• Captured deep beneath the waves: Giant squid filmed in natural habitat

    Scientists say they have captured video of a giant squid in its natural habitat deep in the ocean for the first time. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.

    By Arata Yamamoto and Peter Jeary, NBC News

    The world's first moving images of a giant squid living in its natural habitat have been captured by a team of scientists more than half a mile below the surface of the Pacific Ocean.

    The ghostly pictures of the 10-foot-long giant squid were recorded from a state-of–the-art submersible carrying a three-person team of Japanese zoologist Tsunemi Kubodera, a camera operator and the submersible’s pilot, who made around 100 dives during an expedition last summer.

    Although small by giant squid standards – the largest ever caught measured 59 feet – it was the first time a live giant squid had been caught on video deep in the ocean.

    Kubodera, from Japan's National Museum of Nature and Science, credited the success to the submersible’s silence and hi-tech lighting.

    "A giant squid would never appear before a pool of light, that possibility is extremely slim", he told NBC News. "That's why we had to use lights that they wouldn't be able to detect. In fact, they're lights even humans wouldn't be able to see either."

    “If you try to approach making a lot of noise, using bright lights, then the squid won't come anywhere near you," he added. “So we sat there in the pitch black, using a near-infrared light invisible even to the human eye, waiting for the giant to approach.''

    'It was stunning'
    On one dive in July 2012, near the Ogasawara islands, 620 miles south of Tokyo, they finally had their close encounter more than 2,000 feet down and followed the creature even deeper.

    “This was the first time for me to see with my own eyes a giant squid swimming,'' Kubodera said. “It was stunning. I couldn't have dreamt that it would be so beautiful. It was such a wonderful creature.”

    NHK/NEP/Discovery Channel via Reuters

    A giant squid is seen in this video still talken near the Ogasawara Islands in July 2012.

    The squid was missing its characteristic two longest tentacles – and scientists don’t know why. Marine biologists said if that pair of tentacles had been intact, the creature would probably have measured up to 23 feet long.

    Kubodera’s deep-sea expedition was the culmination of a 10-year project by Japanese broadcaster NHK to capture pictures of the mysterious creature in its habitat. An  ultra-sensitive high-definition camera was developed to operate at the ocean depths, using special light that was invisible to the sensitive eyes of the giant squid.

    NHK will air its video footage in Japan in a prime-time documentary entitled "Legends of the Deep: Giant Squid" on Jan. 13. It will also be shown on the Discovery Channel on Jan.  27.

    Reuters contributed to this report.

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  • Former Marine held in Mexican jail freed, officials say

    View more videos at: http://nbcmiami.com.

    By Juan Ortega and Diana Gonzalez, NBCMiami.com

    Updated 10:30 p.m. ET: The South Florida Marine veteran who for months was detained at a Mexican prison for bringing an unloaded shotgun into the country has been freed, officials and his lawyer said late Friday.

    Jon Hammar is seen in an undated photograph provided by his family.

    The attorney for Jon Hammar tweeted Friday night that his client had been released from a detention center in Matamoros, Mexico. U.S. officials were planning to drive the 27-year-old Hammar across the border at Brownsville, Texas.

    "He's out. Going home," wrote Eddie Varon Levy in a tweet.

    With the judge’s ruling, Hammer was expected to be released after noon Friday, according to a statement from U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.

    Several members of Congress said earlier Friday that a judge had agreed to free Hammar.

    U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson's office said in a statement that according to a defense attorney, 27-year-old Jon Hammar was being held at the Matamoros prison on a gun charge, but at a hearing, it was determined he had no intent to commit a crime by taking the firearm to Mexico.

    "No American should be in a Mexican jail for five months without being able to have his case in front of a judge," Nelson said Friday. "We're grateful; this is a good Christmas present."

    With the judge’s ruling, Hammar was expected to be released after noon Friday, according to U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.

    NBCMiami.com: Family steps up lobby to get Hammar released

    “Our Marine hero, our local hero, will be freed today from a Mexican prison,” Ros-Lehtinen said at a press conference. “He’s been there chained to his bed in terrible condition since August for a trumped-up gun charge that should have never been leveled against him.”

    The Marine veteran’s mother notified congressional members of her son’s pending release early Friday. The news was confirmed by a defense lawyer, the State Department and the Mexican embassy, according to spokespeople for Nelson and Ros-Lehtinen.

    His mother, Olivia Hammar, called Ros-Lehtinen’s office to say, “Hallelujah! Prayers work and hard work pays off,” Ros-Lehtinen said.

    Friday, the U.S. Consulate was standing by to safely escort the former Marine to the United States. Instead of being taken on a plane, Hammar was to be driven across the Mexican border to Texas.

    Ros-Lehtinen said the Hammar family is thankful for the community’s support. “He will be home for Christmas,” Ros-Lehtinen said. “The family has been so grateful.”

    At his home in Palmetto Bay, Hammar's mother anxiously waited until she was assured he was safe and in the U.S.

     

  • US diplomats, Marine rescue team were also attacked at safe house, Libyans say

    The murders of four U.S. diplomats are a grim reminder of the dangers that lurk in Libya. NBC's Steve Handelsman reports.

    By Alastair MacDonald / Reuters

    BENGHAZI, Libya -- U.S. troops dispatched by helicopter across the Libyan desert to rescue Ambassador Chris Stevens and other diplomats in Benghazi ran into a fierce overnight ambush that left a further two Americans dead, Libyan officials told Reuters.

    Accounts of the mayhem at the U.S. consulate, where the ambassador and another diplomat died after a chaotic protest over a film insulting to Islam, remain patchy. But two Libyan officials, including the commander of a security force that escorted the U.S. rescuers, said a later assault on a supposedly safe refuge for the diplomats appeared professionally executed.

    Miscommunication that understated the number of American survivors awaiting rescue -- there were 37, nearly four times as many as the Libyan commander expected -- also meant survivors and rescuers found themselves short of transport to escape this second battle, delaying an eventual dawn break for the airport.

    Capt. Fathi al-Obeidi, whose special operations unit was ordered by Libya's authorities to meet an eight-man U.S. Marine force at Benghazi airport, said that after his men and the Marines had found the American survivors who had evacuated the blazing consulate, the ostensibly secret location in an isolated villa came under an intense and highly accurate mortar barrage.

    "I really believe that this attack was planned," he said, adding to suggestions by other Libyan officials that at least some of the hostility towards the Americans was the work of experienced combatants. "The accuracy with which the mortars hit us was too good for any regular revolutionaries."

    Obeidi's Libya Shield Brigade was formed by civilians during last year's U.S.-backed uprising against Moammar Gadhafi and is now part of the ad hoc government militia forces which the fledgling democratic administration uses to keep order.

    Slideshow: U.S. posts attacked in Libya and Egypt

    /

    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.

    Launch slideshow

    Other Libyan officials cited the possible involvement of former soldiers still loyal to Gadhafi's family or Islamist fighters, some of whom have trained and fought in Afghanistan.

    U.S. officials have noted it was "complex attack". Several Libyan officials and witnesses said an initial demonstration at the consulate appeared to be largely unarmed, though some elements of an Islamist militia were spotted.

    Related: What's known about the consulate attack

    At some point, the crowd became incensed, believing they were under attack from within the consulate, many fetched weapons and the consular villa ended up in flames, with most of the Americans fleeing to the safe house after two, including Stevens, had been fatally injured.

    'Six mortars' on path to villa
    Of the eight American troops who had come from Tripoli, one was killed and two were wounded, Obeidi said. A Libyan deputy interior minister said a second American was also killed in the attack on the safe house. It was not clear if this was a diplomat or one of the consulate's original security detail.

    "It began to rain down on us," Obeidi told Reuters, describing the moment the attack began -- just as the Libyan security force was starting up the 10 pickup trucks and sedans they had brought to ferry the Americans to the airport.

    "About six mortars fell directly on the path to the villa," he said. "During this firing, one of the Marines whom I had brought with me was wounded and fell to the ground.

    "As I was dragging the wounded Marine to safety, some Marines who were located on the roof of the villa as snipers shouted and the rest of the Marines all hit the ground.

    "A mortar hit the side of the house. One of the Marines from the roof went flying and fell on top of us."

    A senior U.S. diplomat -- not Ambassador Stevens, who Libyan officials said died at a local hospital of the effects of smoke -- urged pushing ahead with the evacuation, Obeidi said.

    But he had a transport problem. Having been told to expect 10 Americans and having found 37, Obeidi did not have enough vehicles to break out, despite having one heavy anti-aircraft gun mounted on a pickup truck. 

    "I was being bombarded by calls from all over the country by Libyan government officials who wanted me to hurry and get them out," he said. "But I told them that we were in such difficult circumstances and that I needed more men and more cars."

    Eventually dozens more vehicles were dispatched from pro-government militia brigades and, with the sun rising, the convoy headed back to the airport where an aircraft flew a first group of U.S. personnel out to the Libyan capital.

    Libyan Deputy Interior Minister Wanis al-Sharif said Stevens and another diplomat died in the first series of incidents around the consulate, while the other two Americans died during the attempt to evacuate from the safe house to the airport.

    "(The ambassador) died as a result of suffocation by the fumes of the fire inside the embassy and one was also killed by gunfire before around 37 people were moved to a place we thought was safe," Sharif told Reuters in Benghazi.

    Speaking of the rescue mission, he said: "A team of commandos arrived by air and went to a farm which we thought was a secret location. Once they got there, they came under heavy fire from heavy machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and automatic rifles, which resulted in the death of two others."

    He estimated that a dozen or more Americans were hurt.

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  • Stranded whales rescued after dozens beached in Scotland

    Jeff J Mitchell / Getty Images

    Volunteers and animal welfare workers attempt to rescue a large number of pilot whales beached near St Andrews in Scotland, Sunday.

    By NBC News staff

    Ten pilot whales were rescued and refloated Monday after they became stranded on a Scottish beach, according to reports.

    The 20-foot whales were kept alive by vets and led out to deeper waters but 16 others could not be saved and died on the beach in Fife, on the east coast just south of St Andrews, Fife, The Scotsman newspaper reported.

    It said volunteers joined the local coastguard, Fire Brigade, British Divers Marine Life Rescue, animal welfare charities and local vets during the rescue attempt.

    21 whales beach selves in Florida, at least two die


    Coastguard officials were alerted to the beaching, between Anstruther and Pittenweem, at 7 a.m. local time (1 a.m. ET) on Sunday, the BBC reported.  It said three of the whales that died were calves.

    David Galloway, a fish filleter from Anstruther, told The Scotsman: “I went down to the beach at about 12 p.m. and I could see all the whales. It was horrible. I have never seen anything like it in my life.

    “We were told we couldn’t go down on to the beach, but we could see rescuers beside the whales, they were trying to take care of them, trying to keep them moist. They were waiting for the tide to come in. It was just horrible.”

    A coastguard spokeswoman said: “It is a very rare occurrence in Scotland and very sad.

    “The usual scenario would be that the whale that is leading the group has become ill, or has lost its way, and gets beached and the rest will follow on. Although we do not know for sure if that is what has happened.”

    Witnesses posted pictures of the rescue scene via social media, including Twitter.

    It came after 21 short-finned pilot whales beached themselves along Florida's Atlantic coast on Saturday, leaving at least two whales dead.

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  • Three US Marines shot dead on military base in Afghanistan

    An Afghan worker on a military base has allegedly killed three U.S. Marines in Helmand Province. NBC's Brian Williams reports.

    By NBC News staff and wire reports

    Updated at 9:25 a.m. ET: KABUL, Afghanistan -- Three U.S. Marines were shot dead by an Afghan worker on a military base in southern Afghanistan, an Afghan official told NBC News, raising to six the number of American service members who died in rogue attacks in the country in 24 hours.

    The shooting took place on Friday night in the Garmsir district of Helmand province, not far from where three U.S. Marines were killed by an Afghan gunman earlier in the day, Dawood Ahmadi, spokesman for the Helmand province governor, told NBC News' Atia Abawi on Saturday.

    In the earlier incident, an Afghan police commander opened fire on the U.S. service members after inviting them to a meeting to discuss security, according to Reuters. Another service member was injured in that attack.

    Three US special ops troops killed, Afghan officials say

    "Let me clearly say that those two incidents clearly do not reflect the overall situation here in Afghanistan," chief ISAF spokesman Brigadier-General Gunter Katz told journalists on Saturday.

    Reuters reported that the Marines killed in the latest attack were shot dead by a base employee who turned his gun on them. Military sources said the man had not been wearing a uniform and it was unclear how he got hold of the weapon.

    Three Marines were killed instantly, and the fourth was seriously wounded but the gunman escaped. NBC's Jim Miklaszewski reports.

    "We are still investigating the incident to find out about the shooter and who he actually is -- whether an Afghan soldier or a civilian," Ahmadi, the Helmand governor's spokesman, told NBC News.

    In a statement, ISAF said the gunman had been detained.

    On Saturday, Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai condemned the killings of all six U.S. Marines in the two incidents, calling the perpetrators of the attacks "terrorists." He added that the country's enemies did not want "a secure Afghanistan with a stable army."

    Bloody week
    Green on blue shootings, in which Afghan police or soldiers turn their guns on their Western colleagues, have seriously eroded trust between the allies as NATO combat soldiers prepare to hand over to Afghan forces by 2014, after which most foreign forces will leave the country. 

    The NATO force says there have been 26 such attacks on foreign troops since January in which 34 people have been killed. Last year, there were 21 attacks in which 35 people were killed.

    But a coalition spokesman said the killings by the Afghan worker would not be included in that tally as it did not involve a member of the Afghan security forces.


    However Katz said the incidents were relatively isolated and were not hurting morale or cooperation between foreign forces and the 350,000-strong Afghan Security Forces.  

    "We have almost 500,000 police and soldiers working together, side by side, enhancing their trust and enhancing their cooperation in order together to fight for a better future for this country," he said. 

    Still, it was a bloody week for NATO forces in Afghanistan. Earlier on Friday, the Pentagon confirmed that three U.S. service members -- including a senior Army leader -- and an American aid worker were killed Wednesday by a suicide bomber in Kunar province.

    Slideshow: Afghanistan: Nation at a crossroads

    Ahmad Jamshid / AP

    More than ten years after the beginning of the war, Afghanistan faces external pressure to reform as well as ongoing internal conflicts.

    Launch slideshow

    The victims included Command Sgt. Maj. Kevin J. Griffin, the most senior enlisted soldier for the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division. Griffin, 45, of Riverton, Wyo., was a Bronze Star recipient who first enlisted in the Army in 1988.

    Maj. Thomas E. Kennedy, 35, of West Point, N.Y., and Air Force Maj. Walter D. Gray, 38, of Conyers, Ga., were also killed. USAID foreign service officer Ragaei Abdelfattah was identified as the other victim.

    On Tuesday, two gunmen wearing Afghan army uniforms killed a U.S. soldier and wounded two others in Paktia province in the east.

    Violence in Afghanistan is at its fiercest since U.S.-led Afghan troops overthrew the Taliban government in 2001. Insurgents have extended their reach from traditional strongholds in southern and eastern areas to parts of the country once considered safe.

    This is a breaking news story. Check again for more updates.

    NBC News' Atia Abawi, Fazl Ahad and Reuters contributed to this report.

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  • Rare 'faceless and brainless' fish seen off UK coast

    Andrew Want - Marine Scotland / Courtesy Scottish Government

    Amphioxus - a "faceless and brainless" fish-like creature - recorded in a marine study in Scotland.

    By msnbc.com staff and news services

     A rare species of fish described as “faceless and brainless” was among the unusual finds made by marine scientists off Britain’s coast, according to a Scottish government report published on Thursday.

    The prehistoric amphioxus species, which grows to about two inches long and has no fins, was recorded off Orkney, part of the Northern Isles that lie off the far northern coast of mainland Scotland.

    The elusive fish is regarded as a modern representative of the first animals that evolved a backbone, the Scottish government said.

    With a nerve cord down its back, it has no specific brain or face. According to The Scotsman newspaper, it has a translucent, fish-like body but has no true skeleton.

    It is usually found buried in sand in shallow parts of temperate or tropical seas, the newspaper said. In Asia, the species is harvested commercially to use as food for pets.

    Other rare finds from the marine surveys, which covered over 2,000 square miles, included giant mussels with shells measuring up to 18 inches and new communities of Northern Feather Star, a brightly colored species with 10 feather-like arms fanning out from a central disc, which were revealed off the Sound of Canna, near Skye.

    The Scottish Government said the findings will further the country's knowledge of the biodiversity of its seas.

    Scottish Natural Heritage and Edinburgh's Heriot-Watt University were among organizations that carried out the work.

    Underwater video was shot and acoustic and 3D images were used in the surveys.

    Dr Dan Barlow, head of policy with environmental campaign group WWF Scotland, added: “These surveys highlight that Scotland’s seas and coasts are home to a truly amazing range of weird and wonderful wildlife.

    “By providing vital information on what lies beneath the waves, these surveys will help inform decisions on better ways to protect this important resource.”

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