• 'Status quo' leader: Same-sex marriage, abortion unlikely under Pope Francis

    Slideshow: Pope Francis: His life before the papacy

    Marcos Brindicci / Reuters

    Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina was elected to lead the Catholic Church following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI. 

    Launch slideshow

    By Miranda Leitsinger, Staff Writer, NBC News

    Known as a compassionate Argentine archbishop who eschewed the trappings of his role to live amid his flock and who focused on the poor, Pope Francis will likely keep to Catholic teachings that reject abortion and same-sex marriage, experts said Wednesday.

    Francis washed the feet of 12 AIDS victims living at a hospice in 2001, an action filled with symbolism in the Roman Catholic Church since it was reminiscent of Holy Thursday and the washing of the apostles’ feet by Jesus.

    But in 2010, while Argentina was debating same-sex marriage legislation, he was quoted as calling the bill that ultimately passed “a plan to destroy God’s plan,” and said it was a “move by the father of lies to confuse and deceive the children of God.”

    He has also said gays and lesbians should not be allowed to adopt, according to Bernard Schlaeger of the Pacific School of Religion.

    “The pope will be Catholic,” Professor Christopher J. Ruddy, an expert in church theology at the Catholic University of America, said of how he expected Francis to respond to some of the controversial social issues. “He speaks and he teaches what the Catholic church teaches on these issues.”

    Nonetheless, gay and lesbian advocacy groups called on Francis to embrace LGBT people and their families.

    "For decades the Catholic hierarchy has been in need of desperate reform. In his life, Jesus condemned gays zero times. In Pope Benedict's short time in the papacy, he made a priority of condemning gay people routinely,” the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation said in a statement.

    “This, in spite of the fact, that the Catholic hierarchy had been in collusion to cover up the widespread abuse of children within its care. We hope this pope will trade in his red shoes for a pair of sandals and spend a lot less time condemning and a lot more time foot-washing," the GLAAD statement continued.

    NBC News Vatican analyst and papal biographer George Weigel says Cardinal Bergoglio was the right choice, a man whose simplicity, austerity and gentleness can put the church on the road to a new future. Not a "maintenance guy" that merely oversees the status quo, Cardinal Bergoglio is expected to teach the Church how to be missionary again.

    Michael D’Antonio, author of the upcoming book “Mortal Sins: Sex, Crime, and the Era of Catholic Scandal,” thought there may be some opening for Francis to revisit the issues of contraception and mandatory celibacy for ordained priests, but he too felt that the new Catholic leader was not going to “change course in a substantial way” on the social issues that have at times put the religion in an uncomfortable spotlight.

    “The name that he chose signals to people the most earthy, the most populist kind of Catholicism, but whether that’s going to translate into greater respect for the voice of the average Catholic has yet to be seen and I think that the symbolism may be good but I really don’t expect real change,” he said.

    “We’ve been through decades and decades of scandal and crisis, and this is a man who has been at the highest level of the church through much of it, and he has never said or done anything that indicates that he’ll take a different approach,” he added.

    Decline in morale
    Meanwhile, the church's teachings on contraception, abortion and same-sex marriage, and its refusal to allow women to be ordained as priests, are blamed by some for the decline in morale among Catholics.

    Forty-six percent of U.S. Catholics surveyed think the new pope should “move in new directions,” while 51 percent say he should “maintain traditional positions,” according to a Pew Research Center Poll conducted last month.

    Media reports after Francis was named pope talked about him riding the bus with his compatriots, rather than using the chauffeured ride he had as part of his post. He also gave up his stately residence for a simple apartment, where he cooked his own meals.

    Francis was known to be a pastor close to the people, who is traditional on matters of faith and morality, “keeping the status quo on moral issues,” said Schlaeger, associate professor of cultural and historical studies at the Pacific School. He said he didn’t expect any major moves from Francis on the social issues, though his being from Latin America and the first Jesuit priest was a “sea change” that could lead him to surprise people.

    “They think they know who they have in that he’s not going to make radical change — he could — but I think he (would) have to show probably a very new side of himself to his brother cardinals,” Schlaeger said.

    NBC News’ Becky Bratu contributed to this report.

    Related:

    Pope's to-do list: 7 challenges facing Francis as he starts his new job

    Meet the new pope: Francis is humble leader who takes bus to work

    Francis: History behind pope's chosen name

    Full Pope Francis coverage from NBC News 

  • Ireland to seek change in abortion law after woman's tragic death

    Irish Times via Reuters

    Savita Halappanavar died of septicaemia a week after miscarrying 17 weeks into her pregnancy.

    By Reuters

    Laws allowing limited access to abortion will be introduced in Ireland, the only European Union member state that bans the procedure, following the death of a woman who was refused a termination, the government said on Tuesday.

    The death last month of 31-year-old Savita Halappanavar, who was denied the abortion of her dying fetus and later died of blood poisoning, shocked the predominantly Roman Catholic country and spurred the government to act on an issue it had delayed for decades.

    Abortion was banned in all circumstances by a constitutional amendment in 1983, but when challenged by a 14-year-old rape victim in the so-called "X-case" nine years later, the Supreme Court ruled a termination was permitted when the woman's life was at risk, including from suicide.

    Successive governments sidestepped the politically divisive issue of clarifying the circumstances under which the mother's life could be judged to be at risk. Some members of the ruling Fine Gael party have indicated that they may not be able to back the new legislation.

    Tragic Savita case reignites abortion debate in Ireland

    "The drafting of legislation, supported by regulations, will be within the parameters of Article 40.3.3 of the constitution as interpreted by the Supreme Court in the X case," the government said in a statement on Tuesday.

    "The legislation should provide the clarity and certainty in relation to the process of deciding when a termination of pregnancy is permissible, that is where there is a real and substantial risk to the life, as opposed to the health, of the woman."

    The death of Halapannavar, an Indian living in Ireland, highlighted the lack of clarity in Irish law that leaves doctors in a legally risky position and re-ignited the abortion debate, leading to large protests by both pro-choice and pro-life groups outside parliament and around the country.

    Hundreds of women in Ireland are protesting, calling for legislative change after the death of Savita Halappanavar, who died after her requests for an abortion were rejected by her Irish doctors. NBC's Jim Maceda reports.

    The European Court of Human Rights said in 2010 that Ireland must clarify its law, a ruling that led to the commissioning of an experts' report that said a woman was still only lawfully entitled to an abortion when there was a real and substantial risk to her life.

    Members of Prime Minister Enda Kenny's conservative Fine Gael party, including minister for European Affairs Lucinda Creighton, have expressed particular misgivings that the inclusion of suicide in any new legislation could lead to abortion on demand.


    There was no specific reference to the risk of suicide as grounds for an abortion in the government's statement, which said further decisions would be made at a later stage relating to "policy matters that will inform the drafting of the legislation."

    Kenny has said that he expects the government to vote as one on the issue, meaning that any defectors could be expelled from his party.

    While this would be unlikely to threaten the government's large majority, it would be a blow after the junior coalition Labour Party, which has campaigned for a clarification of the country's abortion rules, expelled its fifth member in less than two years last week for voting against budget cuts.

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  • New inquiry begins into case of woman who died after she was refused abortion in Ireland

    Hundreds of women in Ireland are protesting, calling for legislative change after the death of Savita Halappanavar, who died after her requests for an abortion were rejected by her Irish doctors. NBC's Jim Maceda reports.

    By Lorraine Turner and Conor Humphries, Reuters

    DUBLIN, Ireland - Ireland has opened a new investigation into the death of a woman denied an abortion of her dying foetus, as the government scrambled to stem criticism of its handling of an incident that polarised the overwhelmingly Catholic country.


    Savita Halappanavar, a 31-year-old dentist, was admitted to hospital in severe pain on Oct. 21 and asked for a termination after doctors said her baby would not survive, according to her husband, but in a country with some of the world's most restrictive abortion laws, surgeons would not remove the foetus until its heartbeat stopped days later.

    He husband, Praveen Halappanavar believes the delay contributed to the blood poisoning that killed his wife on Oct. 28. He has said he would not cooperate with an investigation already launched by the country's health service because he did not believe it would be neutral.

    On Friday, the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) watchdog, which is government-funded but independent of the state health service, said it had also launched an investigation after receiving information from the health service and University Hospital Galway, where Halappanavar died.

    A solicitor acting on behalf of the husband said the new inquiry was unlikely to be enough to satisfy his client.

    "My client has always made his position very clear ... He wants a public inquiry. He has made it clear he wants to get to the truth of the matter, so I don't think that the framework of HIQA will suffice," Gerard O'Donnell, told RTE radio.

    AFP - Getty Images

    Savita Halappanavar is shown in a photo received from the Irish Times.

    He added that the next step would be to consider an application to the European Court of Human Rights, which criticized Ireland's abortion ban in 2010.

    Halappanavar's death has reopened a decades-long debate over whether the government should legislate to explicitly allow abortion when the life of the mother is at risk.

    Irish law does not specify exactly when the threat to the life of the mother is high enough to justify a termination, leaving doctors to decide. Critics say this means doctors' personal beliefs can play a role.

    Though the influence of the Catholic Church over Irish politics has waned since the 1980s, successive governments have been loath to legislate on an issue they fear could alienate conservative voters.

    Ireland's abortion stance is enshrined in a 1983 constitutional amendment that intended to ban abortion in all circumstances. In 1992, when challenged in the "X-case" involving a 14-year-old rape victim, the Supreme Court ruled that abortion was permitted when the woman's life was at risk, including from suicide.

    But successive governments refused to make clear the circumstances under which a threat would make an abortion legal. After several challenges, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2010 that Ireland must clarify its position.

    Prime Minister Enda Kenny, whose ruling Fine Gael party made an election pledge not to introduce new laws allowing abortion, said last week he would not be rushed into a decision on the issue.

    The government was forced into an embarrassing u-turn this week when it removed three Galway-based consultants from the health service inquiry following criticism from Praveen Halappanavar.

    The issue has raised tensions between Fine Gael and the more socially liberal Labour Party, its junior coalition partner, which has campaigned for a clarification of the country's abortion rules.

    The country's president, Michael D. Higgins, a former member of the Labour Party, weighed into the debate this week when he said an investigation was needed that satisfied the dead woman's family.

    Opposition party Sinn Fein introduced a motion to parliament on Wednesday calling for parliament to legislate on abortion, but it was rejected.

    "Successive governments over the past 20 years have failed in respect of legislation. That failure is in large measure due to fear or cowardice," said Mary Lou McDonald, vice president of Sinn Fein. 

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  • Tragic Savita case reignites abortion debate in Ireland

    Hundreds of women in Ireland are protesting, calling for legislative change after the death of Savita Halappanavar, who died after her requests for an abortion were rejected by her Irish doctors. NBC's Jim Maceda reports.

    By NBC News staff and wire reports

    Updated at 12:21 a.m. ET: A debate over abortion has flared in Ireland over the case of Savita Halappanavar, a miscarrying woman suffering from blood poisoning who was refused a quick termination of her pregnancy and died in a hospital.

    AFP - Getty Images

    This handout picture received from the Irish Times on November 14, 2012 shows Indian national Savita Halappanavar who died after being refused a termination of her pregnancy at a hospital in Galway.

    The 31-year-old's case highlights a bizarre legal trap in which pregnant women facing severe health problems in predominantly Catholic Ireland may find themselves.

    It also prompted widespread anger, including protests in Dublin outside Ireland’s parliament, the Dáil Éireann. About 400 people gathered for a candelit vigil for Halappanavar in Cork, in the south of Ireland, the Irish Times reported.

    Ireland's constitution officially bans abortion, but a 1992 Supreme Court ruling found it should be legalized for situations when the woman's life is at risk from continuing the pregnancy. Five governments since have refused to pass a law resolving the confusion, leaving Irish hospitals reluctant to terminate pregnancies except in the most obviously life-threatening circumstances.

    Opposition politicians appealed Wednesday for Prime Minister Enda Kenny's government to introduce legislation immediately to make the 1992 Supreme Court judgment part of statutory law. Barring any such bill, the only legislation defining the illegality of abortion in Ireland dates to 1861 when the entire island was part of the United Kingdom. That British law, still valid here due to Irish inaction on the matter, states it is a crime to "procure a miscarriage."

    Halappanavar, an Indian dentist living in Galway since 2008, was 17 weeks along in her pregnancy when she was admitted to the hospital.

    University Hospital Galway in western Ireland declined to say whether doctors believed Halappanavar's blood poisoning could have been reversed had she received an abortion rather than wait for the fetus to die on its own. In a statement it described its own investigation into the death, and a parallel probe by the national government's Health Service Executive, as "standard practice" whenever a pregnant woman dies in a hospital. The Galway coroner also planned a public inquest.

    Halappanavar's husband, Praveen, said doctors determined that she was miscarrying within hours of her hospitalization for severe pain on Sunday, Oct. 21. He said that over the next three days doctors refused their requests for a termination of her fetus to combat her own surging pain and fading health.


    "Savita was really in agony. She was very upset, but she accepted she was losing the baby," her husband told The Irish Times in a telephone interview from Belgaum, southwest India. "When the consultant came on the ward rounds on Monday morning, Savita asked: 'If they could not save the baby, could they induce to end the pregnancy?' The consultant said: 'As long as there is a fetal heartbeat, we can't do anything.'"

    "Again on Tuesday morning ... the consultant said it was the law, that this is a Catholic country. Savita said: "I am neither Irish nor Catholic," but they said there was nothing they could do," Praveen Halappanavar was quoted as saying.

    He said his wife vomited repeatedly and collapsed in a restroom that night, but doctors wouldn't terminate the fetus because its heart was still beating.

    The fetus died the following day and its remains were surgically removed. Within hours, Praveen Halappanavar said, his wife was placed under sedation in intensive care with systemic blood poisoning and he was never able to speak with her again. By Saturday, her heart, kidneys and liver had stopped working and she was pronounced dead early Sunday, Oct. 28.

    Praveen Halappanavar said he took his wife's remains back to India for a Hindu funeral and cremation on Nov. 3. News of the circumstances that led to her death emerged Tuesday in Galway after the Indian community canceled the city's annual Diwali festival. Savita had been one of the festival's organizers.

     At the vigil in Cork, child psychologist Mary Phelan told The Irish Times that she was furious about what had happened.

    "I couldn't find the words to describe how I felt, I was so outraged when I heard what happened to this poor woman," Phelan said. "I feel mortified in front of the world that we have stood by and allowed this happen in our country today. I think we should all be hanging our heads in shame."

    Ivana Bacik, a pro-choice advocate and law professor at Trinity College in Dublin, echoed what many others on Wednesday: "I think there's a clear indication that governments' failure to legislate over a period of years is largely responsible for the uncertainty around the law," she told the Guardian.

    Bacik was successfully prosecuted in the 1990s for “providing information” about abortions in England, according to the Guardian. She was nearly sent to jail.

    History of birth control in Ireland
    Until recently, Ireland’s social and professional worlds were hugely enmeshed with the Catholic church. In the 1980s, teachers applying for a job had to submit their priest as a reference, and it wasn’t until 1979 that condoms were legal – and then only by prescription, according to Irish Family Planning Association, the country’s leading sexual health charity.  

    It wasn’t until 1993 that condoms could be purchased in vending machines.

    Abortion has been mostly ignored in the political sphere – largely because women may leave the country for the procedure. In 2011, more than 4,000 women traveled to England; about 1,500 went to the Netherlands between 2005 and 2009. Other estimates say about 7,000 women leave the Ireland every year to terminate a pregnancy.

    But even traveling has been difficult. In 2007, a pregnant 17-year-old dubbed “Miss D” said she wanted an abortion after learning that her fetus had anencephaly, according to irishhealth.com. That meant the baby’s brain would not fully develop and that the baby would most likely die in utero or within hours or days of its birth.   

    A social worker told Miss D she couldn’t travel to England, and that police would ban her physically if necessary. Miss D sued and was ultimately able to leave the country.

    NBC's Isolde Raftery and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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  • Morocco blocks Dutch 'abortion' ship

    Paul Schemm / AP

    Moroccan women protest the scheduled arrival of a Dutch ship advocating safe and legal abortions in Smir, Morocco Thursday oct 4 2012. Their signs read "no to abortion." Moroccan authorities sealed a port where a Dutch abortion ship was set to arrive, while demonstrators protested against its arrival.

    By NBC News staff and wire services

    Morocco barred Dutch abortion rights activists Thursday from docking their campaign ship to spread awareness about safe abortion methods in a Muslim country that bans the practice.


    Women on Waves announced last week its intention to send their ship into the Moroccan port of Smir after visits to traditionally Roman Catholic countries Spain, Portugal and Ireland at the invitation of local women's groups. Such visits began 11 years ago, the BBC reported.

    The group says it intends to raise awareness about the use of pills for medical abortions and that it would carry out terminations of pregnancies aboard its own ship on international waters.

    Earlier Thursday, Marlies Schellekens, a doctor from Women on Waves, said that Smir harbour was "totally blocked by warships so no one can get in," a day after Rabat said the activists would be barred from arriving by sea.

    Rebecca Gomperts, the founder of Women on Waves, told the BBC the group planned to launch "a surprise" in response, but she did not provide further details.

    But Moroccan sources later said Women on Waves had actually sent only a yacht into Smir several days ago rather than their usual larger main campaign ship in the apparent expectation that Morocco would not let the group in anyway.

    "The yacht has now left Smir to head back home. It was a publicity stunt," an official source said.

    "The organizers took everyone for a ride ... The people (in the yacht) stayed aboard and did not complete immigration procedures that would have allowed them to enter Moroccan territory."

    Women on Waves had been invited to Morocco by local rights group Alternative Movement for Individual Freedoms (MALI).

    According to the BBC, Women on Waves wanted to publicize the fact that an abortion-inducement drug is already available to women in Morocco, but most are unaware of it.

    The group told the BBC it had also launched a hotline for women to obtain information about contraception and abortion.

    In Morocco, as in other Muslim states, abortion is illegal and punishable by up to 20 years in prison. But hundreds of illegal abortions are carried out daily in underground clinics or using herbal medicines, sometimes causing death or injury. Women on Waves told the BBC between 600 and 800 abortions take place every day in Morocco.

    Each year hundreds of Moroccan single mothers are forced to abandon or give up their babies for adoption because of the stigma linked to abortion and pre-marital pregnancy.

    "I understand that (the visit) is seen as a provocation by some religious groups. But this is about women's health. It has nothing to do with religion," Gomperts, told AFP by phone earlier this week.

    On Wednesday Interior Minister Mohand Laenser, a secular member of the government led since December by moderate Islamists, said the Women on Waves would not be allowed into Morocco. "The organizers have never contacted us to seek permission to visit Morocco," Laenser told Reuters.

    The Moroccan Association Against Clandestine Abortion said in June that legislation on abortion was out of step with social realities in the country and the number of unsafe abortions showed the need for a political commitment to legal reform.

    Organizers of an all-gay cruise in June said Moroccan officials had canceled what would have been the first visit of its kind to a Muslim country.

    Reuters contributed to this report.

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  • Blind Chinese activist Chen in US: 'Promote justice and fairness in China'

    Keith Bedford / Reuters

    Blind Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng, center, is helped by his wife, Yuan Weijing, right, after arriving in New York on Saturday.

    By NBC News

    Updated at 11:15 p.m. ET: Blind Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng arrived in the United States on Saturday after China allowed him to leave a hospital in Beijing in a move that could end a diplomatic tussle between the two countries, NBC News reported. 


    Chen's escape from house arrest in northeastern China last month and subsequent stay in the U.S. Embassy was a huge embarrassment for China and led to a diplomatic rift while U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was visiting Beijing for talks to improve ties between the world's two biggest economies.

    A United Airlines plane carrying Chen, his wife and two children, landed in at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey shortly after 6 p.m. Saturday, said NBC News' Bo Gu, who was on board the flight.

    During his flight out of China, Chen told Gu that he had to escape because his health was deteriorating quickly. He had a cast on his right leg but said he is recovering from an injury sustained during his escape.

    He said he believes China’s central government is good-willed and all the evil done to him and his family was by the Shandong authorities. He said he hopes the central government will investigate.

    Blind social activist Chen Guangcheng is starting a new life of freedom in the U.S. NBC's Michelle Franzen reports.

    Chen was promised he could return to China anytime he wants, he told Gu. He said his children were not happy to leave China, though.

    He also said he is concerned about his nephew, charged with attempted murder for injuring officials who broke into his house on the night Chen escaped.

    He expressed concern that "acts of retribution may not have abated" in his hometown. The village of Dongshigu, where Chen's mother and other relatives remain, is still under lockdown.

    Chen said after going on to New York that he was gratified the Chinese government had been dealing with his situation with "restraint and calm," Reuters reported.

    "I hope to see that they continue to open discourse and earn the respect and trust of the people," Chen, speaking through a translator, told reporters outside a New York University housing building in Manhattan's Greenwich Village neighborhood.

    "I'm very grateful for the assistance of the American Embassy and also (for) receiving a promise from the Chinese government for protection of my rights as a citizen over the long term," he said. "I believe that the promise from the central government is sincere and they are not lying to me."

    "I believe that no matter how difficult the environment nothing is impossible as long as you put your heart to it ... I hope everybody works with me to promote justice and fairness in China," he said. "Equality and justice have no boundaries."

    Chen is going to study as a fellow at the NYU School of Law, the institution said Saturday. 

    Earlier: Blind Chinese activist Chen leaves Beijing on flight to US 

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  • Blind Chinese activist Chen leaves Beijing on flight to US

    By Bo Gu and Ed Flanagan, NBC News

    Updated at 7 a.m. ET: BEIJING – Blind Chinese social activist Chen Guangcheng began the final leg of his long odyssey to freedom, leaving Beijing Saturday on a flight to the United States.

    Early Saturday morning NBC News called Chen at the Beijing hospital where he has been held since leaving the U.S. Embassy on May 2. Chen said he still didn’t know when he was leaving but remained optimistic that it would be soon.

    Moments later, NBC News made a second call to Chen, during which a group of Chinese officials were heard entering the room.

    Ed Flanagan, NBC News

    Police check in Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng's luggage at Beijing airport for a flight to the U.S.

    One of them was heard telling Chen, “wrap up, you are leaving today.”

    During a 10-minute conversation, Chen was told he would undergo some final medical check-ups and then he and his family would be taken to the airport. 

    At one point, Chen, 40, reminded the officials that the investigation into his detention in Shandong should continue after his departure. 

    After the officials left, Chen got back on the phone. He sounded excited about his imminent departure and said he had left the phone on so that NBC News could hear the conversation.

    Why did blind activist Chen Guangcheng anger Chinese authorities?

    News of Chen’s release from hospital and departure to the United States caused a stir online and foreign journalists rushed to Beijing’s Capital Airport.

    Uncredited / AP

    In this photo released by the US Embassy Beijing Press Office, blind lawyer Chen Guangcheng sits in a chair at the U.S. embassy before he left for a hospital in Beijing, May 2.

    At the airport, it was largely business as usual, with no apparent additional security around. 

    Shortly after he arrived at the airport, he appeared to be uncertain that he would actually be leaving. "I'm at the airport now. I've already left the hospital. But there are many things that are still unclear," he told Reuters, saying he had not got his passport.

    'Thousands of thoughts'
    But NBC News watched as two security officers walked up and checked in plain black suitcases, apparently the family’s luggage, and a ticket counter representative confirmed that Chen and his family had checked in on the flight.

    "Thousands of thoughts are surging to my mind," Chen told The Associated Press by phone. 

    Vice President Joe Biden talks with NBC's David Gregory about human rights activist Chen Guangcheng and its greater implications for the U.S.-China relationship.

    To his supporters and others in the activist community, Chen expressed gratitude and indicated that he hoped to return. 

    "I am requesting a leave of absence, and I hope that they will understand," he said. 

    The flight took off shortly before 6 a.m. ET. Chen is expected to travel to New York, where he has been offered a fellowship at New York University.

    His departure brings to an end a saga lasting weeks that has put a strain on US-China relations and underscored continued human rights issues in the mainland.

    Chen, a self-taught lawyer who has worked to expose forced abortions under China’s tough one-child policy in his home province of Shandong, was sentenced to four years in prison in 2006 for disrupting traffic and damaging property.

    Upon his release, he was placed under house arrest until his daring escape last month to the American embassy in Beijing.

    Chinese crackdown on dissident's family and friends

    Chen initially stated he wished to stay in China to help bring about reform, but later changed his mind and said he wished to leave for the United States.

    At a U.S. Congressional hearing on May 4, Chen pleaded for help and requested again to be brought to America.

    Chinese officials earlier this week had begun the process of preparing a passport for Chen and his family, but Chen told China Aid’s Bob Fu -- a friend of Chen’s –- that he and his family had still not received any passports from Chinese authorities.

    The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

    This is a breaking news story. Please check back for more details.

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  • Deal nears on China activist Chen as US offers college fellowship

    If negotiations are successful, Chen Guangcheng's family will come to the U.S. on a student visa where he would study at NYU. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.

    By Ian Johnston, msnbc.com

    Updated 08:31 a.m. ET: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said "progress had been made" on a deal over the future of Chen Guangcheng, telling reporters in Beijing she was encouraged by China's suggestions that the blind activist might be allowed to study abroad. 

    After she spoke, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told Reuters that Chen had been offered a fellowship from an American university, where he could be accompanied by his wife and two children.

    "The Chinese Government has indicated that it will accept Mr. Chen's applications for appropriate travel documents. The United States government expects that the Chinese government will expeditiously process his applications for these documents, and make accommodations for his current medical condition," she added.

    "The United States government would then give visa requests for him and his immediate family priority attention," Nuland said.

    AFP - Getty Images

    U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner left, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, center, and Chinese Vice-Premier Wang Qishan, right, at a closing ceremony of the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Beijing Friday.

    Clinton said efforts would continue to finalize an agreement over Chen's future, adding that the U.S. ambassador had visited the dissident in hospital.

    "We have been very clear and committed to honoring his choices and our values," Clinton said of Chen.

    Signs of a deal will provide relief to both the Obama administration -- which feared the case would overshadow the ongoing economic talks, Clinton's main purpose in China -- and the Chinese, who were reportedly keen to resolve the issue while saving face.

    Earlier, Chen told The Associated Press that friends who had tried to visit him “have been beaten,” his wife Yuan Weijing had been followed and U.S. officials had been prevented from seeing him in person.

    Carlos Barria, Reuters

    A doctor from the U.S. embassy arrives Friday at the Chaoyang Hospital, where blind activist Chen Guangcheng is staying.

    He added that he had spoken to U.S. officials by phone, but “the calls keep getting cut off after two sentences.”

    “Basically I am very worried. Okay? … It is very dangerous here,” Chen told the AP, before the line went dead.

    Chen, 40, is a legal activist from Shandong province who campaigned against forced abortions under China's "one-child" policy.

    On April 22, he escaped 19 months of house arrest, during which he and his family faced beatings and threats. Supporters then said he was in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, which he left after six days to go to the hospital on Tuesday this week after receiving assurances from the Chinese authorities.

    Chinese crackdown on dissident's family and friends

    He Peirong, an activist who helped Chen escape from house arrest and drove him to Beijing was released by police Friday. She was taken away by police last Saturday. She tweeted at about 3 a.m. ST that "I'm back, everything is ok, thank you.” She declined to comment to NBC News.

    Blind activist Chen Guangcheng: 'I want to leave China on Hillary Clinton's plane'

    Lawyer Jiang Tianyong, another of Chen’s friends, was arrested by police Thursday evening and told NBC News Friday afternoon that he had been beaten up. He lost his hearing temporarily and is undergoing a medical check-up now, accompanied by police.

    Amid the continuing concern over what will happen to Chen and his supporters, Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner met Wen in the pavilion, a ceremonial reception hall in the style of a Chinese pagoda, nestled by pine trees and a lake in the middle of Beijing.

    Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to speak out about Chen Guangcheng, the blind Chinese dissident who is seeking to travel to the United States. NBC's Ian Williams reports.

    "This round of the dialogue is highly productive. I can say we achieved rich fruit in this round and some of those are important breakthroughs,” Wen said, according to a translator.

    "What is the secret behind the sustained and the steady growth of the Strategic and Economic Dialogue [formal name for talks between the two countries]? I believe the most important thing is that we respect each other and treat each other as equals and have accommodated each other's major concerns,” he added.

    China censors 'Shawshank' as Clinton heads to Beijing amid dissident drama

    Clinton's prepared remarks for the meeting did not specifically mention Chen, but did say that the responsibilities of a "great nation" included "protecting the fundamental freedoms of all citizens at home."  

    "All governments have the responsibility of addressing their citizens' aspirations for dignity and rule of law.  These are not Western values -- they are universal rights that apply to all people in all places," she said.

    Blind activist: Chinese officials threatened my wife

    CNBC's John Harwood reports the latest developments in the case of Chinese dissident, Chen Guangcheng's dramatic plea for help in a cell phone call to Congress.

    She also talked about North Korea, Iran, Syria, and the Sudan-South Sudan conflict, describing them as "four hotspots" that "are some of the most pressing challenges we face."

    Guo Yushan – who was released by police two days ago after helping Chen get to Beijing -- said in a posting on Twitter that on Chen’s first day in the hospital “some unpleasant things happened, bringing some inconvenience and misery to him and his family, making them feel anxious and nervous.” 

    Blind dissident's case a 'hot potato' for US-China relations

    “Among all these things, he worried most about the threat from some Shandong officials to his wife Yuan Weijing,” Guo said, according to a translation. “He hopes that, under massive attention from global public opinion, the Chinese government can abide by the law and deal properly with Shandong local officials' illegal persecution on him and his family.”

    Guo said that his friend was “very grateful to the world media's attention and care, and hopes that the media can understand his current complex and delicate situation, and completely understand and respond to his expression and the corresponding emotions.”

    University of California, Irvine, economics professor Peter Navarro and Scott Paul of the Alliance for American Manufacturing discuss the latest wrinkle in US-China relations after Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng asked for asylum in America.

    “He did not want to make all his friends who helped him, and are helping him, feel embarrassed and have misunderstandings, for example, the U.S. Embassy's help in the past, he never criticized it, on the contrary, he is only grateful for it. Thank you everyone,” Guo said.

    Guo declined to comment to NBC News.

    Gu Bo, of NBC News, other NBC News staff, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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