LONDON -- British doctors staged their first strike in nearly 40 years Thursday over plans to increase the amount they pay into their pension fund and make them work until they are 68, ITV News reported.

The government says doctors would receive more than $105,000 a year after the age of 68 under its proposals.

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However the British Medical Association, which represents doctors, says the highest earning doctors will have to pay 14.5 percent of their pay into the pension fund by 2014, compared with 8.5 percent in March 2012.

They also claim the new deal would actually leave retired doctors worse off.

Read more stories from ITV News

ITV News reported that early polls suggested as few as 22 percent of the BMA's more than 100,000 members were taking part in the strike.

"Nobody is happy about taking any kind of action that impacts adversely on patients. There has been a lot of soul searching in the BMA, but we have to represent our members' views and nearly three-quarters of those who voted wanted to take this kind of action because they were so angry about what was happening to their pensions," Hamish Meldrum, chairman of the BMA, told ITV News.

U.K. Health Secretary Andrew Lansley told the station that up to 1.25 million doctor appointments could have to be delayed.

He said the BMA was "out on their own" because other trade unions in the U.K.'s public health service had agreed to a new deal "even if they didn't want to increase contributions for their pensions."

ITV News is NBC's U.K. partner.

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A Predator attack over the weekend targeted Abu Yahya al-Libi, a leading al-Qaida operative who was viewed as one of five candidates to succeed Osama bin Laden as leader of the terrorist group when he was killed last year. U.S. officials confirm that he was the target of the Sunday attacks and say they are awaiting word on his status.

In one of three strikes over the weekend, a U.S. drone struck a militant compound early Monday morning in North Waziristan, part of  Pakistan’s northwestern tribal area. Pakistan security reports indicated the pre-dawn strike killed 15 insurgents, with a total of nearly 30 killed in total.

But. a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Wednesday that the reports on the number of dead were “exaggerated,” and described the death toll as “less than a handful."

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The Agence France Presse news agency reported that in the attack that targeted Abuy Yahya, two missiles were fired on the compound in Mir Ali, 15 miles east of Miramshah, the capital of North Waziristan, near the Afghan border, in an area considered a hive of Taliban and al-Qaida activity.

A Pakistani official,  who spoke with NBC News on condition of anonymity, said the victims were mostly foreigners and Urdu-speaking Punjabi Taliban who had gathered with the intention of crossing into Afghanistan to fight with Afghan Taliban fighters against NATO forces.

Reuters, citing reports from the region, said nearly 30 people were killed during the sequence of strikes, including four suspected militants on Saturday, 10 suspected militants on Sunday, and 15 people in the strike in which Abu Yahya was targeted. Those numbers were challenged by U.S. officials.

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said Monday it "strongly condemns" the US drone strikes, which it described as "illegal attacks" on Pakistani sovereignty.

The most-recent attack of the weekend was the eighth drone strike in Pakistan since a NATO conference on Afghanistan in Chicago last month. Since taking office in 2009, the Obama administration has carried out nearly 300 drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, the majority of them in Pakistan’s tribal areas, according to the New America Foundation, which keeps an unofficial count.

If Abu Yahya was indeed killed, it would be another blow to al-Qaida in Pakistan, the so-called al-Qaida Central.  The Libyan, believed to be 39 years old, is one of the most influential propagandists in al-Qaida and one of its best known leaders.

Abu Yahya draws much of his credibility from having escaped a U.S. military prison at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan on the night of July 10, 2005. He subsequently appeared in more than 30 videos produced by al Shahab, the al-Qaida media wing, and other militant sites. In December 2009, Pakistani officials erroneously reported he had been killed in a Predator strike, further enhancing his image.

U.S. officials say unlike many al-Qaida propagandists, Abu Yahya also is a seasoned fighter.

In May 2011, shortly after bin Laden was killed, U.S. officials identified Abu Yahya as one of five potential successors to the slain al-Qaida leaders.  The leading candidate, Ayman al Zawahiri, ultimately did succeed bin Laden.  If Abu Yahya was killed, he would be the fourth of the five to have been killed in drone strikes.

Ilyas Kashmiri, al-Qaida’s director of external operations, was killed on June 3. Abdul Rahman Atiya, bin Laden’s chief of staff, was killed Aug. 22. Both of those attacks took place in northwestern Pakistan.  Anwar al Awlaki, a leader of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula and an American citizen, was killed in Yemen, also in a drone strike, on Sept. 30. 

Robert Windrem is a senior investigative producer for NBC News; NBC News' Mushtaq Yusufzai contributed reporting from Pakistan.

 

PAKISTAN -- A U.S. drone strike killed three suspected militants early Saturday in Pakistan’s North Waziristan region near the Afghan border, NBC News reports.

Pakistani security officials based in the area said the drone fired two missiles and hit a small building at Razmak Adda in Miranshah bazaar. Officials told NBC News three people were killed and two others had been injured.

"Two of the injured taken to hospital were in critical condition," a security official told NBC News.

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The security official said there was no immediate information regarding identities or nationalities of the victims, but added that many foreigners have been living in the Miranshah market area, where they have access to electricity and telephone service.

The United States has been urging Pakistani officials to mount an offensive in the area to pursue members of the Haqqani militant network, one of Washington's most feared foes in neighboring Afghanistan.

The controversial drone program, a key element in U.S. counter-terrorism efforts, is highly unpopular in Pakistan, where it is considered a violation of sovereignty that causes unacceptable civilian casualties.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Flag-waving Spanish workers livid over labor reforms they see as flagrantly pro-business blocked traffic Thursday, forming boisterous picket lines outside wholesale markets and bus garages, as part of a nationwide strike.

Unions claimed massive participation in the 24-hour stoppage protesting what they claim to be the latest dose of bitter medicine Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's conservative government has prescribed to appease European Union overseers and jittery investors watching Spain's debt grow and its GDP shrink.

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Police arrested a number of protesters in Madrid, while small-scale violence flared in Barcelona, Spain's second city. Tourists were locked out of the Alhambra, a 14th-century Moorish palace in the southern city of Granada which is one of Europe's great cultural monuments.

The unions demanded a "gesture" from the government to scale back the reforms, warning they could cause more unrest from May 1.

The government quickly said no, and downplayed the impact of the strike, which failed to bring the country to a standstill. "There is no stopping on the path to reform," Labor Minister Fatima Banez said.

In fact, the government will on Friday serve up even more austerity pain with a 2012 budget to feature tens of billions of euros (dollars) in deficit-reduction measures.

PhotoBlog: Workers strike in Spain filling streets and closing businesses

The cuts are designed to help Spain lower its deficit to within EU limits and calm the international investors who determine the country's borrowing costs in debt markets — and therefore have a lot of say in whether Spain will follow Greece, Ireland and Portugal in needing a bailout.

There were no reports of significant violence in Thursday's demonstration. A total of 58 people were detained and nine were injured in scuffles as the strike got under way a minute after midnight, Interior Ministry official Cristina Diaz said.

Unions are challenging a conservative government not yet 100 days old, protesting changes to labor market rules long regarded as among Europe's most rigid. Among other things the changes make it cheaper and easier for companies to lay people off and let them cut their wages unilaterally.

On the Gran Via, one of the Spanish capital's main commercial strips, a group of about 500 whistle-blowing picketers marched slowly, blocking traffic for about an hour. Police and helmeted riot police watched from the sidelines.

As the group made its way down the boulevard, many merchants — such as jewelers and clothing retailers — pulled down their metal shutters or locked their front doors.

PhotoBlog: Spanish protests turn violent, destructive

One protester, Angel Andrino, 31, said he was laid off a day after the labor reforms were approved in a decree last month. The government argues that while the reforms might hurt now, they will create jobs in the future. Spain is by official estimates already back in recession.

Andrino lives with his parents and brother, the latter the only one to be employed, with a part-time job.

"We are going through a really hard time, suffering," he said. "The rights that our parents and grandparents fought for are being wiped away without the public being consulted."

General Workers Union Secretary General Candido Mendez put average participation at midday at 77 percent but said that it was 97 percent in industry and construction. "This strike has been an unquestionable success," said Mendez.

Some statistics, however, suggested the strike had not brought the country to a standstill.

Electricity consumption — a measure of industrial and commercial activity — was down by 17 percent at mid-morning, according to the Interior Ministry. That is slightly less than during the last general strike in 2010, which was deemed only partially successful.

Investors are worried about prospects for continued, widespread social unrest of the kind seen in bailed-out Greece. But management professor Jose Ramon Pin of IESE Business School said this will not happen in Spain because people reluctantly accept that the country needs a radical economic makeover.

"This country is in no mood for taking to the streets," Pin said.

One of the strike's most noticeable effects was on public transportation, with unions guaranteeing only around 30 percent of normal service at rush hour times.

"We're offering the government a chance to start a different path (of reform) in search of wider consensus," Ignacio Fernandez Toxo, head of Spain's largest union Comisiones Obreras said. "If not there will be rising social conflict."

 The main airline, Iberia, canceled 65 percent of its flights.

By mid-morning, 402 flights had been canceled, National airport operator AENA said. Minimum services decreed by law ensured that 1,675 flights would operate — less than half of the average daily amount of more than 4,500 flights.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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ATHENS -- Black-masked protesters threw Molotov cocktails, stones and bottles and police fired teargas during clashes in central Athens Friday, as striking Greek workers denounced a new wave of austerity Friday as an imposition too far by Europe and the International Monetary Fund.

Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos told the nation it faced a stark choice between sacrifices inside the euro area and bigger sacrifices outside it.

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The clashes in central Athens came at the start of a 48-hour general strike against planned pay and job cuts.

The Guardian newspaper reported that "running battles" broke out between protesters and police, with clashes in Syntagma Square.

'Resist!'
Some protesters compared Greece's plight, facing bankruptcy unless it accedes to the demands of international lenders, to its seven years under military dictatorship.

People in the Syntagma sang songs from the struggle in the 1960s and 1970 against a junta of colonels boomed out over loudspeakers.

PhotoBlog: Strike, protests erupt before crucial austerity vote

"Do not bow your heads! Resist!" they chanted. "No to layoffs! No to salary cuts! No to pension cuts!"

Police said some 7,000 people took part in the demonstration. Police said three policemen and two protesters were slightly injured in clashes. Five people were detained.

Another 10,000 Communist supporters held a separate, peaceful march.

Reuters said the street protests were relatively small and mostly peaceful, but there was widespread anger over the country's plight.

Even the police, who have repeatedly clashed with protesters since the crisis broke out more than two years ago, announced resistance to the creditors' demands. 

The biggest police trade union said would issue arrest warrants for Greece's international lenders for subverting democracy.

"As we can see you are continuing this destructive policy, so we warn you that you cannot make us fight against our brothers," the Greek Police Federation said in an open letter to the "troika" of lenders: the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund.

In Greece, the crisis is making people ill (literally)

"We warn you that as legal representatives of the Greek police, we will issue arrest warrants for a series of legal violations ... such as blackmail, covert abolition or erosion of democracy and national sovereignty."

A daily newspaper depicted German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a Nazi uniform with a swastika armband.

'Hostages and serfs'
As public rage simmered, the leader of the far-right LAOS movement, the smallest of three parties backing Prime Minister Lucas Papademos, said he would not vote for the harsh austerity program in a crucial parliament vote due on Sunday or Monday.

"Greeks cannot be hostages and serfs," LAOS leader George Karatzaferis told a news conference. "We were robbed of our dignity, we were humiliated. I can't take this. I won't allow it, no matter how hungry I am.

"Germany decides for Europe because it has a fat wallet and with that fat wallet it rules over the lives of all the southern countries," he added.

His party has 15 deputies in the 300-seat parliament, dominated by the socialist PASOK and conservative New Democracy parties, which both support the Papademos government.

LAOS' four ministers tendered their resignation, but Karatzaferis rejected calls for an early general election and suggested the prime minister appoint more technocrats instead.

Late Friday afternoon, The Associated Press reported that another Greek cabinet member, Deputy Foreign Minister Mariliza Xenogiannakopoulou of the majority Socialist party, had resigned.

Venizelos made clear Greece has little choice but to accept the harsh conditions attached to a $172 billion bailout, and a plan to halve its huge debt to private bondholders, to avoid a chaotic default when big bond repayments come due next month.

"It's time for us to make up our minds," he said after euro zone finance ministers refused to give immediate approval to the bailout plan. "Unfortunately, we have to choose between sacrifices and even bigger sacrifices."

The European Union and IMF have been exasperated by a series of broken promises and weeks of disagreement over the terms of the bailout, which would be Greece's second since 2010, with time running out to avoid a default.

The ministers gave Athens six days to prove its commitment by passing key legislation, finding an extra 325 million euros in savings, and providing assurances that the program will remain in force after any election.

Summing up their deep mistrust, Jean-Claude Juncker, chairman of euro zone finance ministers, said: "In short, no disbursement before implementation."

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Nigeria's main oil union said Thursday it would try to shut down the country's oil and gas production from Sunday, as part of a crippling national strike over spiraling fuel prices.

The strike began Monday after the Nigerian government reversed a two-decade-long subsidy program that had kept gas prices low for Nigerian consumers.

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Anger over the government's decision has led to demonstrations across Africa's most populous nation, and related violence has left at least 10 people dead.

 

A statement Thursday by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) said that if the government does not restore the subsidies, the union would have to act.

"We are hereby notifying the Federal Government of Nigeria ... that [we] shall be forced to go ahead and apply the bitter option of ordering the systematic shutting down of oil and gas production with effect from ... 0000 hours of Sunday Jan 15,'' the union said in a statement.

• PHOTOBLOG: Nigerians protest fuel price rises

Protesters say they want a permanent change in Nigeria, a move away from leaders who send their families abroad for schooling and medical checkups while the rest subsist on less than $2 a day.

"They want to cut us off," said Anthony Abang, a 32-year-old unemployed man who helped close down a Lagos highway. "They want to kill our future."

Gas prices doubled overnight
President Goodluck Jonathan removed subsidies on Jan. 1 that had kept gasoline prices low for more than two decades. Overnight, prices at the pump more than doubled, from $1.70 per gallon to at least $3.50 per gallon. The costs of food and transportation also doubled.

Jonathan insists the move was necessary to save the country an estimated $8 billion a year, which he promises will go toward badly needed road and public projects.

But Nigerians marching through the streets in all parts of the country have seen government promises go unfulfilled before, while politicians got richer by stealing funds from planned public work projects. Many Nigerians don't even have electricity and clean drinking water.

That anger has seen some protesters confront police, set burning roadblocks and attack government offices. At least 10 people have been killed.

On Wednesday in Minna, the capital of the central Niger state, youths attacked the governor's house, forcing him to flee by helicopter. A mob also killed a police officer.

Oil prices rose above $102 a barrel on Thursday following concerns about the strike in Nigeria.

However, even if Nigerian production is slowed, oil in inventories could continue to supply foreign markets for a time.

"A complete shutdown, if carried out, is likely to have a rather large detrimental effect on Nigerian output, even though exports could continue from their inventories in the short term," financial institution Barclays Capital recently said.

Nigeria is a top supplier of crude to the U.S., producing about 2.4 million barrels a day from the swamps of its southern delta to massive offshore oil fields. Oil accounts for up to 80 percent of revenues in Nigeria, a nation of more than 160 million people.

The president insists the removing the subsidy was necessary to save the country an estimated $8 billion a year -- money which he promises will go toward badly needed road and public projects.

• PHOTOBLOG: Nigeria protests grow, 13 killed in attacks

However, protesters distrust the government, and say it should first cut corruption in a nation where military rulers and politicians have stolen billions of dollars.

In Lagos, Nigeria's commercial capital of 15 million, several hundred protesters on Wednesday took over a major highway leading to the islands where the wealthy live. One protester carried a signed that read: "We are ready for the civil war."

Fears about violence were heightened as the leader of a radical Islamist sect challenged the authority of Nigeria's president in an online video. The video by Imam Abubakar Shekau, the leader of the sect known as Boko Haram, will aggravate religious and ethnic tensions in this nation of more than 160 million.

Attorney General Mohammed Bello Adoke has warned that the government "will not hesitate to bring to bear the full weight of the law" against violent protesters. He also said the strike by major labor unions violates a court injuction.

"Adoke also told public workers the government will implement a "no work, no pay" policy for those who join the strike. However, public workers already go weeks without pay in Nigeria at times because of corruption and mismanagement.

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