ASUNCION, Paraguay - Ousted Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo branded the country's new government illegitimate on Sunday and called for democracy to be restored as neighboring countries intensified criticism of his sudden impeachment.

Lugo, a leftist former Roman Catholic bishop, said his removal from office was "a parliamentary coup against the will of the people" and said he would back any peaceful effort to restore democracy in the South American nation.

Congress voted overwhelmingly on Friday to remove Lugo from office, saying he had failed in his duty to maintain social order following a bloody land eviction.

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Under the Paraguayan constitution, the impeached president was replaced by Vice President Federico Franco, a vocal critic of Lugo for much of his presidency.

Franco's newly appointed foreign minister urged Lugo to help quell the regional tensions, saying it was his "duty as a Paraguayan citizen and former president."

Paraguay under pressure from neighbors after Lugo is ousted

But Lugo refused to help his successor.

"We support any kind of peaceful effort aimed at restoring institutional order that was interrupted by Parliament," he told reporters.

"This is a fake government. You can't collaborate with a government that doesn't have legitimacy," he said, adding that he would attend a summit of the regional trade bloc Mercosur later this week to explain the situation.

Argentina, which currently holds Mercosur's rotating presidency, said Franco's government would not be allowed to attend the meeting.

'A pariah'
In a region scarred by military coups and political upheaval in the 1970s and 1980s, the rapid nature of Lugo's impeachment by an opposition-controlled Congress has drawn strong criticism -- especially from fellow leftists.

A senior Brazilian official said Paraguay would likely be suspended from the regional UNASUR grouping and from Mercosur, which also includes Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay.

"The point is to make this new government a pariah," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Regional powerhouse Brazil has recalled its top diplomat for consultations and the ambassador is unlikely to return while Franco remains in the presidency, the official added.

Oil shipments halted
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Lugo's removal as president was illegal, halted oil shipments to Paraguay and withdrew his ambassador from the country. Argentina's Cristina Fernandez pulled top envoy out on Saturday.

"We don't recognize this government. I've ordered the amassador in Asuncion to pack his things and leave," Chavez said in a speech. "We're going to stop sending oil too."

Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA supplies about a quarter of Paraguay's oil needs under a deal that lets countries buy crude on soft financing terms and even pay in farm goods.

Chavez compared Lugo's removal to the 2009 coup that removed Manuel Zelaya in Honduras.

Nations including Canada, Spain and Germany recognized the new government after Lugo said on Friday he would accept the congressional vote to remove him. Others, including Chile and Colombia on Sunday, have summoned ambassadors for a briefing.

Lugo has suggested that national and international clamor could lead Paraguayan lawmakers to reverse his impeachment.

Despite the chorus of international criticism, Paraguay's low-key riverside capital was calm on Sunday. Fewer police were patrolling the streets than in recent days and restaurants and businesses were open as usual.

"Lugo was useless but what happened in Congress was a joke -- it was like pigs talking about hygiene," said Benjamin Aguayo, 18, in downtown Asuncion.

A small group of Lugo supporters gathered outside the state TV studios to demonstrate in favor of his return to office.

Lugo's impeachment was sparked by clashes that killed six police and 11 peasant farmers during a recent land eviction. He was one year away from completing his five-year term.

Paternity scandals
Paraguay is one of the poorest countries in South America and Lugo, 61, vowed to improve the quality of life of low-income families when his election ended six decades of rule by the conservative Colorado party.

But he struggled to push reforms, including land redistribution to poor peasant farmers, through Congress. A cancer scare and several paternity scandals dating back to his time as a bishop added to his difficulties.

When his allies from the Liberal Party withdrew support for him on Thursday, they cleared the way for the impeachment trial.

In contrast to Lugo, Franco has solid backing among ranchers and farmers in the world's No. 4 soybean exporter.

"The agricultural industry is going to be a priority, no question about it, because it's vital for Paraguay," said Liberal lawmaker Gustavo Cardozo.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Lonesome George, the giant tortoise who became the face of the Galapagos Islands conservation effort, was found dead in his corral Sunday morning, according to a statement by the Galapagos National Park Service. He was believed to be more than 100 years old and weighed 200 pounds.

He is the last known Pinta Island giant tortoise, and his death likely marks the complete extinction of his subspecies.

Fausto Llerena, Lonesome George’s longtime caretaker, discovered the tortoise stretched out, leaning toward his watering hole. The cause of death remains undetermined and the tortoise’s body is being held in a cold chamber to avoid decomposition before officials conduct a necropsy, the park said.

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For years, Lonesome George’s minders tried to encourage him to procreate, even offering $10,000 for a pure Pinta Island tortoise. The reward went unclaimed, and park conservationists brought in four female tortoises of similar species, but their eggs proved infertile.

Sveva Grigioni, a 26-year-old Swiss zoology graduate student, nobly contributed to the effort by attempting to manually stimulate George, according to “Lonesome George: The Life and Loves of a Conservation Icon,” a book by Henry Nicholls about the famous tortoise.

Grigioni’s work wasn’t completely for naught, as George started showing interest in the females in his corral.

“He started to try copulation but it was like he didn’t really know how,” Grigioni told Nicholls, according to a book review in the Guardian of London.

The giant tortoise is native to several of the Galapagos Islands, a volcanic archipelago west of the Ecuadoran mainland. Lonesome George was the last known individual of the Pinta Island tortoise subspecies (Chelonoidis nigra abingdoni).

A scientist studying snails spotted the tortoise later known as Lonesome on Pinta Island in 1971. The tortoise was brought to the Darwin research station the following year.

He was named Lonesome George (or Solitario Jorge) for George Gobel, the television star who played, according to a 2007 in The New York Times, the role of a “hapless, hen-pecked husband."

Some 20,000 giant tortoises of different subspecies still live on the Galapagos, according to Reuters.

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TRIPOLI - Tunisia has extradited former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's prime minister to Libya, a Libyan security official said on Sunday, making him the first senior official to be sent back for trial under the country's transitional leadership. 

Defense ministry official Mohammed al-Ahwal told Reuters that a helicopter transferred Al Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi to Tripoli on Sunday. 

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"Mahmoudi is now in Tripoli and we are holding him in a prison," Ahwal said. 

Mahmoudi served as the Libyan dictator's prime minister from 2006 until he fled to neighboring Tunisia around the time that rebel fighters took the capital Tripoli in August. 

Libya begins battle to seize $20 billion in Gadhafi assets - starting with London mansion

His extradition could establish a precedent for other countries who have given refuge to or arrested members of Gadhafi's old entourage. 

Tripoli considers it a matter of national pride and a measure of the country's transformation that trials of people like Mahmoudi and Gadhafi's imprisoned son Saif al-Islam be held in Libya. 

But human rights groups question whether its justice system can meet the standards of international law and say he should be handed over to the ICC instead. 

A Tunisian court ruled as far back as November that Mahmoudi should be extradited. But Tunisian President Moncef al-Marzouki later said the handover would not happen until the situation in Libya had stabilized and Mahmoudi could be guaranteed a fair trial after Gadhafi himself was killed by rebels and his rotting corpse left on display. 

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Turkey on Sunday called for an extraordinary meeting of NATO  after one of its planes was shot down by Syria in international airspace – an incident condemned by Britain as “outrageous.”

Turkey insisted the plane had mistakenly strayed into Syrian territory andwas not on a spying mission. It filed an official protest note to Damascus.

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State-run TRT television reported that Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu had called the meeting for Tuesday over article 4 of the NATO charter concerning Friday's incident.

The article says member countries "will consult together whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the parties is threatened."

The wreckage of the plane was discovered in the Mediterranean on Sunday at a depth of 3,281 feet, TRT reported. The pilots still have not been accounted for.

NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said the North Atlantic Council, the principal political decision-making body within the military alliance, would meet in Brussels on Tuesday to discuss the incident.

"Turkey has requested consultations under Article 4 of Nato’s founding Washington Treaty,” she told Reuters.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned the jet downing as "brazen and unacceptable" and vowed close U.S. cooperation with Turkey to promote a political transition in Syria.

Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague said Sunday that he was "gravely concerned by the Syrian regime's action in shooting down" the plane, and said Davutoglu had told him no warning was given.

Turkey: Syria's downing of military jet cannot be ignored

"This outrageous act underlines how far beyond accepted behavior the Syrian regime has put itself and I condemn it wholeheartedly," Hague said in a statement. "The Assad regime should not make the mistake of believing that it can act with impunity. It will be held to account for its behavior. The UK stands ready to pursue robust action at the United Nations Security Council."

Hague met last week with U.N and Arab League special envoy Kofi Annan for talks on plans for an international summit, while British officials discussed the issue in Geneva on Saturday with members of Annan's team.

"This deplorable incident underlines the urgent need to find a solution to the current crisis in Syria in order to bring an end to the violence and to achieve a genuine political transition," Hague said.

Davutoglu said earlier Sunday that the jet was downed in "international airspace" after it mistakenly strayed into Syria, but the plane was not on a spying mission. He said the plane had entered Syria on Friday, but quickly left when warned by Turkey.

The plane had no "covert mission related to Syria," Davutoglu said, adding that it was purely on a training flight to test Turkey's radar capabilities.

Davutoglu said the plane was shot down one mile inside the airspace several minutes after it left Syria.

Syria on Saturday insisted the shooting was "not an attack," and that the plane had violated its airspace.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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Updated at 4:05 p.m. ET: CAIRO -  Mohammed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood-backed candidate, was declared Egypt’s first Islamist president on Sunday with 51.7 percent of last weekend's run-off vote, defeating Ahmed Shafiq, who had been tapped as prime minister by former President Hosni Mubarak.

In an address to Egyptians late Sunday night, Morsi reiterated his platform of unifying all Egyptians. Of those who died while protesting more than a year ago, he said, "Their blood will not go in vain."

Morsi becomes Egypt’s fifth president, following Mubarak, who was president for nearly 30 years before mass protests across the country forced him to resign in February 2011.

The announcement by the state election committee Sunday touched off a jubilant celebration in Cairo's Tahrir Square, where tens of thousands of Brotherhood supporters had gathered in 97-degree heat. The crowd waved national flags and chanted "Allahu Akbar!" or "God is great!"

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Morsi will be sworn in on July 1, according to the election timetable.

His victory followed speculation about backroom deals and suspected interference by the ruling military council in determining the outcome in favor of Shafiq, Mubarak’s prime minister.

In his speech Sunday night, Morsi said that contrary to popular belief, he was grateful to the police, whom he called his "brothers and children." He said he would rely on them to maintain "security from the inside."

Morsi, who received an engineering degree from the University of Southern California in the early 1980s according to media reports, was a last-minute candidate, chosen to represent the Brotherhood after their preferred choice was disqualified.

On the campaign trail, he promised to institute Islamic law. One of his supporters, cleric Safwat el-Hegazy, issued a direct challenge to Israel, calling for a Muslim super-state across the Middle East with Jerusalem as its capital.

Morsi, 60, distanced himself from the cleric’s comments, but they trailed him on the campaign despite his assertion that he will respect international treaties, including the 1979 peace accord, on which much U.S. aid depends. He said he will not, however, meet with Israeli officials, according to the BBC.

He has also pledged to form an inclusive government to appeal to the many Egyptians, including a large Christian minority worried about potential religious rule. He has repeated that he would maintain his independence from the Brotherhood and not turn Egypt into a theocracy.

Morsi won the first round ballot in May with less than a quarter of the vote.

There were some isolated scuffles in parts of Cairo between rival groups on Sunday. Several hundred Shafiq supporters in the middle-class suburb of Nasr City chanted "Save Egypt! The Brotherhood will destroy it!'' while soldiers tried to keep traffic moving.

The military council will retain control of the biggest army in the Middle East, whose closest ally is the United States. 

Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, who heads the military council that has ruled Egypt for more than 16 months, congratulated the Muslim Brotherhood's candidate after his presidential election win was confirmed, state television reported. The report, made in a brief headline, did not give further details.

Morsi "will likely face foot-dragging and perhaps outright attempts to undermine his initiatives from key institutions," Elijah Zarwan, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said in Cairo. "Faced with such resistance, frustration may tempt him fall into the trap of attempting to throw his new weight around. This would be a mistake. His challenge is to lead a bitterly divided, fearful, and angry population toward a peaceful democratic outcome, without becoming a reviled scapegoat for continued military rule."

Egypt's ruling armed forces were on alert on Sunday as fears of violence mounted in the final hours before the state election committee named the winner.

Sunday's result -- 500 days after the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak -- is historic for the Middle East, but will not end power struggles between the army, Islamists and others over Egypt's future.

The generals, who oversaw Mubarak's departure, have repeatedly said, both to Egyptians and to their close U.S. ally, that they will return to barracks and hand over to civilian rule. But they present themselves as guardians of Egypt's security and long-term interests and moved to block the Islamists from taking more than a share of power.

The military has held power in Egypt for nearly 60 years since the revolution to overthrow a dynasty.

Iran's Foreign Ministry congratulated Egyptians on Sunday for Morsi's victory, saying Egypt was in the final stages of an "Islamic Awakening."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office released a statement saying he "appreciates the democratic process in Egypt and respects its outcome."

"Israel expects continue cooperation with the Egyptian administration on the basis of the peace accord between the two countries, which is in the interest of the two peoples and contributes to regional stability,'' the statement said.

The son of a peasant farmer, Morsi has spoken of a simple childhood in a village in the Nile Delta province of Sharqia, recalling how his mother taught him prayer and the Koran. He obtained his doctorate from the University of Southern California in 1982 after studying at Cairo University. 

Following his studies in the United States, he returned to Egypt in 1985. Two of his five children hold U.S. citizenship. 

Charlene Gubash, NBC News producer in Cairo, msnbc.com's Isolde Raftery, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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At least four people were injured when the roof of a shopping mall in Ontario, Canada, collapsed Saturday afternoon, officials said.

The roof was used for parking at the two-story Algo Centre Mall in Elliot Lake, about 335 miles northwest of Toronto. CBC News quoted a witness as saying cars had plunged through the roof.

"You can see the roof with the cars hanging inside," Joe Drazil, identified as a Zellers employee at the mall, told the CBC.

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Mayor Rick Hamilton told CBC that four people were taken to the hospital. A fire official reached by Reuters said emergency workers were still searching for possible victims.

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Mall manager Rhonda Bear told CBC News that repairs had been done to the roof over the last year, but not "any huge structural repairs" to the part that collapsed. She also told CBC that the mall owners, Toronto-based Eastwood Mall Inc., ordered a structural study a month ago that she said turned up nothing.

But the CBC said the Elliot Lake Standard newspaper has reported that the mall had had roof leaks for years.

This article includes reporting by msnbc.com staff and Reuters.

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Police arrested 89 demonstrators after more than 6,500 people converged around Tel Aviv's Habima Square on Saturday night to protest the arrest a day earlier of activist leader Daphni Leef, Israeli media reported.

About 20 demonstrators were arrested after breaking into branches of three banks, Haaretz newspaper of Tel Aviv reported. Windows at two other banks were shattered, it said.

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A large police contingent was stationed in the city center starting Friday afternoon in anticipation of the Saturday demonstration, which police said was illegal and unlicensed, Haaretz said.

Chanting "Emergency protest! Returning power to the people," demonstrators confronted police Saturday, Haaretz said.

Activists told Haaretz one protester was arrested by an undercover police officer when he entered an abandoned building that the police were using as a staging area.

The Times of Israel said Leef and 12 other protesters had been released Friday night but police planned to press charges. Earlier Friday evening, officers dragged Leef into a police vehicle and protesters surrounded it, preventing it from driving away for nearly an hour, the Times said.

Police said officers made the Friday arrests because demonstrators trying to pitch tents in an effort to revive last summer’s protest movement against rising housing and food prices assaulted and abused them, the Times reported.

“They began attacking inspectors and officers, swearing, spitting and hurling objects at them,” read the statement obtained by the Times. Police would not authorize “illegal protests that endanger the public,” it said.

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Fourteen mutilated corpses and a threatening message aimed at a drug cartel were found inside a truck in the parking lot of a supermarket in a northern Mexico city, local media reported on Saturday.

Mexico's attorney general's office could not immediately confirm the reports of the grisly discovery in Mante and police officials in the crime-ridden city were not immediately available for comment.

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Mexican media said the body parts belonged to 10 men and four women and the message was directed at the Gulf cartel.

In a separate incident on June 7, 14 dismembered bodies were discovered inside a truck in Mante, located in the south of Tamaulipas state, which borders Texas and is one of the bloodiest battlegrounds in Mexico's drug war.

More than 55,000 people have been killed in the conflict since President Felipe Calderon sent in the army to fight drug gangs shortly after he took office in December 2006.

Calderon's conservative National Action Party, or PAN, appears likely to lose power in the presidential election on July 1, due partly to rising frustration with the drug-related violence.

This week, Mexico was left red-faced after authorities admitted they had mistakenly claimed to have captured a son of the country's most-wanted man, drug lord Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman.

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BEIRUT -- A Red Crescent volunteer was shot dead on first aid duty in Syria, his organization said on Saturday, the fourth local aid worker to be killed as unrest grows increasingly bloody.

Bashar al-Youssef, 23, was shot in the head on Friday while wearing a uniform clearly marked with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent emblem, the SARC said in a statement.

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 "We are shocked by Bashar's death, it is completely unacceptable," said Abdul Rahman al-Attar, the president of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent.

Youssef had been working in Deir Ezzor, a flashpoint eastern province where civilians have been affected by heavy shelling and fierce fighting between security forces and rebels who have joined the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's rule.

The identity of Youssef's killer was not clear.

Turkey: Syria's downing of military jet cannot be ignored

Red Crescent workers have often been caught in the line of fire, and are sometimes viewed with distrust by both Assad loyalists and the opposition, who are suspicious of the group's neutrality in a conflict increasingly described as civil war. SARC workers say they have been targeted by both sides.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) stressed the importance that Syrian aid workers not be harmed in a joint statement with the SARC.

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"This comes at a time when the ICRC and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent are virtually the only organizations able to work in areas affected by the violence in Syria," said Alexandre Equey, the deputy head of the ICRC delegation in Syria.

Syrian Red Crescent workers mourning Youssef started a Facebook awareness campaign, using a picture of a smiling young man in his red aid uniform next to pictures of the three volunteers killed before him. A fifth picture of a uniformed worker was shown with a blank face and a question mark, labeled "the next martyr."

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GAZA -- Israel launched air raids on Hamas security targets in Gaza on Saturday, reportedly killing at least two Palestinians and injuring at least 21 others, including four children.

The raids were launched after militants in Gaza stepped up rocket attacks, wounding an Israeli man.

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The escalating violence threatened to unravel Wednesday's shaky Egyptian-brokered truce which had temporarily calmed violence that erupted on Monday after a raid across Egypt's Sinai border in which an Israeli man and two gunmen were killed.

The Israeli Defense Force said in a statement that it had "targeted a terrorist squad during preparations to fire a rocket at Israel from the central Gaza Strip" Friday, according to BBC News.

The BBC said that attacked killed a man called Bazel Ahmed and that a second air strike killed an 18-year-old, who the IDF said had been part of a group firing rockets.

Hamas: Boy, 6, dies
Hamas medical officials said a third Israeli air raid killed a six-year-old boy at a soccer field near the town of Khan Younis, and wounded two other people. They said a baby was wounded in a separate attack in Rafah, at the Egypt border.

An Israeli military spokeswoman, commenting on the boy's death, said: "an initial examination shows the military was not involved in this incident." She had no immediate comment on the report about the baby.

At least two killed in attack on Israel-Egypt border

The Israeli strikes were reported after the worst rocket assault in six days of fighting. One projectile slammed into the Israeli town of Sderot wounding an Israeli man in the neck just as he was trying to enter a concrete shelter.

The rocket was one of more than 50 fired into Israel, nearly 10 times the number fired on Friday, the military said. At least six other rockets were intercepted by an Israeli missile defense system.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Naked volunteers painted in red and gold on Saturday recreated American photographer Spencer Tunick's interpretation of scenes from the Richard Wagner opera "Der Ring des Nibelungen."

The art installation, in Max-Joseph Platz, Munich, Germany, was held to mark the opening of the 2012 Munich summer opera season, according to information supplied with these photographs by Luca Teuchmann, a Getty Images contributor.

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Tunick was invited to create the work by the Bavarian State Opera.

According to his website, Tunick has been documenting the "live nude figure in public" since 1992.

"Tunick's installations encompass dozens, hundreds or thousands of volunteers; and his photographs are record of these events," the website says.

"The individuals en masse, without their clothing, grouped together metamorphose into a new shape. The bodies extend into and upon the landscape, like a substance," it adds. "These grouped masses, which do no underscore sexuality, become abstractions that challenge or reconfigure one's views of nudity and privacy."

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Updated at 8:50 a.m. ET: Turkish President Abdullah Gul said on Saturday it was not possible to ignore the fact that Syria had shot down a Turkish military jet and said everything that needed to be done following the incident would be done, Turkish media reported. 

Gul said it was routine for jets travelling at high speed to cross borders for a short distance. He said an investigation into the incident would look at whether the plane was downed in Turkish airspace, media reported. 

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Gul also said Ankara had been in telephone contact with Damascus and that a search operation for the plane and missing pilots was still under way. 

"It is not possible to cover over a thing like this, whatever is necessary will be done," Gul was quoted as saying by state news agency Anatolia.

Faruk Celik, Turkey's Labor and Social Security Minister, said Turkey would retaliate "either in the diplomatic field or give other types of response." 

"Even if we assume that there was a violation of Syria's airspace — though the situation is still not clear — the Syrian response cannot be to bring down the plane," Celik told reporters. "The incident is unacceptable. Turkey cannot endure it in silence." 

 

Syria said Friday its forces had shot down a Turkish military plane that entered its air space. The plane, an unarmed F-4, went down in the Mediterranean Sea about 8 miles away from the Syrian town of Latakia, Turkey said. 

It was initially reported to be a fighter jet, but Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said Saturday it was a reconnaissance aircraft, state television TRT reported. 

The incident further escalated tensions between Syria and NATO-member Turkey. The two neighbors used to be allies before the Syrian revolt began in March 2011 but Turkey has become one of the strongest critics of the Syrian regime's brutal response to the country's uprising and is playing host to civilian and military Syrian opposition groups. 

'Necessary' action will be taken
Gul said that Turkey was still trying to establish the exact circumstances of the incident but said jets flying at high-speeds would at times violate other countries' air spaces for short periods of time. 

"These incidents are routine," Gul said. "They are incidents that are not ill-intentioned and happen because of the speeds (of the jets)." 

"Was that the case, or did (the incident) occur in our own air space, these facts will emerge," he said. "No one should have any doubt that whatever (action) is necessary will be taken." 

Gul did not elaborate on what those steps would be. But Turkey said after a border shooting incident — which killed two people inside a Turkish refugee camp in April — that it would call on its NATO allies to intervene should it feel that its security was being threatened. 

Syrian coast guards joined Turkish coast guards in their search for the jet's two missing crew members for a second day on Saturday, Turkey's private NTV reported. Some pieces of the wreckage had been found, Gul said, without elaborating. 

Late Friday, Syria's state-run news agency, SANA, said the military spotted an "unidentified aerial target" that was flying at a low altitude and at a high speed. 

"The Syrian anti-air defenses counteracted with anti-aircraft artillery, hitting it directly," SANA said. "The target turned out to be a Turkish military plane that entered Syrian airspace and was dealt with according to laws observed in such cases." 

Syria claimed the jet violated its air space over territorial waters, penetrating about 0.62 miles. It said Syria forces realized that it was a Turkish jet after firing at it. 

On Saturday, a top-selling Turkish newspaper, Hurriyet, accused Syria of "Playing with Fire" in its banner headline, while Vatan newspaper said Syria would "pay the price" for the attack.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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She was already an international symbol of the fight against oppression and a unique figurehead for democracy. But, Aung San Suu Kyi -- the woman who took on Myanmar's military rulers armed with little more than the strength of her convictions -- was this week elevated to even higher status.

The end of Suu Kyi’s European tour has officially marked her arrival as a truly global political icon. But behind the smiles and oft-witnessed stoicism that define her public persona is a story of terrible personal loss, a heart-breaking tale of personal sacrifice: Two boys who grew up without their mother and a husband who died of cancer in her absence.

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It is part of the narrative that defines Suu Kyi, 67, and made her return to Europe after 24 years away even more poignant and moving.

She is the daughter of national hero Aung San, the man who secured Burma’s independence from British rule in 1947.

He was killed when Suu Kyi was just 2 years old. His death and legacy laid the foundations of her incredible future commitment to her country.

In her early 20s, she studied at Oxford University in England, where she met and fell in love with Michael Aris, the man who would become her husband. It was during this very happy marriage that Suu Kyi got what many have defined as “her calling.”

Suu Kyi: Nobel Prize 'made me real once again'

In March 1988 her two boys, Alexander and Kim, were sleeping upstairs in their home in Oxford while she was reading quietly with Michael when a phone call came that would change their lives and Myanmar's political history forever.

Her mother was sick and needed her.

Suu Kyi packed her bags and flew back to her homeland. On arrival, she found not just a mother who was dying but a country in the midst of great political turmoil. Within months she had buried her mother and taken the lead in the non-violent struggle against a brutal military regime that was slaughtering protesters en masse.  By July 1989, she was placed under house arrest.

In the time that followed, Suu Kyi believed she would soon return to Oxford, but the days turned into months, the months into years. In total, she spent 24 years away from her beloved England, either in detention or unable to leave for fear of not being allowed back. She saw her sons only occasionally when the regime allowed them to visit.

Author and Journalist, Peter Popham, who has met Aung San Suu Kyi twice, wrote a biography about her called “The Lady and The Peacock.”

"Neither she nor her husband imagined that it would lead to the destruction of the family," he said. “Michael is on the record as saying he expected the regime to collapse before Christmas."

But many Christmases came and went and the boys turned into men, without their mother’s presence.

Earlier: Large crowds welcome Suu Kyi as she travels Thailand during world tour

A very public reunion took place last November between her and her younger son Kim, by then 33 years old. At the airport in Rangoon she cast a delicate and lonely figure but also a mother like any other desperately awaiting the arrival of her son.

Watching the video footage of it now, it's a very moving moment. Kim turns up and they smile for the cameras; she looks up proudly at her tall, handsome son. It had been 10 years since she had last seen him and she had then never met her grandchildren.

There are many conflicting rumors about her older son, Alexander, who did not attend the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo, Norway, last weekend. Some say he has found it difficult to forgive his mother's absence.

In an ITN interview Tuesday, Suu Kyi had a pragmatic response: “We have never spoken of forgiveness as such,” she said, “but we also have to remember that although my sons may not have had me near them, their position was so much better than that of many young people in Burma.”

But what about her? Was she a mother who made a painful sacrifice for her country?

'Stubborn streak'
Popham said that she did not view this as sacrifice but more as a choice with the agreement of her sons and husband. 

"Many people wonder why she has been unable to express her feelings for the loss of her family,” he said, “and they think that maybe this is because she is rather a cold person to whom the family doesn’t mean much, but this is a serious misunderstanding.”

Her “stubborn streak” -- a personal trait she referred to when in London this week -- may have had a big role to play, as may have a certain lightness of being. She keeps a poker face, notable during her trip this week, but it is also interjected with moments of mischief.

All her speeches have been peppered with irreverent references and she was often caught grinning broadly; a sense of humor never seems far away.

Bono, of the band U2, a long-time supporter, told me that she combines charisma with a unique determination.

“She is still inside herself,” he said, “And steely; there is a toughness as well as a tenderness.”

Her Buddhist meditation practice is said to have helped her during her longest and darkest moments, as has her own childhood marked with control, resolve and poise. These were coping mechanisms that got her through the last two decades.

Popham said she was always careful not to reveal what she really thought.

“She was an extremely devoted mother and housewife and the separation for years was certainly something that was never envisaged.” He continued, “She’s never spoken about it, spoken about the pain that she undoubtedly endured because to do so would be a way of telling the military regime your strategy is working. I am suffering.”

When asked this week about the family she left behind, she was as direct and confident in her answer as ever.

"I don't feel good about it,” she said, “but on the other hand I think that in the end one decides what one's priorities are, and one lives with one's decisions."

She’s had a quarter of a century to make peace with those decisions. Her return to the U.K. must have been overwhelmingly bittersweet.

But, long accustomed to being a woman who keeps her feelings private, in Dublin she told me simply that her trip had been “absolutely stupendous.”

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Saudi Arabian officials will pay the salaries of the Free Syria Army in order to encourage mass military defections and increase pressure on the regime of President Bashar al-Assad's, the Guardian of London newspaper reported Friday.

The move has been discussed by Riyadh with senior U.S. and Arab world officials, the Guardian said.

The Guardian did not specify sources for its report. However, it said, Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., an active supporter of the Syrian opposition, recently endorsed the idea of ensuring pay for armed Syrian opposition, though not necessarily with U.S funds.

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The plan is gaining support as weapons sent recently to rebel forces by Saudi Arabia and Qatar make a difference on battlefields in Syria.

Saudi officials embraced the pay idea when it suggested by Arab officials in May, sources in three Arab states told the Guardian.

At that time, weapons started to flow across the southern Turkish border to Free Syria Army leaders, the Guardian said.

PhotoBlog: Glimpses of escalating conflict in Syria

Turkey also allowed the establishment of an Istanbul command center staffed by 22 people, mostly Syrian, to coordinate supply lines in consultation with rebel army leaders inside Syria, the newspaper reported.

News of the pay plan emerged as international mediator Kofi Annan said Friday that Iran, an ally and neighbor of Syria, must be part of any solution to end the crisis in Syria and pave the way for a political transition.

The United States and Russia are in a standoff over Syria and Iran's nuclear program.

Syria air force colonel flies to Jordan, gets political asylum

Annan wants the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and governments with influence on Syria's government or the opposition to agree on recommendations for next steps at a meeting that has been penciled in for June 30 in Geneva.

Iran's involvement is opposed by the United States, Britain and France, but Annan said it should be at the table.

"We are discussing the composition and other aspects of the meeting, but I have made it quite clear that I believe Iran should be part of the solution," Annan told a news conference in Geneva.

In response to Annan's remarks, the U.S. State Department repeated its opposition to Iran taking part, saying Tehran was playing a "destructive" role in Syria.

This article includes reporting by Reuters.

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Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness, a former Irish Republican Army commander, will meet with Britain's Queen Elizabeth II next week and shake hands in an historic first for the Northern Ireland peace process, the party has confirmed.

The Northern Ireland deputy first minister will attend a cross border event in Belfast on Wednesday, which the president of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, will also attend.

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Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams said the decision had been taken after consulting with grass roots support and allowing the party's ruling council, the ard comhairle, to decide at a 4-hour meeting in Dublin.

“This will understandably cause difficulties for some republicans and nationalists,” Adams said. “Especially for those folks who suffered at the hands of British forces.”

Adams, who, alongside McGuinness, helped end decades of sectarian violence and gave Catholics an equal voice in a power-sharing government with former Protestant foes, said, "This is a very significant initiative by us. We don't have to do it, we are doing it despite the fact that it will cause difficulties for some of our own folk but we think it's good for Ireland."

Sinn Féin stressed the meeting is not a celebration of the queen's Diamond Jubilee, although 86-year-old monarch will be in Northern Ireland at the time for jubilee events.

There has been speculation since the queen's momentous visit to Ireland in May last year that a senior Sinn Féin figure would meet her at an event.

McGuinness was always the candidate to shake the queen's hand but delicate talks have been going on for months to arrange a suitable venue and occasion.

The meeting is understood to be taking place in the Lyric Theatre in south Belfast and is sponsored by Co-operation Ireland, which works to bring divided communities together.

Since it was established in 1979, the charity has created opportunities for groups from the two main religious communities in Northern Ireland and from both sides of the border to learn about each other's traditions and cultures.

Adams said the party's decision was not unanimous but that a clear majority were in favor of the meeting. He also confirmed that McGuinness would "of course" shake hands with the queen.

The handshake will be viewed as another in a long list of dramatic advances in Anglo-Irish relations.

Watch World News videos on msnbc.com

The queen has never met a senior figure in the now-defunct IRA, which killed her cousin Lord Mountbatten in 1979, or its political wing Sinn Féin.

The IRA ended its 30-year armed campaign against British rule in 1998, but small splinter groups have continued to launch attacks against British targets, prompting security concerns that have prevented the queen from publicly announcing trips to the province ahead of her arrival.

The Tuesday and Wednesday visit was the first to be announced in advance since violence broke out in the 1960s and will see the queen and her husband, Philip, travel to Belfast and Enniskillen, scene of an IRA bombing that killed 11 people at a memorial service in 1987.

ITV is an international television partner of NBC News. This article also contains reporting by Reuters and Jim Gold, msnbc.com staff. Follow Gold on Facebook here.

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CAIRO -- Thousands of flag-waving protesters filled Cairo's Tahrir Square for Friday prayers as Egypt's presidential candidates, an Islamist and former general, accused each other of trying to steal an election whose result is still not known five days on.

The Muslim Brotherhood, whose candidate Mohammed Morsi says he has already won, called on supporters to gather at the birthplace of last year's Arab Spring revolt until the ruling military council rescinds orders that curb the new president's powers and dissolved the new, Islamist-led parliament.

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The delay in announcing the results of two days of voting which ended on Sunday also raised fears that the army may try to swing the election to Ahmed Shafiq, a former air force commander whom Mubarak made prime minister just before his fall.

A result is not expected until Saturday or Sunday, giving the country a tense weekend, although the vast majority, many not greatly enamored of either candidate in the run-off, were staying at home and passing Friday's Muslim weekend as normal.

'Classic counter revolution'
For many -- both in the organized mass Islamist movements and in the more fragmented secular, liberal opposition -- a Shafiq victory, coupled with the military council taking powers over legislation and drafting a constitution, would mean that the six decades of army rule they thought were over, will in fact go on.

"This is a classic counter revolution that will only be countered by the might of protesters," said Safwat Ismail, 43, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood who came from the Nile Delta. "I am staying in the square until the military steps down."

Mahmoud Mohammed, a bearded, 31-year-old marine engineer from Alexandria among a group from the more fundamentalist Salafist movement camping on the square, insisted they were not looking for a battle, but wanted to see democracy installed.

"The people elected a parliament and they put it in the rubbish bin. We need the army to hand over," he said, adding: "No one came here for a fight. We need democracy."

Prayer
Around him, the broad traffic interchange by the Nile in central Cairo was filled with makeshift tents offering shade from the midday sun, hawkers offering an array of goods from tea to "I Love Tahrir Square" T-shirts and a mostly devout crowd of men, many bussed in from the provinces, who knelt in prayer.

Other parts of the crowd chanted and waved Egyptian flags.

The dissolution of parliament ordered by judges appointed under Mubarak and enforced by the army; the military decree on new constitutional arrangements; and the delay in announcing the president by an electoral commission appointed under the old regime have sapped confidence in a process Egyptians hoped would lead to real reform.

Shafiq, who was Mubarak's last premier when the army forced out the dictator to appease the Tahrir protesters, challenged Morsi's self-proclaimed victory and said on Friday he was sure he had won, despite Islamist pressure on officials.

He stopped short of emulating Morsi, who claimed outright victory on the basis of the Brotherhood's own tally of results from local polling stations, but said was "confident."

At a televised address to whooping and cheering supporters, Shafiq said: "These protests in the squares, the campaigns of terror and the media manipulation are all attempts to force the election committee to announce a particular result."

In a country where virtually no one can remember an election that was not rigged before last year, trust is low, not least among Brotherhood officials, many of whom, like Morsi, were jailed under Mubarak for their political activities.

The same electoral commission that handed an improbable 90 percent of a November 2010 parliamentary vote to Mubarak's supporters - a result which fueled the protests that brought him down a few weeks later - sits in judgment on the new presidency.

Muslim Brotherhood spokesman Mahmoud Ghozlan said on Thursday the delay "generates concern, no doubt", expressing fear that the authorities were getting ready to announce Shafik the winner. "The doubt extends to this possibility."

Egyptian media have described a nation on edge.

Al-Ahram, the main establishment newspaper, noted there was intense pressure from within Egypt - and from the army's key sponsor, the United States - to sort out the situation quickly to ensure pledges of democracy were met.

It noted that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had called for an "inclusive democratic process" and said the army must not "dominate or subvert the constitutional authority."

"The interest of the nation goes before narrow interests," said reformist politician Mohamed ElBaradei, a former U.N. diplomat and Nobel peace laureate on Twitter. "What is required immediately is a mediation committee to find a political and legal exit from the crisis. Egypt is on the verge of explosion."

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Updated at 5:30 p.m. Friday ET: The office of Turkey's prime minister said early Saturday that Syria downed a Turkish F-4 air force jet over the Mediterranean. The Syrian military, in a statement circulated on state media, said the plane was flying over its waters.

Turkey will take all necessary measures “decisively” once all the details of the incident emerge, said the office of Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan after a two-hour security meeting. It did not specify what the steps would be.

Search and rescue operations forthe warplane's missing airmen were continuing, Erdogan's office said.

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Syria's military said, "Our air defenses confronted a target that penetrated our air space over our territorial waters pre-afternoon on Friday and shot it down. It turned out to be a Turkish military plane."

Of Friday, Erdogan told reporters at a news conference covered by NBC News he could not say whether the plane had crashed or been shot down.

"The chief of general staff has made the necessary statement about the missing plane. I am not saying it was brought down at the point it fell. It is not possible to say this without knowing the exact facts," Erdogan said.

He said he wasn't aware of any Syrian claims of responsibility for bringing down the plane or of earlier reports that Syrian authorities had apologized. 

Earlier, Lebanon's Hezbollah-owned Al-Manar television station said that Syrian air defenses shot down a Turkish military aircraft, quoting Syrian security sources. 

"Syrian security sources confirmed to a Manar correspondent in Damascus that Syrian defense forces shot down the Turkish fighter jet," a news flash on the Beirut-based station said.  

Pro-Iranian Al-Mayadeen television station, which is based in Lebanon, also quoted what it said were Turkish sources as saying a jet had been shot down by Syrian air defenses.

Turkey -- a member of NATO -- said it had lost contact with a plane while it was over the sea off the southeastern coast, and a television station said it had crashed in Syrian territorial waters. 

In a statement, Turkey's military said it lost radar and radio contact with the plane after it took off from Erhac Airport in the eastern province of Malatya. 

Two crew were aboard the F-4 at the time of the crash, the Turkish state news agency Anatolia said on its website, citing Malatya governor Ulvi Saran. 

Turkish warplanes regularly patrol along and off Turkey's southern Mediterranean coast.

Turkey has joined nations such as the U.S. in saying that Syrian President Bashar Assad should step down because of the uprising in his country. Turkey also has set up refugee camps on its border for more than 32,000 Syrians who have fled the fighting.

This article includes reporting by Reuters and The Associated Press.

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LONDON -- A British couple charged with the murders of their six children were kept in jail pending their trial as the children's mass funeral was held Friday, according to a report.

The children -- Duwayne Philpott, 13; and younger siblings Jade, 10; John, 9; Jack, 8; Jesse, 6; and Jayden, 5 -- died in an arson attack on their home in Derby, England, on May 11.

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Their parents, Mick and Mairead Philpott, broke down in tears at a press conference days after the fire; they were arrested on suspicion of murder on May 29.

Assistant Chief Constable Steve Cotterill, of Derbyshire Constabulary, said the funeral would be "an understandably difficult and emotional time and I would particularly ask that anyone attending, and the media who cover the funeral, respect the privacy of the family and mourners," according to ITV News.

Six horse-drawn hearses took the children's bodies to St. Mary's Catholic Church in Bridgegate, where Friday's service was held.

Read more stories on ITV News

The Order of Service, which was reproduced by ITV News, included tributes and photographs of each of the children:

• Duwayne was "a charming and caring young boy that was turning into a young man."
• Jade was "a beautiful princess who became a mother hen to her younger brothers … she would always carry them around on her hip."
• John was "a cheeky chappy, always lively and ready to pick a fight with all the boys… No matter how much he was in trouble he would always crack a smile and find it a joke."
• Jack was "a real pretty boy with bright blue eyes. He was cute, cuddly and content with everyything… he was the quietest sibling and he was a delight to be around."
• Jesse was "crazy, clumsy and cheerful… He was fearless, getting into scrambles with his brothers, with no care in the world."
• Jayden "being the baby of the family was looked after by his big brothers and mothered by Jade… He would go into the garden clean and come back into the house messy in minutes."

The Telegraph newspaper reported the children's parents, who are in jail awaiting trial, were not allowed to attend the funeral by the prison service.

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Thousands of London bus drivers went on strike Friday, demanding a bonus of $780 for working during next month’s Olympic games.

The public transit authority, Transport for London, said two-thirds of the capital’s 8,000 red buses were off the road on Friday due to the action.

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With just over a month to go before millions of athletes and visitors arrive for the games, union leaders have issued a string of demand for extra payments.

Underground train drivers have already secured a bonus of up to $1,326 – in addition to overtime payments – while workers in the Docklands Light Railway system near the games site have negotiated a payment of up to $1,482.

“Transport unions have the Mayor, ministers and the Games organizers over a barrel,” Tony Travers, of the London School of Economics, wrote in the Evening Standard newspaper. “No Olympics in history have been as dependent on public transport as London 2012. Indeed, a vow to get spectators to and from events by trains, Tubes and buses was a key element in the bid.”

Read more at ITV News

Mayor Boris Johnson has said those who strike will not be eligible for an Olympics bonus.

He said the strike was "extremely frustrating" and added: "I can only conclude that this strike is being driven by hardline trades union militancy and a desire to have a strike for political purposes."

In a bid to avert the strike, Johnson last week offered a deal with a collective $12.9 million but the union, Unite, is still seeking payments totaling $32.7 million.

It wants every bus driver to be paid a larger bonus, even if they don't drive routes affected by the Olympics, including anyone off sick or unavailabe to work.

Some routes were running on Friday after their private operators secured a court injunction to prevent workers joining the strike.

ITV News is the UK partner of NBC News. Alastair Jamieson, msnbc.com, contributed to this report.

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Greeks were hoping against hope that their national soccer team would triumph over mighty Germany in the Euro 2012 championship, restoring lost pride to the debt-stricken country by getting one over its economic paymaster.

Friday night's quarterfinal fixture, in the Polish port of Gdansk, pits two nations against each other whose ties have rarely been so sour, so bristling.

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Greece fans are seeking respect for their country after its humiliating economic collapse and Germany’s predominant role in lending bailout money – along with strict austerity measures. 

"It's not good that sports and politics are together, but today we have no other choice," said Greece fan Michalis Kalotrapesis, wearing a white national team shirt and training top. "We are playing for our country and for our image in Europe and all over the world." 

Germany will be cheered on at the game by Chancellor Angela Merkel, a hated figure in Greece, who for many personifies the painful bailout conditions and the euro zone's strict approach to the debt-strapped state.

Merkel loves football and loves the German team. Earlier in the tournament, she went to visit their training base. She attends high-profile matches and was once photographed with bare-chested midfielder Mesut Ozil in the changing room.

'Bye-bye Greeks'
A crunch meeting between Merkel and other European leaders in Rome on Friday was moved up to an earlier start time so that she could attend the game.

"Bye-bye Greeks, we can't rescue you today!" Germany's top-selling Bild proclaimed on its front page on Friday in the colors of the Greek flag.

"Bankrupt THEM," blared leading Greek paper Sport Day.

Even the respected Greek daily Kathimerini drummed home to Greeks that this match is against a foe popularly blamed for saddling Greece with a punitive austerity program, chronic unemployment and years of deep economic recession.

"Whoever thinks today's match is just a game is wrong," the paper wrote, vowing it was "politics (maybe even war) by other means."

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"To many Greeks, victory will represent the triumph of the weak against the wealth, might and arrogance of the powerful -- the victim would humble his executioner… If the Germans win, they'll see it as confirmation of their diligence, strategy, talent and thrift," it added.

Some German car manufacturers, like Volkswagen and Daimler, are making special arrangements that will allow their workforce on shift to watch the match.

Greece has never beaten Germany
Officials from Volkswagen told NBC News that employees will be able to leave early on Friday, but that workers will have to make up for the free time at a later point.

Greece have never beaten Germany but now would be the ideal time to do so in order to cheer up the public back home and give them hope that Greece can repeat their amazing run to the European Championship crown in 2004.

The chances are slim to say the least. The Germans, among the favorites to take the tournament title, go into the match on the back of 14 consecutive competitive victories stretching back to the 2010 World Cup.

For Germany, playing in Gdansk, which prior to World War Two was the German- and Polish-inhabited free city of Danzig, will feel like a home game.

Thirty thousand Germans are expected to travel to watch the game. Only 6,000 Greek supporters are expected. Most Poles say their hearts beat for the underdog.

Back in Athens, not everyone was drawn into the spirit.

"I couldn't care less," Said Panagiotis Pappas, 22, a chemistry student. "We're on the brink of disaster and all they care is about is football for Christ's sake." 

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Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Friday said he was ready for a life in Ecuador and said the country had been "quite supportive" of his bid for asylum.

Assange is holed up in Ecuador's embassy in London, England, where he has sought asylum in a bid to avoid extradition to Sweden where he is wanted for questioning on sexual assault charges.

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He faces arrest by British police if he leaves the embassy.

In a telephone interview with Australian Broadcasting Corpation radio from the embassy, Assange said he was concerned about being sent to the United States to face possible charges related to the WikiLeaks website, which published thousands of leaked U.S. diplomatic cables in 2010.

"The Ecuadorean people have been quite supportive. I heard (the) Ecuadorean Ambassador in Australia has been making supportive comments. They are sympathetic over a long period of time," he said.

"We hope the asylum application will be viewed favorably. Now it's is a matter of gathering extensive evidence of what is happening in the U.S. and submitting that with a formal request,” he added.

Assange said he had no indication of when Ecuador would decide on his asylum claim, and said his move was aimed at raising awareness of U.S. moves to prosecute him over the 2010 leaks.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange seeks asylum in Ecuador

He fears that if sent to Sweden, he would then be extradited to the United States where he believes he could face criminal charges punishable by death.

He said he was not running away from questioning over sexual assault allegations in Sweden, but said the Swedish prosecutors had refused to visit him in Britain or contact him by phone.

"This issue is about a very serious matter in the United States," he said, adding Swedish authorities said he would be detained on arrival in Sweden.

Assange said his case was currently before a U.S. grand jury, which would decide whether charges could be laid. He said U.S. authorities have been careful not to confirm or deny any grand jury investigation.

"There are subpoenas everywhere. We have received subpoenas, there are subpoenas in my name," he said, adding people have been detained at U.S. airports and been questioned by the FBI and asked to become informers.

Assange also hit out Australia for not taking stronger action to protect him, saying he had no consular contacts since December 2010 apart from telephone text messages.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has said Assange has received more consular support than anyone in a similar position, while Attorney-General Nicola Roxon said Australia has regularly made representations about Assange to authorities in the U.S., Sweden and Britain.

"It is an effective declaration of abandonment," Assange said.

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Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.