VIDEO: As the one-time "breadbasket of Africa" plunges ever deeper into crisis, two prominent Africa-watchers discuss President Robert Mugabe's devastating legacy.

VIDEO: Mugabe's Zimbabwe

My nose started twitching even before I set foot outside the airport in Beijing.

While not quite hot, the air was thick.

Thick with white fluff the size of grapes.

"What is that?" I asked our driver, Mr.Guan, as he steered the car onto the highway.

Adrienne Mong / NBC News

Beijing in a spring haze.

"It's pollen. From those trees," he pointed to the rows of tall poplars lining either side of the road. "They're a problem. People feel worse because of it."

I started digging in my bag for antihistamines.

"This morning, I had to wipe the car off," he continued. "It covers everything and gives people all sorts of allergies."

Guan isn't the only one fed up. This spring, Beijing's government has decided to try out "sex change operations" on the female species of poplars, in an effort to prevent them from producing pollen. More than 300,000 poplar trees grow in the capital.

The level of poplar pollen is especially high this season, worsening Beijing's air quality – already under assault from industrial pollution and sandstorms – and adding further grief to residents who suffer from allergies or asthma.

Adrienne Mong / NBC News

Some of Beijing's 300,000 poplar trees.

Local news reports this weekend said gardening experts successfully injected the first batch of female poplars – about 30,000. Officials agreed on this unusual experiment after concluding it was a better option than spraying chemicals or cutting the trees down.

China is no slouch when it comes to climate engineering. In fact, it seems determined to wrestle Mother Nature to the ground.

The government routinely seeds clouds to create rainfall, and earlier this month Chinese scientists claimed to have created artificial snow in northern Tibet for the first time, amid growing concerns over the Tibetan Plateau's melting glaciers.

VIDEO: The abduction of BBC correspondent Alan Johnston in Gaza on March 12 illustrates the dangers facing journalists in the Middle East.

Watch video of the protests and rallies held over the last month by Israeli and Palestinian journalists demanding the release of Johnston and hear journalists discuss how his abduction will affect future reporting from Gaza.

VIDEO: Protests demanding Alan Johnston's return

NBC News correspondents and producers often embed with the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan as a way to get a closer look at the war and the lives of the troops.

But traveling around on a military embed can be a fairly unglamorous experience for the TV crew. Take a behind the scenes look at the journey Martin Fletcher and a crew took from Kabul to a U.S. base in Jalalabad last December.

VIDEO: Embedded in Afghanistan

The world used to be a blank page for the press. We came, we saw, we reported. We felt protected by our notebooks and pens, and by every government's self-interest – it didn't do any good to harm the press.

But look at the list of no-go areas for journalists today.

Iraq is mostly out apart from military embeds and limited forays from heavily-guarded compounds.

Reporters based in Kenya who normally cover Somalia refuse to go there, saying it is too anarchic and dangerous. Sudan won't let reporters travel to Darfur, nor will Zimbabwe permit coverage of its troubles.

In earlier days journalists would probably have ventured there anyway, trusting in luck or hoping to slip in and out under the radar. But today we're no longer perceived as uninvolved messengers; we've become targets. In Gaza foreign reporters are routinely kidnapped while the Palestinian government pleads helplessness.

VIDEO: Israeli and Palestinian journalists unite for rally in support of BBC's Alan Johnston.

All these places have managed to scare reporters away by threatening to kidnap them, beat them or kill them, and sometimes all three. And that's without mentioning the killing of reporters in the former Soviet Union and parts of Latin America and Asia.

I've particularly been thinking about this since foreign reporters based in Israel and Palestinian journalists in Gaza demonstrated Wednesday in support of a BBC reporter, Alan Johnston, kidnapped in Gaza six weeks ago. The event made it even clearer how the dangers to reporters have changed.

Dangerous developments
There are two critical and dangerous developments.

The first is in firepower. I used to hide behind trees or walls. Today, a few well-aimed rounds and the tree or wall will be gone.

The second is in spreading anarchy. In Somalia and Gaza the danger comes from thugs loyal to families and parties, not to governments.

They cannot be reasoned with. They either place no value on the life of a reporter, as in Somalia, or too much, as in Gaza. The price his kidnappers are demanding for Alan Johnston, according to Palestinian reporters in Gaza, is $2 million (and that is down from $5 million).

There has been only one reported sign that he is still alive. A British newspaper reported that negotiators, trying to determine whether Johnston was dead or alive, recently passed a message to the kidnappers asking for the name of his cat. It came back – Mombasa. Correct.

That must be some consolation to his family and friends, particularly after a leaflet was distributed last week saying Johnston had been murdered.

But it does little to allay the fears of most reporters, most of whom have decided to no longer report from Gaza.

Sony, you can relax -- for now...

The well publicized scare that copies of the anticipated blockbuster movie "Spider-Man 3" are already being peddled on the streets of Beijing even before the film's U.S. release on May 4 are bogus, at least for now. At least that's based on our experience with a discreet camera and a journey to the pirate's cove of illegal movies in downtown

This time I was scared. I had crossed over from Pakistan into Afghanistan to interview Taliban commanders before, but the situation in Afghanistan hadn't been this bad. Now journalists are prime targets for kidnapping and ransom; victims of a well-organized Afghan gang who are actually looking for journalists to sell to the Taliban and al-Qaida militants. 

I had been offered a meeting with Mullah Munibullah, commander of Taliban forces in Nuristan Province, Afghanistan. He has never given an interview before. This could have been a trap.

I told my mother and gave her some phone numbers to call in case I went missing. She started to cry and forbade me to go.  By the time I had convinced my mother that I would be fine – after all, I have known the people who arranged the meeting for me for more than two years and I trusted them – I had convinced myself of that as well.

Escorts – four bearded men with AK-47s
It was an eight-hour journey from Peshawar in Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province to Nuristan Province in Afghanistan, on the southern slopes of the Hindu Kush mountains.

My escorts, four bearded men in their 30s armed with AK-47s, knew the way.

An elderly man embraced all of us when we arrived at a large house alongside of a dried stream bed in the Nuristan Valley. I had no idea who he was but he assured me I was in safe hands. I was then brought alone into a large room and told to wait.

Again I was scared.

Nuristan is the most remote province in Afghanistan and one of the poorest. It is allegedly one of the hiding places of Osama bin Laden.

When Munibullah finally arrived, he had news for me.

"We have received surface-to-air missiles. We now have what we need to target the B-52s, the Predators and the missiles of the enemy," said Munibullah. "We have also received surface-to-surface missiles for attacking the military bases of the enemy," he added.

I was surprised. I asked him how and from whom he acquired such high-tech weapons. He refused to answer, saying only that no one should doubt their ability to get whatever is needed to fight the enemy.

Munibullah, a native of Nuristan, is in his early 40s and has two wives and six children. The interview lasted 30 minutes, but we spent almost four hours together.

VIDEO: A tour of Nuristan Province, Afghanistan.

Drive to push Americans out, like the Russians
We spoke in my native Pashtu, the language of the Pashtun people who live in Afghanistan and in the northwest and western parts of Pakistan.  I found him to be very polite and calm, even when answering some uncomfortable questions, and impressive with his grasp of politics and history.

He told me about a meeting between General John Abizaid, the former commander of U.S. Central Command, and his father, Sheikh Faqirullah, a former jihadi commander during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

Abizaid had visited the family in 2001 right after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and tried to persuade Munibullah's father not to side with al-Qaida. In turn the Americans would offer assistance to his family. 

The general and the sheikh sat together all day and spoke in Arabic. In the end, Abizaid's offer was refused.

Munibullah is proud of his father and believes he can force the Americans out of Afghanistan, just as his father fought against the Russians.

"We will cause two losses – human and economic – to the Americans. Just like our jihad caused the Soviet economy to collapse," he said. "We never killed all the Russians, but we forced them to leave Afghanistan by damaging their economy."

Are al-Qaida and the Taliban fighting together? I asked.

"We are all one now with a common enemy," said Munibullah. "Everyone – the Arabs, the Uzbeks, the Tajiks and the Chinese – have all accepted Mullah Omar as the supreme leader and we all fight together."

However, Munibullah conceded, "There is just one small difference…Everyone has their own unique war training and that is provided according to each group's culture and program."

Safe ride home
Before it was time for me to leave, some of his fighters did a 30-minute reconnaissance of the area to make sure it would be safe for me to go.

I left, escorted out by the same group who had brought me to meet Munibullah, and followed the same route as when I had come.

We walked from the house through the dry stream bed for at least 10 minutes and then climbed back into the maroon-colored Datsun pick-up for the three-hour drive through Afghanistan's Kunar Province over the same roads littered with landmines. Kunar is where the U.S. 10th Mountain Division is actively fighting al-Qaida and Taliban insurgents.

We crossed on foot over the mountains, through bushes and running rivers back into Pakistan at Binshahi, a town with the same name on both sides of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

Once safely across, I quickly said goodbye to my four escorts, hailed a taxi and drove four more hours home to Peshawar. My first phone call was to my mother, who cried when she heard my voice. She had not slept for the two days that I had been gone.

I often exchange e-mails with soldiers, officers and, sometimes, their families back home. Last week, I received an e-mail from Lt. Col. Dale Kuehl, a smart, energetic commander I know in western Baghdad.  

But the e-mail wasn't sent to me. It was from Kuehl to his wife, Ellen, in the States. She forwarded it to me, and I am quoting from it with Kuehl's permission. 

The e-mail describes an attack on his troops. But something more than that also comes through -- how acts of individual heroism by these soldiers, and many others, are often overshadowed by the grim state of affairs in Iraq in general.  And they deserve to be recognized, no matter what ultimately happens in this troubled country.

Lt. Col. Dale Kuehl, left, and a colleague from the 1st Battalion -5th Cavalry Regiment, U.S. Army.

I first met Kuehl on his combat outpost last year. The outpost (Bonsai II) is a former Iraqi wedding hall that the soldiers have converted into a small operating base. 

These soldiers don't live on big bases like Camp Victory with Internet connections in their bunks, a food court and world-class gyms. 

Their home is an old worn-out building with no running water, no bathroom, no showers, no privacy, and only as much security as the soldiers themselves can provide. 

When the troops first arrived, the wedding hall was full of trash, diseased stray cats and feces. Now, while still a dump, it is a functioning base that soldiers use to launch raids and patrols in west Baghdad as they try to stop Sunni insurgents and Shiite death squads from killing each other, local residents and the troops. 

I liked Kuehl immediately. He is a thinking commander, not intoxicated by military zeal or hollow talking points. He spends as much time finding ways to hunt down insurgents as he does cultivating relations with local politicians and religious clerics.

I do not envy his job. I report about the Byzantine mix of political and religious intrigue, hatred and opportunism in Baghdad as Iraqis fight to take power. But Kuehl is expected to actually bring order to the chaos here with a group of young men and a few women and their machines from far away places like Texas and Florida.

As his letter home shows, Kuehl has also been a magnet for IEDs (improvised explosive devices – or roadside bombs). A few weeks ago, his convoy was attacked and a soldier in the convoy, SSG Jason Maupin was badly injured. Jason Maupin is the cousin of Staff Sgt. Matt Maupin, kidnapped in April 2004. Matt Maupin is still missing in Iraq. The Maupin family has had an incredibly tough war. 

Soldiers in the 1-5 Cavalry, U.S. Army celebrate Christmas with Lt. Col. Dale Kuehl.

This is Kuehl's account to his wife of what happened the day his convoy was attacked. He sent it to her so that she could tell the families of other soldiers what they went through.

A soldier's letter home
"...Every Soldier who gets hurt in this unit is my responsibility. I was the one who gave the orders that put them in harms way. I was the one who has decided how we will conduct operations and I bear the burden of the cost. It becomes much more personal when it is someone like SSG Maupin, who is like a younger brother.

"I was in the vehicle behind him when the IED hit. It seemed like forever for the dust to clear, but was probably only thirty seconds. In the meantime I was calling on the radio to Maupin to get a status. I became increasingly worried when I got no response. Also, we were looking for the son of a bitch who set it off. When the smoke finally clears I see the wreck of a HMMWV [Humvee] and Doc Coursen treating someone on the right side of the vehicle. I put my vehicle in between where I thought the triggerman was and the damaged vehicle so that we could have some protection from small arms fire while we treated the casualties. I jumped out after telling SSG Johnson in the trail vehicle to call in a report and get support up to us. As I raced around the vehicle Coursen tells me to check on Delgado and Simmons. When I got to the drivers side, Simmons comes out with blood on his face, but he is OK. It was almost funny because he comes out with his pistol at the ready because he lost his rifle in the blast. He was pissed off. I jump to the top of the vehicle to check on Delgado. The hood of the HMMWV is gone so I stepped on the engine block to get there. I didn't notice at the time it was on fire. Fortunately Delgado regained consciousness and was able to get down on his own. Went back around to where Doc was treating Maupin.

Simmons and I are pulling security to allow Doc to work. I didn't know it but Doc was hurt too. I thought the stress was getting to him, but it was actually the pain in his leg and his head. I had to encourage him to keep going as he is placing a tourniquet on Maupin's almost severed arm.

Thank God he hung with it.

"In time two more patrols showed up to assist with the CASEVAC, [casualty evacuation] but we had a hard time with the damn stretchers we have. Helicopters flew overhead to ensure that we did not get attacked. I'm sure by then word was out that it was my PSD [personal security detail] that got hit. One of the hardest things we had to do was lift SSG Maupin's broken and bleeding body into the Bradley. Every time we moved him had to be excruciatingly painful, but we knew we had to do it to save his life.... I will never forget his screams.

"We raced to the aid station behind the Bradley. I had Simmons and Doc Coursen in my HMMWV and both started to pass out. We had to keep shaking them to keep them awake. Did not want them to fall asleep because I did not know the extent of their injuries. Simmons knowing he needed to stay awake started singing...a rich baritone I think. It seemed like it took forever to get to the aid station...When we got there the medics rushed to get Maupin inside. Simmons refused a stretcher, cursing that he would walk in on his own, damnit.

"Shortly after we arrived, got word that we were under attack at one of our outposts...so had to leave my guys at the aid station and get to the rear command post to deal with it. Turned out a TV Station near the HQ got hit with small arms fire and a VBIED [car bomb, or vehicle-borne improvised explosive device].  

"Made it to the CSH [combat support hospital] that night just before SSG Maupin was placed in the helicopter for Balad. He looked so helpless...Pretty much what was left of the PSD escorted him to the helicopter and a couple of our guys helped lift him in.

"I can't put into words how much these guys mean to me...They protect my life every day and have become like family. The day before SGT Allison, who is the one who pretty much walks wherever I go, got shot in the hand and again in his flack vest as I was talking to a store owner. Even before he fell from the pain he was trying to get between the shooter and me. In two days I had five wounded in my PSD. Every one of them said they would do it again. They all wanted to get back on duty. Doc Coursen is simply a stud. He pulled Allison out of harms way when he got shot, then treated his wounds. His actions to save Maupin's life were heroic.

Even though he himself was injured he put himself at risk to treat his friend. He still does not remember any of it.

"What you do for these Soldiers, their families, and me is so important. They are the salt of the earth...doing what most in this country are not willing to do. Most of the country does not understand the sacrifices that Soldiers are making every day. Likewise they do not understand the stress it puts on our families. ....

I love you with all my heart.

Dale"

 

 

JALALABAD, Afghanistan -- Col. John Nicholson, commander of Task Force Spartan, has a lot on his mind:

• He must lead a brigade of some 3,500

The disturbing and cryptic video clips, photographs and manifesto the killer Cho Seung Hui sent to NBC News instantly reminded me of the taped testimonials suicide bombers leave behind to justify their crimes.

It looked so familiar -- an angry young man dressed in battle clothing preaching a message full of hate in front of a drab background.  I have seen many of these videos over the years in the Middle East. 

The attackers always stress a desire to battle injustice and moral turpitude; they all believe they are avengers of the righteous.  The videos are also replete with religious references. Cho's message seems little different.

Cho repeatedly mentions Christ, suffering and isolation. There appear to have also been references to the Koran.

On the package sent to NBC, Cho uses the name "A. Ishmael."  He is also reported to have had the words "Ismail Ax" tattooed or written on one arm.

Ismail is the Koranic name of Abraham's first-born son. In one of the central stories of the Koran, God orders Abraham (called Ibrahim) to sacrifice Ismail as a test of faith, but then intervenes and replaces him with a sheep.  Muslims reenact this story by sacrificing a sheep on Eid al-Adha (feast of the sacrifice) during the Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca.

While it is still unclear what Cho may have intended, his repeated references to Ismail (he signed his manifesto 'Ismail Ax') has been generating a lot of attention on Arab/Islamic blog sites on the Internet.

The Islamic Threat website said: Cho "knew exactly the significance of the name in Islam as far as blood sacrifices are concerned which leads me to think that there might have been Islamic motivation behind the madness he displayed."

The Angry Arab News Service website said: "The Chicago Tribune reports that Virginia Tech University massacre perpetrator, Cho Seung-Hui, died with the words "Ismail Ax" in red ink on one of his arms. Hmmm . . . Ismail -- the Arabic name for Ishmael -- considered the father of all Arabs and a very important figure in Islam. I'm sure it's just a coincidence, right? Doesn't mean anything. Right. Maybe "Ismail Ax" is the name of a friend of his. Or maybe he wanted to remind himself to buy an Ax for his friend Ismail for next Ramadan. Or I'm sure we'll hear some other similarly absurd 'explanation.' We'll see."

Cho clearly was confused and angry. His manifesto seems the same: a confusing mix of martyrdom, religion, pop culture and multimedia technology.

This week Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his six ministers out of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government, allegedly because the Iraqi leader refused to set a deadline for the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq. But officials close to Sadr told me today that's not the real reason.

"Maliki violated an agreement he had with Sadr. He crossed certain red lines by arresting so many of Sadr's men," I was told.

When the Baghdad security plan began a few months ago, backed up the U.S. troop "surge," Sadr's officials claim to have had an understanding with Maliki that the military crackdown would not target his fighters, the Mahdi Army. Many of the Mahdi Army leaders went underground, hid their weapons or left Iraq for neighboring Iran.

Sadr feels Maliki broke the deal. Officials in the Mahdi Army say U.S. and Iraqi forces have arrested 800 members of Sadr's movement in the last several months, including Sheikh Qais Khazali, who is reputed to be one of the movement's top commanders. 

Sadr sources say when U.S. and Iraqi forces arrested Khazali about two weeks ago in southern Iraq they also seized a laptop computer containing key information about Sadr's militia.

"I expect Sadr will soon return to the armed fight," I was told.

Today is the Holocaust Memorial Day in Israel, and I thought to myself that this is the right time. 

The right time to introduce my eight-year-old daughter to the atrocities that took place just over 60 years ago. But how do you tell a little girl about Hitler's systematic killing machine? About shooting men, women and children in the back, starving families to death, and putting them into gas chambers.

The real problem I faced was how to get her attention away from watching Dora on T.V. to a serious matter like this. Of course the way to do it was to get the backing of the educational system, which kicks into full action when memorial dates like the Holocaust come up.

Last night, just before our bedtime story ritual, my daughter and I sat together and I started very coldly telling her what I know and had learned over the years. I didn't try to make any of the Holocaust accounts sound "nice," I was blunt and very serious and just hoped she would have a good night's sleep. There were no questions on the matter that night.

This morning after what looked like a very good night's sleep, my daughter put on her mandatory white ceremony blouse and we walked to her school. The Holocaust memorial ceremony was simple, and emotional.

The kids memorized by heart personal Holocaust accounts and sang the usual sad songs. At 10 a.m. we all stood up, just like the rest of the country, for a two-minute siren. I looked at the faces of all the young children, trying to figure out what were they thinking. What from all of these horrors will stay with them?

From my own experience the Holocaust accounts do filter in, slowly, slowly, year by year, siren by siren.

As I sit here in Moscow and read about Sanjaya and American Idol, I can't help but be amused. Here in Europe (yes, Moscow is part of Europe. At least it is for this blog – but more on that later), singing and controversial performances have long ago been elevated to an art form known as the Eurovision Song Contest, which will be held next month.

The Eurovision was first held in 1956 in Switzerland with 14 countries participating and the winner selected by a jury (surprisingly, it was Switzerland). The Eurovision has since become more democratic in voting  -- now by viewers calling in and sending text messages -- and the definition of Europe has expanded -- 42 countries will compete this year, including Israel and Georgia.

What's at stake? The winning country hosts the Eurovision (and the assumed tourism euros) the following year. OK, so it's not the Olympics. But let's face it --Andorra, Malta, Albania, and Belarus don't have a shot at 2016 anyway, so hosting the ESC isn't such a bad consolation prize.

[YouTube:5woqCVd0NEY]

VIDEO: ABBA's 1974 victory with "Waterloo"

And despite the fact that few Eurovision winners have gone on to large commercial success (with the notable exception of ABBA's 1974 victory with "Waterloo"), it doesn't stop singers from trying to win.

'Hard Rock Hallelujah' rules
The rules are simple. Songs can't be longer than three minutes, they can't be political, and viewers can't vote for their own country. With so many countries competing now, what does it take to get noticed and win over viewers who span 42 countries and 11 time zones? If last year's winner is any indication – it's all about the controversy.

Finland's entry in 2006 was Lordi, a hard-rock band specializing in monster costumes. Before the contest, articles all over the world (including the New York Times) picked up on the controversial band and its alleged glorification of Satan worship.

[YouTube:uA3VFu3Hsmo]

VIDEO: Lordi's 2006 victory with "Hard Rock Hallelujah"

Despite, or perhaps because of, platform shoes, spark-spewing guitars, and the song's laughable lyrics – they warn about the coming Arockalypse and the Day of Rockening – "Hard Rock Hallelujah" cruised to first place by over 40 points.

This year, it looked like the Israeli band Teapacks was the first to play the controversy card. Its entry, "Push the Button," was being investigated by contest officials for being too political.

[YouTube:f_h_rLKTLvs]

VIDEO: Teapack's performance of "Push the Button"

The English-Hebrew-French, punk-ska-rap song includes lyrics about "crazy rulers" who will "blow us up to bloody…kingdom come"- a reference which many took to be about Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's statement to wipe Israel off the map.

Upside: three different languages and controversy. Downside: the song is absolutely horrendous.

But that spat pales in comparison to the current controversy surrounding Ukraine's cross-dressing entry, Verka Serdyuchka (real name: Andrei Danilko).

[YouTube:8CsKw8giR1g]

VIDEO: Verka Serdyuchka's performance of "Dancing Lasha Tumbai"

The controversy surrounds one phrase of Serdyuchka's song, where it sounded like the singer was saying "I want to see/ Russia goodbye."

Serdyuchka's management has since denied any anti-Russian sentiment in the song and has said that the phrase is actually "I want to see/ Lasha tumbai," in reference to the Mongolian for "churned butter." Mongolian speakers have debunked this translation, though, and the real meaning of lasha tumbai is still a mystery.

This could be costly for Ukraine in a contest where friendly relations count for a lot of points (I guarantee you that Greece and Cyprus give each other top votes). Not to mention that Serdyuchka could be out-dragged by Peter Andersen, a famous drag queen who is representing Denmark.

[YouTube:k4XCYkWsZeY]

VIDEO: Serebro's performance of "Song #1"

As for the Russian entry – it's a no-name girl band, Serebro, with a Soviet-styled named song, "Song #1." The brilliant lyrics include "don't call me funny bunny/ I'll blow your money, money… Put your cherry on my cake/And taste my cherry pie."

So it's not that I'm not interested in what Sanjaya's hairdo will look like next week. But with my hands full of Mongolian churned butter, Ukrainian cross-dressers, and Russian funny bunnies with a month to go to the May 12 Eurovision, I'm waiting to see who will be crowned the European Idol.

 

 

Maha didn't sound like the murderer she wants to be.

The 20-year-old sounded polite and soft-spoken as she told me about her plans to become a suicide bomber. Her motivation, as she told me over the phone (she was too scared to meet in person), is not political, patriotic, religious or even, like some male suicide bombers, bizarrely sexual; for her there would be no 72 houris, the dark-eyed female attendants some Islamic teachings say care for male martyrs in paradise.

There is no equivalent for female martyrs, no male houris.

VIDEO: Iraqi women becoming more active insurgents -- even as suicide bombers.

Our talk took me back to a trash-filled street in Cairo where in 1997 I spoke with a group of young men, all poor, unmarried, undereducated Islamic radicals who were trying to convert me. They repeatedly stressed how virgins would dote me on me in heaven.  One of the men pulled a cigarette lighter from his pocket and held the yellow flame under my outstretched palm.  I pulled back my hand in pain.

"Does that hurt you?" he asked.

"Yes," I said.

"Just this tiny little flame hurts you? Now imagine what Hell fires would feel like for eternity. But in paradise there are virgins… virgins who smell like mangos," he said.

But Maha didn't talk to me about rewards in paradise, but revenge in this life.

Driven to violence
Maha is a Sunni. Until a year ago, she was living with her husband and extended family in Baghdad. Her life quickly collapsed. Her husband moved to Syria, like many here to look for work and safety. Then a Shiite militia group -- she says the Mahdi Army -- killed her two brothers and burned her home. Maha became a refugee and moved in with other relatives in another Baghdad neighborhood. That's when she was recruited.

"A neighbor saw that I was depressed and I told him I was so angry I could blow myself up," she said.

"There are groups that can help you do that," the neighbor said. 

And he introduced them to her.

Maha said the neighbor took her to a Baghdad apartment where a 30-year-old woman taught her how to wear a suicide belt under her black abaya (robe) and approach a crowd. She now awaits further instructions.

Numbers increasing 
Yesterday, we interviewed Mia Bloom, author of "Dying to Kill: The Allure of Suicide Terror" and a scholar at the University of Georgia's School of Public and International Affairs. Her analysis of women like Maha and the dangers they pose in Iraq and elsewhere is worth quoting extensively.

"Percentage-wise, the number of women (suicide bombers) in Iraq is still fairly low, and I think this might be a reflection of the fact that at least within the most extreme Sunni organizations like al-Qaida there is disagreement about what role women should play."

So far there have been at least seven recorded cases of female suicide bombers in Iraq.  Bloom expects the number to rise.

"It would seem that the number of women being used is increasing, and we have seen increasing numbers of women being used to kill civilians, because the women blend very well into a civilian population," she said, adding there is very little American troops can do to stop them. For now, only female U.S. soldiers or interpreters pat down women at checkpoints. Iraqi soldiers don't do it at all.

"If the American forces start searching women who are traditionally dressed very invasively," Bloom continued, "it's going to aggravate and really incense the civilian population, and that helps the terrorists mobilize people to support them. And if we don't look at women at all because we don't want to irritate -- or we assume that women won't be involved -- then women are the perfect operatives because they fall under our radar screen.

"So it's almost as if we are damned if we do, damned if we don't."

It must be the world's strangest industrial zone - a zone where cell phones and western newspapers aren't allowed, but described by its supporters as a blueprint for a unified Korea.

Reaching the Kaesong Industrial Complex isn't easy, since it sits just the other side of the world's most fortified border, the rather inappropriately named demilitarized zone (DMZ), separating the two Koreas. A dedicated road has been laid across the DMZ, passing through four fences - two on the southern side, two on the north, the gates manned by soldiers from the opposing armies. The road itself is fenced in, the land on either side littered with mines, watchtowers and bunkers. Yet everyday around 300 vehicles make the journey, servicing the rapidly expanding complex beyond.

Click here to read the rest of Ian Williams blog about the North Korean industrial zone in the Daily Nightly blog.

Alan Johnston, the BBC reporter kidnapped in Gaza, is in his fourth week of captivity without a sign of life. The word in the Gaza Street is that he could be released in a moment - for a substantial sum.  

Palestinians say money has changed hands before to achieve the release of other kidnapped foreigners. But the price is going up.

The BBC is pursuing diplomatic means to try to secure the release of Johnston – holding high level talks and appealing to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, as well as the Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya, who is also a member of the militant Hamas movement. 

But, Palestinian sources in Gaza, who do not work with NBC, also say it's no mystery who is holding Johnston. At least seven of the 32 kidnappings of reporters and foreigners in the last three years in Gaza are said to have been carried out by one family, the Daghmash clan, who number an estimated 8,000 people, and reside in Gaza City. They are also said to be holding Johnston. The kidnapped foreigners have previously all been released unharmed. Sometimes kidnappers demand jobs in the police force; recently it's about money.  

Only one news organization that works in Gaza has named the family, a Palestinian news agency called Ma'an based in Bethlehem. Its Gaza reporters immediately closed up shop after their lives were threatened. And when we called a Gaza source for this blog, he said, "wait a minute, I must go inside. I cannot mention this family's name in the street." Threats work.

The truth is that the conflict here is portrayed as Israeli versus Arab. That's true, but it is only part of the equation of violence. Hamas versus Fatah is reported, but barely. The real violence that regular Palestinians in Gaza face daily, and is now overflowing to involve kidnapped foreigners, is between families.

Yasser Arafat kept the families in check. When a large family in Ramallah turned to violent crime, he ordered Jibril Rajoub, his security chief, to arrest the ringleaders. Their homes were surrounded. When machine guns didn't quiet the family, Arafat ordered the use of rocket propelled grenades. A few dead men and the problem was solved. 

The problem today in Gaza is that Arafat has gone and nobody has taken his place. Neither Hamas nor Fatah dare take on the families, which control their own towns and villages, like mafia clans.

Everybody in Gaza, including the government, the police, Hamas and Fatah, knows about the activities of this particular family, and others, but none dare confront them. 

And here's a personal anecdote. When Israel was bombarding Gaza last summer after Palestinians abducted an Israeli soldier, my NBC team and I spent several days with a Palestinian family in their house in Beit Hanoun.

It was the closest to the Israeli front line. Shells fell all around. Shrapnel hit the corrugated iron roof as we sheltered beneath it. Later his house was flattened by a bulldozer.

When I asked Eyad, the farmer who lived inside with his family, why he didn't take shelter in Gaza town until the fighting was over, he answered, "I can't. We have a problem with a family in Gaza. If we go there, they'll kill me."

 "What, you'd rather face the Israelis?" I asked.

"Yes," he said. "With the Israelis I have a chance. With the family, I don't."

FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU, Babil Province, Iraq -- I looked up at the cold, starlit sky and saw I was bedded down beneath the handle of the Big Dipper. It made me smile to see something so familiar, because nothing else about the night was.

In a convoy of Bradley tanks and Humvees, producer John Zito and cameraman Bill Angellucci and I had been returning with an infantry company from a frustrating raid on a suspected al-Qaida stronghold in Diyala Province only to run into a nest of IEDs -- the dreaded improvised explosive devices that have become one of the signatures of this protracted war. One explosive had been touched off by Zito's Humvee, and another, a huge one, literally blew the track off the 37-ton Bradley tank that was next in line, disabling it completely and blocking the narrow dirt road that was our way home. Amazingly there were no casualties or serious injuries, though a piece of flying shrapnel sliced the cheek of one of the Humvee gunners. When help had been summoned, those support vehicles ran into more IEDs -- we counted seven in all and were told later there'd been at least a dozen -- and the decision was made to stay put, keep a rotating watch of soldiers for protection, and wait for daylight when the rescue could resume.

Click here to read the rest of Mike Taibbi's blog from his series of "On the Line" reports from Iraq in the Daily Nightly blog.

The bizarre turn of events that lead to the release of the British sailors and marines, who had been held captive in Iran for almost two weeks, began with a somewhat surreal news conference Wednesday.

The news conference started with about 15 minutes of prayers, followed by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad launching into his usual rhetoric against the West, lambasting them as always.

Then something very odd happened. A couple of the commanders who had arrested the 14 British service men and one woman were awarded with medals for valor and courage in arresting the British.

VIDEO: First-hand account of U.K.-Iran standoff

When that happened, a lot of the press corps looked at one another slightly worried – thinking that this could indicate something quite bad to come – if the Iranians were giving medals to these commanders, then their hard-line attitude towards the British was bound to continue.

Then all of a sudden, the Ahmadinejad dropped his bombshell – that he was releasing the captives as "a gift" to the British people.

It was a strange turn of events and the whole thing felt rather staged – Ahmadinejad had his rhetoric, he handed out the medals, and then he said that the hostages were going to be freed. And within 10 minutes, there were the British sailors and marines shaking hands with the president in their ill-fitting suits!

Once the news conference ended, there was a clear sense that the crisis was over and that the hostages would be safely sent home. That was of course confirmed the minute I arrived at the airport on Thursday to fly back to London, hoping I'd be on the same flight as the sailors.

Everyone who was checking into business class for the scheduled British Airways flight to London was told that their ticket was no longer valid in business class and that they had been downgraded to economy class. The British sailors and marines were clearly going to occupy the entire cabin and everyone else was to head to the back of the plane.

The sailors and marines were seen arriving at the airport, but that was it. They were taken into a different waiting area and boarded the plane first – through the front entrance. The rest of us boarded through the back of the plane.

Onboard, the business class section was duly closed off with a curtain so the sailors couldn't be seen. When the press attaché who was traveling with them if the press could talk to them, he gave us a resounding "No." He said that the service men and woman did not want to talk, nor did the Ministry of Defense want them to make a statement.

Nonetheless the plane was full of journalists – so, photographers and cameramen were finding ways to sneak under the curtain and get pictures of them. Every so often the press attaché would come in and plead to give them some privacy. Eventually, they padded up the entrance with extra pillows to block out the press.

The air stewards said that the mood in the cabin was very happy and that everyone was very relieved to be going home.

Once BA Flight 6634 touched down in London, there were loud cheers and applause from the business class cabin. All of the sailors and marines were obviously very happy to be home and their rapturous applause showed it.

Upon arrival, the service men and one woman were greeted by a large military band and the swiftly swept off on two helicopters to be taken to a military base in southwest England where they will be debriefed, have private meetings with their families and get a medical check-up.

As the crisis unfolded, the Iranian perception of it shifted. The Iranians have always had a great deal of suspicion about the British. They feel that the British have meddled a lot in their affairs and that they have caused a lot of harm to Iran. So when these British service men and one woman were initially caught, everyone in Iran thought that they were up to no good.

But when the British were shown on TV, a lot of the Iranians that had been suspicious about them, thought that it was a bad move – they thought that it was in bad taste to televise images of the soldiers.

And then when Ahmadinejad shook hands with them once they were released, everyone thought that was very odd. They didn't understand the thinking behind it.

All of the Iranian newspapers reported the sailors release with open delight because it meant that further tensions would be defused. There was a fear that if diplomacy hadn't worked, that it might have ended up in hostility. So there was a sense of relief on the streets and in the media that the crisis had ended peacefully.

Still, surprisingly, Thursday morning's newspapers offered at least two very contrasting Iranian views of the diplomatic dust-up. One of the more conservative hard-line papers, "Resalat," called the affair a slap in the face to the foreigners and said that it will clearly send a message to outsiders not to violate Iranian territory - which is the usually rhetoric from a lot of the papers.

But what was unusual, is that one of the pro-reform papers, "Etemad e Melli" – or "People's Trust," criticized Ahmadinejad and the way he handled the whole affair. The paper said that Ahmadinejad's announcement was immature and questioned if there was a proper decision-making process behind releasing the sailors. The fact that the article was so critical of the president was very unusual.

But, even as the troops safely made it home, it is clear that the Iranians and the British are treating the conclusion of the matter very differently.

On Iranian state TV on Thursday, Ali Velayati, a senior advisor to Ahmadinejad, said that the British had sent a letter of apology prior to their being released. But the British adamantly deny that a letter of apology had ever been sent. Obviously, they are looking at this in two different ways.

And now in the U.K., there undoubtedly will be a lot of questions for the sailors and marines. They are going to be asked, of course, how were you caught? But more importantly, they are going to be asked what kind of pressure they were under to answer all of those questions on Iranian TV? Given that on the face of things they looked healthy and well cared for, why were they pointing things out on maps and why were they admitting to things? How much pressure where they under to do these things?

So, the troops may be safely home now, but I imagine the aftermath of the affair is far from over.

President Aleksander Lukashenko, dubbed "Europe's last dictator" by Condoleeza Rice, rules Belarus with a Soviet-style fist.

The country is nestled in Europe's womb, sandwiched between Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine and Russia.

Independent media are banned and attending a political rally can land you in jail. Last year's presidential elections were called everything from "fraudulent" by the U.S. government to "clownery" by a U.S.-based Belarusian blogger.

Since he was six years old – when Lukashenko came to power – Franak Viacorka, a 19 -year-old activist, has watched his country of 10 million people stagnate. While other former Soviet republics developed civil societies, albeit to varying degrees of success, Belarus was frozen in a Cold War-era time warp.

Yet there is a trace of change in the Belarusian air. And it's coming in the form of Bluetooth, Skype, and rock videos as Viacorka is challenging his generation to be catalysts for change – and he is getting his message out using modern methods capable of evading government censors.

"I think the Internet and new techniques are especially open for young people, who are looking to be familiar with this technology," explained Miroslaw Dembinski, who followed Viacorka for four weeks over a one-year period in the lead-up to the 2006 election, making a documentary about the Belarusian youth opposition's political efforts.

"The power of the young generation, I believe, can break this regime's isolation." Dembinski said.

Dembinski's film chronicles, for example, how Skype technology enabled an interview with the anti-Lukashenko candidate, Alexander Milinkevich, to be recorded and transmitted from a computer in a private home in Belarus to a computer in Poland.

Polish TV then broadcast the interview, prompting the Polish TV presenter to declare, "Belarusian authorities are limiting free access information, but this cannot be done completely because the world is becoming a global village."

Watch this video to hear more about Viacorka and why Eastern Europe's next democratic movement just might be dubbed the "Bluetooth Revolution."

VIDEO: Franak Viacorka explains the political youth opposition in Belarus.

Cuddly and cute, "Knut," the German polar bear cub, has made a big splash on the international media landscape.

Photos of the playful little fellow have been plastered across international newspapers, magazines, and on TVs around the globe. His first public outing at the Berlin Zoo drew over 200 journalists from around the world and German television broadcast it live.

VIDEO: Knut makes his Berlin Zoo debut on March 23. Â

The hype around Knut has been so enormous that the wave of extra visitors to the Berlin zoo - up to 30,000 on one recent weekend – has required the facility to employ additional staff.

Among the extra visitors was Annie Leibowitz, the celebrity photographer, who flew in from New York to take pictures.

Knut memorabilia has been flying off the shelves - from fluffy little toys to polar baby t-shirts. The first 2,500 stuffed animals that went on sale in Berlin were sold out within a week. A Berlin bank even issued a new debit card for its customers featuring a Knut motif.

Ever since his birth in December, Knut has been raised by a zoo keeper because his mother abandoned him. His situation gained global attention when an animal rights activist complained that that hand-feeding is not appropriate for polar bears and would condemn the bear to a dysfunctional life. German media interpreted the animal activist's charge as a call for euthanasia for the cub. But zoo keepers and veterinarians alike have assured the public the bear will be fine.

Joining the ranks of supermodels
So Knut may be a grown polar bear within the year, changing from a cuddly little cub to a large animal with wild instincts, but in the meantime, he will get a little more of the limelight previously enjoyed by other famous Germans like Claudia Schiffer and Heidi Klum.

Knut will appear on the cover of the German edition of Vanity Fair magazine on Thursday. The glamour magazine will feature a 16-page cover story called "I, Knut -- A World Star From Germany."

And while appearing as a star standing alone on the German cover, Knut may have to share the spotlight on an upcoming "Green Issue" of American Vanity Fair with another pin-up boy and environmental activist: Leonardo DiCaprio.   

The blog I posted last week "Holocaust survivors always 'survivors'" provoked so many interesting -- and contradictory -- comments that I'd like to respond.

Many readers shared memories, others sympathy, but a surprising number either denied the Holocaust ever happened or basically took the line: You weren't the only ones, and stop whining already!

Now there's nothing new about that. Martin Gilbert, the historian and Churchill's official biographer, noted that in 1942 a British Member of Parliament stood in the House of Commons, and in response to growing rumors of the slaughter of Jews in Nazi concentration camps, complained about "those whining Jews."

Clearly genocide has not only targeted Jews, yet some readers raise the question, why do the Jews uniquely make such a meal out of it? Why can't they get over it?

Personally I think it's a stupid question, but since it appears to be a frequent one, I will try to give an answer.

The way I see it, remembering, and honoring the victims of genocide, is not a Jewish thing, it is a universal need.  

'Never forget'
On a hill on the edge of Kigali, Rwanda's capital, is a squat concrete building that will tear your heart out. It contains photographs of victims, as well as the tools of their murder, and is built on the tombs of thousands of slaughtered Tutsis. When the Rwandan government wanted to build its own memorial to its 800,000 dead, it came to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust in Jerusalem, for advice.   

And the Tuol Sleng genocide museum in Phnom Penh is just one of many memorials in Cambodia that consists mostly of smashed skulls, a fraction of the million to two million killed by the Khmer Rouge during their deadly regime.

Nobody wants to forget, despite the efforts of perpetrators, their sympathizers and the ignorant. Why is the pain of Armenians still so fresh? Because Turkey still will not admit that it slaughtered a million Armenians early last century. Turkey still insists they were victims of war, and that only a fraction of that number really died.

Evil acts by states and the slaughter of innocents should not be forgotten, and nations should not be reprieved by history, or the lack of it.

When I read "King Leopold's Ghost" by Adam Hochschild, I was astonished to read that Belgium, the colonial power in the Congo, had killed ten million Africans. Even though I lived in Africa for four years, I had no idea of the extent of the genocide. These are things everyone ought to know.

So do Jews whine more than others? I don't think so. I have reported from Rwanda, Cambodia, Bosnia, as well as Somalia, Kosovo and Gaza and a host of other painful places. I have not noticed any differences in the extent of pain, or how it is expressed. All families remember with the same pain, and all believe their tragedy should never be repeated anywhere.

I grew up in a rather dark home, burdened by memories. Every few days it seemed my father would light a Jahrzeitlicht, a candle in memory of somebody, and I would have to stand silently by his side as he held my hand and murmured some words of prayer: "This is the day Omi died of typhoid in Riga. This is the anniversary of Opi's death in Majdanek. This is the day Otto was last heard of in Berlin. This is the day the Nazis took my mother. This is the day…Auschwitz, Belsen, Buchenwald…Sobibor." My father tried to keep his family's memory alive, with a little flame on a shelf, and then he would cry.

Does anybody really think he was making this up?