ENNISKILLEN, Northern Ireland — The world’s leaders will descend on a secluded golf resort in Northern Ireland on Monday for the G8 summit. Minutes away sits Enniskillen, a small town with a painful past.

Less than 10 miles from the border with Ireland, this town was one of the key flashpoints during the so-called Troubles, the sectarian violence that consumed Northern Ireland for more than three decades.

Enniskillen is so steeped in tragedy and violence that British Prime Minister David Cameron acknowledged it would have been “unthinkable” even a decade ago that it would be at the center of the world stage.

One crisp November morning in 1987, militants belonging to the Irish Republican Army bombed the town's annual memorial ceremony for British war veterans. The attack killed 11 people and injured 63.

Stephen Gault remembers that day clearly. He is now 43 years old, just six years younger than his father was on the day he was killed.

“I remember being knocked unconscious for about 30 seconds — coming round, eery silence, dust everywhere,” recalled Gault. “The only thing I could hear was the distant ringing of a shop alarm and then all of a sudden, as if you flicked on a switch, it was like a war movie. Everything just erupted, pandemonium, people screaming, people lying dead beside me.”

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The atrocity has made Enniskillen a highly symbolic place, despite its prior proud history – writers Oscar Wilde and Samuel Beckett attended a local school.

The Queen made history there last year – the 25th anniversary of the bombing — when she walked across the town’s narrow high street between the Protestant and Catholic churches which face one another. It was the first time the Queen had ever set foot in a Catholic church on the island of Ireland.

And on the site of the bomb now stands the Clinton Centre – an cross-community educational facility inaugurated and visited many times by President Bill Clinton.

“People who thought at the time of the Enniskillen bomb in 1987 that it would drive a wedge between the Catholics and the Protestants,” reflects Gault. “But if anything it worked the opposite way, it brought the two communities closer together.”

Fifteen years after the landmark 1998 peace agreement, Northern Ireland’s affairs have dramatically changed — but there is still room for progress.

PhotoBlog: Derelict Northern Ireland shops get facelift ahead of G8 summit

“I think there's been a massive transformation,” says Sean Murray, a former IRA prisoner and current Sinn Fein activist. “That’s not to say there are no contentious issues left.”

Standing at one of Belfast’s imposing "peace walls" — erected during the conflict to separate nationalist and unionist communities — Murray says that there is still a fear of violence on each side.

“There’s intermittent violence at this peace wall. It's low level: it's stones, it's bottles, but it's still violence and it still interrupts people's lives.”

Tensions have begun to rise again. In January, Belfast saw riots with over plans to stop flying the British flag over the city hall. Last summer, Catholic youths fought running battles with police.

Then there are those who continue to claim there is a war over what they call the British ‘occupation’ of Northern Ireland.

John Connolly was convicted for possession of a mortar bomb in 2000. “That device consisted of 250 pounds of homemade explosives,” Connolly told NBC News last week. “I was apprehended, caught along with my two comrades going to carry out an attack on a military base in Fermanagh.”

Connolly said he is no longer a member of any militant group, and does not speak on their behalf. But he said the sectarian war is far from over.

“I don’t believe there is a peace process,” Connolly said. “It’s dead and buried at the minute.”

Security sources estimate the number of IRA "dissidents" who aim to continue the armed campaign number only a few hundred. And  while the dissident attacks are often foiled, the fact that there are even attempts exist worries many.

In March last year, 25-year-old policeman Ronan Kerr was killed outside his own house, and in 2009 two British soldiers were killed as they accepted a pizza delivery outside their barracks in County Antrim.

“There will always be those who would take up arms against a foreign occupation,” Connolly insists. “Will I condemn them? No I won’t.”

One fear is that Protestant terrorist groups, like the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), might get pulled into increased violence.

William Smith, a former UVF prisoner and current unionist political activist committed to peace, agrees that while huge progress has been made, now is not the time for complacence.

“There's been massive progress in Northern Ireland,” Smith says. “But it’s still a work in progress. You just can't just walk away and say, 'Well there's a peace center now and that's it' — or there's a danger of slipping back.”

NBC’s Sarah Burke and Alastair Jamieson contributed to this report.

 

ROME — In this country, where they love to talk, there are many views on how long the cardinals will take to choose the next pope. 

The leaders of the Catholic Church don't have to act fast. When your history stretches back 2,000 years and beyond, time is relative. In 1268, the church leadership was so divided it took three years to choose a new pope. Three weeks, even three months, would not be long by comparison.

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Three days is a good bet. Even Pope John Paul II, considered an outsider, was selected on the third day. But if the conclave is bitterly divided, cardinals could keep going… and going.

In Roman times the Senate of the Republic would begin at dawn. Senators were adept at delaying a vote, drawing out proceedings.

Fast forward from Roman times and Italy had inherited a culture with a slow pace and a love of long lunches and weekends away from work.

Yet this is also the country that invented the espresso, where coffee is often drunk standing up. Italians created one of the world's greatest fast foods: pizza. And then there's Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati — Italian cars go at one speed: fast. 

Perhaps Italy’s need for speed is partly a reaction to the slow lane that Italy so often appears to occupy. Traffic lights seem to take forever to change; it is little wonder many Italian drivers have one hand permanently on their vehicle's horn.

Italy’s culture has shaped not only the conclave process but the entire machinery of the Vatican — a fact that some say explains many of the church’s current predicaments.

“The way in which the dysfunction of 21st century Italy has re-established itself within the curia in recent years is one of the most important issues for the church,” NBC News Vatican expert George Weigel said.

Twenty-eight of the 115 cardinals taking part in the conclave are from Italy — more than two-and-a-half times the number from the next-largest represented nation, the United States.

For almost 200 years, no papal selection has lasted longer than five days, and it is possible that all the talking prior to the conclave has helped narrow down the field. The voting itself is a slow process — the ballots are counted three times — but the results are announced as they come in, so it will quickly be clear to the cardinals if there is an emerging consensus.

Then the new pope will walk out on to the balcony St. Peter's Basilica. And the conversation will move on to whether the pace of change in the Roman Catholic Church will speed up or slow down.

NBC News' Alastair Jamieson contributed to this report.

Follow NBC News' Keir Simmons on Twitter.

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SANTA MARIA, Brazil -— At 2 a.m. on Rua Dos Andradas, a crowd of young people stands in silence. There is nothing to say.

Two nights ago, on this same street, at this same time, a tragedy unfolded that is hard to comprehend. 

Outside the Kiss nightclub, where a blaze and its panicked aftermath claimed the lives of at least 230 partygoers – most of them students at the local university – the smell of smoke lingers in the air.

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Now it has become a place to mourn and remember.

Among the survivors is Adreen Righi, 20, who is still trying to make sense of how the disaster unfolded.

"I was dancing with my friends," she says, recovering at home. "People started pushing. I looked at the stage and there was smoke."

Pushed over in the panic, she was trampled to the ground but still found air. “Breathe, breathe, come on now breathe,” she told herself as others climbed over her.

Then, she recalls, “an angel saved my life.” A woman she didn't know pushed her outside, to safety.

In the fresh air, she hugged her friends. But some were missing.

Her classmate, Juliano, had gone to the bathroom 15 minutes before the fire. She will never see him again.

“He was a good person,” she says, “always smiling. Making jokes. He was a good guy.”

She is “very happy” to be alive, but adds: “I can't explain how I feel about my friends, about the city.”

Santa Maria is in mourning, but there is also growing anger.

Investigators must now seek answers to the questions being asked here: Why did the nightclub apparently have only one exit? Why did fire extinguishers not work, as some witnesses have reported? Why did security staff briefly block exits to stop people leaving without paying their drinks tabs?

On the street outside the nightclub, a hand-made poster says: ‘Nada justifica, 231 assassinatos' – meaning ‘No justification – 231 murdered’.

The final death toll is still unclear, but the message is stark. 

Globo television said 53 seriously-injured victims remain in Porto Alegre, state capital of Rio Grande do Sul,where a support unit has also been set up with psychologists to help relatives of victims.

Police officials said four people are still under temporary arrest over the disaster. Local media reports on Monday said those detained were two owners of the Kiss club and two members of a band whose pyrotechnic display is thought to have set light to the club's sound-proofed ceiling. None of the arrests imply any criminal accusation, police said.

Protesters marched through the town late Monday, carrying flowers, balloons and placards with the names of the victims, according to Globo, which reported that as many as 30,000 took part.

Among them, Eglon Do Canto told The Associated Press: "We hope that the justice system, through its competent mechanisms, succeeds in clarifying to the public what happened, and gives the people an explanation."

Edgar Zuniga Jr, NBC News in Atlanta, contributed to this report.

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DUNBLANE, Scotland — Thousands of miles from Newtown, Conn., a lone gunman walked into the elementary school of this Scottish town and murdered 16 children aged 5 and 6 along with their teacher.

That was 17 years ago, but memories of the incident, which led to a total ban on the private ownership of handguns in the U.K., are still raw in Dunblane.

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Full coverage of the Connecticut school shooting

"Any shooting is tragic, but this one because of the age and because of the place is a painful reminder. I can picture myself waiting for the news and I can remember how I reacted."

When there are so many victims, so young, parents find comfort in each other, he said.  

"I can also remember the strength that we gained by meeting with the families," North added. "We found that we could say things in front of the other families that we could not say even to our closest friends, even to our relatives."

For teachers, school security jumps to forefront after Newtown shootings

Steve Birnie's son was injured in the shooting.  For him the challenge was to bring up his child amid such heartache.

"All we could do with our kids was be open and answer their questions as honestly as possible," Birnie said.

What happened was hard to comprehend, never mind explain: In March 1996, 43-year-old Thomas Hamilton entered Dunblane Primary School and shot more than a dozen children and a teacher.  After the murders, Hamilton killed himself. Tennis star Andy Murray, who won two Olympic medals and the U.S. Open this year, was among the children at school that day.  

The country reacted with revulsion and in 1997 laws were passed that essentially made private handgun ownership illegal throughout the United Kingdom. 

'The dreadful void'
Birnie now runs a young people's center, set up with money donated after the shooting. It was intended to provide some normality for children who had seen their community ripped apart. 

This week, members of the community lit candles at the center for the Newtown victims.  A condolence book is filling up with messages. 

Colin McIntosh, minister of Dunblane Cathedral, said he would never forget the week of funerals. He found himself burying children he had baptized.

Fierce debate after Newtown school shootings: Where was God?

"The week of funerals comes to an end and then the dreadful void," he told NBC News. "What happens now? What are we supposed to do? No one has an answer to that question."

One thing the families did was campaign for more restrictions on guns. 

"It wasn't difficult in the U.K. because there were so many people who felt similar," North said. "When families built up enough strength we organised the campaign."

"Had it not been for the parents, handguns would still be legal," ex-police officer Munn added.  "It was the parents that changed it. It was people power."

But it's important not to lose focus on the families and the shock and pain they are feeling, McIntosh said.

"I hesitate at this very early stage for people who are going through traumatic experience to say, 'Yes, you will recover; yes, you will get over this.' But they will, there will be a future, there is hope."

Nervous parents send kids back to school in Newtown 

In a message to Newtown, posted on the cathedral website, he said: "We do not understand a world in which such things can happen. All we can say from experience is that God is not absent in those moments when the worst happens.

"Words themselves seem so inadequate, but we in Dunblane will continue to remember you in our prayers. "

Even after all these years, talking about what happened is difficult for many in Dunblane. But they spoke this week in the hope that it might help those going through the same in Newtown.

"I want to send my sympathy and love," North said.  "Our lives have changed forever, but I want to reassure you that there will be positive things that will come eventually. I can't and will never forget what happened, and it takes time, but strength can come from various places."

Every community is different and will find it's own ways of coping they say.

"We offer our support," Birnie added. "Dunblane has come through it and I hope Newtown will, too."

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Updated at 10:35 a.m. ET: LONDON — Rupert Murdoch’s newspapers and other British media were reckless in the pursuit of sensational stories "almost irrespective of the harm" caused, according to a major report on Britain's phone-hacking scandal.

The findings of the year-long Leveson Inquiry criticized a “failure of systems of management and compliance” at Murdoch’s News of the World (NoTW) tabloid, which was closed down as the full extent of their illegal actions became clear.

Lord Justice Leveson said if Murdoch and his son James did not know about the extent of phone-hacking at the paper, then there had been a "determined cover-up" by unidentified staff.

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And if they had known then the Murdochs should have done something about it, he said. However, the judge added there was no evidence from which he could "safely infer" that Rupert Murdoch was aware of a wider problem.

The report is being watched by American lawmakers amid concerns that U.S. laws may have been broken.

Leveson did not recommend state regulation of the media – or censorship in the eyes of some – as some victims of press intrusion had demanded, but did propose a new self-regulatory body enshrined in law.

The inquiry was set up after it emerged that people working for the News of the World had hacked into messages on a phone belonging to Milly Dowler, 13, while she was a missing person in 2002. She had been abducted and was murdered.

A string of other examples of phone-hacking and other examples of press intrusion then emerged.

Read the full Leveson Inquiry report

Leveson said it was not just Murdoch’s newspapers that were at fault, adding that "outrageous" behavior by the press had "wreaked havoc with the lives of innocent people."

“There has been a recklessness in prioritizing sensational stories almost irrespective of the harm that the stories may cause and the rights of those who would be affected (perhaps in a way that can never be remedied),” his report said.

“Too many stories in too many newspapers are the subject of complaints from too many people,” it added.

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But Leveson was scathing about the Murdoch empire and the News of the World in particular. He said there was "a general lack of respect for individual privacy and dignity” at the paper.

And the judge said there had been a “serious failure of governance” at the News of the World, News Corporation and its U.K. arm News International in dealing with the phone-hacking allegations.

“There was a failure on the part of the management at the NoTW to take appropriate steps to investigate whether there was evidence of wrongdoing,” he said.

'Determined cover-up'
Leveson said if Rupert Murdoch and his son James were kept in the dark then “one or more parts of the management at the NoTW was engaged in a determined cover-up to keep relevant information about potential criminal activity within the organisation from senior management within NI.”

“… if James Murdoch had been the victim of a cover-up, or an attempt to minimise the gravity of the position, then the accountability and governance systems at NI would have to be considered to have broken down in an extremely serious respect,” he added.

Leveson said there was “no evidence” from which he could “safely infer that Rupert Murdoch was aware of a wider problem.”

But Leveson noted Rupert Murdoch did not appear to have followed up -- or arranged for his son James to follow up -- on the instructions Murdoch said he gave to Colin Myler, editor of the News of the World from 2007 to 2011, to “find out what the hell was going on.”

“If News Corporation management, and in particular Rupert Murdoch, were aware of the allegations, it is obvious that action should have been taken to investigate them,” Leveson said.

The report noted evidence given to the inquiry that News International had been “obstructive” during an early police investigation into phone-hacking.

“The approach taken by NI is far from what might be expected of a well-run corporation … An organisational culture that is founded on integrity and honesty would require not only full co-operation with law enforcement, but also a determination to expose behaviour that failed to comply with the law,” the report said.

Leveson said that what was needed was a “genuinely independent and effective system of self-regulation.”

The current Press Complaints Commission includes members of the media industry, but Leveson said his proposed new body should have no “serving editors or members of the House of Commons or government.” He also said that the new body should be recognized in law.

He said he was “struck by the evidence of journalists who felt they might be put under pressure to do things that were unethical or against the [press standards] code.”

To address this, he said there should be a new whistleblowing hotline and the new board should “encourage” media firms to include a “conscience clause” in their employment contracts.

U.S. senator: 'Deplorable conduct'
Senator Jay Rockefeller, chairman of the Senate commerce committee, earlier signaled he would be paying close attention to the findings of the report.

In an emailed statement sent to NBC News before it was released, he called on investigators in the U.K. to hold media companies accountable for their “deplorable conduct.”

Read more on this story from Britain's ITV News

Rockefeller said that was "deeply concerned" that media companies "may have violated U.S. laws and injured U.S. citizens."

He said he hoped Leveson’s report and other investigations would hold the media organizations involved “accountable for their deplorable conduct.”

“While I understand that the main goal of this report is to make policy recommendations, the core of the inquiry remains the illegal and unethical practices of newspapers owned by the News Corporation,” Rockefeller said.

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

Meanwhile, former News of the World editor Andy Coulson, who was later hired as U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron's chief media adviser, and Rebekah Brooks, the former CEO of News International, appeared in court Thursday to face charges related to allegations of corrupt payments made to public officials, ITV News reported. They were later released on bail.

The Associated Press, Reuters and ITV News contributed to this report. ITV News is NBC News' U.K. partner.

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Updated at 8:15 a.m. ET: LONDON — The chairman of the Senate commerce committee signaled he will be paying close attention to the findings of a U.K. report into phone-hacking and media ethics by newspapers owned by Rupert Murdoch and others, amid concern U.S. laws may have been broken.

Senator Jay Rockefeller called on investigators in the U.K. to hold media companies accountable for their "deplorable conduct," ahead of the release of a report by the year-long Leveson Inquiry into the culture, practice and ethics of the press Thursday.

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It is expected to be "excoriating" about the wrongdoing of journalists.

Numerous celebrities — including actor Hugh Grant and Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling — told the inquiry how they had been harassed, bullied, and traumatized by the press.

But ordinary people, such as Milly Dowler, a 13-year-old girl who was abducted and murdered in 2002, were also subjected to invasion of privacy in the most shocking of circumstances.

It emerged that while she was missing, employees of Rupert Murdoch's News of the World tabloid hacked into her telephone. Outrage over this case prompted Murdoch to shut down the tabloid and led U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron to commission the Leveson Inquiry.

Former News of the World editor Andy Coulson, who was later hired as Cameron's chief media adviser, and Rebekah Brooks, the former CEO of News Corporation’s U.K. arm News International, appeared in court Thursday to face charges related to allegations of corrupt payments made to public officials, ITV News reported. They were later released on bail.

This probe has raised the specter of possible charges in the U.S. under the 1977 Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, whose anti-bribery provisions could ensnare executives if it is proved that payoffs were made to people such as British police officers.

'Deeply concerned'
Rockefeller, chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, said in an emailed statement sent to NBC News that he feared that illegal journalistic practices may have been used on U.S. citizens.

He said he hoped Leveson’s report and other investigations would "continue to clear the air" and hold the media organizations involved “accountable for their deplorable conduct.”

"While I understand that the main goal of this report is to make policy recommendations, the core of the inquiry remains the illegal and unethical practices of newspapers owned by the News Corporation," Rockefeller said.

"I remain deeply concerned that these companies may have violated U.S. laws and injured U.S. citizens," he added.

Judgment day looms for Rupert Murdoch, Piers Morgan and UK press

The Leveson report could have implications for CNN’s Piers Morgan, who was previously editor of the News of the World and the Mirror newspapers.

In a 2006 article in the Daily Mail tabloid, Morgan said he was played a message left by former Beatle Paul McCartney on the phone of his then wife Heather Mills. Mills has said there's no way Morgan could have obtained the message honestly.

At the Leveson Inquiry, Morgan refused to reveal how he was able to listen to the message, saying this would compromise a source.

There have been calls from several victims of press intrusion for the government to regulate the media, an idea some have likened to state censorship in countries like China.

Fear for free speech
After retired teacher Christopher Jefferies, 67, of Bristol, was wrongly arrested for the murder of a young woman renting an apartment he owned, his character was picked over and savaged in the press and he later won substantial damages for defamation from eight newspapers.

He told ITV News that the government had to introduce some form of statutory regulation of the press.

UK PM's ex-aide, Murdoch protege face charges in phone-hacking scandal

"I'm sure that I and many other people will continue to feel extremely angry unless the sort of action which I have been suggesting needs to be taken, is taken," he said.

However, more than 80 politicians from all three main parties in the U.K. signed a letter published in the Guardian and Telegraph newspapers warning Cameron against state control of the media.

"We believe in free speech and are opposed to the imposition of any form of statutory control," they wrote.

Former UK PM accuses Murdoch of misleading inquiry into phone-hack scandal

Former News of the World journalist Tom Latham told ITV News that newspapers were already not running stories in the public interest in the wake of the Leveson Inquiry.

"If you cede anything to the government it's a slippery slope and then you start to lose control of the freedom of the press,” he said.

But, given the paper’s history, Leveson may be more sympathetic to the complaints of people like Hugh Grant.

He has revealed that details of hospital visits he made were leaked to the press, his garbage was rifled through, his ex-girlfriend and his infant daughter harassed.

Grant said articles in The Sun and the Daily Express about his visit to a hospital emergency room was a gross intrusion of privacy.

"I think no one would expect their medical records to be made public or to be appropriated by newspapers for commercial profit," the actor said. "That is fundamental to our British sense of decency."

Reuters, The Associated Press and ITV News contributed to this report. ITV News is NBC's U.K. partner.

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LONDON -- The child sex abuse scandal engulfing Britain’s public broadcaster, the BBC, has been producing disturbing headlines in the UK for almost a month, and the signs are this is just the beginning. Since the scandal broke, 300 victims have told police that they were abused by BBC TV host Jimmy Savile, suggesting this number may yet rise.

Savile hosted TV shows, worked for charities and was even awarded a knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II. More than just a TV personality, he was a national institution. He was perhaps Britain’s answer to Dick Clark, hosting the UK’s equivalent of “American Bandstand,” the very British sounding “Top of the Pops.”

Savile died last year, but it is another institution, the one he worked for, that has become as much the focus of this scandal. The BBC says new allegations have been made against nine current BBC staff or contributors since the revelations about Savile. Prime Minister David Cameron told Parliament: "These allegations do leave many institutions, perhaps particularly the BBC, with serious questions to answer."

It is difficult to exaggerate how fundamental the BBC is to British culture. It has the highest-rated radio stations. It runs one of the biggest TV channels. Its Web pages are the most-read. Its news is the most trusted. The BBC even has its own "sound" – a kind of posh, but not too posh, monotone adopted by all newsreaders. British children grow up with it.

Jimmy Savile abuse scandal stuns Britain: a who's who primer

Now, it is accused of turning its back while children were allegedly abused on its premises by a BBC star and others. One BBC show, “Jim’ll Fix It,” even invited children to write in and ask to be on TV. The access to legal minors has prompted comparisons to Penn State University assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky. It’s a scandal that is raising questions about the cult of celebrity and about how large prestigious institutions can offer pedophiles a place to hide.

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One seemingly inexplicable aspect of what happened is that so many people now appear to have been aware that it was happening. In interviews, Savile was asked about whether he was a pedophile and denied it. Comedians told jokes about it. Yet for decades no one did anything to stop it. Perhaps all this is not just about the British Broadcasting Corporation but about British culture itself.

BBC ripped for handling of sex abuse scandal tied to former host

The BBC’s journalistic culture is also being questioned. The former director-general of the BBC, Mark Thompson, is soon to be chief executive of the New York Times. Under his leadership, and that of new BBC director-general George Entwistle, a BBC investigation into Savile was dropped last year. It took a rival network, ITV, to uncover the scandal.

It’s still not clear why the well-regarded show “Newsnight” dropped the investigation, and there is no suggestion that either Thompson or Entwistle were involved in a cover up. But, on top of the BBC’s failure to stop Savile, its shelving of his investigation has shocked the UK. The BBC’s journalism is fiercely independent; its own journalists have done much to make the Savile story headline news, but many of the questions are about the competency of BBC's management rather than individual reporters and producers.

The alleged abuse happened many years ago, in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. And the BBC is not the only organization involved. For example, Savile was allowed into children’s hospital wards. The police were asked to investigate on a number of occasions but failed to bring charges. What makes the allegations all the more disturbing to many Britons is that the BBC is funded through a tax paid by every British family with a television.

The BBC has faced serious crises before. In 2003, it was investigated after a controversial broadcast about the Iraq war that led to the suicide of a leading scientist. The public inquiry was so critical it lead to the resignation of the BBC’s then director-general. Ten years on, the BBC is still thriving. But it’s hard to imagine a more toxic claim than the allegation that the British Broadcasting Corporation allowed children to be abused by its employees. As another famous British bastion of journalism, The Economist, puts it this week, “From the height of so much esteem, it is a steep fall.”

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