Children were slaughtered, tortured, sexually attacked and used as human shields by pro-government Syrian forces, according to a damning United Nations report released late on Monday. 

"Children were victims of killing and maiming, arbitrary arrest, detention, torture and ill-treatment, including sexual violence, by the Syrian Armed Forces, the intelligence forces, and the Shabbiha militia," the U.N.'s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict Radhika Coomaraswamy said in a release issued along with the report. 

Shaam News Network / AFP - Getty Images

Residents of Houla ride in the back of a pick-up truck on June 5, according to Syrian opposition's Shaam News Network. In May, a massacre in Houla claimed 108 lives including those of 49 children, according to UN figures.

The shabiha are a pro-government militia that recruits largely from the Alawite community- the same Muslim sect as President Bashar Assad. Sunnis, who make up the majority of the rebels, are an estimated 74 percent of the population.

NYT: Assad's response to Syria unrest leaves his own sect divided 

In an interview with the BBC, Coomaraswamy said she had learned of "horrific" reports in Syria. She told the BBC:

"We are really quite shocked. Killing and maiming of children in cross-fire is something we come across in many conflicts but this torture of children in detention, children as young as 10, is something quite extraordinary, which we don't really see in other places."

....

"We also had testimonies and saw children who had been tortured, and who carried the torture marks with them. We also heard of children being used -- this was recounted to us by some children -- of being put on tanks and being used as human shields so that the tanks would not be fired upon."

Coomaraswamy also criticized the rebellion's main armed group for its treatment of children.

'Battle is in Damascus' as Syrian tanks fire in 12-hour exchange

"For the first time we heard of children being recruited by the Free Syrian Army mainly in medical and service orientated jobs but still on the front line," she told the BBC.

The U.N. says Syrian forces have killed more than 10,000 people in the crackdown on an uprising inspired by revolts which toppled four Arab leaders in 2011. Syrian authorities say foreign-backed militants have killed 2,600 soldiers and police. 

Activists say Syria's army and pro-Assad militia have committed two massacres in the last two weeks, in the Houla region and a farming hamlet called Mazraat al-Qubeir. Syrian authorities blamed the killings on "terrorists."

Report: Journalist says rebels tried to get him killed

The United States and other Western nations who have been critical of Assad's regime had little new to suggest to end Syria's 15-month long crisis, which has seen the United Nations Security Council deadlocked amid continued support for Assad by veto-holding Russia and China.

The use of civilians as human shields has been reported before.  On March 25, Human Rights Watch released a video purportedly showing how Syrians were forced to walk in front of armored personnel carriers: 

The international rights organization also quoted a resident of Kafr Nabl as saying:

"They took maybe 25 people, including me. There were also eight children, aged from 10 to 15, among us. They made us march in front and around the military vehicles to some houses where they were searching for wanted opposition activists. We marched for about 600 meters. They were insulting us the whole time. They arrested several people from the houses. Then they made us march back to their base, after which they released all of us, apart from the detained activists. The whole operation lasted for about two hours."

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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A 32-year legal mystery over the death of a baby in Australia's outback took a new twist on Tuesday when a coroner ruled that infant Azaria Chamberlain was stolen by a dingo, bringing closure to a case that split national opinion and attracted global headlines. 

A Northern Territory coroner told a packed courtroom Tuesday that a dingo or dingos took Azaria Chamberlain from a campground near Uluru - a haunting monolith formerly known as Ayers Rock - ABC News Australia reported.

Her parents always maintained their daughter was taken by a dingo, an Australian native wild dog. Her body was never found. 

Her mother Lindy Chamberlain served three years for murder. Her father, Michael Chamberlain, was given a suspended sentence for being an accessory. Both were exonerated  in 1987 but Azaria's official cause of death remained undetermined until now.

The case was made into a major motion picture, “A Cry in the Dark,” starring Meryl Streep as Lindy Chamberlain, in 1988.

"Obviously we are relieved and delighted to come to the end of this saga," Lindy Chamberlain, now known as Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton, told reporters outside the court.

Michael Chamberlain told reporters in the Northern Territory capital Darwin that the report gave those involved a chance to move on.

Patrina Malone / EPA

Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton, speaks with media, as her ex-husband Michael Chamberlain (right) watches on outside the Darwin's Magistrate Court in Darwin, Australia, June 12.

"This has been a terrifying battle, bitter at times, but now some healing, and a chance to put our daughter's spirit to rest," he said.

'Attacked and taken by a dingo'
Northern Territory Coroner Elizabeth Morris found evidence from the case proved a dingo or dingoes were responsible for nine-week-old Azaria's death and ruled that her death certificate should read "attacked and taken by a dingo." 

"What occurred on 17th August, 1980, was that shortly after Mrs Chamberlain placed Azaria in the tent, a dingo or dingoes entered the tent, took Azaria and carried and dragged her from the immediate area," Morris said. 

In an emotional finding, Morris then offered her condolences to the Chamberlains and one of their sons, who were in the Darwin court room. 

AAP via EPA

A handout photograph made available by the Australian news agency AAP showing the camping area, including Lindy Chamberlain's tent, where her daughter Azaria went missing, near the Uluru sandstone rock, Northern Territory, central Australia, Aug. 17, 1980.

"Please accept my sincere sympathy on the death of your special loved daughter and sister Azaria. I am so sorry for your loss," she said to the family. "Time does not remove the pain and sadness of the death of a child." 

A first inquest in 1981 supported the parents' account but, a second inquest in 1982 overturned that finding and recommended Lindy and Michael Chamberlain stand trial over Azaria's death. 

Lindy Chamberlain, then pregnant with her fourth child, was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. Michael Chamberlain was convicted of being an accessory and given a suspended sentence. 

A judicial inquiry, known as a Royal Commission, overturned the convictions in 1987, leading to Lindy Chamberlain's release. A third inquest in 1995 returned an open verdict. 

The latest inquest, however, heard new evidence of several dingo attacks on humans, including details of how a nine-year old boy died in Queensland after being attacked in 2001. 

Msnbc.com staff and Reuters contributed to this report.

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Maxim Shipenkov / EPA

Masked investigators carry confiscated documents and equipment from the apartment building in which opposition leader Alexei Navalny resides after they finished a raid of his flat in Moscow.

Russian police raided opposition leaders' homes on Monday and summoned them for questioning, disrupting plans for a protest against President Vladimir Putin and suggesting he has lost patience with unrest.

The early morning searches ahead of Tuesday's planned rally were an aggressive turn after months of opposition demonstrations, signaling a tougher approach to dissent at the start of the former KGB spy's new six-year term as president.

Several leaders were ordered to appear for questioning on Tuesday about violence at a rally on the eve of Putin's May 7 inauguration, almost certainly stopping them from attending the first big planned protest since he returned to the Kremlin.

Armed police stood guard as investigators searched the apartments of anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny, leftist leader Sergei Udaltsov, socialite and TV personality Ksenia Sobchak and other opposition figures, rifling through rooms and seizing computer drives and discs, photographs and cash.

"They practically cut out the door," Navalny, one organizer of a wave of protests sparked by allegations of fraud in a December parliamentary election won by Putin's United Russia party, said on Twitter. He tweeted that police had confiscated electronics "including discs with the children's photos."

Family members were also targeted by investigators, who searched the homes of Udaltsov's parents and Navalny's in-laws, among others, The Moscow Times reported.

After tolerating the biggest opposition protests of his 12-year rule while seeking election, Putin now looks intent on damping down unrest.

Denis Sinyakov / Reuters

Russian security forces stand guard as an opposition supporter and Anna Veduta, spokeswoman for anti-corruption blogger and opposition activist Alexei Navalny, wait outside the entrance to the apartment block where Navalny lives in Moscow.

On Friday he signed a law that increased fines, in some cases more than 100-fold, for violations of public order at gatherings including street demonstrations, ignoring warnings from his human rights council that it was unconstitutional.

The Investigative Committee, Russia's main investigation agency, said officers had seized "a large quantity of propaganda material and literature with anti-state slogans, electronic databases and computers containing information relevant to the criminal case" opened over violence at the May 6 protest.

At least 1 million euros worth of cash stuffed in dozens of envelopes were also seized in Sobchak’s apartment, The Moscow Times reported.

Investigators vowed to determine the source and purpose for the money.

“My yearly income is more than 2 million. Don't I have the right to keep it at home if I don't trust banks?” Sobchak wrote on Twitter, according to The Moscow Times.

"What we are witnessing today is in essence the year 1937," opposition activist Yevgenia Chirikova said at an emergency meeting in a cramped office to discuss the protest on Tuesday, in reference to the deadliest year of dictator Josef Stalin's repression.

Investigators said the searches were lawful, as part of a probe into a criminal case against activists accused of attacking riot police at a May 6 rally.

Tuesday's "March of Millions” is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Tyrone Siu / Reuters

Thousands of protesters hold banners as they march along a street, to protest and urge the Chinese authorities to carry out a proper investigation into the death of dissident Li Wangyang, in Hong Kong on June 10.

BEIJING – “I will not commit suicide” has become a new mantra among China’s human rights activists. 

They are responding half-mockingly and half-seriously to fears that they could be “suicided” by the Chinese government for their activism.

The movement comes in response to the suspicious death of Li Wangyang, a Chinese dissident jailed after the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protesters. Li, 61, was found dead in a hospital ward on June 6 under what his family says were suspicious circumstances, just two days after the 23rd anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown. He had served over 20 years in Chinese prison for his activism.  

Hu Jia, a high-profile HIV/AIDS activist who served three and a half years in prison for the same crime Li was jailed for, “subversion of state power,” recently tweeted about the need to counter any foul play by the government.

Tiananmen activist found dead under suspicious circumstances

“It looks like I should leave a notarized document with my lawyer, saying: ‘Citizen Hu Jia will never commit suicide at any time, because of anyone, in any situation, or for anything,’” Hu tweeted. “If you are a dissident, activist or political prisoner constantly detained by secret police, I suggest you make a declaration or notarize such a document. This country does not lack people who were “suicided.’”

Wu Gan, another outspoken dissident known by the nickname “super vulgar butcher” on China’s blogosphere, also tried to pre-empt any future suicide claims by the government for his activism. “Here’s my announcement,” he wrote on Weibo, China’s most popular Twitter-like service. “I’m healthy (apart from fatty liver disease), optimistic, and have a lot of hope in the future. I wait for the day when the sky clears up and they are brought to justice. I will absolutely never commit suicide.” 

The movement didn’t take long to reach Twitter, where a "#Iwillnotcommitsuicide” hash tag was created on June 8, just two days after Li’s mysterious death, and has been widely re-tweeted over the last three days.  

Philippe Lopez / AFP - Getty Images

People take part in a protest for the cause of late Chinese dissident Li Wangyang in Hong Kong on June 10.

Another activist, Liu Ping, from the southern province of Jiangxi, wrote on her Weibo account:  “I solemnly declare, if I’m caught (by police) I will never commit suicide!” 

Wang Lihong, a former Beijing businesswoman, jailed for eight months for her activism, expanded on the theme on her Twitter account. “I, Wang Lihong, once tried to kill myself in prison. It wasn’t because I was weak. I was only defending my dignity. But I will never do that again, no matter how you lure, ask, or even force – I will not commit suicide, unless you do it.” 

Li’s body was found in the Daxiang District Hospital in Shaoyang, Hunan Province, where he was receiving treatment for long-term ailments related to the more than 20 years he spent in prison. He had been released on May 5, 2011. 

But he may have grown too confident in his new-found freedom. On June 4, the 23rd anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown,  i-CABLE, a Hong Kong based news channel, broadcast an interview with Li in which he was extremely outspoken in his description of his torture during his time in prison.  

Two days after the interview, he was found dead in his hospital room.

According to the local government in Shaoyang, Li’s body was cremated on the morning of June 9 with his relatives’ consent. They also said an autopsy was conducted by four legal and forensic experts the day before, which was witnessed and filmed by local congressional representatives and journalists.  

NBC News could not verify the reports with Li’s sister or her husband because their cell phones remained off on Monday.  

Petros Karadjias / AP

Greece's extreme-right Golden Dawn party spokesman Ilias Kasidiaris, in white, talks to media outside the prosecutor's office in Athens, June, 11, 2012.

A Greek far-right politician who hit a left-wing politician in the face and threw water at another during a live television talk show sued his victims for defamation on Monday.

Ilias Kasidiaris, spokesman of the far-right Golden Dawn party, said he would also sue private TV station Antenna for wrongful detention after he was locked in a room in the studio following the attack until he broke down the door and escaped.

Kasidiaris shocked viewers last week with the attack on Rena Dourou, a deputy in the radical leftist Syriza party and Liana Kanelli, a veteran communist deputy, during a heated debate ahead of national elections on June 17.

On the show, a spirited discussion spiraled out of control when Kasidiaris threw a glass of water at Dourou. Shortly afterwards, Kanelli swatted Kasidiaris with a newspaper, and he responded by punching her in the face with enough force to leave her bruised.

The 31-year-old former army commando went into hiding after the assault but issued a statement at the weekend blaming the two middle-aged women for deliberately provoking him into the attack.

"I have come to the prosecutor today to file a lawsuit against Mrs. Kanelli and Mrs. Dourou for unprovoked defamation, and against TV station Antenna for my illegal detention," Kasidiaris, dressed in a white shirt and dark sunglasses, told reporters outside the court.

By lying low, Kasidiaris avoided an arrest warrant for the attack. According to Greek law, the arrest warrant for a minor crime must be carried out by midnight on the day following the incident, BBC reported.

Golden Dawn denies being a neo-Nazi party but its image has been sullied by continuously replayed footage of the talk show incident as well as a variety of other pictures showing party members splashed with fake blood, making Nazi-style salutes or grinning next to an oven at the Nazi death camp Auschwitz.

Greek politician who attacked rivals blames them

Parties across the political spectrum condemned Kasidiaris and said his actions shed light on Golden Dawn.

"This attack is an attack against every democratic citizen,” caretaker government spokesman Dimitris Tsiodras said, according to Athens News.

The leftist Syriza party, tipped as likely to get the most votes in the coming election, said the attack showed "the real face of this criminal organization," referring to Golden Dawn.

"This young 'gentleman,' the Golden Dawn spokesman, proved today that he is a representative of a group of neo-Nazis that apart from being ultra-right are also cowards and bullies," said Fofi Gennimata, of the center-left Pasok party, according to Athens News. "We call on the people who voted for Golden Dawn to seriously rethink it."

TV show attack shows 'real face' of far-right in Greece?

Speaking at the opening of the party's offices in an Athens suburb on Sunday, Kasidiaris said he had been set up and was acting in self-defence after Kanelli threw a newspaper at him.

"I never expected that I would be hit in the face on live TV," he said. "I did what millions of Greeks would have done - when you get hit in the face you have to defend yourself."

Kasidiaris was already due to stand trial on Monday on separate charges — which he denies — of helping assailants attack an assistant university professor in 2007, but that trial was postponed until September.

Golden Dawn, which uses an ancient Greek symbol resembling the swastika as its logo, won 7 percent in the inconclusive May 6 election, promising to rid Greece of illegal immigrants and seal its borders with landmines.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Syrian forces shelled opposition strongholds in the central province of Homs and eastern Deir al-Zor on Monday and clashed with rebels in violence that killed 29 people across the country, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Activists said Syrian troops attacked a rebel-held town with helicopter gunships and shelled other restive areas across the nation. The aerial assault targeted the strategic river crossing town of Rastan, which has resisted repeated government offensives for months, the activists said. 

"The regime is now using helicopters more after its ground troops suffered major losses," said Rami Abdul-Rahman of the Britain-based anti-government group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which uses a network of sources on the ground. "Dozens of (military) vehicles have been destroyed or damaged" since the end of May, he said. 

'Battle is in Damascus' as Syrian tanks fire in 12-hour exchange

Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi recently said that rebels are now using sophisticated anti-tank missiles. Videos posted by activists over the past week have shown many destroyed tanks and armored personnel carriers. 

According to videos posted online, fireballs of orange flame and black rubble exploded in the air as waves of shells pounded residential buildings in Homs on Monday. The sounds of shells whooshed through the sky and there was occasional sporadic machine gun fire. 

The videos could not be independently verified. 

Annan: 'Gravely concerned'
Also on Monday, international envoy Kofi Annan said he was "gravely concerned" about the latest violence in the country, citing shelling of opposition areas of Homs and reports of mortar, helicopter and tank attacks near the coast. 

Reporter: Syrian rebels set us up to be shot at by Assad's army

In a statement, Annan said there was an escalation of fighting by government and opposition forces. Violence has spiked in recent weeks, with both sides ignoring a U.N.-brokered cease-fire that was supposed to go into effect on April 12 but never took hold. 

Annan demanded both sides "take all steps to ensure that civilians are not harmed." 

In Damascus, the state-run news agency SANA said authorities foiled an attempt to blow up a car rigged with 1,500 pounds of explosives in the Damascus suburb of Chebaa. Experts dismantled it Monday, SANA said. 

Syrian activists say 13,000 people have been killed in violence since the uprising began in March 2011. According to U.N. figures, soldiers and militias loyal to President Bashar Assad have killed at least 10,000 people.

Smell of death at the scene of massacre in Syrian village, UN monitors say

The bloodshed has led to broad condemnation of the regime from the international community, although Russia, Iran and China have stood by Assad. Russia and China have vetoed two Security Council resolutions that threatened sanctions against Syria. 

Russia has refused to support any move that could lead to foreign intervention in Syria, Moscow's last significant ally in the Middle East. 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is scheduled to visit Syria's ally Iran on Wednesday.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed this this report.

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Tom Stoddart / Getty Images Contributor, file

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch talks with Gordon Brown at a party in 2007 as Murdoch's wife Wendi, left, looks on.

LONDON -- Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown accused media tycoon Rupert Murdoch on Monday of misleading a government-sponsored inquiry into press ethics with incorrect testimony alleging Brown had threatened war against Murdoch's company.

"This conversation never took place. I am shocked and surprised that it should be suggested," Brown told the Leveson inquiry. "This call did not happen. The threat was not made."

"I find it shocking," Brown said. "This did not happen. There is no evidence that it happened other than Mr Murdoch's, but it didn't happen."

Murdoch had told the inquiry under oath that Brown phoned him in September 2009 after the Sun newspaper started supporting the Conservative Party. Brown vowed to wage war on Murdoch's company in revenge, he testified.

"We were talking more quietly than you or I are now -- he said, 'Well, your company has declared war on my government and we have no alternative but to make war on your company,'" Murdoch told the inquiry in April.

When pressed on how a serving prime minister could make such a threat, Murdoch told the inquiry: "I don't think he was in a very balanced state of mind."

Former top aide to UK PM David Cameron charged in perjury case

Brown, who served as prime minister from 2007 to 2010, said that Murdoch was wrong about both the date and the contents of the phone call. A spokeswoman for News Corp declined immediate comment.

Statements submitted to a media watchdog by five of Brown's advisers, and seen by Reuters, show none of the five heard Brown threaten Murdoch on the call.

Aides to Brown, including his special adviser, director of strategy and deputy chief of staff, said in statements submitted to the Press Complaints Commission last year that Brown made no such threat on the call, which took place in November not September as Murdoch had said.

"I listened to the phone call between Mr Brown and Mr. Murdoch in November 2009," Stewart Wood, special adviser to the prime minister's office, said in a statement dated October 2011 that Reuters has seen.

"At no point in the conversation was threatening language of any sort used by either Mr Brown or Mr Murdoch," Wood said.

In one of the other corroborating statement, lawmaker Michael Dugher, wrote: "At no time did Mr Brown threaten the position of News International. Both Mr. Brown and Mr. Murdoch were entirely courteous and calm."

A former British leader accusing Murdoch of misleading the inquiry under oath will further tarnish the reputation of the world's most powerful media tycoon in a country which is home to some of his biggest newspaper and broadcasting interests.

A British parliamentary committee which investigated allegations of illegal phone-hacking by Murdoch publications has already deemed the Australian-born tycoon unfit to manage a major global company.

The cross-party parliamentary committee said in May that Murdoch was ultimately responsible for the illegal phone-hacking that has corroded his global media empire and convulsed Britain's political elite.

The scandal erupted after revelations that reporters at Murdoch's News of the World tabloid routinely hacked voicemails. It has since spread to involve a range of other offenses and ensnared dozens of journalists, politicians, police officials and other public figures. 

Rupert Murdoch not 'a fit person' to run major company, UK lawmakers say

Brown also challenged a version of events given by Murdoch's lieutenant, Rebekah Brooks, about a Sun report that Brown's four-month-old son Fraser had been diagnosed with cystic fibrosis.

Brooks, a close Murdoch confidante who was charged last month with interfering with a police investigation into the phone-hacking scandal, told the inquiry the Browns had given their backing to the story.

"I have never sought to bring my children into the public domain," Brown said. He denied his consent had been given to publish the story.

"I find it sad that even now in 2012 members of the News International staff are coming to this inquiry and maintaining this fiction."

Medical records hacked?
The former prime minister has questioned whether the paper had hacked into his son's medical records to get the story. Brooks has denied this and Murdoch has said the story was broken when a father of another child tipped off the newspaper.

"A father from the hospital in a similar position had called us, told us," Murdoch said in his testimony.

'War criminal': UK ex-PM Tony Blair heckled during inquiry into Murdoch scandal

But Brown told the inquiry that the National Health Service in Fife had apologized to his family because information about his son came from NHS staff.

"There were only a few medical people who knew that our son had this condition," Brown said.

He said the NHS in Fife "now believe it highly likely that there was unauthorized information given by a medical or working member of the NHS staff that allowed the Sun through this middle man to publish this story," Brown said.

The Sun ran a story in July 2011 under the headline "Brown Wrong" which said the source of the story was a "shattered dad" who had a son with the genetic disorder and that Brown's wife, Sarah, had given the newspaper consent to run the story.

Brooks said on May 11 at the inquiry that a donation was made to the cystic fibrosis charity at the request of the man.

Reports: UK PM David Cameron leaves 8-year-old daughter in pub

But Reuters has seen a copy of a letter from the chief executive of the Cystic Fibrosis Trust, Ed Owen, saying the Trust found no record of any donation by The Sun or News International at the time of the story.

The Sun newspaper also reported that its readers had helped Cystic Fibrosis Trust double its donations in the wake of their story about Fraser. But the letter from the Cystic Fibrosis Trust showed they had seen no significant increase in donations.

Regardless of who the source was, the subject of a front-page story detailing the serious illness of a four-month baby is likely to prove unedifying and garner sympathy for Brown, who has rarely appeared in public since he left office in 2010.

'Pyjama party'
Murdoch described a relationship with Brown - whose political career effectively ended when he lost an election to incumbent Prime Minister David Cameron in 2010 - that included meals which their wives attended and conversations on topics ranging from charity to the war in Afghanistan.

Brooks told the Leveson inquiry she formed a friendship with Sarah Brown and that they had had a "pyjama party" at the prime minister's official country residence, Chequers, with Murdoch's daughter, Elisabeth, and his wife, Wendi.

But Murdoch said their relationship worsened after his media companies opposed Brown ahead of the 2010 election.

Brown told parliament in 2011 that News International was part of a "criminal-media-nexus" that had broken the law on an industrial scale.

Cameron is due to give evidence in a day-long session on Thursday.

Charlie Beckett, director of the POLIS media institute at the London School of Economics, said Cameron's judgment is likely to come under scrutiny, but warned those who expect the leader to be humbled are likely to be disappointed.

"It's difficult to see what the killer questions are. As the politicians have given evidence the inquiry's tone hasn't had that same feel of a trial, as it did when journalists were being questioned," he said.

The inquiry, which opened in September, has seen reporters and editors intensely grilled on media practices.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Two American students survived nine nights in the freezing New Zealand wilderness after rationing their supplies and warming themselves on natural hot pools.

Alec Brown and Erica Klintworth, both 21, were not found until Sunday after having braved heavy snow and sub-zero temperatures in the area for several days despite not being equipped for extreme conditions, New Zealand's Dominion Post reported.

 Search and rescue leader Sean Judd said he "didn't have a good feeling" when he heard the two students were missing, the newspaper reported. "Given the weather and the time delay, (I) was quite relieved when they turned up alive." 

Friends raised the alarm after the Wisconsin couple did not return from a trek as expected between June 4 and June 6, the newspaper added. 

Hiker beats hypothermia to survive 3 nights in desert

Brown and Klintworth rationed their food of peanut butter, rice, fruit, and nuts, took dips in hot pools, and slept in a hammock tent strung between trees, the newspaper reported. They were both in "amazingly" good spirits and condition, it added. 

Judd told the newspaper that while the couple, both students at Canterbury University, had made some good decisions, such as not crossing a rain-swollen river, their preparedness and attention to the weather forecast was not so good. In addition, the two did not leave their hiking plans with anyone before going out, which meant that rescue officials did not know where to look for them after friends raised the alarm on Saturday, he reportedly said.

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Slideshow: Hosni Mubarak

Philippe Bouchon / AFP - Getty Images

The President of Egypt for nearly 30 years, Mubarak was an advocate for peace in the Middle East and a major U.S. ally, but Egyptians eventually grew tired of his corrupt regime and he was ousted in a popular revolt in February 2011.

Launch slideshow

Egypt's deposed dictator Hosni Mubarak was in a coma on Monday, eight days after having been sent to prison to start a life sentence, NBC News reported. 

Mubarak, who is incarcerated at Torah prison hospital, had been on a respirator since Sunday and on a machine to regulate his heartbeat, his lawyer told NBC News.

Doctors had to use a defibrillator twice on 84-year-old Mubarak, according to the officials. They did not say whether Mubarak's heart had stopped or he suffered from irregular heartbeats. But they said that Mubarak has slipped in and out of consciousness three times so far on Monday. He was also reported to be slipping in and out of consciousness on Sunday.

Mubarak's two sons, one-time heir apparent Gamal and wealthy businessman Alaa, were by his side, the officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. The two sons are being held at Torah prison awaiting trial on insider trading charges.

According to Egyptian officials, Mubarak's health has deteriorated sharply since he was convicted on June of failing to prevent the killings of hundreds of protesters during the uprising that ousted him last year. They have also said he is suffering from deep depression.

He and his two sons were acquitted of corruption charges.

Mubarak's wife Suzanne and the wives of his two sons also visited the ex-president on Sunday, the state news agency reported, quashing rumors that had briefly swirled suggesting the former president had died.

In 'new Egypt,' mobs target women with impunity

Officials said that family members demanded that Mubarak be transferred to a better-equipped hospital outside the penal system. The officials said such a transfer was likely unless Mubarak's health improves.

About 200 supporters of Mubarak also protested outside Tora prison on Saturday demanding he be moved to a hospital outside prison. 
 

In his last public appearance at his sentencing on June 2, the bedridden Mubarak sat stoned-faced in the metal defendants' cage in the courtroom, his eyes hidden behind dark glasses. However, officials said that he broke into tears when he learned that he was being transferred to a prison. It took officials hours to convince Mubarak to leave the helicopter that ferried him from the courthouse to the prison.

Media reports quoted Mubarak at the time as saying the military council who took over after his ouster had deceived him. "Egypt has sold me. They want me to die here," he reportedly said.  

NBC News' Charlene Gubash, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report. 

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Menahem Kahana / AFP - Getty Images

Workers clean graffiti from the compound of Jerusalem's Yad Vashem Holocaust museum and memorial on Monday.

JERUSALEM - Vandals spray-painted anti-Zionist slogans at Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and police said on Monday they suspect radical ultra-Orthodox Jews opposed to Israel's existence were responsible.

"Hitler, thank you for the Holocaust," one slogan read.

Police told The Jerusalem Post that one of the slogans read scrawled on the wall read: "Haredi World Community".  Haredi are ultra-Orthodox extremists, some of whom regard modern-day Israel as an abomination, believing the establishment of the Jewish state must await the coming of the Messiah.

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Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said investigators were working on the assumption the vandals were "members of the extreme ultra-religious community."

Some of the graffiti, all written in Hebrew and daubed overnight on exterior walls, accused Israel's founders of secretly encouraging the slaughter of six million Jews by the Nazis during World War II to hasten the creation, in 1948, of the Jewish state.

"The Zionists wanted the Holocaust," one slogan said.

Descendants of Holocaust victims reclaim German citizenship

According to The Jerusalem Post, other slogans read: "Thanks Hitler for the wonderful Holocaust you organized for us! Only because of you we received a state," "Jews, wake up, the evil regime does not protect us, it only endangers us" and "The war of the Zionist regime is not the war of the Jewish people." 

'Burning hatred'
Avner Shalev, chairman of Yad Vashem, said he was "shocked and dazed by this callous expression of burning hatred against the Zionists and Zionism."

Israelis stand in silent remembrance of Holocaust victims

Yad Vashem, a museum and memorial, was established on a Jerusalem hilltop in 1953 and is often visited by foreign leaders who place wreaths in its stark Hall of Remembrance. 

Msnbc.com staff and Reuters contributed to this report.

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Ismail Zitouny / Reuters, file

Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, the son of onetime Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, is pictured sitting in a plane in Zintan after his capture in November.

TRIPOLI -- Representatives of the International Criminal Court arrived in Tripoli on Sunday to try to secure the release of a detained delegation visiting Moammar Gadhafi's captured son, a Libyan official said. 

The four-member delegation was being held by a militia group in the western mountain town of Zintan after one of its lawyers, Australian Melinda Taylor, was found carrying documents regarded as suspicious for Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, a Libyan lawyer and a militia member told Reuters on Saturday.

The president of the international war-crimes court demanded their immediate release. 

ICC via EPA

The ICC delegation was being held in the western mountain town of Zintan after one of its lawyers, Australian Melinda Taylor, was found carrying documents regarded as suspicious.

"An (ICC) delegation arrived [Sunday] in Tripoli. They are holding meetings with officials about this," said the Libyan official, without giving further details. 

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Seif al-Islam is at the center of a wrangle between the international court and the new government in Tripoli, both of which have drawn up plans to prosecute him for alleged war crimes. 

Under international law, a country has the first right to try suspects for crimes committed on its own soil. But the ICC indicted Seif al-Islam before the fall of his father's regime and cannot drop his case until it is convinced that Libya's new government will prosecute him for the same crimes -- and that it is capable of giving him a fair trial. 

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Reflecting Libya's wider problem of powerful local militias and a weak central government, the Zintan brigade holding Seif al-Islam said it would not heed the government's request to release the four ICC staff before questioning them. 

"They are still under investigation," a member of the brigade said. "The visiting delegation won't see them just yet." 

The ICC has previously expressed concern at the conditions under which he is being held. Human rights groups also question whether Libya's justice system can meet the standards of international law. 

A Libyan lawyer said the suspicious documents included letters from Seif al-Islam's former right-hand man Mohammed Ismail, as well as blank documents signed by the prisoner. 

Police: No foul play in drowning of former Libyan minister

The international court said the 36-year old Taylor has been working at the ICC since 2006 as counsel in the office that represents ICC indictees' interests before the appointment of a formal defense counsel. 

The ICC named the three other staff members as Helene Assaf, an ICC translator and interpreter since 2005; Esteban Peralta Losilla, the chief of the Counsel Support Section at the ICC; and Alexander Khodakov, a Russian career diplomat who is the external relations and cooperation senior adviser at the registry of the ICC. 

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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LONDON -- British Prime Minister David Cameron and his wife left their eight-year-old daughter in a countryside pub by mistake after lunch on Sunday, according to reports.

Cameron rushed back minutes later to pick her up, the tabloid Sun newspaper reported. 

Nancy had gone to the bathroom when rides were being organized to return home, the newspaper said. 

The prime minister's office said Cameron and his wife Samantha were "distraught" when they realized Nancy wasn't with them, according to the BBC.

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The Camerons had been having Sunday lunch with two other families near the prime minister's country home, according to reports. The prime minister went home in one car thinking that Nancy was with his wife and two other children in a second car, the Sun reported. 

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The child, who was looked after by staff at the 16th-century pub after her parents had left, was separated from her family for 15 minutes, the Sun reported. 

The Sun quoted a pub "insider" as saying: "You'd have thought someone would have done a headcount or something."

From May 2010: How tragedy transformed UK's Cameron

The incident, which was widely reported in the British media, could prove especially embarrassing for the Conservative leader as it came just a day before the government relaunched a so-called troubled families program. The government says 120,000 troubled families are at the root of high amounts of crime and social disorder throughout the country.

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NAIROBI, Kenya -- Kenya's former Vice President George Saitoti, who was serving as the country's security minister and was a presidential candidate in an upcoming election, was killed Sunday when a police helicopter crashed into a forest outside the capital, the government said.

Prime Minister Raila Odinga's spokesman said Odinga had been informed of the deaths of Saitoti and his deputy, Orwa Ojode.

A former long-serving vice president under the former President Daniel Arap Moi, Saitoti was also a presidential candidate in an election expected to be held by March next year.

A Reuters photographer counted three charred bodies at the scene of the crash in a forest in the Ngong area just outside of Nairobi.

Debris of the burned-out blue police helicopter were strewn in the brush where government officials and curious locals jostled to catch a glimpse.

It was not immediately clear what caused the crash.

According to messages posted on Kenya's Capital FM radio Twitter account, two bodyguards were also onboard and feared dead. They were accompanying Saitoti and Ojode to a church service, the station said.

Additionally, two pilots were onboard and feared dead, Capital FM reported, which would bring the death toll to six if confirmed.

Saitoti, an ally of President Mwai Kibaki, was the leading government voice against Somali militants al-Shabab, often visiting the scenes of grenade attacks inside Kenya and vowing the east African nation would crush the group.

Kenya's troops have been fighting al-Shabab in neighboring Somalia since last October. The militants have killed several people in a string of grenade attacks in Nairobi, the far north and the coast in retaliation to Kenya's moves against them.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Paul Hanna / Reuters

Spain's economic crisis includes protests like this one in Madrid on Friday, where people rallied against layoffs at Banesto bank.

Spain will seek financial help from its Eurozone partners but exactly how much won't be known until private audits are undertaken, the country's economy minister announced Saturday.

Earlier, European finance ministers discussed plans to offer Spain up to $125 billion (100 billion euros) in a bid to stabilize its banks -- and ease concerns over the even bigger European debt crisis. That amount was described as an upper limit, not an indication of what Spain would ask for.

After Spain's announcement, the Eurozone ministers issued a statement that they expected a formal request "shortly" and are "willing to respond favorably."

Spain earlier said it wanted to wait for two independent audits — due by June 21 — before deciding on whether to seek aid, and it was not clear if those audits were being stepped up.

Christian Science Monitor: As Europe peers into economic chasm, Africa is rising

Spain had resisted asking for a bailout since previous ones for Greece, Ireland and Portugal came with demands for tax increases and spending cuts.

Economy Minister Luis de Guindos emphasized the aid would not come with "micro-economic conditions".

U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner issued a statement praising the "concrete steps on the path to financial union" for the Eurozone.

Investors and politicians have been increasingly concerned that Spain might not be able to find the money to prop its ailing banks by itself. 

Spain warns time is short as G7 discusses eurozone crisis

A report from the International Monetary Fund estimated Spanish banks need a recapitalization injection of at least $50 billion following a stress test it performed on the country's financial sector. That report came out early Saturday, three days ahead of schedule, underscoring the urgency of the situation. 

Officials said there had been a heated debate over the IMF's role in Spain's bank rescue, which Madrid wanted kept to a minimum. It will not provide any of the money.

In the end it was agreed that the IMF would help monitor reforms in Spain's banking sector, while EU institutions would ensure Spain stuck to its broader economic commitments. 

Eurozone policymakers were eager to shore up Spain's position before June 17 elections that could push Greece closer to a Eurozone exit and unleash a wave of contagion.

Nonetheless, some analysts said financial markets might be calmed by the announcement when they reopen on Monday.

"The figure of up to 100 billion (euros) is more encouraging and pretty realistic; it's an attempt to cap the problem," said Edmund Shing, European head of equity strategy at Barclays.

"The issue, however, is there is still a lack of detail about where the money's coming from, which is crucial. The market will treat it with some caution until they see how it will be funded." 

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The Eurogroup said the funds could come from either from a temporary rescue fund, the EFSF, or the permanent mechanism, the ESM, which is due to start next month. Finland said that if money came from the EFSF, it would want collateral.

EU sources said there was a preference to channel money to Spain through the ESM, rather than the EFSF. Under the ESM, an approval rate of 90 percent or less is needed to trigger aid, and the fund also has more flexibility in how it operates.

"That's why it's so important that the ESM ... be ratified quickly," German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said.  

Spain has already spent $20 billion bailing out small regional savings banks that lent recklessly to property developers. 

Spain's biggest failed bank, Bankia, will cost $25 billion to rescue and its shareholders have been wiped out.

The race to resolve the banks' troubles comes after Fitch Ratings cut Spain's sovereign credit rating by three notches to BBB, highlighting the Spanish banking sector's exposure to bad property loans and to contagion from Greece's debt crisis. 

It said the cost to the Spanish state of recapitalizing banks stricken by the bursting of a real estate bubble, recession and mass unemployment could be between $75-$125 billion. The higher figure would be in a stress scenario equivalent to Ireland's bank crash.

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Italy could yet get dragged in too. Its industry minister, Corrado Passera, said the economic situation in Italy had improved since the end of 2011, but remained critical. "Europe was more disappointing than we had expected, it was less capable of tackling a relatively minor problem such as Greece," Passera told a conference. 

While Spain would join Greece, Ireland and Portugal in receiving a European financial rescue, officials said the aid would be focused only on its banking sector, without taking the Spanish state out of credit markets. 

That would be crucial to avoid overstraining the Eurozone's rescue funds, which would struggle to cover Spanish government borrowing needs for the next three years plus possible additional assistance for Portugal and Ireland. 

Conditions in the plan would be related to the banks and would probably not add to the austerity measures and structural economic reforms that Spain's government has already put in place, EU and German sources said. 

A "bailout lite" would help salvage Spanish pride. Spain is the world's 12th largest economy and No. 4 in the Eurozone. EU and German officials have cited national pride as a barrier to requesting a full assistance program. 

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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DAMASCUS, Syria -- Residents of Syria's capital spoke about a night of shooting and explosions in the worst violence during the uprising against President Bashar Assad. 

The nearly 12 hours of fighting in Damascus suggested a new boldness among armed rebels, who previously kept a low profile in the capital. It also showed a willingness by the regime to unleash in the capital the sort of elevated force against restive neighborhoods it has used to crush opponents elsewhere.

For the first time in the uprising, witnesses said, regime tanks opened fire in the city's streets, with shells slamming into residential buildings.

"Yesterday was a turning point in the conflict," said Maath al-Shami, an opposition activist in the capital. "There were clashes in Damascus that lasted hours. The battle is in Damascus now." 

Blasts shook the neighborhoods of Qaboun and Barzeh until about 1:30 a.m. on Saturday.

"We spent a night of fear," one resident said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. The resident said the shooting and explosions in the capital "were the worst so far." 

As tanks fired shells, troops clashed with rebels in the two neighborhoods, al-Shami said via Skype. He said at least four people were killed. 

The battles began when troops opened fire on anti-Assad protest marches and rebels responded, witnesses said. In one brazen attack, the rebels struck a power plant in Qaboun with rocket-propelled grenades, setting fire to a generator and causing blackouts. The attack left buses charred and smashed a car. A video of the aftermath taken by U.N. observers said a soldier was killed in the RPG attack. 

One resident said a large sports venue, the Abbasid stadium, had been transformed into an army barracks as the military tried to reinforce the capital, and that increasing numbers of checkpoints had been set up.

Earlier, a car bomb aimed at a bus carrying security men exploded in a Damascus suburb, killing at least two, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. 

Troops also clashed with rebels from the Free Syrian Army in Damascus' Kfar Souseh district when rebels attacked a military checkpoint. The FSA, which groups defectors from the Syrian military with protesters who have taken up weapons, had made an unusually public appearance Thursday night in Kfar Souseh, overtly joining a large opposition rally. The bolder moves were a strong sign the ragtag group is pushing to take its fight to the regime's base of power. 

At least 17 killed in Daraa, activists say
To the south, regime forces heavily shelled a district of the city of Daraa until the early hours Saturday, smashing homes, according to activists. Daraa is the city where the uprising against Assad's regime first erupted in March 2011. 

Shaam News Network / AP

This image from video purports to show a man being treated in Daraa, Syria, on Saturday

"People were taken by surprise while in their homes," Adel al-Omari, a local activist, said of the shelling, including mortar fire that hit the Mahata district. 

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 17 people were killed in the shelling. The Local Coordination Committees said 19 civilians lost their lives, include a father and two children from one family and five members of another family. 

The LCC and the Observatory also reported shelling and clashes in the central city of Homs, one of the main battlegrounds of the uprising. Both groups said troops stormed Homs' posh neighborhood of Ghouta and the Observatory said security forces are conducting raids and searching for wanted people in the area. 

Robert King / Polaris

A doctor treats six wounded children in Homs, Syria, on Friday.

U.N. releases massacre video
Also Saturday, U.N. observers in the country ostensibly to monitor the cease-fire issued the first independent video images from the scene of a reported massacre last week in a remote farming village. Activists say up to 78 people, including women and children, were shot, hacked and burned to death in Mazraat al-Qubair on Wednesday.

The video, taken in the U.N. visit a day earlier, showed blood splashed on a wall pockmarked with bullet holes and soaking a nearby mattress. A shell punched through one wall of a house. Another home was burnt on the inside with dried blood was splashed on floors.

One man wearing a red-and-white checked scarf to cover his face, pointed at a 2008 calendar adorning a wall, bearing the photo of a lightly-bearded, handsome man. "This is the martyr," the resident, sobbing. He sat on the floor, amid strewn colorful blankets, heaving with tears. It was not immediately clear if he was a resident of the village or related to the man in the photograph.

"They killed children," said another unidentified resident. "My brother, his wife and their seven children, the oldest was in the sixth grade. They burnt down his house."

After the observers' visit, U.N. spokeswoman Sausan Ghosheh said the scene held evidence of a "horrific crime" and that the team could smell the stench of burned corpses and saw body parts strewn around the now deserted village, once home to about 160 people.

She said residents' accounts of the mass killing were "conflicting," and that the team was still cross checking the names of the missing and dead with those supplied by nearby villagers.

Opposition activists and Syrian government officials blamed each other for the killings. Activists accused pro-government militiamen known as "shabiha." A government statement on the state-run news agency SANA said "an armed terrorist group" killed nine women and children before Hama authorities were called and killed the attackers.

Report: Journalist says rebels tried to get him killed

Thousands have been killed since the crisis began in March last year. The U.N.'s latest estimate is 9,000 dead, but that is from April and it has been unable to update it. Syrian activists put the toll at more than 13,000.

The latest escalations are another blow to international envoy Kofi Annan's peace plan, which aims to end the country's bloodletting. Annan brokered a cease-fire that went into effect on April 12 but has since been violated nearly every day since and never properly took hold. 

Russia on Saturday indicated it would not oppose the departure of Assad if such a move is a result of a dialogue between Syrians themselves and is not enforced through external pressure.

"If the Syrians agree between each other, we will only be happy to support such a solution," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

A journalist for Britain's Channel 4 News said Friday he was set up by Syrian rebels to come under fire from government forces as violence continues unabated in the country.

The report comes on the heels of two massacres of civilians in the last two weeks, which have added urgency to talks between foreign powers. A U.N.-backed ceasefire, supposed to have taken effect on April 12, has failed to stop the bloodshed.

Anchor and chief correspondent for Channel 4 News Alex Thomson wrote on Friday that he traveled earlier in the week to the western town of al Qusayr with U.N. officers, who were meeting with civilian and military leaders there. When their meeting dragged on and his reporting deadline approached, Thomson and his team broke off to return to Homs, aware of the risk they ran without a U.N. escort.

Read the full Channel 4 News story: Set up to be shot in Syria's no man's land?

NBC Nightly News

Channel 4's Alex Thomson.

"Suddenly four men in a black car beckon us to follow," Thomson wrote. "We are led another route. Led in fact, straight into a free-fire zone. Told by the Free Syrian Army to follow a road that was blocked off in the middle of no-man's land."

At that point they came under fire, he said.

Smell of death at the scene of massacre in Syrian village, UN monitors say

Although Thomson told msnbc.com that he could only speculate what the Free Syrian Army's reasons were for leading him into an ambush, he said that he could "see perfectly clear reasons for getting me killed," echoing what he wrote in his report.

"I'm quite clear the rebels deliberately set us up to be shot by the Syrian Army. Dead journos are bad for Damascus," he wrote.

Thomson and his team were able to escape unharmed.

"Eventually we got out ... and on the right route, back to Damascus," he wrote.

According to Thomson's account, the incident does not appear to be isolated. He received a message on Twitter on Saturday from Nawaf al Thani, an Arab League observer and human rights lawyer, who wrote: 

"@alextomo I read your piece "set up to be shot in no mans land", I can relate as I had that same experience in Al Zabadani during our tour."

Shelling in cradle of uprising
Meanwhile, 17 people, including 10 women, were killed overnight by shelling in the Syrian town of Daraa, where the uprising against President Bashar Assad erupted 15 months ago, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Saturday. 

Fighting was also reported in Homs and Damascus, killing a total of 44 civilians and 25 on Friday, the group said, showing neither side was respecting the ceasefire, the failure of which has left outside powers divided.

Syrian troops shell rebel city as full-scale assault feared, activists say

"We didn't sleep all night, the situation is a mess, all kinds of explosions and heavy weapons," a Daraa resident who called himself Adnan said via Skype.

"We could hear the blast from the rockets hitting in the neighborhood nearby. If we were afraid, you can imagine how afraid our children are." 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was due to hold a news conference later on Saturday to talk about his proposal to a hold a meeting of nations and groups with influence on Assad's government and its opponents as a way to pressure both sides.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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A second solo Pacific rower caught in a tropical storm has been rescued, according to the adventurer's website.

British ocean-rower Charlie Martell, 41, was picked up by the Russian crew of the MV Last Tycoon at around 9:18 a.m. local time Saturday (4:18 p.m. ET Friday), a message posted on Martell's website said.

Martell was in good condition and was not injured, having waited on his rowing boat, 'Blossom,' for 36 hours after issuing a mayday signal. The Japanese coast guard alerted the Last Tycoon, which altered course to rescue Martell.

In earlier reports posted on Martell's website, his support team said he was sustaining "35-foot waves and the occasional 50-footer. Yes, really."

Another British adventurer, Sarah Outen, 27, was rescued on Friday by the Japanese Coast Guard, having survived the same storm -- which she described as "merciless."

Solo Brit rower rescued after 'merciless' Pacific storm; another waits for help

Outen had been on one leg of a round-the-world journey by bicycle, rowing boat and kayak that started on April 1 last year, and was attempting to be the first woman to row from Japan to Canada.

Martell, meanwhile, was attempting to set records for the fastest crossing of the North Pacific Ocean and the first unsupported row across the Pacific.

He had been at sea since May 4 and was around 700 miles off the northeast coast of Japan when he issued the mayday signal.

In the message on Martell's website, his support team thanked the Japanese coast guard for its effort in coordinating the rescue and to Martell's supporters for their "encouraging messages."

The Last Tycoon was attempting to recover his damaged boat, his support team said.

Martell is expected to arrive in Vancouver, Canada, in about 10 days.

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