• Gunmen kill senior female Pakistani politician

    AP

    Zohra Shahid Hussain was a senior member of former Pakistani cricket star Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party.

     

    By Katharine Houreld, Reuters

    ISLAMABAD - Gunmen killed a senior female politician from a reformist party in Pakistan on Saturday night, the latest violent incident in a bloody election campaign and one that set off a war of words between two major opposition parties. 

    It was not immediately clear who killed Zohra Shahid Hussain, a senior member of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party. The PTI has promised to reduce endemic corruption in the nuclear-armed nation of 180 million people.

    Around 150 people were killed in the run-up to national elections held last week, which handed a landslide victory to opposition leader Nawaz Sharif and his PML-N party. 

    Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif is claiming victory already in Pakistan's general election — 14 years after he was toppled in a military coup, jailed and then exiled. This will be his third chance leading the country. NBC's Waj Khan reports.

    It marked the first time an elected government replaced another one in a nation that has been run by military leaders for more than half its history. 

    Results from a handful of constituencies are still awaited amid accusations of vote-rigging. The shooting came hours ahead of re-polling in a key area beset by allegations of voting fraud. 

    'Shockwaves '
    The PTI's leader, former international cricket star Imran Khan, immediately blamed the killing on the Muttahida Quami Movement. The MQM has a stranglehold on politics in Pakistan's biggest city, Karachi. 

    "Her death has sent shockwaves across the rank and file of the party," Khan said in a statement. 

    Asif Hassan / AFP - Getty Images

    Activists of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) mourn the death of Zohra Shahid Hussain, vice president of the women's wing of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in the province of Sindh, outside the hospital in Karachi on Saturday.

    Police said that two gunmen shot Hussain dead outside her home in an upscale neighborhood of Karachi, he said. 

    "I hold (MQM leader) Altaf Hussain directly responsible for the murder as he openly threatened PTI workers and leaders through public broadcasts," he added in a tweet. 

    "I also hold the British government responsible as I had warned them about British citizen Altaf Hussain after his open threats." 

    MQM leader Hussain is wanted on murder charges in Pakistan and leads his party remotely from exile in England. His party is designated a terrorist organization by Canada, a charge it strongly denies. 

    In recent days he gave a speech which many Pakistanis felt was an incitement to attack political rivals. The British police have been flooded with complaints demanding an investigation. 

    Slideshow: Pakistan: A nation in turmoil

    Muhammed Muheisen / AP

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

    Launch slideshow

    The MQM leader insisted his words were taken out of context. MQM leaders held a press conference within hours of Hussain's death to disclaim responsibility and demand a retraction from Khan. 

    Khan's election campaign electrified many Pakistanis, pushing the PTI from a marginal party with no seats in the legislature to become Pakistan's third largest party. 

    National polls held a week ago gave the MQM 18 out of 19 national assembly seats in its power base in Karachi. Repolling is due to be held Sunday in the final constituency, thought to be a stronghold of PTI, after many polling stations failed to open on election day. 

    The steamy port city of Karachi is Pakistan's financial heart and home to 18 million people. It typically sees about a dozen murders a day, a deadly combination of political killings, attacks by Taliban and sectarian militant groups, and street crime.

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    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • Indiana withdraws support of Pakistani-owned fertilizer plant on US bomb concerns

    By Susan Guyett, Reuters

    Indiana has canceled subsidies for a planned $1.8 billion fertilizer plant in the state because of concerns that a Pakistani company involved in the project makes products used in improvised explosives that kill and injure U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

    Midwest Fertilizer Corp, which has sought to build the plant in southern Indiana, is 48 percent owned by Fatima Group, which produces a calcium ammonium nitrate fertilizer in Pakistan known to have been used in improvised explosives in Afghanistan.

    Indiana Governor Mike Pence, a Republican, had put a $1.3 billion incentive package for the fertilizer manufacturing plant on hold in January pending a review. He said Friday that the incentives would be withdrawn.

    "Without assurances from our Defense Department that the materials which have been misused by the enemy in Afghanistan will be permanently removed from production by Fatima Group in Pakistan, I cannot in good conscience tell our soldiers and their families that this deal should move forward," he said.

    Midwest Fertilizer said it would pursue other options to continue the project in the area.

    The Indiana Economic Development Corporation made the offer to Midwest Fertilizer Corp in November 2012 under former Governor Mitch Daniels.

    The Indiana Finance Authority had issued $1.3 billion of bonds in December and the funds have been held in escrow and will be used to repay the bond holders.

    Fatima Group has reformulated the fertilizer to make it less explosive and the product is to be tested with the U.S. government in June, Midwest Fertilizer said in a statement. Fatima Group also has stopped selling the fertilizer in areas of Pakistan that border Afghanistan, Midwest Fertilizer said.

    The border with Afghanistan is where Taliban and al Qaeda fighters have been battling U.S. and allied forces since the shortly after the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington.

    Midwest said the project would bring 2,500 construction jobs and 309 permanent jobs to the region.

    U.S. Senator Joe Donnelly, an Indiana Democrat, said the state's first responsibility was to the safety and security of troops.

    "My concern with this project has been our service members overseas who face the threat of improvised weapons made from fertilizer and other products," Donnelly said in a statement.

    John Taylor, who heads the Posey County Economic Development Partnership, where the plant would be located, said he had not given up hope for the project.

    "The decision the governor made today does nothing to make it safer for our service people anywhere in the world," he said.

    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • Will China mediate the Israeli-Palestinian peace process?

    Kim Kyung-Hoon / Pool via EPA

    China's President Xi Jinping, right, shakes hands with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on May 9.

    By Ed Flanagan, Producer, NBC News

    BEIJING – An official visit to Beijing by Israeli and Palestinian leaders last week has prompted speculation that China may finally be ready to claim its place as a world power by trying to negotiate an end to one of world's most caustic conflicts.

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met with Chinese President Xi Jinping within days of each other in Beijing – the two Middle Eastern leaders having arrived in the country within hours of each other.

    "China's hosting of the two emphasized its active involvement in Mideast affairs and highlighted its role as a responsible power," declared an editorial by China's state news agency, Xinhua.

    A more active role in Middle East diplomacy would be a dramatic break from China's long-held policy of non-intervention. With controversial business partners like Sudan, Libya and Iran, China has consistently ducked the political and regional strife of others to focus on natural resource extraction and trade.

    To a long line of American leaders who have invested a great deal of political capital in the quest for peace in the region, a Chinese diplomatic shift could be a welcome development.

    But some experts like Dan Blumenthal, director of Asian Studies at the American Enterprise Institute, wonder how much China is willing to risk entering this particular political game.

    Feng Li / Getty Images

    Chinese President Xi Jinping, left, gestures to invite Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to a welcoming ceremony held outside the Great Hall of the People on May 6 in Beijing.

    "Right now China has the benefit of free-riding on U.S. security [and its] presence, so there is no incentive for them whatsoever to actually pay costs and take risks," Blumenthal said. "China has been fairly extractive in those areas and again for China to become a global power that exercises responsibility, you can't just reap the economic benefits."

    Middle East experts in China have noted that the country has a fresh point of view unsullied by years of involvement in the region. It has a carefully crafted position of supporting the Palestinian cause -- dating back to 1965 when the Palestinian Liberation Organization setup an office in Beijing -- but also being a close friend of Israel, as its third-largest trading partner behind the U.S. and the European Union.

    "The United States' slant toward Israel has long been regarded as a bias stance by Arabic countries, so this bias towards Israel is not helpful for President Obama when it comes to pushing forward current or future initiatives," said He Wenping, a senior researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). "But China maintains good relations with both Israel and Palestine, so China's stance is viewed as more neutral than the United States."

    Just how much political capital Beijing is willing to spend hammering out a deal that has eluded others remains a critical question – one that could be fraught with risk to China's relationship with the Muslim world. Would Beijing be willing to put its neutral position and substantial business partnerships in the region in jeopardy?

    To be sure, Xi's meetings with Netanyahu and Abbas were modest at best in ambition. The two Middle Eastern leaders never met face-to-face. And Xi's "four-point plan" effectively parroted calls by the United States for an independent Palestinian state, supplemented with a firm call for the two countries' boundaries to be based on 1967 borders with East Jerusalem serving as the new Palestinian state's capital.

    "I don't think China has some magical power at hand that can make the Israeli-Palestinian process move more smoothly," said He of CASS. "It is significant that Israel and Palestine both recognized China's role because if they don't want China involved, [Netanyahu and Abbas] would have never come to China. This shows they wish for and they recognize China's role in the process."

    Whether their involvement is desired or not, past Chinese diplomatic history suggests that given the options, China in the short-term would likely continue a nominal role rather than put trade relations at risk.

    But a silver lining is the affirmation that while China and the U.S. continue to have major political differences on issues ranging from Iran to America's Asia "pivot," there is room for the two powers to cooperate and engage on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

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  • Thousands rally in Italy to oppose austerity measures

    Filippo Monteforte / AFP - Getty Images

    Demonstrators applaud during the left-wing Italian metalworkers' union FIOM rally in downtown Rome's Piazza San Giovanni on May 18, 2013.

    By Carmelo Carmilli and Roberto Mignucci, Reuters

    Thousands of people protested in Rome on Saturday against austerity policies and high unemployment, urging new Prime Minister Enrico Letta to focus on creating jobs to help pull the country out of recession.

    "We hope that this government will finally start listening to us because we are losing our patience," said Enzo Bernardis, who joined the sea of protesters waving red flags and calling for more workers' rights and better contracts.

    Less than a month in power, Letta is trying to hold together an uneasy coalition between his center-left Democratic party and the center-right People of Freedom, led by former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.

    Confidence in the government, cobbled together after inconclusive elections, is already falling, with one poll on Friday by the SWG institute showing its approval rating had dropped to 34 percent from 43 percent at the start of the month.

    "We can't wait anymore" and "We need money to live" were among slogans on banners held up by the crowds.

    Letta promised to make jobs his top priority when he came to power in April after two months of political deadlock. But several protesters complained he was not sticking to his vow, focusing instead on a property tax reform outlined this week.

    Union leaders said he needed to shift away from the austerity agenda pursued by former Prime Minister Mario Monti, who introduced a range of spending cuts, tax hikes and pension reform to shore up strained public finances.

    "We need to start over with more investment. If we don't restart with public and private investments, there will no new jobs," said Maurizio Landini, secretary-general of the left-wing metalworkers union Fiom.

    Italy is stuck in its longest recession since quarterly records began in 1970, and jobless rates are close to record highs, with youth unemployment at around 38 percent.

    Other protesters were pessimistic that Letta's fragile government would be able to take effective action.

    "This government will last a very short time," said demonstrator Marco Silvani. What we need is a new leftist party that fights for the rights of the people," he said.

    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • 'Love has won out over hate': France becomes 14th country to allow gay marriage

    By Leigh Thomas and Mark John, Reuters

    PARIS -- French President Francois Hollande has signed into law a bill allowing same-sex marriage, making France the 14th country to legalize gay weddings.

    France's official journal announced on Saturday the bill had become law after the Constitutional Council gave it the go-ahead on Friday.

    The bill, a campaign pledge by the Socialist president, has been for months hotly contested by many conservatives in France, where allowing gay marriage is one of the biggest social reforms since abolition of the death penalty in 1981.

    Opponents have staged huge and often violent demonstrations against the bill and have called yet another protest on May 26. The leader of opposition to gay marriage, a political activist and humorist who goes under the name of Frigide Barjot, has said the protest would draw millions into the streets.

    Montpellier mayor Helene Mandroux, who is due to celebrate France's first gay marriage in the southern city on May 29, said the law marked a major social advance.

    "Love has won out over hate," she said, while voicing concerns the first gay wedding could attract violent protests.

    France, a predominantly Catholic country, follows 13 others including Canada, Denmark, Sweden and most recently Uruguay and New Zealand in allowing gay and lesbian couples to wed. In the United States, Washington D.C. and 12 states have legalized same-sex marriage.

    Unlike former president Francois Mitterrand's abolition of the death penalty, which most French people opposed at the time, polls showed more than half the country backed gay marriage.

    Nonetheless, with Hollande's popularity ratings at record lows a year into office, the law has proved costly for the president with critics saying it has distracted his attention from reviving the recession-hit economy.

    After lawmakers adopted the bill in late April, opponents had sought to scupper it with a last-ditch appeal to the Constitutional Council.

    Related stories:

    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • Shots fired at Cannes film festival, actors flee for cover

    Marc Piasecki / Getty Images Contributor

    CANNES, FRANCE - MAY 17: A man is taken away by the police after the reported sounds of gunshots were heard in front of the Martinez Hotel beach on May 17, 2013 in Cannes France.

    By Matthias Galante, Reuters

    CANNES, France -- A man was arrested at the Cannes film festival on Friday after firing a starting pistol during a live TV broadcast on the palm-lined waterfront, sending actors Christoph Waltz and Daniel Auteuil running for cover.

    French TV station Canal+ was interviewing Austria's Oscar-winning Waltz and French actor Auteuil live on its nightly news show from a beach-front set before a crowd of spectators when a man fired two shots into the air.

    "The bodyguards jumped over the barriers into the crowd and pulled him to the ground. The police arrived and told everyone to run because there was a grenade in his hand," witness Arthur Laiguesse told Reuters.

    Raw video shows police in France rushing to arrest a homeless man who is accused of causing panic at the annual film festival in Cannes with a pellet gun and a fake grenade.

    Police arrested the man at the scene and found he was carrying a dummy grenade and a knife, authorities said.

    "It really appears to be a crazy guy," said a police source.

    After the man was taken away, the show's producers told the crowd the program would continue: "The show must go on."

    Waltz, who has won two best supporting actor Oscars for "Django Unchained" and "Inglourious Basterds", and Auteuil, both of whom are serving on the Cannes jury, returned to the set.

    The shooting was the second security incident on day three of the 12-day festival, the world's largest cinema showcase that attracts thousands of actors, directors, film executives, journalists and fans.

    A police source said $1.4 million worth of Chopard jewelry intended to adorn movie stars had been stolen from a room at the Suite Novotel hotel overnight on Thursday.

    But Chopard said the value had been exaggerated and the items were not for actresses to use, declining to give further details.

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    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • North Korea fires three short-range missiles off east coast

    SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea fired three short-range missiles from its east coast on Saturday, South Korea's Defense Ministry said, but the purpose of the launches was unknown.

    Launches by the North of short-term missiles are not uncommon, but the ministry would not speculate whether these latest launches were part of a test or training exercise.

    Slideshow: Glimpses into the hermit kingdom of North Korea

    /

    As chief Asia photographer for the Associated Press, David Guttenfelder has had unprecedented access to communist North Korea. Here's a rare look at daily life in the secretive country.

    Launch slideshow

    "North Korea fired short-range guided missiles twice in the morning and once in the afternoon off its east coast," an official at the South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman's office said by telephone.

    The official said he would not speculate on whether the missiles were fired as part of a drill or training exercise.

    "In case of any provocation, the ministry will keep monitoring the situation and remain on alert," he said.

    A Japanese government source, quoted by Kyodo news agency, noted the three launches, but said none of the missiles landed in Japan's territorial waters.

    Tension on the Korean peninsula has subsided in the past month after running high for several weeks following the imposition of tougher U.N. sanctions against Pyongyang following its third nuclear test in February.

    The North had for weeks issued nearly daily warnings of impending nuclear war with the South and the United States.

    North Korea conducts regular launches of its Scud short-range missiles, which can hit targets in South Korea.

    It conducted a successful launch of a long-range missile last December, saying it put a weather satellite into orbit. The United States and its allies denounced the launch as a test of technology that could one day deliver a nuclear warhead.

    During the weeks of high tension, South Korea reported that the North had moved missile launchers into place on its east coast for a possible launch of a medium-range Musudan missile. The Musudan has a range of 3,500 km, putting Japan in range and possibly the U.S. South Pacific island of Guam.

    Slideshow: Daily life in North Korea

    Elizabeth Dalziel / AP

    From work to play, see pictures from inside the secretive country.

    Launch slideshow

    Reuters

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  • Fighting to save Africa's rhinos

    Wildlife Rangers are on the frontline of the battle to save elephants and rhinos from poaching gangs. The illegal trade in rhino horn, highlighted by Prince William earlier this year, is threatening the very existence of the creatures. NBC's  Rohit Kachroo reports on the work of the round-the-clock patrols at Lewa National Park.

    By Rohit Kachroo, Correspondent, NBC News

    First came the sound of gunshots late at night.

    Then, a few hours later, a carcass was found -- his bloodied face and mutilated body shielded by the long grass. 

    Before long, the stench of death was rising from what was now a crime scene.

    The rangers at Lewa Wildlife Conservancy seemed almost unmoved. But they have seen it, heard it and smelled it too many times before.

    Once again, this 60,000-acre park -- home to one in eight of Kenya’s rhinos -- has been struck by an armed gang.

    Despite the helicopters, the dog handlers, the electric fencing and the hiring of a former British Army captain as chief executive, Lewa has struggled with the poachers, losing six rhinos over a four-week period earlier this year.

    It is a problem for parks across Africa, where some populations of rhino and elephant face extinction within decades. Gruesome killings, like the slaughter of a family of 12 elephants in Kenya’s Tsavo National Park last January, have caused shock but brought no solutions.

    At least Lewa has a powerful supporter. This is where Prince William spent much of his gap year.  It is where he proposed to Kate Middleton in 2010. And it is here that he found another love: the precious species that are under threat from the trade in ivory and rhino horn.

    On Tuesday, William will challenge African "producer" countries and Asian "consumer" countries to end the slaughter. But what is the chance of a real solution?

    The words of a prince will mean little to the paupers who stalk the parks of Africa in search of a rhino horn which may be worth 30,000 pounds – more than its weight in gold. 

    Perhaps stiffer sentences in African countries will make a difference -- but campaigners say that some are resisting pressure to punish those involved in the trade.

    Then there's the question of how the meeting dignitaries can succeed in choking demand in the Far East, where others have failed before -- and where horns and tusks are said to have medicinal value.

    Campaigners welcome the fact that the issue is being talked about at all -- and they accept that solutions will take time.

    But for the majestic creatures that roam Lewa, there may be little of that.  

  • Nigeria sends jets, attack helicopters to war against Islamist militants

    Tim Cocks / Reuters, file

    Nigerian forces gather Monday in the Islamist stronghold of Maiduguri. Soldiers poured in this weeek before the military on Friday launched a major offensive against the insurgents.

    By Lanre Ola, Reuters

    MAIDUGURI, Nigeria -- Nigerian forces used jets and attack helicopters to bombard Islamist militant camps in the northeast on Friday, in their biggest military offensive since Boko Haram launched an uprising in 2009.

    "A number of insurgents have been killed," the defense headquarters spokesman said, including at the Sambisa game reserve in Borno state, the epicenter of the insurgency.

    "It is not just Sambisa. Every camp is under attack. But we have not done the mopping-up operations on the ground to determine the numbers killed," Brig. Gen. Chris Olukolade said by telephone. Another military source, who declined to be named, said at least 30 insurgents had been killed.

    Nigerian forces are trying to regain territory controlled by increasingly well-armed Boko Haram Islamist insurgents in their northeastern stronghold states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, put under a state of emergency by President Goodluck Jonathan on Wednesday.

    More troops arrived in the Borno state capital, Maiduguri, on Friday, witnesses said.

    "I saw more than 20 trucks loaded with soldiers fully kitted for battle towards Marte. I wish them luck in ending this BH (Boko Haram) madness," resident Ahmed Ibrahim said by telephone.

    Beyond the region covered by the state of emergency, gunmen stormed a police station and a bank, the army said, a sign the offensive could provoke violence by smaller militant cells across the north.

    Boko Haram, other Islamist militant groups such as al-Qaeda-linked Ansaru and associated criminal gangs have become the biggest threat to stability in Africa's top oil-producing nation.

    Thousands have been killed since Boko Haram launched an uprising almost four years ago in an effort to create an Islamic state in a country of about 170 million split roughly equally between Christians, who are the majority in the south, and Muslims, who predominate in the north.

    Violence has mostly happened far from the commercial hub, Lagos, or political capital, Abuja, and hundreds of miles away from oilfields in the southeast.

    Military jets, helicopter gunships and thousands of troops are involved in the current offensive, which may answer some critics who accuse Jonathan, a southern Christian, of underestimating the severity of the crisis in the Muslim north.

    Rights groups are concerned the state of emergency will lead to more abuses they have document by Nigerian forces.

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    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • At least 18 slain as blasts rip through 2 mosques in Pakistan village

    Two bombs exploded near separate mosques killing at least 18 people in a remote area of northwestern Pakistan. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.

    By Mushtaq Yusufzai, Producer, NBC News

    PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- At least 18 people were killed as they prayed when explosions ripped through two mosques in Pakistan on Friday, villagers and government officials said.

    The blasts occurred in Bazdara, which is located in a mountainous region close to the restive Swat valley. Villagers put the death toll at 33. However, authorities said 18 people had died.

    "The roof of [one of the mosques] collapsed in the blast," local resident Shah Jehan said.

    Pakistani security forces cordoned off the area while villagers searched the rubble for survivors.

    "The death toll is likely to rise as some of the injured people are in a serious condition," local government official Sajid Khan added.

    No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombings. The Pakistani military has maintained a heavy presence in the region since its 2009 offensive against militants in nearby Swat.

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    This story was originally published on Fri May 17, 2013 10:59 AM EDT

  • 'Ruby the Heart Stealer' on witness stand: Berlusconi parties featured stripping 'nuns'

    Stefano Porta / ANSA via EPA

    Karima El-Mahrough, nicknamed Ruby the Heart Stealer, leaves a Milan courtroom after testifying about former premier Silvio Berlusconi's "bunga bunga" parties.

    By Colleen Barry, The Associated Press

    MILAN -- The Moroccan woman at the center of a sex scandal involving former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi testified Friday in court for the first time, describing how a young woman attending one of Berlusconi's "bunga bunga" parties dressed as a nun, danced provocatively and stripped down to her underwear for the premier.

    Karima el-Mahroug took the witness stand in the trial of three former Berlusconi aides charged with recruiting her and other women for prostitution. They deny the charges. The trial is separate from the one in which Berlusconi is charged with paying for sex with a minor — el-Mahroug herself — and trying to cover it up.

    El-Mahroug, also known as Ruby or Ruby the Heart Stealer, has made carefully orchestrated statements to the media since the scandal broke but has never publicly given sworn testimony. Both she and Berlusconi deny having had sex.

    The three Berlusconi aides — Emilio Fede, an executive in Berlusconi's media empire; Nicole Minetti, a former dental hygienist, showgirl and local politician, and talent agent Dario "Lele" Mora — are accused of recruiting women for prostitution at the parties and abetting prostitution, including of a minor.

    El-Mahroug's testimony Friday confirmed the sexual atmosphere at Berlusconi's infamous "bunga bunga" parties, which were filled with beautiful young women. Many of those women have said they received money from the billionaire media mogul.

    Dressed soberly with her hair pulled back, El-Mahroug said she first made contact with Berlusconi's inner circle when she participated in a beauty contest organized by Fede in Sicily when she was 16.

    Vincenzo Pinto / AFP - Getty Images

    Karima el-Mahroug said she visited a mansion belonging to Silvio Berlusconi, seen here in 2011, a half-dozen times. Each time she received an envelope containing money, el-Mahroug testified Friday.

    After that she made her way to Milan, hoping to find work. She said she tried to get work through another defendant's talent agency but wound up landing a job as a hostess in nightclubs, earning around $130 a night.

    Eventually, she ran into Fede at a restaurant, where she reminded him of his promise in Sicily to help her. Shortly thereafter, she was invited to a dinner party — at Berlusconi's villa outside Milan.

    She testified that she met the premier that night — on Valentine's Day in 2010 — and that he gave her an envelope of 2,000 to 3,000 euros ($2,600 to $3,900), saying it was "a little help" and asking for her telephone number, which she gave him.

    At that party, she said, she introduced herself as Ruby and told other guests a fake tale that she was Egyptian, that her mother was a famous Arab singer and that she was related to then-Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. She was 17 at the time but had passed herself off as being 24.

    El-Mahroug confirmed Friday what other witnesses have testified previously: that at some of the soirees, young female party guests had dressed up like nuns and danced for Berlusconi and then stripped down to their underwear.

    El-Mahroug said Minetti, one of the defendants, had dressed up like a nun at that Feb. 14 party and lifted her costume to show off her legs as she danced in Berlusconi's in-house disco, which was outfitted with a lap-dance pole. El-Mahroug demonstrated from her seat how Minetti had raised her hemline. She said Minetti eventually took off her costume and was in just her lingerie.

    She said other girls dressed up as President Barack Obama and a Milan magistrate who is leading the prosecution against Berlusconi in the sex scandal.

    "The girls who were dressed in costumes approached him in a sensual way as they danced. They raised their skirts," El-Mahroug testified. She added: "I never saw contact."

    El-Mahroug said she visited Berlusconi's mansion, Arcore, a half-dozen times, and that each time she was given an envelope with money, always in 500 euro ($645) bills. The second evening she went she said she was given more than $2,500.

    Prosecutors in Berlusconi's separate trial have said El-Mahroug's testimony is unreliable and are relying on her sworn statements. The defense had initially called her as a witness, but then changed its strategy and didn't call her. That trial is nearing a verdict.

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  • Cannes caper: Pricey trove of jewels stolen from hotel room during film festival

    Sebastien Nogier / EPA

    French police officers stand guard Friday outside the Cannes hotel that was targeted.

    By Nancy Ing and Erin McClam, NBC News

    Premiering this year at Cannes: "To Catch a Thief."

    Someone stole a hotel room safe Friday and made off with hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of gems by Chopard, a Swiss jeweler that decks the stars in its ritzy wares for the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival, the most celebrated gathering in cinema. 

    The festival opened Wednesday, and Chopard jewels are certainly being worn by some of the biggest stars in Hollywood. But in a statement late Friday, Chopard said the jewels that were stolen weren't part of that collection.

    And while it was widely reported that the stolen jewelry was worth almost 780,000 euros — about $1 million U.S. — the company maintained that "the value of the pieces stolen is far lower than those in the figures circulating in the media."

    Chopard — whose full name, Le Petit-Fils de L.-U. Chopard & Cie S.A., would give any actor fits — wouldn't officially say how much they were worth because police were still investigating. But the newspaper Le Figaro said the company had valued them at between 200,000 and 300,000 euros ($250,000 to $385,000). 

    A police source told NBC News that the safe was torn from the wall of the hotel room of a U.S. employee of Chopard. The heist took place about 5 a.m., French media reported. Chopard said the employee wasn't in the room at the time.

    It's common for employees of jewelers to stay out all night during events like the Cannes festival, either surveying jewelry lent to the stars or recovering it from them after parties.

    Police swarmed the hotel, a four-star Novotel, and were combing through surveillance footage and grilling potential witnesses.

    "It seems pretty unlikely to us that it was just one person," Cmdr. Bernard Mascarelli, a police spokesman in the nearby city of Nice, told The Associated Press. "There must have been either inside complicity, or people who were in contact with this person and knew that the person had jewels."

    Chopard also makes the Palme d'Or, the award for best picture at Cannes and arguably the top prize in film. Festival organizers wouldn't say where the Palme was being kept Friday but reassured reporters that it was safe.

    On its Facebook and Tumblr pages, Chopard features stars showing off its spectacular jewels on the red carpet.

    Just Thursday, Julianne Moore wore a dazzling platinum necklace packed with 56 carats of diamonds. The English model Cara Delevingne sported glittering Chopard chandelier earrings. The singer-songwriter Lana del Rey chose Chopard for the second straight year and was photographed at Cannes in extravagant earrings of yellow and white gold set with emeralds.

    The festival, which draws thousands of industry insiders to the palm-lined shores of the Mediterranean Sea, runs through May 26. One of the films premiering there this year is "The Bling Ring," a Sofia Coppola-directed drama about a group of teenagers who rob celebrity homes and brag about it on Facebook.

    Among the films competing for Chopard's Palme this year are five from the United States, with other U.S. directors including Steven Soderbergh and the Coen brothers. The Iranian director Asghar Farhadi premiered a drama called "Le Passe" at Cannes on Friday to huge buzz. Steven Spielberg heads the jury.

    Besides being a competition for cinema prestige — and a staging ground for legendarily lavish parties — Cannes is a showcase for jewelers and fashion designers, who drape the stars in their goods.

    High-end jewelry stores along the French Riviera have been a favorite target of professional thieves for years. In February, thieves ran off with $1 million worth of luxury watches from a jewelry store along the main drag in Cannes.

    A notorious ring of jewelry thieves known as the Pink Panthers has struck the French Riviera and Monaco repeatedly over the past decade. The source said investigators haven't ruled them out, but they said the break-in doesn't follow their pattern.

    M. Alex Johnson of NBC News and Reuters contributed to this report.

    Related:

    Full movies coverage from TODAY Entertainment

    This story was originally published on Fri May 17, 2013 8:40 AM EDT

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