It's only 60 miles from some West Bank villages to the sea, yet many Palestinian children have never seen the ocean. However, Israel is begining to allow more freedom of movement for Palestinians - removing some roadblocks and loosening restrictions. And Israeli peace activists helped arrange for some Palestinian children to finally enjoy a day at the beach in peace. NBC News Martin Fletcher reports.

VIDEO: A day at the beach for young Palestinians

CAIRO – While General Motors sales struggle in the United States, the American automaker can't keep up with demand for its Chevrolet Lanos here in Egypt. The car's popularity has skyrocketed due to a new government-sponsored incentive to encourage Cairo's taxi drivers to trade in their decades-old beaters for brand new models. 

Although prospective buyers can select from five models – ranging from the modest Russian Lada at $6,607 to the pricey French Peugeot – the vast majority opt for a Chevy at $9,549. 

"There is a high demand for Chevrolet. It is a durable car and people love it, but the choice is left to the driver and supplier," said Mohamed Shawky, the supervisor of the program. 

Mohamed Muslemany

One of the typical old black-and-white taxis that used to rule Cairo's streets.

But many of Cairo's cabbies have made their choice clear.

"Chevrolet is the most popular car because it is strong, and has spare parts readily available on the local market. Installments are cheap at only 800 Egyptian pounds a month ($143) for a five-year period," explained Magdy Mansour, the happy new owner of a 1-month-old Chevrolet.  The only drawback: "It takes a lot of gas." 

Easy program winning over cabbies
The finance terms are enticing. Buyers get $900 for their old taxi, which will be scrapped by the government. They can then choose between five new models, each discounted by $450 off the sticker price.

Drivers then repay the interest-free, 5-year loan in affordable monthly installments. Cabbies also are offered the option to display advertising in exchange for over $100 per month which can either entirely cover their monthly payments or defray them by half. 

Egyptians are normally afraid to incur debt, but the simple, fast-track loan process and easy terms are winning them over. So far, 16,000 drivers have been approved for loans. The program, which was launched on April 6, aims to replace 34,000 taxis. Another enviable statistic: so far no drivers have defaulted on their loans that also started in April.

The benefits have spilled over into the industrial sector too by creating new job opportunities. "Car manufacturers have increased production to three shifts a day to increase production by 50 to 60 percent more," said Shawky, the program supervisor.

Mohamed Muslemany

One of the many new white taxis - but not the Chevy Lanos - rolling down Cairo's streets.

The cumbersome moniker for the scheme, "The Plan to Remove Old Taxis from Service and Replace Them with New Ones" may not be as catchy as the old GM tag line "See the USA in Your Chevrolet," but it has proven to be incredibly successful. 

The program was the brainchild of the Ministry of Finance in response to the government's decision to force Cairo's taxi drivers to replace their old cars (anything more than 20 years old) by the year 2011. The program goal is to make the streets safer, less polluted and less congested by the traffic jams caused by car breakdowns. The shiny new, air-conditioned and metered white taxis are also meant to project a hipper and more welcoming image of Egypt to millions of tourists. 

Saying goodbye to old, sweaty ride
The infamous old black-and-white taxis that ply the streets are often filthy, badly in need of repair, tricked out in disco lights, dangling ornaments, and blaring religious recitations or the latest Arab pop tune.  To the discomfort of passengers, there is no air conditioning and the windows, door handles and seat belts are normally broken. And passengers must haggle with drivers over the price before embarking, and oftentimes drivers spend the rest of the hot and sweaty journey trying to harass passengers into upping the fare.

By contrast, the new white taxis are legally required to run their meters and accept the metered fare.  Drivers will turn on air conditioning upon request and are required to visit the mechanic every two months.  Drivers keep their new rides sparkling clean to tempt prospective passengers.

Mohamed Muslemany / NBC News

Abdel Latif Abdel Sadiq sits in his new white cab. He was hoping to buy a Chevy Lanos – but they were sold out

The public is taking notice. At first, patrons were sticker shy – fearing that a clean, comfortable ride would be more costly. But the bright white taxis are winning new converts as people discover that the fares are often the same or lower.

"I think it is perfect because it is a relief to know the fees and not have to argue about it. It is cheaper than the driver telling you what to pay.  And the new models are so much better than the old noisy ones," said teaching assistant Cherry Ahmed after her first ride. 

For many taxi drivers, it's also like a dream come true. "People prefer the new car. It is comfortable. My income has increased and the number of passengers has increased," said government worker and cab driver Abdel Latif Abdel Sadiq.  He currently works a full-time job and drives a taxi to supplement his income. But when he retires, he expects the new taxi to more than replace his current salary.

Mansour's family was thrilled when he drove home in his new Chevrolet cab. "I am trying to improve my standard of living by changing my old taxi to a new one because the other one kept on breaking down."

And the taxi replacement project allowed him to achieve something he had never imagined possible. "The dream of every poor man is to drive a new car."

BEIJING – As Americans struggle to dig themselves out of debt and soldier on through recession, one U.S- based organization is asking them to loan their spare dollars not to the needy at home, but to those residing in the United States' largest foreign creditor: China.

Wokai ("I Start" in Chinese), is a small Oakland, Calif.- based microfinance organization that is working to provide micro loans to an estimated 200 million Chinese who live on less than $1 a day. 

VIDEO: Microfinance takes off in China

Founded two years ago by 25-year-olds, Casey Wilson and Courtney McColgan, Wokai is the convergence of the pair's shared interest in economic development and China. The pair, who met in a Chinese language program at Beijing's Tsinghua University in 2006, created a microfinance program to help provide assistance to some of China's estimated 228 million people who have no access to basic financial services.

Wilson and McColgan created a Web site that they've coined "Facebook for Farmers" – it features many of the core characteristics of Web 2.0: social networking, blogging and interactive media.

Functioning similarly to the one of the more established microfinance sites, Kiva.org, Wokai's online system of peer-to-peer loans allows potential lenders to scan the profiles of pre-screened rural Chinese borrowers and decide for themselves who they want to loan money to. 

The loans are small – the average loans is around $300 – and are mostly used by farmers to invest in simple business improvements such as adding additional livestock or buying new products for dry goods stores.

To attract loans and help develop the organization, Wokai has enlisted an army of young volunteers both in the United States and China. They have assisted in everything from website development to working directly with field partners in China to screen potential borrowers.  Meanwhile, member chapters in San Francisco, Seattle and New York help drive awareness and donations through localized fund raising events.

Wokai and other microfinance organizations' development was assisted by the Chinese government, which in 2006 granted legal status to microfinance entities and allowed a gradual relaxation of lending regulations in rural areas.

China has had microfinance projects operating in rural areas since the 1990's. However, the early startups operated with no legal government status, denying them basic banking standards required to achieve long-term sustainability such as debt investment and higher interest rates.

Unlike traditional banks that can achieve low interest rates through a high volume of low interest rate loans, microfinance relies on high interest rates – often two or three times the rate of regular banks – on smaller, fewer loans. This difference is critical due to current government regulations that prohibit private microfinance projects like Wokai from doing deposit banking – requiring the organization to cover operating costs through donations and interest generated from loans.

Global players gather
While microfinance institutions in China have had only moderate success here, their work hasn't gone unnoticed by the bigger banking players.

Late last year, sensing the economic potential of millions of Chinese, Citigroup, HSBC and Standard Chartered all announced their intentions to enter the China microfinance market by starting smaller rural banks.

The entrance of these global players might appear to spell trouble for existing microfinance organizations, but Wokai CEO and co-founder Casey Wilson believes that the banks bring significant leverage and legitimacy to the industry and potentially more funding opportunities for Wokai.

"What we'll probably see is big banks downscaling to serve small to medium enterprises and maybe [the] upper middle class," said Wilson. "But there is still that gap of the poor that won't be served by those institutions."

However, Wilson expects a sort of trickle-down effect to happen as these players establish themselves and government de-regulation allows for increased domestic investment. "[One thing] that's really going to be an asset to China in terms of microfinance is the fact that while there is this huge population living under the poverty line… there's also a huge amount of affluence and wealth," said Wilson. "And a huge amount of capital in the financial sector that could fund microcredit."

"As regulations change, as it becomes basically possible and financially viable to start developing microcredit and a source of microcredit that'll actually serve the poor, I think we're going to see basically an explosion in that development of microfinance here in China."

But some wonder why, especially in light of China's soaring ownership of U.S. debt, American dollars should continue to flow to the Far East. The comments section of a San Francisco Chronicle article profiling Wokai reflected the often hostile position many Americans take when it comes to donating to China.

"That's nice, but who in China is helping small businesses in rural America," read one comment. Another one wrote, "I applaud their dedication, but let's get real: entrepreneurs in rural China have a MUCH greater chance of success than those in rural America."

And the response? "I get this question all the time: Why China?" Wilson said. "I just say that while you know the cities are growing very quickly [the] countryside and most of the rural areas are still 20 to 50 to some places 100 years back."

"In the U.S., the most developed economy in the world, we still have the issues of poverty," said Wilson. Adding that in China, "It's a bigger problem…so it needs to be a combined effort in a lot of ways."

JACALEAPA, Honduras – Exiled Honduran President Manuel Zelaya has been hanging out in Ocotal, a Nicaraguan mountain town near the Honduras border, for the last four days as he tries to launch his return to power after a coup last month.

It's been a little bit like the childhood song and dance, "The Hokey Pokey." On Friday, Zelaya took a few steps into the no-man's-land between the countries. When he arrived at a sign that said "Welcome to Honduras," Zelaya claimed he was home. But he didn't stay long, returning quickly to the Nicaraguan side of the border.

As the song says, "You put your right foot in, you put our right foot out, and shake it all about."

Mayerling Garcia / AFP - Getty Images

Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya (in white hat) greets supporters at an improvised camp site in Ocotal, Nicaragua on Monday.

It's unclear, though, what Zelaya thinks his border dance will achieve.

I asked him if his camping stunt was costing him in the court of world opinion. He said it was "a just action" and that the world should not support "a tyrant." He was referring to de facto President Roberto Micheletti.

Even if Zelaya does get across the border, he faces considerable obstacles. In my own effort to get to Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital city, from Nicaragua, I've crossed seven police and army road blocks.

At one road block, I got tear gassed. Without warning, my eyes were burning and tearing up. My throat was on fire.

I stumbled from behind police lines to a spot where I could get fresh air. Thankfully, I knew from past experience not to rub my eyes.

But as I coughed and my eyes teared-up, a Honduran national police officer just laughed. He said that the tear gas came from a young soldier who didn't know what he was doing and accidentally released the toxic cloud.

Most of the soldiers and police officers were standing with riot shields, helmets and M-16 rifles. But upon closer inspection, most weapons were not loaded.

My gut tells me that while there are divisions over who is the legitimate leader of Honduras, no one wants to end up shooting a fellow citizen. The violence that followed the initial June 28 coup was short-lived.

VIDEO: Family of Zelaya say they are being restricted from leaving Honduras

Mother Nature is also putting a lid on any potential violence. It's the rainy season here and my still damp shirt is a reminder of how miserable it can be to be soaking wet.

Zelaya's supporters may be committed to his cause, but who wants to stand around soaking wet to cheer?

Adding to the discomfort, Zelaya has not done a good job of communicating his arrivals at the border.

His own supporters, as well as a throng of reporters from the international media, waited hours for him to show up on Saturday and Sunday. Word was he'd be there at the border by 11 a.m. But at 11 a.m. on Saturday, we heard that he had just woken up and was having breakfast at his hotel.

A passionate cause, for sure, but on "la hora latina" (latin time.)

Still, both sides continue to trade barbs. Zelaya's camp says the exiled president's wife, daughter, son, and mother-in-law, are being forcibly detained by the Honduran army.

A Honduran Army lieutenant colonel, however, said the claim was false. "A lie," he said, adding that the military even offered them a helicopter ride out.

Dwaine Scott/ NBC News

NBC News' Kerry Sanders gasping for air after being mistakenly tear-gassed by a Honduran soldier.

And a meeting in Washington scheduled this week by the U.S. State Department in an attempt to restart negotiations appears to have taken a back seat as Zelaya has vowed not to leave the border region for at least a week. "This week of my life is for me to occupy myself with the Honduran people," Zelaya told reporters.

The U.S. has two worries: What does the political upheaval mean for Soto Cano Air Base, a joint Honduras and U.S. military base here, and is there an important democratic principal at stake? When a democratically elected president is forcibly removed (in his pajamas. no less), does the U.S. have an obligation to help keep them in power? 

So stay tuned. This will likely drag on for a long time.

 MOSCOW – Like on any other Thursday, I was looking forward to my weekly Texas Hold 'Em poker game. A laid-back, low-stakes game with some friends in the back room of a Moscow restaurant is always a nice way to unwind towards the end of the work week.

But this week, our game was cancelled due to new Russian legislation which removed poker's classification as a sport, effectively banning any poker playing for money.

"We are trying to get some clarification from the police as to how they see friendly games," said the restaurant manager who allows us to play in his restaurant for nothing more than the price of the drinks and food. He explained the reason for canceling this week's game: "We wanted to clear it first, and we also wanted to stay out of trouble for a while." Fearing authorities, he prefers to remain anonymous.

The Russian government shut down casinos in most of country earlier this month, exiling them to four gaming zones that don't yet have the infrastructure to support casinos. At first, it looked like poker would survive the shutdown due to its designation as a sport (and not a game of chance). Now, players are wondering how far-reaching the new decree will push authorities to crack down on various kinds of poker games.

It seems clear that the law is intended to break up any poker clubs who get a percentage of the winnings from the games (a "rake") in return for providing the tables, dealers, chip, and the place to play. But friendly-game players are worried as well, especially considering Russia's lack of a clearly defined legal system and widespread corruption.

"The law still seems to be a little gray," said an expatriate resident of Moscow whom I play with (he also asked that his name not be used). "If you play in a public place but there's no money on the table, is that considered an illegal poker game? I don't think it is. But what happens when the cop comes in, sees you playing poker? He could try to shake you down."

Others players are not as worried.

"I don't think it's going to stop the friendly games … their target is the underground poker clubs," said Nathan Stowell, a 37-year-old metals trader from the United States who has been living in Moscow for 15 years. "People are still going to play, [but] it will be a lot less safe. It's going to be more criminal and obviously going to discourage more people from playing."

This discouragement couldn't come at a worse time for Russian poker aficionados. Poker has exploded in popularity in Russia in the past decade and Moscow was set to host its first European Poker Tour tournament in August – its fate is now unclear.

"We are in mourning," wrote Dmitry Lesnoi, head of the Russian Sport Poker Federation, on the federation's Web site. "We lost. But we fought until the last card was laid down on the table."

Most players I know say they hope the law won't apply to friendly games, as giving up poker isn't an option for some of them.

"It doesn't mean we're going to stop playing. We're just going to have to play in different locations," my expatriate friend said. "The biggest deal is just inconvenience. It means I have to try that much harder to have a place to play."

JERUSALEM – Benjamin Netanyahu's remarks concerning Israel's right to build anywhere it wanted in Jerusalem earlier this week have threatened to further complicate Israel's relations with its strongest ally over the contentious issue of settlement construction.

Netanyahu told his Cabinet on Sunday that there would be no limits on Jewish construction anywhere in "unified Jerusalem."

"We cannot accept the idea that Jews wouldn't be entitled to live and buy anywhere in Jerusalem," said Netanyahu. "I can only imagine what would happen if someone were to suggest that Jews cannot live in certain neighborhoods in New York, London, Paris or Rome."

The battle over Jerusalem is part of the "give and take" policy that Israel is negotiating with the U.S. President Barack Obama is calling for a full stop to all settlement activity, while Netanyahu is adamant that Israel has the right to build to accommodate natural growth in existing settlements and that Jerusalem is not included in any settlement freeze.

Furthermore, the international community considers the Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem to be settlements and sees them as a major obstacle to Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking because they complicate the possibility of dividing the city in the future. 

VIDEO: Speaking out against Israeli settlements

Israel's hard line stance has left many Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem in despair. As we visited the area on Wednesday, we met Rima Issa, from the Coalition for Jerusalem. She was in a tent in the neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah speaking to tourists. Issa said she was trying to "educate" the tourists and show them the other side of the settlement story.

"I think we're facing a heavy attack, from settlers and from Israel. They are taking more homes, taking more lands," said Issa. "It's heavily unbelievable way of ethnic cleansing Palestinians from this land."

Asked how she feels about this, she said, "I'm like Don Quixote, fighting the wind but we will never give up. As an individual I will never give up."

Click on the video above to see more of our interview with Rima Issa about how the settlement issue is affecting residents of East Jerusalem.

With a GDP growth rate of 7.1 percent, China's economy is still growing despite the global recession. Chinese economist Shen Minghao discusses how the economy continues to move forward.

VIDEO: Chinese economist Shen Minghao discusses China's still growing economy

FENGXIAN, China – I had to suppress a smile.

A physician from Vancouver, Duncan Etches, was carrying a book entitled "Mathematical Astronomy Morsels" and was in the process of recounting his decision to join a UCLA Extension/Far Horizons tour to see the total solar eclipse in China.

"We were going to join a tour off the Ryuku Islands in Japan," he said. "But they had some bird-watching sites as part of it. And we thought, two weeks with bird watchers?  They're kind of fanatic."

Etches was so determined to catch this once-in-a-lifetime sighting that he had traveled all the way from Canada to Fengxian, a beach resort on the outskirts of downtown Shanghai to experience it.

VIDEO: Asia eyes a once-in-a-lifetime eclipse

But while Etches might be a total solar eclipse virgin, some of his fellow travelers were not.

"I went to see my first total solar eclipse in 1977," said Dr. E.C. Krupp, director of the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles. He was leading the tour that included Etches and roughly a dozen other people.

"This eclipse is the longest period of totality for a total solar eclipse in this century," enthused Krupp.  "So if you want to see all the phenomena occur during the totality, the longer the totality, the better, and… I'm not going to live to see an eclipse longer than six minutes."

Milky sky presented a challenge
In fact, at its longest point, Wednesday's eclipse lasted 6 minutes and 39 seconds somewhere over the Pacific Ocean – after originating in India and then crossing over Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, and finally China.

Unfortunately, for keen stargazers, visitors to China found clouds gathered in a milky sky.

"Pray for a break," said one American woman to another in Fengxian, where we had gathered with Krupp in the early morning hours before the eclipse.

"Or we could do a dance, we could do a prayer," piped up another.

In fact, the scene wasn't a whole lot better elsewhere for eclipse watchers as the phenomenon sped across a narrow corridor of Asia – some estimates had the moon's shadow moving from west to east at speeds of over 1,500 miles an hour. 

Adrienne Mong/NBC News

Dr. E.C. Krupp from Griffith Observatory gets his camera ready.

Low-lying clouds presented a challenge in numerous areas, including Taregna, a much-touted spot to get the best view in India.  And according to reports from Tibet, the first location in China to experience the eclipse and where the sky is often a stunning clear blue, clouds were also a problem.

But the group in Fengxian soldiered ahead, preparing their cameras, GPS meters, and special Mylar sunglasses to protect their eyes while staring into the sun.

In the meantime, Krupp explained to us the event's significance from a scientist's perspective.

"Astronomers still study total solar eclipses because there is a still one very special kind of information we can get from them," he said. "[Professional solar astronomers] want to see a very specific part of the sun's atmosphere that is only really revealed when the dark disc of the moon covers it up…We care about that, because the sun produces all the energy on which life on earth ultimately relies, and so we want to know how it works, and this is part of understanding how it works."

SLIDESHOW: Total eclipse sweeps over Asia

'Ooh spooky'
In Wuhan, to the west of Fengxian, another American leading a tour called in and said that he was having a little more luck with the weather.

"We have no low-lying clouds," said Rick Brown, a commodities trader from New York who's been following total eclipses since 1991.  He started doing site inspections two years ago for Wednesday's eclipse before settling on a location near the Wuhan Bioengineering Institute.

In fact, Brown and several hundred people around him were able to get a full look at the sun – even though their view didn't last the five and a half minutes everyone had hoped to have in eastern China before the eclipse headed over the Pacific Ocean.

"It was a beautiful, pearly white, shimmering corona," Brown told me over the phone after the big event, referring to the halo of light that appears during a total solar eclipse.

By the time it reached us in Fengxian, however, we were only able to see the eclipse bit by bit.  At totality, the sky went dark, provoking oohs and ahhs from everyone, including the NBC News team.

"Unbelievable," said our cameraman David Lom. 

"Ooh spooky," said one woman.

And in the middle of the darkness, rain began pouring down, adding to the drama of the moment even though we couldn't see the eclipse itself.

As the light returned and the rainfall ebbed, Krupp shrugged off the cloud cover.

Adrienne Mong/NBC News

Caption: An enterprising retailer advertises on the back of his car special lens filters to protect the eyes during the eclipse.

"Little solace for those who want to see the corona, the diamond ring, the prominences, the planets, the color of the horizon, you didn't get any of that," he said. "But you saw the darkest eclipse I think you're ever gonna see. It was like nighttime. And if we didn't know the eclipse was here, we would be scared."

His sentiments were echoed by Etches. "Magical," he said. "I mean you don't know what to expect, but just the suddenness of it getting so dark and then you have no sense it's going to end – you only know because you read it in the books, right? And then all of a sudden it's light again."

Several other members of the tour group said they were hooked, including recent USC graduate Christie Jilly, who majored in astronomy. "Oh yeah, I'm hooked.  I want to see one where I can actually see the corona."

There's another total solar eclipse due next year, but it won't last as long as this one.  In fact, there won't be another total solar eclipse as long or longer than Wednesday's until the year 2132.

In the meantime, Krupp was already looking ahead.

"In 2012, there's a transit of Venus," he said enthusiastically. "Nowhere near as spectacular as a total solar eclipse, little [black dot] going across the sun, but you know the last one was 2004, the next one 2012, and then you gotta wait 100 years or more. So you gotta be there!"

July 20: Landmines and other hidden explosives are the haunting remnants of Iraq's many wars. They have taken a horrific toll, countless children have been killed or maimed herding animals or just playing. NBC's Steve Wende reports on the efforts to eradicate the lingering dangers.

VIDEO: Landmines in the path of Iraq's future

HAVANA, Cuba – Dancers from London's Royal Ballet were not the only stars who made history this summer when they became the first international company to perform in Cuba in more than 30 years.

So did their distinguished orchestra conductor Martin Yates, described by critics as one of Britain's "most exciting and versatile" conductors.

Yates led Cuba's National Symphony for two nights in Havana's Karl Marx Theater for the company's production of the three-act ballet "Manon."

VIDEO VIDEO: Hoo-ray! Brit ballet wows Cubans

The excitement began when he managed to pry open the theater's orchestra pit, which had been sealed 15 years ago when Cuba's strapped economy forced everyone in the arts to downsize. The use of the pit was such a novelty that during intermission members of the audience crowded the front of the auditorium just for a look.

The space was far from ideal and took some creative maneuvering to accommodate over 70 musicians in the old-fashioned pit.

"The string players couldn't even extend their bows because somebody was sitting right next to them but they would not quit," said Yates. "That extraordinary sort of fortitude was extremely uplifting."

The Cuban National Symphony, founded in 1960, has had little international exposure but more than rose to the occasion, said Yates. Prior to this engagement, the orchestra was generally unfamiliar with the ballet's 18 century music composed by Jules Massenetto.

A few months back, the Royal Ballet shipped a copy of their music book to the island and, after Yates arrived last week, the orchestra held four full rehearsals, which led to a "very accomplished execution of very complicated arrangements," said Yates.

Speaking very little Spanish, Yates was undaunted by the language barrier. "Music is such an international language. You sing a phrase or you speak the Italian in music. But you also had to speak with your hands, your eyes, your body. It was an interesting experience," said Yates who has conducted widely throughout Europe.

The orchestra should be "fiercely proud" of their performance, said Yates. The music heightened the emotions on stage, helping the audience to become absorbed by the drama. The truth of that was in the applause.

"The audience exploded with cheers before I even finished the last few measures of music," said Yates. "Normally, the public is quite respectful. You play the last chord and it's only on the last bang when the audience explodes. They couldn't contain themselves on the last five bars when they knew it was the end…The public just erupted into an explosion of unbelievable proportions. The musicians should be proud of that accomplishment."

And so is he.

"It's extraordinary to work with local talent," Yates said, especially when a conductor allows a different playing technique to flourish. "It's their individual style…and it worked. I was fiercely proud of by what we created together."

The West Bank city, once known as a hotbed of terrorism, is undergoing a radical change, thanks in part to a U.S. effort to train and support Palestinian police. NBC News' Martin Fletcher reports.

VIDEO: Stability, shopping return to Nablus

HAVANA – From the moment London's Royal Ballet came to town, observers dubbed it a "diplomatic dance" and predicted the tour would generate the same ground-breaking excitement as the grand old cultural exchanges during the Cold War. This would be, after all, the first visit by an international dance company to the communist island in over 30 years.

Maybe true, but ballet lovers here see no political subtext to the tour except the experience of some exceptional summer entertainment at prices everyone can afford.

At less than a dollar for admission, box offices ran out of tickets in lightning speed.

Crowds packed Havana's faded, but still majestic, Gran Teatro to watch the company's both classical and avant-garde productions, some of which the likes have never been seen on a Cuban stage. 

VIDEO: Diplomatic dance: U.K.'s Royal Ballet, including Carlos Acosta, dazzels Cuba

And on Friday, the 5,000-seat Karl Marx Theater will be filled for the week's final performance: Kenneth Macmillan's dramatic rendition of "Manon." London is well-known for its passionate and daring interpretation of that part full-length ballet.

And those disappointed Cuban fans who weren't fast enough to score tickets?

Thousands spent their evenings watching the performances projected live on gigantic TV screens from the steps of Havana's "El Capitolio," a domed building that served as the seat of the legislature in Cuba's pre-Revolution days.

'The Flying Cuban'
Many strained to catch a glimpse of native son Carlos Acosta, today one of the world's top male ballet artists.

Six years ago, the Cuban-trained dancer earned himself a place as a principal with London's Royal Ballet. Celebrated for his combined strength and grace, Acosta's true power lies in his astonishing leaps that have led critics to compare the 36-year-old to legendary ballet stars Rudolf Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov.

Watching him soar this week in a rehearsal studio and on stage, one could see how he earned the nicknames "The Flying Cuban" and "Air Acosta."

The son of a truck driver who grew up in one of Havana's poorer barrios, Acosta's talent and international fame have made him "the pride of the nation," said acclaimed Cuban writer Miguel Barnet. "This is a great event for the Cuban people because we have an expertise in ballet. When we applaud, we know what we're applauding."

And, applaud they did.

From the first moment Acosta walked onto the stage for a pas de deux performance of "El Corsario," the audience leapt to its feet as the auditorium exploded in cheers.

"The ovation was deafening. I couldn't even hear the music," Acosta told NBC News. "It was a state of ecstasy."

Acosta compared the praise he received this week to "the kind when you score a goal in the World Cup. It's fantastic that a ballet performance receives that kind of welcome."

Diplomatic dance
Perhaps Acosta deserves the adulation as much for his skillful brokering as for his dancing. For more than two years, he negotiated to bring to life what he describes as "the most important dance event in Cuba in 50 years."

Acosta admits it was exhausting parleying between Havana and London, carrying proposals between the Royal Ballet, Cuba's National Ballet Company and the government's Culture Ministry.

Dame Monica Mason, the Royal Ballet's director, said "Carlos was very keen that we managed to make it work before he felt he was perhaps past his prime and he is still so much in his prime."

In light of the cash-strapped times ballet, like all arts, is facing, it is all the more miraculous that the trip worked out. "It was clearly not going to be a money-making venture, so it was up to us to find ways to make it work," Mason said.

The company not only performed for no-fee, but incurred heavy out-of-pocket expenses. While the Cuban hosts covered local expenses for the 150-member troupe of dancers and crew, the endeavor cost the company over $1 million, paid for in part by the company's own resources and by private donations.

According to Mason, it is money well spent. "It's about the art, dance and it's about being able to visit places that you've never visited before. And places, particularly here in Cuba, [that] have not had the chance of seeing international companies. Dance crosses all barriers."

Mason may also have been motivated by a sense of historic symmetry.

"We always hoped that we might be able to go back to Russia with Nureyev, but we were never able to do that," she said. "I think it's a mark of the times that we're able to come to Cuba with Carlos. I think it's very special." (Nureyev began his decade-long career with the Royal Ballet in 1962, shortly after he defected from the former Soviet Union).

One dance that made Cuban audiences sit up and take notice was the avant-garde production, "Chroma." Performed on their first night in Havana, the modern, minimalist piece had dancers moving in parallel on a set comprised of one stark white cube.

"We weren't sure the Cubans would accept it. They've never seen anything as modern as that," confessed Royal Ballet principal Sarah Lamb, originally from Boston and a 1998 recipient of a Presidential Gold Medal. At first, the audience sat in silence but, by the finale, most were entranced by both the music and the movement.

Lamb believed it proved that, "Culture is universal and dance speaks to everyone. You don't need language or a common culture or the same political system. If people see something done well they are going to appreciate it."

BEIJING –Months of speculation that America might snub China over a global showcase event came to an end Friday with the formal groundbreaking ceremony for the U.S.A. Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo site.

Dubbed the Olympics of global business and technology, the World Expo is set to open in Shanghai in May 2010, offering another platform to show off China's global expansion.

But as the U.S. missed one building deadline after another due to financial difficulties, fears were growing that the most important guest would be a no-show – which would have dealt a serious blow to Chinese pride and prestige.

AFP - Getty Images

U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, center,  with other officials during the ground-breaking ceremony for the USA Pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo site in Shanghai on Friday.

Enticing America
The Shanghai Expo – which reportedly has a budget bigger than the Beijing Olympic Games –will attract some 70 million visitors over a six-month period. It will feature the economic, technological and cultural achievements of over 200 countries and international organizations, with China, and the city of Shanghai, on center stage.

The event, held once every five years, has a 150-year history, and the U.S. itself has staged the World Expo 14 times. Although the U.S. was a no-show at the 2000 Expo in Hanover, German, and its pavilion at the 2005 Expo in Aichi, Japan was largely funded by Toyota.

The fact that American participation in the event is no small matter to the Chinese can be seen in the prime site allocated for the U.S. pavilion – a 60,000-square-foot site that anchors one end of the expo's central promenade. The other end, across Shanghai's famed Huangpu River, is anchored by the China Pavilion, a $200-million futuristic crown-shaped structure that is fast nearing completion. 

(The international event has often been showcases for major architectural feats – one of the most enduring symbols from a past event is the Eiffel Tower – it was built for the 1889 Paris Expo.)

To further entice American participation, China's government reportedly advanced the funds for the initial design and engineering preparations for the U.S. site. To accommodate American delays, the Chinese had to change their own construction deadlines several times.

But there was growing Chinese exasperations over the prolonged inability of the U.S. to officially confirm its attendance, with one commentator for the People's Daily bluntly warning: "If America is absent, it will damage American interests in China."

America attendance has depended largely on private fund-raising efforts, as a 1991 federal law bans government funding for expo participation. 

With the financial crisis adding to the usual challenges of wooing potential corporate sponsors, even at this point, the U.S.A. Pavilion committee has reportedly only raised half of the $61 million needed to build and operate the pavilion. They have raised enough to start construction, but more funding will be needed to complete the project. 

Still the groundbreaking on Friday was an achievement for Frank Lavin, a former U.S. Undersecretary of Commerce for International Trade, who has been spearheading the campaign.

Efforts are on track towards "a first class pavilion of which all Americans can be proud of," Lavin told NBC News. "The pavilion offers the single best platform for American companies to communicate to the emerging middle class of China, as well as an excellent way to connect with Chinese leadership and decision-makers."

The funding shortfall means that groups supporting the U.S. efforts cannot remain complacent.  Jeffrey Li, a Chinese-American executive and Novartis chief in China, is leading a committee to mobilize grassroots Chinese-American support for the U.S. pavilion. "The Chinese people will not understand why the US cannot 'afford' a pavilion," he said.

TEL AVIV – The arrest of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish woman accused of starving her 3-year-old son has sparked three days of violent clashes in Jerusalem between religious and secular Jews.

Authorities allege that the mentally ill woman has been starving her son for several years.

On Thursday, a photo on the front page of Yediot Ahronot, a popular daily, showed a horrific photo of the emaciated boy sitting on a hospital bed clearly suffering from malnutrition. Authorities said they have video showing the mother repeatedly disconnecting her son from a feeding tube in the hospital. 

But her arrest has outraged members of the ultra-Orthodox community who resent outside interference in their affairs.  For the last three days protesters have clashed with police, throwing rocks at them and burning trash cans. At least 28 demonstrators have been arrested.

VIDEO: Protesters clash with police in Jerusalem

The incident has laid bare the very delicate relationship between the insular ultra-Orthodox community and the city's more secular population.

The ultra-Orthodox community views the Israeli authorities with a great deal of mistrust; they think they use brutal tactics (police used water cannons on rioters on Thursday), are uncompromising and oppose any perceived interference from them in their religious life.

By arresting the mother, authorities touched on what is viewed by the ultra-Orthodox community as its most sacred institution: the family.  By interfering in an ultra-Orthodox family's private affairs, the authorities crossed a line – which has brought hundreds onto the streets.

"In this story of the mother, they really want to extinct us. To touch us in the Holy of Holiness, our children, so we won't bring more children to the world," one demonstrator, Yoel, told Haaretz newspaper.

Another demonstrator shouted at the police and called them "Nazis."

Jews accusing other Jews in the holy city of Jerusalem.

This mistrust has led Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat to punish the two neighborhoods where the riots took place by banning garbage collection and closing government offices until further notice.

Still, many questions remain unanswered. Why would the mother starve her own child? Why was the father not arrested? The woman has five children, have the other children in the family been abused as well?

Meantime, the mother is in police custody and appeared in court Thursday, hiding her face with a prayer book. She said the child is sick, but that she is not responsible for his condition. Doctors say the boy is doing well and is gaining weight.

A devastating drought has left Iraq bone dry. Swaths of farm land have turned to baked dirt, drinking water supplies are threatened and to add to the misery, a massive dust storm has blanketed the country. All the dry land has opened up a treasure trove for archeologists, but they fear looters. NBC News' Steve Wende reports from Baghdad.

VIDEO: Drought and sandstorms, Iraq's latest battle

BANGKOK, Thailand – Like many students at the Setsatian School for the Deaf, 18-year-old Supawan Klaiyana has been hearing impaired from birth and cannot listen to music.

She enjoys watching pop singers dancing on TV and thought that was the maximum extent of music she could experience. But that changed completely last week when she and 40 other deaf students attended a concert targeted to suit their special needs. 

"I'm so excited," Klaiyana signed, as her hands fluttered over her chest, before the concert. She was sitting in a quiet yet animated classroom, as her classmates were busy signing with each other. Some giggled when she was being interviewed on camera.  "I want to dance. I want to have fun. I'm so ready to dance at the concert!"

VIDEO: Pradhana Chariyavilaskul explains her inspiration to organize Bangkok's first concert for 'the deaf and the rest'

The "Love is Hear" concert was held at a downtown Bangkok theater last Thursday and was the first concert ever organized in Thailand for "the deaf and the rest."

The concert wasn't the brainchild of a government agency or big-name charity. It was produced by a community of friends who wanted to raise funds and awareness for the deaf – which accounts for 103,000 nationwide – without having any money to start with.

"Some people want to do something for other people but they don't have money," said Pradhana Chariyavilaskul, the main producer of the concert. "So they wait for the money to fall on their laps, but that never happens."

Chariyavilaskul, who works at a branding agency, had no money, but a network of good friends who turned out to be her greatest asset. The many artists and full-time professionals promptly responded "count me in" when she approached them with the idea for the project. They devoted time after work to plan the concert from scratch. They did not ask for commercial sponsorship so that they could maintain artistic freedom and truly fulfill their goal.

"One day I had this question: Can the deaf enjoy the music?" Chariyavilaskul said. She did some research and found her answer.

"The deaf can still feel the rhythm, which means they can access up to 50 percent of the music already. If they sit in the same room, share the moment with us, they can see how we enjoy the music and that will increase their potential to enjoy the music as well."

The concert featured some aids to enhance tactile and other senses of the deaf. A heart-shaped balloon was tied to each seat so that the deaf students could feel the rhythm through vibration. Visual presentations – such as photographs and captions – were projected on large screens to complement the rock and acoustic music performed by local bands. Some songs came with fragrance, while some singers signed as they serenaded.

With a crowd of almost 700 filling a theater, 39 deaf students sat alongside other music lovers during the two-hour show. They waved and clapped, swayed and danced, and even participated in a pantomime.

"I want this to happen again," signed one deaf student after the concert. "I got goose bumps thinking that I was sitting in a concert with people with good ears."

The concert raised about $24,000 from ticket sales and fundraising that was donated to the Thai foundation for the deaf.

"I want to be, not a role model, but maybe a little inspiration for people to start thinking about other people," Chariyavilaskul said after the concert with a smile. "Even though they don't have any money, if they believe [a cause] is good enough, they can do it."

 URUMQI, China – Riot-torn Urumqi is hosting a beauty contest. The streets are still swamped by riot police, the city tense and littered with the debris of the worst unrest in decades, but the contestants for the 35th Miss International Beauty Pageant have come to town.

I bumped into them at dinner on Friday. In all honesty, you couldn't miss them, since very few other people were staying at my hotel, which is a few minutes away from where nearly 200 people died just a week ago. 

They paraded along the buffet line as if already on the catwalk. I picked my way along with contestants from Turkmenistan and Vietnam dressed in their finest and minimalist evening wear.

Ian Williams / NBC News

The remains a Han Chinese car dealership after ethnic riots in Urumqi, China.

The "Stans" – the former Soviet Republics – were well represented, and there were women also representing Siberia and numerous Chinese cities and regions. Prominent among the latter was a Miss Xinjiang China. One of the tallest in the contest, she wore the shortest skirt, and looked nothing like the embattled and angry Uighur woman who'd been confronting the riot police.

I asked contestants from France and Germany what it was like to be in a beauty contest in a riot-torn city.

They didn't appear to know Urumqi is a riot-torn city.

The finals are later this month, and I guess they are not likely to be quizzed too deeply on local affairs. In the meantime, according to a poster in the lobby, they will be highlighting the "beauty of Xinjiang."

Not beautiful right now
This troubled me, since the situation in Xinjiang is not very beautiful right now, and the idea of pressing ahead with a beauty contest in Muslim Xinjiang, in the aftermath of so much violence, seems almost surreal.

It reminded me of my last visit to Xinjiang, shortly before the Beijing Olympic Games last August.

In the main square of Khotan, a town on the southern Silk Road, local Han Chinese leaders had launched an Olympic lottery. There was also a stage show, in which Uighur performers sang in Chinese. It was all very crass, and very loud. It was also a Friday, the Muslim day of prayer, and the authorities had banned mosques from using loud-speakers to broadcast their call to prayer.

It doesn't get much more culturally insensitive. But, of course, that's not the way China sees it.

The Chinese government believes it has brought economic progress and prosperity to the region. They see the Uighurs as an ungrateful lot, the rioters manipulated by criminals and separatist terrorists overseas.

And there seems to be no sign that this almost colonial attitude is going to change.

Ian Williams / NBC News

Riot police on the streets of Urumqi last week.

But unlike when Tibet blew up last year, at least we journalists were able to report, and were given pretty much free access to the worst affected areas.

"What do you think of the openness?" I was asked by a reporter from CCTV, China's state television, late last week, his camera rolling. I muttered something about all openness being good, since rumor and speculation aren't good for anybody.

It was an off-the-cuff remark, but when I thought about it afterwards, quite an accurate one. Last year the Chinese government would not allow foreign journalists into Tibet, so reporters relied heavily on bits and pieces of video and information that slipped out, often via exile or activist groups abroad, little of which could be accurately verified.

This time, the authorities were quick to cut the Internet, instant messaging and international phone lines, but within Urumqi we were pretty much allowed to do as we pleased.

Still, it was hard to get an accurate picture of the dynamics of the violence. The Uighurs were often nervous about speaking openly. We do know that it was nasty and messy and involved brutality by both sides of the ethnic divide. But a different picture would have emerged if we'd been kept out, and just relied on Uighur exile groups, and the Chinese government understood that.

We may never get an accurate break down of the identity of the almost 200 dead and hundreds of injured (the government said most were Han Chinese; the Uighurs dispute this).

What we do know is that Xinjiang was a tinderbox waiting to explode, and when the explosion came, Han Chinese and their businesses were targeted before the security forces hit back hard, as did Han Chinese vigilantes.

So the authorities were more open, but it was a clever strategy.

The only fast-ish Internet connections were in a government-run press center, inside a government-run hotel. The center also organized tours of hospitals and the worst affected areas. Two floors below, in the lobby coffee shop, a large video screen showed Michael Jackson videos non-stop. Perhaps they thought this would appeal to the foreign press (though most journalists there were only too pleased to get away from the Jackson story).

The beauty contestants might have enjoyed it, though they – and the NBC team – were staying in a different hotel.

Ian Williams / NBC News

The damaged remains of a Uighur restaurant that is actually owned by a Han Chinese businessman.

The city of Urumqi is overwhelmingly Han Chinese these days, after years of heavy government-encouraged migration. The 9 million Uighurs now make up less than half the population of Xinjiang, their home region. And the economy is growing fast – it's a vital supplier of natural resources to the rest of China.

The Uighurs, often poorly education and with a poor command of Mandarin, complain they are being left out of this boom. And this discrimination is often a more bitter complaint than the restrictions on religion, which also run deep.

A short distance from my hotel was the wreckage of a Uighur restaurant – windows and furniture smashed, cooking equipment upended by a Han Chinese mob, seeking revenge. It was a mess.

As we looked around, a young waiter emerged from a back room. He told me the Uighur family who owned the place had sold out – to a Han Chinese businessman – just a month before the riot. So apparently, the rioters made a mistake.

ULAN BATOR, Mongolia – As events unfold in Xinjiang Province, we have seen a resurgence of ethnic Chinese nationalist sentiment mixed with fear and mistrust of not just the Uighur people but also the outside world.

China's central and local governments were quick to accuse the U.S.-based World Uighur Congress of fomenting racial tension in Xinjiang and alluded to "outside" terrorist and separatist organizations working together to split up the country.

Meanwhile, China's blogosphere has been rife with Han Chinese outrage at the foreign media coverage of the violence, calling it prejudiced and erroneous. And on the streets of Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, Western reporters have faced angry mobs of Han Chinese accusing them of a long-standing bias against China.

Adrienne Mong / NBC News

Mongolians today prefer looking west, not to Russia or to China.

But looking at the unrest in Xinjiang from a neighboring country like Mongolia offers an interesting perspective on China's regional reputation. Whether the Chinese would acknowledge it or not, unfortunately the long reach of history often influences modern attitudes much more than any current day media reports.

The first thing we learned upon arriving at the Mongolian capital of Ulan Bator was that one way of insulting a Mongol was to tell him, "You are Chinese."

Our translator, a good-natured 26-year-old nicknamed Togo, explained, "It just means that you think the person is very rude."

That's nowhere as offensive as it could be, given the historical enmity between Mongolia and China. But this little bit of cultural exchange, as it were, goes a long way to illustrate how the Chinese are viewed by some neighbors – and how they increasingly may be seen in light of unrest in Tibet and Xinjiang.

Over the centuries, the two countries have fought bitterly for supremacy.

One of China's great but short-lived dynasties was Mongolian. Kublai Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan, established the Yuan dynasty in 1271 and made Beijing the capital of his empire. (It should be noted that ethnic Chinese culture flourished under this "foreign" Imperial Court, which promoted cultural diversity and welcomed outside ideas and outsiders, including Marco Polo.)

The succeeding dynasty, the Ming, rebuilt and fortified the Great Wall with the Mongols in mind – to keep them out of China.

Mongolia, in turn, lost a considerable amount of territory to the Chinese led by the Manchu during the Qing Dynasty. The swath of land it lost is now known as Inner Mongolia and is the third largest province in China, with almost a fifth of its residents ethnic Mongols. (In fact, China has more Mongols than Mongolia.) And they from time to time accuse the Chinese government of discriminating against them.

Adrienne Mong / NBC News

Zaisan Memorial atop a hill in Ulan Bator was built by the Russians to commemorate unknown soldiers.

Inner Mongolia is also where – 800 years after the death of Genghis Khan, with almost as long a history of demonizing him as the leader of savage barbarian hordes – the Chinese have recently tried to reinvent the great Mongol warrior as one of their own. At the height of this rebranding push, critics concluded that China's policy of assimilating Genghis was meant to reinforce the official line that Inner Mongolia has always been an integral part of China.

Fortunately, for Beijing, Inner Mongolia has not been riven by the kind of ethnic strife witnessed in Tibet or Xinjiang. Perhaps that's because – unlike the Uighurs in Xinjiang province or the Tibetans – the Mongols actually have their own nation, even if at times Mongolia feels constrained by its much more powerful neighbor.

I was particularly alert when, here in Ulan Bator, Togo introduced me to curious Mongols as an American and avoided any mention of my Chinese roots even when they were clearly mystified by my ethnicity.

Later, in private conversation, Togo described in great detail the animosity many Mongolians still feel toward China and the Chinese.

"We are like the deer, caught between two hungry wolves," he said to me, referring to Mongolia's precarious geography between Russia and China.

And Russia, many Mongolians feel, has been the less hungry of the two – hence the close relationship between the two communist governments for several decades. In recent times, however, officials in Ulan Bator have played a cautious game of diplomacy with the Chinese, who have not hesitated to express their displeasure when crossed.

Take the Tibet situation, for example.

Through a common religion, Tibet and Mongolia have strong historical ties. Mongolia, which is predominantly Buddhist, practices the Yellow Hat sect, whose spiritual leader is the Dalai Lama. 

But when the Dalai Lama last visited Ulan Bator, in 2006, the Mongolian government took great pains to keep the trip low-key, calling it a religious exchange. After all, during a 2002 visit by him, the Chinese government protested by cutting off rail links with landlocked Mongolia for two days.

Many Mongolians feel a strong kinship with Tibet, and this is especially true for monks. Outside Gandan Monastery – Mongolia's largest and most important Buddhist monastery – a monk told us that he had visited Dharamsala, India, many times to meet the Dalai Lama and that he hoped to be able to visit Tibet in his lifetime. But when asked what he thought about China's relationship with Tibet, he demurred, preferring – like his government – not to take a public stance.

Adrienne Mong / NBC News

Mongolia's oldest and most important monastery, Gandan, where Tibetan Buddhism thrives.

Today, Mongolia looks neither to Russia nor to China.  Instead, the government – especially under newly elected President Tsakhia Elbegdorj – wants to reorient the country toward the United States and its close allies, such as South Korea or Japan. 

In fact, Elbegdorj, who in May won on a campaign of hope and anti-corruption, was responsible for steering the nation's education system toward adopting English as a second language instead of Russian.  In his youth, he attended the University of Colorado-Boulder and then Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. Election campaigners in Mongolia dubbed him their Barack Obama, and he won votes from the country's overwhelmingly youthful population.

But America isn't in the headlines these days. Xinjiang is. And Togo has listened to our discussions about the unrest in Xinjiang with great curiosity. When I asked him about the coverage of the story in Mongolia, he laughed.  We've been working so hard this week, he hasn't had time to keep up with the news, he said. But tonight he was going home to read as much as he could. 

Tomorrow, he smiled, we could talk about it.

Related links: How China is spinning the Uighur riots
World Blog: Chinese open up - slightly - over Uighur riots
CFR: Why China's Xinjian spiraled out of control

L'AQUILA, ITALY – You first see this city from up high as you wind around a mountain highway and this is what you think: It's a city in a bowl.

It's name means "The Eagle," and there is plenty of room for eagles to soar here. L'Aquila is encircled by enormous ridges that are part of the Appenines, that "spine" of mountains that grade-schoolers learn runs down the middle of the boot of Italy.

It's a lovely place, this bowl, set in a fertile valley and protected by those mountains – a safe and secure place that played a strategically important role in the medieval struggle for control of central Italy. 

VIDEO: Berlusconi 'the seducer' still popular in Italy

L'Aquila is not big and famous like Milan, or Venice, or Florence. It is not even a small but famous place like Assisi. But it is Italy. The real Italy. There is a university here, not a world-famous one, but one where Italian families confidently send their children for a good education. There is a ski resort in the distance, one frequented not by deep-pocketed Americans or Europeans, but by ordinary Italians who live within an hour or two.

We are here because of an earthquake, and we are here because of Italian politics. But we are really here because of history.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi decided this was the place where he would host a meeting of the leaders of the G8 – the successors to the leading industrial powers that assigned themselves the task of coordinating the world economy about 25 years ago and find themselves struggling for control today, as the rest of the world catches up and begins to pass them by – so they could see the strength and resilience of the people of L'Aquila, and perhaps agree to lend them a hand.

Some of the people here for the meeting have complained about the location. They say Berlusconi is grandstanding (as if that's unusual among politicians), it's too isolated (as if economies only matter in big, international banking centers), the hotels are inadequate (oh, please).

And they've worried about aftershocks.

Now THAT is something they ought to worry about.

The bowl that contains L'Aquila is actually an ancient lakebed. From a remote past recorded in the layers of rock and soil that remain, the lake dictates what this place is today. The biology of it – the detritus of thousands of years of aquatic plants and animals – explains the fertile valley. Its geology – the inherent instability that water brings to these mountain ranges – accounts for the earthquakes.

The earthquake that led to holding this meeting here happened in April. It was a 6.3 on the Richter scale and killed more than 300 people. An aftershock on Friday measured 4.1.

At least a dozen tremors have shaken the town since the G8 leaders, their sprawling entourages, and the yawping maw of world media began to arrive in earnest on Tuesday. Magnitudes ranged from 2.0 to 2.8, big enough for a mention on the local news in Los Angeles if it had happened in Tehachapi.

The G-8 traffics in ponderous statements and lengthy papers. Reporters here say the earthquake evacuation plan for the presidents and prime ministers dwarfs those documents and rivals them in complexity and detail.

It should. Earthquakes have defined this town. A short list of big quake years here includes 1315, 1349 (when Europe was being slaughtered by plague, L'Aquila suffered earthquakes for good measure), 1452, 1461, 1501, 1646, 1703, 1706, 1786, 1958 and 2009.

Some of the older churches have been destroyed and rebuilt two and three times over. The 1703 quake destroyed a structure called Rocca Calascio, said to be the highest fortress in Europe. Three-thousand people died. The pope, Clement XI, ordered the town repopulated. Just 80 years later, another quake killed 6,000 people. L'Aquila rebuilt again. The pope didn't need to issue an order.

On a hillside above town, a huge message looms in white letters: "Yes We Camp," a reference to the fact that some of the residents are living in tents three months after the earthquake of 2009.

The message captures the spirit of the people here. It's meant as an appeal to the Americans, a twist on Barack Obama's "Yes We Can" campaign slogan. But it's also a message that resonates through the centuries. L'Aquila will do what it has to do. L'Aquila will survive. The history of L'Aquila is one of persistence and renewal.

Italian politics notwithstanding, by bringing world leaders here for this meeting, Berlusconi has paid honor to a place that has earned it.

ACCRA, Ghana – The last stop on President Barack Obama's week-long trip may prove to be his most historic and newsworthy.  Just one day before Obama arrives in Ghana, the significance of his trip is the topic of conversation among most Ghanaians. 

In this country, even though Obama's father hailed from Kenya, the president is considered  "from the soil," a man with an African bloodline, who is now returning home as leader of the free world. 

Luc Gnago / Reuters

A street vendor sells American and Ghanaian flags along a street in Accra on Wednesday.Â

But even as Ghana waits expectantly, many here are wondering why Obama chose this country for his first visit to sub-Saharan Africa

"Part of the reason is because Ghana has now undergone a couple of successful elections in which power was transferred peacefully, even a very close election," Obama said in an interview last week with reporters for the news website allAfrica.com. 

"Countries that are governed well, that are stable, where the leadership recognizes that they are accountable to the people and that institutions are stronger than any one person have a track record of producing results for the people. And we want to highlight that," said Obama.

Asked if he would like to see a lot more countries like Ghana in Africa, the president replied, "Absolutely."

'Does Ghana know what it wants from America?'
If you turn on the radio or television here, you don't have to wait long to find news presenters discussing Obama's visit. And despite general African excitement, many ask if there is a stronger reason – of strategic importance – that moves beyond the public relations of the first African-American president's visit to so-called black Africa.  
 
Last year a huge reserve of oil was discovered off Ghana's coast.  It is anticipated that pumping will begin in 2010 and may generate between one and three billion dollars annually for the Ghanaian government.

There is also a gas pipeline, more than 400 miles long stretching from Nigeria to Ghana, 59-percent owned by U.S.-based Chevron.

VIDEO: Ghana is ready for Obama visit

"The Americans know what they want from Ghana. But does Ghana know what it wants from America?" Asare Otchere-Darko, executive director of the Accra think tank Danquah Institute asked in a recent editorial in the Ghanaian Chronicle. "The question is: has the Ghanaian government taken a considered, sober decision on the price to be paid and the prize to be gained for being considered as the serene oasis at the heart of the 'New Gulf'?"

Otchere-Darko argued that the United States' interests in Ghana go beyond oil, to include a potential regional military command "with a home port situated on the African continent to protect their interests. West Africa is its natural home."

In his recent interview, Obama confirmed the overall importance of Ghana and the continent as a whole, but did not specifically reference oil or a revised military command structure.

"There are strategic, national security, economic, environmental reasons why we think this region is important," the president said.  "Africa is directly connected to our entire foreign policy approach."

VIDEO: March 7, 1957 Ghana celebrates independence

 

Ghana is 'geting it right'
But for those who say oil is a primary reason for Obama's visit to Ghana, the country's deputy minister of tourism said dissenters should not be so cynical. 

"You cannot rule that out," Deputy Minister Kwabena Akyeampong told NBC News' Mara Schiavocampo this week during an interview at Cape Coast Castle, a former departure point for millions of Africans who were sent to the Americas as part of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.  

"Of course everyone knows that the U.S. always has interests where they can find some of these things.  But I look at the broader picture. I think it is genuine when you want to meet someone because they are doing something right. Ghana is getting it right and I think that is the main thing."

As workers in Accra put the finishing touches on a city eager for the American president's arrival on Friday, most Ghanaians were preparing to celebrate and revel in the two-day "homecoming" of one of their own.  They hope his memories will be longstanding and his nation's policies mutually beneficial.

Read more about Obama's historic trip on TheGrio.com

While residents in Accra, Ghana finalize their preparations for President Barack Obama's historic visit, NBC News' Mara Schiavocampo takes in some of the lively local culture in the West African city.

Its common for local women to carry things on their head in the market place in Accra. While they make it look easy, watch as Mara learns the tricks of the trade. 

VIDEO: Going bananas in Ghana

Mara and producer Anthony Galloway also learn how one handles a lunchtime feeding of crocodiles.

VIDEO: Counting crocs in Accra, Ghana

URUMQI, Xinjiang – As we drove through the empty streets of Urumqi, I was immediately reminded of the unrest in the Tibetan capital Lhasa last year – but with one key difference.

Here, in the remote capital of China's northwestern Xinjiang province, there were few pedestrians, truckloads of armed police, smashed windows, and lots of scared people – just like in Lhasa in March 2008 when 22 people were killed, according to official numbers.

In Urumqi, officials have said that 156 people were killed and more than 1,100 injured as a result of the violent ethnic riots between the Uighurs and Han Chinese on Sunday.

VIDEO: Tensions high in Western China

But what separates Urumqi from Lhasa is the deep sense of hate between this region's two majority ethnic groups: the Turkic-speaking Muslim Uighurs and the Han Chinese, the dominant ethnic group in China as a whole.

"I'd like to kill some Uighurs too! They've killed so many innocent Hans!" said one Han passerby when were filming in a downtown street.

In response to Sunday's riots, hundreds of Han Chinese took up their own weapons on Tuesday and marched through the streets seeking revenge, chanting slogans like "Defend our country!" 

Han Chinese have also been expressing their anger at the Western media that they perceive as overly sympathetic toward the Uighurs in their reporting.

While we were wandering down Urumqi's main road filming closed shops and armed police, a young Han Chinese man followed us and continuously cursed for about five minutes.

"I hate these f*&%&*% Western reporters," he said with his fists clenched. "They only support the killers, they support separatism and lie all the time."

SLIDESHOW: Clashes erupt in China's far west

Another Han Chinese man stepped in while we were trying to interview a young Uighur man. "Why are you interviewing him? He doesn't represent us!" the Han Chinese man shouted.

When I told him we would interview him after, he refused and told me that Americans, journalists and politicians should not interfere in China's business.

As we walked down the street trying to resume our previous conversation with the Uighur man, the Han Chinese man became more agitated and started to make phone calls. I was not sure if he was calling his friends to join him, so I abandoned the interview out of safety concerns. I could still feel his furious stares even as we walked further down the road.

The exact number of Han Chinese and Uighurs killed in the violence remains a mystery; officials have not released an ethnic breakdown of those killed.

Han Chinese people and their properties were the main targets when the Uighurs rioted on Sunday, angered over the alleged murder of two Uighur workers at a toy factory in southern China last month.

"You know why there're so many armed police in the streets now? They want to prevent us from taking revenge!" said another angry Han Chinese man as he shook his head. "I just can't believe how those Uighurs just murder so many innocent Hans. Are they animals? If they are animals, they ought to be wiped out."

Is Xinjiang – a sprawling, oil rich territory that borders several strategic Central Asian countries and makes up a sixth of China's land – becoming divided along ethnic lines? Whether its communism, Islam, capitalism, independence or ethnic unity that people believe in, all they can express right now is anger.

And nobody knows how much time Urumqi, an ethnically mixed city just four hours by flight from Beijing, will need to heal from all the violence.

Related links: How China is spinning the Uighur riots
World Blog: Chinese open up - slightly - over Uighur riots
CFR: Why China's Xinjian spiraled out of control

 URUMQI, China – Thousands of riot police have descended upon the Western city of Urumqi as Chinese authorities try to control the ethnic tensions that sparked riots on Sunday and left at least 156 dead. Fears of further violent clashes between the local Uighur population and Han Chinese in the oil-rich Xinjiang province forced Chinese President Hu Jintao to cut short his visit to the Group of Eight summit so he could address the situation.

NBC News' Ian Williams arrived in the city on Wednesday and reports on the mood in the city and government efforts to control the local Uighur population, as well as the media. 

Well the city is very, very tense. There aren't many people on the streets, there is very little traffic.

The city has been flooded with riot police and members of the security forces. They have blocked most of the junctions downtown. There are police and security forces everywhere. They have really locked the place down.

SLIDESHOW: Clashes erupt in China's West

All the shops are closed. One or two are open, but most of the shops are shuttered. There are people just lingering on the corners, watching the riot police.  But it does seem that the authorities have the center of town under control at the moment.

It's very, very tense and you can feel it. There is a sense that without the massive police presence, violence could flare up again at any time. 

We arrived in town around midday today, but the situation seems calmer, compared to the reports we were hearing from earlier in the week. There were some rumors that there had been some smaller clashes this morning – but we didn't see any evidence of that.

 There just aren't many people on the streets. I think it's because they have made the security force deployment so huge. Any large group of people who gather are quickly broken up or dispersed by the riot police. The presence of security forces is particularly heavy in the town center and on the streets that lead up to the main Uighur neighborhoods.

 Just walking the streets earlier this evening, there were truckloads of riot police circling the main square. They were chanting as they went, saying things like, "We should be united."

There were also police cars driving by with loud speakers saying that the violence was only done by a minority and that, "we are all one people, people mustn't be scared, and go home." 

So there is a big effort to get people to calm down and stay off the streets. 

Now and again, we've had people come over and start talking to us. At one point we started talking to a young Uighur man and an angry Han Chinese man came over and interrupted us. He said, "Don't talk to him – he's a liar." So the Uighur man quickly disappeared. So there is a lot of tension not far from the surface.

It has been impossible for us to make international calls from here. We can receive calls, but we can't make them. The local mobile phone circuit seems to be OK, but just for local calls. There is no text messaging and no Internet.  

SLIDESHOW: Inside China's Xinjiang region

What about Chinese media coverage? And how are the Chinese authorities controlling the media?
There are a lot of Chinese journalists here. I think that by local standards, the coverage has been quite open.    

I think the Chinese authorities seemed to have learned from the mistakes of Tibet – when they locked things down and wouldn't let anybody in. The Chinese approach to the media seems to be a little bit more sophisticated this time. They've decided that they can't just ram the door shut and block information.

They are allowing people in, but once there they are here, they are trying to manage their movements more effectively by imposing pretty strict controls on the Internet, mobile phones, and the routes through which information would normally get out.

There is a press center that has been set up and it has what seems to be the only working Internet link in the city. It's a crowded place and the connection is very slow. So that is one way of controlling the journalists who are here.

But it's still not very clear what happened on Sunday when the initial riots occurred.

We went on a government sponsored trip to a hospital today. By far, the vast majority of the people we saw – some of them with horrendous injuries – were Han Chinese.

VIDEO: Chinese clamp down on ethnic unrest

But the government officials leading the tour wouldn't tell us what proportion of the injured were Han Chinese or what proportion were Uighur. Nor would they give the precise breakdown of what proportion of the injuries were gunshot wounds, which would suggest they were shot by security forces, and what proportion were head wounds. All they would say is that most of the injuries were from beatings.

We were not shown any Uighurs at the hospital. There were a couple of Uighurs in the hospital ward, one of whom said he thought he'd been mistaken for a policeman and he thought it was Uighurs who actually attacked him. But we weren't able to talk to any ordinary Uighurs, I think they were kept in a separate part of the hospital. 

And it is quite difficult to get into the Uighur neighborhoods because they are the ones that are most heavily sealed off by the riot police.

So it's difficult to ascertain precisely the mechanics of what happened on Sunday.  All we can conclude is that there was a real frenzy of ethnic violence. What is still not very clear are the claims from exiled Uighurs: That most of the deaths were caused by the police opening up on unarmed demonstrators.

There may have been people killed that way, but there were also a lot of Han Chinese who were injured. Of course, that's what the Chinese media is concentrating on.

But it is very difficult to get a proper feel as to what the breakdown is between Han Chinese and Uighur. And it could well be that the Chinese doesn't want to give out too many details for fear that it could further inflame passions. 

Related links: Newsweek: How China is spinning Uighur unrest
CFR.org: Why China's Xinjiang spiraled out of control

MOSCOW – So who is really in charge in Russia? Prime Minister Vladimir Putin or his boss on paper, President Dmitri Medvedev?

A foreign Russia-watcher offered the best answer I've heard.

"When we negotiate with Russia we deal with a leadership," said E. Wayne Merry, a former U.S. State and Defense Department official and a senior associate at the American Foreign Policy Council. ''The senior person in that leadership is Putin. The second person in that leadership is Medvedev.''

There you have it. Or do you?

VIDEO: Putin: Prime Minister or puppet-master?

If Medvedev is the official leader while Putin acts as paramount leader, that would explain why, after summiting with Medvedev for hours on an array of important initiatives, President Barack Obama still felt the need to get Putin's blessing over a power breakfast Tuesday morning.  Otherwise, Obama risked finding out that the United States had made commitments to a front man, not the main man.

Russian insiders like Fyodor Lukyanov, editor in chief of "Russia in Global Affairs," say it's almost silly to think that Putin is not the center of power in Russia, even if he's moved out of the Kremlin and into the "White House," a couple of miles down the Moscow River.

"Putin has the authority and enough power to, so to say, destroy any things or intentions if he believes that Medvedev is going in the wrong direction," said Lukyanov.

But does that make Putin a kind of regent or a power behind the "throne" who pulls the levers or puppet-strings, even as officially recognizing his hand-picked successor's constitutional rights?

Or is Putin just indulging Medvedev to negotiate a ceasefire in Georgia last summer (analysts say there's no doubt Putin ordered the invasion), or discuss a new strategic arms reduction treaty with the U.S. president?

Interestingly, very few – if any – Russian analysts buy into the idea that Medevdev is Putin's puppet.

"It's much more complicated than that," said Lukyanov. "I think they respect each other much more than this simple relationship would mean."

VIDEO: Obama discusses U.S. relations with Russia

It does appear at times that Medvedev, now well into the second year of a four-year term as president, is beginning to strike out on his own.

In recent weeks he's met with liberal leaders of Russian non-governmental organizations – a group of people that Putin never had time for – and called for a loosening of restrictions placed, by Putin, on the pro-democratic organizations.

More recently, Medvedev went even further, overturning the closure of a strategic U.S. airbase in Manas, Kyrgyzstan, reportedly originally orchestrated by Putin, which would allow the U.S. to retain a key means of transporting men and materiel into the fight in Afghanistan.  These moves are hardly the actions of a puppet.

At the same time, Putin took Medvedev's cabinet (almost all of them Putin appointees) by surprise when he decided Russia had had enough of trying unsuccessfully to gain membership into the World Trade Organization. Putin said that Russia would pull out of unilateral membership talks and would seek a joint WTO bid with Belarus and Kazakhstan. 

But on Tuesday, Medvedev reversed course during a press conference with Obama.

"We do plan to join the World Trade Organization and will do this taking into account the achievements that have been made...The format could change, there could be the need for some other agreements," Medvedev said.

So there was clearly a difference of opinion on that issue.

Still, Putin clearly moves with his political future in mind.

"Definitely the performance of Vladimir Putin as Russia's prime minister in a time of economic crisis enables him to secure the right to make a spectacular comeback in the year 2012," said Sergei Strokan, a veteran Putin-watcher and investigative reporter.

So, on the question of whether Medvedev is a puppet or an independent president, Strokan says the jury is out.

"Remember, this is only Medvedev's first term, and he knows he's there only because of Putin," said Strokan. "But if he runs for a second term, and many of us think he will, that's when we could see the real President Medvedev emerge.''

But even professionals like Strokan who spend much of their time dissecting the Russian tandem aren't really sure who is in control. I asked Strokan during an interview with TV cameras rolling, "So, who is in charge here?" Strokan, a man who normally speaks at rapid fire speed suddenly took a long pause and stared at me. Then he paused some more. And finally, as if conceding defeat, he shook his head and said, "It's difficult to say, difficult to say.''

Still, would a Medvedev-run Russia be any different than Putin's Russia? Certainly President Obama seems to think – or hope – that to be the case, throwing superlatives in the direction of the Russian president at every chance during their joint press conference on Monday.

Of course, even Obama slipped up by referring to Putin as "President Putin" during a press conference, as well as during an interview with NBC News Chuck Todd, before quickly correcting himself. Obama told Todd, "I don't think it's Freudian. He used to be president."

When asked by a reporter who he thought was in charge, Obama deftly skirted the issue, saying, in effect, that the constitution says Medvedev is president (a position that is supposed to handle foreign affairs), and Putin is prime minister (a position that concentrates on domestic issues). In reality, though, their roles are often reversed. Such confusion leads to slips-of-tongue, back-up power breakfasts, and the like.

Luckily, there's at least one place in Moscow where the center of power is obvious. In a far corner on the second floor of Moscow's version of Barnes & Noble, Dom Kinigi, photo portraits of current Russian leaders, the kind you would see hanging on the walls of any city hall, are there for all to see.

They are in a sense the final arbiters of power. I climbed the stairs and sure enough, there was a portrait of a Medvedev, smiling and wearing a fashionable blue tie with that cumbersome knot.

And hanging next to him is Putin, brooding, glassy-eyed and towering over Medvedev, his portrait twice as large as his protégés'.

The pictures say it all.

Riots and street battles killed at least 156 people in China's western Xinjiang province and injured 828 others on Monday in the most violent ethnic unrest in the region in decades.

NBC News' Adrienne Mong explains the roots of the discord between ethnic Muslim Uighurs who live in restive province and China's Han majority.

VIDEO: Who are the Uighurs