Ahmad Gharabli / AFP - Getty Images

A Palestinian activist fixes a flag near a proposed new encampment in the West Bank on Jan 20.

Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank violate Palestinian human rights and must be withdrawn, United Nations investigators said Thursday — a move described by observers as "unprecedented."

An international report by the U.N. Human Rights Council said Israel is "committing serious breaches of its obligations under the right to self-determination and under humanitarian law."

All settlers must begin to withdraw from the occupied territories, the report said. It echoed the earlier claim of Palestinians that the the practices of settlers could be considered possible war crimes by the International Criminal Court.

Israel, which did not cooperate with the investigation, dismissed the document as "biased" and said it would "only hamper efforts to find a sustainable solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict."

Tel Aviv-based Haaretz said the "unprecedented" conclusion was the U.N.’s "harshest condemnation of Israeli policy in West Bank since 1967."

About 250 settlements in the West Bank have been established since 1967 and they hold an estimated 520,000 settlers, the U.N. said.

Palestinians claim the settlements hamper Palestinian access to farm lands.

The report [PDF link], led by French judge Christine Chanet and summarized in a news release in Geneva on Thursday, said:

"Israel must, in compliance with article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, cease all settlement activities without preconditions. It must immediately initiate a process of withdrawal of all settlers from the OPT (occupied Palestinian territories).

These violations are all interrelated, forming part of an overall pattern of breaches that are characterised principally by the denial of the right to self-determination and systemic discrimination against the Palestinian people which occur on a daily basis.

Since 1967, Israeli governments have openly led, directly participated in, and had full control of the planning, construction, development, consolidation and encouragement of settlements, the report states."

Asma Jahangir, one of the authors of the report, said: "We are today calling on the government of Israel to ensure full accountability for all violations, put an end to the policy of impunity and to ensure justice for all victims."

Israel’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement refuting the findings, according to the Jerusalem Post. "The Human Rights Council has sadly distinguished itself by its systematical, one-sided and biased approach towards Israel. This latest report is yet another unfortunate reminder of such approach," the newspaper quoted the ministry as saying.

Hanan Ashrawi, a top official with the Palestinian Liberation Organization, told Reuters: "This is incredible. We are extremely heartened by this principled and candid assessment of Israeli violations...This report clearly states the Israel is not just violating the 4th Geneva Convention, but places Israel in liability to the Rome Statute under the jurisdiction of the ICC."

Related:

Israel faces European backlash over decision to expand settlements

US slams Israel's decision to expand settlements

Israeli court throws out family's lawsuit over death of US activist Rachel Corrie

Alexander F. Yuan/AP

Parents play with their children at a kid's play area in a shopping mall in Beijing on Jan. 10.

BEIJING — China has quelled speculation its controversial "one-child" policy is to be scrapped, instead announcing Wednesday that family planning laws to curb the birth rate will remain.

"The policy should be a long-term one and its primary goal is to keep a low birthrate," Wang Xia, minister in charge of the National Population and Family Planning Commission, said.

The pronouncement comes after months of speculation that the decades-old restriction would be abandoned.

In October, a Chinese government think tank urged the policy be relaxed to allow two children for every family in the country by 2015.

"I’m surprised," said Professor Shaun Breslin, associate fellow at U.K. think tank, Chatham House. "Almost everything we had heard in recent months pointed towards a relaxation of one-child."

The 1979 law prohibits about one-third of China’s 1.3 billion citizens from having a second child. The policy is officially backed up by fines, but campaigners say more than one million forced abortions are carried out every year.

It has slowed the spectacular growth of the country’s population, preventing an estimated 400 million births over three decades.

In a related statement on Wednesday, the family planning commission said China’s current low birthrate "is not stable because, with the exception of some developed cities, the fertility level in most of China's regions will rise if the basic state policy of family planning is abolished."

"Therefore it is necessary to stick to the basic state policy of family planning to stabilize the current low fertility level," it added.

Breslin said China’s looming demographic crisis — a huge elderly population supported by a relatively tiny younger generation — highlighted social problems such as the need for greater universal healthcare.

"For most Chinese people the current system works fine if you have a sore throat, but a knee operation could use up all your savings," he said. "That means many are keen to ensure they have a male child in order to ensure there is enough income in the family."

He added that Wednesday’s announcement did not mean China’s new leadership was eschewing economic or social reforms. "It can take a year or two for any new leadership in China to introduce change," he said.

Professor Hu Xingdou, of the Beijing Institute of Technology, told the South China Morning Post it would be difficult for the government to abolish the one-child policy overnight.

"China still needs a family-planning policy due to our vast population and lack of cropland, as well as the relative deficiency of per capita resources,” he said.

The one-child rule is mainly enforced in urban areas.

Wang also announced an expansion of rural healthcare provision for pregnant women, and said efforts "should also be made to rectify the imbalance in gender ratio."

She also said a "complete working system" would be established to "in light of the great numbers of young migrant workers flocking to the cities for jobs."

Related stories:

Chinese say one child is enough as Beijing weighs end of policy

Growing calls in China to change the one-child policy

Not Chinese enough in China? Americans' dilemma

LONDON - A tall, menacing actor famous for playing gangsters waits in a bar named The Blind Beggar, once the scene of an underworld revenge killing. Welcome to East London, the diverse and often eyebrow-raising home of this month's Olympics.

Forget the usual tourist honeypots of Buckingham Palace and Big Ben: Most of the 300,000 additional international visitors expected in London during the Games will see a district that is still evolving from its impoverished, industrial past into a vibrant and appealing part of Britain's capital.

The main Olympic Park is well inside London's sprawling boundaries, only four miles from the city's heart. Athletes will live on the site but thousands of team officials, visitors and VIPs will travel each day from central hotels and through East London to the Games.

"I don't know what they'll make of it," said Stephen Marcus, who played dodgy dealer "Nick The Greek" in Guy Ritchie's locally filmed 1998 gangster movie "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels."

Sneak peek at Olympic Village: 'Not a five-star resort'

During the Olympics, Marcus will be giving guided walking tours, offering athletes and ticket-holders the chance to re-trace the steps of the real-life 'East End' mobsters who terrorized London in the 1950s and 1960s.

It is more relevant than you might think: Escaping from poverty, sometimes by criminal means, has been East London's back story over the past five centuries.

Slideshow: When the Olympics is your neighbor

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A diverse community in East London will welcome the world to Britain for the 2012 Olympic Games. Meet residents and hear how they feel about having a huge, world stage in their backyard.

Launch slideshow

"Its downriver position on the Thames made it the city's gateway during Britain's maritime era and the industrial revolution," said Professor Miles Ogborn, head of the School of Geography at Queen Mary, University of London. "There were docks and sailors in the area, and everything you'd usually associate with that."

Filthy slums
With Britain's prevailing winds blowing industrial smog toward the east, London's 17^th and 18^th century developers headed in the opposite direction – establishing parks, theaters, royal residences and handsome squares in the west.

Click here for more London 2012 coverage

In contrast, the 'East End' descended into filthy slums for the diseased and destitute, earning a reputation as a den of immorality and inspiring many of the wretched characters in the novels of Charles Dickens. Not that its horrors were fictional: In 1888, five women who had turned to prostitution were murdered by a serial killer known as Jack the Ripper. The pub where he met his victims – the Ten Bells – is now a regular port of call for London walking tours.

"What is perhaps most shocking about those crimes, when you learn more about them, is the depth of poverty to which these women had fallen," said Ogborn. "This really was a terrible place to be."

But East London's darkest days came during the Second World War. Between September 1940 and May 1941, the German air force destroyed more than one million homes and killed 20,000 people in a bombing campaign known as The Blitz. The east, whose docks and factories made it a strategic target, bore the brunt of the attack.

'London's equivalent of Al Capone'
Instead of local redevelopment, post-war planners relocated many families to newly built towns and suburbs in the countryside. With the docks also in decline, derelict areas became a playground for career criminals, including the Krays – fearsome twin brothers and boxing champions who ran a casino and night-club empire on the back of protection rackets until finally convicted in 1968.

"They were London's equivalent of Al Capone," Marcus said. "They had celebrity guests and celebrity friends. They would've loved the Olympics, I'm sure ... they'd be at the opening ceremony in a VIP box."

Among the Krays' victims was rival gangster George Cornell, shot dead in front of drinkers in the Blind Beggar pub in Whitechapel in 1966. The bar, which sits on one of the main thoroughfares between central London and the Games site, will be the starting point for Marcus' tour.

Social improvement began with Victorian-era philanthropy – the Salvation Army was founded outside the Blind Beggar by Methodist preacher William Booth – and has since been tied up with major urban regeneration.

Slideshow: Venues for 2012 London Olympic Games

Oda / Getty Images

From Wimbledon to Wembley Stadium to The Dome, a look at the venues for the 2012 London Olympic Games.

Launch slideshow

The 1980s saw vacant docks transformed into Britain's second-largest financial center, complete with blinking 770-foot office tower One Canada Square and a light rail system. Canary Wharf is now home to the world or European headquarters of firms including HSBC, Citigroup, State Street, Clifford Chance, MetLife, Morgan Stanley and Thomson Reuters.

Alastair Jamieson for msnbc.com

Sandra Mjungwa, a store sales manager and East London resident, says the areas where the Olympics will be held is "unrecognizable compared to only a couple of years ago."

The main Games site has been created from industrial wastelands near Stratford, once home to toxic industries banished from more central districts by 19^th century social improvement laws. A massive soil clean-up has allowed 740 acres of polluted low-value brownfield land to be transformed into the Olympic area – although a major sewage pumping station remains defiantly in place.

Stratford station, once a dingy calling point to be avoided at night, is now a flagship transport hub for the Games and a stopping point for trains on the high-speed London-to-Paris Eurostar line. There's also a new $2.75-billion shopping mall, which three-quarters of ticket-holders will have to walk through to reach the main venues for events like swimming, basketball and track.

"The shopping has already made a difference to the area," store sales manager and local resident Sandra Mjungwa told msnbc.com. "It's unrecognizable compared to only a couple of years ago when nobody would come here unless they had to."

Kychia Messenger, 18, an electrical apprentice from Stratford, added: "It's already a better area; you see more people putting litter in the bin and there are fewer gangs hanging around." (The jury's still out on her last point: The day after msnbc.com spoke to Messenger, a man was stabbed to death in broad daylight in the mall after a gang-related brawl only a few yards from the Olympic Park entrance.)

Get behind the scenes with our 'TODAY in London' blog 

This has not deterred thousands of tourists from taking two-hour walking tours of the Olympic site perimeter, long before the Games have begun. "The tours are very popular – we do two on Saturdays now," said London Walks' guide, Kim Dewdney. "Prior to the Olympic redevelopment, nobody ever asked me for a tour of Stratford – but the Games has brought people here and hopefully opened their eyes to the local area."

Among those taking her tour on Friday afternoon was a family of Americans who had spent the morning seeing Westminster Abbey. Also there was Steve Venckus, in London on a business trip from Washington, D.C. "Even though I won't be here when the Games are on, I really wanted to see it all up close so I can say I've been there," he said.

Alastair Jamieson / msnbc.com

Kychia Messenger, 18, an electrical apprentice from Stratford, says there are now "fewer gangs hanging around" the area.

So can visitors expect a friendly welcome to East London? Since the arrival of Huguenot refugees from France in the 17^th century, successive waves of immigrants have made the area their home: Irish weavers, Ashkenazi Jews from Russia and Eastern Europe and, most recently, Bangladeshis. Brick Lane – once home to fabric factories and bagel bakeries – is now known as London's 'curry mile'.

In the six official Olympic boroughs of London – Hackney, Newham, Barking & Dagenham, Greenwich, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest – 42 per cent of the population is from non-white ethnic groups, and the area is home to dozens of mosques.

'Challenges'
Diversity of wealth is even wider: Tower Hamlets, which takes in the banking zone of Canary Wharf as well as the government housing projects of Stepney, contains some of Britain's poorest neighborhoods as well as some of its wealthiest. "One hundred and twenty-six languages are spoken in our schools and we have some very rich areas while only a couple of streets away there are people who are just getting by; those challenges are what makes the area interesting," Lutfur Rahman, Britain's first directly elected Muslim mayor, told msnbc.com. "I hope visitors will take the time to see our parks and attractions on their way to the Games."

Visitors may also indulge in a bit of celebrity-spotting: Ralph Fiennes and Keira Knightley are among those following a crowd of hispters and artists into the resurgent districts of Hoxton, Shoreditch and Bethnal Green. Once ghettos, the areas are now sought-after addresses for anyone working in arts or the media – the New York Times described East London as "by far London's trendiest area". Sir Ian McKellen, who played Gandalf in "Lord of the Rings," owns a historic pub called The Grapes near his riverside home in Limehouse.

"Artists have sought out the disused industrial spaces and made them their own," said Ogborn. "In the middle of once-bleak areas like Hackney Wick there are suddenly independent shops and bustling cafes full of artists, like the Hackney Pearl for example."

Alastair Jamieson / msnbc.com

"I think local people will be proud of Britain at the Olympics," said James Hamill, 25, barman at the Princess of Wales in Stratford and a catering worker at the Games.

Marcus said: "It's a community here. No matter what the nationality, ethnicity, and cultural group, there has always been and always will be a strong community life."

Some of the more traditional characteristics of East London have been well-documented in the long-running BBC soap opera, EastEnders, known chiefly for its grittiness.

"There will be some moaning – some of it quite justified – but on the whole I think local people will be proud of Britain at the Olympics," said James Hamill, 25, barman at the blue-collar Princess of Wales pub in Stratford. "We'll be very pleased to see people here."

Micah Smith, Andrew Gee and Jeremy Paduano, NBC News in London, contributed to this report.

More world news from msnbc.com and NBC News:

• From soft power to drone attacks: What the world thinks of US
• Kids cross border alone, fleeing drugs and gangs
• East London: From gangland haven to Olympic showcase
• Pollution protesters halt work on $1.6-billion factory in China
• Afghan schoolgirls: poisoned or mass hysteria?
• Pakistan lets trucks roll into Afghanistan after Clinton apology
• Sneak peek inside Olympic Village: 'Not a five-star resort'
• Former Gitmo prisoner: How I see America

More London 2012 coverage:

• Disabled visitors face high hurdles to London Olympics
• Terror suspect's eye color? Flying cameras to spy during Games
• Londoners express hopes, frustrations as Olympics come to town
• Flagship McDonalds in Olympic Park becomes super-sized
• Olympic torchbearers race to cash in
• Will world's most expensive cable car be ready for Olympics?
• Now towering over London: 'The Godzilla of public art'
• Venues for the London 2012 Olympic Games
• Bad neighbors for Team USA? Occupy camp faces ax
• VIDEO: Olympic torchbearer proposes mid-relay
• Brits revel in gloom ahead of Games, but don't believe the gripe
• Olympic housing crunch: Landlords evict tenants to gouge tourists
• Slideshow: When the Olympics is your neighbor
• Go behind the scenes with our 'TODAY in London' blog
  

Olivia Harris / Reuters

London's Olympic Village will accommodate up to 16,000 athletes and officials from more than 200 nations.

LONDON -- What will it be like for athletes like Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt as they eat, sleep and relax at London's $1.5-billion Olympic Village? Think somewhere between a college dorm and freshly-painted motel.

In the first of a series of "Olympic sleepovers" designed to road-test the facilities, msnbc.com was invited to spend the night in the vast complex.

The verdict? Apartments are light and airy but far from luxurious: Only some have en-suite bathrooms, even fewer have balconies and there are no kitchens as all cooking will be done in a 24-hour cafeteria that seats 5,000.

In shared sleeping spaces, beds are close together and most furniture is of the functional, self-assembly variety. (Spare a thought for workers who had to put together more than 9,000 cabinets and wardrobes.) Mattresses were chosen by a committee of athletes but are built for function rather than indulgence.

Alastair Jamieson for msnbc.com

Msnbc.com's bed in the Olympic Village. Which of the world's top athletes will occupy it next?

The pristine white walls and blackout curtains are livened by beanbags and chairs in the now-familiar bright neon colors of the London 2012 logo, and there are televisions with 28 channels including live feeds of all the Olympic events. Duvet covers bear the words "excellence, friendship and respect."

'Temptation'
All of the beds are single and walls are thin -- which may disappoint those hoping to burn off calories with the help of fellow competitors.

There's not much opportunity for mischief in the village's bar, either. Named after Shakespeare's Globe Theater, it offers 10 pool tables, a private cinema and a computer gaming area – but no alcohol. "Not all the competitors are of legal drinking age and, besides, you don’t want to put temptation in peoples' way," one official told msnbc.com.

More Olympic coverage: London hosts the Games

Up to 16,000 athletes and officials from more than 200 nations will take up residence later this month in the high-security compound. The vast complex includes more than 2.7 million square feet of living space and is adjacent to the Olympic Park in east London.

Inevitable teething troubles are being worked out, including a water system failure that left many without showers on Saturday.

Sleeping accommodation is spread across 11 residential blocks separated by orderly, tree-lined courtyards. Most athletes will share rooms in the apartments, which vary in size from one to five bedrooms. There's also a 13,000 square foot gym, a medical center and a dry cleaners.

But the most important facility is the cafeteria, which is housed in a temporary structure big enough to park 80 double-decker buses.

Alastair Jamieson for msnbc.com

Visitors play pool in The Globe - the "dry" bar in the Olympic Village.

Food is among the biggest concerns for organizers, who will need to serve as many as 60,000 meals a day. And these are no ordinary meals: Phelps alone consumes 12,000 calories a day. At the 2008 Beijing games he started each day with three fried egg sandwiches, a five-egg omelet, three slices of French toast with powdered sugar, three chocolate chip pancakes and two cups of coffee.

25,000 loaves of bread
By the end of the London Games, athletes will have tucked away an estimated total of 90 tons of seafood, 25,000 loaves of bread and 360 tons of fruit.

Serving stations are sorted by culinary tradition with Indian, Asian, Mediterranean and Afro-Caribbean dishes served at different counters along with a "Best of British" area with local favorites such as sausages, brown sauce and English mustard.

And yes, there's a McDonald's.

Sponsorship deals mean the only branded drinks available to athletes are those made by Coca-Cola, including Powerade and Abbey Well Water.

Halal and kosher meals are available - the kitchens expect a rush of demand at dusk after Ramadan begins on July 20 – and there’s a multi-faith prayer center manned by a team of 50 spiritual leaders from different religions.

Will it be enough to satisfy the most demanding competitors? Well, the food is tasty and nutritious.

"We've all lived in villages and had good experiences and bad experiences," British triple jump gold medalist and organizers' committee member Jonathan Edwards told Reuters. "It's a good night's sleep, the food that you want to eat, when you want to eat it and also the transport system." 

But one aspect that appears to be ready is security. Uppermost in the minds of planners might be the Munich massacre – the killing of 11 Israeli competitors and coaches at the 1972 Olympics by terrorists who climbed over fences into the athletes' compound.

Despite being adjacent the main Olympic Park, the village is separated by metal fences topped with razor wire and a raft of additional airport-style security checks that include thorough searches of the interior of all vehicles. Some 1,500 security workers will guard the complex around the clock. Similar levels of security protect the woodchip-fueled power plant that supplies the entire Games site.

Alastair Jamieson for msnbc.com

Aiming for bronze: Msnbc.com's Alastair Jamieson wakes up sleepy after a night in the Olympic Village.

Although intense planning has gone into how the village will operate during the games, not all of it is purpose-built for the Olympics: After the closing ceremony, the accommodation blocks will be retrospectively fitted with kitchens and converted into 2,818 new homes, 1,379 of which will be government-subsidized for individuals or families who could not otherwise afford to live there. 

'Not a five-star resort'
The Financial Times reported that the cost of the Village was initially met from the $15 billion public budget after planned private funding dried up in the credit crunch of 2009. However, about two-thirds of the cost was recouped when the housing was pre-sold to private buyers and government-sponsored housing associations.

It isn’t yet clear if the Olympic site will necessarily be a sought-after place to live once the Games are gone. One architecture writer described the accommodation blocks as "a tad forbidding, not indeed very villagey at all," and compared them to the "much-criticized estates of the 1960s."

However, former competitor Edwards remains optimistic about the site, and the village experience. "There's a feel of camaraderie, support," he told The Independent. "It's a great place to be. I know what it's like to turn up at an Olympics with all those hopes and fears. You have to have the platform right. It's not a five-star resort but for an Olympic Village this is outstanding."

More London 2012 coverage:

• Terror suspect's eye color? Flying cameras to spy during Games
• Londoners express hopes, frustrations as Olympics come to town
• Flagship McDonalds in Olympic Park becomes super-sized
• Olympic torchbearers race to cash in
• Will world's most expensive cable car be ready for Olympics?
• Now towering over London: 'The Godzilla of public art'
• Venues for the London 2012 Olympic Games
• Bad neighbors for Team USA? Occupy camp faces ax
• VIDEO: Olympic torchbearer proposes mid-relay
• Brits revel in gloom ahead of Games, but don't believe the gripe
• Olympic housing crunch: Landlords evict tenants to gouge tourists
• At London Olympics, dogs have sniffed out key anti-terror role
• Slideshow: When the Olympics is your neighbor
• Go behind the scenes with our 'TODAY in London' blog
  

British spy Gareth Williams was “dead or unconscious” and was almost certainly placed in a sports bag by another person, an inquiry into his death in London was told Friday, it is reported.

Expert Peter Faulding tried to re-create the code-breaker’s bizarre death by trying to climb into a bag inside a bathtub and lock it himself 300 times. He failed every time, according to a report of the day’s inquest evidence in the Daily Telegraph.

Faulding said the task would have eluded even escapologist Harry Houdini.

UK intelligence officer: No cover-up in 'spy in the bag' case

He said he believed a third party was present, describing theories that Williams got inside the bag unaided as "unbelievable."

Video footage of Faulding attempting to re-create the death was shown to the inquest.

Police discovered the naked decomposing body of the 31-year-old spy padlocked inside a red sports bag in the bathtub of his flat in London in August 2010.

The strange circumstances surrounding Williams’ death have prompted a number of theories, and police eventually concluded he had been playing an auto-erotic sex game that went badly wrong.

Earlier this week, the inquest heard from Williams’ former landlady, who once found the spy in bed with his hands tied to the headboard wearing nothing except boxer shorts.

Faulding, a former Parachute Regiment reservist who specializes in rescuing people from confined spaces, was unable to lock himself inside an identical bag in the bath, according to a Press Association report.

"I couldn't say it's impossible, but I think even Houdini would have struggled with this one," he said, according to the PA. The expert added: "My conclusion is that Mr. Williams was either placed in the bag unconscious, or he was dead before he was in the bag."

He also raised the idea the bag was deliberately placed in the bath so “bodily fluids” could drain away.

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• Report: Osama bin Laden's widows, kids headed to Saudi Arabia
• Israel grapples with insecurity as it celebrates independence
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• Murdoch: Hacking scandal cost 'hundreds of millions'
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Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world

Ben Stansall / AFP - Getty Images

Debris litters the pavement and road in front of police vehicles below an office building were according to reports an armed man was causing a disturbance in central London on Friday.

Updated at 11:48 a.m. ET: An area of central London was evacuated by armed police Friday after a man “with a grievance” stormed a fifth floor office, leading to reports he had taken some workers inside hostage.

Police, explosives experts and hostage negotiators were sent to the building, on the city’s Tottenham Court Road. Officers found no hostages, and the man was arrested at the scene. Nobody was injured. 

Earlier, the suspect was seen tossing papers and electrical equipment out of the window of the office, which belongs to a truck driver training company.

London’s Metropolitan Police Service spokesman described the suspect as a 50-year-old man “with a grievance” who was in a “very distressed state”.

The incident began at 11:59 p.m. local time (5:59 a.m. ET). Pictures posted on Twitter showed the items being thrown from the window onto the street below.

A large section of the street - one of the busiest in the city, leading north from Oxford Street - was sealed off, and a nearby Underground station closed to passengers, causing widespread congestion.

Ben Stansall / AFP - Getty Images

Debris falls from the window of an office building a man was causing a disturbance in central London on Friday.

The building, Shropshire House, is close to the offices of news website, The Huffington Post UK. The site’s executive editor, Stephen Hull, posted on Twitter that Abby Baafi, 27, an employee of the HGV company, said the suspect had failed a training course and wanted his money back.

Tamsin Kelly, who works in a neighboring building, told the BBC: "Two men ran into the building and said the man had a flamethrower and canisters of gas.

"The two men told us they had been let go as they were parents and we were told to leave the building."

Leon Farrell, 25, a product manager who works for AOL in Capper Street, just off Tottenham Court Road, told the BBC: "Someone ran in to our office white as a sheet and said there was someone who had taken a few people hostage but let them go as they had kids."

More world news from msnbc.com and NBC News:

• Report: Osama bin Laden's widows, kids headed to Saudi Arabia
• Israel grapples with insecurity as it celebrates independence
• At least four killed as two bombs hit Nigeria newspaper offices
• Aiding terrorists? Syrian women risk all to help dissidents
• Murdoch: Hacking scandal cost 'hundreds of millions'
• Analysts say North Korea's new missiles are fakes
• Israeli military chief: I doubt Iran's 'rational' leadership will make nuclear bomb

Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world

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

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

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

Jeff J Mitchell / Getty Images

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

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

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

The public gallery burst into laughter.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Alastair Jamieson, msnbc.com

This $16 million house in the Hampstead area of London was bought by Moammar Gadhafi's playboy son Saadi about six months before the Arab Spring uprisings began.

LONDON -- With nine bedrooms, a stylish indoor pool and a suede-walled private movie theater, it was a standout luxury home -- even in a London neighborhood already full of celebrities and super-rich foreign oligarchs.

But after being wrecked by squatters, 7 Winnington Close is now at the center an international court battle over the multi-billion dollar assets of dead Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

The $16 million property, in north London’s wealthy Hampstead area, was bought by the despot's playboy son Saadi about six months before the Arab Spring uprisings began.

Now that the Gadhafi regime has been swept away, Libya's new government wants ownership of the home, alleging it was purchased with cash plundered illegally from the state and its citizens.

The country's new rulers will ask Britain's High Court on Friday for the repatriation of the property as the proceeds of corruption.

Lawyer Mohamed Shaban will argue that Saadi, a former professional soccer player who is now living under house arrest in Niger, could not possibly have afforded the mansion on his wages as a commander in the Libyan army and therefore must have purchased it with state funds.

Glentree Estates

This file photo provided by a real estate agent shows a bedroom in the London home belonging to Saadi Gadhafi.

Fast cars
It is significant development – the first international move to recover parts of the vast Gadhafi family portfolio of property, hedge funds, fast cars and private jets.

"If we are successful, we will then start to build a case for the other assets," Giuma Bukleb, media attaché to the Libyan Embassy in London, told msnbc.com.

The court case will also signal the end of a year-long occupation of the house by squatters.

A group calling itself "Topple The Tyrants" took over the house during the uprising, demanding that it be returned to its "rightful owners," the Libyan people.

The squatters unfurled a banner on the roof that read, "Out of Libya, Out of London" and "Solidarity," and posted a notice on the door declaring the building occupied – a move that under British law prevents owners from using force to access to their own property without the backing of court bailiffs.

One Libyan law student who took part in the occupation told the London Evening Standard the mansion had been "pretty much destroyed" inside, adding: "There's no furniture, just mattresses. The swimming pool is smashed and the heating doesn't work."

Alastair Jamieson, msnbc.com

A notice posted at the door of Saadi Gadhafi's house in Hampstead, London.

When msnbc.com visited the house this week there was no answer at the door. A black leather couch had been pushed up against the side entrance to prevent access.

'Peace and quiet'
The occupation has bemused neighbors, whose quiet cul-de-sac is now regularly besieged by reporters and Libyan political activists.

"It was noisy at the start but we haven’t heard anything for a while," said one neighbor, who declined to be named. "I hope the court action is successful so that Libyans get their property and we get our peace and quiet."

Mahmud Turkia / AFP - Getty Images, file

Saadi Gadhafi is a former professional soccer player. He is under house arrest in Niger.

Robert Palmer, a campaigner for anti-corruption group Global Witness, said Friday's court case would be "hugely significant."

"This is the first action to recover the British assets of an Arab Spring dictator," he said. "A lot of people will be watching to see what happens."

$20 billion in assets?
Bukleb said much of the Gadhafi family's property is in London, where one of the dictator's sons, Seif, attended the London School of Economics.

Dealings with Gadhafi son embarrass London college

Libyan Embassy officials say a court victory will trigger a deeper investigation into the Gadhafi family's complex network of assets, which Britain's Treasury estimates could be worth almost $20 billion in total.

Alastair Jamieson

A discarded sofa blocks entry to Saadi Gadhafi's home in Hampstead, London.

Many are owned through offshore investment companies. The house at the center of Friday's case is registered to Capitana Seas Ltd., a company based in the British Virgin Islands. The embassy's lawyers were forced to seek the U.K. Treasury's intervention in order to establish a link to Saadi Gadhafi, who is thought to be one of the company's directors.

Embassy officials believe the family's U.K. property assets include the $200 million Portman House on Oxford Street and apartments worth a total of $25 million in South Kensington.

"The fact is, we simply do not know for certain exactly how much the Gadhafi family had in London," Bukleb said.

A year after revolt, Libya mired in factional fighting

The National Transitional Council (NTC) won United Nations approval to access $1.55 billion in Libyan currency held in the U.K. by printer De La Rue last year.

Slideshow: Moammar Gadhafi through the years

Patrick Kovarik / AFP - Getty Images

A look at the life and times of Libya's mercurial and flamboyant leader

Launch slideshow

Palmer believes Capitana Seas will not contest the court action because it is owed money by Saadi.

'Greedy hands'
Saadi's lawyer, Jerusalem-based Nick Kaufman, did not verify that claim, but told msnbc.com: "Even if Saadi was a director of the company, he was never lawfully served with any legal documentation relating to this outrageously speculative claim."

He added: "The NTC, which has been criticized for a lack of transparency in its own financial dealings, is exploiting the fact that my client is currently subject to wholly unjustified international sanctions and an Interpol red notice for baseless criminal charges -- which it itself instigated.

"As a result my client cannot leave the humanitarian protection afforded him by Niger without fear of unlawful arrest. He can neither travel abroad nor can he get access to funds, at present, to instruct British lawyers to represent his interests in the face of this outrageously speculative claim based on surmise and not evidence."

He added that the court action is "a meritless publicity stunt designed to lay greedy hands on a property that was lawfully acquired."

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