WASHINGTON -- North Korea has added sophisticated cyber attack capabilities to its arsenal of threatening weapons and this year is rife with opportunities for military provocations from Pyongyang, senior U.S. defense officials said on Wednesday.

The officials told the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee that North Korea's large conventional military, nuclear weapons programs, ballistic missiles and newer capabilities in cyber warfare were all threats to the United States and its allies in the Asia-Pacific region.

Army Gen. James Thurman, the commander of U.S. Forces Korea, told the panel that a skilled team of hackers was the newest addition to North Korea's arsenal of weapons that also includes chemical and biological weapons.

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"Such attacks are ideal for North Korea, providing the regime a means to attack South Korean and U.S. interests without attribution, and have been increasingly employed against a variety of targets including military, governmental, educational and commercial institutions," he said in prepared comments.

Thurman, who leads the 28,000 U.S. troops in South Korea, told the panel that the power transfer following the death in December of leader Kim Jong Il "appears to be proceeding without discernible internal challenges and with significant Chinese political and economic support."

Kim's untested son, Kim Jong Un, estimated to be 28 years old, has eased into power surrounded by allies of his father with so far "no indications the regime will depart significantly from Kim Jong Il's policies," said Thurman.

Peter Lavoy, acting assistant secretary of defense for Asia and Pacific Security Affairs, told the panel the potential for provocations from North Korea in 2012 was a "major concern" of the Pentagon.

From the U.S. perspective, the first provocation will be a North Korean ballistic missile launch slated for between April 12-16. But South Korean elections in April and December might also tempt Pyongyang to take actions to influence Seoul's domestic politics, he said.

Pyongyang says the rocket to be launched to mark what would have been the 100th birthday of deceased state founder Kim Il Sung will carry a weather satellite into orbit. But most outsiders say it is a disguised test of a long-range missile that violates key U.N. Security Council resolutions that ban any such launches.

Food aid suspended
"This planned launch is highly provocative because it manifests North Korea's desire to test and expand its long-range missile capability," said Lavoy. He said the announcement of the launch also broke a missile moratorium North Korea agreed to on Feb. 29 with Washington in exchange for food aid.

According to the BBC, Lavoy said next month's planned rocket launch "reflects [North Korea's] lack of desire to follow through on their international commitments and so we've been forced to suspend our activities to provide nutritional assistance."

The US has not delivered food aid to North Korea since 2009, BBC reported, but it sent officials to the country's ally China earlier this month to finalize plans for renewed food deliveries totaling 240,000 tons.

North Korea relies on foreign aid to feed its people, BBC reported. The country has been struggling with food shortages since a famine in the 1990s.

Many of North Korea's neighbors are concerned about next month's launch of a rocket, which North Korea has said would travel southward toward the Philippines or Indonesia, said Lavoy.

"I don't know if we have any confidence on the stability of the missile or what the impact will be," he said.

The missile launch next month has put on hold diplomatic efforts to coax North Korea back into talks over its nuclear weapons programs that have been frozen for three years.

Pyongyang often shifts tactics between diplomacy and confrontation, said Thurman.

"History tells us that Pyongyang will shift from diplomatic to provocative behavior when conventional diplomacy has run its course and the North Korean leadership perceives coercive diplomacy offers a better chance to realize its objectives," he said.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Kuwaiti authorities arrested a man late on Tuesday for insulting the Prophet Mohammad via his Twitter account, the Interior Ministry said, in a rare case of alleged blasphemy in the Gulf Arab state using social media.

Blasphemy is illegal in Kuwait under the 1961 press and publications law, but it is not punishable by death as in neighboring Saudi Arabia, where the case of a columnist facing similar accusations has drawn international attention.

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The man, whose name was not disclosed, defamed the Islamic faith and slandered the Prophet Mohammad, his companions and his wife, the ministry said in a statement issued on state-run news agency KUNA. He is being interrogated ahead of court proceedings.

The ministry "regretted the abusing of social networks by some individuals to offend basic Islamic and spiritual values, vowing to show zero tolerance in combating such serious offences," it said in the statement.

In September a Kuwaiti court convicted a man for insulting Gulf rulers and posting inflammatory sectarian comments on social media, but he was released immediately because of time already served while awaiting trial, according to a human rights activist.

Twitter is very popular in Kuwait, with many politicians, journalists and other public figures using the micro-blogging site to debate current events and share gossip. Popular figures can have hundreds of thousands of followers.

Kuwaiti media carried comments from the man denying the accusations. "I will never attack the Holy Prophet," he was reported as saying and added that someone must have hacked his account to post the comments.

His remarks, carried by several of Kuwait's main newspapers, were not immediately verifiable.

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

HAVANA -- Pope Benedict met with Cuban revolutionary icon Fidel Castro after saying mass in Havana Wednesday, Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said.

The meeting comes toward the close of the pope's three-day visit to the communist-run island, during which the pontiff called for greater freedoms and a bigger role for the Roman Catholic Church in Cuban society.

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Fidel Castro said Tuesday in one of his columns, or "Reflections," published online that he would meet briefly with the pope "with pleasure." Castro is now mostly retired but still occasionally writes columns and meets with visiting leaders.

According to the Vatican spokesman, this is the first time since his illness that Castro has gone out to call on a visitor. Heads of state usually come to see him.

Castro was dressed in a blazer with what looked like a scarf wrapped around his neck. He was accompanied by his wife and two adult sons.

According to the Vatican, the two men had an animated dialogue. They joked about their age, and the pope told Castro: "I'm old, but I still know how to do my job."

Castro told the pope he had been following his visit on television and asked about changes in the Catholic liturgy since his days in Jesuit schools, according to Lombardi.

In his prepared departure remarks, the pope criticized the U.S. embargo, saying that the task of building a society of broad vision is "worsened when restrictive economic measures, imposed from outside the country, unfairly burden its people."

Earlier Wednesday, before his meeting with Castro, the pope urged Cubans to search for "authentic freedom" as he celebrated an open-air Mass for some 300,000 people in Havana's Revolution Square.

Crowds began gathering during the night to hear the leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics speak in the sprawling plaza that Castro, 85, used to fill with big crowds and fiery revolutionary rhetoric in hours-long speeches.

Surrounded by 10-story high images of Castro's revolutionary comrades Ernesto "Che" Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos, the pope read a sermon that continued one of the main themes of his trip -- that Cuba should build a more open society, based on truth, justice and reconciliation.

"The truth is a desire of the human person, the search for which always supposes the exercise of authentic freedom," the pontiff said.

In an apparent dig at Marxism, the pope also said some "wrongly interpret this search for the truth, leading them to irrationality and fanaticism; they close themselves in 'their truth,' and try to impose it on others."

Delicate dance for Pope Benedict in Cuba

Hours before the Mass began, the area was filled with people waving Cuban flags and wearing broad hats and holding umbrellas to shield them from the sun.

They wildly welcomed the successor of the much-beloved Pope John Paul, who made a historic, groundbreaking trip to Cuba in 1998 and preached from the same square.

'Message of love'
Benedict, wearing purple vestments, read out a virtual shopping list of rights that the Church still lacked in Cuba as President Raul Castro, Fidel's younger brother, sat in the front row. Both of the Castro brothers were educated by Jesuits, the worldwide Catholic order.

"To carry out this duty, she [Cuba] must count on basic religious freedom, which consists in her being able to proclaim and to celebrate her faith also in public, bringing to others the message of love, reconciliation and peace which Jesus brought to the world," he said.

PhotoBlog: Pope Benedict celebrates mass with 300,000 Cubans

While Benedict acknowledged "with joy" the great improvements since John Paul's visit, he added that "nonetheless, this must continue forwards, and I wish to encourage the country's government authorities to strengthen what has already been achieved and advance along this path of genuine service to the true good of Cuban society as a whole."

The faithful could be "at once a citizen and a believer", the pope assured the government, adding that strengthening religious freedom consolidates social bonds and lays the groundwork for securing the rights of future generations.

"This is why the Church seeks to give witness by her preaching and teaching, both in catechesis and in schools and universities," he said.

The mass was also watched by Miami's Cuban Catholics, including a crowd of about 80 people at the Ermita Caridad Church in Coconut Grove, Fla., NBC 6 Miami reported.

Since his arrival in the eastern city of Santiago, the pontiff has spoken of Cuba's need for reconciliation and a more open society, with the Church at its side as a buffer against "trauma" or social upheaval.

"We hope he brings peace ... and an end to the U.S. embargo," said Belkis Martin Rodriguez, 49, walking to Revolution Square dressed in jean shorts, with her mother and 8-year-old son.

Asked if she hoped the visit would bring reconciliation between the communist government, dissidents and exiles in Miami, she said, "Let each remain in their own place. If people left for Miami, let them stay there and be happy. Let the Church stick to its own field, religion, and let the government handle the politics."

Pope, Raul Castro meet, but Cuban official vows no political reform

In talks on Tuesday with Raul Castro, the pope urged a bigger role for the Church and asked that the government consider making Good Friday, the day Christians commemorate Christ's death, a national holiday. Good Friday is less than two weeks away. Fidel Castro reinstated Christmas as a holiday ahead of the landmark visit of John Paul that helped improve long-strained Church-state relations.

Jailed U.S. contractor
The Vatican during Tuesday's meetings also made several "humanitarian requests," without giving details but possibly having to do with political prisoners or jailed American contractor Alan Gross, who is serving a 15-year sentence for illegally installing Internet networks on the communist-run island.

The State Department would be very grateful if the Pope were to raise the issue of Gross during his visit, spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

"We obviously are hopeful that the Pope will continue to be strong on all of the human rights issues in Cuba, religious freedom, and it would be a very, very good thing if the Cuban government were to take this opportunity to release Alan Gross," Nuland said.

At a time when Church-state relations are the warmest they've been since the 1959 revolution, Benedict has not been afraid to poke the Cuban government in some sensitive places.

On the flight to Mexico beginning his trip on Friday, the pope said communism "does not correspond with reality" and that Cuba needs a new economic model.

However, Marino Murillo, a vice president in the Council of Ministers and the country's economic reforms czar, made it clear that change to Cuba's one-party political system is not in the works.

"In Cuba, there won't be political reform," he said at a news conference at Havana's Hotel Nacional, the international press center for the pope visit. "We are talking about the update of the Cuban economic model to make our socialism sustainable."

Murillo said the government welcomed all ideas, but would not allow them to be imposed on the country.

In response, Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said "the Church is not trying to impose solutions. We know it is a long road and that the history of Cuba is complex."

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

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LONDON -- Experts who worked on the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico have been called in to halt the flow of natural gas from a rig in the North Sea.

All 238 workers were evacuated from French oil group Total's Elgin platform, which is located about 150 miles off the coast of Aberdeen, Scotland, after the leak was detected on Sunday. An exclusion zone has also been established around the site.

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Total has said it may take six months to stem the flow of gas, according to Reuters.

ITV's Scotland correspondent Debi Edward reports.

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PARIS -- Two French judges sought an international arrest warrant for the son of Equatorial Guinea's President Teodoro Obiang Nguema on money laundering charges, a judicial source said on Tuesday.

The two judges, Roger Le Loire and Rene Grouman, consider there are grounds to suspect that Teodorin Obiang, who is agriculture minister in the small, oil-rich central African country, acquired real estate in France by fraudulent means.

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The warrant will not be released until a prosecutor has reviewed the request and decides whether to proceed.

Extravagant lifestyle
Teodorin is frequently seen enjoying an extravagant lifestyle abroad with multi-million dollar mansions, jets and yachts. Billboards in the capital Malabo seek to show him at work and in touch with the people, but diplomats and analysts cite his playboy lifestyle as a cause for concern.

The French judges, who have been handling the case since 2010 on the basis of "concealment of embezzled public funds," suspect that the properties were purchased with public money from Equatorial Guinea.

Lavish summit could pay dividends for African ruler

The judges had previously sought permission from the government of Equatorial Guinea to question Teodorin, but that request was rejected, Olivier Pardo, lawyer for the oil-producing nation, told Reuters in Paris.

"Unless one wishes to violate the sovereignty of the State of Equatorial Guinea and harm relations between France and Equatorial Guinea, it is absurd to want to launch an arrest warrant," he said.

Paris raid
As part of the investigation, French police raided a building belonging to Equatorial Guinea in a wealthy area of Paris in February. After three days they removed art works and fine wines worth several million euros.

The building was valued at about 150 million euros ($200 million) and investigators say it housed a nightclub and hairdressers, which suggested it was not being used as a diplomatic residence.

Anti-corruption organization Transparency International had filed the original legal complaint against Teodorin Obiang.

On March 1, Teodorin filed for defamation against Daniel Lebegue, the president of the French arm of Transparency, denying he had embezzled funds.

Interpol faces legal threat for helping oppressive regimes hunt dissidents

President Teodoro Obiang has ruled the former Spanish colony for more than three decades, making him the longest-serving African leader following the demise of Libya's Moammar Gadhafi, with rights groups labelling his regime one of the world's most corrupt.

The country produces about 240,000 barrels of oil per day.

'Character assassination'
In January, Teodorin asked a U.S. court to dismiss attempts by the Obama administration to seize some $71 million worth of his assets, denying charges that they were obtained with allegedly corrupt funds taken from his country.

He argued he had not violated U.S. or Equatorial Guinea law and called the corruption allegations "character assassination" against him and his country.

Equatorial Guinea in October said it wanted to appoint Teodorin as its deputy permanent delegate at U.N. cultural agency UNESCO in Paris, a position that would give him diplomatic status in France. Until now the agency has not received any official documentation to proceed further with that request.

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Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Syrian authorities are detaining and torturing children, the United Nations' human rights chief, Navi Pillay said, according to a report.

"They've gone for the children -- for whatever purposes -- in large numbers," the BBC quoted her as saying. "Hundreds detained and tortured... it's just horrendous.

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"Children shot in the knees, held together with adults in really inhumane conditions, denied medical treatment for their injuries, either held as hostages or as sources of information."

Ms Pillay, a lawyer, said she believed that the UN Security Council had enough reliable information to warrant referring Syria to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

"I feel that investigation and prosecution is a crucial element to deter and call a stop to these violations," she told the BBC.

Ms Pillay said she believed that the UN Security Council had enough reliable information to warrant referring Syria to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Syria accepts Annan peace plan, but clashes continue

Meanwhile, the United States has urged the Syrian opposition to unite and pledge to respect minority rights in a future Syria should President Bashar Assad be driven from power, and warned armed rebels and government forces against committing human rights abuses.

Disunity among the Syrian opposition to Assad has fed fears that Syria could slide into sectarian and ethnic conflict, much as Iraq did after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

Skeptical of peace plan
This has worried some governments, including the United States which would otherwise be glad to see Assad's downfall, after a year in which Assad has been using the army to crush efforts to end his political dominance in Syria.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged the Syrian opposition to lay out a vision of an inclusive Syria in which minority rights are respected.

"They must be able to clearly demonstrate a commitment to including all Syrians and protecting the rights of all Syrians," Clinton told reporters.

"We are going to be pushing them very hard to present such a vision in Istanbul," she said ahead of a gathering of Western and Arab nations in Istanbul on Sunday to discuss a political transition in Syria.

Earlier on Tuesday, the New York Times reported that a meeting of Syrian opposition groups in Istanbul was marred when a veteran dissident and Kurdish delegates walked out, saying their views were not heard.

U.S. Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford said on Tuesday in Washington that he had received reports that armed Syrian opposition groups had engaged in human rights abuses. He said he had warned the rebels, as well as Assad, against committing such abuses.

Both Clinton and Ford were skeptical of reports that Syria's government had accepted the peace plan of U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan.

"Given Assad's history of over-promising and under-delivering, that commitment must now be matched by immediate actions," Clinton said.

Ford left Syria last month because of the violence but remains the U.S. ambassador. At a hearing on Capitol Hill, he was asked about statements by the U.S.-based group Human Rights Watch that armed opposition groups in Syria had committed abuses including kidnapping, detention and torture of security force members and government supporters.

"We had reports like that last year, when some of the fighting in Homs became really serious," Ford said. "We raised it even in Syria when my embassy was still open.

"We discussed it with some of the local revolution council representatives -- who are themselves not members of armed groups, but certainly are in contact with them -- and emphasized that they would be held to a standard on this if they wanted support from western countries."

The United States had also raised the matter with the Syrian National Council, the main opposition umbrella group, Ford said.

He added there was a danger that more hard-liners who ignored human rights would gain influence on both sides in Syria the longer the conflict goes on.

Assad's government, Ford said, had committed "massive human rights violations that may amount to crimes against humanity."

The United Nations says more than 9,000 people have been killed in Syria's year-old uprising against Assad. Syria says rebels have killed some 3,000 security force members and blames the violence on "terrorist" gangs.

Human Rights Watch also has accused Assad's forces of human rights abuses, including using human shields in northern Syria in their efforts to crush the rebellion.

Assad on Tuesday was filmed taking a tour of Baba Amr, the district of Homs recently bombarded by his forces.

Reuters and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.

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LONDON -- If grumbling ever becomes an Olympic sport, the United Kingdom has to be a surefire bet for gold.

The level of complaints, fears and general discontent about the 30th Olympiad in London this summer has reached fever pitch, moving well-known commentator David Randall, of The Independent on Sunday newspaper, to write a column entitled "Come on, Britain! Stop moaning! It's the Olympics, for heaven's sake!"

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Some fear too many people will come to London, causing a "perfect storm" of congestion on the roads -- so bad that lives could be endangered -- along with congestion on the subways, and also on the Internet; others think that actually fewer visitors than usual will come because ordinary tourists will be put off, so the games will provide little or no boost to the city's economy.

Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber even predicted "a bloodbath of a summer" for London's theaters after a slump in advance orders for tickets.

Then there has been a slew of gripes about tickets for Olympic events, such as not being able to get them unless you are a member of the super-rich, and unnecessary secrecy about the ticketing process.

Some worry London will get a bad name if visitors are ruthlessly gouged for every cent, by unscrupulous landlords, over-priced hotels or expensive Olympic souvenirs, for example.

 

However, one of the main groups representing London taxis seemed somewhat put out after it tried unsuccessfully to get approval to increase fares by a hefty 22 percent during the games. Allowed only a 5.3 percent raise, a drivers' representative suggested that many cabbies might decide not to show up for work.

Morris-dancing anarchists?
Other complaints include the potential $17 billion cost of the event to taxpayers, and that Scotland, some 500 miles to the north of London, will see little benefit from the presence of the Games in the U.K. capital. 

Labor unions have also been threatening to go on strike during the games to protest the government's austerity measures. 

And, if all that wasn't enough, there's the fear of a large-scale terrorist attack, and other assorted threats -- of varying degrees of seriousness -- from solar storms, diseases spread by shaking hands, Morris-dancing anarchists, and, cue the scary music, the "Illuminati."

Olympic housing crunch: London landlords evict tenants to gouge tourists

Any sports enthusiast looking forward to the spectacles of Usain Bolt on the track, LeBron James on the court and Alex Morgan on the soccer field might be somewhat discouraged by all this negativity.

'It's cathartic'
But Peter Catterall, lecturer in history at Queen Mary, University of London and editor of the journal National Identities, told msnbc.com that this would be a "cultural misreading" of the current outbreak of moaning.

"I think it reflects, if you like, a national history," he said. "The national narrative is often about making the best of heroic defeat, like [the Second World War evacuation of] Dunkirk and so on. The national experience in Britain is not one that's tended to create a sense in which you can just 'seize that hill.'"

"There's a tendency to think in terms of what could go wrong, rather than what could go right," he said. "It's a kind of low-level grumbling amongst people who are often quite good at grumbling. I think also people quite like grumbling, it's cathartic."

Testing for terror: Preparing for the unthinkable at London Olympics

Olympic organizers may even have taken this into account in their planning.

"I do think in part the public authorities have been trying to get the moaning out of the way early," Catterall said, although he added that this "may well put off some visitors."

An age-old attitude?
This kind of attitude may go back at least as far as what was arguably the world's first international event for the masses, London's Great Exhibition of 1851.

It was essentially a trade fair showing off the best products from across the world -- exhibitors included China, Persia (now Iran), the United States, India, Tunisia, Philippines and many European countries -- and it attracted more than 6 million visitors during its five-month run.

However, in the run-up to the exhibition, Londoners expressed a string of complaints and worries that are notably similar to the current ones about the Olympics.

"I think there was a parallel in terms of all these fears," Michael Leapman, author of a book about the Great Exhibition, called "The World for a Shilling," said.

The prospect of hordes of visitors sparked alarm about congestion -- and as it turned out there were some traffic jams of the horse-and-carriage variety -- and the spread of disease, Leapman told msnbc.com.

And while tickets could be bought for a shilling, prices were increased at the weekends and other times to enable the wealthy to enjoy the exhibits without rubbing shoulders with the "hoi polloi," he added. Leapman said the author Charles Dickens was on a committee to represent the interests of working-class people, but the exhibition's organizers paid so little attention to it that Dickens quit.

Security was another big concern, with the event coming not long after several European revolutions in 1848 and amid unrest associated with the working-class Chartist movement in the U.K.

"The Duke of Wellington [a national hero after his victory over Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815] wanted to put a troop of cavalry into Hyde Park, but the government said that would be a bit too provocative," Leapman said.

The government also attempted to set up a register of accommodation with set prices, but Leapman said most landlords resisted signing up, trusting the free market to give a better return.

'Enthusiasm'
But the generally positive outcome of the event gives Leapman, who has tickets to watch hockey, some comfort amid all the present-day moaning.

He said that while there might be "some inconvenience" during the Olympics "I have a feeling it will be a great success, partly judging from the Great Exhibition."

At Olympics, dogs have sniffed out a key anti-terror role

And so the views of Hugh Robertson, the U.K. government's minister for sport and the Olympics, should perhaps not be viewed with the usual British cynicism toward politicians.

"My experience of the Games across the country has been one of fantastic support and enthusiasm," he told msnbc.com in a statement, noting the "huge demand" for tickets.

"The Royal Wedding showed that Britons know how to get behind national events, and London 2012 will be the chance to do that on a giant scale," Robertson added. "We [are] determined that everybody who comes to London for the Games has an amazing time."

John Powell, chairman of leading athletics club Belgrave Harriers, is exactly the sort of person who should be bursting with enthusiasm for the Games.

He will carry the Olympic torch and is the coach of sprinter James Ellington, who is a medal prospect for the U.K. if he makes it through the trials.

Powell told msnbc.com that he was "very excited" about carrying the flame; and it would be "amazing" to coach an athlete to a medal, the "pinnacle" of his 36 years of coaching.

But even he has a gripe.

If Ellington wins gold, Powell, his coach of some 13 years, will watch his triumph on television because, he said, he and many other coaches will not be given access to the stadium, a decision he described as "shambolic and a scandal."

"That really does take the edge of it from my point of view," Powell said.

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Updated at 6:01 a.m. ET: A teen has apparently survived 28 days adrift in the Pacific Ocean after going on a fishing trip with two friends, according to reports. Adrian Vasquez, who was rescued by the Ecuadorean navy on Sunday, said he stayed alive by drinking rainwater and eating raw fish, the BBC reported.

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Vasquez said neither of his friends survived, but that he had always held onto the hope he would be rescued.

 

The 18-year-old was found drifting alone near the Galapagos Islands on his friends' 10-foot fishing boat more than 600 miles from where they had set out.

He was first found by a commerical fishing vessel then handed over to Ecuador's coast guard. The trio had been missing since February 24.

The Associated Press reported the three were heading back to his home port of Rio Hato when the boat's motor failed.

Rainstorm
Vasquez told the Ecuadorean navy crew he likely owed his survival to a sudden rainstorm that replenished his water supply.

The young Panamanian recounted his story to Hugo Espinosa, captain of the navy vessel, after being treated for malnutrition and severe dehydration. He recalled they had caught a lot of fish, and had a big jug of water.

The AP quoted Espinosa as saying Vasquez had identifed his dead friends as Oropeces Betancourt, 24, and Fernano Osorio, 16.

Panamanian navy boats began to search for the vessel but did not find it. Espinosa said the ice melted and the fish rotted, leaving the trio to live off what they could catch with their net.

"The spirits of the survivors began to wane with the passing of days," Espinosa told The Associated Press.

The report said Betancourt stopped eating and drinking after two weeks and died on March 10. Three days later, his body began to decompose and Vasquez threw it over the side.

Osorio died on March 15, also apparently of dehydration, sunburn and heat stroke. After three days, Vasquez pushed his other friend's body into the ocean, the AP said.

"When he was nearly dead, on March 19, it rained, and Vasquez was able to fill up with four gallons of water," said Espinosa. He spent the next five days eating raw fish before being spotted by commercial fishermen working on a skiff from a mother ship, the Duarte V.

'He was quiet'
Once aboard, Vasquez asked for a telephone so he could make two calls, the AP reported. The first was to his mother. The second was to the hotel manager to explain why he had missed so many days of work.

"He didn't know what was happening. He was quiet, looking lost," Espinosa said.

Vasquez was flown on Monday to Guayaquil on the Ecuadorean mainland before flying to Panama City on Tuesday where he was greeted by a crowd including family and friends.

The AP report said the teenager shed some tears as his relatives hugged him but he didn't talk to reporters.

 

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

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Updated at 6:18 a.m. ET: KABUL, Afghanistan -- For Afghan women, the act of fleeing domestic abuse or forced prostitution may land them in jail while their abusers walk free, Human Rights Watch said in a report published Wednesday.

Running away is considered a "moral crime" for women in Afghanistan while some rape victims are also imprisoned, because sex outside marriage -- even when the woman is forced -- is considered adultery, another "moral crime."

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"From the first time I came to this world my destiny was destroyed," 17-year-old Amina, who has spent months in jail after being forced into prostitution, told researchers from Human Rights Watch.

Despite progress in women's rights and freedom since the fall of the Taliban a decade ago, women throughout the country are at risk of abduction, rape, forced marriage and being traded as commodities.

PhotoBlog: Afghan graffiti artists depict violence and injustice of women's lives

It can be hard for women to escape violence at home because of huge social pressure and legal risks to stay in marriages.

"The treatment of women and girls accused of 'moral crimes' is a black eye on the face of the post-Taliban Afghan government and its international backers, all of whom promised that respect for women's rights would distinguish the new government from the Taliban," the New York-based group said.

"This situation has been further undermined by President (Hamid) Karzai's frequently changing position on women's rights. Unwilling or unable to take a consistent line against conservative forces within the country, he has often made compromises that have negatively impacted women's rights."

The rights organization said that there were about 400 women and girls being held in Afghanistan for "moral crimes", and they rarely found support from authorities in a "dysfunctional criminal justice system".  

'He will kill me'
The plight of a woman called Nilofar illustrates the problem. She was stabbed repeatedly with a screwdriver in the head, chest, and arms by her husband who accused her of adultery for inviting a man into the house, the rights group said.

But afterwards, she was arrested, he was not.

Afghan woman, imprisoned over rape, is free

"The way he beat her wasn't bad enough to keep him in jail. She wasn't near death, so he didn't need to be in prison," the prosecutor of the case told Human Rights Watch.

The dire treatment of women was the main reason Western countries gave for refusing to recognize the Taliban government as legitimate when it was in power.

As Afghan and Western leaders seek a negotiated end to more than 10 years of war, the future for women is uncertain.

The United States and NATO -- who are fighting an unpopular war as they prepare to pull out most combat troops by the end of 2014 -- have stressed that any settlement must ensure the constitution, which says the two sexes are equal, is upheld.

A law, passed in August 2009, supports equality for women, including criminalizing child and forced marriage, selling and buying women for marriage or for settling disputes, as well as forced self-immolation, among other acts.

PhotoBlog: Life inside a women's prison in Afghanistan

But women, especially in rural areas, lack shelters to flee abuse while only one percent of police are female, according to the report based on interviews from October to November with 58 women and girls as well as prosecutors, judges, government officials and civil society.

Social stigma 
The ordeal for women does not stop with jail though.

Once leaving prison, women and girls face strong social stigma in the conservative country and may be killed in so-called "honor killings".

"I just want a divorce. I can't go back to my father because he will kill me. All my family has left me behind," 20-year-old Aisha, who was sentenced to three years for fleeing an abusive husband she was forced to marry, told researchers.

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Hours before unemployment officials were to determine whether he was physically fit for work, an Austrian man sawed off his left foot with an electric saw, Austrian broadcaster ORF reported.

The 56-year-old man had just learned that his benefits could be slashed if he did not accept work found for him, the Daily Mail reported.

He reportedly placed the severed foot in a wood stove to make sure doctors could not reattach it to his leg.

On Monday, after his wife and son had left the house, Hans Url, positioned his left leg against an electric saw in the boiler room and severed his foot above the ankle. Images from the scene show an electric table saw – apparently wiped clean – surrounded by shallow pools of blood. On the stove were a lighter and ashtray filled with cigarette butts.   

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Bleeding profusely and on the verge of death, Url called an ambulance. Emergency staff found him covered in blood, and they retrieved the foot from the fire.

Url was airlifted to a hospital in Graz. Hospital officials said he nearly died from loss of blood, according to the Daily Mail. Url is now out of danger, but doctors were not able to reattach his foot because it was too badly burned.  

"He wants to work, but gets nothing suitable," Monika, Url's wife of 36 years, told the Kronen Zeitung. "My husband felt so worthless."

On Tuesday, Url was transferred to the psychiatric ward of the Graz regional hospital. "He apologized to me and told me how sorry he was," Monika told the Austrian newspaper. "He did it deliberately at the time when we -- my son and I -- were out of the house."

The rescue helicopter was waiting in front of the house when Monika returned. "Now I know that my husband was very scared of this health examination," she told the Krone. "He wants to work. But the job he imagines for himself doesn't exist."

Url's daughter Petra said her father once worked on a golf course, and he was happiest when working outdoors, according to the Austrian paper. She said he had received a number of such jobs in the past, but they only lasted several months at a time.

Police spokesman Franz Fasching said police were investigating the case as an attempted suicide. “The planning was meticulous," Fasching said.

Meticulous, perhaps, but possibly not a success. Url may still qualify for work despite the amputation, the Daily Mail reported.

The Daily Mail quoted Hermann Gössinger, spokesman for the unemployment center where Url was supposed to have been examined, as saying that “this is a tragic case but it will not help the man. He will be assessed once he is out of hospital and we will see what work we can find for him.”

Url has been unemployed -- with brief interruptions -- since 2003. The Kronen Zeitung reported he suffers from depression. In 2010, he spent 11 days in a psychiatric clinic in Graz.

"The family is at least firmly behind him," Monika told the paper. "Together we can get over this."

Reuters contributed to this report.

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A court in France ordered the national rail company SNCF to pay 1,500 euros (about $2,000) to a commuter who said she lost her secretarial job because of repeated train delays, the BBC reported.

According to the report, Soazig Parassols, 25, argued that her trains from Amberieu-en-Bugey, a small town about 37 miles away from her job in Lyon, were delayed at least six times during an employment trial period in June 2010. She lost her job the following month because she was repeatedly late, the BBC said.

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Delays ranged from 10 to 75 minutes, the BBC reported, and the law firm in Lyon where she worked said her late arrivals were hurting the company.

The court ruled this caused her stress.

Parassols was awarded another 1,500 euros in legal costs but, the BBC reported, the court decided she had not suffered financial loss. The woman was asking for 45,000 euros.

According to the BBC, SNCF has compensated commuters for delays before. The rail company paid a lawyer nearly 5,000 euros when he missed a connection to Nimes for a meeting.

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Cities worldwide are on track to expand by nearly 580,000 square miles – more than twice the size of Texas – in less than 20 years, according to experts at a major international science conference.

Yale University professor Karen Seto said the North American suburb had “gone global, and car-dependent urban developments are more and more the norm.”

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The world’s population is expected to grow from the current 7 billion to about 9 billion by 2050, according to the United Nations.

Experts meeting at the Planet Under Pressure 2012 conference in London said in a statement released by the organizers Tuesday that unless changes were made, “humanity’s urban footprint” would increase in size by 1.5 million square kilometers (nearly 580,000 square miles) by 2030.

This is significantly more than twice the size of Texas or, according to a "back-of-the-envelope calculation" by Seto, more than 43,000 football fields every day for the next 18 years.

”The way cities have grown since World War II is neither socially or environmentally sustainable and the environmental cost of ongoing urban sprawl is too great to continue,” Seto said in the statement.

“People everywhere, however, have increasingly embraced Western styles of architecture and urbanization, which are resource-intense and often not adapted to local climates,” she added. “The North American suburb has gone global, and car-dependent urban developments are more and more the norm.”

Eco-friendly skyscrapers?
Seto was one of the authors of a report in the journal PLoS One about global urban sprawl, along with Michail Fragkias of Arizona State University, who is one of some 2,800 participants at the London conference.

The Planet Under Pressure conference is designed to give an idea of the health of the globe ahead of the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in June.

Fragkias told msnbc.com that "the answer [to urban sprawl] is denser cities."

"The main message is we are not going to get away with cities like Phoenix or cities like Los Angeles," he said. "These are the typical cities of the single-family house, with a huge lot and huge highways that connect various areas of the cities because there is no way you can have an efficient or cheap enough mass transit system to support them."

Instead, densely populated areas such as Singapore or Manhattan -- but not New York City's surrounding urban sprawl -- provided possible models for the future. "If cities can develop in height rather than in width that would be much more preferable and environmentally not as harmful," Fragkias said.

Census: 8 out of 10 Americans are now urbanites

But Seto told msnbc.com that density was only part of the answer, saying someone who lives close to where they work in Phoenix could have a low environmental impact, compared to someone living in a densely packed city who commutes through congested streets in a car.

Cities are not 'bad'
And she said that increasing the urban population was "absolutely" the way to deal with the rising number of people in the world.

"For a long time, environmental activists said 'cities are bad.' The rationale was cities take up space and that could be better used for gorillas and butterflies," and other wildlife, Seto told msnbc.com.

But she said the global population was increasing and "we certainly don't want them strolling about the entire countryside. We want them to save land for nature by living closely [together]."

The conference statement said that creating more environmentally friendly cities included better infrastructure planning; “reversing the trend to ever larger homes;" and ending subsidies that favor cars over public transport.

Beijing's 'hubs' haven't curbed population pressures

Inner city schools should also be improved and other urban issues such as income inequality and crime rates addressed, the statement said.

"Cities are being built so quickly, we have to rethink how we do things ... Rome wasn't built in a day, but Chinese cities are," Seto quipped, saying most urban growth was taking place in Asia.

UNICEF: Millions of kids live in urban squalor

On Tuesday, organizers of the conference also highlighted a website called Welcome to the Anthropocene, referring to a term adopted by scientists and environmentalists to describe what they say is a new epoch, one uniquely influenced by human actions.

The idea the world had entered the Anthropocene was first put forward in 2000 by Dutch Nobel laureate Professor Paul Crutzen and U.S. academic Professor Eugene F. Stoermer.

"This century is special in the Earth's history. It is the first when one species -- ours -- has the planet's future in its hands," Martin Rees of the Royal Society, Britain's academy of sciences, said at the conference Monday according to the AFP news agency. "We've invented a new geological era: the Anthropocene.”

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Thousands of letters, photographs and documents relating to former South African President Nelson Mandela went online Tuesday to help people find out about his struggle for freedom.

Items including letters Mandela wrote to his family that were smuggled out of prison, his Methodist church membership card from about 80 years ago and hand-written diaries have been digitized and laid out on a website designed to look like a museum exhibit.

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"The one thing that it does immediately is make a much sought-after legacy available to the world," Achmat Dangor, the chief executive of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, said.

The project, with an initial cost of $3 million, was put together by the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory and the Google Cultural Institute.

It is a first for Internet giant Google, which has made sure the material is open to all and original copyright holders keep their rights.

Google is planning to use this project as a springboard to bring more content online from other historical figures of the 20th century. Google has been criticized for trying to use its technological might to wall off material from rivals.

South Africa's former President Nelson Mandela hospitalized

"You can interact with the content. You can search the content. Although we have mimicked the museum experience, we are now in a place where we think we have augmented the experience," Mark Yoshitake, who leads project management for the Google Cultural Institute, said.

Sections such as "Presidential Years" include photos with links to videos, text, personal notes and testimonials laid out for use with typical computers and tablets.

Ndileka Mandela, the granddaughter of the former president, said he has always been a progressive person and was elated by the online archive.

"As much as we would like to claim him as our grandfather, he is a public figure. The publishing of the letters he wrote to various family members is not really a problem because it shows people that he is a human being," she said.

Mandela, 93, underwent a keyhole abdominal examination last month that showed nothing was wrong with the man awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for helping bring down white-minority apartheid rule in South Africa.

"For a man his age, he is doing well. He hasn't lost his sense of humor," Ndileka Mandela said.

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Pope Benedict XVI is on a state visit to Cuba this week hoping to highlight the role of the Roman Catholic Church on the Communist island, as well as making subtle push for change.

Benedict called for "renewal and hope, for the greater good of all Cubans," during a speech on Tuesday. "I have also prayed to the Virgin for the needs of those who suffer, of those who are deprived of freedom, those who are separated from their loved ones or who are undergoing times of difficulty."

But the Cuban government was quick to say that there "will not be political reform" in the country as a result of the pope's visit.

NBC News' Mark Potter is in Havana. He answered interesting reader questions about Benedict's visit earlier today.

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Click below to replay the chat.

 

A cloud of explosive natural gas boiling out of a leaking drilling platform off the Scottish coast has led to the evacuation of hundreds of workers and the creation of a two-mile exclusion zone.

Coastguard officials ordered shipping to come no closer than two miles from the abandoned Elgin platform, located 150 miles off Aberdeen, and said there was a three-mile exclusion zone for low-flying aircraft such as helicopters, the BBC reported.

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Energy firm Total UK, which operates the platform, said it did not know the source of the leak and was considering all options including drilling a relief well – a solution that could take six months.

“We have mobilised experts from elsewhere in the Total Group to offer additional assistance and help us deal with the incident,” it said in a statement.

It evacuated 238 workers from the platform after the leak was spotted on Sunday, according to a report in The Scotsman. The report said Shell had reduced its workforce on two nearby offshore installations because of the drifting gas.

Reuters reported that the company has enlisted the services of Wild Well Control, which was heavily involved in the BP's Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.

In a statement, Britain’s Department for Energy and Climate Change said the environmental impact of gas condensate leaks is substantially lower than from oil spills.

Aerial surveillance flights have confirmed the presence of a sheen on the water, which is thought to be gas condensate, a petrol-like substance that normally evaporates naturally.

Workers’ union leader Jake Molloy warned there was there was the potential for a "major event" if the gas ignited.

"You're looking at something on the scale of Piper Alpha here,” he told Scottish channel STV, referring to the huge 1988 oil rig blaze that killed 167 workers. "On the positive side, nobody's there. So the human side has been dealt with. But the potential remains for an ignition source and for the complete destruction of that installation.”

Reuters contributed to this report.

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LONDON - The bank used by Great Britain's queen, Coutts, has been hit with a record fine by regulators for failing to monitor whether money it was handling was the proceeds of crime.

An investigation by Britain’s Financial Services Authority found the institution neither controlled its relationships with new customers, nor did it monitor existing relationships.

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The Daily Telegraph reported that the bank failed to carry out correct checks on "politically exposed persons," wealthy foreign politicians and their families, often from troubled countries such as Libya.

 

The FSA imposed a fine of $13.8 million (8.75 million pounds), the highest ever issued for such failures.

"The failings at Coutts were serious, systemic and were allowed to persist for almost three years," it said in a statement posted on its web site. "They resulted in an unacceptable risk of Coutts handling the proceeds of crime."

It said the fine would have been even higher but the bank qualified for a 30 per cent discount for early payment.

Coutts is part of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group, which is 82-per-cent-owned by the British taxpayer following a 2008 rescue bailout.

The Daily Telegraph said the bank offers free current accounts to customers who invest at least $400,000 (250,000 pounds).

Coutts' parent company said it had not found any evidence that money laundering took place.

In a statement, Rory Tapner, chief executive of the wealth division of Royal Bank of Scotland, said: "Since the FSA first raised its concerns, we have implemented a number of improvements to prevent any recurrence of these failings. Regulatory reforms continue apace.  We remain committed to ensuring that our systems and controls are robust and counter the risk of financial crime in all the markets in which we operate."

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Updated at 8:54 a.m. ET: Qatar-based news channel al-Jazeera has pledged not to air footage of the killings carried out in France by an al-Qaida-inspired gunman after President Nicolas Sarkozy pleaded with broadcasters not to show the disturbing scenes.

France is still coming to terms with Mohamed Merah's close-range shootings of three Jewish children, a rabbi and three soldiers in the south of the country.

The killings were filmed by Merah using a camera attached to his body, BBC News reported.

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"I call on executives of all TV stations that may have the images in their possession not to broadcast them under any pretext out of respect for the victims and for France," Sarkozy said following a meeting with police chiefs in Paris.

Al-Jazeera, which received a memory stick containing the footage, later announced it would not broadcast the video because it "did not add any information that was not already in public domain" and also "did not meet the television station's code of ethics for broadcast."

Sarkozy: Some Muslim clerics 'not welcome on French soil'

Zied Tarrouche, al-Jazeera's bureau chief in Paris, told French chanel BFM TV he had watched the video and it showed all of the killing.

"You see all of the attacks carried out in Toulouse and Montauban, that's to say the murder of the first soldier, then the three soldiers and finally the attack on the school," he was quoted as telling the channel in a BBC report.

"You hear the voice of the person who carried out the killings," he added. "You also hear the victims' cries. My feelings are those of any human being who sees horrible things."

The BBC said Mr Tarrouche told the channel the video also contained a mixture of religious songs, readings and Koranic verses.

The package sent to al-Jazeera was dated Wednesday, March 21 - the day that police surrounded Merah in his apartment in the city of Toulouse after a massive manhunt, according to a report in the Parisien daily newspaper.

French special forces shot the young Islamist the following day after a 30-hour siege.

"Investigators are trying to find out whether the letter was posted Tuesday night by Mohamed Merah himself or by an accomplice Wednesday morning," the newspaper wrote.

The Paris prosecutor in charge of the case said last week that the Merah had filmed each of the shootings.

The killings, and subsequent calls for tougher measures to monitor Islamic extremism, come a month before the French presidential election.

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

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Syria accepted a cease-fire drawn up by U.N. envoy Kofi Annan on Tuesday, but the diplomatic breakthrough was swiftly overshadowed by intense clashes between government soldiers and rebels that sent bullets flying into Lebanon.

Opposition members accuse President Bashar Assad of agreeing to the plan to stall for time as his troops make a renewed push to kill off bastions of dissent. And the conflict just keeps getting deadlier: The U.N. said the death toll has grown to more than 9,000, a sobering assessment of a devastating year-old crackdown on the uprising that shows no sign of ending.

Annan's announcement that Syria had accepted his peace plan was met with deep skepticism.

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"We are not sure if it's political maneuvering or a sincere act," said Louay Safi, a member of the opposition Syrian National Council. "We have no trust in the current regime. ... We have to see that they have stopped killing civilians."

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Assad's decision to accept the plan was only a first step. "We will continue to judge the Syrian regime by its practical actions, not by its often empty words," he said.

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Assad must act quickly to convince the world he is serious about peace by "silencing his guns and allowing humanitarian aid to get in."

On a two-day visit to Beijing, Annan told Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao that he faced a long and difficult task in his mission to end fighting in Syria, but global cooperation with China and other countries was the only way to do it.

"I indicated that I had received a response from the Syrian government and will be making it public today, which is positive, and we hope to work with them to translate it into action," Annan told reporters in Beijing after meeting Wen.

"I have a six-point plan which the Security Council has endorsed, dealing with issues of political discussions, withdrawal of heavy weapons and troops from population centers, humanitarian assistance being allowed in unimpeded, release of prisoners, freedom of movement and access to journalists to go in and out," he said. "So we will need to see how we move ahead and implement this agreement that they have accepted."

Finally, UN reaches agreement over Syria efforts

However, the U.S. ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, expressed skepticism about the development, saying it would be best to look for action, not words from Assad.

Ford told lawmakers in Washington that he had no information beyond the press reports of the development.

"We will see now in the days ahead what exactly Assad has said,'' Ford said at a hearing on human rights in Syria.

The diplomat, who left Syria last month because of the violence there, added: "I have to tell you that my own experience with him is you want to see steps on the ground and not just take his word at face value."

The United Nations said on Tuesday that more than 9,000 civilians have been killed in the Syrian government's year-long assault on protesters opposed to Assad, an increase of nearly 1,000 over its previous estimate.

"Violence on the ground has continued unabated, resulting in scores of people killed and injured," Robert Serry, the U.N. special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, told the 15-nation Security Council.

"Credible estimates put the total death toll since the beginning of the uprising one year ago to more than 9,000," he said. "It is urgent to stop the fighting and prevent a further violent escalation of the conflict."

The Syrian opposition, meanwhile, welcomed the government's acceptance of a U.N. peace plan, a member of the Syrian National Council said.

Bassma Kodmani told The Associated Press by telephone that "we welcome all acceptance by the regime of a plan that could allow the repression and bloodbath to stop."

She is a Paris-based member of the opposition Syrian National Council.

"We hope that we can move toward a peace process," she said.

Incursion into Lebanon
Meanwhile, Syrian troops advanced into north Lebanon on Tuesday, destroying farm buildings and clashing with Syrian rebels who had taken refuge there, residents told Reuters.

"More than 35 Syrian soldiers came across the border and started to destroy houses," said Abu Ahmed, 63, a resident of the rural mountain area of al-Qaa.

Another resident told Reuters that the soldiers, some traveling in armored personnel vehicles, fired rocket-propelled grenades and exchanged heavy machine-gun fire with rebels.

Regional English-language news channel Al-Jazeera has previously reported an escalation in tensions along the border. It said residents claimed the Syrian military planted landmines close to inhabited areas while, in early October, a Syrian army tank reportedly fired shells at Lebanese military targets inside Lebanon's borders.

Any movement into Lebanese territory would escalate a conflict that already is spiraling toward civil war. There are concerns the violence could cause a broader conflagration by sucking in neighboring countries.

Officials: Iranian arms used against Syria protesters

Annan called for Beijing's support and advice, according to a pool report.

"And I know you've already been helpful but this is going to be a long difficult task and I am sure that together we can make a difference," Annan told Wen.

Annan's trip to China followed a similar one in Russia, where he asked Moscow to back his mission to end fighting in Syria.

Russia and China have shielded Assad from U.N. Security Council condemnation by vetoing two Western-backed resolutions over the bloodshed, but approved a Security Council statement this week endorsing Annan's mission.

Report: Syria leader's wife says she's 'real dictator'

However, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Syrian people, not foreign powers, should decide their own fate.

Russia has said Annan has its full support and that his mission could be the last chance to avoid a protracted and bloody civil war but would need more time.

"I would like the decision on the fate of the Syrian state, society, political system and people to be taken not by the respected leaders of world powers, even by those acting in good faith, but by the Syrian people themselves, by all the levels of the Syrian society," Medvedev said at the end of a nuclear security summit in Seoul.

Reuters and msnbc.com's Alastair Jamieson contributed to this report. Follow Alastair Jamieson on Twitter.

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Iran carried out death sentences on at least 360 people in 2011, up by more than 40 percent on the year before, according to a report published Tuesday by Amnesty International.

The report noted increases in other Mideast countries including Saudi Arabia, where at least 82 people were executed in 2011, for crimes including “sorcery,” an Amnesty statement said. That figure was up from at least 27 in 2010.

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Iran’s total, which was up from at least 252 people in 2010, included at least three juvenile offenders “in violation of international law,” Amnesty said. There were another four unconfirmed executions of juveniles in Iran, it added.

Read the full Amnesty International report

The group said it had received “credible reports” that there were a large number of unacknowledged executions in Iran, which would “almost double the number of ‘official’ ones there.”

Among those executed in Iran were people convicted of offenses such as adultery and sodomy.

Thousands thought killed in China
Amnesty said that in total 20 countries carried out at least 676 executions in 2011, compared to 23 countries and 527 judicial killings the year before.

But it said the figures did not include “thousands of prisoners thought to have been executed in China.”

The statement said most countries “either hanged or shot their condemned prisoners, but there were also beheadings in Saudi Arabia and lethal injections in China, Taiwan and the USA.”

The group said 68 people were executed in Iraq, 43 in the United States, at least 41 in Yemen, 30 in North Korea, and 10 in Somalia.

Overall, at least 18,750 people were under sentence of death worldwide at the end of 2011, the statement added.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- A number of Afghan national army soldiers have been arrested inside the country’s defense ministry over a foiled suicide bomb plot, officials told NBC News.

The soldiers were held on Monday afternoon along with 11 suicide bomb vests in a guard box in the building in the capital, Kabul, army officials said on Tuesday.

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Afghan news web site Khaama also reported the arrests, saying the incident raises fresh concerns over infiltration of militants among the country’s Afghan security forces.

There were no further details immediately available.

Tim Marshall, foreign editor of UK channel Sky News, said that the incident was serious, and showed that the Taliban are determined to chase NATO out of the country.

"The fact that these arrests took place within the walls of the defense ministry illustrates the level of insurgent penetration within the Afghanistan establishment and just tells you -- gives a signal of -- what is likely to happen when NATO leaves," he said.

Afghan massacre suspect's wife: 'He did not do this'

The arrests came on the same day that at least three NATO service members were shot dead by Afghan security forces in two separate attacks.

A gunman wearing an Afghan army uniform killed two NATO troops in southern Afghanistan, while another was shot in eastern Afghanistan by an alleged member of the Afghan Local Police.

The attacks brought to 16 the number of NATO-led forces killed so far this year in what appeared to be attacks by members of Afghan forces.

Meanwhile, support for the war in Afghanistan has dropped sharply among both Republicans and Democrats, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll published Tuesday.

The survey found that more than two-thirds of those polled — 69 percent — thought that the United States should not be at war in Afghanistan, the New York Times reported.

PhotoBlog: 12 die in Quran-burning protests in Afghanistan

Just four months ago, 53 percent said that Americans should no longer be fighting in the conflict, it said.

It added that the increased disillusionment was even more pronounced when respondents were asked their impressions of how the war was going. The poll found that 68 percent thought the fighting was going “somewhat badly” or “very badly,” compared with 42 percent who had those impressions in November.

The poll was conducted by telephone from March 21 to 25 with 986 adults nationwide.

Akbar Shinwari, NBC News in Kabul, and msnbc.com staff also contributed to this report.

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