CAIRO – The Muslim Brotherhood has already started coloring outside the lines in order to win a majority in Egypt’s parliamentary elections. 

The organization, which gave its political branch the more ambiguous title, The Party of Freedom and Justice (FJP), is expected to win 40 percent of the seats in the lower house of parliament, according to analysts estimates.  Official results from the first round of voting will be announced Thursday.

Based on our own observations at polling stations across Cairo and anecdotal evidence, they seem to have won support at the polls by bending the rules in their favor.

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Free food and cheap meat
In Cairo’s Saida Zeinab neighborhood, at one of the busiest polling centers in the city, we saw a party member and two other supporters of an independent candidate passing out leaflets to voters waiting in long lines to cast their ballots – in clear violation of election laws. Soldiers who were on site for crowd control, did nothing to stop them. At the same spot, a tech-savvy FJP member sat on a bench, laptop in hand, to conduct exit polls. At other polling stations, they provided polling information to baffled voters. 
 
In a more economically disadvantaged part of Cairo known as “The Slaughterhouse,” Hanan Nasr, a mother of three, watched FJP members pass out free packages of rice and oil to voters on their way to the polling station – again in contravention of campaign law. They also bused in party members from surrounding neighborhoods.

Voter confusion played into the hands of the FJP. Many voters simply did not know who the candidates were because of the sheer number of mostly unknown candidates (4,000), unknown parties (35 new ones since President Hosni Mubarak fell from power) and a complicated voting system requiring choices of farmer, labor and independent candidates. 

For those who did not understand the voting system, the FJP had people on hand before the election to explain how to make their ballots count – for FJP candidates.

Although Nasr voted for a liberal party, her son, Ali, opted for the only party he was familiar with, the FJP.  Some FJP members had been signing up voters in Nasr’s neighborhood in the run up to the election and distributed free school supplies. And before the recent Eid al-Adha or Feast of the Sacrifice holiday, the one time of year when everybody in Egypt must have meat to celebrate the holiday, the FJP sold meat at half the market price to Cairo’s many disadvantaged.  
 
Clearly, the FJP struck a chord with voters.  Most of those we spoke to said they were voting FJP because they were well organized, helped the poor, and would uphold religious law. 

“They look to God,” said taxi driver Saad Abdul Aziz, who voted FJP.  “They must be just.”

Shifting promises
In the wake of the revolution, the FJP initially promised to compete for only 30 percent of parliamentary seats, in order not to frighten civil society and the interim military government.  They gradually upped that figure to 100 percent. 

Likewise, a promise not to field presidential candidates was soon broken.  The FJP had joined a much larger political bloc of secular and religious parties running for president, but the alliance fell apart when the FJP tried to dominate party lists.
 
The official election results will be announced Thursday evening, but the FJP is expected to win big in Egypt’s two largest cities, Cairo and Alexandria. 

Since it’s a parliamentary system, their leaders have already demanded that if their party wins the largest proportion of seats as a party, they should be entitled to form the new government.

In view of the FJP’s track record of broken promises, many wonder what kind of government they would be and whether they will respect their promise to adhere to democratic process and take into account Egypt’s secularists and 10 percent Christian population. 

American gunships launch a strike across the Afghan border into Pakistan, hitting a Pakistani check post and killing 11 soldiers. U.S. officials say the attack was in response to insurgent firing. Pakistan calls the attacks "unprovoked and cowardly."  That was in June of 2008.

Three Pakistani soldiers are killed at their border post as a result of an American helicopter strike. U.S. officials say they were targeting insurgents who were launching mortar rounds into Afghanistan. Pakistan protests by blocking the supply route for U.S. and NATO convoys. That was in September of 2010.

The details of exactly what happened during Saturday's early morning hours in Pakistan's Mohmand tribal agency, on the border with Afghanistan, are still unclear, but the story line is familiar.

This time, U.S. officials say they took fire from across the border in Pakistan and called in air support, reportedly checking with their Pakistani counterparts before authorizing a strike. Pakistani officials say they were never consulted, that their pleas to NATO to stop the attack once it had started were ignored, and responded by again shutting down the supply routes.

One thing that is certainly different this time is the death toll: 24 Pakistani soldiers were killed in this latest incident, including two officers, making it the deadliest incident of its kind since Pakistan and the U.S. declared an alliance in 2001. The higher death toll, according to analysts, means more pressure on Pakistan's military and civilian leaders to react strongly.

There is no debating that U.S.-Pakistan relations have taken a beating over the last year. But have they hit rock bottom? Or is this just the new "all-time low?"

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Last straw in a tough year
The condemnation from Pakistan over the latest attack has been swift and unrelenting.

Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, Pakistan's Army Chief, called the attack "unacceptable." Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said it was "an assault on the sovereignty of Pakistan," and pledged to conduct a complete review of all diplomatic, political, military and intelligence cooperation with the U.S. In addition Pakistan announced it would boycott next month's Bonn Conference on Afghanistan.

Amid the rising anger, Pakistan's military released a set of images Wednesday which it says shows the remote border posts attacked by NATO helicopters and fighter jets on Saturday.

"They're taking a tougher line than they have before," said Hasan Askari Rizvi, a Lahore-based defense analyst. "They're staking out a strong position to demonstrate within a domestic context that they can protect Pakistan's interests."

That, according to Rizvi, is even more important to the government and military establishments now, in a year when they've both lost credibility following a series of humiliating actions by the U.S.

Back in March, U.S. pressure to release CIA contractor Raymond Davis, who shot and killed two Pakistanis, forced Pakistan to take the domestically unpopular action of negotiating his exit in the face of intense public anger.

Then came the unilateral, American operation in May to capture and kill Osama Bin Laden within miles of Pakistan's premier military academy which forced Islamabad to choose between confessing involvement or admitting incompetence.

Former U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen's September accusation that Pakistan's largest intelligence agency uses the militant Haqqani network as a "veritable arm" to launch attacks on U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan left the relationship even further strained, and Pakistan's Army brass feeling "betrayed," according to military sources.

This latest incident, according to multiple Pakistani officials, has forced the country to rethink its engagement with the U.S. "We cannot be just a subject of abuse and attack," said one military official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"Both of these entities – the government and military – have been discredited," said Rizvi. "Within Pakistan they are discredited because of U.S. actions across their borders. Outside, they are discredited because the U.S. is saying they are helping the Taliban."

Public relations problem
But according to some, the government and military's credibility problem may be partly their own making.

"The problem is that there's not really a source of information that's geared to inform," said Dr. Christine Fair, who focuses on South Asian political and military affairs at Georgetown University. "They're geared to massage perceptions of events, and the Pakistani government love taking their citizens for a ride on the victim bus."

A growing sense of anti-Americanism in Pakistan over the last decade has been fanned by a dominant, conservative Islamic, public discourse, said Rizvi – a sentiment the establishment has tapped into from time to time to pursue its own national interests. That's how a discussion about a potential U.S. aid package devolves into talk-show debates about America respecting Pakistan's sovereignty. Or the discovery of al Qaida's leader hiding in Pakistan turns into national outrage that the borders were breached by the U.S.

"In Pakistan, there are only two entities that publicly support good relations with the U.S.: One is the military, the second is the federal government," said Rizvi. "You don't find any other political party or major society group openly supporting the ‘War on Terror’ or relations with the U.S."

What about the billions in U.S. aid?
One question many Americans ask is: “Why do Pakistanis hate us so much if we give them so much money? “
Despite the fact that billions of dollars in U.S. aid and reimbursements have gone to Pakistan in the last decade, anti-U.S. feelings within the population are running higher than ever.

Opposition leader Imran Khan has capitalized on those frustrations, channeling them into a groundswell of political support in recent months and a 68 percent approval rating, according to one recent poll. Separately, a poll conducted exclusively in Pakistan's tribal regions last year found almost 80 percent opposed the “war on terror.” The Pew Research Center's 2010 Global Attitudes project showed a mere 17 percent of all Pakistanis polled held a favorable view of the U.S. and nearly 60 percent described the U.S. as an enemy.
 
American money has been used to fund everything from education projects to agricultural development, but money has been slow to hit the ground and has not been used in ways that directly affect most Pakistanis.

According to the Congressional Research Service, of the $20.7 billion allocated for Pakistan between FY2002 and FY2012, only $6.5 billion was "economic-related." The vast majority, $14.1 billion, was "security-related," and the lion's share of that, $8.8 billion, was military reimbursement for operations supporting the US/NATO mission across the border in Afghanistan, known as "Coalition Support Funds," or CSF.

Rizvi said that most Pakistanis fail to benefit from U.S.-funded projects, and very little is known among the everyday citizenry about just how American money is being used on the ground – a problem, he says, that is one of "public relations."

"Over the last few years, a lot of funding has gone to state educational facilities, to improve facilities, enable professors to go to other countries for conferences, but very few people know that its American money," said Rizvi. "The [Pakistani] government doesn't tell them it’s American money, they create the impression that the government is making this possible for them."

That same "public relations" strategy has meant that the establishment has failed to mobilize domestic support for the war on terror, despite the fact that 30,000 Pakistanis have died in terror-related incidents since 2001. Losses in that war – accidental or deliberate – are therefore met with greater public anger, by a population that believes its military is fighting an American war.

Treading lightly
In the days since the latest tragic border clash, there has been a flurry of high-level efforts made by U.S. diplomatic, military, and intelligence officials to reach out to their Pakistani counterparts.

The U.S. and NATO are using careful language. NATO called the incident "tragic and unintended." A joint statement by the U.S. Departments of Defense and State expressed "deepest condolences" and "sympathies" from Secretaries Leon Panetta and Hillary Clinton. Officials have pledged to fully investigate what actually transpired on the ground. 

Following the incidents in 2008 and 2010, the U.S. and Pakistan found enough common ground to continue working together. The strong language being used and decisions being taken by Pakistani officials suggest it won’t be as easy this time around.

Prime Minister Gilani has already made clear that "business as usual will not be there." But U.S. officials and analysts express confidence that, with enough time and enough concessions, the two sides will ultimately be forced to find a way forward once again.

Pakistan relies on U.S. money and international support to bolster its economy, said Rizvi, and the U.S. relies on Pakistan's cooperation to stabilize Afghanistan.

"They will both realize that they need each other. They will have to tolerate each other," he said.

That may come at a price. Some believe the U.S. will have to take steps to pacify elements that have supported it in the past – issuing a public apology, or agreeing to not publicly rebuke Pakistan any longer, among other possibilities.

Despite ongoing investigations, Georgetown’s Fair believes both sides' dependence on one another means the focus will be on moving forward, not definitively determining the facts.

"There is no answer to this that's going to be helpful," says Fair. "I don't believe we're ever going to get to the bottom of what actually happened."

See a Photo Blog: Pakistan releases first images of border posts attacked by NATO

BEIJING – The wife of Ai Weiwei was questioned by Chinese police for several hours Tuesday in what appears to be a growing campaign against the outspoken artist and activist.

Ai Weiwei dismissed his wife’s police interrogation as a “pressure” tactic. “They are trying to put pressure on me,” Ai told NBC News in a phone interview after his wife was released.

But Ai’s long-running battle with authorities over tax evasion allegations – which critics say were meant to silence the politically outspoken artist—took a dangerous new turn when his wife was taken away by the police for questioning as a “criminal suspect.”

“It’s doesn’t make sense,” Ai said. “They can come to me directly.” He said his wife, Lu Qing, is “not involved” in politics.

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Criminal case?
Lu, the legal owner of the cultural company that manages Ai’s art projects, was suddenly taken away Tuesday by four policemen, one of them holding a video camera, and subjected to more than three hours of interrogation.

Initially refusing to go, she was brusquely told she had no choice.  “They were quite rough, they told me [I had no choice] while showing some document saying that I was a ‘criminal suspect,’’’ Lu said as she recounted the story to NBC News in a telephone interview. Her request for a lawyer was refused.

When she asked what crimes she had allegedly committed, they responded, “We cannot tell you now.”

“During the interrogation, I was seated on a chair meant for criminal suspects; they were very impolite,” she said, adding that except for a call from her husband, she was not allowed to contact her lawyer and other friends during the whole proceeding.

The interrogation itself dealt with many issues concerning the company’s operations that she said had already been touched upon in previous investigations.

She said she was asked about her income, but said that she firmly told the police, “No, you have no right to ask that.”

Taiwan connection
As a “criminal suspect,” she was told that she can be summoned again anytime and should not travel or leave Beijing.

Lu said she had been planning to travel to Taipei in early December to attend Ai’s art exhibition
aptly called “Ai Weiwei Absent.” 

The show, which began last month, features 21 works from 1983 to the present. It includes a new installation named “Forever Bicycles” – a 30-foot-high arrangement  of more than 1,000 bicycles that gives the illusion of a moving abstract which art critics say symbolizes China’ social changes.
  
Last Friday, Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou visited the show and called on China to respect human rights and Ai’s freedom of expression, underscoring a major issue of contention with mainland China.

“I think they wanted to prevent me from going to Taipei,” Lu said, adding that authorities might have learned of her plans by monitoring her phone calls.

“It was not just for the art show, I really wanted to visit Taipei because I have not seen Taiwan before,” she said, lamenting the cancellation of the trip.

Widening punishment?
Lu’s temporary detention comes about a week after police also began investigating Ai’s assistant for allegedly spreading pornography online, and some two weeks after Ai deposited $1.4 million with the tax authorities, which were raised from supporters’ donations, to comply with a legal procedure that would enable him to challenge the tax evasion charges.

And on the day she was taken away for questioning, police conducted a probe of the law firm that is representing Ai.

“Two policemen of Fengtai district came to our office yesterday  while I was away and photocopied this year’s accounts, saying they wanted our help in dealing with some cases,” Pu Zhiqiang, Ai’s lawyer,  told NBC News. Pu has previously told the foreign media that he believes the tax evasion case against his client was “politically motivated.”

Asked whether the police raid was related to Ai, he said: “Nobody has said anything.” He added: “To worry is useless, and I am not worried.”  

Liu Xiaoyuan, another lawyer for Ai, told NBC News that he suspects “punishment” for his inability to renew the license for his law office, which has been pending “for exactly five months tomorrow.”

Unable to practice in Beijing, he has temporarily returned to his home province of Jiangxi.

“The authorities concerned have warned me not to talk to the media about Ai’s case but I didn’t stop talking, so I think all this is punishment,” he said in a telephone interview.

Meanwhile, repeated attempts to elicit comments from the police department involved in Lu’s case did not produce any response.

More on Ai Weiwei:
Chinese artist and activist answers readers' questions

NAYPYIDAW, Myanmar – On the first full day of her three-day Asia trip, Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, delivered the keynote address at a development forum in Busan, South Korea. 

She hailed the progress that has been made toward elevating development in South Korea. “Child mortality rates have fallen and millions of people have escaped poverty in the past 60 years,” Clinton said. But she also warned, “We can and must do better.”

After her remarks, Clinton shifted to the main focus of her trip: Visiting Myanmar and pressing top officials to enact greater reforms in the country.

Changes welcome, lets see more
Clinton landed in Naypyidaw, the capital of Myanmar, on Wednesday afternoon (local time is ET + 12.5 hours) and will meet with the President Thein Sein, the foreign minister and parliament officials on Thursday.

The United States has been encouraged by some recent steps Myanmar has taken to create a more open society – including opening up a dialogue with democratic opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, releasing some political prisoners and relaxing some restrictions on the media. But the U.S. wants to see more progress. 

“I am looking to determine for myself, and on behalf of my government, what is the intention of the current government with respect to continuing reforms both politically and economically,” Clinton said. 

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According to a senior State Department official, Clinton’s message will be twofold. “One, some initial steps have been taken; we welcome those steps. Frankly, we have been surprised by some of those steps, but that this is simply a first step and several other things will need to take root and happen for the United States to be able to work closely to support the overall effort.”

The official also said that Clinton will propose a series of next steps that the Obama administration would like to see take effect.

The official said the Secretary of State is mindful of the risks of increasing relations with Myanmar and will be “careful” moving forward. “The areas that we are primarily concerned with in terms of the relationship between North Korea and Burma are in the realm of missiles and other military equipment,” the State Department official said. 

Myanmar in the country’s official name, it used to be known as Burma.

The highlight of Clinton’s trip will likely be meeting the pro-democracy leader Suu Kyi for the first time.

Suu Kyi spent most of the past two decades under detention after her party won a victory in the 1990 elections but was denied power. She won the Nobel Peace prize in 1991 and was released from house arrest last year. 

Suu Kyi recently announced that she will re-enter the political system by running for parliament – an encouraging sing to be sure – but experts warn there is no guarantee that Myanmar will continue to become a more open and democratic society. 

Former Ku Klux Klansman David Duke is making an online appeal for financial support after his arrest in Germany prevented him from speaking at a nationalist gathering.

The ex-Louisiana state legislator, 61, who was dubbed an “undesirable foreigner” and detained in Cologne before he could address a group called Outside the Network on Friday, said he needs the money to stay in German and wage a battle “for my rights and the rights of the people of Europe to hear me.”

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“As much as I would like to, I can’t just go back to Louisiana right now as I have to fight this improper action against me and our brothers and sisters,”  Duke, who is now free but reportedly facing deportation, declared on his official website. “The truth is that I and all who stand up for the heritage and freedom of the European and American people… and the right to preserve their identity and unique human rights.”

While most of you will be getting ready for the warmth and love and friendship and family of Christmas, I will be far from home fighting the good fight… Please remember me and this sacred struggle for our people at this beautiful time of year that is such an expression of our exquisite culture and values... I believe you will come through with great generosity, even sacrifice at this time, even with all your personal needs during the Christmas season."

The Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit that tracks hate groups and fights discrimination cases, describes Duke as the “most recognizable figure of the American radical right, a neo-Nazi, longtime Klan leader and now international spokesman for Holocaust denial.”

Supporters see Duke as a political dissident.

“Because the person being persecuted was a pro-White advocate … his arrest has so far been ignored by the mainstream media, and the U.S. government remains quiet about this too,” wrote James Buchanan, who describes himself as an advocate for white civil rights, on the site Whitelaw Towers.

Grounds for Duke's arrest are unclear. The German embassy in Washington, D.C. directed enquiries about Duke to the U.S. embassy in Germany.

In Germany and several other European countries, laws prohibit hate speech that may incite violence against any racial or religious group and speech that denies or minimizes the Holocaust perpetrated under the Nazis. He was arrested in Prague in 2009 on suspicion of denying the Holocaust and promoting the neo-Nazi movement, and expelled from the country hours later. Duke denied the charges, saying he was there to lecture about Israeli control of U.S. foreign policy.

Duke served as grand wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1970s. He gave the organization a make-over — shedding the white robes for business suits and arguing that the organization was “not anti-black” but “pro-white” and pro-Christian.” Duke was elected to the Louisiana Legislature, where he served from 1990-1992 before making an unsuccessful run for U.S. president in 1992.

In 2002, he served 15 months in prison term and paid a fine of $10,000 after being convicted of federal tax fraud.

He now travels regularly to Europe touting his books espousing white separatism and opposition to what he views as Jewish control of media, government and financial institutions.

Click here to follow Kari Huus on Facebook.

 

Updated at 5:15 a.m. ET: Hillary Clinton arrives in Myanmar, becoming the first U.S. secretary of state to visit the country in decades.

YANGON, Myanmar – U Nine Nine has spent 17 of the past 21 years behind bars as a political prisoner, and on the face of it, he would seem to have little reason to be upbeat about Myanmar's recent reforms.

"Time will tell," he told me. "But I'm cautiously optimistic. It is difficult for them to turn back now [from the recent changes]. The next few weeks will be crucial."

After 49 years of totalitarian rule, Myanmar’s military junta is beginning to loosen up.

Just last November, in what was widely condemned as a rigged election, Myanmar's ruling generals exchanged their uniforms for civilian suits. There was little hope for change.   

Yet beginning in October of this year, the government has introduced a series of dizzying changes: The new government led by a former general, Thein Sein, has eased censorship, released political prisoners, introduced a limited right to strike and protest, and started a dialogue with the pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi that has convinced her not only of their good intentions, but also to run for what she had dismissed as a rubber-stamp parliament. 

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is flying in here Wednesday to judge the "Burma Spring" for herself – she is the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit the country in more than 50 years.

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Political party back in action
The recent developments are cause for excitement at Nine Nine’s office. He runs an assistance program for political prisoners and is also in charge of the Yangon division of the National League for Democracy (NLD), the party of pro-democracy leader Suu Kyi, which has just decided to contest elections again.

Suu Kyi, who spent 15 years under house arrest, is now planning to stand in an election before the end of the year.

I met Nine Nine at the bustling office of the NLD, which is close to Yangon's famous Shwedagon Pagoda. He told me that by his calculations around 290 political prisoners have so far been released, but close to 500 remain in jail.

There's a real buzz at the NLD office, but they are quick to remind you that they won the last freely contested election, in 1990, by a landslide, only to have the result annulled by the generals. That heralded the beginning of Nine Nine's first stint in prison.

Yet something is stirring in Myanmar, the country formerly known as Burma.

‘Hillary repairs’
Myanmar authorities have thrown the door open to international journalists to cover Clinton’s trip. It's the first time that I have been issued an official visa in 10 years, and while they didn't quite roll out the red carpet, our welcome has been warm.

My guide pointed to the hasty road repairs on the drive in from the airport. "Hillary repairs," he called them. And later, on a visit to the Shwedagon Pagoda, I came across a group of giggling young women scrubbing the floor. "Hillary Clinton is coming," they said.

Along one of the city's many dilapidated streets, I came across a stall heaving with photographs of Suu Kyi and her father, the independence hero Aung San. That would have been a dangerous act of defiance and almost unheard of just a few weeks ago, but no longer. It was clearly still a novelty, though, and I watched as passersby stopped and pointed out the signs to friends. 

An elderly monk stopped me in the street and handed me an old currency note, no longer in circulation, but sporting a picture of Aung San. "For you. A real hero," he told me, before moving off into the crowd. A monk-led uprising four years ago was crushed by the generals.

Local newspapers, which have been carrying prominent stories about Suu Kyi – again unheard of until very recently – were carrying upbeat features Tuesday about the desire for closer relations with the U.S. (and by implication, a little loosening of their dependence on China, which goes down well in Washington these days).  

Real change?
There certainly does seem to be hope here, but many remain wary. Can one of the world's most thuggish regimes really change its stripes so quickly?

Clinton will meet with President Thein Sein on Thursday and will likely push for faster democratic change. She'll meet Suu Kyi on Friday to gauge more fully how Myanmar's pro-democracy leader judges the reforms, and whether an easing of international sanctions might be merited.

Among the former political prisoners released so far is Zarganar, Myanmar's most famous comedian, who got into hot water for poking fun at the generals. He was jailed for criticizing their response to Cyclone Nargis, a 2008 disaster that left 135,000 people dead or missing. 

On his release from prison he reportedly cracked another joke at the expense of the president. This time he got away with it, and is expected to be among those briefing Clinton on Friday about the intentions of the former generals, not known for humor or compassion, but who just might have decided that change and dialogue is the only way forward for impoverished Myanmar.

Despite the turmoil leading up to the vote, Egyptians poured out on the second day of the elections to participate. Many are eager to cast ballots in the country's first free and fair elections in living memory. Watch NBC News’ Ayman Mohyeldin report from Cairo.

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Mohyeldin also sent along some photos of scenes that caught his attention while reporting in Cairo during the elections on Monday and Tuesday:

 

Click to see a complete slideshow of the elections in Egypt.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton embarks on an historic trip to Myanmar (also known as Burma) this week – it will be the first visit by a U.S. secretary of state to the isolated country in more than 50 years. 

Clinton is also scheduled to meet for the first time with Aung San Suu Kyi, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 and has been a political prisoner in Myanmar for 15 of the last 22 years until she was freed last year.

President Barack Obama announced on Nov. 18 that he was sending Clinton to Myanmar saying that he had seen “flickers of progress” in the country which has been governed by military rule for half a century.

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“President Thein Sein and the Burmese Parliament have taken important steps on the path toward reform,” the president said speaking from Bali, Indonesia. “A dialogue between the government and Aung San Suu Kyi has begun. The government has released some political prisoners. Media restrictions have been relaxed. And legislation has been approved that could open the political environment.” Obama also said he had spoken with Suu Kyi and confirmed that she supports American engagement in the region and that she welcomed the visit by Clinton.

Still the trip is a potential foreign policy risk. On the one hand the United States could help Myanmar usher in a new era of open government while loosening China’s influence in the region. But Myanmar still has a long way to go – it currently holds a number of political prisoners, has been heavily criticized for its treatment of minorities and its relationship with North Korea.

U.S. Senator Richard Lugar released a statement saying that Myanmar’s relationship with North Korea should be closely scrutinized. “North Korea is believed to be continuing development of its nuclear, biological and chemical weapons program…over five years ago, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was informed…of Burma’s reported intention to develop nuclear weapons in coordination with North Korea,” Lugar said. For years the United States has imposed a number of sanctions against Myanmar and there is almost no chance that this trip will lead to a loosening of those sanctions.

Clinton has said that she will press Myanmar to enact more reforms and will assess how the United States can help the country move toward democracy.

Clinton’s first stop on her trip will be in Busan, South Korea where she will attend the world’s largest forum on international aid – the fourth High Level Forum on Aid and Effectiveness. The conference will focus on finding more efficient ways to give international aid to developing nations.

Then she will head to Myanmar where she will hold talks with government officials in Myanmar’s capital of Naypyidaw on Thursday and will meet with Suu Kyi on Friday – a moment that will undoubtedly be the highlight of the trip.

Clinton – who called for Suu Kyi’s release when she was first lady – has only spoken to Suu Kyi by telephone but has never met her in person – until now. 

EDINBURG, Texas – While flying an afternoon patrol along the twists and turns of the Rio Grande, Lt. Johnny Prince, a veteran pilot for the Texas Department of Public Safety, spotted something suspicious: "Look here, we got a raft, a raft right here." 

Below him, in the middle of the river which separates Mexico from the United States was a group of men frantically paddling back to the southern riverbank, their attempt to reach the American side thwarted by the helicopter patrol.

Prince said he suspected the men were a team of drug cartel scouts who were planning to search the U.S. side of the river to make sure there were no law enforcement officers nearby.  If they determined the area was clear, he explained, they would then signal others to sneak a load of narcotics across the river in a raft.

Mike Avila, the helicopter's tactical flight officer, said that this was happening near an area nicknamed "Smugglers' Alley," because of all the illicit activity here.  Well-worn trails and a narrowing of the river have made this area a favorite for Mexican drug traffickers.

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‘That car's loaded to the gills’
Earlier that same day, Prince and Avila found themselves flying inland in hot pursuit of two vehicles –a car and a truck –loaded with Mexican marijuana.  As the vehicles sped through city streets on the American side of the river, Avila trained the helicopter’s high-powered camera on the fleeing smugglers and Prince called out their locations by radio to pursuing troopers on the ground.

One of the drivers sped along the wrong side of the road, then he raced through an intersection, almost striking two cars with his pickup truck.  "Oh no, oh no," groaned Prince.  Avila described another close call as the driver raced through a school zone before crashing into a building: "He nearly struck two school buses."

In both cases, the drivers – a man and a woman – were apprehended and troopers seized loads of marijuana from both their vehicles. Even from the sky, the pilots could see that one of the cars was carrying a lot of drug bundles.  "That car's loaded to the gills," said Prince. 

Increased aggression along a ‘porous’ border
For the helicopter teams, chasing smugglers along the Rio Grande in South Texas is virtually a daily occurrence. Pilots say they've seen the Mexican traffickers pushing larger amounts of illicit drugs into the United States over the last few years and have watched them become more menacing toward law enforcement officers and U.S. citizens.

"I've been working along the border for 14 years and in those 14 years I've seen the level of aggression increase exponentially.  The sheer volume of narcotics that's being pumped into our border has risen," said Capt. Stacy Holland, of the Texas Department of Public Safety Aircraft Section.

It's not unusual, Holland said, for smugglers to take only a couple of minutes to move more than a ton of marijuana across the river, up the U.S. side of the riverbank and into a vehicle which then heads north. "Our border is very open, our border is very porous," he said.

The pilots said they are convinced traffickers are much more likely now than they were a few years ago to confront U.S. law enforcement officials.  "We have video of them carrying AK-47's and side arms during these operations and they are not afraid to use them," said Holland. 

While flying in his helicopter, Prince has more than once been eye to eye with smugglers on the ground upset with his presence above.  "I've seen guns pointed at me, long guns.  I've seen rocks thrown at us.  One of the things they do is use sling shots with ball bearings in them," he said.  "A ball bearing with a good slingshot can do damage to this helicopter and that's been done."

Another serious concern is for the safety of Texas troopers and U.S. Border Patrol agents who have to tangle with the traffickers on the ground.  A particularly dangerous scenario involves agents coming upon a large group of smugglers loading a car with illegal drugs on the U.S. side of the Rio Grande. 

"Usually there's only one or two officers that first arrive at the particular vehicle on the river and they are encountering 15 or 20 cartel members," said Prince.  "On the other side, you will see another 10 to 15 cartel members, and if you see them armed they are going to be trying to cover the guys on the U.S. side."

Splashdowns
A highly unusual technique used by Mexican smugglers to elude capture by American authorities involves them driving trucks loaded with drugs into the waters of the Rio Grande.  It happens after Border Patrol agents or Texas troopers spot a drug-laden vehicle on the U.S. side of the river and give chase. 

If the smugglers can't elude their pursuers – either by speeding up or by throwing spikes into the road to flatten the tires of the officers behind they – they will then head back to the same spot along the river where traffickers brought the drugs ashore after floating them across from Mexico.

"If the loads get compromised, they will drive around in the United States, in Texas here, until they get their recovery teams set up on the river, to return the drugs back to Mexico," said Prince. 

The Texas Department of Public Safety has shot numerous helicopter videos of Mexican smugglers paddling over to the American side of the river to await the arrival of the truck racing toward them.  When the truck reaches the riverbank, it keeps going – right into the water. 

"Bam! All units, we have a splashdown, a splashdown in the river," a pilot on one of the videos can be heard transmitting on the radio. 

Before the truck sinks, the driver climbs out through the window and the recovery teams move quickly to save as much of the drug load as possible, throwing the tightly-wrapped bales into rafts. 

"Ok, we've got rafts in the river, a bunch of people on the U.S. side; that thing is loaded," said a pilot watching from above in one video.  "Suspects are in the water, trying to unload the vehicle," said another pilot hovering over a different scene.

As soon as the rafts are filled with off-loaded drugs, the smugglers paddle back to the Mexican side of the river where they are safe from arrest by American authorities.  Sometimes, the traffickers are so brazen they will make obscene hand gestures toward U.S. agents watching from across the river, or from above in helicopters.

The agents' only recourse at that moment is to notify Mexican authorities and hope they arrive in time to apprehend the smugglers.  Or, they can hope to catch the loads of drugs next time, when inevitably they are floated back across the Rio Grande during another smuggling attempt – sometimes on the very same day the drugs are recovered after a splashdown.

No end in sight
The pilots who routinely fly along the Rio Grande said they see nothing that would suggest there is any let up in the amount of smuggling along the river.  In fact, they predict increased violence on U.S. soil.

"You get a lot more home invasions, a lot of crook on crook crimes, a lot of kidnappings, the cartels coming over here maybe trying to collect money and then retreating back over to Mexico," said Holland. 

Texas newspapers have reported recently on cartel shoot-outs in Houston and McAllen, the wounding of a deputy, the arrests of alleged cartel leaders in the Rio Grande Valley and the seizure of cartel property in the U.S.—along with the almost daily news of major drug seizures.

Statements by the Obama Administration and by some local officials that the U.S.-Mexican border is safer than ever are derided by many of the pilots.

"Our citizens in our border towns are caught in the crossfire, and I mean that in the most literal sense sometimes," said Holland.  "It's important that our citizens, not only in the state (of Texas), but in the United States are aware of how porous our border is and what the threats are, and could be."

More coverage from Mark Potter: Along Mexican border, US ranchers say they live in fear

See more of Mark Potter's reporting on NBC's Nightly News with Brian Williams Tuesday evening.

LONDON – Since joining the NBC News team, my job has brought me to razor's edge of history on all corners of the earth. It has been a privilege to be a part of this year's coverage in Afghanistan, Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, Kenya and elsewhere.

If you aren't a journalist, you may think it's crazy that anyone would want to take the risk to work in these places. But the vast majority of international correspondents and producers feel very fortunate to go...and eventually, we get to come back. We put our flak jackets in the closet and slip into the familiar freedom of our homelands.

But for an extraordinary band of journalists around the world, there is no ticket out. For them, home is also hell. They live where the stories of war, revolution and upheaval are unfolding. They live in fear. They stare down the horrors of kidnapping, imprisonment, torture from their own governments, drug lords and terrorists. They bury colleagues. They literally risk everything, all the time, in order to report the news.

Each year, the Committee to Protect Journalists honors a select few for their courage, conviction and resolve. On behalf of NBC, a major supporter of CPJ, I produced the profile videos of this year's International Press Freedom Award recipients. Chances are, until now, you haven't heard of these people. They don't have egos or seek fame in return for their sacrifices. They are noble warriors of truth who quietly work in the shadows of death.

Please allow me to introduce you to the most humble collection of bad asses I've ever met.

Javier Valdez Cárdenas, Founder of Ríodoce, Mexico  

 

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 Mansoor al-Jamri, Co-Founder of Al-Wasat, Bahrain  

Natalya Radina, Editor In Chief, Charter 97, Belarus

Umar Cheema, Reporter for The News International, Pakistan

 

By Ian Williams, NBC News Correspondent

BEIJING – The first time I met Andre Kajlich he was dodging Beijing traffic – in a racing wheelchair.  

"Oh yeah, it was good out there," he told me, a huge smile on his face. "You should have seen the look I got from the bus driver."

Kajlich had traveled from his Seattle home to the Chinese capital to take part in the world championship of one of the world's most demanding sports – the paratriathlon. And taking his wheelchair for a spin on the highway was just one of his ways of tuning up.

Kajlich is a double amputee. When he lost his legs in a subway accident eight years ago, doctors doubted he would ever walk again – even with prosthetics. But he was determined to prove them wrong.

"No matter what, I was going to do everything I could do," he said. And entering the grueling world of the triathlon is just his latest challenge, winning a place in the Beijing contest after just one year in the sport.

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"It gives you perspective on what you are capable of, really of what everybody's capable of," he told me. "You can choose what you want to do, and once you make up your mind you are going to get there no matter what it takes."

Inspiring others
It's an inspirational message he's been taking to other young American amputees. He and his sister Bianca, an actress,  are counselors at the annual Paddy Rosebach youth camp, a summer gathering for 10- to 17-year-old amputees, which was held this year in Clarksville, Ohio.

"I try to get them to look at their goals and to focus on those and to make up their minds, make the same choices I did, that you are going to get there no matter what, and try to put the other stuff aside."

And he told me that he in turn had found the young amputees a huge inspiration as he prepared for Beijing.

The triathlon took place around (and in) the Ming Tombs Reservoir at the foot of the mountains that rise to the north of Beijing. It had been the triathlon venue during the 2008 Olympics.

There were nine contestants in Kajlich's category. "It's going to take a special effort from me," he said.

The first part of the race was a half-mile swim that left him in fourth place, followed by a quick change to his hand bike, where he made up a further place over the twelve mile course. The final three miles were in racing wheelchairs, where Kajlich clawed back another place - finishing second. It was a silver medal for the paratriathlon rookie.

His smile after the race was broader than ever: "How about that? Dude, I was just knocking them down."

A celeb on the Great Wall
On his last day in Beijing we traveled with Kajlich to the Great Wall of China, where he was determined to climb amid the holiday crowds along some of the steep sections that are tough enough at the best of times.

But it didn't surprise me by then. This is one very determined young man, and he became an instant celebrity. At one point, people were lining up to shake his hand and have their photographs taken with him.

There is a tendency in China for people to stare at those who are different. Kajlich was wearing shorts, his prosthetic legs clearly showing. I asked him whether all the attention bothered him. Not at all, he said.

"They're nice about it. They're not poking fun at me or anything,” he said.

Then came another request for a photo. "Send me a copy," he said. "Maybe one day I'll see you in Seattle."

At this point I was getting a bit worried about how far we'd come and suggested we make our way back. I was afraid he might be getting tired, but he wasn't through yet.

"One of the reason I made up my mind to use the prosthetics was to get around in places like this," he said.

We did take a break though, because by then I was the one wanting to pause for breath. I asked him what he planned next. Maybe skiing, maybe bobsledding, he said. "There are so many things I'd like to get out there and try and do. I'll do them. I'll figure a way."

As if to stress that point, he'd gone on after Beijing to Kona, Hawaii to compete in the Ironman World Championships, where he beat his own time goals, and came second in his division.

"I've made it through my first Ironman," he told me in an e-mail. "And did pretty well."

And having spent some time with Kajlich I wouldn't have expected anything less.

CAIRO, Egypt — An American filmmaker and journalist told Friday how she was arrested and accused of throwing Molotov cocktails by the Egyptian security forces as she fled from clouds of tear gas.

Jehane Noujaim, an award-winning filmmaker best-known for her al-Jazeera TV documentary "Control Room," was seized by security forces while documenting clashes in Cairo's Tahrir Square.

She was detained in the city's Tora prison for 36 hours without a phone and her camera was confiscated, Noujaim said in an interview with NBC News.

Noujaim, who is of Egyptian descent, was not physically harmed during her detention — in contrast to fellow American-Egyptian activist Mona Eltahawy, who told msnbc.com on Thursday that riot police beat her, sexually assaulted her and dragged her by her hair.

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She was near Tahrir Square on Wednesday evening to record events because she has been making a film over the past 10 months about the country's revolution and the role of activists in the now-famous street.

"With tear gas everywhere, myself and my crew got separated from each other. I was just trying to basically get out of the area because the tear gas is incredibly strong," she said.

• Egypt protesters stage 'last chance' freedom march

"I ran into then one military guy ... my camera got taken, my eyepiece got broken by him, he called me a spy; whereas the rest of the military had been very helpful in getting us out of the situation, this particular military guy was absolutely not," she said.

Noujaim said it was many hours after her arrest before she was told the reason she had been detained.

"My charge was throwing Molotov cocktails and destroying public property," she said. "If I throw a rock I'd hit the back of the head of the protester in front of me ... that claim was so ridiculous, yet I was in prison for 36 hours because of it."

"If that happens to me, imagine what happens to a kid who gets picked up off the street who doesn't have all of these connections," she added.

"We were taken to Tora prison in one of these big blue trucks driven there and back again. Our phones were gone at this point so we weren't able to contact anybody," she said.

Hope for future
Despite her ordeal, Noujaim spoke of her belief that Egypt would soon have "systems of law" in place.

"These changes take time and I don't want to put this gigantic blame on the poor kids in the police or the poor kids in the army," she said.

"My hope is that ... people all around Egypt will soon be able to have systems of law in place, which really do protect their rights because before human rights are dealt with, before these systems of law are in place, it's very difficult to talk about democracy and politics and who one should vote for," she said.

Noujaim said the experience of being involved in the Tahrir Square protests was "indescribable."

"I don't want to say that Tahrir represents the entire country, but it does represent the hopes and the dreams of so many people in the country," she said.

"What does it accomplish, it's people out there saying that things still need to change and it's a beautiful incredible energy when you're there and you're listening to people that are willing to do whatever it takes to change the mentality and to change the systems in the country."

Edited by msnbc.com's Alastair Jamieson

Updated at 11 a.m. ET

An Egyptian-American columnist and activist told msnbc.com Thursday that she was sexually assaulted and beaten by police after being arrested in Cairo.

Speaking after her release following hours of questioning, Mona Eltahawy said her right hand and left arm were broken on Wednesday night by riot police who dragged her by the hair and groped her between the legs.

"They acted like animals," she told msnbc.com in a telephone interview. "I was filming the protests with my camera phone on Mohammed Mahmoud Street when they surrounded me and pulled me away."

Eltahawy posted on her Twitter account that her right hand was "so swollen I can't close it."

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She posted a picture of her hand and tweeted that she was being taken to hospital.

She alleged at least one officer stuck his hand down her jeans, adding: "I managed to stop him before he touched my genitals. They touched me all over, groped every part of my body and called me names, called me a whore."

The claims by the Egyptian-born activist, who holds dual citizenship, could not immediately be verified.

She told msnbc.com she had been held for several hours being questioned by the Interior Ministry and Military Intelligence officials before being released early on Thursday.

"I think when they realised I had dual citizenship they were aware they had to be more careful," she said. "Eventually they apologized for the police behaviour and sent me home in a taxi."

"They even gave me 50 [Egyptian] pounds for the fare. The journey was only 18 pounds but I gave the driver the whole lot because I just wanted nothing to do with their money," she added.

Earlier she had posted on Twitter: "The dogs of the CSF (Central Security Force) subjected me to the worst sexual assault ever."

The latest news on protests in Egypt

According to her blog, Eltahawy spoke in May at the Oslo Freedom Forum about the power of censorship.

Camera seized
An American filmmaker and journalist, Jehane Nojaim, was also arrested by Egyptian police while documenting clashes in Tahrir Square, she told a colleague, Karim Amer, by phone.

Nojaim is an award-winning filmmaker of Egyptian ancestry who is best-known for her Al-Jazeera TV documentary "Control Room."

Amer said Nojaim was detained and her camera was confiscated. Amer said he was separated from her after they both fled from tear gas being fired by authorities.

The U.S. Department of State tweeted early Thursday that it was aware of the reports that Nojaim and Elthawy had been arrested and said the U.S. Embassy in Cairo was "engaging authorities." 

By Ian Johnston and Alastair Jamieson at msnbc.com, NBC news and the Associated Press

BEIJING – Just as the “Tiger Mom” controversy started simmering down in China, the “Wolf Daddy,” a self-proclaimed expert on strict parenting, is sparking a new round of fervent discussion on child-raising methodologies among anxious Chinese parents.

The “Wolf Daddy” is actually Xiao Baiyou, a 47-year-old Chinese businessman who deals in real estate and luxury goods. This past June, he published a book on parenting that featured an eye-catching photo on the cover of a graduation cap with a wooden ruler underneath, a device commonly used by old-time Chinese teachers and parents to spank their children when they misbehaved.

The message was clear and straightforward: Children need to be disciplined, ruthlessly. His favored method is the rattan cane, which his own mother used on him.

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Strict rules
Reasons for spanking vary from sneaking visits with friends to lying to diminishing academic achievement. In the book, Xiao recounts a time when Xiao Jun, his eldest daughter, could not complete a new song on her piano. Her calf was spanked 10 times while others watched, including her mom, who applied medicine on her bloody bruises afterwards.

Xiao lays out his spanking instructions in the book:
Before the kids go to junior high school, spank them every time they make mistakes, but greatly reduce the frequency after junior high since the children form their own personalities by that age;
The spanking tool is confined to the rattan cane only, which causes minor bruises;
Only hands and calves are spanked, other body parts are spared;
Mistakes are pointed out every time before the whack so children know why they are punished;
Sisters and brothers must watch when one of them is smacked so they learn;
The punished one has to count the number of spanking during each admonishment;
The punished one cannot try to avoid the punishment, otherwise he/she gets more.

Unlike many of his fellow citizens who are only allowed to have one child, Xiao has four children. Two of them were born in Hong Kong and two in the U.S., following a new trend in which middle-class Chinese citizens have children overseas to avoid the one-child family planning policy. Xiao originally had hoped for six children, but stopped at four when his company tumbled into financial problems.

“I persist on my own belief that has never changed: I use the oldest, the most traditional methods to educate my children,” writes Xiao in his 200-plus-page book.

Xiao’s list of banned activities is no shorter than those of the “Tiger Mom,” Amy Chua:

No TV, except a limited amount of news and cartoons (teen soap opera dramas are absolutely prohibited);
No unmonitored Internet surfing;
No Coca-Cola (but tea is allowed);
No opening the refrigerator (so no unscheduled snacks);
No air-conditioning, to train the spirit of tenacity (ouch, summer in Guangzhou is brutally humid and hot);
No visiting friends unless a written application is filled out, providing information on the friend’s academic grades and their parents’ names and phone numbers;
No pocket money at all;
And written self-criticism when mistakes are made.

Social life is severely controlled by the Wolf Father. Traveling is strictly monitored in case “bad influences” affect the kids’ academic grades. Once, when Xiao Baiyou sensed his son’s classmates were “bad boys” and the school didn’t respond to his request to separate them, Xiao made a quick decision to move and forbad his son to contact any of his former classmates. Dating is utterly out of the question, but Xiao told NBC News in a recent phone interview that he told his kids once they were enrolled at Peking University to “go find your true love now!”

Extra curriculum activities are considered frivolous. Xiao forced his son to give up basketball because it was taking up too much time.

Outraged reaction  
Xiao got widespread attention after he registered with China’s Twitter-like micro blogging site Weibo under the name of “China Wolf Father” three months ago.

The Weibo account, with its short introduction, says “one scolding every day sends your children to Peking University,” one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in China, and it quickly attracted over 2,400 followers. His book is called, “Therefore, Peking University Brothers and Sisters,” and it has sold over 20,000 copies. If you search “Wolf Daddy” on China’s local search engine Baidu, you get over 1 million results.

But the attention he’s gotten doesn’t mean every Chinese parent believes his is the best parenting approach. In a recent online chat with chinanews.com, many readers left disapproving or even angry comments. One reader called “og_wfny” said, “you are building your vanity on your children’s pain.”

Shi Shusi, an editor at a national newspaper “Worker’s Daily,” commented: “Wolf daddy can only train wolf cubs. This story has nothing to do with human beings.”

Xiao argues that all those critical voices are from the people who either do not have parenting experience or do not truly understand him. He’s extremely proud of his three children who got into Peking University, but denies that was his ultimate goal (the fourth is still in high school).

“This is only a goal during their study times, a finishing point of their high school, but a beginning to new life. Their ultimate goal is to bring glory to my family, and I believe they will achieve that goal by being decent, capable, healthy and honest people,” Xiao told NBC News.

Without a doubt, Xiao’s four children are impressive: the son is a chess pro and loves Chinese ink painting, the eldest daughter is good at writing and plays piano, the second daughter is a calligraphy master and the third daughter is a professional guzheng (a traditional 21-stringed musical instrument) player.

NBC News tried to interview Xiao’s children but was told they do not wish to be disturbed while they are focusing on their college studies.

Xiao Yao, the son, said in the book that he believes he and his sisters have “much stronger self-control” than other children thanks to their father’s strict parenting. 

But the boy also wrote about his self-pity in another article included in the book: “Although daddy’s parenting gave us many traits other children don’t have, there are regrets in my childhood. I remember one summer some relatives came to visit and we children jumped and laughed on the bed, I was so happy. This only happened once in my childhood and it will never happen again. That was the only moment I thought childhood could actually be worry-free! I wish I had a few more such moments!”

When asked if he ever has any regrets in his parenting, Xiao Baiyou said “no” without any hesitation. But he said he regrets not buying his wife a ring or flowers after they got married. He says his wife, who he calls “the queen” in the family, never used make-up after she married Xiao, since every penny was spent on their children’s education, like expensive piano classes.

Xiao does has one question that he wishes could reach the president of the United States: “Dear Mr. Obama, I’m really curious to know, were you spanked when you were a child?”

BEIJING – Many readers wrote in after our chat with artist/activist Ai Weiwei with more questions about the structure of the event and how it worked. I’ll do my best to answer those questions and to give a little more background about what went on inside Ai’s house.

Q. How was Ai Weiwei allowed to do this chat if he’s under house arrest?
A: Ai Weiwei is not under house arrest; he is allowed to travel freely in Beijing, but is unable to leave the city without permission from the government. He is also free to bring guests and co-workers to his Beijing studio, which was the site of the live chat and has been a hive of activity the last few times we’ve come to visit him there.

As for why he was able to do this chat, Ai perhaps said it best during the live chat: “I’m not talking to press, I’m talking to people.” 

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Q: What were the Chinese saying about the chat?
A: None of the Chinese state media organizations appeared to report on the live chat. Ai’s name has been blocked on China’s twitter-like service, Weibo, so there was no obvious discussion of the live chat on there either.

Q. Why didn’t my question for Ai show up on the chat screen? Did he read my question?
A: Thousands of people from all over the world left questions for Ai to answer – he managed to get through 16 in a little over an hour. Had we put all the comments up inside the main chat box it would have been difficult for many of our readers to find Ai’s answers among all the questions, comments and criticisms – yes, there was a great deal of the latter in both English and Chinese – left by readers.

While I served as moderator of the event, controlling what showed up on the chat screen and what didn’t, Ai ultimately selected the questions he wished to answer. There were several reasons for this, but it was primarily for us a question of safety for Ai.

While he is free to talk to the public, the reality is that he is still faces serious legal charges for tax evasion and his colleagues are under investigation for pornography. Certain questions that pried deeper into those matters could potentially have brought him further legal trouble from China’s court system.

Similarly, questions that touched on big sensitive subjects like Tiananmen Square, Tibet and Taiwan – the “Three T’s” as they are known among the journalist community here – were likely avoided by Ai as they have already been discussed so much previously and would only have inflamed what is an already tenuous relationship with the Communist government.

Ai initially was happy to listen to the questions read to him as they came in, but as readers began to flood the chat with questions and comments, he increasingly began to spend much of the time standing beside me reading the live feed and sometimes answering questions under his breath as my colleague gamely tried to keep up with him on the keyboard.

In fact, his answer, “I’m not talking to press, I’m talking to people,” came as we were preparing another one of his answers, so we had to track back through the trove of questions to find the one he had answered off the cuff.   

Q. Did Ai Weiwei really call the Occupy Wall Street movement “primitive” and “hopeless?”

A: This answer was slightly taken out of context by some commentators both in the chat and later in media reports on the event. His answer to a question about his impressions of the Occupy Wall Street movement is below:

9:27  Ai Weiwei:
First I didn’t pay enough attention, but as much as I have to say, I can certainly recognize the need to express the feeling of the people who have suffered from this Walstreet power, that kind of distrust, and misconduct from the Walstreet in many respects. But as a movement it’s a still in a very primitive form, and you can see the kind of hopeless struggle because it seems to have no structure to get the message across, or even let people know what kind of message that is. Or it has become lacking of content or successfully express its own purposes during the development. It’s lack of means to really create changes.

Ai’s intent here was not to call out the entire movement out as hopeless, but to note that from his view, Occupy Wall Street is still in its nascent stages and that it needs structure and cohesiveness to truly become an effective vehicle for meaningful social change.

As Ai noted later, coverage of Occupy Wall Street in the local Chinese media has been stilted. While coverage of Americans camping out to protest Wall Street excess initially drew gleeful editorials from some nationalistic newspapers here in China, censors tempered coverage when officials saw the movement spread to Asia, sparking concern that similar events could be staged on the mainland as well. With largely only official Chinese state media reports and scattered Western sources available, most citizens here are limited in their exposure to coverage of Occupy Wall Street.

As for Ai himself, with so much already going on in his life this year, it’s understandable that he hasn’t made the Occupy Wall Street movement a bigger priority in his life right now.

However, that isn’t to say that he doesn’t empathize with the general sentiment. As he said in his response to an angry reader comment about his answer above: “If I was in N.Y., I’d be a part of it [Occupy Wall Street].”

Q. What was up with the cats?
A: One of the first things you notice when you go to Ai’s studio is how animal friendly the place is. Cats lazily sun themselves out in the courtyard, stalk employees and visitors alike and generally roam freely. Joining them is a rotund cocker spaniel named Daniel who often holds court near Ai’s feet clad in an orange knit sweater.

The night of the live chat was very windy in Beijing and animals and humans alike were scurrying throughout the courtyard to escape the biting cold. Those cats that managed to get in during the live chat generally observed quietly from a distance, but a few of the more adventurous ones decided this was a fine time to curl into laps, walk over laptops and look gamely at the tangerines Ai was eating throughout the talk.

Ai had just finished giving an answer to a question and was busy reading through the live feed of questions when we heard a rattle and then the door suddenly flung wide open followed by two cats and a flurry of leaves flying in.

The howl of the wind and the sudden slam of the door gave some of us quite a start, since for half a second we weren’t sure if it was the Beijing police bringing an unceremonious end to the live chat.

But Ai didn’t bat an eye, “That cat is the smart one, he figured the door out a while ago.”

The cat’s ingenuity and contribution to the chat deserved a mention, but definitely better grammar. Rest assured readers, the bear/bare mistake was embarrassedly noticed by me the moment I hit enter. I promise it won’t happen again.

Q. Will Ai do another one of these live chats again soon?
A: Someone close to Ai once described him as a “social media junkie.” During this live chat, Ai seemed energized by the waves of questions readers sent him and eager to tackle them as best he could.

We here at Behind the Wall thank you for the great questions and comments you sent yesterday and hope that we can make this happen again soon.

Click here to read the complete chat

BANGKOK, Thailand – One of the most striking things about the Thai floods is the sheer ingenuity people have shown to simply get around.

I've seen all manner of aquatic contraptions, from rafts made from empty drinking water bottles to crafts fashioned from larger plastic drums, with a bicycle mounted on the deck driving a home-made propeller through the increasingly fetid waters.

Thailand's National Science and Technology Development Agency even ran a competition called "Mobility in the Time of Flood," which attracted 89 entries and was won by another bicycle-driven raft cobbled together by a bunch of students. The Bangkok Post devoted most of its back page to the contest Tuesday under the headline "Amateur Inventors to the rescue.”

It provided a note of humor amid increasingly angry recriminations over who's to blame for a deluge that's swamped a third of the country and killed more than 600 people. The floods have also affected some 10,000 factories, and hit the global supply chain for automotive parts and hard disk drives.

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Nearly half a million workers have been affected. Japanese-owned factories are particularly badly hit, and the government fears that many will curtail future investment plans. Japan is the largest foreign investor in Thailand.

The clean-up and recovery will cost billions of dollars, and shave an estimated 2.5 percent off economic growth.

The good news is that the floodwaters are receding to the north of the city. In Bangkok, the authorities say the eastern suburbs should be dry within a week or so, though it could be the new year before the water drains from western areas.

Don Muang airport and its surrounding areas still resemble a lake. The airport is only home to a couple of low-cost carriers these days, most flights now departing from a new airport, but it’s still a remarkable sight.

Blame game begins
Of course, few people now trust the predictions of the authorities, which have changed constantly, with officials frequently contradicting each other from day to day.

National government officials are in a constant sparring match with their city authorities, and, of course, rival political camps are accusing each other of mismanagement.

There's anger in the outer suburbs, where many believe they were sacrificed to keep downtown Bangkok dry. Angry residents have even ripped down dikes in some areas to allow the floodwaters to shift.

Some blame irrigation officials for failing to release water from up-country dams earlier in the year.

Deputy Prime Minister Kittiratt Na-Ranong had a simpler explanation in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires. It was unfair to accuse the government of mismanagement, he said. "This has to be the result of climate change and global warming."

Well, up to a point, Mr. Kittiratt.

Many reports have suggested that low-lying Bangkok is vulnerable to rising sea levels, and, yes, Thailand had heavy rain this year – roughly 25 percent more than normal by some estimates.

But the great flood of 2011 was a largely manmade disaster.

The country has seen years of mindless development, much of it on what has historically been a flood plain to the north of the capital. Paddy fields have been paved over with concrete to make way for vast industrial estates and urban sprawl. Natural drainage routes have been blocked.

In the city, too, a once massive network of klongs (canals), the city's drainage system, has been replaced by roads; housing developments sit where water used to flow.

That so many people and businesses were in harm's way in areas that are historically vulnerable to floods, with the waters left with nowhere to go, is the result of decisions taken over the years by short-sighted and often venal politicians. To blame it all on climate change is an enormous cop-out.

Photoblog: Thais adjust to life in waist-deep water 

 

BEIJING – Since the 1970s, Ai Weiwei has been at the forefront of China’s experimental art scene which has blossomed over the years alongside the country’s economic standing. The 54-year-old’s work on the Bird’s Nest Olympic stadium in Beijing, as well as high profile exhibits like the October 2010 installation project, Sunflower Seeds, in which Ai commissioned 100 million handcrafted porcelain “seeds” that were then poured into a room at the Tate Modern Gallery in London, have captivated audiences worldwide.

Such high-profile projects have gained Ai international acclaim in the artistic world, but it has been his transformation into social activist and outspoken critic of China’s authoritarian regime that has turned him into a global icon.

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This year, Ai has been a fixture in the news as he diligently worked to document the flurry of arrests of Chinese activists, lawyers and writers by the government following the wave of popular uprisings that erupted throughout the Middle East. Ai himself was detained in April 2011 and was held without formal charge by Chinese security for 81 days. He was released following what the government claims was a confession by Ai to charges of tax evasion.  

Ai Weiwei now finds himself fighting legal charges that include tax evasion and even pornography. In both cases, Ai’s supporters in China have rallied to his side by lending $1.4 million to the artist to pay a legal guarantee that will allow him to contest the tax charges and posting their own “pornographic” pictures online in protest. (See a slideshow of Ai Weiwei's art).

Speaking recently about the charges, Ai told reporters, “We must follow the legal procedure. As any individual citizen, my innocence is linked with the country’s innocence.”

Ai Weiwei answered reader questions earlier today. Both the questions and answers were provocative and interesting. Click on the link below to replay the chat.  

 

YINGJING, SICHUAN—The panda was always one of my favorite animals.

Until I found myself slipping and sliding down a steep muddy mountain slope in southwestern Sichuan, looking for panda poop.

To be precise, someone else was searching. 

My colleagues and I were just attempting to keep up with him on what was easily one of the more physically grueling NBC News assignments we’d all been on in years.

Li Guiren, a fleet-footed 36-year old Sichuan native who works at the Chinese Forestry Department, was hiking through the mud, following coordinates on his bright yellow GPS device.  He’s one of 70 “trackers” working in Sichuan to count pandas in the wild—which they do by collecting panda droppings.  (More on that in a moment.)

China kicked off its panda census last month.  It’s the fourth one since the 1970s, when they instituted the practice to keep tabs on the worldwide panda bear count every 10 years.

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The wild panda is only found in China, across parts of three provinces of Sichuan, Gansu, and Shaanxi, covering 5,400 square miles.  Or the size of Connecticut.

The bears like being high up, usually somewhere between 4,000 and 11,500 square feet above sea level in mountain forests with a damp climate.

The last census revealed only 1,596 wild pandas existed with 290 pandas in captivity around the world.

“About 70 to 80 percent [of all the pandas in the world] live in Sichuan,” said Huang Zhi of the Bifengxia Panda Breeding Center in Ya’an, Sichuan.  “Sichuan also has the highest number of wild pandas.”

Trackers in the field
Sichuan is also where the two-year panda census project has launched.  Smaller teams in Gansu and Shaanxi will begin working in the field next year.

Early in the morning, a group of twenty men suited up in wet-weather clothes and thin boots.  They reviewed their cartographic materials and compared notes one last time before setting off.  Each one carried the same bright yellow GPS device Li was toting.

Li, who took part in the last panda census, said new technology has had a huge impact on their work.  “We can get a lot more done more quickly,” he said, with the GPS device shaving the amount of time in the field down by about 30 percent.

Each tracker is assigned a near-vertical tract of land to explore.  On average, they cover 1.2 to 1.5 square miles a day, looking for panda droppings.  (A typical male panda roams in a territory about 3.3 square miles whereas a female confines herself to 1.8 square miles.)  Li found a pile that looked like it had been produced within the past three days, which he bagged and brought back to base camp for analysis.

“We take a sample for DNA testing,” he said as he prepared the panda waste.  “The DNA test demands fresh feces not more than four days old.  This is very fresh.”

But DNA testing isn’t foolproof so Li and his colleagues also measured the undigested bamboo scraps to help identify the pandas individually.  “We measure the width of the teeth marks,” he explained.  Each bear has an individual bite with differing teeth sizes.

Habitat challenges
While in the panda’s natural habitat, the research teams also take detailed notes of the conditions and its geology. 

“What people normally care about is the number of the pandas,” said Gu Xiaodong, a scientist with the Sichuan branch of the Wildlife Survey Conservation and Management in the Forestry Department.  “We care more about the quality of their habitat.”

With the data the trackers are collecting, the scientists will be able to analyze changes to the habitat and "draw up more effective conservation policies," continued Gu.  “For example, last time we found pandas in locations between the reserves we had established,” he said.  “So we had to set up more reserves to protect these pandas.”

Researchers also hope to have more detailed information about the impact of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, which measured 7.9 (by the U.S. Geological Survey) and devastated the famed Wolong Giant Panda Reserve Center, one of the earliest research bases set up by the Chinese government in the early 1980s. 

But humans remain the biggest threat to the survival of wild pandas.

With more than 80 million people, Sichuan is one of China’s more densely populated provinces.  In recent years, it has seen large inflows of government investment and is rapidly urbanizing.  Scientists have cited roads and high-speed railways as a major hazard encroaching on the panda’s natural habitat in the mountains.

But mining is also a problem.  The day we trudged up the mountain with Li and Gu, we passed a couple of mines—one of them lead, whose run-off cast an unhealthy gray tinge to the river.  Loud explosions went off even during our hike, unsettling us as much as the pandas.

“The place where we are doing research now, it’s always been a traffic-intensive area with a lot of human activity,” said Gu.  “The pandas here probably choose to go higher.”

But they still sometimes descend into human territory, especially if it means getting something to eat other than bamboo plants. While the giant panda's diet consists mostly of bamboo, they do have the digestive system of carnivores. 

Gu confirmed that local farmers have regularly complained about pandas raiding their livestock.  “One farmer has his goats eaten by pandas every year,” recalled Gu, who said the Forestry Department offers compensation in such instances.

Mating challenges
Mating habits are also a challenge, particularly for pandas in captivity.

Female pandas are only in heat for three days a year.  The window for conceiving is very narrow—from 12 to 24 hours during those 72 hours.

Pandas in the wild don’t generally have a problem reproducing, said Huang from the breeding center.  But those in captivity usually need a bit of help—whether through artificial insemination or even the famed panda porn method.

Despite the success in breeding the cuddly animals in captivity, there’s been none so far in re-introducing fully domesticated pandas into the wild.

Nonetheless, researchers say they think breeding programs and conservation efforts have worked to keep the panda from advancing any closer to extinction.

“We really hope once the census is done, we’ll find more pandas than we found in the last census,” said Li.  “That will mean what we’ve been doing has made progress.”

And if the scientists are right, that will make at least one civilian very happy.

A man by the name of An Yanshi in Sichuan is collecting panda poop by the bucket-loads to make tea—with curative properties.

“Pandas have a very poor digestive system and only absorb about 30 percent of everything they eat,” An has been quoted as saying.  “That means their excrement is rich in fibres and nutrients.”

He plans to market the tea as the world’s most expensive—at $36,000 a poop.  A pop.  A pound.