CAIRO – Amidst overflowing bags of garbage, Abu Sayed raises pigs, chickens, ducks, pigeons and goats on a small muddy plot of land in order to feed and clothe the extended family of 14 with whom he shares a blackened makeshift shack.  

Since he doesn't own a radio or a TV, we were the first to inform him that the Egyptian government decreed on Wednesday that his pigs, along with all 300,000 pigs in the country, had to be slaughtered as a precaution against the spread swine flu; despite the fact that no cases of the H1N1 swine flu virus have been reported here and it is spread by people, not pigs. 

Charlene Gubash/NBC News

Egyptian farmer Abu Sayed looks at his pigs before he was forced to bring them to a slaughter house.Â

Half of the families' annual income comes from the sale of their small herd of 25 pigs, which usually sell for about $45 a piece.

Sayed looked away as he responded to the unwelcome news about the mandatory slaughter and said, "The interest of the country is more important than anything." 

But his brother Ahmed Mohammed was less magnanimous. "If they want to do this, they must find some other kind of income to replace it. All the family depends on the money we get from the sale of the pigs. My mother is sick. She needs money to get medicine for her diabetes and needs to get her eye infection treated."  

Encouraged by his brother's frankness, Sayed ventured an opinion. "Before they take a decision, they have to see what people can do instead to make a living."

Charlene Gubash/NBC News

Abu Sayed and his sister Karima Mohammed.Â

Main source of income: gone
The brothers' family has experience with the government's hasty and heavy-handed decrees.  They used to haul garbage for a living with two donkey-drawn carts. One day the government arbitrarily decided to forbid donkey and horse drawn carts from certain Cairo districts. During their rounds, police seized their donkeys and broke one of the carts. They had to pay a fine to get the second cart back. It now sits idle in their yard. 

With their main source of income gone, they were no longer able to send their children to school. They don't know how they can recover if they lose their tiny swine herd. 

"We buy clothes for the children from the sale of the pigs," said the brothers' sister Karima Mohammed. 

Even with their meager income, the family does without even the most basic necessities. Youssef, the youngest child at 18 months, walks barefoot amidst the refuse. Because their shack has no plumbing, the women carry plastic jerricans of water on their heads from a water source nearby for the use of both the family and the livestock.

Charlene Gubash/NBC News

Some of Abu Sayed's pigs before heading to the slaughter house.

An Egyptian cabinet spokesman had initially suggested that herders would be reimbursed for each slaughtered pig, but on Wednesday the minister of agriculture said that since farmers were allowed to sell the pork of fit animals, there would be no need for compensation. 

But Sayed said it would be impossible to salvage the meat by slaughtering and freezing the herd at once as the government decreed. "We sell two or three at a time at the request of the butcher. We are not butchers. We raise them. We can't do that. How can we kill the little ones?"

Meanwhile, the government also sent a health ministry employee to inoculate all 14 members of the family against swine flu on Wednesday.

"How do they make a decision without figuring out how people will live," Sayed asked. 

The United Nations said the mass cull of up to 300,000 pigs was "a real mistake" because the new viral strain – a mix of swine, avian and human viruses – has not actually been found in pigs.

Still, on Thursday, the state began confiscating animals anyway.

Police and health officials arrived at Sayed's house early in the morning Thursday. They threatened to arrest him if he did not surrender the animals, and after hitting him on the head and legs several times, he gave in.

When he arrived at the slaughterhouse with the animals, he received no compensation from the government, instead he was actually charged for the cost of slaughtering the pigs. He was also told that he would be given the meat after the animals were slaughtered so he could try to sell it. But Sayed and others say the pork sellers now refuse to buy the meat and have closed their shops.

Author's note: In response to some of the comments below, the Sayed family is Muslim, although many of the families that raise pigs in Egypt are members of the country's Christian minority.

 NICOSIA, Cyprus – It's a rare day in the Middle East when a news flash or a headline doesn't trigger a few memories.

But in Cyprus on Wednesday, when I heard on the car radio that nine Turkish soldiers had been killed by a Kurdish roadside bomb near the Iraqi border, I turned almost without thinking towards the eastern section of Nicosia and stopped on Theophilos Georgiadis Street outside a brown house with two flagpoles in its front garden.

Fifteen years ago a neighbor of mine was shot dead here. He was a Greek Cypriot active in Kurdish politics and although his murderers were never found it's always been assumed the gunmen were acting on orders from Turkish intelligence services.

In those days the street was called Thoukidides after the ancient Greek who chronicled the Peloponesian wars. I used to get a kick out of returning from Iraq or Bosnia or Somalia to a street named after a man who wrote about war thousands of years ago. But most of all I liked it because it was quiet. Traffic was thin during the day and nothing moved after dark.

In March 1994 my mother was visiting from New Zealand. One evening we were talking in the garden when we heard a crackle of shots. My mother was a little startled but I brushed it off as local children playing with firecrackers. It was only when half a dozen police cars with lights flashing and sirens wailing skidded to a stop near my neighbor's house a few minutes later that I realized the shots had been real and someone had been hurt... or killed.

The victim was Theophilos Georgiadis. He was quite dead when I peered at him over his garden wall. I didn't know anything about him at the time but it turned out he was quite a friend of the Kurds. He spoke out on their behalf and shared their dream of an independent homeland. He was particularly close to the Kurdistan Workers' Party – the PKK – a separatist group who has been fighting for autonomy from Turkey since 1984.

Of course, his own Greek Cypriot heritage played a part in his choice of friends. Cyprus had been invaded by Turks in 1974 and many Greek Cypriots had lost relatives and property in the fighting. Theophilos was a prominent critic of the Turkish army for its actions in Cyprus in 1974 and had even accused Turkey of conducting medical experiments on Greek Cypriot prisoners.

In the days following his death Cypriot newspapers speculated which route his killers could have taken to enter the Greek side of Nicosia from the Turkish north. My own guess was that they'd crossed into Greek territory in Pyla, near Larnaca south of Nicosia, and then driven up the highway for 40 minutes to arrive at Theophilos' house in Thoukidides Street before shooting him dead and returning to Turkish territory by the same route. In those days the crossing points between Greek and Turkish Cyprus were open only to foreigners and U.N. soldiers and staff.

Over the next few months Theophilos' name faded from the island's newspapers. Our street was renamed in his memory and his family erected two flagpoles to fly the Cypriot and Greek colors in front of their house. A small plinth crowned with a bust of Theophilos was placed in a corner of the garden.

My family and I moved later in the year to another part of Nicosia and I never really thought of Theophilos until yesterday when the radio speculated that the PKK might have planted the bomb which killed nine Turkish soldiers near the Iraqi border. It's curious how in the Middle East a reminder of a small event will give significance to the present.

BEIJING en route to NEW YORK via LONDON – 

My flight to London was half-full – perhaps from last-minute cancellations over swine flu fears, but more likely the result of the global economic recession, which has drastically reduced tourism and business travel, or maybe it was just due to the ungodly departure hour of 7:45 a.m.

As with elsewhere, coverage of the swine flu in China has been non-stop, but the Chinese passengers on my flight shrugged off the news. 

Andy Wong / AP

Customs officers monitor passengers through a thermal detector machine at the arrival hall of Beijing Capital International Airport in Beijing, China on Tuesday.

An elderly woman said she wasn't worried; besides, this was only her second visit in seven years to the U.K. to see her daughter, who lives in England's Midlands region.

And a young woman named Xu Man, who was traveling on to Amsterdam, likewise said she was "unconcerned" about the spread of the virus.

Still China's government has taken great pains to appear reassuring and in command as the number of swine flu cases (also known as H1N1) escalates around the world.

That's hardly surprising given the Chinese authorities' track record in recent years. The attempted cover-up of the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) epidemic in 2003 badly damaged the central government's image and credibility. And the country has benefited from ongoing experiences with bird flu outbreaks.

Among those lessons learned is greater surveillance of travelers' health – which happens even when there is no apparent threat. For instance, at the Beijing airport, departing and arriving international passengers must always walk through an infrared temperature scan – even when no pandemic threats are in the headlines.

And in recent days, the government has responded with alacrity by promising greater openness and vigilance in its monitoring of the H1N1 virus. It has also banned pig and pork imports from Mexico and the U.S. – although the World Health Organization (WHO) has stressed the virus is not transmitted through the handling or consumption of food. 

Moreover, President Hu Jintao has ordered local and central authorities to bolster inspection and quarantine steps to prevent swine flu from entering China.

Nonetheless even while ordinary citizens seem generally blasé, the local and foreign press are not. 

At a heavily subscribed Tuesday press briefing by the WHO's top China representative, Hans Troedsson, reporters were less interested in China's preparedness than its transparency in reporting suspected cases. 

Questions focused on an outbreak of illness affecting more than 100 students in Shaanxi province (the Health Ministry subsequently said the case was due to Type B influenza and not related to swine flu) and whether the H1N1 virus had originated in China.  

But as I sit in Heathrow and wait for my connecting flight to JFK, there don't seem to be any heightened travel precautions.

It leaves me wondering: How much more will the virus spread? And will China, or other countries, end up trying to limit the entry of travelers from New York and other affected areas?

MEXICO CITY – Almost two weeks ago Paola Alquicira woke up, complaining to her husband of a scratchy throat. As the day progressed, the young housewife felt even worse, but went about her normal day.

She dragged herself to an exercise class, called her mom once or twice and tried to keep pace with her 2-year-old daughter. By nightfall Paola was running a fever, had muscle and joint pain, and a runny nose. Although it was tough with a small toddler, Paola, 23, opted to stay in bed the next day, hoping to shake "la gripe," Spanish for the flu.

VIDEO: Paola Alquicira's mother waits outside her hospital

Instead, over the next two days her fever spiked and before the week ended she was hospitalized after an X-ray showed acute pneumonia. Her husband sent his small daughter to stay with relatives outside of Mexico City so he could keep vigil at his wife's bedside.

"She just would not get any better," said her husband Enrique, explaining that the family was baffled by her condition.

Then last Thursday, he learned the reason why.

His government disclosed that the nation was in the grips of a dangerous epidemic, that a new strain of deadly swine flu had been detected in the country.

With the help of the U.S. Center for Disease Control, Mexican scientists announced the discovery of H1N1, a bizarre new mix of pig, bird and human flu virus now frightening people across the globe.

Suspected to be present in 17 of Mexico's 31 states, the virus has killed more than 150 people and sickened another 2,400 here, while fast spreading to other places in the world. Every day health authorities announce hundreds of more suspected cases.

H1N1's preferred target is particularly worrisome.

Not just the usually vulnerable – children, elderly and people with compromised immune systems – are at risk. But, young previously healthy adults like Paola Alquicira turn out to be in particular danger.

Acting on that finding, health authorities placed the young woman in quarantine in Mexico's National Institute of Respiratory Illness over the weekend. Shortly afterwards, she fell into a coma as her lungs continued to fill with fluid and she struggled to breath.

Paola's husband spends day and night standing on the sidewalk outside the hospital, silently pacing among half a dozen other families. He stoically waits for late afternoon when he is issued a special ID that allows him to walk past the armed police guarding all three hospital entrances. Once behind the concrete walls, Enrique is given 30 minutes to steal a glance at his wife and speak with her doctor. He and their young daughter seem to have been spared infection.

But the moment authorities added Paola Alquicira's name to their list of patients suspected to be infected with H1N1, her parents were barred from her side for their own protection.

"My daughter is in grave condition and we can only see her through the glass," said her mother Alejandra, who too stands in the quiet street, her emotions just partially hidden by the hospital mask covering her mouth.

"We can't touch her anymore."

Not even to say goodbye, if the unthinkable were to happen.

Click here for more on the swine flu crisis

GENEVA – Despite fears of swine flu turning into a full-blown pandemic, the atmosphere in the main hall of the 1970s-style headquarters of the World Health Organization in Geneva seems very business as usual.

On Tuesday morning, small groups of international health experts engaged in scientific talk over cups of coffee in the lobby's cafeteria, while others, with briefcases or paperwork under their arms, walked across the shiny marble floor to and from adjacent elevators.

But appearances of normality aside, only a few feet away from the lobby coffee shop is WHO's Strategic Health Operations Center – the so-called SHOC room. It is an emergency center where WHO experts have been gathering over the last several days to monitor the evolving swine flu crisis.

Fabrice Coffrini / AFP - Getty Images

Employees enter the World Health Organization headquarters in Geneva on Tuesday.

"This is where we gather our scientists, our infection control experts, our epidemiologists, our logisticians," said Dr. Margaret Chan, the Director-General of WHO, as she explained how the international organization has been monitoring the feared pandemic.

"We capture information from all the offices of WHO through our regional office. We have a daily teleconference here and we can connect to countries if necessary, so that we can, in real time, share information as quickly as possible," said Chan. "And when dealing with new and emerging infection – action, speed and good information, good quality information is extremely important."

On Monday evening, the WHO decided to raise the alert level from Phase 3 to Phase 4, following a four-hour meeting of the organization's emergency committee. The change in alert level to Phase 4 means that there is sustained human-to-human transmission of the virus causing outbreaks in at least one country.  

"Moving to Phase 4 means 'get ready,'" WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said yesterday. "If we move to Phase 5 we are basically saying that this is a pandemic virus, we need to take big measures like vaccine production."

Keiji Fukuda, acting WHO Assistant General for Health, Security and Environment, said at a press conference following the emergency meeting that the heightened alert was a "sign of a step towards pandemic influenza, but a stage that says we are not there yet."

"The collection of information, the analysis of it, the monitoring by all countries around the world is really critical because this is how we are going to tell if we are moving into Phase 5 or not," Fukuda said.

He added that "it was not considered inevitable at this time" that the virus would become a pandemic.

"The situation is fluid and continues to evolve, and we will monitor [it]," he told a small group of reporters yesterday, after emerging from a virtual press conference in the WHO's own TV studio.

VIDEO: Inside the WHO as it deals with swine flu

In a significant move, the body stopped short of recommending travel restrictions or border closures.

Still a number of European Union countries, as well as Canada and Israel, have advised their nationals against non-vital travel to Mexico and areas where the deadly virus has surfaced, including the United States.

But in Geneva, WHO stressed last night that it is not calling for an endorsement of any travel or border restrictions.

"WHO, from the international perspective, believes that instituting travel restrictions would not significantly help in the protection of people," said Fukuda. "We are very mindful that when you issue travel restrictions this can have many different effects: it can cause hardships for people, it can cause a lot of untoward effects."

As governments around the world take measures to curb the spread of the new flu strain, experts in Geneva caution it is still too early to predict whether the world will face a new and deadly pandemic.

At the beginning of bird flu crisis in 2004, several frightening scenarios were painted but they never came to pass. Nevertheless, experts are taking this new situation very seriously.

"We have always said that in case of a pandemic, it is not a question of if, but when. But, we don't know when, that is the key word," said Hartl.

Click here for more on Swine Flu

NICOSIA, Cyprus – On a small island like Cyprus, it's comforting to see the government hastening to reassure the population that there is no need to panic about swine flu and show precautions they have already taken to deal with a possible outbreak, even though officials have yet to diagnose single case here.  

Cyprus depends on tourism and agriculture for its economic survival; a pandemic of swine flu would be disastrous for both sectors.

After the weekend news that swine flu had killed dozens of people in Mexico, and that cases had since been reported in the United States and Europe, the Cyprus Health Ministry convened an emergency meeting of microbiologists, epidemiologists and officials from pharmaceutical services to coordinate action and determine the readiness of emergency health services throughout the island.

"The fact that cases have been reported in Europe is worrying," said Health Minister Christos Patsalides. "This obliges everyone in Europe to increase their measures to deal with swine flu."

The Cyprus government informed staff and health services at Larnaca Airport and the island's seaports to be alert for arriving passengers who have visited countries where swine flu has been identified. 

Officials are keeping an eye on the condition of 80 Cypriots who are currently visiting Mexico, including a 15-member dance troupe scheduled to return to the island later this week. According to the government, no Cypriots in Mexico have come down with any of the symptoms associated with swine flu. But a foreign ministry official has recommended that Cypriots avoid traveling to areas where the virus has appeared.

The island's hospitals and pharmacies are well stocked with Tamiflu, an anti-viral drug which must be administered in the early stages of the virus to be effective.

"We have plenty of Tamiflu," said Athena Hadjicristodolou, a pharmacist in Nicosia, the island's capital. "But nobody is asking for it yet."

"Nobody is even talking about the swine flu scare yet.  My husband and I discuss it, but only because I'm scheduled to make a trip to the United States soon. Now he doesn't want me to go."

ISLAMABAD – After weeks of consolidating their control over large areas of the Northwest Frontier Province, the Taliban are in retreat.

On Friday, Maulana Fazullah, the firebrand Taliban boss in the Swat Valley, ordered his most trusted military chief, Commander Fateh, to leave Buner, a neighboring valley that Fateh seized on Monday.

The Pakistani authorities warned the militants on Thursday that they were ready to remove them by force if they did not lay down their arms and abide by a peace agreement hammered out in February.

Mohammad Sajjad / AP

Taliban militants hold their weapons outside a mosque in Daggar, Buner's main town on Thursday.Â

 
According to the deal, the government ceded power to the Taliban in the Swat Valley and allowed them to impose Islamic law in the area in return for a cease-fire – ending two years of on and off military operations there.

But last weekend at a large gathering of supporters in the valley, the Taliban announced they would not lay down their arms and openly challenged the state. They declared that democracy was un-Islamic and called for harsh Islamic laws, known as sharia, to replace Pakistan's constitution.

The next day, they began their advance into Buner. That valley's proximity to the capital, Islamabad, just 70 miles and a five-hour drive away, sounded alarm bells in Washington.

A step too far 
"The Taliban finally made a grave error," said Javed Siddiq, editor of the influential Urdu language daily Nawa-e-Waqt.  "Once they challenged Pakistan's constitution as un-Islamic, Islamic scholars and the Pakistani people no longer saw them as the self-styled defenders of Islam against western infidels – but infidels themselves who want to dismantle the Pakistani state."

Siddiq said that challenging the constitution was a wrong step and believes it has backfired. Pakistan's constitution was carefully forged by a board of Islamic scholars in 1973 – every tenet was crafted to make sure it conformed to the principals of Islam.

"Now, all the different sects of the Sunni and Shiite, the religious scholars, the army, the politicians and every Pakistani is against the Taliban," Siddiq said. "They have lost."

The Taliban were quick to sense their blunder and the resulting sea change in the country. "The expansion into Buner was the turning point," said Siddiq.

NBC News

Taliban Commander Fateh in Buner, Pakistan.

'No ordinary Taliban commander'
It was soon after the Taliban signed the February peace agreement with the Pakistani government that Commander Fateh began to plan the militants' move into Buner.

"I saw Swat as an opening for us," Fateh told NBC News in a recent interview. "I knew if I planned well, we would be able to advance little by little, hopefully in a peaceful way, and gradually enforce Islam in the valley."

Fateh, a 33-year-old native of Swat, rose up through the ranks of Taliban fighters after almost 15 years of fighting in Afghanistan. The somber-looking commander, who is married with three sons, is considered to be an accomplished military strategist, often brilliant in battle, according to Taliban commanders in the region.

With the bearing of a de-facto prince exacting homage from his subjects, Fateh, whose name means victorious in Urdu, rode into Buner last Monday in the back seat of a black Toyota pick-up truck. Taliban fighters flanked his vehicle and brandished Kalashnikovs at the throngs of locals who had come out to catch a glimpse of him.  

Fateh was meticulously turned out in a silky black turban that hung low on his clean, pressed tunic. He wore expensive-looking light brown leather ankle boots, and his long black beard gave off a heady smell of musk-scented oil in the afternoon sun.

"This was no ordinary Taliban commander," said an NBC cameraman, who caught up with Fateh in Buner.  "Most of them are scruffy. This guy was different. I wanted to ask him where he got his shoes."

VIDEO: As concern grows over Taliban in Pakistan, Adm. Mike Mullen discusses the threat with NBC's Ann Curry

Blazing a path of fear
Fateh's plan was to peacefully take Buner with 800 Taliban fighters. After consulting with Fazullah and a council of elders, Fateh and his men drove the 25 miles from Swat to Buner in a convoy of cars, pick-up trucks and mini-buses. Fateh ordered a few hundred men to walk over the mountains and prepare for meeting the Pakistani army along the way, but they encountered no resistance.

"I always try to take control without firing a single shot," Fateh said outside the villa of a wealthy Buner businessman that became his military headquarters just hours after arriving in Buner. "My orders to my men are first and foremost, try not to kill."

Fateh easily forced a truce with the tribal elders and sent home some of his men. He then gave NBC News a tour of the area to show that the local people were with the Taliban.

"We prefer the sharia law that the Taliban have brought to us because it provides speedy justice and no one demands money from us," said Sultan Mehmud, a shopkeeper in Buner.

"Before, we would have to go into debt hiring corrupt government lawyers to defend us, and we never received any justice," he said, albeit haltingly, obviously terrified to say anything against the Taliban.

The Taliban have consistently beheaded those who do not conform to their rules – which include outlawing music and forbidding men to shave their beards – and have torched schools and government buildings in their path.

Less than 1 million people live in Buner, an impoverished valley in the Malakand Division of the Northwest Frontier Province. But Buner has huge strategic importance because it borders seven other districts, enabling the Taliban to easily spread their influence.

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen told NBC News in an interview broadcast on Friday that he is extremely concerned about indications that the Taliban are moving closer to Islamabad.

Pakistan's army commanders have repeatedly said that the army is ready to go back in to push back the militants – whose numbers in Swat alone are estimated to be close to 10,000. On Friday, they deployed around Buner to secure government installations, but so far they have not received any orders from the civilian government to launch a military operation.

In a strongly worded statement, Pakistan's army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, warned Friday that no one should mistake a pause in military operations as a concession to the militants.

"The army is determined to root out the menace of terrorism from the society," Kayani said in the statement.  "It will not allow the militants to dictate terms to the government or impose their way of life on the civil society of Pakistan." 

A Pakistani army officer, who asked to remain anonymous because he is not authorized to speak to the media, said Kayani's statement was directed at the politicians who are criticizing the army and at Western voices who are describing a doomsday scenario for Pakistan. "The chief's statement was basically a 'shut-up' call," he said.

 Will Howard used to think the biggest threat to the world's oceans came from the things you could see - like the detritus clogging so many our estuaries and coastal regions. Now he's found new evidence of how invisible changes in the chemistry of the water pose a disturbing new threat to life in the oceans.

"The impact has already begun. It's not a matter for laboratory experiments. It's happening now," he told me.

The world's oceans are becoming more acidic, as they absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and Howard has discovered the first direct field evidence of the impact on marine life - tell-tale changes in tiny sea snails the size of a grain of sand, which are struggling to make their shells.

VIDEO: Oceans offer warning on climate change

"These organisms are the base of the marine food web, and what happens to them reverberates throughout the eco-system - right up to whales and penguins," says Howard, who's based at the Antarctic Climate & Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre at the University of Tasmania.

Click here to read more of Ian Williams reporting on the disturbing warning signs coming from the world's oceans and efforts to try to preserve a protected marine reserve, the Mariana Trench.

VIDEO: Working to preserve a world under water

HAVANA – President Barack Obama may have charmed audiences all around the world and been all smiles with strongmen such as Venezuela's Hugo Chavez – but don't count Fidel Castro as one of his fans.

In his latest blog, posted last evening, the former Cuban president took issue with a number of remarks Obama made during a Sunday news conference at the close of the Summit of the Americas.

Castro accused the president of "arrogance" and "superficiality" while also criticizing his support of Washington's trade embargo on the island, stating Obama has now made the "failed" policy "his own."

The 82-year-old Castro also said that Obama had "interpreted badly" statements and supposed signals of conciliation from his brother Raúl, now president, who recently remarked that his government was willing to discuss "everything" with the Obama administration, including "human rights, press freedoms and political prisoners."

Javier Galeano / AP

An employee of the Defense of the Revolution Committee reads an issue of the Cuban newspaper Granma next to an image of Fidel Castro in Havana on Wednesday.Â

The apparent openness of that statement, made last Thursday during a meeting of leftist leaders in Venezuela, sparked speculation both in the United States and here in Cuba that the two adversaries could be heading to the negotiating table.  

Obama even characterized Raúl Castro's remarks as an "advance" and underscored that he was encouraged by them.

But he then called on Havana to free political prisoners and to slash the official exchange rate of the U.S. dollar on family remittances.

And that clearly riled Fidel Castro.

Sending another volley back
Justifying the 2003 jailing of 75 opposition figures, the retired leader repeated the charge made during their trials: that the dissidents were agents paid by the U.S. to destabilize his government. He wrote that they were "at the service of a foreign power that threatens and blockades our country."

He also defended the 10 percent tax that Cuban government banks charge to process family remittances in U.S. dollars, saying "not all Cubans have family living abroad who can send remittances. It's absolutely just to redistribute a relatively small part to those who are in the most need of food, medicines and other necessities."

Cuban banks started charging the fee in January 2007 as a response to stepped-up U.S. sanctions. After the U.S. Federal Reserve levied a $100 million fine on a Swiss bank charged with violating American sanctions by handling U.S. dollars from Cuba, Havana decided to stop accepting U.S. dollars and moved to discourage the dollar's circulation on the island. Now there is the 10 percent penalty on the dollar, but all other foreign currencies circulate freely.

Castro also blasted Obama's support for the 47-year old embargo. "He did not invent it, but he made it his own" wrote Castro, " just like ten other U.S. presidents. As he goes down that road, you can predict his certain failure, just like that of all his predecessors."

'Kills any hope I have of change'
Castro's stance doesn't surprise young Cubans, such as Miguelito Levy, who peddles art and antiques to tourists in Old Havana.

"What will this government do when the hostilities end, when there's no one left to blame and there's still no money to buy anything?" said Levy.

Hitch hiking a ride to an early morning physics class at Havana University, Leonid Morales heard a radio announcer read Fidel Castro's blog. "Well," he shrugged, "that kills any hope I have of change."

But Castro supporter Juan González believes that despite today's harsh words, he is convinced that the government will work towards achieving a thaw in relations with the U.S. González, who shared the trenches with Castro's rebels in the late 1950s, says it's time to be pragmatic.

"I used to think any type of concession on our part equaled surrender to the Americans. But both sides will have to give up something," said González.

"We can't pretend anymore. With American companies and tourists coming here, life would be easier for us. And won't trade help the U.S. economy at a time when you need a boost?"

QINGDAO, China – As China prepares to mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of its People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy on Thursday, its normally secretive military has taken the unprecedented step of showcasing some of its best vessels and naval weaponry.

On Wednesday, sailors from China and 14 other countries with naval ships participating in the international fleet review off the coast of Qingdao – including the United States – took turns visiting one another's vessels.

VIDEO: Secretive Chinese navy steps out for 60th

Amid the clicks of digital cameras, one could almost imagine there were no such things as territorial disputes.

Chinese sailors – and there were many from the quarter-million strong naval force – could be found everywhere, eagerly taking photos in front of the visiting ships.

We stopped to chat with a group of Chinese navy officers photographing one another next to the Russian navy's 11,370-ton Vayag missile cruiser. 

"Which foreign ship have you liked the most?" 

"The Korean one has nice lines!" enthused one Chinese officer.  "It's very advanced," added another.

In fact, South Korea's 18,000-ton Dokdo – a landing helicopter platform assault ship – outsized all the other vessels at the fleet review.

And it attracted huge crowds of civilian Chinese.  "Slowly, slowly!" A Korean sailor shouted into his megaphone, trying to calm the packs of Chinese families scrambling onto the gangplank to explore the ship.

"It's very big," said a shy young Chinese woman who had just disembarked from the Dokdo.  When I asked her whether she'd been on any Chinese ships, she nodded and then laughed, "But they're not as big as this!"

We chanced upon the Commander of the U.S. 7th Fleet, Vice Adm. John Bird, who had just emerged from a Chinese submarine. "It's the second time I've been on one of these," he drawled. "The first time was just a couple of days ago."

"Impressions?" I asked.

"It's very clean," he replied.

The submarine Bird visited was a regular diesel-powered vessel, but on Thursday China will publicly display for the first time ever its nuclear submarines – among the most powerful in its fleet.

In front of Pakistan's missile destroyer PNS Badr, a Pakistani sailor posed for the camera with a Chinese toddler in each arm.

Nearby at the USS Fitzgerald, a U.S. Navy missile destroyer from the 7th Fleet, events were organized in a very American way.  A raucous performance of "Carry on Wayward Son," performed by the 7th Fleet's Orient Express band – who flew in specially Japan – greeted Chinese sailors waiting patiently to board the destroyer.

Adrienne Mong/NBC News

A Chinese sailor poses in front of the Pakistan missile destroyer PNS Badr.Â

But it wasn't long before politics did come into play – even if in jest.

An American sailor bounded over, impishly, "Have you been to the Russian ship?  We heard they needed to get towed in." 

Another time, I approached a couple of Pakistani sailors, "Have you been to the Indian ship?"

"Pakistan," they answered, pointing at themselves.

"Yes, I know.  You're from Pakistan," I replied.  "But have you visited the Indian ship?"

"No, Pakistan," they chorused again.

UPDATE: Adrienne Mong Twittered from China's international naval review in honor of the 60th anniversary of the People's Libertation Army Navy on Thursday. Click here to read her Twitter updates.

Iraq's tourism industry is banking on Saddam Hussein's "popularity" by offering the former dictator's bedroom as the honeymoon suite for $150. NBC News' Richard Engel reports.

VIDEO: Saddam slept here: Tourists flock to see dictator's digs

South Africans go to the polls this week, with presidential candidate Jacob Zuma and the ruling African National Congress poised to win a big majority. Martin Geissler profiles the man and the country, looking at the controversy that has surrounded Zuma and the troubling wealth gap that endures despite the end of apartheid.

VIDEO: Who is Jacob Zuma, the man expected to be South Africa's next president?

BEIJING – On Sunday afternoon thousands of people gathered near Beijing's Bird's Nest stadium for a mass blind date.

But the scene was not the usual one of young swinging singles mixing and mingling; rather, it was full of anxious parents looking for love for their still single adult children.

At the entrance a billboard with heart shaped signs gave attendees instructions: "If you are a parent of a son looking for a girlfriend, please wear a blue ribbon. If you are a parent of a daughter looking for a boyfriend, please wear a red ribbon. If you are a single, please wear a tag [saying] 'I'm looking for you!'"

Bo Gu/ NBC News

Parents crowd into the matchmaking event in Beijing's Olympic Park.

Parents strolled around hunting for different colored ribbons, striking up conversations and asking for details such as "How old is your daughter?" or "How tall is your son?" They exchanged information, complete with pictures and resumes, in the hope of finding their son or daughter the perfect spouse. 

Some parents did manage to bring their children along. Zhao Qi, a 31-year-old businessman who sells sea cucumbers – a product many Chinese believe to be extremely nutritious – came with his 74-year-old father.

"I'm not picky at all…age or appearance…they are not important. I just want to find someone who I can talk with, who I feel comfortable to live with," said Zhao.

Dressed in a gray suit and sporting a shy smile, he voiced his concerns about the dating scene. "Girls now are so choosy, they are very hard to please. I only have a diploma from a vocational school, so I think my low education is the reason they don't appreciate me that much."

Compared to the son's bashfulness, his father, Zhao Lianrun, seemed more anxious and aggressive, having bought him an expensive apartment near the Summer Palace, one of Beijing's main tourist destinations. He's ready for him to start a family.  

"I didn't have a son until I was 43 years old. Now I'm over 70, and I can't wait to see a grandchild," he said. "People have introduced many girls to my son, but my wife is too picky! She wants the best for him, so we are here today to take a look."

Bo Gu/ NBC News

One mother takes a closer look at the profiles of available singles at the matchmaking event.Â

As a result of the one-child policy, introduced in China in 1979, and a cultural predisposition for males that has led to forced abortions and female infanticide, there is a disproportionate number of eligible young men in the country. 

In the year 2000 there were 117 boys for every 100 girls – and that ratio is believed to have grown.  Worrying about your child's marriage prospects has long been a major part of Chinese culture, but the striking statistics have compounded the issue.

There is a saying in China: "There are three ways to be unfilial; the worst is to not produce offspring." (The other two offenses are not listening to your parents and not making enough money to support them when they are old.)

The culture pressure to marry has led to an explosion of matchmaking businesses.

Zhang Ying, deputy general manager for a dating service called "I'm looking for you" (www.95195.com) and the organizer of Sunday's event, said more than 10,000 people showed up at the venue over two days. While the event was free, her dating service currently has over 100,000 members in Beijing – each paying about $44 for lifetime service until they are married.

China's National Population and Family Planning Commission estimates that by the year 2020 there will be 24 million more men than women, so dating service companies look set to continue being one of the countries' growth industries.

And imagine 48 million desperate parents looking for love …

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – "I was given $122 to drop chips wrapped in cigarette paper at al-Qaida and Taliban houses," confessed 19-year-old Habibur Rehman, just before the Taliban shot him dead for spying for the United States. "If I was successful, I was told, I would be given thousands of dollars," he said.

In a video released last week by the Taliban as a warning to other would-be spies, Rehman recounted how he was recruited to spy on the Taliban in North Waziristan and drop small transmitter chips on specific targets to call in CIA pilotless drone aircraft.

"I thought this was a very easy job," Rehman said in the video before he was killed. "The money was good so I started throwing the chips all over. I knew people were dying because of what I was doing, but I needed the money."

VIDEO: Alleged Taliban spy confession

The chips transmit a signal to a satellite overhead. The drones, armed with Hellfire missiles, are controlled and remotely piloted by the CIA in the United States, according to Pakistani and western military analysts. Once the signal is received, the drone takes off from Shamsi air base in southwestern Pakistan and collects data and intelligence to attack the chosen Taliban and al-Qaida target.

A U.S. official, who spoke to NBC News on the condition of anonymity about the Taliban allegation said, "People should recognize this for what it is … extremist propaganda."

President Barack Obama has stated that he considers the drone program an effective tool to target al-Qaida sanctuaries in Pakistan's tribal areas along the mountainous border with Afghanistan. Nine out of 20 wanted al-Qaida operatives, who were on a list drawn up by U.S. official last year, have been killed by drones using intelligence provided from chips planted by Pakistani and Afghan tribesmen working as spies.

Taliban says on to strategy
The top Taliban leaders believe they now have successfully infiltrated many of the spy networks operated by the U.S. and Pakistani military in North and South Waziristan – but not all.

"We used to watch these planes, but we had no idea they were chasing us and taking pictures of our activities," said a senior Taliban commander in North Waziristan, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

"In the early days of our jihad, our training camps were visible and people would come and go. We were not so concerned about the security of our locations, but that is all changed now. We abandoned all our old camps and re-located to new places," he explained.

The commander, who is close to Hafiz Gul Bahadur, a top Taliban boss in North Waziristan, said that 40 training camps have been moved because their Afghan friends, working for the Americans in Afghanistan, tipped them off about planned U.S. attacks.

"They told us the Americans had gotten pictures of our whereabouts and of our training houses and were planning to attack us through these unmanned planes," the commander said.

The commander said that once the Taliban had foiled their original plans, the Americans started paying Pakistani and Afghan citizens to identify their secret locations.

Taliban-style justice
"Finally, with the help of our sources in the Pakistani and Afghan intelligence agencies, we detained two Afghan tribesmen, who after five days of interrogation by our men, confessed to spying for U.S. forces in Afghanistan. They revealed other names and then we knew there were entire networks of spies operating in our areas," he said.

"Finally we busted one network of spies after another," the commander said and named some Taliban militants in their ranks who were operating as Western agents.

"Mullah Omar recently outlawed beheading of these traitors," the commander added. "Now we shoot them with AK-47 rifles, but only after we are sure of the charges against them."

A senior government official in North Waziristan, who also spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared for his life, said the Taliban have recently executed more than 100 alleged spies in North Waziristan.

Mohammed Nasir, who owns a general store in Miranshah, North Waziristan's main city, said that everyone is scared to death the Taliban will arrest them as spies.

"There is non-stop killing now of people accused of spying," said Nasir. "The government has no control – so the Taliban pick up people and try them in their secret courts. It is impossible to prove one's innocence."

Before he was shot to death, Rehman said he did not know that he was spying for the United States, he just did it for the money. "I was told that if I could put a chip next to an Arab house, then I would get $12,000," he said.

BEIJING – Last September, less than a month after the end of the Beijing Summer Olympics, about 40 parents materialized in front of the Bird's Nest stadium. Somber and silent, they stood in a row; each one carried a large poster with photographs of their missing young children.

"Doesn't this society have a responsibility? Why let these parents suffer?" a young college student who appeared to be the parents' spokesman shouted out to the gathering crowd of onlookers. "Our Chinese government could do something as big as the Olympics, but they cannot find these kids?  Why not?"

Adrienne Mong/NBC News

Parents publicize the plight of their missing children in Beijing.Â

One of those parents was Peng Gaofeng, a handsome 30-year-old from originally from Hubei province in central China. His poster bore photographs of his son, Peng Wen Le – nicknamed Le Le. 

"My son was taken away by a [child] smuggler so ruthlessly," said Peng. He had come to the Chinese capital with the other parents in the vain hope that they could gain an audience with Premier Wen Jiabao. They had heard that, months earlier, Wen had ordered an investigation into a case of eight children who had disappeared from Henan province, and a week later they were found.

"We thought if [Wen] knew…if we could see him, he would help us and know how much we suffer," Peng recalled.

Instead he and the other parents were rounded up by the authorities, detained for a couple of days, and sent back to their home provinces. 

Eight months later, Peng is still searching for his son.

VIDEO: Buying boys in China

Photo courtesy of Peng Gaofeng and Xiong Yini

Xiong Yini with her son, Le Le, before he disappeared.

 
Peng and his wife, Xiong Yini, moved with Le Le to Shenzhen three years ago. Like many migrants, they planned on a better future for themselves and their only child in the booming border city of 14 million people in southern China. Within months they had set up their own phone shop, and Le Le was thriving in his local school.

But their new life came to a standstill when Le Le, then 3-years-old, was taken from the square in front of their home one evening in March of last year. Security cameras from surrounding buildings show an unidentified man picking up the little boy and carrying him off across the street, away from his parents and his home.

Le Le is one of thousands of children who go missing in China every year. Law enforcement authorities say they don't keep track of the numbers, and independent researchers say they can only go by the number of children recovered to guess at the scale of the problem.

"In 2006, 1,500 children were found. The real figure of missing children is unknown," said Professor Pi Yijun, who teaches at the China University of Political Science and Law.

Statistics in local media reports vary wildly, with some estimating as many as a quarter million children disappearing every year in China. But in a country with such a large population, even the most conservative approximation still sounds high – 20,000 children a year.

"Smuggling women and children is a very serious social problem, a problem all of us hate to see," said Wang Dawei, a professor of crime studies at the China People's Public Security University. "But this is not just China's problem."

Wang has a point. Like other countries that have human trafficking, some of the children in China are forced into labor. Two years ago, the country was rocked by a series of scandals involving hundreds of adults and children as young as 8 years old forced into slave labor at mostly illegal brick kilns in the north-central provinces of Shanxi and Henan.  
 
But child smuggling in China does have a unique dimension. 

Adrienne Mong/NBC News

Parents try to draw attention to their plight outside the Bird's Nest stadium.Â

"The main reason is gender," said Pi. "In the traditional Chinese mind, only boys carry the bloodline of the family. So if a family only has girls, they will want boys…There is a big market for baby boys.

"So much so that boys sell for twice the price of girls. The average price for boys, said Pi, starts at 500 yuan ($73) but can climb up to several thousand dollars by the time the child has been traded by several tiers of middlemen.

The crimes appear to be confined mostly to the countryside, according to law enforcement officials, where cultural values are still conservative, espousing a preference for males. But the trend of buying boys is also exacerbated by China's strict family planning policy, which limits couples to having only one child in most instances.

"A lot of people can only have one child, but they want to keep the family name going," said Liu Xiaoyuan, a lawyer. "When they have a girl, they still want a boy. But they can't have another.  So they just buy [a boy]."

So authorities have begun cracking down on buyers. "Not only do we strike the smugglers [and the middlemen], now we strike customers," said Pi. "This is a good change, and I think it will help curb the crime." 

Officials have also tried to enforce the strict monitoring of children being registered (China has a rigorous household registration system) and urged people to be vigilant. "If someone suddenly gets a new child, neighbors should report it to the police and have it checked out. Did the child come legally?" Liu suggested people ask.

Wang, the crime studies professor, pointed out that there is a lot more information about the issue now. "We do a lot of publicity to educate parents on how to protect their children," he said, "and how to look for them once they are lost."

In fact, the Ministry of Public Security recently announced a national campaign to crack down on human trafficking that would last from April to December. No other details were given.  

Peng isn't waiting around for changes to the law.

"I've been living this life of looking for my son," he told us during a recent visit to Guangzhou, where he was giving a talk about child smuggling. He has organized an informal group of parents of missing children and helps run a Web site on the subject called "Baby Come Home." 

When we last spoke to him, he had just returned from a town in Fujian province, where someone claimed to have seen a little boy that resembled Le Le.  "He was very specific about the location," said Peng, who regularly receives tips and has learned to try to distinguish between real and fake leads.  "You have to prepare yourself."

Peng is so often on the road, chasing leads on his son that he and his wife have thought about closing up their business and moving home. But "our son has a memory of this place," she said, clutching a photo album full of pictures of Le Le.

"I really liked looking at this album. Now I don't dare," Xiong continued. "The biggest responsibility as a parent is to look after the child, but I failed… I didn't look after my child."

MEXICO CITY –  On his second international trip in two weeks, President Barack Obama is visiting the largest metropolitan area in the western hemisphere: Mexico City.

It's a bustling, crowded urban center of over 20 million people known for YouTube worthy traffic jams, spontaneous street protests and high crime.

Mexican security forces decked out in full combat gear and armed with heavy machine guns have been posted throughout the city and many streets have been blocked off for Obama's two-day visit beginning Thursday afternoon. 

Daniel Aguilar / Reuters

Mexican Federal policemen patrol around the Presidente Intercontinental hotel on Wednesday, ahead of President Barack Obama's visit.    Â

While the city boasts many important cultural and historical sites, including more museums than any other city in the world, it's a chaotic place that makes moving a head of state enormously challenging.

Over the past century, visits by American presidents to Mexico City have been relatively rare; instead most have travelled for meetings with Mexican leaders in safer and more pristine resort locales.

In fact, according to USA Today, out of the previous 29 U.S. presidential trips south of the border, only five have come here: Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and Bill Clinton.

Why is Obama coming to Mexico City then?

White House officials said they chose the capital out of respect and solidarity with Mexican President Felipe Calderon for what they call his "courageous steps" taking on the rampant violence carried out by drug trafficking organizations.

VIDEO: Calderon: 'Absolutely not' losing war on drugs

"It was obviously designed that way to send a very strong signal to President Calderon that we admire – the president admires his work," White House National Security Council Denis McDonough told reporters before the trip.

While the economy, energy and the climate will be key themes during the U.S.-Mexico meeting, that issue of tackling drug violence is expected to be a key point of discussion.

Calderon will likely press Obama on the thorny subject of the significant flow of assault weapons continuing to come from the U.S. across the border into Mexico.

Those weapons, bought legally in the U.S., have increasingly wound up in the hands of cartels behind the exploding drug related violence in this country.

Mexico City has been hit particularly hard by that violence, making it a fitting backdrop for Obama's first trip to one of our closest neighbors.

 SUMATRA, Indonesia – Waikiki was known as a problem child, but that was hardly surprising.

He spent the first few years of his life chained to a fence at the housing project where he got his name; it was also where he lost any fear of the humans who had killed his mother and sold him as a pet.

By the time conservationists rescued him, Waikiki was growing fast and had plenty of attitude. Once, after escaping from his cage and chasing off his keeper, he slowly and methodically dismantled the keeper's motorcycle.

VIDEO: Inside an orangutan orphanage

Conservationists tried twice to release him back to the wild, but he kept returning to human habitations, which were much more familiar to him than the forest. So they decided to take him deeper into the jungle, which is where we met the now 10-year-old orangutan.

His small travelling cage was carried to a remote part of the forest, and placed in a clearing near a river. We set up our camera about 10 yards from the cage, in the shadow of a tree, and placed another small camera in a bush close by the cage. We hoped our cameras would record his exit and ascent up the nearest tree – to freedom.

But when the cage was opened he headed straight for us. One keeper, whose stub of a finger was a reminder of the last time he tangled with an angry orangutan, decided that humoring Waikiki was not an option.

"Run, to the river," he yelled.

We waded into the water, while Waikiki paced up and down the bank. The conservationists splashed him with water and shouted: "Go Waikiki, go! Climb! Climb!" Eventually he skulked off into the jungle and we began the two-hour trek back to camp, our team speculating as to when they might see him again.

'Conserving wildlife is becoming a crisis'
You really have to admire the commitment of the conservationists.

We spent almost a week with them in Sumatra, reporting on an ambitious new project to reclaim one of the island's last areas of protected forest for the orangutan, which is critically endangered here.

There are only around 6,500 left in the wild, and some conservationists warn they could be extinct within 12 years.

"We're running out of options. Conserving wildlife is becoming a crisis," said Ian Singleton, a former zoo-keeper from Britain, who now runs the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Program.

"The biggest single threat everywhere is loss of habitat," he said.

Forests are being destroyed to make way for plantations for pulp and palm oil, which is touted as a new "green" fuel. The most vulnerable parts of the forest are the lowlands, which is where the orangutans live. Farmers regard them as pests.

Ian Williams/ NBC News

Young orangutans and their keeper during a climbing lesson at the rescue center.Â

Singleton runs a rescue center in Medan, North Sumatra. During our visit it was home to 41 orangutans – the most they've ever had. Most are youngsters, some just babies.

"They're a bunch of refugees, most of them. Almost all of them, their mothers were killed," said Singleton. "They are like human mothers. They're going to die defending their kids."

Most of Sumatra's remaining wild orangutans live in the northern part of the island. Singleton's program aims to shift his "refugees" to a new home in Bukit Tigapuluh ("Thirty Hills") National park in Jambi, Central Sumatra. Dutch colonial records show orangutans lived here more than 100 years ago, and in theory at least, it's a protected area.

But as Waikiki demonstrated, releasing them isn't straightforward. It can take months or even years before young orangutans, which have been kept as pets, are fit and confident enough to return to the wild.

Ian Williams/ NBC News

Young orangutans in a rescue center near Medan, North Sumatra.Â

More than half of those who arrive at Singleton's center are in critical condition, some beaten or shot. He introduced us to 2-year-old Jarot, whose skull was broken by a farmer, who beat his mother to death. He was clinging on to his keeper, and would only climb into the trees if the keeper was also up there.

It wasn't that he couldn't climb, he just lacked the confidence. Young orangutans stay with their mother for nine years. For the first two or three they are inseparable, and the keeper works almost as a surrogate.

Then there's the question of food. They have to be re-introduced to jungle food – from termite nests to rattan palms – which they rarely came across as pets, if they are to survive back in the wild.

A new home for 'refugees'
During our visit Singleton selected ten of his refugees for the 500-mile journey south to their new home, part of the trip was in off-road vehicles going down bumpy tracks, thick with mud.

"This is good," Singleton declared. "We know that if it's this difficult for us to get in here, it will be tough for the illegal loggers."

That said, the loggers are creeping ever closer. Parts of the "buffer zone" around the park are being cleared to make way for a pulp plantation and our orangutan convoy was briefly stopped by the plantation's security men. They called the local police and demanded our names and IDs.

One of Singleton's keepers asked whether they'd like the names of the orangutans. It was meant as a joke, but the security men eagerly took down the details.

Ian Williams/ NBC News

It's a tough ride back to the wild – stuck in the mud on the way back to the jungle.

"The most protected parts of Indonesia are the plantations, not the forests," said Singleton.

Not all releases are as difficult at Waikiki's. From their base close to the edge of the national park, the keepers take the orangutans daily into the forest, where freedom at first is a sort of day release, until the day they just don't come back.

"One day they may just decide, that's enough, I'm not going back to that cage again," Singleton said.

So far he's released 129 orangutans into this area. There is some debate about how many make up a sustainable community. Singleton's best guess is around 200, since they come from such varied genetic backgrounds.

Trackers try and keep tabs on those that have been released, all of which are micro-chipped.

"Seeing them up there, doing what they are supposed to do, it's really fantastic," said Singleton, as we came across four of those previously released.

The odds are still heavily stacked against Sumatra's orangutans, but at least this group of refugees will have a fighting chance.

While China has been weathering the global economic crisis better than many other countries so far, the financial downturn is hitting some hard. NBC News' Adrienne Mong reports on a unique group of workers known as scrap peddlers, who are barely eking out a living in the wake of the worldwide recession.

VIDEO: Chinese scrap peddlers no longer cashing in

KABUL For centuries, the women of Afghanistan have had to walk behind men, their faces hidden, their dreams denied. They have often been forced to live a harsh life in a place where most women are illiterate, forced into marriages, and beaten by their husbands.

In a rare protest, nearly 300 women gathered Wednesday to demand equality and the repeal of a new law imposing even more restrictions on their rights.

NBC's Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel reports on a women's shelter in Kabul where Afghan women fleeing violent homes can find safe shelter.

VIDEO: Afghan women fleeing violence find sanctuary in a shelter in KabulÂ

L'AQUILA, Italy – Imagine this: their house was rocked so hard by the earthquake in L'Aquila, a husband and wife couldn't even lift themselves out of bed. When the shock ended, they leapt up to flee the house.

The wife stopped to put on her shoes. Her husband yelled, leave it, get out of the house. But she must have been in shock because not only did she put both shoes on, but she stopped to tie up the laces. He fled and lived. She tied a knot and died. The roof collapsed on her.

VIDEO: Quake survivors mark somber Easter

Almost every house in the village of Onna, about three miles from L'Aquila, has a similar story, Joanna Griffith-Jones told me. She pointed from house to house and described one tragedy after another. That's where Rina died; and over there, that's where Lana died, leaving a 4-year-old child.

Twelve of her immediate neighbors were killed. Some died when the quake struck at 3:34 a.m.; others were killed by their collapsing homes moments later.

Joanna had just installed anti-seismic supports in the roof. "That saved the house?" I asked. "No," she said, "but it gave us time to escape."

Joanna and her husband Francesco are musicians in their 40s. They play the violin and viola. All their instruments survived, so they can still play and earn money. Some photos survived, some dusty clothes, and both their cars, too. But that's it. Everything else is gone. "In 20 seconds, everything changed," Joanna said.

VIDEO: Italian quake wrecks 800-year-old church

'She wants to embrace us'
She was standing under the white blossom of a cherry tree, with snow-capped mountain peaks in the distance. It's a pretty scene, if you divorce it from its context, but you can't.

Joanna and her husband are staying in a van lent by friends. "The morning of the earthquake, they drove their caravan from Rome and said, 'This is for you,'" she said, with tears in her eyes.

Soon after I met her, Joanna had to leave. She had to drive to Rome to her mother-in-law's for Easter lunch. "They were going to come here for lunch because we had quite a big house," Joanna said. "But, well now, we're going to Rome."

Joanna said she didn't really want to go. She preferred to stay in the field with her surviving neighbors, to be together, strong in their togetherness, but she couldn't say no to her mother-in-law.

 "She wants to embrace us," she explained. I said, "I'm sure she does." 

BEIJING –North Korea has been in the news a lot lately, but for all the articles on its recent missile test or senior leader Kim Jong Il's health, the isolated state remains a mystery – secretive and opaque.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan – Afghan intelligence agents are sharing information with militants about U.S. and NATO troop movements, a top Taliban commander told NBC News.

"The people of Afghanistan are with us," said Sirajuddin Haqqani, in an exclusive interview.  "The Afghan intelligence officials are sympathetic to the Taliban and they communicate the movements of the occupying forces [U.S. and NATO] to us."

There was no way to confirm Haqqani's claims, but nearly eight years after the attacks of 9/11, the United States has struggled to oust the Taliban and its al-Qaida allies from parts of Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan.

On March 27, President Barack Obama pledged a fresh infusion of U.S. troops to the region. "If the Afghanistan government falls to the Taliban or allows al-Qaida to go unchallenged," Obama said, "that country will again be a base for terrorists."

The United States also has hinted at possible negotiations with some elements of the Taliban. On March 31, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Taliban members in Afghanistan who abandoned extremism must be granted an "honorable form of reconciliation" while Defense Secretary Robert Gates noted that a similar rapprochement worked in Iraq.

However, the Taliban commander – who has a $5 million bounty on his head – dismissed U.S. efforts. Haqqani said that, contrary to comments from U.S. officials, there are no moderate Taliban willing to talk to America. As for other negotiations, Haqqani said that rumors of Saudi Arabia brokering peace negotiations with the Taliban leadership were just that – rumors.

Haqqani said Taliban fighters are now more resourceful than in the past. "We have acquired the modern technology that we were lacking and we have mastered new and innovative methods of making bombs and explosives," he explained.

The commander said he travels freely around Afghanistan because most people don't know what he looks like. The 29-year-old said he keeps a low profile by travelling alone or just with one companion.

This was the second time I travelled across the mountains from Pakistan into Afghanistan to meet Haqqani. Last July, I had no doubt I would get the interview – this time I wasn't so sure.

I had submitted my interview request through two Taliban commanders in South Waziristan. They are men I have known since I was a young reporter – they fled Afghanistan and settled in Pakistan, after the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001.

But during the past year, the roads in Pakistan's border areas have become much more dangerous – they are peppered with militants of all persuasions: thieves, warlords, drug lords and bandits who earn a living kidnapping hostages for ransom.

I decided to risk all and go. I left my home at dawn, in the pouring rain, one morning last week and hopped on a bus leaving Peshawar for South Waziristan, along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.  I calculated that the 4-1/2 hour uncomfortable bus trip would be safer than travelling by car.

The roof of the bus was leaking badly from the heavy downpour, so the passengers inside were angry and kept shouting at the driver. I was nervous he would stop the bus and order all of us to get off, but he drove on.

When we arrived in Tank, a border town on the cusp of the Northwest Frontier Province and South Waziristan, I immediately felt the tension. The Taliban were in full view and in full control.

As we had arranged on the phone ahead of time, a taxi was waiting for me in Tank. I was told to give my phone to the driver and then after about two minutes, a Toyota pick-up truck with black windows pulled up alongside of me and I climbed in.  A young fighter, with a thick beard, asked my name. Once I assured him who I was, we never spoke again.

We traveled another four hours to Wana, the main city in South Waziristan. There I was introduced to two Taliban commanders who escorted me to a guest house where I was supposed to spend the night. I was tired and tried not to think of my safety; I just wanted to sleep. It had been a very long day.

Around midnight, the commander came to wake me – we had to leave the location – two U.S. drone aircraft were overhead. Now I was scared.

It was still raining. We moved from house to house, and location to location, all night long until we finally drove across the border.

When my escorts told me that we had arrived in Afghanistan, I became really frightened and wanted to return home.

The commander assured me that we were in an area controlled by the Taliban. "This is our area," he said. "Don't be afraid."

We continued to drive along unfamiliar terrain until we reached a non-descript mud-built house nestled in a valley and surrounded by plush mountains. I had no idea where I was but when a second car pulled up alongside of me, there was no mistaking the man who stepped out – he was tall, trim and almost handsome, with dark, mischievous eyes. 

When one meets Haqqani, it is hard to believe he holds control over so many men; his demeanor is humble, polite and he listens attentively.

Haqqani is one of the top Afghan warlords; he claims to control Paktika, Paktia and Khost provinces as well as the capital, Kabul.

His father, Jalaluddin Haqqani, was one of the most feared and fearless mujahideen (holy warrior) commanders bankrolled by the CIA to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. The elder Haqqani is in failing health now. His second son, Sirajuddin, took over as the head of his network; he is considered to be so powerful that the United States recently put a $5 million bounty on his head.

I asked him about the reward money.

"I was staying with some people the night it was announced by the Americans," Haqqani told me. "I couldn't sleep and switched on VOA [Voice of America]-Pashto service on the radio, that's where I heard the news.

"Why are they wasting their time announcing a reward for me?" Haqqani asked. "The Americans still don't understand that even if they kill me, there are thousands of 'Sirajuddins' in Afghanistan who want only to liberate our homeland from the occupying foreign forces."

U.S. intelligence officials believe that the Haqqani network has helped al-Qaida establish safe havens in Pakistan's tribal areas after they fled Afghanistan following the U.S. invasion.

When I brought up President Barack Obama's $15 billion economic aid package to help Pakistan combat militancy in the tribal regions near Afghanistan, Haqqani laughed. "The Americans think they can buy everything," he said. "The more money they give, the more pressure they will put on Pakistan. That money will only turn more people against America and give us more space."

Haqqani also brushed off the looming Afghan elections in August as a farce.

"These people who are holding office are incapable of operating a single government department. How can they run a country?

 "It is too early to say how we will react to the elections," he added and indicated it was time for him to leave.

BEIJING – Just 126 years after his death, Karl Marx's moment may finally have arrived.

The People's Press – the biggest publishing house for China's orthodox revolutionary books – reports that Marx's anti-capitalism opus "Das Kapital" has been selling about 4,000-5,000 copies nationwide a month since last November. That's a big jump from before the economic crisis, when the book sold well under 1,000 copies per month on average.

The "Selected Works by Mao Zedong," a book owned by almost every Chinese citizen a few decades ago, is also witnessing a big jump in sales since late last year, according to Mr. Pan from the People's Press circulation department.

Bo Gu/NBC News

Chinese shoppers peruse Beijing's Utopia bookshop.

Han Deqiang, a university professor, believes these sales trends reflect the fact that many Chinese are starting to question their new economic orthodoxy.

"For so many years we've been wading across the stream by feeling the way, trying to reach the other side of the stream in capitalism. Now the building on the bank has collapsed, and we realize maybe we had a wrong goal?" said Han.

With China's economy characterized by widespread privatization and double-digit growth rates over the past 30 years, Marx's critique of capitalism had fallen out of favor. But his "bible" of communism – first published in 1867 and worshipped by the Chinese people decades ago – seems to have found a new audience in China amid the global economic crisis, as evidenced by book sales.

Late last year, news organizations reported a similar trend in Germany, Marx's birthplace.   

"It's definitely in vogue right now," Joern Schuetrumpf, director of "Das Kapital's" Berlin publisher, told The Associated Press. "The financial crisis brought us a huge bump."

Bo Gu/ NBC News

Beijing's Utopia bookshop sells titles like the "Biography of Hugo Chavez" and "The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History."

At "Utopia," a tiny bookshop in the academic center of Beijing's Haidian district, sales of "Das Kapital" are on the rise, according to Fan Jinggang, the bookshop's manager. He said his store has sold about five copies a month over the last six months compared to just two copies a year previously.

"Some scholars on our Web site had already predicted the economic crisis as early as in 2007, but the mainstream opinions were too optimistic. Now our Web site is receiving 100,000 hits every day and both 'Das Kapital' and 'Selected Works of Mao Zedong' are selling better," said Fan.

Fan's Beijing bookstore and Web site don't sell the usual fare of popular novels or business texts you might find in other shops – instead it caters to a more leftist clientele.

Shelves are lined with titles like the "Biography of Hugo Chavez" and "The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History." Pictures of the late Chinese leader Mao Zedong are the only decorations on the wall other than a clock above the counter.

Han, the university professor, is one of the writers on Utopia's site.

"We thought the market economy was the only way out, it's so widely accepted," he said. "But it's natural to come back to Karl Marx and Mao when we find what we believed earlier isn't always correct."

ISLAMABAD – Perhaps the $5 million bounty recently put on him by the United States has gone to his head.

Baitullah Mehsud, the notoriously reclusive chief of the Pakistani Taliban, suddenly thrust himself into the media spotlight last week by telephoning local journalists to claim responsibility for a recent series of brazen terrorist attacks in Pakistan.

And then came another surprise (this one fantastical): On Saturday he called back to brag that he was behind the attack on an immigration center by a lone Vietnamese gunman in Binghamton, N.Y., saying that the attacks were in revenge for the ongoing missile strikes on Pakistan's tribal areas by unmanned United States drone aircraft.   

EPA file

Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud (left with brown cap) speaks to journalists in South-Waziristan in a file photo from May 2008.

But information coming out of the tribal areas and from intelligence officials in Islamabad suggests that Mehsud's bravado might just be his way of jockeying for power among the various militant groups seeking sanctuary along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. It seems that Mehsud, who has recently deepened his ties with al-Qaida, is trying to assert himself as commander in chief of the entire jihadist network in Pakistan.

"There is an internal power struggle going on now," explained a former ISI station chief in Peshawar who spoke on condition of anonymity. "When [Mehsud] thinks that someone new is coming up and could overshadow him, he kills him," said the official.

Mehsud first gained notoriety by sending suicide bombers across the border into Afghanistan to attack U.S. and NATO forces. Then in 2007 he declared war on the Pakistani state. He formed the Tehrik-e-Taliban, a loose alliance of disparate radical groups with different and often conflicting agendas, to unite and take revenge against the Pakistan army for supporting the United States in their fight against the Taliban in Afghanistan. 

Tehrik-e-Taliban also provides sanctuary for al-Qaida militants in the tribal areas along the Pakistan-Afghan border and in turn receives funding and weapons. But the various commanders from warring tribes are often at odds with Mehsud – and with each other – putting individual tribal loyalties first.

The most recent example of internecine quarrels within the militant group was over responsibility for the attack on the police academy in the eastern city of Lahore last week.   

A former Mehsud lieutenant from another tribe first claimed responsibility for the attack. That claim seemed to have forced Mehsud to quickly – and uncharacteristically – call around to local reporters and take ownership for a recent series of attacks in Pakistan, including the attack in Lahore.

The two commanders often argue, according to a Taliban leader who was present during the game of one-upmanship between Mehsud and his rival over the responsibility for the killing spree in Lahore.

"The Lahore attack could have been his [Mehsud's] idea, but he could not have done it without some help from the Punjabis," said a Pakistani intelligence official, requesting anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the subject. The official was referring to the militant groups based in the Punjab, Pakistan's wealthiest and most populous province.

"What's more, all of these Punjabi groups have splintered and shifted in part out of the Punjab and into the tribal areas to band, but not always bond, with the Pakistani Taliban and al-Qaida," he added.

"Mehsud has become very powerful among the tribal militants, but he may be feeling the heat from the Punjabis," explained the intelligence official. "They are better trained, highly professional and perhaps even more motivated than his men. While there is increasing coordination among the groups, all of them may not want to take orders from him."

Some of the Punjabi extremist groups have focused, in the past, on fighting India over the disputed Himalayan state of Kashmir. (India and Pakistan both lay claim to Kashmir and have fought two wars over the region). But other groups' issues are sectarian in nature and their aim is to kill minority Shiite Muslims. 

The most feared of all the Punjabi militant groups is Lashkar-e-Taiba, a professional army created by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Services (ISI) in the early 1990s to target India. The group is the prime suspect in last year's Mumbai terrorist attacks and the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore last month. 

The Pakistani military, however, claims to have the group under control. "We have shut them down, closed their training camps and now we are trying to rehabilitate them," said Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, spokesman for the Pakistan military. "But we cannot confront them head on from all sides; they have to be dealt with in phases so we avoid a bounceback and a backlash."

But taming Lashkar may not be so easy. Pakistan's former President Pervez Musharraf banned the group, as well as other Punjabi militant groups in 2002. But the groups just splintered or emerged under different names and many fighters joined the Taliban jihad in the tribal areas.

The head of Lashkar is under house arrest, two top commanders are in jail and most of the fighters have either gone underground or gone home. Some joined their sister humanitarian organization, Jama'at-ud-Dawa which runs charities for Pakistan's most needy – but Lashkar is definitely not out of business.

"Jama'at-ud-Dawa had become the organization which kept the militant wing of [Lashkar-e-Taiba] intact," said Pakistani author, Zahid Hussain. "The cause, to fight India, was never abandoned. The charity facilities were used as a cover-up to continue to recruit fighters."

Pakistan's civilian government closed down all the charities operated by Jama'at-ud-Dawa after India accused Lahkar-e-Taiba and Jama'at-ud-Dawa of orchestrating the Mumbai attacks last November.

But Lashkar is still said to be able to call upon an estimated 5,000-7,000 fighters. Now that the ISI has cut them off, officials worry that the group is angry and the men are bored and looking for another cause to fight for.

'Catastrophic consequences'
Officials hope that the differences between the various groups will persist and that they will be enough to prevent them from joining forces with Mehsud to fight against the U.S. troop surge in Afghanistan.

In a two-hour meeting in Islamabad, a retired Pakistani intelligence official with firsthand knowledge of Lashkar-e-Taiba explained that the group is extremely nationalistic and has never turned their fighters against the state.

But the official, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of his position, feared what would ever happen if the divergent militant groups ever reconciled over their differences. "[Lashkar-e-Taiba's] focus has always been India, but if they ever turn that focus from India to America, there will be catastrophic consequences."

BAGHDAD -- Abu Ghraib prison has been cleaned up, but newly painted walls and amenities don't change its notorious history, or the fact that a prisoner release has Iraq concerned about renewed violence. NBC's Steve Wende reports.

VIDEO: Extreme makeover: Abu Ghraib