Syria blamed "terrorist" bomb-makers on Thursday for an explosion that ripped through a building and killed 16 people in the restive city of Hama, where hostility to President Bashar Assad runs deep.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based anti-Assad organization tracking the 13-month-old conflict in which the United Nations says at least 9,000 people have died, gave the same death toll but said the cause of Wednesday afternoon's blast was not clear.

The Local Coordination Committees, a grassroots opposition group, had said earlier that a military rocket had inflicted the carnage and put the death toll at more than 50.

Whatever its origins, the blast dealt another blow to a two-week-old U.N.-backed truce that has failed to halt violence on both sides of the conflict, one of a string of uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa against autocratic rule.

An activist said seven civilians and two rebel militiamen were killed in fighting in the eastern city of Deir al-Zor, while a resident of Zamalka on the outskirts of Damascus reported intense gun-battles.

"There have been heavy clashes today, really heavy over the past couple hours," the man said. "I couldn't get close enough to see. There are checkpoints everywhere."

Meanwhile the state news agency, SANA, said a school headmaster was blown up in a booby-trapped car in the northern city of Aleppo, and an "armed terrorist group" had shot dead four members of the same family in Erbin near Damascus.

It also said two members of the security forces were killed in Deir al-Zor.

Russian monitors
United Nations monitors charged with checking the ceasefire engineered by U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan are trickling in to and two are now based permanently in Hama, where many thousands of people were killed when Assad's late father, Hafez Assad, crushed an armed Islamist uprising 30 years ago.

Activists have been dismayed at the pace of the observer deployment, and a senior U.N. official said this week it would take a month to put the first 100 monitors on the ground.

Only 15 are in place so far out of an envisaged full-strength team of 300 to be led by Norwegian General Robert Mood.

Sana said four monitors from Russia, Syria's most powerful ally, were on their way.

The killing of a Syrian Arab Red Crescent volunteer on Tuesday underscores the dangers the monitors may face.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said three other aid workers were wounded when the clearly marked ambulance in which they were traveling came under fire near Damascus.

Syria says it has completed withdrawing tanks and troops from populated areas in line with Annan's peace plan, but the former U.N. chief said on Tuesday Damascus had failed to meet all its commitments and the situation remained "unacceptable".

France, leading Western calls for tougher action against Assad, says it planned to push next month for a "Chapter 7" Security Council resolution if Assad's forces did not pull back.

Chapter 7 of the U.N. charter allows the Council to authorize actions which can include military force. But Western powers have disavowed any intention to intervene militarily in Syria, as they did last year in Libya.

The U.N. is drawing up a major humanitarian effort for more than a million people affected by the conflict. A report seen by Reuters on Thursday said sewage networks had been damaged and water contaminated, setting the stage for outbreaks of water-borne diseases such as cholera. 

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TEL AVIV, Israel – Celebrating Israel's independence always starts with a bang. Fireworks light up the night sky as families fill the streets.  Starting Wednesday evening and continuing throughout the day Thursday, the country has been covered in overt displays of national pride with flags flying from most homes and cars.

But, as always with Israel, that very independence brings insecurity. This week has been no exception.

The newspapers have carried an array of mixed messages and perceived threats. From increased tension along the border with Lebanon to Israel's military chief saying Iran is unlikely to build an atomic bomb.

But one issue dominates – the changing relationship with Egypt, their southern neighbor, and the vital gas pipeline running between the two countries.

Gas deal terminated
On Sunday Egypt terminated a long-term gas deal with Israel. While politicians on both sides have tried to downplay the closure of the pipeline as merely a business dispute, there is little doubt it's a sign of a relationship coming under increased strain.

The pipeline has been attacked 14 times over the last year, repeatedly interrupting gas flow. Although the deal supplied Israel with 40 percent of its natural gas, experts say the cancellation will have a limited impact.

Professor Eytan Sheshinksi, who teaches at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, said Israel had become used to them.

"I think it will not have serious effect at this time. Shortages were expected this summer anyway," he told NBC News.

As far as Israel Hayom, the popular right-leaning Israeli Hebrew-language daily newspaper, was concermed, it was another example of why Israel should only depend on itself.

"The painful conclusion is, once again, that we have no genuine friends in the region," the paper's analysis wrote. "This is a reminder...that we must first and foremost depend only on ourselves."

Israel expects gas to start pumping from its own huge reserves next year – which many have great expectations for.

"This is extremely important for the country," Dr. Amit Mor, CEO of the Israel’s company ECO Energy Ltd., said about Israel’s push to develop its own oil reserves. “We do not need to depend our energy production consumption on the importation of oil and gas from our neighboring Arab countries or from the international market. We can provide our own resources by ourselves.”

Political repercussions
Another major concern about the failed pipeline deal is what it means politically for Israel. The pipeline was part of a peace treaty between the two countries that was signed by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in 1979. Mubarak of course has been swept from power and long-held resentment at the peace deal is now being voiced publicly. 

The anti-Israel rhetoric is echoed by politicians in Egypt as the country prepares for presidential elections in May. "There is no doubt the peace treaty is unfair to Egyptian side," Mahmoud Ghozlan, spokesman and a senior figure in Egypt's biggest Islamist group, the Muslim Brotherhood, told Reuters.  Although he said all treaties would be "respected.”

On Tuesday Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Israel Radio Egypt's Sinai Peninsula is, "turning into a kind of Wild West" with Islamist militants using the open desert border to stage attacks against his country.

Israel may well be celebrating 64 years, but the Jewish state continues to feel its enemies close by.

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LONDON - There was "no evidence" to suggest that British intelligence services were part of a cover-up after one of their own was found naked and decomposing inside a locked duffel bag in his London apartment, an intelligence officer said on Thursday.

"Witness F" gave evidence to the inquest -- which are held when deaths are deemed violent or unnatural -- in the August 2010 death of MI6 officer Gareth Williams from behind a screen, BBC News reported.

MI6, Britain's foreign intelligence agency, is roughly equivalent to the Untied States' CIA.

The denial came on the same day that one of the code-breaker's relatives shrieked and brought proceedings to a halt while listening to details of a series of missteps that allowed for the spy to lay in his bathroom undiscovered for a week, the Telegraph reported.

UK cops close to arrest over British spy found dead in a bag?

The relatives walked out of the inquest in tears during Witness F's evidence, the BBC reported.

Their lawyer Anthony O'Toole said the agency showed a "total disregard for Gareth's whereabouts and safety."

Williams, 31, was a math prodigy working as a codebreaker at Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the state eavesdropping service. 

Williams' family became increasingly upset during the four days of proceedings as it became clear that his absence did not spark any concern, despite the sensitive nature of his job, according to reports.

Witness F, a senior intelligence officer, told the inquest that MI6 was "profoundly sorry" for the delays, which had made it more difficult for the family to "come to terms with his dreadful death," the newspaper reported.

A detective told the inquest on Tuesday that a "third party was involved in that padlock being locked, and Gareth being placed in the bag."

Spy death inquiry looks at bondage link

The inquest has also been told that Williams, who was single and intensely private, would not have let a stranger into his flat, and that he would not have given his keys to anyone apart from close family.

There were no signs of a break-in or indications of foul play.

Small amounts of unidentified DNA were detected on the bag.

On Wednesday, the inquest heard that years earlier Williams had been found tied to his bed and unable to free himself.

Williams had shouted out for help in the middle of the night when he was living in an annex of the home of his then-landlady Jennifer Elliot in Cheltenham, western England.

Mystery couple sought in UK cyberspy's bizarre death

Elliot and her husband found Williams dressed only in boxer shorts with his hands tied to the headboard of the bed. He told her that he had been just "messing about," trying to see "if I could get myself free," the Telegraph newspaper reported.

In a written statement, Elliot said it was likely "to be sexual rather than escapology," the paper added.

Williams later took up a three-year assignment at the headquarters of Britain's foreign intelligence service MI6, whose offices are on the banks of the River Thames in central London.

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A car destroyed by the bomb sits outside the premises of ThisDay Newspapers bombed in Abuja on Thursday.

Suicide car bombers targeted the offices of Nigerian newspaper This Day in the capital Abuja and northern city of Kaduna on Thursday, killing at least four people in apparently coordinated strikes.

This Day is based in southern Nigeria and is broadly supportive of President Goodluck Jonathan's government - the main target for Islamist insurgent group Boko Haram, which has killed hundreds of people this year in shootings and bombings.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks.

At around 11 a.m. one bomber drove a jeep into the daily's office in Abuja, killing himself and two others, witnesses and the state security service (SSS) said.

At the same time, 90 miles north in Kaduna, a car was stopped from getting into This Day's offices and one of the attackers jumped out.

Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP – Getty Images

A policeman stands in front of the premises of ThisDay newspapers bombed by suicide bombers early in Abuja on Thursday.

"He was immediately challenged by two gallant Nigerians, following which he threw the bomb at them and it detonated, killing them instantly," the SSS said in a statement.

It identified the bomber as Umaru Mustapha, from Maiduguri in Borno state, the home of Boko Haram in the remote northeast of Africa's most populous nation.

Thousands of Nigerians protest fuel prices, as government fears 'anarchy'

Later in the day, authorities reported another explosion in Kaduna. There were no further details.

Boko Haram, whose name in the Hausa language means "Western education is sinful", has not previously targeted the press in its bombings. Last October, the sect killed a reporter for state-run television who it said was an informant.

Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP – Getty Images

Police officers scan debris of the engine of the Jeep used to bomb newspaper offices in Abuja, Thursday.

Boko Haram has been fighting a low level insurgency for more than two years and has become the main security menace in Africa's top oil producer. Most attacks have been in the largely Muslim north, well away from the southern oil fields.

This Day angered Muslims a decade ago when one of its columnists suggested the Prophet Mohammad might have wanted to marry a beauty queen. At least 100 people were killed in ensuing riots.

"Horrendous and wicked"
President Jonathan, in Ivory Coast for talks with other West African leaders on a crisis in Mali, said in a statement the attacks on This Day were "misguided, horrendous and wicked."

"The President urged media practitioners not to be dissuaded from carrying out their fearless campaign for peace, justice and equity, as democracy cannot flourish without press freedom," the statement from his media adviser said.

In August last year, Boko Haram carried out a suicide car bombing at the United Nations building in Abuja that killed 25 people and prompted a ramp-up in security measures.

At the scene of the Abuja blast on Thursday, sirens wailed as police and fire fighters rushed in. Smoke billowed from the building, whose windows were all smashed.

Soldiers and police cordoned off the area, while emergency workers evacuated wounded on stretchers to waiting ambulances.

"The suicide bomber came in a jeep and rammed a vehicle into the gate," said Olusegun Adeniyi, chairman of the This Day editorial board. "Two of our security men died, and obviously the suicide bomber died too."

This Day's publisher, Nduka Obaigbena, is a celebrity in Nigeria and puts on music, art and fashion events in cities in around the world.

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Updated at 8:05 a.m. ET: Rupert Murdoch on Thursday said he had spent "hundreds of millions of dollars" to clean-up the legal and ethical mess caused by phone-hacking at the now-shuttered News of the World tabloid.

"I pledged I would clean it up and I did. I have spent hundreds of millions of dollars … We had electronically examined 300 million emails … and anything that was faintly suspicious was passed to the police," he told a public inquiry into media ethics in Britain.

The News of the World was the top-selling Sunday tabloid that rocked the British establishment after evidence emerged of police corruption and too-cozy links between the press and politicians.

Murdoch admitted that he had failed to properly oversee the News of the World but deflected charges that he was aware that journalists there were involved with illegal and unethical activities.

"I also have to say that I failed," he said. "I'm guilty of not having paid enough attention to the News of the World probably throughout all the time that we've owned it."

Murdoch shuttered the 168-year-old tabloid as the scandal spread last year and News International has been hit with over 100 lawsuits over phone hacking and dozens of reporters and media executives have been arrested.

However, the 81-year-old media mogul said he was "misinformed and shielded" from illegal and unethical activity at the News of the World, and that others were to blame for hiding the extent of the scandal from top editors and executives.

"I think from within the News of the World, there were one or two very strong characters there who I think had been there many, many, many years and were friends of the journalists, or the person I'm thinking of was a friend of the journalists and a drinking pal and a clever lawyer, and forbade them ... this person forbade people to go and report to (Rebekah) Brooks or to James (Murdoch)."

Ben Stansall / AFP - Getty Images

Rupert Murdoch, his wife Wendi Deng and son Lachlan (left) leave their London home on Wednesday.

Brooks was chief executive of News International, the newspaper's publisher, editor of News of the World and a Murdoch favorite. Rupert Murdoch's son James, who stepped down this month as chairman of broadcaster BSkyB, appeared before the inquiry on Tuesday.

Rupert Murdoch grilled at UK phone-hack inquiry

During an exchange with a lawyer acting on behalf of the inquiry, Robert Jay, Murdoch admitted that he "panicked" when the Milly Dowler scandal broke. Revelations that News of the World journalists hacked into the missing 13-year-old's cellphone -- she was later found murdered -- provoked an enormous public outcry.

The media baron also said the scandals involving the newspaper had hurt his legacy.

"I think historically this whole business is a serious blot on my reputation," he said.

Not a puppet master?
On Wednesday, Murdoch denied charges that his media empire played puppet master to a succession of British prime ministers.

"I have never asked a prime minister for anything," he said during the hearings into media ethics in London on Wednesday.

The appearance before a judge by the world's most powerful media mogul has been a defining moment in a scandal that has laid bare collusion between ministers, police and Murdoch's News Corp., reigniting long-held concerns over the close ties between big money, the media and power in Britain. 

 U.S.-based News Corp.'s feet are being held to the fire at the hearings but it isn't the only challenge the company faces. There are three ongoing police investigations, dozens of people have been arrested.  Eleven of those arrested could soon be facing criminal charges.

News Corp. is worth an estimated $60 billion and owns influential media companies including Fox Television and the Wall Street Journal.

Meanwhile, the British minister accused of giving Murdoch special access during the media tycoon's bid to increase his hold on Britain's television industry on Wednesday labeled accusations against him as "laughable."

Jeremy Hunt, the culture minister who was last year tasked with reviewing Murdoch's $12-billion plan to boost his stake in British pay TV operator BSkyB, is under immense pressure to resign after allegations emerged of his close contacts with News Corp.

On Tuesday, Murdoch's media executive son James said Hunt had given News Corp special treatment during talks surrounding the government's decision on whether to allow the TV deal to go ahead.

"The idea I was backing this bid is laughable," a visibly flustered Hunt told parliament to roars of approval from his own Conservative Party and jeers of derision from the opposition Labour party, which has led calls for him to be sacked.

The furor is the latest blow to Prime Minister David Cameron's government after a torrid month in which he has lurched from crisis to crisis, garnering an embarrassing slew of negative headlines and raising questions over his leadership.

Chiara Francavilla, NBC News in London, and Reuters contributed to this report.

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Ahmed Jadallah / Reuters, file

Syrian soldiers check cars at a checkpoint near the Syrian capital Damascus in January.

BEIRUT - When the aspirin and alcohol swabs fell from under her clothes at a Syrian army checkpoint, Rania stood petrified, looking first down at her fallen contraband and then up at the soldier who stared straight back at her.

Rania knew that smuggling food and medicine to Syrian opposition activists was considered by security forces to be "aiding terrorists" and treated as severely as weapons smuggling.

"I thought to myself: I am dead," said Rania, 27, recalling the incident on the outskirts of Damascus.

She was in luck. The soldier was a sympathizer.

"Quick," she quoted him as saying. "Pick up your medicine and go, before my commanding officer comes back."

And with that pardon, she fled.

During the 13-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, Syrian forces have killed more than 9,000 people in shootings and bombardment of rebel areas, the United Nations says. Thousands more have been arrested.

Obama unveils sanctions on Syria, Iran for assault on activists 

Syrian authorities, who say foreign-backed militants have killed more than 2,600 soldiers and police, have supplied aid to residents they say are fleeing "armed terrorists" but have repeatedly denied access to international aid organizations.

Activists say most people wounded in the unrest will not go to state hospitals for fear they will be considered enemies of Assad and arrested rather than treated.

Amateur video shows poorly stocked makeshift hospitals in opposition strongholds, many without electricity, with doctors pleading for help from the outside world.

In the absence of international support, dissidents have found informal ways to smuggle food and medicine to injured and famished people around the country.

Rania and her friends, a group of young, liberal women, pretend to be conservative Muslims, hiding the medicines, food and money they bring out of Damascus to Homs city under thick layers of clothing and headscarves.

How many others make similar smuggling trips around Syria, they have no way of knowing. They say this method of smuggling is an open secret, but authorities are unwilling to search women, especially those who appear pious, as it would cause an outcry.

Forming the team
Rania, a qualified lawyer, operates in a team of four, including two female friends who worked as supermarket checkout assistants. The fourth team member is a doctor.

She agreed to be interviewed via Skype, but would not give her last name for fear that it could compromise their operation. Another of the girls, Ola, agreed to answer questions through a friend who sometimes helps the team, who herself asked not to be named.

All of the group are from Homs, one of the worst hit areas in Syria, where forces have been shelling central districts for months.

"Me and the girls met the doctor, who is a childhood friend, and asked him how we could help people who were injured or in need of food," Rania said.

The team rented a large apartment in a poor area of Damascus where prices are low. All quit their jobs, except the doctor who does four shifts a week; authorities suspect doctors who leave work, residents say, assuming they have joined the opposition.

AP

A doctor treats a wounded boy at a makeshift hospital in Homs on Saturday. Activists say most people wounded in the unrest will not go to state hospitals for fear they will be considered enemies of the government and arrested rather than treated.

"We sold everything we could, even our jewelry," said Ola. "We filled the apartment with rice, sugar, spaghetti and vegetable oil.

The doctor uses his sources to get anti-inflammatories, bandages and trauma kits." To save money, the team eats two meals a day.

To keep a low profile, they rarely make phone calls and only leave the building when necessary. They work at night.

When other activists visit, they are asked to bring their own food to keep costs low.

"Smuggling is expensive," said the friend who asked not to be named. "You need a taxi driver who will agree to go through the checkpoints out of Damascus and take the two-hour drive to Homs. It is dangerous for him, too".

Gauze and bandages
Operations start at the apartment. The women change their jeans and tank tops for long-sleeved dresses and the conservative Muslim hijab head scarf.

"I am thin so we can fit lots of medical gauze under my clothes," said the friend. "One of the girls stuffs cotton bandages in her bra."

The women, often covered in a hidden layer of antibiotics, travel alone in a private taxi or a bus north out of the capital to Homs city.

"The government knows everything, but they don't want extra trouble," said the friend. "In (the Damascus suburb of) Douma, security members arrested some women and it caused a huge amount of civil disobedience."

But not every checkpoint is safe and there are slip-ups that could land Rania and Ola in prison.

"Sometimes we are detained at checkpoints. We either pay a bribe or wait to see what will happen to us. Some of the checkpoints are manned by Assad loyalist gunmen who don't work for the regular army," says Ola. "We fear them the most."

Syrian rebels detonate a bomb on main highway

"But the worst time for me was when I was due to meet another activist to give him some blood bags, money and food," said Ola.

She waited in the rain but the man did not show.

"It was late at night, I was forced to leave the food on the side of the road as the risk of returning with it through checkpoints was too great," she said.

"I walked home, crying. The trip had been for nothing."

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Updated at 8:01 a.m. ET: THE HAGUE -- In a historic ruling, a U.N.-backed court on Thursday convicted ex-Liberian President Charles Taylor of war crimes during a conflict that left 50,000 dead.

Taylor, 64, was charged with murder, rape, conscripting child soldiers and sexual slavery during intertwined wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone. However, the court found him guilty of only some of the charges.

Taylor is the first head of state convicted by an international court since the post-World War II Nuremberg military tribunal.

The tribunal found Taylor guilty of aiding and abetting war crimes and crimes against humanity by supporting notoriously brutal rebels in return for "blood diamonds."

Presiding Judge Richard Lussick said the warlord-turned-president provided arms, ammunition, communications equipment and planning to rebels responsible for countless atrocities in the 1991-2002 Sierra Leone civil war. Lussick called the support "sustained and significant."

Echoes of a war: A journey around Sierra Leone

Taylor stood and showed no emotion as Lussick delivered the guilty verdicts at the Special Court for Sierra Leone.

While judges convicted him of aiding and abetting atrocities by rebels, they cleared him of direct command responsibility, saying he had no direct control over the rebels he supported.

Lussick scheduled a sentencing hearing for May 16 and said sentence would be passed two weeks later.

The Associated Press reported that thousands celebrated in Sierra Leone after learning that Taylor had been convicted. Countless survivors of the civil war bear emotional and physical scars from the war. Rebels hacked off the limbs of many of their victims.

Human rights advocates say the case is a reminder that even the most powerful do not enjoy impunity.

Taylor, who was president of Liberia from 1997 to 2003, was accused of backing and giving orders to Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels in the 11-year civil war in neighboring Sierra Leone.

'Murder and mayhem'
The prosecution alleged the RUF undermined a ceasefire agreement in 1999, prolonging the war for another three years, and that Taylor financed their war effort with the proceeds of "blood diamonds" mined illegally in Sierra Leone.

"The Taylor verdict is a watershed moment," Richard Dekker, head of the international justice program at Human Rights Watch, said before the tribunal announced its decision. "As president, Taylor is believed to have been responsible for so much murder and mayhem which unfolded in Sierra Leone. His was a shadow that loomed across the region, in the Ivory Coast, in Sierra Leone and Liberia."

Issouf Sanogo / AFP - Getty Images, file

A young Revolutionary United Front (RUF) fighter poses near Freetown, Sierra Leone, on May 25, 1997.

Taylor denied all of the charges.

The crimes of the RUF were not in doubt. Courts have earlier convicted RUF fighters of crimes against humanity, including rape, torture and terrorism.

Civilians were mutilated during the conflict, their arms being cut off above the hand (known by fighters as "long sleeves") or above the elbow ("short sleeves").

Pregnant women shot
Trial witnesses described seeing children and pregnant women being shot, disemboweled or mutilated in a process aimed at creating terror in the civilian population.

But the challenge was to link Taylor to these crimes.

"The accused never set foot in Sierra Leone when these crimes were being committed. He never directly, physically committed these crimes," Brenda Hollis, the court's chief prosecutor, told Reuters before the verdict.

"In a domestic case, you have to prove there was a murder, we have the added level of proving linkage."

This was the reason the supermodel Naomi Campbell was summoned to give testimony to the court in 2010.

The prosecution alleged Taylor had sent uncut diamonds to her hotel room after a dinner given by former South African president Nelson Mandela, attended by both her and Taylor. She told the court she had no idea who had sent her the diamonds, which she called "dirty little pebbles."

Taylor is likely to appeal, meaning the trial could easily last for another six months.

Into the jungle on the hunt for Joseph Kony

Taylor is expected to serve time in a British maximum security prison. That will contrast sharply with the comparatively luxurious life Taylor enjoys in detention in The Hague. His case was moved there because of fears that his security could not be guaranteed in Sierra Leone.

In The Hague, Taylor has been free to mix with his fellow inmates and he has maintained "cordial" relations with his old enemy Laurent Gbagbo, the former Ivory Coast leader who faces charges of crimes against humanity.

Taylor has also been known to cook and compare defense briefs with Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga Dyilo.

As he awaited the verdict, he immersed himself in study of the Jewish faith, to which he converted before arriving in The Hague. He has regular visits from a rabbi and does not receive his lawyers on the Sabbath.

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

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/

Pakistan's Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani waves to supporters upon arrival at the Supreme Court for a hearing in a contempt-of-court of notice, in Islamabad, Thursday.

ISLAMABAD -- Pakistan's Supreme Court on Thursday found Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani guilty of contempt of court for refusing to reopen corruption cases against the president, but gave him only a symbolic sentence of a few minutes' detention in the courtroom.

Gilani smiled when the verdict was read out in a packed courthouse. He had refused to abide by a court order to write a letter to Swiss authorities to reopen a $60-million money-laundering case against President Asif Ali Zardari.

It was unclear if the token sentence would defuse political uncertainty in Pakistan, where the president and prime minister have jousted with the military and judiciary. Despite the light sentence, Gilani could still face dismissal from office in the weeks, or more likely, months to come.

"For reasons to be recorded later, the prime minister is found guilty of contempt for wilfully flouting the direction of the Supreme Court," said Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk.

The conviction means Gilani is the first serving prime minister in Pakistan's history to be convicted by a court, but his detention lasted just a few minutes until the session was adjourned. He could have faced up to six months in jail and the loss of office.

Slideshow: Pakistan: A nation in turmoil

Mohammad Sajjad / AP

Images of daily life, political pursuits, religious rites and deadly violence.

Launch slideshow

"I think what they've done is taken it from the legal arena and chucked it into the political arena," said Cyril Almeida, a prominent columnist for the Dawn daily newspaper.

He said opposition members of parliament now might move to expel Gilani from office.

"There will be massive pressure from the opposition, the media, from civil society, saying 'He's been convicted for flouting the letter of the law and he should go home,'" Almeida said. "There will be a lot of pressure for him to resign."

Tight security
A throng of supporters surrounded Gilani as he walked into the court in Islamabad, showering him with rose petals. Security was tight, with about 1,000 police officers standing by in riot gear and helicopters circling the Supreme Court building.

Gilani's lawyers had said before the verdict that he would not automatically be disqualified from office if convicted, and at any rate he would be able to appeal against the verdict.

"This is a historic day. The court has declared a lawmaker a lawbreaker. This is weakening democracy in Pakistan," said Firdous Ashiq Awan, former information minister.

Pakistan tests nuclear-capable missile as arms race intensifies

The case stems from what many observers say is a political battle between the government and the military, which has held the whip hand in Pakistan's political arena for most of the country's 64 years of independence. Many say the army is using the court to keep the government on the back foot.

The source of the current conflict is a graft case against Zardari that involves kickbacks he and his late wife, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, allegedly received from Swiss companies when Bhutto was in power in the 1990s. They were found guilty in absentia in a Swiss court in 2003.

Zardari appealed, but Swiss prosecutors ended up dropping the case in 2008 after the Pakistani government approved an ordinance giving the president and others immunity from old corruption cases that many agreed were politically motivated.

The Pakistani Supreme Court ruled the ordinance unconstitutional in 2009 and ordered the government to write a letter to Swiss authorities requesting they reopen the case against Zardari. Gilani has refused, saying the Pakistani constitution grants the president immunity from criminal prosecution while in office.

NBC News' Fakhar ur Rehman, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Str / AFP - Getty Images

Laxmi Sargara, 18, holds her certificate of the annullment of her marriage outside the court Tuesday in Jodhpur, India.

An Indian woman who was a baby bride has had her 17-year marriage legally annulled in a ground-breaking case challenging the culture of child weddings, Agence France Presse reported Wednesday.

Laxmi Sargara was 1 year old when she was married to a 3-year-old boy named Rakesh in the desert state of Rajasthan in northwestern India, the French news agency said. Their families decided that when they grew up they would live together and have children.

Child marriages, outlawed in India in 1929, are still common in many parts of the country, especially in rural and poorer communities, AFP said.

A Unicef report says 47 percent of married women in India wed before age 18. Unicef also says 40 percent of the world's child marriages take place in India. 

"I was unhappy about the marriage,” Sargara, now 18, told AFP. “I told my parents who did not agree with me, then I sought help. Now I am mentally relaxed and my family members are also with me."

Girls married off in infancy often remain in their parents' homes until they reach puberty and then are taken amid great celebrations to their husbands’ families, AFP said.

When Sargara just days ago discovered that she was married and would be sent to her husband’s home this week, she sought advice from social worker Kriti Bharti, who runs the children’s rights group Sarathi Trust, AFP said.

Bharti negotiated with Rakesh, the groom, who only uses one name, and both families to persuade them that the marriage was unfair, AFP reported.

"It is the first example we know of a couple wed in childhood wanting the marriage to be annulled, and we hope that others take inspiration from it," Bharti told AFP.

Rakesh, an earth-mover driver, at first wanted to press ahead with the relationship but was convinced by Sargara’s fierce opposition that the marriage should be revoked, Bharti said.

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The marriage was annulled through a joint legal document signed by the bride and groom and validated by a public official in Jodhpur, AFP said.

"To ensure that the girl does not face any problem in future, we decided to go for a legal agreement," said Indu Chaupra, local director of the ministry of women and child development, told AFP.

The annulment coincided with the Akshaya Tritiya festival, a traditional date for mass child weddings. On Sunday, villagers in Rajasthan attacked and injured at least 12 government officials who tried to stop a wedding of about 40 child couples, AFP said.

A recent survey found that 10 percent of girls in Rajasthan are married off before the age of 18, the BBC reported.

More world news from msnbc.com and NBC News:

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Lior Mizrahi / EPA

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepares to place a wreath during the annual Memorial Day ceremony commemorating fallen soldiers at Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem on Wednesday.

TEL AVIV, Israel – This week Israel is celebrating its 64th birthday, but before the fireworks and parties, Israelis mourn their fallen soldiers.

The ceremonies commemorating the 22,993 soldiers and civilians Israel says have been killed since 1860, when Jews began moving back to the area, started on Tuesday evening. A one minute siren rang out across the country so people would stop all their activities and observe a moment of silence.

The Israeli Army radio found an interesting way to remember some of the fallen, especially the ones who wrote letters and poems. The project is called “Soon We Will Become A Song” and it includes famous singers singing lyrics written by soldiers who have died. The song lyrics are based on writing found in soldiers’ belongings after they were killed.

Ofira Rotem is well acquainted with sorrow and grief.  She served 10 years in the Israeli Army in a unit that was in charge of notifying families that their loved one had been killed during military duty.

In November 1997 her son, Oren, enlisted in the army. Ofira told the army radio this week that she didn’t want to say goodbye to him on the day he enlisted since she would cry and didn’t want to embarrass him.  She said Oren replied, “You're going to come and embarrass me, it's O.K. with me. You're allowed to cry."

Nir Elias / Reuters

Israelis embrace in front of a memorial engraved with names of fallen soldiers from the armoured corps after a ceremony marking Memorial Day in Latrun near Jerusalem on Wednesday.

Two years later, Oren died in an accident while he was still in the service. So this time, friends and officers who had worked Ofira were knocking on her own door with the worst news ever.

Ofira described how she got the news. “It was 9 o'clock in the evening and we were about to go to the cinema. I heard the doorbell and opened the door seeing Moshiko, my commander, standing there. I asked him if it was my son, Oren, and he just nodded."

Ofira says she decided right there and then to cling onto life and bring new life to this world.

On her 47th birthday, Ofira gave birth to twins. "From Oren's death I created the lives of two beautiful babies."

To mark this year’s Memorial Day on Wednesday, Israeli Army radio broadcast a song based on some of Oren’s writings and performed by Miri Masika, a famous Israeli singer.

Donald Trump swept into Scotland's parliament on Wednesday to demand the country end plans for an offshore wind farm he fears will spoil the view at his exclusive new $1.2-billion golf resort.

In a typically blunt display, the property tycoon told an inquiry into renewable energy to stop the wind power efforts in the country's north.

"Scotland, if you pursue this policy of these monstrous turbines, Scotland will go broke," he said. "They are ugly, they are noisy and they are dangerous. If Scotland does this, Scotland will be in serious trouble and will lose tourism to places like Ireland, and they are laughing at us."

Jeff J Mitchell / Getty Images

Donald Trump speaks to members of public following his address to the Scottish Parliament on Wednesday.

Members of the committee are looking at how achievable the Scottish government's green targets for 2020 are. The plans for 11 200-foot tall wind turbines are part of the government's goal of positioning itself as a leader in renewable energy.

When challenged to produce hard evidence about his claims on the negative impact of turbines, Trump said: "I am the evidence, I am a world-class expert in tourism."

The public gallery burst into laughter.

'They wanted my money'
Trump claimed Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond and his predecessor Jack McConnell gave him verbal assurances a wind farm would not be built off the coast of his resort.

"They wanted my money," Trump said. "I was lured into buying the site, after I had spent my money they came and announced the plan. At the time I bought the land I felt confident the wind farm was not going to happen."

The inquiry, recorded by broadcaster BBC Scotland, heard that Trump paid $7.2 million for the majority of the land eight miles north of Aberdeen in January 2006. The resort is due to open on July 10.

There was an irony to Trump's complaints: When Salmond backed Trump's plans for the resort, he was hailed a "great man" by the tycoon.

Only four years ago, the two men appeared to be the best of golfing friends, when Mr Trump invited Salmond and actor Sir Sean Connery – who endorses Salmond’s pro-independence political party -- to join him on the first tee at the opening of the resort.

But Trump turned on the leader over plans to put the wind farm off the coast and within view of the golf course. He claims the turbines will ruin the environment and will be bad for tourism.

In February, Trump wrote a public letter to Salmond announcing an international crusade against wind farm developments around Scotland’s coast, The Scotsman reported.

In a furious attack, Trump accused Salmond of being “hell-bent on destroying Scotland’s coastline and therefore Scotland itself.”

He wrote: “You will single-handedly have done more damage to Scotland than virtually any event in Scottish history!”

The course was built on sand dunes despite protests from locals and environmentalists. The dunes, which were home to rare wading birds, were bulldozed to make way for the fairways in 2009 and 2010.

Scotland's tourism agency said its own research shows 83 percent of UK visitors will not be turned off by turbines.

"We are both reassured and encouraged by the findings of our survey which suggest that, at the current time, the overwhelming majority of consumers do not feel wind farms spoil the look of the countryside," said VisitScotland chief Malcolm Roughead.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

ULUGAN BAY, Philippines – First ashore were a group of scouts, swimming slowly and silently to the beach, gauging the defenses before calling in the main body of 84 U.S. and Philippine Marines.

It was all stealth – at least until they were surrounded by camera-wielding journalists.

"Will the media please stay in a group to one side," came the plea through loud speakers from the sort of master-of-ceremonies from the Philippines military.

"This would normally be taking place at night," he informed us. "And they would be wearing night-goggles," he continued. "Please will the media stay to one side."

Ian Williams /NBC News

U.S. and Philippine Marines participate in a joint exercise in Ulugan Bay, Philippines on Wednesday.

The main body of Marines swept in, crouching in their inflatables, guns at the ready. But the journalists were equally well prepared. The Philippines media is nothing if not feisty, and completely ignored the increasingly forlorn voice on the loud speaker. They were immediately at the side of the Marines as, through a fog of fake smoke grenades, they launched an assault on a compound that had been taken over by "terrorists.”

"Will the media please group to one side,” the refrain continued. Thank goodness the troops were firing blanks.

Playing down China’s fears
These exercises are an annual event, and Wednesday's drill was the culmination of two weeks of exercises that have involved 4,500 U.S. soldiers and 2,500 from the Philippines.

It comes at a time of rising tension in the energy-rich South China Sea, ownership of which is disputed by China (which claims just about all of it), as well as the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan.  

Beijing has been increasingly assertive in the area, and the U.S.-Philippine drill coincides with a tense stand-off between Chinese and Philippine vessels around Scarborough Shoal in a different part of the South China Sea.

Beijing has condemned the current exercises, saying it raises the risk of confrontation. But U.S. officials Wednesday were keen to play down the China angle, insisting the exercises were all routine.

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US and Philippine Marines participate in a joint exercise in Ulugan Bay, Philippines on Wednesday.

"[The joint-exercises] been taking place for decades," Ensign Bryan Mitchell, the US. Marine spokesman, told me.

"The planning took place months and months ago. There are a whole range of real world applications." Much of this year's exercises have been geared towards humanitarian relief, he added.

"For us this exercise is all about achieving inter-operability, and we are not allowing any of the other things going on to let us lose focus on that."

The purpose of the exercise was a little more blurred for Neil Estrella, a spokesman for the Philippine forces. An exuberant man in dark glasses, he waved his arms towards the South China Sea in front of him.

"China, they claim it all," he said with a sharp distaining laugh. "They'll be claiming America next."

I asked him about the scenario of Wednesday's exercise, re-taking a coastal base from "terrorists."

There was another disdainful laugh as he shifted his glasses. "This could just as easily be an island," he said. "We call them terrorists – but it’s a generic term."

As we spoke, loud pops and bangs punctuated the conversation as the Marines continued to clear the buildings behind us, and the increasingly exasperated voice on the loud speaker urged: "Will the media PLEASE keep to one side."

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Lior Mizrahi / Pool via Reuters

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, and military chief Lieutenant-General Benny Gantz, wearing the red beret, attend a Memorial Day ceremony commemorating fallen soldiers at Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem on Wednesday.

JERUSALEM -- Israel's military chief said he does not believe Iran will decide to produce an atomic bomb, describing its leadership as "very rational" in an interview published on Wednesday.

Lieutenant-General Benny Gantz's characterization of Iran's rulers appeared to be at odds with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's oft-stated warnings that Islamic leaders could opt to use nuclear weapons even at the risk of devastating retaliation.

"Iran is moving step-by-step towards a point where it will be able to decide if it wants to make a nuclear bomb. It has not decided yet whether to go the extra mile," Gantz told the Haaretz daily.

"In my opinion, (Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei) will be making a huge mistake if he does that and I don't think he will want to go the extra mile," Gantz said.

Israel, believed to have the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal, sees a nuclear-armed Iran as an existential threat. Teheran denies seeking the bomb and says it is enriching uranium for peaceful purposes.

'A dangerous thing'
Both Israel and the United States have declined to rule out military action against Iran should economic sanctions fail to curb its nuclear program, saying all options were on the table.

"I think the Iranian leadership is comprised of very rational people," Gantz said. "But I agree that such a capability in the hands of Islamic fundamentalists, who at some moments may make different calculations, is a dangerous thing."

In an interview with CNN on Tuesday, Netanyahu said he wouldn't want to bet "the security of the world on Iran's rational behavior." A "militant Islamic regime," he said, "can put their ideology before their survival."

Iran this month began negotiations over its nuclear program with six world powers for the first time in more than a year.

"Either Iran takes its nuclear program to a civilian footing only, or the world, perhaps us too, will have to do something. We're closer to the end of the discussions than the middle," Gantz said.

Could Iran really have cracked US drone codes?

Western diplomats greeted Iran's first meeting with the United States, Russia, China, Germany, France and Britain with cautious optimism, and the two sides agreed to meet again in Baghdad on May 23.

But Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak last week voiced skepticism that negotiations will curb Tehran's nuclear ambitions. Netanyahu said the hiatus in talks awarded the Iranians a "freebie" -- more time to enrich uranium.

Obama unveils sanctions on Syria, Iran

Gantz said international pressure on Iran "is beginning to bear fruit, both on the diplomatic level and on the economic sanctions level".

Netanyahu said on CNN the sanctions were "certainly taking a bite out of the Iranian economy but so far they haven't rolled back the Iranian program or even stopped it by one iota".

Iranian protester shouts into Ahmadinejad's face

In an interview that appeared on Wednesday in Israel's Maariv newspaper, President Shimon Peres echoed doubts voiced by some former top Israeli security officials over whether a military strike against Iranian nuclear facilities would be effective.

"You could also ask whether military sanctions would work. Nothing is clear. Therefore it makes more sense to start with economic, political and moral sanctions, without taking military sanctions off the table," Peres said.

Haakon Mosvold Larsen / NTB Scanpix via Reuters

Marie Naess and Aashild Nestdgaard Roe (R), both 16, tie roses onto railings outside a courthouse where admitted mass killer Anders Behring Breivik is standing trial on Tuesday.

OSLO, April 25 (Reuters) - Norwegians protesting against mass killer Anders Behring Breivik will take to the streets of Oslo on Thursday to sing a children’s songs that they're hoping he will just hate.

They plan to sing arm-in-arm a few blocks from the courthouse where Breivik is on trial for the killings of 77 people in a gun and bomb rampage last year.

"I grew up with this song and have sung it to my child," said Lill Hjoennevaag, one of the organizers of the demonstration.

"Everybody I know feels strongly about this song and we need to take it back," she told public broadcaster NRK.

Lillebjoern Nilsen's "Children of the Rainbow," a Norwegian rendition of American folk singer Pete Seeger's 1971 "My Rainbow Race," is a popular song in Norway.

"Breivik has used it as an example of brainwashing, but it is rather an example of the opposite," said Christine Bar, another organizer, who launched the event on Facebook.

"We think it represents diversity, and it stands for the community we have chosen to live in, and which Breivik and similar people want to tear down," she added.

Breivik, set off a car bomb in the capital Oslo, killing eight people, then gunned down 69 people, mostly teenagers, at a youth summer camp organized by the ruling Labor Party on July 22.

Also on Wednesday, the confessed mass killer slammed a psychiatric report that declared him insane as based on "evil fabrications" meant to portray him as irrational and unintelligent.

Norway's Breivik gives 'terrifying' testimony

"It is not me who is described in that report," the right-wing extremist, who admitted killing 77 people in bomb and shooting attacks on July 22, said in court.

A second psychiatric examination found Breivik sane. The five-judge panel trying Breivik on terror charges for the attacks will consider both reports.

Breivik admits to the bombing of Oslo's government district and subsequent shooting massacre at the Labor Party youth camp, claiming the attacks were "necessary" and that the victims had betrayed Norway by embracing immigration.

Images: Norway mourns after massacre

If found guilty, Breivik would face 21 years in prison, though he can be held longer if deemed a danger to society. If declared insane, he would be committed to compulsory psychiatric care.

After listening to testimony describing the horrific injuries of the bombing victims, Breivik showed no remorse, saying if anyone should apologize it was the governing Labor Party.

He said he had hoped they would change policy on immigration after his attacks.

"But instead they continue in the same direction, so the grounds for struggle are unfortunately even more relevant now than before July 22," Breivik said.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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LONDON -- Missing British girl Madeleine McCann, who vanished during a 2007 family vacation in Portugal, may still be alive, police said Wednesday.

Days ahead of the fifth anniversary of her disappearance, the Metropolitan Police Service said it was possible the girl was abducted from the family’s rented apartment while her parents dined at a nearby restaurant.

Madeleine was almost four years old when she went missing, prompting an international hunt that has so far provided little except false leads.

Police released a new computer-generated image of the girl, showing how she might look on her ninth birthday, which would be on May 12.

"As a result of evidence uncovered during the review, they now believe there is a possibility Madeleine is still alive and are appealing for anyone who is able to provide direct information as to her whereabouts to contact the team," police said in a statement, according to the BBC.

Investigators are combing through about 100,000 pages of information for more details, authorities said, without getting into specifics.

"The intention is to identify from that material investigative opportunities which we will then present to the Portuguese authorities who retain primacy for the investigation," police said. "Officers have so far identified around 195 such opportunities within the historic material, and are also developing what they believe to be genuinely new material." 

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A helmet with a swastika, a pistol, the replica of a rifle and cartridges which have been seized lie on a table during a press conference of the police in Cologne, Germany, Wednesday.

Three suspected neo-Nazis were arrested in Germany early Wednesday after 100 security officers raided the offices of a right-wing political party and the homes of more than a dozen alleged extremists, police told NBC News.

The raids in the northwestern cities of Radevormwald, Düsseldorf, Wuppertal and Essen were part of a new investigation focusing on leaders of a far-right group called “Freundeskreis Rade,” police said.

The three suspects were due to be brought before a judge later on Wednesday. Police and state prosecutors allege they have been linked to "significant crimes."

The right-wing "Pro NRW" is a local party in the state of North-Rhein Westphalia (NRW).

Authorities were heavily criticized after failing to connect an underground neo-Nazi terror cell to a 10-year killing spree in which a German police officer, one Greek immigrant and nine Turkish immigrants were murdered.

A retired teacher's courageous crusade: Tackling neo-Nazi hate

German police and intelligence officials failed to investigate possible racist motives in the case despite receiving an FBI report in 2007 showing that the 11 victims had been killed because of their ethnicity, Der Spiegel news magazine reported this week.

Msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.

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Lee Jae-Won / Reuters

A shopper picks up Australian beef at a Lotte Mart store in Seoul, South Korea, on Wednesday. Lotte Mart was one of two major South Korean retailers to halt sales of U.S. beef.

SEOUL, South Korea -- Two major South Korean retailers suspended sales of U.S. beef Wednesday following the discovery of mad cow disease in a U.S. dairy cow. Reaction elsewhere in Asia was muted with Japan saying there's no reason to restrict imports.

South Korea's No. 2 and No. 3 supermarket chains, Home Plus and Lotte Mart, said they have "temporarily" halted sales of U.S. beef to calm worries among South Koreans.

"We stopped sales from today," said Chung Won-hun, a Lotte Mart spokesman. "Not that there were any quality issues in the meat but because consumers were worried."

South Korea is the world's fourth-largest importer of U.S. beef, buying 107,000 tons of the meat worth $563 million in 2011.

California mad cow 'just a random mutation'

The new case of mad cow disease is the first in the U.S. since 2006. It was discovered in a dairy cow in California, but health authorities said Tuesday the animal was never a threat to the nation's food supply.

Reuters reported that the first U.S. mad cow case, which was identified in 2003, caused a $3 billion drop in exports. It took until 2011 before those exports fully recovered.

Mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, is fatal to cows and can cause a deadly human brain disease in people who eat tainted beef. U.S. authorities said the dead California cow has what scientists call an atypical case of BSE, meaning that a random mutation in the animal rather than infected cattle feed was the cause.

Carcass quarantined
The infected cow, the fourth ever discovered in the U.S., was found as part of an Agriculture Department surveillance program that tests about 40,000 cows a year for the disease.

USDA confirms 4th mad cow case in US

The USDA is still tracing the exact life of the infected animal, and the carcass of the cow is under quarantine and will be destroyed.

The cow was found at a rendering plant, which processes diseased or sick animals into mainly non-edible products for use in things like soap or glue.

Gosia Wozniacka / AP

The latest U.S. mad cow case is centered on the Baker Commodities transfer station in Hanford, Calif.

First discovered in Britain in 1986, the disease has killed more than 150 people and 184,000 cows globally, mainly in Britain and Europe, but strict controls have tempered its spread. The first U.S. case was found in late 2003 in an animal imported from Canada, followed by two more in 2005 and 2006. Two of those cases were also "atypical".

The news spread quickly in South Korea, which imposed a ban on U.S. beef in 2003 along with China and other countries because of mad cow disease concerns. Seoul's resumption of U.S. beef imports in 2008 sparked daily candlelight vigils and street protests for several months as many South Koreans still regarded the meat as a public health risk.

South Korea imports U.S. beef from cows less than 30 months old and there is no direct link between U.S. beef imported into South Korea and the infected animal, the country's agriculture ministry said in a statement. The infected U.S. cow was older than 30 months.

Public concern
But the ministry decided to step up inspections of U.S. beef and request detailed information on the case from the United States — initial measures to appease public concern while avoiding possible trade conflicts.

"We are still reviewing whether we will stop quarantine inspections," Chang Jae-hong, deputy director of the ministry's quarantine policy division, told The Associated Press by telephone.

Halting quarantine inspections would prevent U.S. beef from being delivered to stores as it couldn't clear customs.

At a Home Plus store in southwestern Seoul, some shoppers said they were not worried about U.S. beef as long as officials had said there were no health risks.

But others criticized the U.S. government as "arrogant" and "inconsiderate" in asserting that the discovery of an infected cow would have no impact on its meat exports.

"I won't eat meat from the countries where mad cow disease was found," said Kim Woo-sig, a self employed 47-year-old.

In Japan, officials said the country's import policy was unchanged.

'No need for change'
Japan, the world's third-largest consumer of U.S. beef and veal, restricts its imports of U.S. beef to cows of 20 months or younger.

"There is no need for change," in Japan's import rules, Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura told reporters.

But the latest mad cow case may jeopardize moves to expand American beef sales in Taiwan, where the government recently sparked protests by allowing sales of U.S. beef containing ractopamine, a growth additive.

Taiwan's legislature on Wednesday indefinitely postponed a planned discussion on U.S. beef imports. It is likely the government engineered the delay, fearing that the opposition would stoke sentiment against U.S. beef.

There was no immediate response from China's government. Beijing no longer has an outright ban on U.S. beef but exporters have been unable to overcome continued barriers involving inspection of the meat.

The news comes at a time of booming beef exports, with total shipments reaching a record last year thanks to expanding markets in countries like Russia and Canada, according to Commerce Department data.

But exports to Japan, Mexico and South Korea, which bought more than 80 percent of U.S. beef and veal exports in 2003, have yet to match their earlier peaks, with many of them maintaining certain restrictions that may help temper any fallout.

Mexico, which buys more U.S. beef than any other country, said it has no plans to halt imports and that it would maintain the same regimen of inspections for trade across the border.

Vietnam, which suspended U.S. beef imports between December 2003 and September 2011, also said it had not changed its policy on U.S. beef in response to the latest news.

It has also been a difficult period in the domestic market, with firms still reeling from fallout over a ground beef filler that critics called "pink slime", which was pulled from grocery store shelves and forced one producer to idle several factories and another to file for bankruptcy.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Sergei Supinsky / AFP - Getty Images

Yulia Tymoshenko is in jail convicted of abuse of office.

KHARKIV, Ukraine -- Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has gone on hunger strike in prison after guards dragged her off her bed and punched her in the stomach, her lawyer said on Tuesday.

Prison authorities deny the accusations.

Tymoshenko, the main opponent of President Viktor Yanukovich, is in jail convicted of abuse of office. She said the beating took place while she was being moved to a state-run hospital last Friday after complaining of back pain. 

"They approached my bed, put a sheet over me and started dragging me off the bed, using brute physical force. In pain and desperate, I started defending myself the way I could and received a strong fist punch in the abdomen," Tymoshenko said in a statement read to reporters by her lawyer, Serhiy Vlasenko.

The 51-year-old was convicted last year in a case that strained relations between Ukraine and the West, which saw it as politically motivated.

PhotoBlog: Ukraine court jails former PM Yulia Tymoshenko for 7 years

In the statement, she said she had been attacked by three prison guards: "They twisted my arms, lifted me up and dragged me outside wrapped in a blanket. I thought those were the last minutes of my life."

The prison administration denied using any force against Tymoshenko, the Interfax news agency reported.

A state prosecutor denied allegations of beating but said Tymoshenko's move last week had indeed been forced.

"She packed up and got dressed and then lay on her bed and said 'I am not going anywhere'," Interfax quoted regional prosecutor Henady Tyurin as saying.

Reuters

Yulia Tymoshenko waves from a stretcher as she is being carried to an ambulance on Sunday.

"The law ... allows the prison service to use physical force: (guards) lifted her, carried her to the car and took her to the hospital."

Tymoshenko returned to her prison in the city of Kharkiv on Sunday after she refused to be examined.

The opposition leader has been on a hunger strike since Friday to draw international attention to the situation in Ukraine, Vlasenko said.

Facing new trial
Tymoshenko was sentenced to seven years in prison in October, convicted of abusing her power as prime minister in brokering a 2009 gas deal with Russia.

Yanukovich's government says the deal ran against national interests and has saddled Ukraine with an exorbitant price for vital energy supplies.

Tymoshenko is now standing a new trial, charged with tax evasion and attempted embezzlement, and faces up to 12 years in prison if found guilty.

She refused to attend the opening hearing this month citing poor health. The next session is scheduled for April 28.

Tymoshenko has denied any wrongdoing in both cases, dismissing them as part of a campaign of repression by Yanukovich's government.

Russia expressed concern over "media reports about the worsening health" of Tymoshenko. A Foreign Ministry statement urged Ukrainian authorities to ensure her legal rights are protected and to display "humanity".

The European Union has warned Ukraine that its members will not ratify key bilateral agreements on political association and free trade while Tymoshenko remains in prison.

Tymoshenko was one of the leaders of the 2004 Orange Revolution which derailed Yanukovich's first bid for the presidency. She went on to serve twice as prime minister and lost the 2010 presidential vote to Yanukovich in a close race.

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ISPR via EPA

A picture released by the Pakistani military shows the test-launch of a Shaheen-1A ballistic missile from an undisclosed location on Wednesday.

Pakistan successfully test-fired a nuclear-capable ballistic missile on Wednesday, the military said, less than a week after rival India tested a missile capable of delivering nuclear warheads as far as Beijing and Eastern Europe.

Pakistan's Shaheen-1A is an intermediate range ballistic missile, capable of reaching targets in India. A defense official told NBC News that it had a range of about 1500 km (932 miles).

The missile's impact point was in the Indian Ocean. The defense official told NBC News that it had "hit a target in the sea."

The New York Times reported on Thursday that India’s launch of its own Agni 5 ballistic missile, capable of reaching Beijing and Shanghai, gained it entry to the small club of nations with long-range nuclear capability, including China, Britain, France, Russia, Israel and the United States.

Slideshow: Pakistan: A nation in turmoil

Mohammad Sajjad / AP

Images of daily life, political pursuits, religious rites and deadly violence.

Launch slideshow

It said the successful test of the weapon – dubbed the "China Killer" by India’s media -- marked the latest escalation of an arms race in Asia, where the assertiveness and rising military power of China has rattled the region and prompted a forceful response from the Obama administration.

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India and Pakistan have fought three full-scale wars since they were carved out of British India as independent nations in 1947.

They conduct missile tests regularly and inform each other in advance.

Pakistan conducted nuclear tests in May 1998, shortly after India conducted similar tests. U.S. intelligence estimates last year put the number of nuclear weapons deployed by Pakistan at 90 to 110.

Analysts say the strategic U.S. ally's nuclear arsenal is the fastest-growing in the world. Pakistan, like neighboring India, is not a signatory to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT).

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News website dawn.com said Pakistan’s arsenal includes short, medium and long range missiles named after Muslim conquerors.

It said President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani congratulated the scientists working on the program over the success of the missile test.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Andy Rain / EPA

The last time Britain suffered a double-dip recession was in 1975.

LONDON - Britain's economy slid into its second recession since the financial crisis after official data unexpectedly showed a fall in output in the first three months of 2012, piling pressure on Prime Minister David Cameron's embattled coalition government.

The Office for National Statistics said Britain's gross domestic product fell 0.2 percent in the first quarter of 2012 after contracting by 0.3 percent at the end of 2011, confounding forecasts for 0.1 percent growth.

The last time Britain suffered a double-dip recession was in 1975.

Most economists had expected Britain's $2.4 trillion economy to eke out modest growth in the early 2012, but these forecasts were upset by the biggest fall in construction output in three years coupled with anemic service sector growth and a fall in industrial output.

Wednesday's figures will be a deep blow for Britain's Conservative / Liberal Democrat coalition, which has slid in opinion polls since a poorly received annual budget statement in March and risks embarrassment at local elections on May 3. The government is also under pressure over revelations about its close relationship with media tycoon Rupert Murdoch.

The government desperately needs growth to achieve its overriding goal of eliminating Britain's large budget deficit over the next five years.

Britain's economy contracted by 7.1 percent during its 2008-2009 recession and recovery since has been slow, with headwinds from the eurozone debt crisis, government spending cuts, high inflation and a damaged banking sector.

The Bank of England has warned that there is a risk of another contraction in the second quarter of 2012, due to an extra public holiday. But unlike during the previous two quarters, it does not appear keen to provide further monetary stimulus through quantitative easing asset purchases, due to above-target inflation which looks stickier than before.

Consumers confident but wary about the economy

The BoE, and a number of private-sector economists, had argued before Wednesday that the underlying health of Britain's economy was stronger than ONS data suggested, due to relatively upbeat private-sector surveys and a fall in unemployment.

The ONS's preliminary estimates of GDP are the first released in the European Union, and are based partly on estimated data. On average, they are revised by 0.1 percentage points up or down by the time a second revision is published two months later, but bigger moves are not uncommon.