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.

Mladen Antonov / AFP - Getty Images

Secretary of State John Kerry arrives at Moscow's Vnukovo Airport on Tuesday in his first trip to Russia since taking office. The civil war in Syria will likely dominate his discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Moscow on Tuesday to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin for discussions that will include what may be considered problem number one: what to do about the civil war in Syria.

Russia has traditionally been a backer of Syrian President Bashar Assad, while the U.S. has sided with the rebel forces trying to overthrow him, so the issue is certain to be prominent.

A senior State Department official on Monday conveyed a sense of urgency in gaining Russia’s cooperation on Syria, noting that despite Moscow’s formal commitment to a Geneva agreement calling for a political transition in the country, it has done little to work toward that goal.

“We certainly want to try to make another stab at it, to make another effort at it, because events on the ground have become steadily worse,” the official said. “The casualty figures are mounting, the rate of killing has gone up, and ... the situation is adding to instability in the region.”

In a briefing Monday, White House spokesman Jay Carney said the administration was "working with the Russians" and was hopeful that Putin would continue a pattern of backing away from support of Assad.

In February, Russian and U.S. foreign ministers met with opposition coalition leader Mouaz Alkhatib in Munich. Later that month, however, the Syrian National Coalition turned down invitations to meet with diplomats in Washington and Moscow, citing Russia’s support of Assad.

Two months earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he had urged a Syrian counterpart to meet with opposition leaders so they could discuss a way to end the brutal civil war, which has killed more than 70,000 people in two years, according to United Nations figures.

And in December, Putin said in a nationally broadcast news conference that “we are not concerned about the fate of Assad’s regime,” seemingly turning his back on a traditional ally.

Still, Russia has repeatedly come under fire from the United States for blocking U.N. Security Council resolutions drawn up to put more pressure on Assad.

“We have been clear in the past about our disappointment with Russia over their opposition to resolutions at the Security Council with regards to this matter, but this is an ongoing conversation,” Carney said Monday.

Washington’s hope lies not only in meetings with Russian leaders but in the increasing international outrage over what is perceived to be Assad’s cruel treatment of Syrians, Carney said.

“We have seen over the course of weeks and months an escalation by Assad of the brutality that is perpetuating on his own people, and we have consistently in our conversations with the Russians and others pointed clearly to Assad’s behavior as proof that further support for that regime is not in the interest of the Syrian people or in the interest of the countries that have in the past supported Assad. “We make that case repeatedly with the Russian government and others, and I’m sure we will continue to do that.”

Related:

• Analysis: Putin's crackdown guts opposition movement
• US official: Syrian rebels not using chemical weapons
• Full Syria coverage from NBC News

The Arab League is open to the possibility of "mutually agreed" land swaps to help find a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Qatar’s prime minister said on Monday.

The statement by Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani came after meetings between Arab League representatives and Secretary of State John Kerry in Washington. Vice President Joe Biden also sat in on some of the discussions.

A major sticking point remains, however, in that the Qatari prime minister also said any new borders drawn should be based on the ones that existed in June 1967, before Israel’s Six-Day War claimed more land.

“The Arab League delegation affirmed the agreement should be based on the two-state solution on the basis of the fourth of June 1967 lines, with the [possibility] of comparable and mutually agreed minor swap of land," he said.

The borders have been a point of contention ever since, and Israel has repeatedly rejected the idea of giving up seized land.

But Monday’s language appeared more conciliatory with mentions of any land swaps being agreed upon and the prime minister’s call for “a joint justice and peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis.”

Kerry described the meetings as “very positive, very constructive discussions … with positive results.”

The foreign ministers of Bahrain, Jordan and Egypt were present, as were representatives of Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and the Palestinian Authority. Hamad serves as both prime minster and foreign minister of Qatar.

Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, speaking on Israel’s Army Radio, applauded Hamad’s comments, Reuters reported.

“The news is very positive,” the service quoted Livni as saying. “In the tumultuous world around … it could allow the Palestinians to enter the room and make the needed compromises, and it sends a message to the Israeli public that this is not just about us and the Palestinians.”

Kerry and the delegates also discussed Syria on Monday with United Nations peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi.

A State Department official said they discussed “assistance to the Syria opposition, including our support to the SMC [Supreme Military Council], and the ongoing efforts to help consolidate moderate elements of the opposition.”

Speaking on behalf of the Arab League, Hamad said, “I think all of us” support the Syrian opposition’s April 20 declaration in Istanbul, which said the rebels would work toward a a free and democratic Syria with “no room for sectarianism or discrimination on ethnic, religious, linguistic or any other grounds.”

Related:

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A bet on peace: Qatar funds West Bank settlement

New interest in old Middle East peace plan

News analysis

SEOUL, South Korea – After weeks of a standoff that, at times, worried even the most stoic South Koreans, the North blinked. The latest North Korea crisis is over, but the question is: for how long? 

The view doesn’t look encouraging. North Korea’s medium-range missiles remain locked on their launchers; U.S. and South Korean destroyers still ply Korea’s coastline. 

Across the region, Patriot anti-missile batteries are on the ready. One top U.S. nuclear expert says North Korea will need to test-fire more missiles and nuclear arms in the future. 

But at least for now, instead of drumbeats of war, Pyongyang is sending out feelers about talks and piling on its demands: The complete lifting of United Nations' sanctions, a permanent end to U.S.-South Korean war games, and lots of apologies. The latest came on Tuesday with the North insisting it must be recognized as a nuclear weapons state, rejecting a U.S. condition that it agree to give up its nuclear arms program before talks can begin.

The South called the North's conditions “shameless.”

Secretary of State John Kerry has taken a broader view, saying it’s “at least a beginning gambit.”

But he’s already dismissing talks until North Korea shows serious signs of dismantling its nuclear arms program. In response, Kim Jong Un’s regime has said that’s a non-starter – that its nuclear weapons are its “treasured sword” and aren’t negotiable at any price.

We’ve been here before. The Obama administration calls it “a cycle of provocation.” North Korea deploys threatening words and actions – capped off with a real missile or nuclear test – in order to gain concessions from the U.S. and South Korea, usually in the form of cash. The North then retreats -- until the next crisis.

Some Korea experts say Washington has failed to break that cycle, despite its efforts at “strategic patience” – a highfalutin expression for avoiding engagement with the North while letting sanctions bite.

And they blame that U.S. policy as much as North Korea for the impasse.

“The problem is that, when there’s a sense of crisis, the U.S. doesn’t want to talk to Pyongyang because it would be rewarding bad behavior,” said John Delury, a professor at Seoul’s Yonsei University. “But then when the crisis abates, the U.S. doesn’t want to talk with Pyongyang [either] because it’s not a priority."

Analysts like Delury say it’s only a matter of time before tensions, once again, will rise to dangerous levels. That’s because the U.S. keeps learning the wrong lessons, so it’s stuck in a low-grade, perpetual crisis with North Korea.

They say the U.S. has failed to see that North Korea is really after security first and foremost, followed by recognition and international legitimacy, not aid. If they were just after money, Pyongyang would not have shut down its Keasong Industrial Park, a joint North-South venture which generates billions of dollars annually in trade, during the latest crisis.

North Korea’s provocations are often seen in the West as a kind of pro-active blackmail, but Delury said that’s another U.S. misperception.

“North Korea is reactive,” he explained. “Half of its provocations are counter or defensive moves to assert its strength in the face of far more powerful U.S., South Korean and Japanese forces arrayed against them.”

It’s true that, during the most recent crisis, the tide turned away from confrontation only when the U.S. dialed down its displays of nuclear-capable weaponry, like B2 stealth bombers and F-22 super fighters, used as a show of force during war maneuvers close to North Korea’s border.

Much, of course, depends on the extent to which China – North Korea’s main benefactor with a hand on the tiny country’s food and fuel taps – can persuade Kim that he can rule without the need for nuclear weapons as his ultimate guarantee. 

Slideshow: North Korea's young leader, Kim Jong Un

The youngest son of Kim Jong Il succeeded his late father in 2011, becoming the third member of his family to rule the unpredictable and reclusive communist state.

Launch slideshow

But the U.S. -- Korea watchers here say -- needs to grasp that North Korea’s goal is to survive in a tough neighborhood, surrounded by nuclear powers – China, Russia and U.S. forces. 

If the U.S. wants to break its perpetual cycle of crisis with North Korea, it may well have to bite the bullet – these analysts say – and sit down and negotiate with a “nuclear North Korea,” without officially recognizing the state, or its atomic capability. 

Rather than cash handouts, that could open the door to serious discussions about North Korea’s economic development – something that Kim himself recently called a top priority. Getting there, though, is fraught with difficulty – it would require massive amounts of political will and constant communication through a high-level U.S. special envoy to North Korea, someone like George Mitchell or Madeleine Albright.

It would also mean a leap of faith by the young Kim – if indeed he is in control of his country, as U.S. officials now believe - and the unlearning of wrong lessons by the U.S.

But the alternative, says Delury, is much worse – more bristling standoffs in the future, with even more risk that an accident or miscalculation could trigger a disaster. “Both sides have gone from trading statements about who is really ready for war, to trading statements about who is really ready for dialogue. But that doesn’t mean anything has really changed at a fundamental level.”

And, unless it does, sooner or later North Korea will be back on the airwaves, threatening the world with its “sledge-hammer blows.”

Jim Maceda is an NBC News foreign correspondent based in London, currently on assignment in Seoul, South Korea.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Related:

US, North Korea appear far apart on conditions for negotiation

Kerry: China must do more to resolve N. Korea crisis 

Full North Korea coverage from NBC News

A White House spokesman said Thursday that the United States was open to "authentic and credible" discussions with North Korea -- if it were to show a willingness to abandon its nuclear ambitions. But early signals from Pyongyang were less than enthusiastic.

Aboard Air Force One as President Barack Obama was headed to Boston, spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters that U.S. officials would be willing to negotiate, but would "need to see clear evidence" that the North was "willing to live up to international obligations."

"So far we have not seen that," he added. "Belligerent actions ... actually indicate the opposite of that."

North Korea's response through its state media agency KCNA seemed unlikely to change that perception.

A statement attributed to the policy department of North Korea's National Defense Commission laid down tough conditions under which the North might consider coming to the bargaining table.

Among the North's demands were that the U.S. work to reverse sanctions imposed by the United Nations Security Council over Pyongyang's continued nuclear tests. "They should bear in mind that doing so would be a token of good will towards the DPRK," or Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the statement said.

Less easy to define was a demand that the U.S. "stop all provocative acts against the DPRK and apologize for all of them."

The statement appeared to refer to the Key Resolve and Foal Eagle joint military exercises conducted by U.S. and South Korean forces when it demanded that the U.S. "give formal assurances before the world that they would not stage again such nuclear war drills to threaten or blackmail the DPRK."

It additionally demanded that U.S. immediately "withdraw all nuclear war means from South Korea and its vicinity and give up their attempt to reintroduce them."

"They should bear in mind that the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula can begin with the pullout of the nuclear war means introduced by the U.S. and this may lead to the global denuclearization," the statement said.

NBC News' Stacey Klein contributed to this report.

Related:

Kerry: China must do more to resolve N. Korea crisis

Kerry says US ready to 'reach out' to North Korea

Full North Korea coverage from NBC News

KCNA via Reuters

North Korean soldiers attend military drills that the country's state-controlled KCNA news agency said took place on Wednesday. Kim Jong Un reportedly said that "when the drills turn into a battle, the enemies will be made to drink a bitter cup."

Kim Jong Un said on Wednesday that North Korea would attack U.S. military bases in the Pacific in addition to South Korea if its “enemies … make even the slightest movement,” according to the North’s official KCNA news agency.

The North also hit out over deployment of a U.S. B-52 bomber to South Korea, warning of “all-out action” - the latest of a series of threats issued by Pyongyang.

KCNA news agency said, in its usual flowery rhetoric, that the presence of the bomber showed the U.S. was preparing for "a pre-emptive nuclear strike," echoing its own earlier threat to do that.

Tensions have risen sharply on the Korean peninsula following a rocket test by the North in December and a nuclear bomb test in February.  In response, the U.N. Security Council unanimously agreed early this month to impose further sanctions.

The threat to attack American bases in the Pacific came in a KCNA article headlined “Kim Jong Un Guides Drone Attack, Self-Propelled Flak Rocket Drills,” which trumpeted the success of a drill that was said to have destroyed an “enemy” cruise missile.

“When the drills turn into a battle, the enemies will be made to drink a bitter cup, unable to raise their heads, in the face of retaliatory blows of the strong revolutionary Paektusan army, he [Kim] said,” KCNA reported.

“He [Kim] said that if the enemies, oblivious of the tremendous might of the KPA, make even the slightest movement, he will give an order to destroy not only the military installments and puppet reactionary ruling institutions in the operational theater in south Korea but the relevant facilities of countries following the U.S. war moves for invading the DPRK, and the military bases of the U.S. imperialist aggression forces in the operational theatre of the Pacific,” it said.

“He continued that time has gone when only words were made, stressing the need to destroy the enemies without mercy so that not a single man can survive to sign a document of surrender when a battle starts,” it added.

Slideshow: North Korea's young leader, Kim Jong Un

The youngest son of Kim Jong Il succeeded his late father in 2011, becoming the third member of his family to rule the unpredictable and reclusive communist state.

Launch slideshow

U.S. 'better stop acting rashly'
Another KCNA article said Wednesday that the U.S. had become “evermore undisguised in its moves to make a pre-emptive nuclear strike” on North Korea and that this “goes to clearly show who is the arch criminal threatening peace on this land.”

“The U.S. imperialists had better stop acting rashly, properly understanding the will of the army and people that have turned out as one in an all-out action for a final victory,” it said.

North Korea routinely issues threats that sound alarming, but expert commentators have said the recent rhetoric has been stronger than in the past. North Korea has even said it has scrapped the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War.

Reuters summarized current thinking about the threat posed by the North:

North Korea's missiles have the capacity to hit bases in Japan and on the island of Guam.

Most military experts say that the North will likely not launch an all-out war against South Korea and its U.S. ally due to its outdated weaponry.

Pyongyang is viewed as more likely to stage an attack along a disputed sea border between the two countries as it did in 2010 when it shelled a South Korean island, killing four people.

Such a move would provide a major test for new South Korean President Park Geun-hye who took office pledging closer ties with the North if it abandoned its nuclear push.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Related:

South Korea on alert after hackers strike banks, broadcasters

US Capitol in flames? North Korea dreams of nuclear strike

UN passes sanctions despite North Korea threat of 'pre-emptive nuclear attack'

Carlos Barria / Reuters

A Chinese People's Liberation Army soldier stands guard in front of 'Unit 61398,' a secretive Chinese military unit on the outskirts of Shanghai, on Tuesday. The unit is believed to be behind a series of hacking attacks, a U.S. computer security company said, prompting a strong denial by China and accusations that it was in fact the victim of U.S. hacking.

BEIJING -- China's military on Wednesday responded angrily to accusations by an American computer security company of systematic hacking of U.S. business and military interests, arguing it "lacked technical proof and was "not based on fact."

In a statement published on the Chinese Defense Ministry's website in response to the controversial report by Mandiant Corp., the military denied the charges, arguing the data was not enough to connect the hacking to them.

"The report, in only relying on linking IP address to reach a conclusion the hacking attacks originated from China, lacks technical proof," the ministry wrote in its statement, "Everyone knows that the use of usurped IP addresses to carry out hacking attacks happens on an almost daily basis."

The ministry also argued that there was no globally accepted definition of what constitutes hacking.

"There is still no internationally clear, unified definition of what consists of a 'hacking attack'. There is no legal evidence behind the report subjectively inducing that the everyday gathering of online (information) is online spying."

The Defense Ministry said that China itself is a frequent victim of hacking, a common theme in China's rebuttal of accusations of foul play in cyberspace. The ministry said it had tracked a "considerable number" of attacks against its networks that originated in the United States, but it noted that those intrusions had not been used "as a pretext to accuse the U.S. side [of hacking]."

The statement came a day after Mandiant released an explosive report, first detailed in a New York Times article, that tied a People's Liberation Army unit based in Shanghai to a prolonged and focused campaign of stealing corporate and defense trade secrets.

According to Mandiant, the Chinese hacking unit, believed to be "PLA Unit 61398," employed hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of operatives to raid secure American servers, extracting trade secrets, blueprints, pricing data and other valuable information.

In total, Unit 61398 was said to have pillaged hundreds of terabytes of information from 141 companies -- 115 of which were American -- representing 20 industries in a variety of fields including telecommunications and defense.

The hackers reportedly used techniques such as "spear-phishing" -- using spoof e-mails to trick users into granting access to internal servers -- demonstrating a strong proficiency in English and advanced understanding of computer security and network operations.

China pointed out that its Ministry of Public Security had assisted more than 50 countries and regions in investigating cybercrime cases and that the Beijing had entered into a number of bilateral law enforcement cooperation agreements with those countries to help combat hacking.

The Mandiant report and the media maelstrom around it prompted Chinese state media to lash out at the hacking accusations, though the Chinese-language version of the New York Times story was still blocked in China.

China's typically nationalistic newspaper, Global Times, said Beijing should be more vocal in exposing hacking attacks conducted against China.

"Some officials have been punished for internally reporting that government websites have been hacked and secrets leaked, but almost no details have come out," the paper wrote.

"The Americans really know how to talk this (issue) up. All China can do is concede defeat."

Related: 

Report: Chinese army tied to widespread U.S. hacking

Congress urged to probe Chinese computer espionage

DUBAI - Iran acknowledged on Tuesday that it was converting some of its higher-grade enriched uranium into reactor fuel, a move that could help to prevent a dispute with the West over its nuclear program hitting a crisis in mid-2013.

Conversion is one way for Iran to slow the growth in its stockpile of material that could be used to make a bomb. That stockpile is currently projected to reach a level intolerable to Israel in mid-year, just as Iran's room for negotiation is being limited by a presidential election in June.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast was asked at a weekly news conference about a Reuters report that Iran has converted small amounts of its 20-percent enriched uranium into reactor fuel.

"This work is being done and all its reports have been sent to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in a complete manner," he was quoted as saying by the state news agency IRNA.

It was Iran's first acknowledgment that it had apparently resumed converting into fuel small amounts of uranium enriched to a concentration of 20 percent fissile material.

Iran's production of that higher-grade uranium worries the major powers because it is only a short technical step away from the 90-percent purity needed for a weapon.

On-off negotiations with the major powers and four rounds of U.N. Security Council sanctions have failed to persuade Iran to stop its enrichment activities, and the IAEA has been refused full access to investigate other suspect elements of the nuclear program.

Iran denies that it is seeking a weapon and says its nuclear program serves only peaceful purposes such as electricity and the production of medical isotopes.

Critical mass
But Israel, widely believed to be the only nuclear-armed country in the Middle East, has indicated that Iran's stockpile will reach a level in June at which it considers it must attack to stop Iran acquiring enough fissile material for a bomb. With a presidential election taking place that month, Tehran's room to make concessions to foreign powers is limited.

A U.S. official sought to reassure Israel this week on the determination of President Barack Obama, due to visit the region shortly, to curb Iran's nuclear program, according to an Israeli official who declined to be named.

Rose Gottemoeller, acting U.S. undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, "reiterated the Americans' commitment to preventing a nuclear Iran, and their worries about regional proliferation, were Iran to go nuclear," said the official, who met Gottemoeller.

Iran averted a potential crisis last year by converting some 100 kg of its 20-percent enriched uranium into fuel, suggesting to some that it was carefully keeping below the threshold set by Israel, while still advancing its nuclear technology.

It is not believed to have enriched uranium beyond 20 percent. A fuller picture is unlikely until a new IAEA report on Iran's nuclear activity, due by late February.

Slideshow: Everyday life in Iran

At schools, in shops, and on the streets of big cities and small towns, daily life plays out in Iran.

Launch slideshow

Separately, officials from the IAEA are due to hold talks in Tehran on Wednesday in the hope of restarting their long-stalled inquiry into Iran's nuclear program.

The U.N. agency, whose mission is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, has been trying for a year to negotiate a so-called structured approach with Iran that would give its inspectors access to sites, officials and documents.

The IAEA especially wants access to the Parchin military complex southeast of Tehran where it believes explosives tests relevant for nuclear weapons development may have taken place and been subsequently concealed, allegations that Iran denies.

'Ready for deal'
Mehmanparast said Iran was ready to come to a "comprehensive agreement" with the IAEA if Tehran's nuclear rights were recognized. Part of this agreement could include a visit to Parchin, he said.

But Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani, head of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran, on Tuesday criticized the IAEA's handling of documents related to Iran, signaling the continued mistrust between the agency and Tehran.

"Unfortunately their system is not sufficiently secure," Abbasi-Davani said, according to the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA). "They need to be more careful in their interactions with Iran."

Last year Abbasi-Davani accused the U.N. agency of a "cynical approach" and mismanagement, and said "terrorists and saboteurs might have intruded" into the agency.

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