LAGOS, Nigeria -- Soldiers have barricaded key roads in Nigeria's commercial capital of Lagos as the president offered a concession to halt fuel price protests that he said were being stoked by provocateurs seeking anarchy.

Troops and police also blocked entrances to protest venues in Nigeria's second-largest city of Kano on Monday, including a park near a university and a square in the city center.

Pius Utomi Ekpei / AFP - Getty Images

Soldiers barricade the road to stop protesters at Ojota district in Lagos on Monday.

The deployment of troops is a sensitive issue in a nation with a young democracy and a history of military coups. President Goodluck Jonathan said in his televised speech early Monday that agitators have hijacked the demonstrations.

Jonathan announced the government would subsidize gasoline prices to immediately reduce the price to about $2.27 a gallon. The concession might not be enough to stem outrage over the government's stripping of fuel subsidies on Jan. 1 that kept gas prices low in this oil-rich but impoverished nation. Even with the measure announced Monday, gasoline would still be more than a dollar higher than it was just 16 days ago, and anger in Africa's most populous nation is also now aimed at government corruption and inefficiency.

Tens of thousands have marched in cities across the nation of more than 160 million people, while a strike by Nigeria's biggest union began Jan. 9, paralyzing the country.

Reuters reported that the protests have "become an outlet for thousands to vent their grievances against what they see as a venal ruling political class and incompetent government, which is struggling to tackle an insurgency by the Boko Haram Islamist sect based in the largely Muslim north."

Remi Sonaiya, a student, told Reuters: "The bottom line is we don't trust the government to do what they say anymore."

Pius Utomi Ekpei / AFP - Getty Images

Protesters gather to protest against the scrapping of oil subsidies at Gani Fawehinmi Park in Lagos, Nigeria on Wednesday.

Strike suspended
Unions on Monday suspended their strike following the government's concessions, but it was not immediately clear if wider anger would be calmed by the measure.

• PHOTOBLOG: Nigeria protests grow

In Lagos, a city of 15 million, army soldiers set up a checkpoint Monday morning on the main highway that feeds traffic from the mainland into its islands.

An Associated Press reporter saw more than a dozen Nigerian air force personnel, who were carrying assault rifles and wearing green fatigue uniforms, questioning occupants of cars at a roundabout where more 1,000 protesters had regularly gathered last week. Drivers had to slow down because the airmen had put metal barricades and debris in the street. They asked the drivers to identify themselves and say where they were going.

Sunday Alamba / AP

Nigeria's government and labor unions have failed to end a paralyzing nationwide strike over the high costs of gasoline, and potentially sparking a national oil production shutdown.

At a park in Lagos' Ojota neighborhood on the mainland, where more than 20,000 people had gathered Friday for an anti-government demonstration, two military armored personnel carriers were parked near an empty stage. About 50 soldiers and 50 other security personnel surrounded the area carrying Kalashnikov rifles, waving away those who tried to enter to resume demonstrations. A crowd of several hundred people gathered a few hundreds yards away.

"They are here because they don't want us to protest," said Remi Odutayo, 25, referring to the soldiers in the park. "They are using the power given to them to do something illegal" by stopping demonstrators from gathering.

• STORY: Social media widen scope of Nigeria protests

Jonathan's speech Monday came after his attempt to negotiate with labor unions failed late Sunday night to avert nationwide strikes entering a sixth day. Nigeria Labor Congress President Abdulwaheed Omar said early Monday morning he had ordered workers to stay at home overnight, but that might not keep people away from mass demonstrations.

A report on Nigerian news website This Day said the president told his audience: "There was near-breakdown of law and order in certain parts of the country as a result of the activities of some persons or groups of persons who took advantage of the situation to further their narrow interests by engaging in acts of intimidation, harassment and outright subversion of the Nigerian state. I express my sympathy to those who were adversely affected by the protests."

Jonathan's government abandoned subsidies that kept gasoline prices low on Jan. 1, causing prices to spike from $1.70 per gallon (45 cents per liter) to at least $3.50 per gallon (94 cents per liter). The costs of food and transportation also largely doubled in a nation where most people live on less than $2 a day.

Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

JERUSALEM - The United States and Israel have postponed their largest-ever military drill to avoid aggravating mounting tensions between Iran and the international community.

The missile defense exercise, "Austere Challenge 12," was scheduled for April to improve defense systems and cooperation between U.S. and Israeli forces.

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Thousands of American and Israeli soldiers were to take part in the exercise, which was designed to test multiple Israeli and U.S. air defense systems against incoming missiles and rockets from places as far away as Iran.

Tensions in the region have been raised by a war of words between the U.S. and Iran over the presence of American aircraft carriers in the strategically-imported Strait of Hormuz and the assassination last week of an Iranian nuclear scientist in Tehran. Iranian officials, who maintain that their nuclear research is intended for peaceful purposes, accused Israel and the U.S. of responsibility for the attack. Both denied involvement. 

The Los Angeles Times reported that the drill was first planned following concerns Israel was preparing an unannounced attack on Iran's nuclear facilities.

The paper said the American and U.S. officials were "in close contact on defense matters" but that "Jerusalem and Washington are at odds" over how aggressively to tackle the Iran nuclear issue.

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U.S. Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is scheduled to arrive in Israel this week for talks with his Israeli counterpart, Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, the Times reported.

Ron Ben-Yishai, military analyst for Israel news website Ynet, reported that Washington's decision to delay the drill was partly related to financial concerns, noting that the US has cut its defense budget for 2012 by $450 billion dollars.

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

TEHRAN - An Iranian pro-reform newspaper says the country's OPEC governor has warned the country's Arab neighbors that Tehran will view any increase in crude production to counterbalance a potential embargo on Iranian oil as an unfriendly act.

A Sunday report by Shargh daily quotes Mohammad Ali Khatibi as saying that Arab nations will be an "accomplice in the consequences," if they raise output to offset any potential loss of Iranian crude exports due to an embargo.

New U.S. sanctions against Iran approved last month target the country's central bank and, by extension, its ability to sell petroleum abroad. The U.S. has delayed implementing the sanctions for at least six months. The EU is also contemplating an embargo.

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Iran is OPEC's second-largest oil producer after Saudi Arabia with output of about 3.5 million barrels per day. It is facing trade hurdles over its nuclear program, which the United States and its allies say is aimed at building bombs.

Iran says it needs nuclear technology to generate electricity.

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EU countries have proposed "grace periods" on existing contracts of one to 12 months to allow companies to find alternative suppliers before implementing an embargo.

Iran has threatened to block the vital oil shipping route of the Strait of Hormuz in the Gulf if sanctions imposed on its oil exports.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Updated at 9:35 a.m. ET:

Arab League foreign ministers will meet on Jan. 22 to discuss the findings of monitors sent to Syria to observe whether President Bashar Assad has implemented a plan to end 10 months of bloodshed, Egypt's Middle East News Agency said according to Reuters.

The Arab League monitors are due to complete on Jan. 19 a report on the situation in Syria. An Arab League committee on Syria, led by Qatar, will discuss the report on Jan. 21 but only a full meeting of the 22-member body's foreign ministers can decide whether to end, extend or beef up the mission.

Published at 4:45 a.m. ET:

Reuters is reporting that Syrian President Bashar Assad has granted a general amnesty for crimes committed since the outbreak of a 10-month uprising against his rule, the state news agency SANA reported on Sunday.

SANA said the amnesty would cover "crimes committed in the context of the events that occurred from March 15, 2011, until January 15, 2012." It gave no further details.

It also applies to army deserters who fled military service if they turn themselves in before Jan. 31.

It was not clear how many prisoners would be affected by Sunday's pardon.

Since the outbreak of the uprising against Assad's rule in March, Assad has freed 3,952 prisoners, according to SANA.

The opposition claims there are thousands more in Syrian prisons.

Also on Sunday, U.N. Secretary General demanded Sunday that Assad stop killing his own people, and said the "old order" of one-man rule and family dynasties is over in the Middle East.

In a keynote address at a conference on democracy in the Arab world, Ban Ki-moon said the revolutions of the Arab Spring show that people will no longer accept tyranny.

"Today, I say again to President (Bashar) Assad of Syria: Stop the violence. Stop killing your people," Ban said during the conference in Beirut.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Updated at 4:45 p.m. ET:
The owner of the capsized Italian cruise ship issued a statement Sunday saying it appears the ship's captain was at fault. in the tragedy that has claimed at least five lives. Fifteen more people, including two Americans, are still missing.  

"While the investigation is ongoing, preliminary indications are that there may have been significant human error on the part of the ship's master, Captain Francesco Schettino, which resulted in these grave consequences," Costa Cruises, a subsidiary of U.S.-based Carnival Corp., stated. "The route of the vessel appears to have been too close to the shore, and in handling the emergency the captain appears not to have followed standard Costa procedures."

Updated at 3 p.m. ET:
The captain was spotted on land during the evacuation, and he ignored pleas by officers that he return to his ship and honor his duty to stay aboard until everyone else was safely off the vessel, a Coast Guard official said Sunday.

"We did our duty," Italian Coast Guard Cmdr. Francesco Paolillo told The Associated Press, referring to efforts to get Francesco Schettino back on the Costa Concordia Friday night.

 Schettino, who is in police custody while officials investigate the cause, has insisted he didn't leave the liner before all passengers were off, saying "we were the last ones to leave the ship."

According to the Italian navigation code, a captain who abandons a ship in danger can face up to 12 years in prison.

Slideshow: Luxury ship runs aground

Updated at 12:15 p.m. ET:
Divers searching for missing passengers and crew from the capsized Italian cruise ship found two more bodies on Sunday but are facing dangerous obstacles themselves.

The vessel could suddenly move and sink into deeper waters, and floating objects inside the ship as well as muck are hindering divers.

"There are tents, mattresses, other objects moving which can get tangled in the divers' equipment," Italian Coast Guard Cmdr. Cosimo Nicastro said Sunday.

Enzo Russo / AFP - Getty Images

Francesco Schettino, the captain of the Costa Concordia, is taken into custody in Grosseto, Italy, on Saturday.

Officials were going to huddle soon to see how long the underwater search could safely continue, he said.

In order to find their way out, divers are using a long cord they hook near the point of entrance and unroll as they work. 

Three people have been found alive after most of the 4,200 passengers and crew escaped on life boats, fishing boats and even swimming to shore, but 5 are confirmed dead and 15 more are missing.

Updated at 10:40 a.m. ET:
Two more bodies were recovered from the capsized Italian cruise ship, raising the official death toll to 5, as investigators looked into accusations that the captain abandoned ship early.

The bodies of two elderly men still in their life jackets were recovered by divers at the emergency gathering point near a restaurant area. Fifteen people are still unaccounted for. Two of those are U.S. citizens, the U.S. Embassy in Rome said.

Updated at 10:10 a.m. ET:
Two survivors of the Italian cruise ship that hit a reef are among those who said the captain abandoned ship early. A prosecutor earlier said he's investigating those allegations.

Ophelie Gondelle and David Du Pays of Marseille, France, said they saw the captain in a lifeboat, covered by a blanket, well before all the passengers were off the ship. They insisted on telling a reporter what they saw, so incensed that — according to them — the captain had abandoned the ship before everyone had been evacuated.

"The commander left before and was on the dock before everyone was off," said Gondelle, 28, a French military officer.

"Normally the commander should leave at the end," said Du Pays, a police officer who said he helped an injured passenger to a rescue boat. "I did what I could."

Updated at 7:25 a.m. ET:
An Italian prosecutor confirms he's investigating allegations from passengers and others that the captain of the cruise ship Costa Concordia abandoned the stricken liner before all the passengers had left.

Officials believe the ship's captain, Francesco Schettino, had brought the 114,500-tonne vessel too close to the shore, where it struck the rock, tearing a large gash in the hull.

Stringer/Italy / Reuters

A combination photo shows a South Korean couple after they were rescued from the Costa Concordia.

Three people are confirmed dead after the huge cruise ship carrying more than 4,200 people ran aground on Friday night. Three people -- a South Korean couple and a crew member -- have reportedly been rescued.

Rescuers found the crew member, chief purser Manrico Gianpetroni, after hearing his screams. He suffered a broken leg, Reuters reports.

Rescue crews were searching for 17 missing people in our around the ship, down from around 40 people who were unaccounted for right after the luxury liner went down, Sky News reports. 

Updated at 6:50 a.m. ET:
The U.S. Embassy in Rome issues a statement revising the number of Americans estimated on board the Costa Concordia to 125 from 126.

"We continue to account for and provide emergency assistance to them," the Embassy via Twitter.

A Korean couple on their honeymoon were taken off the ship early on Sunday.  A third person, reportedly a crew member, was being removed late Sunday morning, according to Sky News.

The task is akin to searching a small town - but one tilted on its side, and largely in darkness and submerged in freezing water. Scores of divers were taking part.

Just after dawn on Sunday, a team made voice contact with a third survivor still on board the ship. "We are doing the impossible to reach this person," coast guard spokesman Luciano Nicastro told Italian television.

After midnight, rescue workers had found the two South Koreans still alive in a cabin, after locating them from several decks above, and brought them ashore, looking dazed but unharmed.

The captain of the luxury 114,500-tonne ship, Francesco Schettino, was under arrest and accused of multiple manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship, Italian police said.

Updated at 5:20 a.m. ET: 
A third survivor was located inside the overturned Costa Concordia cruise ship off the western coast of Italy, a spokesman for Italian firefighters told The Associated Press on Sunday.

Published at 4:45 a.m. ET: 
Rescue crews circling the wreckage of a cruise ship that ran aground off the Tuscan coast have heard sounds from within the ship, Britain's Sky News reported on Sunday.

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By Sopan Deb
Rock Center

The United States may be on the verge of bringing back manufacturing jobs from China.

Harold Sirkin, along with Michael Zinser and Douglas Hohner (all experts from the Boston Consulting Group – a leading management consulting firm), says that outsourcing manufacturing to China is not as cheap as it used to be and that the United States is poised to bring back jobs from China. The three consultants first reached this conclusion in a recently published study titled “Made in America, Again: Why Manufacturing Will Return to the U.S.”

Many companies, especially in the auto and furniture industries, moved plants overseas once China opened its doors to free trade and foreign investment in the last few decades. Labor was cheaper for American companies – less than $1 per hour according to the BCG report. Today, labor costs in China have risen dramatically, and shipping and fuel costs have skyrocketed. As China’s economy has expanded, and China has built new factories all across the country, the demand for workers has risen. As a result, wages are up as new companies compete to hire the best workers.

“The tilt is now getting lower,” Sirkin says. “We think somewhere around 2015 it’ll look flat and may start to tilt in the U.S. favor at that point in time.”

By 2015,  it will only be about 10 percent cheaper to manufacture in China.

“We have to recognize one thing,” Sirkin told NBC’s Harry Smith in an interview to air on Rock Center with Brian Williams. “The average Chinese worker is about a quarter as productive as the average U.S. worker.”

“It’ll be a major impact. Our projections are, when you take the manufacturing jobs and then the service jobs that get created alongside those, that we will add two to three million jobs to the U.S. workforce.”

The U.S. is already seeing examples of this – starting  in Lincolnton, North Carolina.

Rock Center has been following Bruce Cochrane of Lincolnton Furniture as he brings his family business back to the U.S. and re-opens the family furniture plant. Cochrane was invited to the White House last week for a forum on job creation with President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.

“Now, you don't have be a big manufacturer to insource jobs,” Obama said.  “Bruce Cochrane's family had manufactured furniture in North Carolina for five generations.  But in 1996, as jobs began shifting to Asia, the family sold their business, and Bruce spent time in China and Vietnam as a consultant for American furniture makers.  But while he was there, he noticed something he didn't expect: their consumers actually wanted to buy things made in America. So he came home and started a new company, Lincolnton Furniture, which operates out of the old family factories. He's even re-hired many of the former workers from his family business. “

According to BCG, another manufacturer, Sleek Audio, moved production of its headphones from Chinese suppliers to a plant in Florida. Ford Motor Company is bringing back 2,000 jobs from China after striking an agreement with the United Auto Workers. Sirkin says it’s good news for the economy even though wages will be lower in those jobs than they were previously.

Sirkin believes fears that United States manufacturing is in decline are overstated and notes that the U.S. is still a manufacturing giant. In 2010, China provided 19.8 percent of global manufacturing value added. The U.S. accounted for a marginally less 19.4 percent, which, according to Boston Consulting, was “a share that has declined only slightly over the past three decades.”

Luca Milano / AFP - Getty Images

Costa Concordia pictured Saturday after the cruise ship with more than 4,000 people on board ran aground and keeled over off the Isola del Giglio, an Italian island Friday.

Updated at 8:05 a.m. ET: NBC News reports that 129 Americans were on board the cruise ship. Three bodies have been found and rescuers are still searching the sea after it ran aground.

Updated at 8:03 a.m. ET: Some 69 people are still missing after the cruise ship Costa Concordia ran aground off the Italian coast then tipped over in the sea, according to news reports.

Updated at 6:50 a.m. ET: Specialist diving teams are being brought in to search the interior of the cruise ship Costa Concordia after it ran aground off the Italian coast, fire services spokesman Luca Cari says. So far three bodies have been recovered; Cari warns, "We don't rule out the possibility that more people will be lost," amid reports of six or eight deaths.

Updated at 4:30 a.m. ET: "It was so unorganized," passenger Melissa Goduti, 28, of Wallingford, Connecticut, tells The Associated Press of the chaos after a cruise liner ran aground off Italy, leading to the deaths of at least six people. "We had joked what if something had happened today," Goduti, who had just joined the cruise ship, says.

Updated at 3:15 a.m. ET: Sky News shows a picture of the Costa Concordia on its side in the water after the cruise ship ran aground off the Italian coast Friday night. The picture, by Giglio News, can be seen here.

Published at 12:30 a.m. ET: A cruise ship with 4,200 people on board ran aground and ripped a 165-foot gash in its hull off the Tuscan island of Giglio on Friday night, and local officials reported that at least six people died. Some on the island said eight were dead.

At least three bodies were recovered from the sea, the Italian coast guard reported.

Helicopters were working to pluck to safety some 50 people still trapped aboard the badly listing Costa Concordia on Saturday, said Coast Guard Cmdr. Francesco Paolillo.

Stringer/Italy / Reuters

Passengers arrive at Porto Santo Stefano after a cruise ship ran aground off the west coast of Italy.

Some people were thrown into the sea when the Costa Concordia started listing, others jumped to evacuate the ship, officials said.

The ship, which reportedly cost more than $680 million, was three-quarters under water and sinking fast, a Giglio hotel clerk told NBC News on Saturday.

The Telegraph of London said some passengers jumped from the steeply listing ship and swam a short distance to the island. A photo showed the brightly lit ship teetering just outside a harbor wall.

One official said that among the dead was a man around age 65,  who might have been ill or who might not have withstood the cold of the sea at night, Il Messagero said.

The 950-foot Costa Concordia had left the port of Savona at 7 p.m. local time and was sailing to Civitavecchia, its first port of call, when it ran aground around 9 p.m.

A rocky reef
Costa Cruises said 3,200 passengers were aboard, along with 1,023 crew members. Coast Guard Officials said the liner was listing at 20 degrees but was not in danger of sinking.

Paolillo, the coast guard official, speaking from the port captain's office in the Tuscan port of Livorno, said the vessel "hit an obstacle" -- it wasn't clear if it might have hit a rocky reef in the waters off Giglio -- "ripping a gash 50 meters (165 feet) across" on the left side of the ship, and started taking on water.

The cruise liner's captain, Paolillo said, then tried to steer his ship toward shallow waters, near Giglio's small port, to make evacuation by lifeboat easier. But after the ship started listing badly onto its right side, lifeboat evacuation was no longer feasible, Paolillo said.

By 1:20 a.m. Saturday the evacuation of passengers and crew had been virtually completed. But Il Messaggero said about 200 remained on board and would have to be airlifted out by helicopters. The ship's worsening position was making it difficult to complete the evacuation, officials said.

Town officials were trying to find places for the evacuees to spend the night.

Stringer/Italy / Reuters

Passengers arrive at Porto Santo Stefano after a cruise ship ran aground off the west coast of Italy at Giglio island Friday.

A clerk at the Bahamas hotel told NBC News that 1,000 people were sheltering there. A crew member at the hotel told the clerk he heard two loud noises and the ship started leaning to one side almost immediately.

Some passengers panicked as some jumped into the cold sea to swim ashore, the clerk said.

'Very strange'
The first evacuated passengers were taken to a church for shelter on the tiny island. The church pastor told Il Messagero that women in suits and highheels were camped out in pews with frightened children. Other passsengers were taken to schools and hotels on the island, said Italian news agency ANSA.

Sky News quoted passenger Luciano Castro as telling Italian media: ''We were having dinner when all of a sudden the lights went out. It seemed as if the ship struck something and then we heard a loud bang and everything fell to the floor.

''The captain immediately came on the tannoy and said that there had been an electrical fault but it seemed very strange as the ship almost immediately began to list to one side. The glasses just slid off the table."

"It was like a scene from the Titanic," another passenger aboard, journalist Mara Parmegiani, told ANSA.

One woman also told The Telegraph: "It was just like something out of the Titanic. You could tell straight away that the ship had hit something and no way was it an electrical fault."

Passengers were first asked to put on life jackets as a precaution, witnesses said, but it soon became clear the situation was more serious when the abandon-ship signal was sounded, ANSA said.

The Costa Concordia, according to a Costa Cruises statement obtained by NBC News, was sailing across the Mediterranean Sea, starting from Civitavecchia with scheduled calls to Savona, Marseille, Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca, Cagliari and Palermo. About 1,000 passengers of Italian nationality were aboard, as well as more than 500 Germans, about 160 French and about 1,000 crew members.

The company said it would cooperate with authorities to determine what caused the emergency.

This article includes reporting from NBC'sClaudio Lavanga in Italy, msnbc.com's Jim Gold and Alex Johnson, The Associated Press and Reuters.

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By Cheryll Simpson
Kabul, Afghanistan

The yellow rickety bus pulls up at the big iron gates. Enthusiastic students, in the midst of a harsh winter, arrive quickly. Others soon appear by foot or pushbike, and they all line up for their daily security pat-down to enter school. But this isn’t just any school, this is Afghanistan’s revived institution for the education of young Afghan musicians.

Ahmad Sarmast, 49, the founder of the Afghanistan National Institute of Music, is an Afghan national from Australia who lives in Kabul most of the year.

“I identified the need to establish a dedicated music college, where the most disadvantaged kids of Afghan society can get their general education and specialist training in music that will guarantee them a bright future,”  he said.

The jovial father of two comes from a family with a rich musical pedigree -- his father was the late, well-known Afghan musician Ustad Sarmast. The younger Sarmast wanted to use that reputation and his qualifications to help his native country. His vision for the school took root in 2006 after he earned his Ph.D. in music at Monash University in Melbourne.

Several years later, the school is thriving, and music teachers come from all over the world to instruct the students.  Instrument tuition ranges from drums, piano and violin to traditional string instruments such as the Sarod and Rubab.

One of the students, who goes by the name Sapna, is an orphan from Jalalabad who is believed to be 9 years old. Now, she says, she can envision a future for herself.

 “When they did [the] entrance exam I chose piano -- and I also like violin,” she said.  “I want to be famous all over the world. All kids should learn these things.”

Afghan culture had always provided a rich tapestry of music tradition and history, but when the Taliban captured power in the 1990s, they forcibly banned music in Afghanistan. Musicians suffered discrimination – in many areas only chanting was permitted. Post-Taliban, Sarmast witnessed a bleak and discouraging picture of the music scene.

“When I saw that very grave picture – I decided my country needs me and I have to return back to Afghanistan,” Sarmast said. “That was the major factor for my decision.”

The school now has 140 students with 50 percent of the school enrollment each year reserved for the disadvantaged kids from Afghan society: orphans, street vendors and girls. Sarmast said his school is committed to not only promote music, but to rebuild ruined lives and to empower the women of Afghanistan to practice and listen to music.

“While we are preserving or reserving 50 percent of the places for the most disadvantaged group of Afghan society, the other 50 percent are the most talented kids of Afghanistan,” he said.  "If they’ve got the talents, we do everything to have them here.”

People in the community are very supportive of the promotion of music, and music education, Sarmast said. “ everyone is trying to get their kids here so that says a lot.”

One man who shares the same vision as Sarmast is popular music teacher William Harvey from Indianapolis, Ind. who has been teaching at the school since March 2010.  Harvey said he believes in the power of music to transcend cultural barriers. “It’s a positive experience that transforms the relationship between the countries one person at a time,” he said.

“When I first came here they could only play ‘Love Story’, or ‘Godfather’, now I have two top students learning Bach’s concerto for two violins,” he added.

Harvey said the students are exceptional and unusual. Teaching the Afghans differs from teaching students in the U.S. because the students often come from very difficult backgrounds. 

“It’s also possible in the U.S., but the social mechanism to support them isn’t always there. If a child is being beaten constantly by her father there is no child protective services here," Harvey said. "We do have children that used to be selling chewing gum on the street but thanks to the sponsorship program initiated by Dr. Sarmast, now they are studying violin with me.”

Harvey recalled a student of his, a girl who was forced to work on the streets, begging for small change to support her family. Her father had been paralyzed after being beaten with an electric cable during the Taliban’s reign.

"Instead of working on the streets this girl is now studying violin -- and I believe that she has a good shot at a career, not just in Afghanistan but perhaps internationally given the talent that she has shown.”

Harvey said he believes cultural diplomacy is essential for the United States' relationship with Afghanistan. "I remember conducting the orchestra for President Karzai, four times now, and one of those times someone who was a member of the previous government came up to me and shook my hand and I thought, ‘Wow – this is amazing,'” he said. "Because you know under the government that he served music was banned. And here he is shaking hands with an American who just conducted Afghan children – boys and girls playing Afghan music.”

Sarmast is confident that in 10 years there will be at least three other music schools in Afghanistan.  “That’s my vision and I’m dedicated to establishing three more. But on the other end I see, and it’s clearly in front of my eyes, the first symphony orchestra of Afghanistan completed by the graduates of ANIM!” he said excitedly. 

"When they play I can see the happiness in their faces – and how much they are enjoying it,” he said. “On Sunday I was in the orchestra room and they were rehearsing I couldn’t control my tears when I came out of the studio.”

Norwegian police via EPA

Norwegian Anders Behring Breivik who admitted killing 77 people in twin bombing and shooting attacks 22 July 2011.

A Norwegian court on Friday ordered a new psychiatric evaluation of confessed mass killer Anders Behring Breivik, after an earlier report found him legally insane.

Judge Wenche Elizabeth Arntzen said in Oslo the new evaluation is necessary considering widespread criticism of the initial findings, which suggested Breivik should be sent to psychiatric care instead of prison.

The 32-year-old Norwegian has confessed to a bomb and shooting spree July 22 that killed 77 people and traumatized the peaceful Scandinavian country.

Breivik denies criminal guilt, saying he's a commander of a resistance movement aiming to overthrow European governments and replace them with "patriotic" regimes that would deport Muslim immigrants.

Investigators have found no sign of such a movement and say Breivik most likely plotted and carried out the attacks on his own.

Arntzen said two Norwegian psychiatrists — Agnar Aspaas and Terje Toerrisen — had been appointed for the new evaluation.

However, Breivik doesn't want to talk to them because he doesn't believe they will understand him any better than the experts who interviewed him for the first assessment, defense lawyer Geir Lippestad, told reporters after speaking to his client in prison.

Lippestad also said that the defense team is skeptical toward a new evaluation because the first assessment was leaked to Norwegian media.

"We want evidence to be presented in court and not in the media," Lippestad told Norwegian broadcaster NRK.

Before the court's decision, Breivik rejected the need for a new evaluation in a motion filed by Lippestad.

The first court-ordered assessment found Breivik was psychotic during the attacks, which would make him mentally unfit to be convicted and imprisoned for the country's worst peacetime massacre.

Prosecutors said that report, submitted in November, describes Breivik as a paranoid schizophrenic living in a "delusional universe."

That conclusion drew criticism from many outside experts who questioned whether someone who is suffering from a grave mental illness could carry out such a well-planned attack.

Arntzen also noted that staff at Ila prison in Oslo, where Breivik is being held in pretrial detention, say they haven't observed any signs suggesting he is psychotic.

"These circumstances point toward letting independent experts conduct a new evaluation of the suspect's accountability," Arntzen said.

Asked what would happen if the new assessment conflicts with the first one, Arntzen said both reports would be considered by the court when the trial starts in April.

Breivik has told investigators he set off the fertilizer bomb that ripped through Oslo's government district on July 22, killing eight people. He then opened fire at the summer camp of the governing Labor Party's youth wing on the island of Utoya, where sixty-nine people were killed before Breivik surrendered to a SWAT team.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Str / AFP - Getty Images

Dutch national Joran Van der Sloot is seen during a hearing in Lima on Friday.

LIMA, Peru -- A Peruvian court on Friday sentenced Dutch citizen Joran van der Sloot to 28 years in prison for killing a woman in Lima in 2010, five years after American teenager Natalee Holloway disappeared in Aruba after spending time with him. 

The court also ordered van der Sloot to pay $75,000 in reparations to the family of the 21-year-old Stephany Flores.

The sentence was handed down two days after van der Sloot pleaded guilty to killing Flores. It also comes at a time when the family of Natalee Holloway, an 18-year-old from Alabama, is renewing efforts to bring him to the United States to face charges related to her 2005 disappearance.

The prosecution had sought a 30-year sentence for first-degree murder and theft.

The judges said that due to time already served, van der Sloot's sentence would end in June 2038. But under Peru's penal system, Van der Sloot could become eligible for parole after serving half of the sentence with good behavior, including work and study.

Van der Sloot's lawyer argued that his client killed Flores in May 2010 during a fit of rage he blamed on psychological trauma from being hounded as the prime suspect in Holloway case.

Holloway's body has not been found.

An Alabama judge agreed Thursday to declare Holloway legally dead.

The Peruvian victim's father, Ricardo Flores, complained verdict that Van der Sloot was enjoying favorable conditions in a
Lima prison, where he has been living apart from the general population and foreigners with money can buy superior treatment.

"A jail isn't a 5-star hotel," Ricardo Flores told reporters. "Let's hope the authorities take that into account and not just in our case."

"Since the first day we've been complaining about the excessive privileges" that Van der Sloot allegedly enjoyed in jail, the father said.

He said he would present evidence of this at a news conference on Monday.

Unconfirmed news reports denied by penal authorities say Van der Sloot has also had a television and video gaming console. 

Open case
The Holloway case remains open. Van der Sloot has been indicted in Alabama extortion charges for allegedly offering to lead a lawyer for Holloway's mother to her daughter's remains. He has never been charged in Holloway's death.

Van der Sloot long ago confessed the Flores killing, telling police he became enraged after the business student discovered his
connection to the Holloway disappearance on his laptop while they played poker online. Police forensic experts disputed that version, and the victim's family said Van der Sloot killed Flores in order to rob her.

The prosecution maintained Van der Sloot killed Flores with "ferocity" and "cruelty," concealing the crime and fleeing to
Chile, where he was caught two days after Flores' decaying body was found.

He took more than $200 in cash plus credit cards from the victim and made his initial getaway in her car, leaving it in a different part of Lima, prosecutors say.

Flores was slain five years to the day after Holloway, an 18-year-old from the wealthy Birmingham, Ala., suburb of Mountain Brook,
disappeared during a high school graduation trip to Aruba, where van der Sloot grew up.

Investigators have long worked from the assumption that the young woman died in Aruba, where the case was classified as a homicide investigation. That investigation remains open, though there has been no recent activity, said Solicitor General Taco Stein, an official with the prosecutor's office in Aruba.

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

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Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday that the United States was ready to start the process of exchanging full ambassadors with Myanmar as it seeks to encourage further reforms by the country's new civilian government.

"This is a momentous day for the diverse people of Burma," Clinton said in announcing the decision to elevate diplomatic ties, which followed Myanmar's release of at least 200 political prisoners on Friday.

• STORY: Myanmar frees many political prisoners

Earlier, President Obama called the repressive country's decision to release the prisoners "a substantial step forward for democratic reform."

It comes in the wake of Obama's decision to dispatch Clinton to the repressive country in December as a way of deepening engagement and seeking to encourage growing signs of openness. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky is visiting there next week.

The U.S. has set release of political prisoners as an important condition for further engagement and possible lifting of economic and political sanctions.

Obama said he applauds the decision by President Thein Sein, noting that opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has welcomed steps toward reforms.

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

More from msnbc.com and NBC News:

• US restores diplomatic relations with Myanmar
• Van der Sloot gets 28 years for Peru murder
• Hard labor for NKoreans who didn't cry at funeral
• iPhone 4 release sparks scuffles, egg attack in China

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan - Beer. Vodka. Whiskey.

These are not words you hear often in Pakistan, where it's illegal for the majority of the population to buy or drink alcohol.

We're greeted by the company's CEO, Isphanyar Bhandara - a man in constant motion - who is the third generation in his family to run the 150-year old company. In his office is an impressive display of bottles - lagers, flavored gins, matured whiskeys - the full product line of Murree Brewery, including non-alcoholic beers, fruit juices, and the latest addition - an energy drink called "Blitz."

"We're very proud of the fact that we're working in Pakistan," he says with a smile. "But you must remember, this brand - Murree Brewery - is much older than it's host."

A brewery that the British established in 1860 to ensure their soldiers were never without their favorite drink is now an unlikely institution in Pakistan, where Muslims are prohibited from purchasing or consuming alcohol. Legally, the company's only potential market is limited to Pakistan's non-Muslims - just three percent of the 180 million population.

And even for them, the actual process of legally buying alcohol is involved and tedious, with business conducted out of sight of the general public. The country's Christians, Hindus, and Zorastrians can obtain an alcohol license from the government. That license comes with a monthly quota. To buy a case of beer, or a bottle of vodka, they must stand in line at distribution points hidden behind hotels or other establishments, license in hand to prove they are not Muslim.

Murree Brewery is doing business with one hand tied behind its back. It's illegal for them to advertise their alcohol. It's illegal for them to export their alcohol. Still, it is alcohol sales that bring in 60 per cent of their revenues, which totaled just under $100 million dollars last year.

Running a successful business in Pakistan these days in hard enough. A lack of basic utilities, corruption within the law and order system, and the volatility of the Pakistani rupee are enough to keep any CEO awake at night. Bhandara shoulders the additional burden of running the only legal alcohol producer in a majority-Muslim country, where the conservative segment has grown more vocal and more influential with time.

"There are more heinous crimes going on, like honor killing, and throwing acid on people's faces, burying people alive," Bhandara says. "These things are considered in a lighter mode, that they are forgivable crimes. But having a beer is considered a non-forgivable crime!"

The truth in Pakistan that few will admit on the record, is that many Muslims do, in fact, regularly commit this "crime." The black market for alcohol is booming business, and the porous border makes for easy smuggling. The Pakistani elite serve wine at dinner parties in their homes. Pakistani men will end a long day at the office with a glass of whiskey. A bar table, hidden behind a curtain, is set up at weddings so that guests can enjoy a drink as they celebrate. But few are willing to do so openly, and potentially incur the wrath of the country's conservatives, whose power, Bhandara says "is increasing by the day."

"We like to keep a low profile," he says. "I think that's the best security."

BEIJING– Question for Siri: What to do when you have egg on your face?

It’s a question Apple officials in China must be asking themselves today after fighting outside a Beijing store forced the company to close its stores nationwide, leaving hordes of outraged Chinese out in the proverbial cold.

Outside one store in Beijing’s Sanlitun entertainment district, Chinese buyers had been lining up outside of Apple stores around China since yesterday in anticipation of the official launch of Apple’s new iPhone 4S. By 1 a.m. Friday, the line had devolved into a thrall of people gathered around the front of the store.

Many of those in line were scalpers intending to resell the phones at inflated prices to impatient consumers.

Between 4 and 5 a.m., scuffles broke out in the line, first between groups of rival scalpers and then later between scalpers and police. Perhaps fearful of a repeat of the violence that occurred at the same Beijing store just eight months prior at the release of the iPad 2, the store remained closed past the pre-announced 7 a.m. time.

Finally an Apple representative with a megaphone came out at 7:15 a.m. and announced the store would not open for iPhone 4S sales without any additional explanation.

The announcement drew immediate boos and chants of “Open the door!” and “Liars!” from the crowd who had been waiting in subzero temperatures throughout the night. At least one customer left and returned with a bag of eggs which were promptly thrown at the glass walls of the Apple store.

David Gray / Reuters

A man yells at a security guard after the guard tried to remove a member of the crowd at the Apple store in the Beijing district of Sanlitun January 13, 2012.

Apple security who attempted to apprehend the egg throwers were instead chased away by throngs of irate customers. Unverified home video of the incident shot and posted on Chinese video sites show some of the security guards being manhandled and beaten by the crowd.

Police later cleared the mob out from the square and a security cordon manned by dozens of uniformed and plain-clothed police was formed around the Apple store. A police officer outside the store told NBC News that iPhone sales in Beijing were being suspended, but believed the Sanlitun store would be open again tomorrow.

Apple later released a statement stating that “to ensure the safety of our customers and employees, iPhone 4S will not be available in our retail stores in Beijing and Shanghai for the time being.”

“Americans do make good products. Much better than ours.”

Meanwhile in Shanghai, lines were more peaceful, but iPhone sales were just as brisk outside the Apple stores as inside.

An NBC news crew outside the Apple store on the popular Nanjing road shopping street found hundreds milling around outside waiting for their chance at an iPhone 4S.

Chu Shanshan, a 25-year-old nurse who jubilantly walked out of the store with phone in hand said she had been waiting since midnight and had finally bought her dream product after 9 hours of waiting.

"Yes it's expensive. I spent a whole month's salary to buy an iPhone 4S. It's just so cool!" she said proudly.

Suddenly chaos broke out around the entrance of the Apple store. Two policemen, obviously well-prepared, could be seen yanking a man – possibly a scalper – away and disappearing into a nearby alleyway.

"Where are you from?" asked a middle-aged woman from the edge of the crowd.

"Ha! Americans must feel great to see Chinese people fighting to buy their products, right?" crowed the woman before adding, “Well I can't blame them. Americans do make good products. Much better than ours."

Big business for scalpers

For the scalpers who lined up outside of Apple stores today in Beijing and Shanghai, the iPhone’s highly anticipated release is potentially huge business. Apple restricts buyers to two phones each, so to get around those rules, scalpers hire people – often migrant workers looking to make a little extra money – to wait in line with them to purchase more phones.

Some scalpers hired scores of people to line up with them, easily identifiable by the matching ribbons they wore around their arms. They were preceded by the scalpers themselves, who wore identifiers like a balloon to help his or her buyers keep track of their whereabouts.

On Sina Weibo, China’s twitter-like service, a user representing one of the ubiquitous Apple fan clubs talked to one group of 42 buyers who had been hired by a scalper for $27 each to wait in line to purchase iPhones.

For those buyers, it’s extra money to sock away in an increasing inflated economy, but for the scalpers themselves, it’s a small price to pay for the potentially huge profits they can make selling the new phones at exorbitantly marked up prices.

Just 100 yards away from the Apple store in Shanghai, two men in worn, silvery suits held a sign over their head offering the new iPhone 4S 16gb for $918, a significant markup from the $790 listed price on Apple’s China website.

When asked why people would buy from them when they can walk half a block down and purchase the exact same phone for $128 less, one of them said, “Well first of all they don't have to line up and wait if they buy from us."

"And they can only buy a phone at the Apple store,” chimed in the other scalper, “with us we can install a lot of Apps for them."

 NBC News researcher Ting Zhao contributed to this report

Americans are under the "real and very credible" threat of a terrorist attack in Bangkok, the U.S. ambassador to Thailand warned Friday, as authorities in the country arrested a Lebanese member of Hezbollah.

Ambassador Kristie Kenney was elaborating on an "emergency message" sent by the embassy to American citizens earlier Friday warning of a possible terrorist attack.

Thailand's deputy prime minister later said a Lebanese suspect had been detained and that police had stepped up security.

"Following concern raised by the Israeli embassy about a possible attack by a group of Lebanese terrorists in Bangkok, Thai police officials had been coordinating with Israeli officials since before the new year."

Earlier, the US embassy warned its citizens that "foreign terrorists" may be looking to launch attacks in tourist areas of Thailand's capital.

"U.S. citizens are urged to exercise caution when visiting public areas where large groups of Western tourists gather in Bangkok," the embassy said in a statement. "We also encourage you to keep a low profile in public areas, particularly areas frequented by foreign tourists."

It also said Americans should "maintain a heightened awareness" in public, be alert for unattended packages and bags and report any suspicious behavior to law enforcement personnel.

It was the first U.S. warning of a foreign terror attack in Bangkok in recent memory.

Bangkok, a magnet for tourists with its vibrant nightlife and a transit point for those heading for Thailand's beaches, has faced political turmoil in recent years but threats of foreign attacks are rare.

Embassy spokesman Walter Braunohler declined to release more details saying, "At this time we don't have any further information to share."

Msnbc.com staff and Reuters contributed to this report.

Kyodo News via AP

Mourners cry during the funeral procession for late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il on Dec. 28, 2011.

North Korea is punishing citizens who didn’t cry during the orchestrated public mourning over the death of Kim Jong Il, sentencing them to six months in a labor-training camp, according to a report.

The South Korea-based Daily NK newspaper said authorities have held “criticism sessions” for those who “transgressed” during organized weeping in the wake of the dictator’s death.

It said North Koreans accused of criticizing the world’s only hereditary totalitarian regime are being sent to re-education camps or being banished with their families to remote rural areas.

The news website quoted a source from North Hamkyung province saying: “The authorities are handing down at least six months in a labor-training camp to anybody who didn’t participate in the organized gatherings during the mourning period, or who did participate but didn’t cry and didn't seem genuine.”

The source added that the recriminations "created a vicious atmosphere of fear.”

Authorities are also forcing citizens to idolize Kim Jong Il’s youngest son, Kim Jong Un, newly-installed as leader.

“Every day from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m., they have vehicles for broadcast propaganda parked on busy roads full of people going to and from work, noisily working to proclaim Kim Jong Un’s greatness,” the source said.

The website also reported that school children and factory workers are being made to study “the greatness of Kim Jong Un” in education sessions “packed so tightly together without a break that people are just exhausted.”

It added that it was able to verify the public trial claim, but noted authorities had earlier ordered the shooting of anyone who attempted to defect to South Korea during the mourning period.

Hamad I Mohammed / Reuters

Anti-government protesters take cover as riot police fire tear gas during a protest in Manama on Thursday night.

Updated at 9:50 a.m. ET:

Protests in Bahrain appear to have picked up recently despite the findings released in November of a government-backed  commission established to investigate abuses by the government and security forces, Mariwan Hama-Saeed of Human Rights Watch says.

"We were expecting (the government) just to ease up on these people, but since this report was published we've seen crackdowns every day," he says.

The Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI), set-up by the government in June, found that security forces had engaged in a patterns of serious human rights abuses, including the excessive use of force against peaceful protesters, arbitrary arrests and detentions, torture and ill-treatment of detainees and denial of fair trial guarantees.

The government of King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa has pledged to respond to the commission's findings, but an estimated hundreds remain in detention in the wake of the protests, with at least 23 of them being leaders of Bahrain's political opposition, Hama-Saeed says.

Published at 3:25 a.m. ET:

Bahraini security forces violently broke-up a protest in the Gulf kingdom's capital Friday, using tear gas and stun grenades to disperse the marchers, the BBC reported.

More than 3,000 people participated in the protest, which the government said was illegal, the BBC reported.

The march was led by leading human rights activist Nabeel Rajab, who was beaten by security forces on Friday, Jan. 6, according to Human Rights Watch.

"We are using the streets peacefully. We are marching for our rights," Rajab told the BBC.

Human Rights Watch on Friday called on authorities to "immediately halt attacks on peaceful protesters."

Bahrain, where members of the Shiite majority began protesting against the country's Sunni royal family in February, is home to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet.

• Bahrain to citizens living abroad: Spy on countrymen, no protests permitted

On Thursday, the government said it would rebuild 12 Shiite mosques demolished by authorities during the unrest. 

The work seeks to address allegations of abuses raised by an independent report on the uprising.

As part of the widespread crackdowns, Bahraini authorities razed Shiite mosques they claimed were built illegally or had other violations.

Over 35 people are thought to have died in the unrest on the island nation in the Gulf off the Coast of Saudi Arabia, which has a population of around 1.2 million.

Msnbc.com's F. Brinley Bruton and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Khatib family photo

Taiseer and Lana Khatib will be forced to live apart under a ruling by the Israel high court, which upheld a 2003 law banning many Palestinians who marry Israelis from living in the Jewish state.

An Israeli high court ruling has left at least one family angry, frustrated and in limbo because the husband, an Israeli citizen, will be forbidden legally from living with his Palestinian wife.

The Israeli Supreme Court reaffirmed late Wednesday a 2003 citizenship law that bans most Palestinians who marry Israelis from living inside the Jewish state. The law is intended to prevent Palestinian migration to Israel on the pretext of family unification.

The law is believed to have prevented thousands of Palestinians from living with their spouses. At the core of the ruling lies the notion that some Israelis see the Palestinians as "the enemy" and as "potential terrorists."

Six years ago, Taiseer Khatib, an Israeli Arab living in the northern city of Acre, married Lana, a Palestinian from the West Bank town of Jenin. They have two children, Adnan, 4, and Isra, 3.

Now the Khatib family faces the deportation of Lana back to Jenin.

"This ruling is all about racism," Taiseer Khatib told NBC News on Thursday. "The Israelis want to change the demography here by reducing the number of Palestinians inside Israel. What choices are left for me?"

Khatib's choices are all bleak. The only way for this family to stay together is by emigrating to another country. Khatib, as an Israeli, by law cannot enter the West Bank and the Gaza strip.

The ruling was handed down by a 6-5 majority.

Judge Asher Grunis, who belonged to the majority, wrote in the ruling that human rights are not a recipe for "national suicide."

Supreme Court President Judge Dorit Beinish wrote in the minority opinion that the disagreement on the issue revolved around one of the most difficult questions in the state's history, the battle against terror while at the same time maintaining the nation's democratic nature.

According to the ruling, about 135,000 Palestinians were granted Israeli citizenship through marriage between 1994 and 2002. Most of them were married to Israeli Arabs. This was a jump from just a few hundred such cases before 1994.

About 20 percent of Israel's citizens are Arabs. They share common roots with the Palestinian community in the West Bank, Gaza and abroad, and frequently intermarry.

The law bans granting citizenship or residency to Palestinian spouses of Israelis but allows for exemptions for those not believed to pose security risks, including Palestinian men older than 35 and women older than 25.

Adalah Arab, a human rights group that petitioned the high court, told NBC News that between 2002 and 2008 about 10,400 families living in Israel applied for a reunification request.

Last year, only 33 out of 3,000 applications for exemptions were approved, Adalah attorney Sawsan Zaher told The Associated Press.

"Israel is considered one of the strongest military countries in the world," Khatib told NBC News. "Are they afraid of my wife? She is not a terrorist; I promise you she doesn't consist of any threat to Israel."

"Our only way of action is to apply to the world and international courts to uncover the real face of Israel," Khatib said. "Can you imagine me raising my children here while their mother will be in Jenin? This is not only crazy but impossible."

Reporting from NBC News' Paul Goldman and The Associated Press.

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Iran has agreed to discuss charges that it secretly worked on nuclear arms, The Associated Press, citing unnamed diplomats, is reporting. The nation for years has said its nuclear activity was strictly for peaceful purposes.

The two diplomats told the AP that nuclear arms will be a main focus of talks set for Jan. 28, during a visit to Tehran by senior officials of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

No date has previously been mentioned for the trip. Thursday's comments by the diplomats were also the first word that Iran was ready talk about the allegations after stonewalling requests to do so for more than three years.

The diplomats spoke condition of anonymity because of confidentiality rules.

The discussion comes amid increasing tension between Iran and the West, particularly as the United States has stepped up pressure on other nations to reduce imports of Iran's oil.

Iran has threatened to disrupt Gulf oil trade by closing the Strait of Hormuz if an oil export ban is imposed.

Bloomberg News reported on Thursday that the European Union will delay an embargo on Iranian oil imports for six months to allow member countries to find alternative supplies.

Word of the talks also comes a day after a motorcycle hitman blew up Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, a 32-year-old engineer, during the Tehran rush hour, the latest in a series of hits against Iranian nuclear scientists.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Thursday that those behind the killing of Roshan would be punished, the official Irna news agency reported.

"We will continue our path with strong will ... and certainly we will not neglect punishing those responsible for this act and those behind it," Khamenei was quoted as saying.

Iran blamed its arch-enemies, Israel and the United States, for a blast which killed the nuclear scientist in his car on Wednesday, insisting the incident would not change the country's nuclear course.

Sanctions on 3 companies
The State Department on Thursday slapped sanctions on three overseas based energy companies for dealing with Iran, including China's state-run Zhuhai Zhenrong Corp., which it said was the largest supplier of refined petroleum products to Iran.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also imposed sanctions on Singapore's Kuo Oil Pte Ltd and FAL Oil Company Ltd, an independent energy trader based in the United Arab Emirates, the State Department said in a notice.

"Under the sanctions imposed today, all three companies are barred from receiving U.S. export licenses, U.S. Export Import Bank financing, and loans over $10 million from U.S. financial institutions," the State Department said.

"These sanctions apply only to the sanctioned companies, and not to their governments or countries."

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this article.

Related stories:

Is West waging 'covert war' against Iran?

US denies killing Iran nuclear scientist 

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