• In first public acknowledgement, Holder says 4 Americans died in US drone strikes

    Chip Somodevilla / Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images file

    Attorney General Eric Holder testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 6.

    By Michael Isikoff, National Investigative Correspondent, NBC News

    The Obama administration publicly acknowledged for the first time Wednesday that U.S. drone strikes have killed four American citizens since 2009, including the previously undisclosed death of a North Carolina resident who left the United States for Pakistan and was later indicted on federal terrorism charges.


    Attorney General Eric Holder, in a letter to congressional leaders and chairman of key congressional committees made public on the eve of what was billed as a major counterterrorism speech by President Barack Obama, also confirmed the deaths in drone attacks in Yemen of three other Americans that already had been widely reported: those of radical cleric Anwar Al-Awlaki , his teenage son, Abd al-Rahmn Anwar al-Awlaki; and Samir Khan, the American who ran al Qaeda’s web-based propaganda magazine Inspire.  Previously the Obama administration had only acknowledged the senior Awlaki’s killing and refused to publicly confirm or deny reports of the other deaths.

    The letter also confirmed that U.S. drones had killed Jude Kenan Mohammed of Raleigh, N.C., more than a  year after a local news report quoted a friend as saying he had died in an attack in Pakistan in November 2011.

    Holder said in the letter that the senior Awlaki was the only U.S. citizen targeted in a drone strike.

    Anonymous / AP

    Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S.-born Yemeni cleric and recruiter for al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen, is shown in an October 2008 file photo.

    He also provided new details about what the U.S. says were Awlaki's operational roles in terror plots, including his role in a 2010 attempt to bomb cargo planes by putting bombs in printer cartridges.

    It also included an explicit explanation of the U.S. policy for targeted killings of Americans, much of which was included in a “white paper” obtained by NBC News in February.

    Mohammed’s death appears to have been news to the FBI, which as of Thursday still listed him on its “most wanted” list, saying, “On July 22, 2009, a federal grand jury in North Carolina indicted Jude Kenan Mohammad for conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and conspiracy to murder, kidnap, maim, and injure persons in a foreign country. Mohammad is at large … (and) is believed to be in Pakistan.”

    A law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity told NBC News: “We don’t know when he was killed. That fact was classified.”

    FBI spokeswoman Shelley Lynch said in an email: "Jude Kenan Mohammed remained wanted until there was official confirmation of death.  Until now, the matter was classified and it is now appropriate for the wanted poster to be removed from our website." 

    Obama is expected to discuss the drone program Thursday in a speech at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C.

    Release of Holder’s letter came as classified documents obtained by NBC News raised new questions about the CIA-run drone program and whether it is consistent with public comments by Obama and other administration officials describing  the strikes as “very precise” and targeted at specific al Qaeda operatives and their associates. In fact, the documents show, the agency has frequently attacked low-level militants and foreign fighters in Pakistan whose names and nationalities were not known, as well as militant groups not directly connected to al Qaeda.

    The documents, similar to those recently reported by McClatchy Newspapers, offer a window into the secretive drone program and how its actual operations sometimes differ from the public accounts provided by the administration.

    They appear to officially confirm that the agency has engaged in “signature strikes” – a much discussed and controversial practice that has never been publicly acknowledged -- in which CIA drone operators target individuals based on the “signature characteristics” of suspects but whose actual identities are not clear.

    They surface at a time that U.S officials appear to be scaling back the drone program – amid warnings from some  former military and intelligence officials that the attacks may be creating a backlash harmful to U.S. interests in the long run.

     When Obama was asked about the drone program last year during a Google News forum, he called it “a targeted, focused effort at people who are on a list of active terrorists.” In an April 2012 speech, then White House counter-terrorism adviser and now CIA Director John Brennan said: “The United States Government conducts targeted strikes against specific al Qaeda terrorists,” while acknowledging that drone targets included “associated forces.”

    But a CIA list of 53 drone strikes in the fall of 2010 indicates that fewer than half – 22 -- listed al Qaeda operatives as the targets. Other strikes were aimed at targets that included suspected members of the militant al-Haqqani network in Pakistan, which is believed to have harbored and worked with al Qaeda; members of the Pakistani Taliban, an Islamic fundamentalist military group that aims to overthrow the Pakistani government; and members of another Pakistani terrorist network identified as the “Commander Nazir Group.”  Fourteen of the strikes listed the targets only as “other militants.”

    Agency lists for other periods show a higher proportion of strikes being specifically aimed at Al Qaeda operatives. For example, during a nine month period between January and September 2011, 28 out of 42 strikes listed al Qaeda members as targets.

    But in other accounts of the strikes, agency officials refer to the targeting of individuals whose identifies do not appear to be known. One 2009 attack was described as being aimed at “military aged males”  at a site “associated with al Qaeda explosives training.” Another, in 2010, described the target as “four adult males conducting weapons training.”

    The CIA and White House did not respond to requests for comment about the documents. But U.S. officials have vigorously defended the drone program and their public accounts of it, while saying they are limited in what they can say because of its classified nature and the potential impacts of full public disclosure in Pakistan. As for the use of signature strikes , they have argued that “when you have a bunch of guys building explosives, you don’t need to know who they are. They are an imminent threat.”

    NBC News’ Pete Williams, Chuck Todd and Tom Curry contributed to this report.

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  • Malcolm X grandson beaten with bat or stick, Mexican prosecutors say

    By Andrew Rafferty, Staff Writer, NBC News

    The men accused of killing Malcolm X’s grandson in a Mexican bar used a bat or stick in addition to punching and kicking him during the fatal beating, Mexico City’s prosecutor said Tuesday.


    The Associated Press reports that prosecutor Rodolfo Rios said the weapon was used by two waiters arrested for the death of Malcolm Shabazz, grandson of the slain political activist. The waiters served Shabazz and a friend at a bar called The Palace Club, and a dispute over a tab of more than $1,200 resulted.

    Mexican prosecutors on Monday said the waiters were “likely responsible” for Shabazz’s death. The 28-year-old was found severely beaten Thursday morning. An autopsy revealed he died from organ damage, head trauma and rib fractures.

    Shabazz's friend, Miguel Suarez, told authorities that the two had drunk about 12 beers when the waiters demanded they pay a bill of 15,000 pesos, according to the Associated Press. They were lured into the bar by a woman who spoke to Shabazz in English, authorities said.

    The bar is located on one of Mexico City’s busiest avenues, an area popular with tourists for its live music, dive bars and strip clubs.

    Rios said the attackers disabled all the security cameras inside the bar and closed it once the ambulance arrived and they realized the severity of the beating, the AP reports.

    The bar’s owner has not yet talked to police, and prosecutors said the owner could be charged in connection with the crime.

  • Two waiters arrested in killing of Malcolm X's grandson in Mexico

    By Jeff Black, Staff Writer, NBC News

    Two employees of a Mexico City bar are under arrest in connection with the death of Malcolm Shabazz, the grandson of slain political activist Malcolm X.

    Mexico AG

    Manuel Alejandro Perez de Jesus

    Shabazz, 28, reportedly got into an altercation last week at the bar over a disputed $1,200 tab.

    Mexico prosecutors, in a statement translated by NBC News, said David Hernandez Cruz and Manuel Alejandro Pérez de Jesús, waiters at a bar called The Palace Club, were "likely responsible" for Shabazz's death.

    Shabazz was found severely beaten early on Thursday morning after a night of drinking in the city.

    According to Reuters, Shabazz was in Mexico City to visit Miguel Suarez, an immigrant activist recently deported from the United States.

    Mexico AG

    David Hernndez Cruz

    The two had visited a run-down neighborhood around Plaza Garibaldi, a tourist area where musicians play Mariachi music on the streets, which are lined with strip clubs, dive bars and bordellos, Reuters reported. Mexican prosecutors described the area as Tepito, a working-class enclave.

    At some point, the men met up with two women, aged 20 and 25, and entered The Palace, an establishment prosecutors described as a “place of entertainment” where they drank and socialized, Mexican officials said.

    At about 3 a.m., the two waiters demand payment and a dispute erupted over the amount of the bill. After failing to reach a settlement, Shabazz was beaten and robbed, prosecutors said.

    He died in a hospital early Thursday. Prosecutors said Shabazz died of injuries that included organ damage, head trauma and rib fractures. 

    /

    Malcolm Shabazz shown as a 14-year-old at Family Court in Yonkers, N.Y., in 1999.

    Shabazz's death matched his turbulent upbringing. His mother was accused of trying to kill Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who some thought was responsible for Malcolm X's assassination.

    He then went to live with his grandmother. But on June 1, 1997, at age 12 he set fire to his grandmother's Yonkers, N.Y., apartment. She died later that month from injuries sustained in the blaze. He spent 18 months in juvenile detention after pleading guilty to manslaughter and arson.

    He later spent time in prison for attempted robbery. 

    The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

    Related:

    Malcolm Shabazz, grandson of Malcolm X, slain in Mexico

  • Malcolm Shabazz, grandson of Malcolm X, slain in Mexico

    Hulton Archive via Getty Images

    US civil rights activist Malcolm X (1925-1965) speaks during a rally in Washington, circa 1963. Malcolm X was later assassinated. Malcolm Shabazz, his grandson, was killed Thursday, May 9, in Mexico.

    By John Newland, Staff Writer, NBC News

    Malcolm Shabazz, grandson of the late civil rights activist Malcolm X, was killed Thursday in Mexico in an apparent beating outside a bar.

    Shabazz, 28, had traveled to Mexico to meet with a leader of a California activist and rights group known as Rumec, according to a report in Talking Points Memo, which quoted Juan Ruiz, a member of the organization. The leader, Miguel Suarez, had been deported last month to Mexico by U.S. officials.

    Suarez told The Associated Press that Shabazz had traveled to Mexico to support him and his movement. He said he was with Shabazz when Shabazz was beaten up at a bar near Plaza Garibaldi, a downtown square that is home to Mexico City's mariachis.

    "We were dancing with the girls and drinking," Suarez said. Then the owner of the bar wanted them to pay a $1,200 bar tab for music, drinks and the women's companionship. 

    Suarez said a man with a gun took him to a separate room and he heard a violent commotion in the hall. He said he escaped and came back minutes later in a cab to look for Shabazz, whom he found on the ground outside the bar.

    "He was in shock. His face was messed up," Suarez told the AP, saying he took Shabazz to a hospital but that his friend died hours later of blunt-force injuries.

    Mexico's attorney general's office said a murder investigation was under way, Reuters reported. The office said in a statement that Shabazz "exhibited various injuries, apparently from blows," and died in a hospital.

    Al-Hajj Talib Abdur-Rashid, a leading U.S. figure in Islam and the imam of the Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood in Harlem, N.Y., said the Shabazz family was "still trying to find out exactly what happened" and trying to cope with the loss.

    He described the Shabazz family as "very private" and said he was respecting its request to be discreet about the death. 

    "I am a spiritual adviser to the family itself," he said. "They're like any family would be under the circumstances. They're in shock. They're grieving."

    He added that details surrounding Malcom Shabazz's death remained sketchy on Friday.

    In a statement, the Shabazz family said: "Although his bright light and boundless potential are gone from this life, we are grateful that he now rests in peace in the arms of his grandparents and the safety of God. We will miss him."

    Numerous attempts to reach other Mexican officials were unsuccessful. Friday was Mother's Day in the country, and most official offices were closed, including U.S. consular bureaus and the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City. The State Department would say only that a U.S. citizen had been killed in Mexico City and that it was withholding further comment at the family's request.

    Shabazz had a turbulent childhood and adolescence. His mother, Qubilah Shabazz, was indicted on charges of plotting to kill the Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who some suspected was involved in Malcolm X's assassination. Qubilah Shabazz was Malcolm X's second daughter.

    In light of his mother's legal and personal troubles, Shabazz was placed at a young age in the custody of Betty Shabazz, his grandmother and Malcolm X's widow. On June 1, 1997, Shabazz, then 12, set a fire in his grandmother's Yonkers, N.Y., apartment that left the woman critically injured. She died later that month from those injuries.

    Shabazz pleaded guilty to setting the blaze and was sentenced to 18 months in juvenile detention for manslaughter and arson. That sentence could be re-evaluated every year until he turned 18.

    He got out after four years, but two years later, at age 18, he landed in prison on a charge of attempted robbery.

    Months after his release in 2006, Shabazz was arrested again after punching a hole in the window of a doughnut shop.

    Imam Dawud Walid, an acquaintance of Shabazz and executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Michigan, said the Malcolm Shabazz he knew was a young man struggling with the pressure of being the grandson of a famous civil rights warrior.

    "I had spoken with him in the past pertaining to the struggles that he had and some of the mistakes that he made in the past as a youth," Walid said. "He spoke of the pressure and the scrutiny that he was under coming from being part of the Shabazz family. It's a lot for a young man to handle — also, a lot to live up to. There are a lot of people who expected him to be the reflection of his grandfather, and that's a heavy burden to bear."

    He also said that even though he knew of Shabazz's past criminal troubles, he did not see a dark side in the man.

    "He had a very mild disposition and was a person who smiled constantly," Walid said. "That's my interactions with him."

    NBC News' Becky Bratu contributed to this report.

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    This story was originally published on Fri May 10, 2013 8:18 PM EDT

  • Libya arrests four suspected in deadly US Consulate attack in Benghazi

    Esam Omran Al-Fetori / Reuters

    Demonstrators hold a message during a rally to condemn the killers of the U.S. Ambassador to Libya and the attack on the U.S. consulate, in Benghazi on Wednesday.

    By NBC News staff and wire reports

    Libyan authorities have made four arrests in the investigation into the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi in which the U.S. ambassador and three embassy staff were killed, the deputy interior minister said on Thursday.

    "Four men are in custody and we are interrogating them because they are suspected of helping instigate the events at the U.S. Consulate," Wanis Sharif told Reuters.

    He gave no more details.

    The United States and Libya has agreed to cooperate to find out who was responsible for the deadly attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi in which the ambassador to the North African state and three other Americans died.

    President Barack Obama and Libyan President Mohamed Magarief spoke on Wednesday evening and decided "to work closely over the course of this investigation," the White House said in a statement.

    TODAY's Matt Lauer speaks with security analyst Michael Leiter about the likelihood that the attack on a U.S. consulate in Libya was a pre-meditated act by a group of al-Qaida sympathizers rather than a spontaneous uprising over an anti-Muslim Internet video.

    Magarief "expressed appreciation for the cooperation we have received from the Libyan government and people in responding to this outrageous attack, and said that the Libyan government must continue to work with us to assure the security of our personnel going forward," the White House statement said.

    "The President made it clear that we must work together to do whatever is necessary to identify the perpetrators of this attack and bring them to justice," it added.

    In Yemen, protesters breach the of the U.S. Embassy compound in the capital, Sanaa, as a wave of anti-American demonstrations sweeps across several Middle East nations. NBC's Richard Engel reports from Cairo.

    U.S. and Libyan officials, independent analysts and postings on Islamist websites from known militant activists suggested that the attack — which officials had previously suggested was retaliation for release of a movie critical of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad — may have been a pre-planned, orchestrated assault.

    Ambassador Christopher Stevens, Sean Smith — a Foreign Service information management officer — and two other Americans, who have not yet been formally identified, were killed.

    A deadly attack on the U.S. consulate in Libya was staged by militants who set the building on fire. NBC's Richard Engel reports.

    Destroyers sent to Libya coast
    A U.S. official told Reuters that the U.S. military was moving two destroyers toward the Libyan coast, giving the Obama administration flexibility for any future action against Libyan targets.

    Timeline: Political fallout from the attack on diplomats in Libya

    The military is also dispatching a Marine Corps anti-terrorist security team to boost security in Libya, and Washington has ordered the evacuation of all U.S. personnel from Benghazi to Tripoli.

    An unnamed senior U.S. official told the AFP news agency that U.S. officials suspected the attack on the consulate was a well-planned assault by militants rather than a rampaging mob.

    NBC's Richard Engel and Ambassador Marc Ginsberg discuss the latest in Libya and Egypt as protest continue outside the U.S. Embassy in Cairo.

    "That's the working hypothesis at the moment," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

    "This was a complex attack," he added. "They seemed to have used this (protest) as an opportunity."

    Among the assailants, Libyans identified units of a heavily armed local Islamist group, Ansar al-Sharia, which sympathizes with al-Qaida and derides Libya's U.S.-backed bid for democracy.

    Reuters cited U.S. officials as saying that there were reports from the region suggesting that members of al-Qaida's north Africa-based affiliate, known as Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, may have been involved.

    The attack on the Libyan consulate, as it happened

    On Wednesday, Obama vowed to catch those responsible for the attack and said he had ordered an increase in security at U.S. diplomatic posts around the globe following the assault.

    "The United States condemns in the strongest terms this outrageous and shocking attack," Obama said, while insisting it would not threaten relations with Libya's new government. ... And make no mistake, we will work with the Libyan government to bring to justice the killers who attacked our people."

    Slideshow: Anger over film spreads around Middle East

    Zoubeir Souissi / Reuters

    The U.S. Ambassador to Libya and three other Americans were killed after protesters angry over a film that ridiculed Islam's Prophet Muhammad stormed the U.S. consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, as protests spread across the region.

    Launch slideshow

    Doctor tried to save ambassador's life
    Ziad Abu Zaid, the duty doctor in the emergency room at Benghazi Medical Center on Tuesday, said Stevens was alive when he arrived at the hospital.


    "He came in a state of cardiac arrest. I performed CPR for 45 minutes, but he died of asphyxiation due to smoke inhalation,” he said.

    Stevens' body was later returned to U.S. custody at Benghazi airport, a senior U.S. official said. Images of Stevens, purportedly taken after he died, circulated on the Internet. One showed him being carried, with a white shirt pulled up and a cut on his forehead.

    Smith died inside the consulate building and the two other Americans died when a squad of U.S. troops sent by helicopter from Tripoli to rescue the diplomats came under mortar attack, said Captain Fathi al-Obeidi, commander of a Libyan special operations unit ordered to meet the Americans.

    Obama: Egypt not an ally of US, but not an enemy

    Witnesses said the mob at the consulate included tribesmen, militia and other gunmen. Hamam, a 17-year-old who took part in the attack, said Ansar al-Sharia cars arrived at the start of the protest but left once fighting started.

    "The protesters were running around the compound just looking for Americans, they just wanted to find an American so they could catch one," he told Reuters. "We started shooting at them, and then some other people also threw hand-made bombs over the fences and started the fires in the buildings."

    "There was some Libyan security for the embassy outside but when the hand-made bombs went off they ran off and left," he added.

    Hamam said he saw an American die in front of him in the mayhem that ensued. He said the body was covered in ash. 

    Reuters contributed to this report.

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  • Poor South Africans hail Malema as hero

    The South African politician blamed for inflaming the miners' strikes there told NBC News that the treatment of the poor is worse now than it was under apartheid. Julius Malema, - expelled from the ruling African National Congress for his radical views - says he wants to spread the chaos, that left 34 miners dead. NBC's Rohit Kachroo reports.

    Related: S. Africa rocked by anger over mine shootings

  • 'Murder on a massive scale': Angry fallout from S. Africa mine shootings

    T J Lemon / EPA

    Mine workers continuing their strike at the Lonmin mine in Marikana, South Africa, on Monday.

    By NBC News staff and wire reports

    The withdrawal of controversial murder charges against 270 South African miners for the killings of 34 striking co-workers by police followed intense public pressure -- including a report that the victims were shot execution-style or crushed by police vehicles.

    Public anger had been mounting at the charges, made under an apartheid-era law under which the miners were deemed to have had a "common purpose" in the murder of their co-workers by creating violent disorder.

    The police killing of the strikers last month at the Marikana mine, run by platinum producer Lonmin, was the worst such security incident since the end of white rule in 1994, and recalled scenes of state brutality from that era.

    Since then, South Africa has become the richest country on the continent, but the wealth has remained in the hands of minority whites joined by a small black elite.


    At Marikana, the strike and violence stem from a turf struggle for members between the dominant National Union of Mineworkers and the small but militant Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union, which has flared across the platinum belt.

    Reporter finds 'murder on a massive scale'
    A widely-read article last week by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Greg Marinovich in the Daily Maverick newspaper, based on a two-week investigation, challenged the official account.

    Mine 'bloodbath' shocks post-apartheid South Africa

    Marinovich, citing eyewitness testimony and forensic research, reported that some of the miners were shot execution-style or crushed by police vehicles.

    Memorial services will be held for the 34 South African platinum miners gunned down by police last week. The country's embattled President Jacob Zuma visited the mine, promising a full judicial enquiry while reassuring international investors that South Africa was open for business. But the price of platinum on world markets surged - as reports suggested strikes were spreading to other mines. Inigo Gilmore, Channel 4 Europe reports.

    "It is becoming clear to this reporter that heavily armed police hunted down and killed the miners in cold blood. A minority were killed in the filmed event where police claim they acted in self-defense. The rest was murder on a massive scale," he wrote.

    PhotoBlog: Miners gather to pray for South African shooting victim at site of violence

    Most of the 270 miners were arrested Aug. 16 after police opened fire on striking miners, killing 34 and wounding 78. The shootings shocked the nation.

    Police said they acted in self-defense after the miners shot at them. Most miners were armed with homemade clubs and machetes but police said they recovered several handguns from the scene.

    Ten people had been killed in a week of violence over union rivalries that preceded the shootings. Some of those killed were officials of the National Union of Mineworkers, while two police officers were hacked to death and two mine security guards were burned alive in their vehicle.

    S. Africa uses apartheid-era law to accuse 270 miners of murder

    "In a country that does not sanction judicial killings, even pedophiles and rapists get hauled before a judge. These miners were not even given that," Marinovich told NBC News.

    South Africa officially abolished capital punishment in 1995.

    "But it’s not for me to decide. It's for the judge to decide. I’m just a reporter," he said by telephone in South Africa.

    Marininovich conceded that the miners in question were not entirely innocent -- some of them may have even committed murder --but "there should have been a judge. That’s what the law is for. That’s what the law is meant to decide."

    Marinovich’s account backed research conducted by Peter Alexander of the University of Johannesburg.

    South Africa to withdraw murder charges against miners

    Charges withdrawn
    Even South Africa’s justice minister had challenged the prosecutor's decision to charge the arrested miners.

    Nomqcobo Jiba, the acting director of public prosecutions, did not say why she had reversed her decision to shift the blame from the police to the miners.

    "The murder charge against the current 270 suspects ... will be formally withdrawn," she told a news conference on Sunday.

    She said the miners would be released from jail with a warning, providing police could verify their home addresses.

    After a violet pay dispute left 34 dead and 78 injured in South Africa, Police say they were "forced to use maximum force to defend themselves." ITN's Neil Connery reports.

    She said other charges, ranging from public violence and illegal gathering to illegal possession of firearms, would remain, but the cases were being postponed pending final investigations and the findings of a judicial commission of inquiry, which is to report to President Jacob Zuma's government by January.

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    Irvin Jim, secretary general of the National Union of Metal Workers, said Sunday that the police shootings confirm that South Africa has not transformed "the apartheid state and its violent machinery."

    Zuma comes under criticism
    The killings, and the plight of miners who were demanding higher wages, has highlighted the failures of Zuma's government just as he prepares to run for re-election in December as president of the governing African National Congress, a position that would virtually guarantee him another term as president.

    Complete World News coverage on NBCNews.com

    Zuma's government is criticized for failing to address the concerns of South Africans suffering high unemployment, housing shortages and growing inequality between rich and poor.

    Officials in South Africa confirmed today that 34 people were killed and 78 injured when police opened fire on striking uranium miners and supporters they allege charged at them. TODAY's Natalie Morales reports.

    Lonmin's mines have been idle for three weeks, and labor strife has spread from the platinum sector to gold, where a quarter of the 46,000-strong workforce at Gold Fields have staged a wildcat strike, further unsettling investors.

    The stakes are high. South Africa sits on about 80 percent of the world's known reserves of the precious metal, used to make catalytic converters for automobiles.

    NBC News' staff, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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  • More than 20 killed as clashes break out in Venezuela prison

    By NBC News

    More than 20 people died in clashes between armed gangs at a Venezuelan prison over the weekend, a government official was quoted as saying on Monday. 

    Prisons Minister Iris Varela said on state television that "more than 20" had died in the Yare I prison in the coastal state of Miranda, including family members who had been visiting when the violence broke out on Sunday, El Economista reported. (Link to story in Spanish)



    Most of the dead, however, were members of two groups that are "heavily armed inside the prison," the minister was quoted as saying.

    Those behind the killings will be "made to answer" for their actions, Varela said, according to the BBC.

    AFP quoted the Venezuelan Prison Observatory, a non-governmental group, as saying that more than 300 inmates have been killed in the country's prisons since the start of the year. More than 500 died in 2011, the BBC reported, citing the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

    Complete World news coverage on NBCNews.com

    According to government figures, 50,000 prisoners are housed in a system built for 14,000 inmates, AFP added. 

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  • Kenya's ex-VP and presidential candidate George Saitoti killed in chopper crash

    By msnbc.com staff and news services

    NAIROBI, Kenya -- Kenya's former Vice President George Saitoti, who was serving as the country's security minister and was a presidential candidate in an upcoming election, was killed Sunday when a police helicopter crashed into a forest outside the capital, the government said.

    Prime Minister Raila Odinga's spokesman said Odinga had been informed of the deaths of Saitoti and his deputy, Orwa Ojode.


    A former long-serving vice president under the former President Daniel Arap Moi, Saitoti was also a presidential candidate in an election expected to be held by March next year.

    A Reuters photographer counted three charred bodies at the scene of the crash in a forest in the Ngong area just outside of Nairobi.

    Debris of the burned-out blue police helicopter were strewn in the brush where government officials and curious locals jostled to catch a glimpse.

    It was not immediately clear what caused the crash.

    According to messages posted on Kenya's Capital FM radio Twitter account, two bodyguards were also onboard and feared dead. They were accompanying Saitoti and Ojode to a church service, the station said.

    Additionally, two pilots were onboard and feared dead, Capital FM reported, which would bring the death toll to six if confirmed.

    Saitoti, an ally of President Mwai Kibaki, was the leading government voice against Somali militants al-Shabab, often visiting the scenes of grenade attacks inside Kenya and vowing the east African nation would crush the group.

    Kenya's troops have been fighting al-Shabab in neighboring Somalia since last October. The militants have killed several people in a string of grenade attacks in Nairobi, the far north and the coast in retaliation to Kenya's moves against them.

    Reuters contributed to this report.

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  • Report: Car bomb kills 9, wounds 100 in Syria

    Handout / AFP - Getty Images

    A handout picture released by the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows Syrian firefighters dousing a burning truck at the site of a blast in the eastern city of Deir Zor Saturday.

    By Ian Johnston, msnbc.com

    A car bomb in the Syrian city of Deir al-Zor killed nine people and wounded about 100 Saturday, the official SANA news agency said.

    It said the bombing was carried out by a suicide bomber and that the dead included guards at a military installation which is near a housing complex, according to Reuters.

    Syrian state television showed damaged, burning buildings and vehicles after the blast and black smoke could be seen rising above the city, BBC News reported.

    The BBC said the explosion was the latest in a series of blasts that were thought to be al-Qaida operations.

    On Thursday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he believed al-Qaida was responsible for two suicide car bombs that killed at least 55 people in Syria a week ago.

    Inside Syria rebel stronghold: 'The city is on mute'

    He also said that the death toll in the country's 14-month conflict was now at least 10,000.

    A message to Assad? War games held near border

    "A few days ago there was a huge, serious, massive terrorist attack. I believe that there must be al-Qaida behind it. This has created again very serious problems," Ban told a youth event at U.N. headquarters in New York, Reuters reported. 

    Reuters contributed to this report.

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  • Israel slams Olympic committee over Munich massacre tribute

    Charly Diaz Azcue / Getty Images file

    Danny Ayalon, Israeli diplomat and politician who currently serves as Deputy Foreign Minister, during an interview on March 18, 2012 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

    By msnbc.com staff and news services

    An Israeli official on Thursday attacked the International Olympic Committee after it apparently refused to allow a minute's silence at the start of this year's games in memory of 11 Israeli athletes and coaches massacred by Palestinian militants in the 1972 Munich Olympics.

    Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon had asked the IOC to commemorate those killed on the 40th anniversary of their deaths.

    In his written response, IOC President Jacques Rogge did not specifically address the request of a minute's silence, The Associated Press reported. 

    Instead, he said he would personally attend the Israeli delegation's traditional tribute to the victims in London and pointed out that the IOC has officially paid tribute to the victims' memory before. "Please rest assured that, within the Olympic family, the memory of the victims of the terrible massacre in Munich in 1972 will never fade away," Rogge wrote. 

    'This tragedy is yours alone'
    On Thursday Ayalon said the reply was "unacceptable as it rejects the central principles of global fraternity on which the Olympic ideal is supposed to rest," The Times of Israel reported.

    “The terrorist murders of the Israeli athletes were not just an attack on people because of their nationality and religion; it was an attack on the Olympic Games and the international community,” he said.

    “This rejection told us as Israelis that this tragedy is yours alone and not a tragedy within the family of nations," he added. "This is a very disappointing approach and we hope that this decision will be overturned so the international community as one can remember, reflect and learn the appropriate lesson from this dark stain on Olympic history.”

    IOC spokesman Mark Adams told The Associated Press that the Olympic body takes the issue "very, very seriously," but felt that an event at the Guildhall venue in London was "the most appropriate way to pay tribute to the athletes during the games in London." 

    Dec. 7: NBC's Martin Fletcher reports on Steven Spielberg's new film, "Munich," about the Olympics in 1972.

    The 1972 Munich Olympics were the first games held in Germany since the 1936 edition in Berlin, and were meant to erase the images of the competition held under the Nazi regime. 

    Will $95-million cable car be ready for Olympics?

    But in the second week of the Munich Games, eight members of the Black September militant group penetrated the minimally secured Olympic Village and took Israeli team members hostage. A day later, all 11 were dead. 

    German police killed five of the eight assassins during a failed rescue attempt. The games were briefly suspended.

    The 2005 Steven Spielberg movie Munich gives a fictionalized account of secret attempts by the Israeli government to track down and kill those it thought responsible for the killings.

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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  • Afghan cop drugs colleagues, kills them as they sleep

    By msnbc.com staff and news services

    An Afghan policeman laced food with sleeping pills and then killed nine of his colleagues as they slept Friday, a police officer reportedly said.

    The attack in the eastern province of Paktika was the latest in a string of rogue shootings that has also targeted foreign forces.

    Two policemen were detained after the attack in Yahya Khil district, while a third officer was missing. It was not clear if the assailant was among the pair detained, said Mukhlis Afghan, the provincial governor's spokesman.

    Citing Paktika police chief Dawlat Khan Zadran, The New York Times reported that the assailant, who it named as Assadullah, put drugs in the food served Thursday night.

    Slideshow:

    Kevin Frayer / AP

    In southern Afghanistan, the focus of the U.S. war effort, nearly all the Afghan soldiers are foreigners too. Photographer Kevin Frayer shows these soldiers in a series of portraits.

    Launch slideshow

    The man then waited until the drugs began to take effect and then opened fire with an AK-47 assault rifle after midnight Friday, the Times said.

    Shooter joins Taliban
    The Taliban said that soon after the attack, the assailant came over to the group, bringing a vehicle and weapons taken from the dead policemen.

    US soldier dies saving Afghan girl

    "He has joined our mujahedeen," spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a text message to reporters that arrived as news of the shooting emerged.

    Afghan massacre echoes for hotline vets

    A series of attacks on NATO personnel by Afghan soldiers and policemen have stoked fears that the security forces have turned against their western allies, or have been infiltrated by the Taliban insurgents.

    Children at Afghan massacre: Bales not alone

    At least 16 NATO soldiers have been killed in a wave of so-called rogue attacks since January, raising questions about the ability of the Afghan forces to take over full security responsibility by 2014, when the bulk of foreign combat troops leave.

    3-hour firefight: Afghan militants ambush NATO convoy

    The policemen in the latest attack were members of the Afghan Local Police, a branch of the police which has been set up in villages where the national force is weak.

    Paktika is a stronghold of the Haqqani militant group, which has targeted U.S. troops and the Afghan forces working with them.

    Reuters contributed to this report.

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