted on the Facebook page for Military Minds, an organization that aims to raise awareness of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

    The source was unable to provide any other details beyond the cameraman’s own description of the event:

    “I was heading down the face of the hill when we got hit. The rest of the squad was pinned down by machine gun fire. I didn’t start the video until a few minutes into the firefight for obvious reasons. I came out into the open to draw fire so my squad could get to safety. I was hit in the side of my helmet and my eye [protection] was shot off of my face.”

    At  another point in the video, a round of ammunition knocks the soldier’s rifle out of his hands.

    “When I picked the rifle back up, it was still functional, but the grenade launcher tube had a nice-sized 7.62-calliber bullet hole in it,” he wrote.

    The soldier said that none of the rounds penetrated his body armor and that he made it home with no permanent injuries.

    Special Series: At the brink


  • FBI agents keep out of Benghazi

    In a statement from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, officials said they are revising their initial assessment of the attack in Benghazi to reflect new information indicating that it was a "deliberate and organized terrorist attack carried out by extremists." NBC's Pete Williams reports.

    By The Associated Press

    For security reasons, FBI agents are staying away from the Libyan city where a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans were killed, two law enforcement officials said Friday.


    The officials say the bureau is not going to put agents in harm's way and that the city of Benghazi must be made secure before the FBI sends investigators there.

    The officials demanded anonymity because they are not authorized to speak on the record about an ongoing investigation.

    FBI agents were sent to Libya last week to look into the Sept. 11 attack that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens, a State Department computer expert and two former U.S. Navy Seals.

    Terrorist groups in Libya tried to coalesce in month leading to consulate attack, officials say

    At FBI headquarters Friday, spokesman Paul Bresson said "we are moving forward with our investigation," but Bresson declined to comment on the specific location of the agents.

    Several questions still remain as to why top U.S. officials offered the wrong initial assessment of the Benghazi attacks that killed four Americans. Was there a cover-up? Or were they trying to avoid acknowledging mistakes so close to the presidential election? The Obama administration has denied any wrongdoing. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.

    Separately, the State Department is further reducing the U.S. Embassy staff in Tripoli for security reasons. The embassy warned Americans of possible demonstrations in the capital and Benghazi on Friday.

    On Thursday, Libya's leader said his government had disbanded about 10 militia groups and will continue to take action against Muslim extremists.

    President Mohammed el-Megarif said the attack on the U.S. Consulate earlier this month that killed the four Americans was a final straw. He did not say when the militias were disbanded, or how many remain.

    More world stories from NBC News:

    Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

    © 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

  • NBC's Ali Arouzi answers reader questions from Iran

    While Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traded verbal jabs at the United Nations General Assembly this week over the threat of Iran’s nuclear capability, one thing is for sure: international economic sanctions against Iran are having an impact. 

    See our full coverage on international hot spots crucial to U.S. foreign policy ahead of elections in our At the Brink series here. And on Sunday, Sept. 30, and Monday, Oct. 1, tune into special coverage on all NBC News platforms from NBC’s team of anchors and correspondents deployed in five countries across the region.

    The United States, European Union and the U.N. have imposed tough economic sanctions against Iran, blocking access to the international banking system and curbing sales of Iranian crude oil as a way to persuade Tehran to abandon its nuclear program.

    As Ali Arouzi, NBC News Tehran Correspondent, reports today, the sanctions have had a real impact on Iranians as the value of their currency, the rial, continues to drop daily – affecting everything from basic food items to manufacturing.

    Iranian: 'Our money is becoming more and more worthless every day'

    Ali answered reader questions about the impact of the sanctions in Iran earlier today.

    REPLAY the informative chat below. 

  • Lesbian heiress Gigi Chao on 'loving terms' with father despite $65 million dowry offer

    Bobby Yip / Reuters

    Gigi Chao, seen in the conference room of her office in Hong Kong Thursday, has received a flood of offers of dates and marriage from men.

    By The Associated Press

    HONG KONG -- The daughter of a flamboyant Hong Kong tycoon -- who has offered $65 million to any man who can woo her away from her lesbian partner -- said she's not upset with her father. Still, it's unlikely she will be accepting any of the marriage proposals flooding in.


    Cecil Chao made world headlines this week when he offered the unusual marriage bounty after learning that his daughter, Gigi Chao, had eloped with her partner to France.

    "I'm actually on very, very loving terms with my father. We speak on a daily basis. He just has a very interesting way of expressing his fatherly love," the 33-year-old told The Associated Press.

    CNBC's Robert Frank has all the details on the story about Gigi Chao's father who is offering $65 million to any man able to marry her.

    She said her father offered the reward because he was upset after learning she had "a church blessing in Paris" with her girlfriend of the past several years.

    "What this whole episode really highlights is that perhaps still, the Chinese — or in fact the Hong Kong mentality — can perhaps tolerate the 'don't ask, don't tell' view of sexuality," she said. "But as a social statement, it's still very much a sensitive issue."

    Hong Kong 'playboy tycoon' offers $65 million to find husband for lesbian daughter

    Hong Kong decriminalized homosexuality in 1991, but it does not legally recognize same-sex marriage.

    Cecil Chao is the chairman of Hong Kong property developer Cheuk Nang Holdings and has a reputation for being a playboy.

    Kin Cheung / AP

    Cecil Chao, chairman of Hong Kong property developer Cheuk Nang Holdings, pictured Friday, offered $65 million to any man who can woo her away from her lesbian partner.

    He once claimed to have had 10,000 girlfriends but has never married.

    He's also known for his love of Rolls-Royces and for being a qualified helicopter pilot, a skill he shares with Gigi Chao, one of his three children by three different women.

    Cecil Chao said Friday in a separate interview with the AP that reports that his daughter had married were just rumors.

    He added that he has received hundreds of offers from suitors since he made the offer and his daughter has probably had thousands.

    "I was very surprised about the reaction from around the world," said the 76-year-old tycoon, sporting gold, mirrored sunglasses and a sport jacket over an unbuttoned polo shirt. "Thousands of people writing to say they want to be my in-laws."

    Australia lawmakers reject gay marriage plan

    He said he's offering the money because he wants to make sure his daughter has a comfortable life in Hong Kong, which he believes will require a house worth $19 million. The rest of the money can be used for investments, he said.

    "Living a comfortable life in Hong Kong, not super-luxury, takes HK$500 million ($65 million)," he said.

    When asked whether she would accept an eligible suitor, Gigi Chao laughed off the question, saying, "We'll just worry about that when the time comes."

    More world stories from NBC News:

    Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

     

    © 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

  • Amid Syria's civil war violence, a strange calm in the capital

    By Meredith Birkett

    Japhet Weeks, a 31-year-old American freelance video journalist, just returned from a weeklong trip to Damascus, where he found a suprising level of quiet and normalcy in a country wracked by civil war.

    Japhet Weeks

    A spice merchant in Damascus's old city.

    Weeks wrote in an email to NBCNews.com on Wednesday:

    While fighting continues in the suburbs -- and of course most recently bombs went off in the center today -- I was surprised by how regular Damascenes seem to be trying to get on with their lives. The markets are crowded. Vegetable stands are overflowing with fresh produce. People continue to get married with lavish celebrations. Children are out playing in the streets. 

    Still, signs of the ongoing conflict are everywhere: military checkpoints are frequent, there is an increased number of displaced and mostly poor families, smoke rises from fire fights between government soldiers and rebels in the capital's suburbs.

    Japhet Weeks

    Images of Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad and his father, Hafez, hang at an unmanned checkpoint in Damascus.

    Weeks' images of daily life in Syria's capital are a stark contrast to many tragic images coming out of the northern parts of the country, where fighting is fiercest. In those areas, most journalists sneak into the country in order to work independently, though they often rely on rebel troops or aid groups to help guide or shelter them. Weeks used an official visa as part of a video crew centering their work in Damascus. That city is known to be a regime stronghold, so he was accompanied by a government representative who limited his ability to photograph places where fighting was happening, buildings that were deemed a security risk, as well as government soldiers.

    Japhet Weeks

    Syrian children in Damascus's Christian quarter.

    Most of the citizens encountered by the crew were in favor of President Bashar Assad, though it was hard to discern how much of their commentary was influenced by the government guide's presence. Those residents described the battles as occurring between Syria's army and terrorists sent in by surrounding countries to destabilize Assad, a view touted by state-run television.

    Japhet Weeks

    Smoke rises from fighting between government soldiers and rebels on the outskirts of Damascus.

    Despite working inside this "bubble," Weeks said his use of an iPhone camera (using the Hipstamatic app and the Ben Lowy filter with borders cropped out), and shooting subtly "from the hip," enabled him to capture more candid moments than he can typically film with his much larger video camera on a tripod.

    Most days in the capital, Weeks saw large plumes of smoke rising from outlying areas. Despite his proximity to the fighting, Weeks was struck by the lack of a heavy military presence in the capital's center. But that may change as rebels strike closer to the heart of the regime this week and Assad's troops fight back.

    Japhet Weeks

    A man leans against a car in Damascus.

    Weeks said it was hard to come to grips with the dichotomies he was witnessing. After seeing a man who was seemingly relaxed while leaning against a car, he was struck by the fact that in other parts of the country, hundreds of thousands of people have fled fighting. Another example happened the first night in his hotel, where he found an opulent wedding in progress. "I guess she has a right to have her perfect wedding day. It shouldn't really matter that her countrymen are slaughtering each other somewhere else. But at some point it should matter, you know? There should there be more austerity. It all just made me more confused leaving than I was arriving."

    Japhet Weeks

    A wedding taking place in the lobby of the photographer's hotel. The noisy celebration included traditional singing, women wearing shimmering, sequined miniskirts, and men in suits. For Damascus's wealthy life seems to be going on despite the country's civil war.

    Japhet Weeks

    A Syrian man walks while texting in Damascus.

    Japhet Weeks

    Damascus at sunset.

     

    Slideshow: Syria uprising

    Manu Brabo / AP

    A look back at the violence that has overtaken the country

    Launch slideshow

    Related content:

  • Iranian: 'Our money is becoming more and more worthless every day'

    Raheb Homavandi / Reuters file

    A money changer holds Iranian rial banknotes as he waits for customers in Tehran's business district in this January 7, 2012 file photo.

    By Ali Arouzi, NBC News correspondent
    TEHRAN – Even though threats of war with Israel are almost a daily occurrence, what’s really on people's minds in this city is the economy.

    The United States, the European Union and the U.N. have imposed tough economic sanctions against Iran, blocking access to the international banking system and curbing sales of Iranian crude oil as a way to persuade Tehran to abandon its nuclear program.

    See our full coverage on international hot spots crucial to U.S. foreign policy ahead of elections in our At the Brink series here. And on Sunday, Sept. 30, and Monday, Oct. 1, tune into special coverage on all NBC News platforms from NBC’s team of anchors and correspondents deployed in five countries across the region.

    As a result, Iran’s currency, the rial, is in a constant state of flux, but mostly on a downward trajectory. These days, it seems to fall in value against the dollar on an hourly basis. On Tuesday the currency hit an all-time low against the U.S. dollar, trading at 26,500 to the U.S. dollar on the open market, according to Persian-language currency tracking website Mazanex. 

    “Our money is becoming more and more worthless every day,” said Sarvenas Sadi, an elderly woman doing her daily shopping in Tehran earlier this week.

    She picked up a handful of limes and exclaimed, “These were 100 percent cheaper last year!”

    Asked whether she ever thought she would see the currency devalue so much, she replied, “Never! I remember before the [1979] revolution $1 was worth 70 rial, now it’s worth 26,000! Who would have ever have thought!”

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

    Did she think things would ever balance out and the price of goods would come down to what they were before. “Unfortunately I don’t think so. The thing with Iran is that once the price of something goes up, it never comes down again.”

    So what’s the solution?  “Eat less limes,” she jokingly replied. 

    AP

    Two potential Iranian customers look at fabric bolts in Tehran's old main bazaar in this picture taken July 14, 2012.

    Manufacturing hit hard
    The financial situation is affecting people from all classes. Thousands of workers have been laid off and have not been paid back wages because companies have simply run out of money. Majid, a 32-year-old mechanic who used to work for a large car company was recently laid off and is owed six months’ salary.


    “They are laying off people left, right and center. I doubt there will be a company left by the New Year,” he said, giving just his first name because of the sensitivity of the issue in Iran. Persian New Year will be on March 21, 2013.

    The car industry, one of the biggest manufacturing sectors in Iran and a massive employer, has been affected dramatically; Iranian media have reported a 30 to 50 percent drop in car and component production in the past six months. Iran was the 13th-largest auto maker in the world in 2011, producing 1.6 million vehicles.

    The Iran Khodro Company, the country’s leading vehicle manufacturer, had become the largest vehicle manufacturer in the Middle East, Central Asia and North Africa.  The company won the annual national prize for export activities in 2006 and 2007 with Russia, Syria, Turkey, Iraq, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Egypt, Algeria and Bulgaria among their key consumers.

    But higher prices, due to the soaring costs of components as a result of the sanctions, have caused a drop in demand.

    Israel's Netanyahu: Draw 'clear red line' to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons

    For instance, France's Peugeot Citroen halted shipments of vehicle kits for assembly in Iran earlier this year, saying international sanctions barring transactions with the country's banking system made it difficult to obtain sales financing.

    Sanctions have taken a toll on the Iranian economy. The government is reluctant to admit it. Inflation is high. The number of young unemployed is a growing concern. NBC's Ali Arouzi reports. 

    Majid, the mechanic, said he is looking for work elsewhere but it is proving very difficult. “There are not many jobs going and it is getting me more and more depressed.”

    Oil sales to travel - down
    The oil sector has been hit hard too.  The Iranian Labor News Agency reported that a letter on behalf of 20,000 oil workers from across the country was sent to Labor Minister Abdolreza Sheikholeslami complaining that they had not been paid in months. The letter demanded an increase to the worker’s salaries of $120 to $285 a month, adding that at the current rate they were "way below the poverty line.” 

    Mohammad Reza Bahonar, a prominent Iranian member of parliament, said oil exports in June-July had dropped to "around 800,000 barrels per day," according to a report by ISNA news agency. That’s a low not seen in more than two decades, and less than half the 2.3 million barrels per day exported just a year ago.

    But Minister of Petroleum Rostam Qasemi was quoted by ISNA saying that overall oil production this year "will be the same as last year."

    Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for a firm deadline for Iran to halt its nuclear program, using a simple drawing to warn the UN that Iran will soon reach the point of no return in its development of nuclear weapons. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.

    The strangling of the economy isn’t just affecting blue-collar workers.

    Middle-class Iranians had become accustomed to foreign travel – to Dubai, a playground for Iranians only an hour and half away, Turkey, one of only a few countries that does not require visa’s for Iranians, and Thailand. But the cost of travel to any of these destinations is prohibitive to many.

    More Iran coverage from NBC News

    Maryam, a travel agent in Tehran who also only gave her first name, estimated that the number of travelers has been halved in a year. “The price of tickets and organized tours increased almost a hundred fold. They say that this will boost domestic holidays, but I think that is even too expensive for most people.”

    This was evident to me last month flying back to Tehran from London via Dubai. Usually the flight from Dubai to Tehran is jammed, but not this time. Business and first class were full with the super-rich of Iran, but 70 percent of the plane which makes up the economy class was almost empty.

    As the American mission in Afghanistan winds down, dangers still abound for U.S. troops – the most recent incident involved a Taliban gunman who fired on a U.S. Marine outpost in Afghanistan's Helmand Province. NBC's Richard Engel reports.

    Expected to get worse
    Mehdi is a young entrepreneur who imports computers and accessories who also spoke on the condition of anonymity. He said people are just not buying in Iran right now. His biggest wish was that the value of the rial would just stay fixed against dollar – even if it was at an unfavorable rate – just so consumers would know how much things would cost in a weeks’ time, a day or even in the next few hours.

    While the sanctions have certainly taken a major bite out of the economy and are hurting people from all walks of life – it does not seem to be making the government authorities buckle. If anything it seems to have stiffened the government’s resolve and things are set to become even more difficult in the not too distant future.  

    Britain, France and Germany are urging their European Union partners "to further step up the pressure" on Iran. Further sanctions targeting the Islamic Republic's energy, finance, trade and transportation sectors are expected to be formally adopted on Oct. 15.

    Slideshow: Everyday life in Iran

    At schools, in shops, and on the streets of big cities and small towns, daily life plays out in Iran.

    Launch slideshow

    More world stories from NBC News:

    Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

     

     

     

     

  • China seals fate of disgraced politician Bo Xilai ahead of key leadership congress

    How Hwee Young / EPA

    Bo Xilai, who had been a candidate for top office in China until caught up in a scandal that included a murder, will face charges for abuse of power, bribe taking and improper relations with a number of women.

    By NBC News staff and wire reports

    BEIJING - China's ruling Communist Party accused disgraced politician Bo Xilai of abusing power, taking huge bribes and other crimes on Friday, sealing the fate of a controversial figure whose fall shook the country's looming leadership succession.


    The once high-flying Bo faces a criminal investigation and will almost certainly end up in jail.

    "Bo Xilai's actions created grave repercussions and did massive harm to the reputation of the party and state, producing an extremely malign effect at home and abroad," the official statement from a party leaders' meeting said, according to a report by the official Xinhua news agency. 

    The Politburo statement also said that Bo took huge amounts of bribes directly or through his family and that he "maintained illicit relationships with numerous females." 

    The criticisms and allegations against Bo amount to throwing the book at him: The wide-ranging charges go back more than a decade to when he was mayor of Dalian and continue through his removal as Chongqing party secretary in March. 

    The Politburo panel said that the 18th Party Congress would begin on Nov. 8, paving the way for a once-a-decade leadership change at the highest levels of the Communist party. 

    The 204-member Central Committee, a cross-section of the national party elite, usually convenes about a week before the congress to approve decisions already made by the Politburo. Privately, the committee will also approve the incoming leaders and a policy blueprint for the next five years. 

    China closes in on Bo Xilai after jailing ex-police chief

    The congress had been expected to take place in mid-October, though the preparations were overshadowed by the Bo scandal, China's biggest in a decade. 

    The late start -- relative to past party congresses -- could allow for Bo to be dealt with before the congress starts and give the next generation of leaders a relatively clean political slate to work from.

    China's most politically explosive trial wrapped in a matter of hours when Gu Kailai, the wife of Chinese politician Bo Xilai, did not object to murder charges against her. ITV's Angus Walker reports.

    The scandal was set off when a trusted Bo aide disclosed that Bo's wife, Gu Kailai, had murdered a British businessman.

    Bo was sacked as party chief of the city of Chongqing; Gu Kailai was given a suspended death sentence after confessing to the murder; and the aide, Chongqing police chief Wang Lijun, received a 15-year prison term for initially covering up the murder and other misdeeds. 

    The official statement also said that Bo had been expelled from the party as well as the elite, decision-making Politburo and Central Committee "in view of his errors and culpability in the Wang Lijun incident and the intentional homicide case involving Bogu Kailai." Bogu is his wife Gu Kailai's official but rarely used surname.

    Wang Lijun, the Chinese police chief who exposed the murder of a British business man, has been sentenced to 15 years in jail after being found guilty of abuse of power, bribery and defection

    It was not immediately clear what was meant by the reference to Bo's responsibility in the murder, although the abuse of power charges against Bo could be related to obstruction of justice in the case.

    It was the first direct mention of Bo in state media in months. His name was not mentioned for both Gu's and Wang's trials. 

    The end of those trials cleared the way for the party to decide whether to charge Bo with criminal wrongdoing.

    The wife of a disgraced Chinese politician has been given a suspended death sentence for her role in the death of British businessman, Neil Heywood.  ITV's Angus Walker reports.

    Bo's ouster from the leadership early this year opened a window into the divisive jostling for power that took place as president and party leader Hu Jintao prepared to retire to make way for younger leaders. 

    After wife's conviction, what next for Bo Xilai?

    The government is grappling with a rapidly slowing economy and a bitter territorial dispute with Japan that has sparked violent street protests and is having an impact on trade ties.

    Labor unrest, a growing urban middle class, and anger over corruption and illegal land seizures are fueling demands for reform.

    NBC News' Ed Flanagan, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

    More world stories from NBC News:

    Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

     

     

  • France wants to slap rich with 75 percent 'super-tax'

    The French officially unveiled a 75 percent super tax-rate for the wealthy, reports CNBC's Robert Frank. The new rate is rumored to affect only about 2,000 people in the country.

    By Daniel Flynn and Leigh Thomas , Reuters

    PARIS - President Francois Hollande's Socialist government unveiled sharp tax hikes on business and the rich on Friday in a 2013 budget aimed at showing France has the fiscal rigour to remain at the core of the euro zone.

    The package will recoup 30 billion euros ($39 billion) for the public purse with a goal of narrowing the deficit to 3.0 percent of national output next year from 4.5 percent this year - France's toughest single belt-tightening in 30 years.

    But with record unemployment and a barrage of data pointing to economic stagnation, there are fears the deficit target will slip as France falls short of the modest 0.8 percent economic growth rate on which it is banking for next year.

    The budget disappointed pro-reform lobbyists by merely freezing France's high public spending rather than daring to attack ministerial budgets as Spain did this week as it battles to avoid the conditions of an international bailout.

    "This is a fighting budget to get the country back on the rails," Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said, adding that the 0.8 percent growth target was "realistic and ambitious".

    "It is a budget which aims to bring back confidence and to break this spiral of debt that gets bigger and bigger."

    With public debt at a post-war record of 91 percent of the economy, the budget is vital to France's credibility not only among euro zone partners but also in markets which for now are allowing it to borrow at record-low yields around two percent.

    France's benchmark 3.0 percent 10-year bond was steady, yielding 2.18 percent after the announcement.

    The government said the budget was the first in a series of steps to bring its deficit down to 0.3 percent of GDP by 2017 - slightly missing an earlier target of a zero deficit by then.

    But early reactions were sceptical.

    "The ambitions that were flagged are very audacious," said Philippe Waechter at Natixis Asset Management. "I struggle to see how we'll find the growth needed in 2013 and afterwards."

    Of the total 30 billion euros of savings, around 20 billion will come from tax increases on households and companies, with tax rises already approved this year to contribute some 4 billion euros to revenues in 2013. The freeze on spending will contribute around 10 billion euros.

    "Sick" model
    To the dismay of business leaders who fear an exodus of top talent, the government confirmed a temporary 75 percent super-tax rate for earnings over one million euros and a new 45 percent band for revenues over 150,000 euros.

    Together, those two measures are predicted to bring in around half a billion euros. Higher tax rates on dividends and other investments, plus cuts to existing tax breaks are seen bringing in several billion more.

    Business will be hit with measures including a cut in the amount of loan interest which is tax-deductible and the cutting of an existing tax break on capital gains from certain share sales - moves worth around four billion and two billion euros each.

    "The government is impeding investment and so will block innovation," Entrepreneurs Club head Guillaume Cairou said of the preference for raising taxes rather than cutting spending.

    "France is sick because of the model it has ... but is choosing to preserve it."

    Four months after he defeated Nicolas Sarkozy, Hollande's approval ratings are in free-fall as many French feel he has been slow to get to grips with the economic slow-down and unemployment at a 10-year high and rising.

    Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici defended next year's growth target on French radio. But, highlighting the bet on growth underpinning the entire budget, he added that it was achievable "if Europe steadies".

    Data on Friday confirmed France posted zero growth in the second quarter, marking nine months of stagnation, as a pickup in business investment and government spending was offset by a worsening trade balance and sluggish consumer expenditure.

    Despite a rise in wages, consumers - traditionally the motor of France's growth - increased their savings to 16.4 percent of income from 16.0 percent a year earlier. In another setback, other data showed consumer spending dropped 0.8 percent in August.

    More money and business news:

    Follow NBCNews.com business on Twitter and Facebook

Jump to September 2012 archive page: 1 2 3 ... 15