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Subscribe to RSSA move to increase protection for polar bears by banning international trade in polar bear parts has been thrown out by delegates to a UN conference in Bangkok. NBCNews.com's Alex Witt reports.
Syria rebels won't harm captured UN peacekeepers, activist says
A group claiming to be Syrian rebels said they took the hostages and will detain them until Syrian president Assad's forces withdraw from their town. NBC's Brian Williams reports.
BEIRUT - Rebels holding 21 U.N. peacekeepers near the Golan Heights in southern Syria say they will not harm them but insist government forces must pull back from the region before they are freed, an activist said on Thursday.
Rami Abdelrahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights quoted a spokesman for the "Martyrs of Yarmouk" rebel brigade as saying the convoy of Philippine peacekeepers were being held as "guests" in the village of Jamla, about one mile from a ceasefire line with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
"He said they will not be harmed. But the rebels want the Syrian army and tanks to pull back from the area," Abdelrahman said after speaking to the rebel spokesman on Thursday morning.
The capture of the U.N. peacekeepers close to Israeli-held territory was another sign that Syria's conflict, nearing its second anniversary, could spill over to neighboring countries.
Israel has said it will not "stand idle" if violence spreads to the Golan, which it captured in the 1967 Middle East war.
/
A look back at the conflict that has overtaken the country.
Suspected Sunni Muslim insurgents killed 48 Syrian troops inside Iraq on Monday and cross-border artillery fired from Syria has killed people in Lebanon and Turkey in recent months.
Philippine President Benigno Aquino said the peacekeepers were being well treated and that the United Nations was in touch with the rebels to ensure their safety. "By tomorrow they expect all of these 21 to be released," he said, adding their release might occur as early as Thursday.
Aquino said both sides in the Syrian conflict considered the United Nations a "benign presence" in the country - a view not shared by many Syrian rebels, who hold the organisation at least partly responsible for a lack of international support.
In a video released to announce the capture of the U.N. convoy on Wednesday, a member of the Yarmouk Martyrs' Brigade accused the peacekeepers of collaborating with Assad's forces to try to push them out of village of Jamla which the rebels seized on Sunday after heavy fighting.
Peacekeepers of the U.N. Disengagement Force (UNDOF) mission have been monitoring a ceasefire line between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, for nearly four decades.
NBC News
People resisting the army of President Bashar al-Assad in northern Syria cope with loss and prepare for fighting.
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Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.UN: About 20 Golan Heights peacekeepers captured by Syrian rebels
A group claiming to be Syrian rebels said they took the hostages and will detain them until Syrian president Assad's forces withdraw from their town. NBC's Brian Williams reports.
Syrian rebels are holding hostage a convoy of United Nations peacekeepers in the Golan Heights, and have vowed to detain them until President Bashar Assad withdraws his forces from a Syrian village that has suffered heavy fighting.
The U.N. on Wednesday confirmed that about 20 of its peacekeepers were being held by about 30 armed fighters in the Golan Heights, where the forces are charged with monitoring a cease-fire line between Syria and Israel. The capture, first announced in a rebel video posted on the Internet, was condemned by the U.N. Security Council, which demanded their immediate release.
The U.N. observers were on a regular supply mission Wednesday when they were stopped near an observation post which sustained damage and was evacuated last weekend following heavy combat, according to U.N. deputy spokesman Eduardo del Buey. He said the U.N. peacekeeping mission has dispatched a team to assess the situation and attempt a resolution.
"In the name of god most gracious most merciful, the leadership of the Yarmouk Brigades announces it is detaining forces belonging to the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force until the withdrawal of forces of the regime of Bashar al-Assad from the outskirts of the village of Jamla,'' said a young man in a video posted on line.
Baz Ratner / Reuters
India's United Nations peacekeepers salute as a U.N. vehicle crosses from Syria into Israel at the Kuneitra border crossing on the Golan Heights March 5, 2013.
The man is surrounded by others young men with assault rifles in front of two white armored vehicles and a truck with UN markings. In the vehicles were at least five people wearing light blue UN helmets.
"We call on them to withdraw back to their positions and if they don't withdraw within 24 hours, then they will be treated as prisoners," the man said, according to a translation of the video by NBC News.
NBC News cannot confirm the authenticity of the videos.
He goes on to say that the UN forces are lying about their activities.
"The United Nations is helping the forces of the regime to enter the village of Jambla and they are professing that they are 'disengaging' in the Golan... These are the helpers of the regime entering Jambla."
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A look back at the conflict that has overtaken the country.
The seizure was the first overt threat to U.N. personnel since the start of the nearly two-year-old uprising against Assad. It came as the Arab League okayed its member states to arm the rebels and as Britain said it would increase aid to the opposition forces.
Last week, in a policy shift, the United States promised $60 million in non-lethal aid to the opposition, but Washington maintained it would not provide weapons out of concerns that these arms would fall into the hands of extremist groups among the rebel forces.
The U.N. peacekeeping mission has been in place for nearly four decades, monitoring a ceasefire line between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, captured by Israel in a 1967 war.
NBC News correspondent Ayman Mohyeldin, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
South Korea: We'll strike back at North if attacked
Kcna Via Kns / AFP - Getty Images
A North Korean military spokesman announcing the end of the armistice that ended the Korean War in 1953.
South Korea's military said it will strike back at North Korea and target its top leadership if Pyongyang launches a threatened attack.
A top North Korea general, in a rare appearance on state television on Tuesday, threatened military action against the U.S. and South Korea because of military drills between the two western allies countries that began March 1.
Tensions have ratcheted higher across the Korean peninsula since the North, under youthful leader Kim Jong Un who took office just over a year ago after the death of his father, launched a long-range rocket last December.
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.
He followed this with a third nuclear test on February 12, triggering the prospect of more U.N. sanctions that are due to be formally announced on Thursday after the United States and China, the North's one major diplomatic ally, struck a deal to punish Pyongyang.
At the same time, North Korea has stepped up its military threats against South Korea and the United States, prompting the terse warning from Seoul on Wednesday that it would not stand idly by if its territory was attacked.
"We have all preparations in place for strong and decisive punishment, not only against the source of the aggression and its support forces but also the commanding element," Major General Kim Yong-hyun of the South Korean army told a press conference.
North Korea's bellicose rhetoric rarely goes beyond that, although in 2010 it sank a South Korean naval vessel, killing 46 sailors and in the same year shelled a South Korean island, killing civilians.
South Korea's new President Park Geun-hye had pledged to engage with the North if it dropped its nuclear plans but now faces the prospect of a hostile challenge early in her 5-year term.
The proposed fresh sanctions would explicitly ban the sale to Pyongyang of items coveted by North Korea's ruling elite, such as yachts and racing cars, a U.N. Security Council diplomat said on condition of anonymity.
In 2009, Italian authorities blocked the sale of two yachts worth more than $10 million that they believed were headed for Kim Jong Il, the current Kim's father, who enjoyed copious amounts of luxury brandy and fresh sushi in a country where a third of the population is malnourished.
The new sanctions will target North Korea's financial transactions, which often involve using cash couriers that make them hard to trace, and its criminal activities such as drugs and counterfeiting.
North Korea continues military drills and exercises in support of a top general's threat to back military action against South Korea and the United States. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.
North Korea was slapped with sanctions in 2006 that banned the import of a range of luxury goods from jet skis to Harleys following its first nuclear test in a bid to hit the high-life of the Kim family and its hangers-on.
The impoverished country, whose economy is smaller than it was 20 years ago, has been subject to sanctions of some kind from the United States for almost all of its existence and since 2006 has seen U.N. sanctions imposed for its long range rocket and nuclear tests.
Despite the sanctions Pyongyang now has a nuclear stockpile sufficient for around half a dozen warheads, has made substantial progress in developing a long-range missile and is working towards miniaturizing a nuclear warhead for an intercontinental ballistic missile.
China has backed all rounds of sanctions and fell into line with the latest move in the Security Council, risking relations with its prickly ally.
About 200,000 Korean troops and 10,000 U.S. forces are expected to be mobilized for their "Foal Eagle" exercise, under the Combined Forces Command, which goes until the end of April. Separate computer-simulated drills called "Key Resolve" start on March 11.
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Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.North Korea threatens 'final destruction' of South Korea in UN debate
GENEVA - North Korea threatened South Korea with "final destruction" during a debate at the U.N Conference on Disarmament on Tuesday, saying it could take "second and third steps" after a nuclear test last week.
In response to North Korea's recent nuclear test, South Korea stages military exercises and artillery drills along the border with North Korea. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.
"As the saying goes, a newborn puppy knows no fear of a tiger. South Korea's erratic behavior would only herald its final destruction," North Korean diplomat Jon Yong Ryong told the meeting.
Without specifically referring to the nuclear test, Jon said North Korea had recently taken a "resolute step for self-defense," which he described as "strong counteractions to a foreign aggressor."
"If the U.S. takes a hostile approach toward the DPRK to the last, rendering the situation complicated, it (North Korea) will be left with no option but to take the second and third stronger steps in succession," he added without elaborating.
His comments drew immediate criticism from other nations, including South Korea and Britain, whose ambassador Joanne Adamson said such language was "completely inappropriate" and the discussion with North Korea was heading in the wrong direction.
Ambassador Susan Rice tells reporters at the United Nations that North Korea's latest, "highly-provocative" and "regrettable" act of testing a nuclear weapon "directly violates" security council resolution and threatens international peace, "vowing a swift, credible and strong response."
"It cannot be allowed that we have expressions which refer to the possible destruction of U.N. member states," she said.
U.S. Ambassador Laura Kennedy said she found North Korea's statement profoundly disturbing.
“I also was particularly struck by the phrase 'heralding the destruction of the Republic of Korea' and find that language incredibly inconsistent with the goals and objectives that this body is intended to pursue," she said.
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North Korea uses cash couriers, false names to outwit sanctions
Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.'Force to be reckoned with': Israel's settlers dig in ahead of Obama visit
Uriel Sinai / Getty Images, file
A donkey roams at a Bedouin camp in the E1 area at the Israeli settlement of Maale Adumimin in the West Bank.
TEL AVIV -- To the outsider, it looks like a poor piece of land to fight over: A sand and scrub hillside where, on a winter’s day, a chill wind whips over the boulders and blows through to the bone.
On one side stand the minarets of Arab East Jerusalem, hemmed in by Israel’s security wall. Ahead, across a valley, lies the Jewish settlement of Ma’aleh Adumim, a sprawling suburb of neat streets and anonymous housing blocks.
Between the two feels like a bleak no-man’s land despite the presence of many Bedouin families.
But that is deceptive: No patch of ground in the Israeli-occupied West Bank is more bitterly contested, or more important to White House hopes of restarting peace talks.
At the heart of the dispute is Israel’s policy of building homes for Jewish settlers building communities built on land that the Palestinians feel is vital to a future state.
“We are a force to be reckoned with,” said Yigal Dilmony, deputy general manager of the Yesha Council which represents 360,000 Jews who have settled in East Jerusalem and the West Bank (what they call Judea and Samaria). “The reality on this territory is that we can’t be ignored.”
Late last year, the Israeli government announced it would speed up the start of construction of around 3,500 homes for settlers, connecting Ma’aleh Adumim to Jerusalem in an area known as E1 on the planners’ maps.
The settlers’ progress appeared unstoppable. But in 2013, the political landscape at home and abroad shifted.
Shifting balance
In December, in a rare public show of unity, every member of the United Nations Security Council except the United States condemned the expansion plans. In January, U.N, human rights investigators said Israel must stop settlement expansion and remove all Jewish settlers from the occupied West Bank, saying that its practices could be subject to prosecution as possible war crimes.
Ariel Schalit / AP, file
A Palestinian man works at a new housing development in the Jewish West Bank settlement of Maaleh Adumim.
President Barack Obama’s impending visit to Israel and the West Bank in March will only highlight the issue of the legality of settlements.
And within Israel, January’s elections saw the balance of politics shift, if not decisively then certainly significantly, toward the center and away from reflexively supporting the settlements.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is still struggling to knit these disparate strands into a governing alliance, but it is likely he will need to bring together his traditional right-wing supporters and the new more moderate voices.
And few issues divide the Israeli establishment more than that of settlements.
Here’s the outgoing Deputy Prime Minister, Dan Meridor, speaking on Israeli radio on Feb. 7:
"There is a discrepancy between our claim that we are willing to accept a two-state solution and the fact that we don't limit the construction in the settlements to the settlement blocs.”
Meridor is a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party who failed to win re-election. But his voice has always tended toward the pragmatic.
"I'm not saying we should stop construction in Jerusalem and in the settlement blocs, but we must not build beyond them, because by doing so we promote a very dangerous situation to Zionism, of one state from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River, which endangers us more than anything else," he said.
Israeli media cite anonymous sources in Netanyahu’s office to say he’s not planning another freeze on settlements. On Monday he reiterated his support for two state-solution, albeit unenthusiastically.
The battle over settlements centers around mutually exclusive visions of Israel’s future – a two-state solution versus an Israel decisively laying claim to land captured in the 1967 war with Egypt, Jordan and Syria.
Clouds gathering
For Palestinians, settlements and an eventual Palestinian state cannot be seen as separate issues. E1, the plot of land near East Jerusalem, is a vital corridor without which their territory would be severed, north from south.
Abir Sultan / EPA, file
A Bedouin shepherd puts a newborn lamb in a bag on his donkey in the E1 area between Jerusalem and the West Bank.
The construction of the thousands of homes would render impractical if not impossible the foundation of a meaningful state of their own.
“My family has been here for 80 years,” said an Arab farmer tending his sheep and chickens on the disputed parcel of land known as E1.
“This is our land but they’ve told us we’ll have to go,” said the farmer, who preferred his name not be used. “I don’t know what will happen to us.”
So upon this seemingly barren corridor rests America’s chances of reviving a peace process that has been comatose for two years.
Leaders of the settler movement see clouds gathering as Obama’s visit draws closer. But they remain defiant.
"We understand that Obama as a second term president is much more dangerous to the settlements than the first term Obama and we need to keep our eyes wide open,’’ Dilmony said.
"When he comes here he should meet us, the settlers, and see the situation for himself,” Dilmony said.
On only point is Dilmony likely to be in agreement with the US administration.
“Peace can only come from the people who live here,’’ he said.
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UN panel's report: Israel must withdraw all settlers from West Bank
UN panel's report: Israel must withdraw all settlers from West Bank
Ahmad Gharabli / AFP - Getty Images
A Palestinian activist fixes a flag near a proposed new encampment in the West Bank on Jan 20.
Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank violate Palestinian human rights and must be withdrawn, United Nations investigators said Thursday — a move described by observers as "unprecedented."
An international report by the U.N. Human Rights Council said Israel is "committing serious breaches of its obligations under the right to self-determination and under humanitarian law."
All settlers must begin to withdraw from the occupied territories, the report said. It echoed the earlier claim of Palestinians that the the practices of settlers could be considered possible war crimes by the International Criminal Court.
Israel, which did not cooperate with the investigation, dismissed the document as "biased" and said it would "only hamper efforts to find a sustainable solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict."
Tel Aviv-based Haaretz said the "unprecedented" conclusion was the U.N.’s "harshest condemnation of Israeli policy in West Bank since 1967."
About 250 settlements in the West Bank have been established since 1967 and they hold an estimated 520,000 settlers, the U.N. said.
Palestinians claim the settlements hamper Palestinian access to farm lands.
The report [PDF link], led by French judge Christine Chanet and summarized in a news release in Geneva on Thursday, said:
"Israel must, in compliance with article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, cease all settlement activities without preconditions. It must immediately initiate a process of withdrawal of all settlers from the OPT (occupied Palestinian territories).
These violations are all interrelated, forming part of an overall pattern of breaches that are characterised principally by the denial of the right to self-determination and systemic discrimination against the Palestinian people which occur on a daily basis.
Since 1967, Israeli governments have openly led, directly participated in, and had full control of the planning, construction, development, consolidation and encouragement of settlements, the report states."
Asma Jahangir, one of the authors of the report, said: "We are today calling on the government of Israel to ensure full accountability for all violations, put an end to the policy of impunity and to ensure justice for all victims."
Israel’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement refuting the findings, according to the Jerusalem Post. "The Human Rights Council has sadly distinguished itself by its systematical, one-sided and biased approach towards Israel. This latest report is yet another unfortunate reminder of such approach," the newspaper quoted the ministry as saying.
Hanan Ashrawi, a top official with the Palestinian Liberation Organization, told Reuters: "This is incredible. We are extremely heartened by this principled and candid assessment of Israeli violations...This report clearly states the Israel is not just violating the 4th Geneva Convention, but places Israel in liability to the Rome Statute under the jurisdiction of the ICC."
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$1.5 billion aid pledged for stricken Syrians, UN says
Donor countries have pledged more than $1.5 billion to aid Syrians stricken by civil war, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Wednesday after warning that the conflict had wrought a catastrophic humanitarian crisis.
In a pointed message for Syria's leader, Ban told a fund-raising conference in Kuwait that President Bashar Assad bore primary responsibility to stop his country's suffering after nearly two years of conflict that have cost an estimated 60,000 lives.
ITV's John Irvine has returned to the caves of Serjilla in Syria where children and their parents are taking shelter.
"Every day Syrians face unrelenting horrors," Ban told the gathering, adding these included sexual violence and arbitrary killings. Sixty-five people were shot dead execution-style in Aleppo on Tuesday, opposition activists said.
"We cannot go on like this.... He should listen to the voices and cries of so many people," Ban said.
"I appeal to all sides and particularly the Syrian government to stop the killing ... in the name of humanity, stop the killing, stop the violence."
Ban said the one-day conference had exceeded the target of $1.5 billion in pledges. About $1 billion is earmarked for Syria's neighbors hosting refugees and $500 million for humanitarian aid to Syrians displaced inside the country.
The $500 million would be channeled through U.N. partner agencies in Syria and the entire aid pledge would cover the next six months, Ban said.
But in the Syrian capital Damascus, the thud of artillery drowned out any optimism on the streets. Asked about the aid promises, Damascenes were uninterested or despairing.
"Where's the money going to go to? How does anyone know where it's going? It all seems like talk," said Faten, a grandmother from a middle-class family in the capital.
Another middle-class Damascene, a woman in her 70s who asked not to be named, said the money would not make it to Syrians.
"Tomorrow all that money will get stolen. (The middlemen) steal everything. If they could steal people's souls, they would. I wouldn't count on the money," she said.
The oil-rich Gulf Arab states of Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates each promised $300 million at the meeting. Its 60 participants included Lebanon, Jordan, Iran, Tunisia, the United States, Canada, Russia, China, Japan, South Korea, Turkey and a number of European countries.
But relief groups say that converting promises into hard cash can take much time, and one of them said on Tuesday that aid now reaching Syria was not being distributed fairly, with almost all of it going to government-controlled areas.
Four million Syrians inside the country need food, shelter and other aid in the midst of a freezing winter, and more than 700,000 more are estimated to have fled to countries nearby.
More than 60,000 people have been killed in all, according to a U.N. estimate, since the conflict began as a peaceful movement for democratic reform and escalated into an armed rebellion after Assad tried to crush the unrest by force.
Rahmed Hagagy, Sami Aboudi, Mahmoud Habboush and Mirna Sleiman contributed to this Reuters report.
Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.North Korea pledges to boost nuclear capability after UN rebuke
North Korea vowed to boost its nuclear capabilities on Wednesday after the United Nations Security Council unanimously passed a resolution condemning its controversial rocket launch last December.
“The present situation clearly proves that (North Korea) should counter the U.S. hostile policy with strength, not with words,” the country’s foreign ministry warned in a statement.
North Korea pledged in the statement to bolster its military capabilities and to build up what it called a “nuclear deterrence."
It also defended its “independent and legitimate right” to launch satellites and condemned the U.N. resolution as a “wanton violation of the inviolable sovereignty of (North Korea).”
The U.N. resolution passed on Tuesday called on North Korea to abandon its nuclear program and cease rocket launches, and came a month after the country, officially known as Democratic People's Republic of Korea, successfully conducted a rocket launch that put a satellite into orbit.
Pyongyang maintains that the test was purely “for peaceful purposes.”
U.S. officials disagree, saying the test was the latest attempt to develop multistage ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
Washington hopes the newest U.N. resolution will help bind world opinion against North Korea’s opaque nuclear program.
"This resolution demonstrates to North Korea that there are unanimous and significant consequences for its flagrant violation of its obligations under previous resolutions," American ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, told reporters after the vote.
China’s unusual support for the resolution, the first in four years to expand sanctions against North Korea, suggests Beijing’s patience with its troublesome neighbor may be fraying.
But in comments made after the vote, Li Baodong, China's ambassador to the U.N., warned sanctions alone would not resolve the impasse.
“The policy of the sanction does not work,” he said. “The resolution must be accompanied, supplemented by diplomatic efforts.”
The new sanctions were categorized under the scope of existing ones, which were expanded to include North Korean government agencies -- most notably the North Korean Space Agency -- and companies.
In addition, a list of nuclear and ballistic missile technology banned for export to North Korea has been updated.
Despite the resolution and international concerns about North Korea’s nuclear program, leading North Korea expert Wang Junsheng said it was unlikely that Pyongyang would conduct a nuclear test anytime soon.
“(North Korea) uses nuclear tests to negotiate with foreign countries but mainly to establish the Kim family's stature within the country,” he said, referring to the country’s ruling family.
“By successfully launching the satellite last month, there is no need for Kim Jong Un to conduct a nuclear test at this time,” he said.
Kim Jong Un, North Korea’s supreme leader, is the son of Kim Jong Il and grandson of Kim Il Sung, who founded the communist state.
NBC News' Li Le contributed to this report.
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Explosion at Syrian gas station kills, wounds dozens; opposition blames car bomb
SANA via EPA
Policemen inspecting the damage at a gas station after an explosion in the Barzeh area of Damascus on Thursday.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Photo released by the government-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA).An explosion at a crowded gasoline station killed or wounded dozens of people in Syria's capital on Thursday, according to opposition activists.
The station in Damascus reportedly was packed with people lining up for fuel, which has become scarce during a 21-month-long insurgency aimed at overthrowing President Bashar Al-Assad.
The opposition Revolution Leadership Council in Damascus said the explosion was caused by a booby-trapped car, but there were conflicting figures on the death toll. Reuters put it at 11 killed, with at least 40 wounded. The Associated Press had the death toll at nine.
More than 60,000 people have been killed in the 22-month-old uprising and civil war, the United Nations said this week, sharply raising the death toll estimate in a conflict that shows no sign of ending.
The explosion occurred in the Barzeh al-Balad district, whose residents include members of the Sunni Muslim majority and other religious and ethnic minorities.
"The station is usually packed even when it has no fuel," said an opposition activist who did not want to be named. "There are lots of people who sleep there overnight, waiting for early morning fuel consignments."
It was the second time that a petrol station has been hit in Damascus this week. Dozens of people were incinerated in an air strike as they waited for fuel on Wednesday, according to opposition sources.
Amateur video posted online shows disturbing images, including charred bodies, but NBC News could not independently verify that the video was from Wednesday's attack.
NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin has more on one of the bloodiest weeks of the 22-month conflict.
Meanwhile, rebels battled on Thursday to seize an air base in northern Syria, part of a campaign to fight back against the air power that has given Assad's forces free rein to bomb rebel-held towns.
After dramatic advances over the second half of 2012, the rebels now hold wide swathes of territory in the north and east, but are limited in exerting control because they cannot protect towns and villages from Assad's helicopters and jets.
Hundreds of fighters from rebel groups were attempting to storm the Taftanaz air base, near the northern highway that links Syria's two main cities, Aleppo and the capital Damascus.
Rebels have been besieging air bases across the north in recent weeks, in the hope this will reduce the government's power to carry out air strikes and resupply loyalist-held areas.
Dozens killed in Syrian blast as UN says 60,000 dead in conflict
A rebel fighter speaking from near the Taftanaz base overnight said the base's main sections were still in loyalist hands but insurgents had managed to infiltrate and destroy a helicopter and a fighter jet on the ground.
The northern rebel Idlib Coordination Committee said the rebels had detonated a car bomb inside the base.
The government's SANA news agency said the base had not fallen and that the military had "strongly confronted an attempt by the terrorists to attack the airport from several axes, inflicting heavy losses among them and destroying their weapons and munitions".
Rami Abdulrahman, head of the opposition-aligned Syrian Observatory for Human Rights which monitors the conflict from Britain, said as many as 800 fighters were involved in the assault, including Islamists from Jabhat al-Nusra, a powerful group that Washington considers terrorists.
Taftanaz is mainly a helicopter base, used for missions to resupply army positions in the north, many of which are cut off by road because of rebel gains, as well as for dropping crude "barrel bombs" of explosives on rebel-controlled areas.
Reuters contributed to this report.
More world stories from NBC News:
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UN calls for Afghanistan to protect women from rape, forced marriage
KABUL -- The United Nations on Tuesday joined mounting criticism of Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government over women's rights, urging it to enforce a law designed to prevent violence against women.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said in a report that the country still had a long way to go in implementing a law enacted to eliminate violence against women.
The legislation made child marriage, forced marriage, forced self-immolation and other violent acts, including rape, a criminal offense.
The 2009 law came law came after years of lobbying by Afghans and Westerners alike, and was held up as a beacon of progress.
EXCLUSIVE: US, NATO behind 'insecurity' in Afghanistan, Karzai says
"Progress in addressing violence against women will be limited until the … law is applied more widely," Georgette Gagnon, director of UNAMA's human rights unit, told a news conference after the release of the report.
"So we are calling on the Afghan authorities to take much greater steps to both facilitate reporting of incidents of violence against women and actually open investigations and take on prosecutions," she added.
Afghan women are increasingly concerned for their future as the deadline looms for most NATO-led combat troops to leave by the end of 2014.
They have won back basic rights in voting, education and work since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. But some female lawmakers and rights groups say abuse against women is on the rise as Karzai's government tries to advance the reconciliation process with the Taliban, an allegation it denies.
Newlywed beheaded for her refusal to become a prostitute
On Monday, unknown gunmen shot dead Nadia Sediqqi, acting head of the women's affairs department in eastern Laghman province as she was going to work, in an attack widely condemned by the international community.
Watch Atia Abawi's full, exclusive interview with Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai in which he discusses the "growing perception" that insecurity in the region is caused by the United States and some of its allies who "promoted lawlessness" and "corruption" in Afghanistan.
She had replaced Hanifa Safi, who was killed in a bomb attack five months earlier.
"We have educated women who are being locked inside houses," teacher Masooda Jan, 35, said. "I wish that those women who are locked in their homes by their families and are tortured and beaten would be rescued."
After 10 years of Karzai's rule, has life improved in Afghanistan?
Shukria Barakzai, an Afghan politician, told NBC News that Afghan women's suffering is twofold. At home, their husbands keep the women away from education and don't give them permission to go out for work.
Internationally, laws to protect women do exist, but she argues that they are mostly symbolic and never implemented.
Afghan women's groups had expressed concern that without international backing, it would be difficult to press for their rights.
UNAMA spokeswoman Nilab Mobarez told NBC News that there are more cases going through the courts and judiciary systems than in the past but violence against women remains under reported.
"We have a long way to go to for full implementation of the law," Mobarez said.
/
More than ten years after the beginning of the war, Afghanistan faces external pressure to reform as well as ongoing internal conflicts.
Reuters and NBC's Atia Abawi contributed to this report.
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UN upgrades Palestinian status, bolstering statehood claim
Palestinians had a major symbolic victory when the United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to recognize them, but the U.S. argued the new status could set back Palestinians in the path to peace. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.
The U.N. General Assembly approved a resolution on Thursday giving implicit recognition to Palestinian statehood despite threats by the United States and Israel to punish the Palestinian Authority by withholding funds for the West Bank government.
The resolution, which lifts the Palestinian Authority's U.N. observer status from "entity" to "non-member state," like the Vatican possesses, easily passed the 193-nation General Assembly with 138 nations voting in favor, and nine opposed, including the United States. Forty-one countries abstained, including the United Kingdom.
Israel, the United States and the other members who opposed the resolution see it as a largely symbolic and counterproductive move by the Palestinians. The vote took place on the 65th anniversary of the assembly's adoption of resolution 181 on the partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has led the campaign to win support for the resolution, which follows an eight-day conflict this month between Israel and Islamists in the Gaza Strip, who are pledged to Israel's destruction and oppose his efforts toward a negotiated peace.
The U.S. State Department made a last-ditch effort to get Abbas to reconsider, but the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, held firm.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, speaking at the Brookings Institution on Thursday, said the U.S. believes the resolution will "do nothing to advance the peace and the two-state solution we all want to see."
She noted that while the U.S. planned to vote "no," she played down differences with key diplomatic partners in Europe, including France, which were expected to vote in favor of the resolution.
Reuters
A Palestinian man shouts slogans during a rally in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Thursday. The U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution on Thursday to upgrade the Palestinian Authority's observer status at the United Nations.
"We and our European partners agree on the most fundamental issues and share a common objective — two states living side-by-side living in peace and security," Clinton said.
Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., said in a statement after the vote that "the only way to establish such a Palestinian state and resolve all permanent-status issues is through the crucial, if painful, work of direct negotiations between the parties."
"The United States therefore calls upon both the parties to resume direct talks without preconditions on all the issues that divide them," Rice said.
The U.K. had committed to voting for the resolution if Abbas had shown commitment to resuming peace negotiations without preconditions. Lacking that assurance, Britain abstained from the vote.
Following the vote at the UN General Assembly the Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague said: "We continue to believe that the prospects for a swift return to negotiations on a two state solution — the only way to create a Palestinian state on the ground — would be greater today if President Abbas had been able to give the assurances we suggested, and without which we were unable to vote in favor of the resolution.
UN Palestinian statehood vote to be a personal political victory for Abbas
"In particular, we called on President Abbas to set out a willingness to return to negotiations without preconditions, and to signal that the Palestinians would not immediately seek action in the International Criminal Court, which would be likely to make a return to negotiations impossible.
"Nonetheless, we will redouble our efforts to restart the peace process, and will continue our strong support for President Abbas, the Palestinian Authority, and a two state solution," he said.
Despite its fierce opposition, Israel made efforts that appeared designed to prevent diplomatic isolation. In recent days, it toned down threats of retaliation in the face of wide international support for the initiative, notably among its European allies.
"The decision at the United Nations will change nothing on the ground," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in Jerusalem. "It will not advance the establishment of a Palestinian state. It will delay it further."
But U.N. diplomats say that Israel's reaction might not be so measured if the Palestinians seek ICC action against Israel on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity or other crimes the court would have jurisdiction over.
U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice addresses the assembly following a vote on whether to recognize a single Palestinian state.
Granting Palestinians the title of "non-member observer state" falls short of full U.N. membership — something the Palestinians failed to achieve last year. But it does allow them access to the International Criminal Court and other international bodies, should they choose to join them.
Speaking at an annual U.N. event in support of the Palestinians, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki appealed to U.N. member states to support Thursday's U.N. resolution. He also repeated his support for peace with Israel.
"Despite diminishing hopes and the decline of the situation on the ground due to Israel violations, we remain committed to the two-state solution and our hand remains extended in peace," he said at U.N. headquarters in New York.
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland reiterated U.S. warnings that the move could cause a reduction of U.S. economic support for the Palestinians. The Israelis have also warned they might take significant deductions out of monthly transfers of duties that Israel collects on the Palestinians' behalf.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov was quoted by the Interfax news agency as calling on Washington and Israel to avoid "any hasty and destructive decisions."
"Supporting the Palestinian authorities is not only in the interest of the Palestinian side, but also of Israel and the whole international community that is longing for a peaceful political settlement," he said.
The European Union, a key donor for the Palestinians, has made clear it will not curtail aid after Thursday's vote.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also called for a revival of the peace process: "Israelis and Palestinians must break out of a zero-sum mentality, and embrace a peaceful path forward."
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Flag-waving Palestinians thronged the squares of the West Bank and Gaza Strip before Thursday's vote. In a rare show of unity, Abbas's Islamist rivals Hamas, who have ruled Gaza since a brief civil war in 2007, let backers of the president's Fatah movement hold demonstrations there.
Peace talks have been stalled for two years, mainly over Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which have expanded despite being deemed illegal by most of the world. There are 4.3 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
In the draft resolution, the Palestinians have pledged to relaunch the peace process immediately following the U.N. vote.
With strong support from the developing world that makes up the majority of U.N. members, it is virtually assured of securing more than the requisite simple majority. Palestinian officials hope for more than 130 yes votes.
Abbas has focused on securing as many votes as possible from Europe, and his efforts appear to have paid off.
Going into the vote, Austria, Denmark, Norway, Finland, France, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland had all pledged to support the resolution.
NBC News' Kari Huus and Reuters contributed to this report.
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