By Ayman Mohyeldin, NBC News
CAIRO -- The trial of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, his two sons, the former minister of interior and six senior security officials resumed in a Cairo court on Wednesday after nearly a three-month recess.

Egyptian TV showed 83-year-old Mubarak, covered by a green blanket and lying on a hospital gurney as he was brought from a helicopter and taken to an ambulance for the short ride to the courthouse.

The men are all facing murder charges for ordering security forces to kill demonstrators while trying to suppress an 18-day popular uprising against the 30-year rule of Mubarak that began on Jan 25, 2011.

The trial was in recess for close to three months because a separate petition had been filed to replace the presiding judge. That petition was not granted and the same judge will continue to preside over the trial.

On Wednesday, defense attorneys asked the judge to call senior members of the intelligence services and other branches of Egypt's Armed Forces who were serving during the revolution and since then to testify.

The defense is arguing the security forces were acting within the law to contain the uprising but were never given specific orders to "kill" demonstrators.

Nile TV via AFP - Getty Images

A still image taken from Egypt's Nile TV shows Hosni Mubarak being wheeled on a hospital stretcher into court for the resumption of his trial on Wednesday.

So far, the most critical testimony of the trial has come from Field Marshall Mohammed Hussien Tantawi, the Commander of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, the ruling military council. His testimony has been sealed for security reasons. The defense has also requested the judge hear the testimony of SCAF second-in-command Field Marshall Sami Annan, Chief-of-Staff of the Armed Forces.

The defense believes the two men and other senior officials will testify that they were never given orders by the former president to kill protestors.

The trial has been adjourned until Monday, Jan. 2.

Journalist are allowed to attend the trial under very strict rules as to what they can publish. Egyptian State TV, which was originally allowed to broadcast the trial, has since been barred from broadcasting the trial live.

Revolutionary groups have had a long-standing demand that Mubarak and his aides stand trial for the killing of protestors. The delay in the start of trial and it's lack of transparency has led many to criticize the SCAF that it was never serious about bringing the former president to justice.

Adrienne Mong

All was quiet on the Demilitarized Zone on the Korean Peninsula on the Kim Jong Il's state funeral took place.

SEOUL, South Korea — As one journalist put it, it said how much we all knew about North Korea that for the better part of Wednesday morning, most of the world remained in the dark about just when — if at all  — the state funeral for the country's late leader Kim Jong Il had begun. 

But finally around 2 p.m in Seoul, a feed of the funeral proceedings began transmitting. We watched online, impressed by the staging and the direction. 

Thousands of people in olive drab stood under snowfall in front of the Kumsusan Memorial Palace — where Kim Jong Il’s body had been lying in state and where that of his father Kim Il Sung is also housed — as a procession of vehicles drove past, including the hearse led by Kim Jong Il's son and successor, Kim Jong Un.

Under a dramatic soundtrack and the emotion-laden voice of a North Korean broadcaster, the continuous wailing of mourners could be heard. Cameras pushed into close-ups of rows and rows of men and women in military uniform sobbing. 

• PhotoBlog: North Korean heir leads procession

As the procession wound its way through Pyongyang and the snowfall grew heavier, footage of civilians began to appear.  Dressed in thick winter coats, they craned their necks and covered their mouths as they wept.  Those in the front — closest to the cameras —jumped up and down with great emotion.  Occasionally, a row of soldiers appeared expressionless and stoic.

As the video was broadcast — and despite the "live" banner on some cable stations, it was still unclear whether the footage was being transmitted live or had been recorded earlier until one news agency confirmed it was indeed the former.

The mood in Seoul was decidedly different.

'Like father, like son'
Among a small community of North Koreans who fled their homeland years ago, there was scorn for the man they once called their "Dear Leader" and a touch of hope that his death may usher in long-awaited change.

"Kim Jong Il made three million people starve to death," said Kim Jung-geum, a reporter and radio announcer with Free North Korea Radio.  She escaped from the North eight years ago and has been living in Seoul for the past six years.

• Will younger Kim's aunt, uncle be puppet masters?

"Initially I thought, wow, now we can go home. But the feeling didn’t last even a day," said Kim Sung-min, founder of the station —which broadcasts a one-hour shortwave radio program back into the North every day.  

"It is the third generation leadership," said Kim, who defected from North Korea 11 years ago. "Like father, like son.  There is no hope. There is zero per cent chance of change as Kim Jong Un inheried Kim Jong Il's system."

Adrienne Mong

The streets of Seoul suggested it was business as usual in South Korea as Kim Jong Il's state funeral was held.

His colleague was willing to be a bit more optimistic.  "The dictatorship is over," said Kim Jung-geum quietly.  "A new era will begin with 2012.  I expect that."

Both of them, however, did agree on one thing.  They remembered when North Korean founder Kim Il Sung died.

"I was so sad that I skipped two meals," recalled Kim Sung-min, who was serving in the North Korean military in a northern province at the time.  "It was as if the sun had fallen to earth."

• Archival video: Kim Il Sung dies

"I cried for Kim Il Sung," said Kim Jung-geum, who was a propaganda teacher at the time.  "We had a food ration system.  People had salaries then.  So I genuinely grieved for his death."

Among South Koreans there was largely indifference.

A trio of college students said they were initially worried about the possible ramifications of Kim Jong Il’s death.  "But now I feel a lot better," said Lee Kyung-min, more keen on visiting a nearby museum than thinking about regional security. None of them were interested in the funeral proceedings.

"It was big news," said Cho Nam-hyun, a reporter for Dong-A Ilbo. "But personally, I think of it just as a head of state who died."

• Were circumstances of Kim Jong Il's death fabricated?

The indifference doesn't come as a surprise to analysts in South Korea. 

"We've been living under the gun for the past 60 years," said Dr. Hahm Chaibong, president of the Asan Institute for Policy Studies.  "You can’t count the number of crises that we've had over the years.  Be it assassinations, commando raids, downing of airplanes, terrorist bombings, and of course more recently nuclear experiments and shelling of islands."

Hahm also offered a final somber thought.

"By and large everyone has learned a lesson as far as to what to expect," he said.  "Everybody knows that there isn’t all that much to expect in terms of radical change….  If North Korea is going to change, it's not going to because of something we do in the outside world.  They will be the ones who will be undertaking changes because they think it's necessary and because they decide it's time they do it."

Follow NBC News' Adrienne Mong (@adriennemong) on Twitter.

• SLIDESHOW: The life of Kim Jong Il
• SLIDESHOW: Reaction to death of Kim Jong Il
• SLIDESHOW: Journey into North Korea
• Browse more of msnbc.com's North Korea coverage

Paul Goldman / NBC News

Children shoot hoops in Jerusalem as part of the PeacePlayers International program.

By Paul Goldman, NBC News

JERUSALEM -- "Shlomi, throw me the ball."

"Assi, it's your turn, pass and dribble."

"Mahmud, great pass. What a basket."

This might sound like a normal basketball game but it's not. The unique endeavor can be best described as an "oasis of coexistence" in Israel where Jews, Muslims and Christians play not only on the same court but in mixed teams.

In 2001, American brothers Sean and Brendan Tuohey founded PeacePlayers International with the premise that children who play together can learn to live together.

It seemed quite obvious during my visit to practice that the Tuohey brothers were succeeding. Here on the court at the "Hand in Hand" bilingual school in Jerusalem, Israelis and Palestinians were laughing together, hugging each other and, most importantly, shooting the ball together.

"At first the kids and their parents were hesitant with some kids even crying," says Karen Doubilet, who is the PeacePlayers International's Middle East managing director. "But the transition is very fast, now they jump in joy and hug each other when they meet on and off the court."

'They are like me'
After experiencing so much hatred between Israelis and Palestinians, it was refreshing and exciting to see how naturally these kids reacted and played with each other.

Malak Ayub, 12, is a Muslim girl from the East Jerusalem village of Shoafat.

"Before I came to this program I thought Israelis only wanted to do bad things to us but now I see that they are like me, they want to play together," she said.

One of Malak's best friends is Hadas Prawer, a 14-year-old Israeli from the neighborhood of Mevaseret, which is located west of Jerusalem. I asked Hadas what she tells her friends when they hear she plays with Palestinians.

"I don't care what people think or say, I'm having fun and that's it," she said, before turning around and giving Malak a huge hug.

The traditional Hanukkah 'Sufganiyot' -- the Jewish ball-shaped doughnuts -- were waiting on the sidelines as a reward for the kids' hard work. All the children were wearing T-shirts with the US AID logo on the back, indicating the backing by the US.

"Basketball is huge, especially with the girls," Doubilet added. "Most of these kids don’t have a constructive framework and we give them this activity almost for free. The relationships here will no doubt shape the way Israelis and Palestinians think of each other in the future".

About 550 young people aged from six to 18 enrolled in this program in the past year, bridging communities in Israel like Jaffa, Tamra and Jerusalem where Jews and Muslims live next to each other. 

Haled Sabah is a 20-year-old Palestinian from Shoafat. He joined the program seven years ago and is now one of its coaches.

"I see some racism on both sides but when kids play on the same team they just see each other simply as people," he said. 

Adrienne Mong

Dozens of police barricaded a highway entrance ramp in Haimen, where protests broke out on Tuesday.

By Adrienne Mong and Bo Gu

HAIMEN, Guangdong Province—It wouldn’t have been fair or accurate to call it a China Spring, but for a moment it was worth wondering: Was this the beginning of a Guangdong Spring?

Since September, residents in a fishing village called Wukan, in the southern coastal province of Guangdong, had been protesting against their local government over, specifically, illegal land grabs and, more generally, corruption.  This was a town where one man had held sway as the Communist Party chief for four decades.

The situation grew explosive two weekends ago when one of the protest organizers died in police custody, triggering a widespread and cohesive revolt that saw thousands of people run the local officials and police out of town—the first time the Communist Party appeared to have lost total control of a town.

The authorities responded by laying siege on Wukan, preventing food and other supplies from reaching the 20,000-strong population, and censoring all mention of the latest developments in Chinese media or on the Internet.  In turn, the residents welcomed foreign and Hong Kong journalists to cover their plight.

Negotiations between the two sides kicked into high gear even as the situation escalated. The villagers threatened to march to the government offices of a nearby town unless their demands were met, potentially pitting them against thousands of riot and paramilitary police deployed along the main road leading in and out of Wukan.

In the end, cooler tempers prevailed amidst government compromises, but just as the Wukan standoff appeared to ease, reports of more protests nearby surfaced on Tuesday on the Internet.

Suddenly, the province in which its Communist Party head had promoted a “Happy Guangdong” campaign no longer seemed so happy.  At least not in this southeastern coastal corner.

Adrienne Mong

Residents in Haimen say the power plant built in 2009 has dramatically increased pollution and caused a rise in cancer cases.

At least three other pockets of unrest had flared up in districts of a large city near Wukan:  two of the groups were protesting similar examples of illegal land seizures and a third, the largest outbreak of demonstrations, was over government plans to build a coal-fired power plant in Haimen.

Though difficult to confirm, the initial reports described thousands of residents converging on the main local government office and organizing a sit-in on a key highway entrance to protest the development plans.  Local residents were quoted as saying they hoped foreign journalists would cover their story.

Before long, photographs emerged on Sina Weibo and other Chinese microblogs showing large numbers of paramilitary police in riot gear lining up against civilians in Haimen, a large town about 70 miles away from Wukan.  Tear gas was fired and clashes ensued.  Rumors also circulated that at least two boys had been killed in the confrontations; the government denied them.

Protests are not unusual in China.  In fact, according to the most recent official statistics, 2009 saw more than 90,000 “mass incidents,” as the Chinese government calls protests, across the country.  Land grabs and pollution concerns are among the top grievances.

Although the protests in Wukan and Haimen appear unrelated, it seemed a remarkable coincidence that two demonstrations adopting similar tactics would spring up within several dozen miles of one another. 

Heavy-handed police tactics
On Thursday, the streets of Haimen looked like those of any other comparable-sized Chinese town: food stalls, shops, sleepy government buildings, a high school, and a population that relies mostly on motorbikes to get around.

Mid-morning, dozens of those motorbikes were massed near the Haimen highway entrance.  In the distance, scores of black-and blue-uniformed police wearing helmets were standing behind barricades that had been pulled across the toll gate to the highway.

A large gas station on the corner looked open, but was in fact not.  The station's attendants in bright yellow jackets were lazing around, directing traffic to the next station.  The only energy came from a discussion about the power plant taking place among some of motorbike riders.

Adrienne Mong

Dozens of police vehicles, fire engines, and water canon trucks lined the side of a highway running through Haimen.

A short excursion on the highway itself revealed a sizeable police presence.  Police vans lined up against the side, interspersed with ambulances, fire engines, and water cannon trucks.  Dozens of police in riot gear sat on the ground.  Near several other highway entrance ramps, police vehicles could be spotted behind the gates of nearby compounds.

A little over an hour later, the crowd around the main entrance ramp had grown.  Motorbikes whizzed back and forth a couple of hundred feet away from the police barricade.  Many of the riders were young.

Suddenly, a pop rang into the air and a group of young teenagers were scrambling back away from the highway barriers—a plume of smoke rose above them.  The teens had tried to sidle up along the side.  A murmur of “tear gas” arose in the crowd as people began rushing away, covering their faces.  Nostrils burned.

“They don’t have the right to treat people like this,” said a 24-year old local resident who only offered his surname, Li.  “Using tear gas?  It’s wrong.”

Rumors of cancer
A few miles away, a large power plant with two smokestacks sat under the hazy sun.  It was not in operation; local reports said the government had suspended it as well as the plans to build the second plant until further notice. 

Haimen residents called Hongdong — the hamlet of one-storey homes nearest the power plant —“Cancer Village.”  But inside Hongdong, a man working in a local medical clinic denied that cancer patients were on the rise.

Back in front of the highway entrance, a young man named Chen and his two friends on motorbikes watched the police.  They had joined in the protests on Wednesday, because they, too, were angry about the health hazards posed by the power plant.

“The ocean is polluted [because of the run-off from the plant],” said Chen, also 24 years old.  “You can’t fish in it any more.”

He and others in the crowd said the number of cancer cases in Haimen had grown since the power plant was constructed in 2009 and quoted local papers as saying 80 percent of the cancer patients at a major regional hospital came from their township.

Chen said news of the protest had spread by QQ, a popular instant messaging service, until it was blocked on Tuesday evening.  Then they relied on word of mouth.

On the following day, the protesters were demonstrating peacefully, without weapons, said Chen, but the police rushed out from behind the blockade into the crowd and began beating up people—including women. 

Many of the participants on Wednesday, according to residents, were young Chinese.  Several were injured, and countless others arrested—just as was the case on Tuesday.

They had picked the highway entrance, said Chen, because it would attract the greatest attention.  Unlike the existing power plant itself or the land where the second plant has been designated—both of which are removed from the main roads.

Hearing about Wukan
“Were you in Wukan?” was a question that crept up a few times in conversation with Haimen’s residents.  In the past couple of days, Chinese media had begun publishing reports on the dispute next door.  Moreover, many had heard through friends or acquaintances or on the Internet about the months-long confrontation in Wukan.

But no one said Wukan had inspired them to take action. 

“This [environment issue] has been a problem for us for a while,” said Li.

There appears to be another difference between Wukan and Haimen.  Local officials from Haimen have promised to come up with some sort of resolution in five days, according to Chen.  But later on Thursday evening, he said that many more young Chinese had been rounded up and detained.

Damir Sagolj / Reuters, file

A North Korean child suffering from malnutrition rests in a bed in a hospital in Haeju, September 30, 2011

Months before the death of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il, an array of UN food experts and nonprofit groups urged immediate food aid for the isolated north Asian nation. Three groups that investigated conditions in the country described the urgent need for food, reporting “acute malnutrition” among North Korean children, “widespread consumption of grass” and elderly people on “knife edge.”

Despite these dire assessments, and warnings that conditions are worsening, the Obama administration has balked on a decision over food aid for the isolated Asian nation. This week, just as promising talks were under way in Beijing between U.S. and North Korean envoys, the news broke that Kim had died. That change put the question of aid on the back burner again.

“We need to see where (the North Koreans) are and where they go as they move through their transition period,” said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland addressing questions about food aid on Tuesday. “We will obviously need to reengage at the right moment, but… we haven’t made any internal decisions here.”

Some provisions of a food aid deal that was purportedly being discussed in Beijing surfaced in South Korean press reports. The United States would provide 240,000 tons of high-protein biscuits and vitamins — 20,000 tons a month for a year, the reports said – targeting North Korea’s most vulnerable people — pregnant and lactating women, children, and hospital patients. Nuland would not confirm these reports.

The terms that were under discussion, she said, were related to monitoring to ensure the food reached its intended recipients, and “the kinds of food aid that we would consider if the conditions were right and if the right decisions were made.”

Eating bark, grass
Meanwhile, there is substantial evidence of a growing food crisis for millions who live in the countryside, beyond the relative comfort of Pyongyang, researchers and humanitarian groups say.

“What we saw… was extensive chronic malnutrition and cases of acute malnutrition, which is where the person is basically dying,” said David Austin, director of the North Korea program for Mercy Corps., one of five nonprofits dispatched to investigate the situation in February.

“More than 50 percent of people who are reliant on (state-provided grain) were out seeking out alternative food—things like bark, wild grass, and leaves—and mixing it in with food. We found there was no protein or fat in people’s diets.”

The mission was undertaken at the request of the federal government’s humanitarian aid agency, USAID after North Korea called for international food aid in January. Their report and a strong recommendation to proceed with the food aid went to USAID in April.  

When Austin returned to North Korea in September, he says he learned that government grain rations had been cut by more than half to about 150 grams per day.

“That’s basically (the equivalent of) one potato,” he said.

In addition to the report by the U.S. group of nonprofits, two other groups—one made up of UN agencies and a group representing five European nonprofits—came to the same conclusions.

Marcus Noland, senior fellow and Asia expert at Peterson Institute for International Economics, said data support the eye witness reports.

“The price (of grain) is rising rapidly. That’s bad news,” said Noland. “Normally after the fall harvest, there’s plenty of food, so the price goes down, and then it starts spiking in the late spring -- the so-called ‘lean season.’ This year the prices have basically continued rising right through the harvest… because there isn’t enough food in the country.”

The price is also rising on corn, and coal, which used by many North Koreans to heat their homes, he said.

Since last spring, humanitarian groups have been pressing the U.S. government to step in, as it has before, as a major contributor to North Korean aid needs. The last U.S. food handouts ended in March 2009, when North Korea expelled U.S. aid groups that were monitoring the distribution. Shortly afterwards, the North conducted long-range rocket and nuclear tests that prompted tough international sanctions.

Even though Pyongyong politics are opaque and in flux, not everyone agrees with U.S. “wait and see” posture on food.

“As far as we understand, the North Koreans have not withdrawn their request for food aid,” said Austin. “But the U.S. government has continued to delay its decision. We think there is a humanitarian need that must be answered. Children are dying.”

And some observers argue that the transition may present an opportunity to test the waters with Pyongyang’s newly named leader, 27-year-old Kim Jong Un.

“The fiscal price tag for 240,000 tons is not that big, so it seems to me as a conciliatory gesture at the beginning of this new leadership, you have more to gain than lose,” said Noland of the Peterson Institute. “This guy could turn out to be even crazier or more brutal than his father or grandfather…. But it strikes me that given the circumstances the downside risk of moving forward is very low, compared to the ill will from backtracking.”

What officials are not making explicit is how the food aid is linked to concessions from Pyongyang, such as promise to halt its uranium enrichment program or to resume six-party nuclear disarmament talks, which ground to a halt three years ago.

Food for nukes?
From the point of view of humanitarian groups, aid should completely independent of politics.

“We don’t want to see the humanitarian principals linked to things such as giving up nuclear weapons,” said Austin of Mercy Corps. “It undermines the moral authority of both.”

The State Department maintains that U.S. humanitarian assistance should not be politicized, but merely compliment U.S. foreign policy.

So, coincidentally – or not -- when U.S. humanitarian envoys were discussing food aid with the North Koreans in Beijing over the weekend, the U.S. nuclear nonproliferation envoy was also holding talks in the Chinese capital. According to the AP report, sources close to negotiations said the food aid talks with North Korean officials in Beijing “yielded a breakthrough on uranium enrichment.”

Food aid that is dependent on nuclear concessions is not fated to go far in Pyongyang during a leadership transition. North Korea watchers say that the anointed leader, who lacks the stature of his father or grandfather, is likely under immense pressure to prove his bravado to the military establishment, not compromise on defense issues.

The Obama administration has its own politics considerations. Without securing progress on nuclear disarmament, providing aid to North Korea may become bludgeon for Republicans to use against him in an election year.  

“If you were the Obama administration and looking at this situation with the North Koreans," Noland said, "are you going to expend any political capital on these guys? You’ve got other issues... Do you want to take on dealing with North Korea in Congress? The answer is no.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Click here to follow Kari Huus on Facebook.

Related coverage:

• Kim Jong Il's body is put on display
• Will younger Kim's aunt and uncle be North Korea puppet masters?
• NYT: In Kim's death, an extensive intelligence failure
• Mourning in North Korea, worries in South after Kim Jong Il's death
• PhotoBlog: Satellites document North Korea's dark ages
• PhotoBlog: North Koreans mourn the death of Kim Jong Il, the 'Dear Leader'
• Slideshow: The life of Kim Jong Il
• Slideshow: Journey into North Korea

The plight of women in Egyptian society has been well documented over the years. From enduring daily sexual harassment to being marginalized from politics … being a woman in Egypt has been and is tough.

But there was something about the video of soldiers stripping and dragging women in the street and ferociously attacking them that has triggered public outrage here. Even as their bodies lay motionless on the concrete, the soldiers repeatedly beat them over and over …

On Tuesday, Egyptian women fought back and by doing so, pro-democracy activists say, they lifted the spirit of their cause and their country.

Thousands of women took to the streets of downtown Cairo, walking on the same Tahrir streets where days earlier they had been beaten, arrested and dragged.

PhotoBlog: Egyptians rally to protest treatment of women 

They wore black and held signs that read “mourning.” They were protesting abuse by soldiers, not just over the past few days but over the past several months, which included alleged “virginity tests” against female detainees, sexual intimidation and harassment.

The women were from all walks of life. Young and old, Muslim and Christian, rich and poor walked shoulder to shoulder.

Niveen Redha, an Egyptian woman living in Canada and visiting Egypt, joined the march to denounce the military crackdown on protesters and women over the past few weeks.

Others called on people watching the march wind through the streets to join them, shouting, “It could be your sisters and mothers that will be attacked next.”

'True protectors'
As the women marched around central Cairo, men formed a human chain around them, making sure no one could disrupt their march.

On more than one occasion men came up to me and said of the obviously peaceful protesters, “look at these thugs” -- a sarcastic rebuke to the ruling military council, which has tried to paint the pro-democracy protesters as lawless thugs.

One man said the “noble women of Egypt are the true protectors of the revolution” and called on the men of Egypt to “shave their mustaches” – telling someone to shave his mustache is often considered an insult in this patriarchal society.

Images of a veiled woman being beaten and stripped on the street, exposing her upper body down to her bra, have fueled the determination of pro-democracy activists calling on the military council to hand power immediately to a civilian government. The video and the images from Saturday’s crackdown have drawn strong condemnation from the UN and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

"This systematic degradation of Egyptian women dishonors the revolution, disgraces the state and its uniform, and is not worthy of a great people," she said Monday.

Sexual threats
Ghada Kamal was one of the women assaulted on Friday. For three weeks she was part of an “Occupy Cabinet” protest outside the prime minister’s office. The protesters there wanted to prevent the military-appointed prime minister from entering his office. On Friday, the military entered the encampment and attempted to break up the protest.

The 28-year-old pharmacist was dragged away by soldiers who kicked her in the face, groped her and clubbed her head with a baton. While she was in military custody, she said, a soldier taunted her by saying, “We will have a party with you today and show you how much of a man I am.”

Such accounts are common among women who are detained by the military. Human rights organizations also have documented cases of women being given forced virginity tests.

In the face of mounting domestic and international criticism, the military said in a statement Tuesday on the Supreme Council of Armed Forces Facebook page that it apologizes to the women of Egypt and said it had the deepest respect for them and their right to protest and to participate in political life during Egypt's transition to democracy. It added that the military would investigate and hold to account all of those responsible for these violations.

The recent military crackdown has united Egypt’s political forces in demanding a quick transfer of power to a civilian government. The closest thing to a civilian government taking shape in Egypt is the lower house of parliament. Two-thirds of that body has been elected, and the final round of elections is expected in early 2012.

But the military says that until then, it has no plans to concede power.

When Egypt's uprising began 10 months, pro-democracy activists trusted the military would protect the revolution. Now that trust is all but gone.

ITN’s Angus Walker reports from Seoul, South Korea on the death of Kim Jong Il. He speaks with some North Korean defectors in Seoul who are extremely skeptical about the public outpouring of grief north of the border -- calling them "crocodile tears."

One North Korean defector, Son Jeong Hun, explained what happens if people don't cry in public. "If people don't cry in public, then they can be seen as insulting the leadership. It can be regarded as a crime against the state."

Watch the video above.

NBC News

Sadaf Rahimi, in pink, throws a punch with her older sister, Shabnam, in the background on Dec. 17, 2011. They are working out in the Ghazi Stadium in Kabul, Afghanistan.

KABUL – It was known as the stadium of death. Ghazi Stadium was where the Taliban held public executions, stonings and mutilations during their brutal rule of Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001. This once blood-soaked pitch is now a field of dreams. 

The stadium was recently reopened after a U.S.- funded refurbishment and thousands of Afghan athletes gathered to celebrate the event.

It is impossible to forget the dark history of this arena, but Mohammed Sabher Sharifi is determined to move on.  

"There were many people killed, especially women. Now it is for the young generation of sportsmen, especially the females,” Sharifi said Sunday as he pointed toward an Olympic flag which stands next to the Afghan flag and will remain there until the 2012 games.

As a member of the Afghan National Olympic committee and coach of the women's boxing team, Sharifi faces a daunting task. He wants to create a winning team of female boxers.

Every afternoon, in the basement of Ghazi Stadium, in a small, dusty room with battered punch bags and cracked mirrors he oversees 20 teenage girls, as they jump, jog, jab and thrust.

Shah Marai / AFP - Getty Images

Afghan boxing coach Sabher Sharifi trains girls as they take part in a boxing training session at the Ghazi Stadium in Kabul in January 2011.

Photoblog: Young Afghan women at boxing training session in Kabul

"Yes, you see, the girls, they can do anything – and look at their strong punches!” he exclaimed.

The young Afghan boxers arrive at practice fully covered, looking like demure young ladies, but within 10 minutes of starting their rigorous workout, their headscarves are cast off, and they look like sportswomen from all over the world, glowing with health and beaming with hope.

The stars of the team are the Rahimi sisters – 18-year-old Shabnam and 17-year-old Sadaf. At the recent World Boxing Championship in Tajikistan, Shabnam won a gold medal and Sadaf a silver medal, making Afghan sports history.

Boxing is an unusual choice for any young woman, anywhere in the world, but in deeply conservative Afghanistan, it is an act of courage.

“Yes, we have a lot of problems. Here in Afghanistan they think we should stay home, not go to school, and never boxing,” said Sadaf. She said they have received threatening phone calls, but that has not stopped them.

Shabnam, her older sister, said she boxes not just for herself, but for her country. “My dream is that I should represent my country all over the world, especially in the Olympics, raising the flag for my country.”   

Shah Marai / AFP - Getty Images

Afghan girls practice during a boxing training session in Ghazi Stadium in Kabul in January 2011.

She brushed aside local criticism of female boxing. "I just want to box, shoulder to shoulder with the men, and show I can do it." 
Her sister, Sadaf, added, "When we were little, we had a male cousin who was a boxer, and we wanted to be like him."

They both realize that they are among the first generation of women to be granted this opportunity to fight; women boxing in public or competing in sports was a punishable offense under the Taliban. Women's boxing is a new Olympic sport, too.  The International Olympic Committee only voted to include women's boxing in the 2012 Summer Games in London in August 2009.

Coach Sharifi said he has faith in his team, but that they need help, especially financially.  

"We get $1 a day for each athlete. What shall we do? We have poor equipment, we cannot train like others," he said. The team cannot afford to buy decent punching bags, let alone build a proper boxing ring.

Shah Marai / AFP - Getty Images

Young Afghan wrestlers compete in a bout at the Ghazi Stadium in Kabul on May 12, 2011. The Ghazi stadium has returned to its former status as Kabul's premier sporting venue after being used for public executions by the Taliban during the late 1990s.

But Shabnam remains optimistic. Raising her fists in the air, and with halting English she said, "I see you London 2012!"

The sisters may not win medals at the Olympic Games.  Indeed they may not even qualify for the games. They need to win their places in May at the World Boxing Championships in Qinhuangdao, China.

But they have already won a victory: They have shown what Afghan young women who pack a punch can achieve. The Olympic dream is theirs.

Related link: Afghanistan’s National Olympic Committee web site  

CAIRO -- The echo from the microphones in the room where the prime minister had just finished his press conference on Saturday morning was still ringing in everyone's ears.

Could he have been right?

Prime Minister Kamal Ghanzoury looked journalists, and by extension the Egyptian people, square in the eye and told them the military and the police were not involved in the clashes on Friday -- and if they were, they were only acting in self-defense.

He went on to add that the military exercised restraint and did not fire on the crowds.

But even more surprising to many activists, Ghanzoury said the people involved in Friday's clashes were not revolutionaries.

The three-weeklong peaceful protests outside his office turned violent Friday when, according to him, troublemakers attacked the military.

• Violence flares after Egypt tries to crush protest

His depiction was an attempt, protesters felt, to taint them and their sit-in.

Ghanzoury's comments contradicted widespread reports and eyewitness accounts from journalists and activists.

Regardless of the moment that precipitated the initial clash between the military and the protesters, the military's conduct over the past 48 hours has many Egyptians questioning its competence and intentions.

In fact, videos made by eyewitnesses show the military engaged in all kinds of behavior, originally denied by the prime minister, including taunting protesters with rude gestures, lobbing stones at them, chasing them with sticks, beating and dragging them while they are on the ground and in more than one instance, opening fire with pistols.

In the video above, posted on the website of Mosireen, an Egyptian non-profit organization that helps citizen journalists by running a media center in downtown Cairo, alleged members of Egypt's military are seen taunting protesters with rude hand gestures. They can also be seen throwing stones at the protesters in this video.

In another video, aired by a private Egyptian satellite channel, a soldier can be seen aiming a pistol at people who were coming to recover a wounded protester being attacked by a crowd in military riot gear.

In his press conference the prime minister reiterated a point made earlier in a statement by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. All of the families of those killed would be compensated. Those injured would be treated at the state's expense. An independent civilian advisory council created after last month's deadly fighting between security forces and protesters recommended all those arrested during the clashes be released.

But on Saturday, the PM said they were not revolutionaries. In fact, Egypt's general prosecutor ordered 16 people detained for four days pending investigation into their involvement in instigating the clashes and the killings -- and none were members of the military or police. And despite widespread complaints by protesters and human rights organizations, no investigations into alleged military misconduct have been launched by prosecutors.

So why would the military offer to treat those injured and compensate victims if it felt they were behaving illegally? It seems odd for the state to treat so-called martyrs if it viewed them as vandals and agents of foreign hands.

For its part, the military has posted video http://youtu.be/8grDc-iz5wg) on its Facebook page showing what it claims were vandals destroying government buildings. Egypt's historic Geographic Society building was set on fire on Saturday. It was not clear how the fire started in the building, home to some of Egypt's most important historic documents.

 After last month's deadly clashes, the Supreme Council accepted the previous prime minister's resignation and promised to empower his replacement with the full authority he needs to run the country. The new prime minister pledged that force would not be used against demonstrators. But some analysts say that the new clashes raise questions about his ability to reign in the security forces and about the degree of cooperation between the military and the civilians supposedly running the country.  

In a post on his Twitter page, prominent opposition figure Mohammed El Baradei said that if the PM had all of the executive authority of the president, which includes security in the country, then in what capacity did the military police act against the protesters?

So did Prime Minister Ghanzoury know that within minutes of concluding his press conference, the military would unleash an assault against the protesters? If he did, then he purposely put a civilian facade on a military crackdown, some say. If he didn't know, then, as El Baradei pointed out, how can he restore law and order in the country if he is not in charge of the one institution that has all the guns?

Courtesy Rebel Pepper

A cartoon mocking Christian Bale's confrontation with Chinese security was posted on Weibo, China's Twitter-like service, on Friday.

BEIJING – Just days after Christian Bale made a red carpet appearance in Beijing for the premiere of his blockbuster new movie, “The Flowers of War,” about the 1937 Japanese sacking of Nanking, he made even bigger headlines in China off-screen on Friday.

Bale invited CNN’s Beijing bureau crew to accompany him Thursday as he attempted to visit Chen Guangcheng, an activist who has been under house arrest since his release from a four-year-long jail sentence last year.

The 40-year-old Chen, a blind self-taught lawyer became a persecuted dissident after he filed a lawsuit in 2006 on behalf of residents of his hometown, Linyi, over the city’s practice of forced abortions and sterilizations, a municipal policy that runs counter to national regulations.

He was thrown in prison on what human rights activists say were trumped-up charges of “intentional damage of public property” and “gathering people to block traffic.”

Related link: Video reveals blind Chinese activist's plight

Since Chen’s release in September 2010, dozens of Chinese and foreign reporters, as well as supporters, have gone to Dongshigu village, in Shandong Province, to try to visit him, but all have blocked from even entering the town. Some were even violently manhandled and beaten up by unidentified thugs, and some TV crews had their equipment damaged or confiscated.

Bale was no exception.  

He and the crew were stopped at a road checkpoint when government security guards wearing green army coats asked what they were doing and punched the camera. When Bale took out his flip camera to record, he was punched and shoved, exactly the same treatment the CNN crew received just a few months earlier when they tried to visit.

After the scuffle, the crew got back into their vehicle and drove off, but they were followed by a security van for about 40 minutes.

"I'm not brave doing this," Bale said on camera. "The local people who are standing up to the authorities, who are visiting Chen and his family and getting beaten or detained, I want to support them."

In a later interview on CNN, Bale said, “It’s amazing a superpower like China is actually terrified of this man. It shows such an intrinsic weakness within the fabric of the country.”

China's human rights detainees 2010

He also stressed that he did not inform any members of the movie crew in order not to implicate them with his own actions.

‘Pandaman vs. Batman!’
Bale’s confrontation with the security guards soon made headlines on Twitter and Weibo, China’s most popular Twitter-like, but government-controlled, social media forum. Posts about the encounter spread rapidly on Friday morning with some joking headlines like “Pandaman vs. Batman!”

Andy Wong / AP

English actor Christian Bale speaks to journalists on the red carpet as he arrives for the debut of the Zhang Yimou-directed movie.

The cartoonist known as “Rebel Pepper” who posted the Pandaman vs. Batman cartoon on Weibo said he was somewhat surprised that Bale was treated exactly the same as everyone else.

“Dongshigu village is the only place in China that everyone is treated the same [and roughed up] no matter where you are from,” Rebel Pepper said during a phone interview with NBC News.

Some cynics noted it could be a publicity stunt for Bale's new movie, but most expressed their respect and appreciation.

A Weibo user named Shenan wrote, “You could pretend not to see or hear. That blind man is not your relative or friend in a faraway foreign country. Even if the whole 1.3 billion people were jailed, it’s not your business. You really didn’t have to ask for the roughing up, Batman.” 

By Friday afternoon, Weibo administrators censored all the posts related to Bale’s attempted visit. Steven Jiang, the CNN producer who was with Bale, found all his Weibo posts on their journey could not be forwarded.

It is a common practice for social media censors to jump in and try to put out the fire online before the flames get out of control. But determined Weibo users still spread the news with puns or pictures too difficult to censor. 

A post on Weibo joked that Zhang’s movie “Flowers of the War," would be pulled from Chinese cinemas. But another user said, “No, the movie will be there, only all the parts Christian Bale is in will be deleted!”

Bale left China today for the U.S., but Chen still remains off-limit to all his visitors.

Christian Bale scuffles with Chinese guards

What’s up with Putin’s face?

It’s the talk of the Web from Vladivostok to Vermont: What did Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin do to his face? His wrinkle-free visage is sparking rumors of plastic surgery or heavy Botox use.

The Guardian reports there is a joke that's been doing the rounds in Russia since Putin confirmed he would run again for the presidency next year: "In response to the charge that there are no new faces in Russian politics, Vladimir Putin got plastic surgery."

Watch NBC’s Brian Williams report above and you be the judge.

Stan Honda / AFP - Getty Images

"La Peregrina," the pearl, diamond and ruby necklace owned by Elizabeth Taylor on display during a preview of The Collection of Elizabeth Taylor at Christie's in New York on Dec. 1.

MIAMI – If there’s any woman in the world envied for her jewels and exceptional beauty, it’s Elizabeth Taylor. And this week the world was reminded of her wealth, her power and her ability to get the best out of men, including love and gems.

Christie’s sold a 55-carat pearl known as “La Peregrina,” a tear-shaped gem that Richard Burton gave Taylor in early 1969, for $11.8 million at auction on Tuesday evening.

By the time Burton bought it, “La Peregrina” had already spent centuries traveling from the hands of a slave to Spain, France and the United States in an intense bidding war between Spain’s Royals, France’s emperor’s family and America’s millionaires.

“It has become the most expensive pearl ever sold at auction,” Rahul Kadakia, head of Christie’s New York Jewelry Department, told Telemundo News.

From Spanish royalty to Napoleon
La Peregrina was discovered in the early 1500s by an African slave at the Pearl Islands in the Gulf of Panama. Its name means “rare,” or “special,” and it was offered to King Phillip II of Spain, becoming part of the crown jewels of the Spanish Crown.

At the time it was valued at 714,000 maravedí, a gold and silver coin currency brought to Spain by the Moorish Almoravids, which would be the equivalent of $8,000 U.S. dollars today.

La Peregrina was inherited by Phillip III of Spain and it passed from generation to generation of Spain’s royals.  But in 1808, when Jose Napoleon was named king of Spain by his brother Emperor Napoleon, the jewels of the Spanish Crown fell into his hands, and La Peregrina was one of them.

Jose Napoleon stole them all and gave La Peregrina to his wife, Julie Clary, who proudly showed it until the day the marriage ended. Napoleon then took the jewel with him to the United States, where he lived in New York City and Philadelphia.

Napoleon bequeathed the jewel onto Napoleon III, the ruler of the second French empire, who, after his deposition in 1815 - and later arrest in France - was sent to England were he sold La Peregrina to James Hamilton, later the Duke of Abercorn.

The Duke bought the pearl for his wife, Louisa Hamilton, the Duchess of Abercorn, who lost it twice because the heavy jewel fell out of its necklace’s setting, but on both occasions the pearl was recovered.

According to Christie’s records, La Peregrina remained in the hands of the Abercorn until 1914.

Fast-forward to 1969, when it showed up at auction in Sotheby’s. Richard Burton and Taylor, who had married for the first time five years earlier, were both still enjoying the success of their movie “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf,” which Taylor won her second Academy Award for. 

Burton, evidently still in love during that first marriage (the pair later divorced in 1974, remarried 16 months later in 1976 and divorced again), went to Parke-Bernet galleries, one of the largest auctioneers of fine art in the U.S, on Jan. 23, 1969. The auctioneer had already acquired by the rare pearl from Sotheby’s, and Burton wanted it for his bride.

But Burton had a strong opponent to bid against: Alfonso de Borbón Dampierre, an envoy of the Spanish royal family whose mission was to get the jewel back to Madrid´s Royal Palace.

Despite Dampierre´s credentials, he was outbid by Burton, who offered $17,000 over what the royal family was ready to offer and took it home at the final price of $37,000.

An unexpected thief
Burton gave it to his wife on Valentine´s Day, and as had happened a century before, one day the pearl went missing from the couples´ suite at Caesar´s Palace in Las Vegas.

“I reached down to touch La Peregrina and it wasn’t there,” Elizabeth Taylor wrote in her book “Elizabeth Taylor: My Love Affair With Jewelry.”

“I glanced over at Richard and thank God he wasn’t looking at me, and I went into the bedroom and threw myself on the bed, buried my head into the pillow and screamed. Very slowly and very carefully, I retraced all my steps in the bedroom. I took my slippers off, took my socks off, and got down on my hands and knees, looking everywhere for the pearl. Nothing.”

And then, she thought not her husband but someone else in the suite may have it.

“I just casually opened the puppy’s mouth and inside his mouth was the most perfect pearl in the world. It was – thank God - not scratched.”

Perfect and not scratched it was, indeed. And today, after years traveling from one continent to another, from slave, to kings, to emperors and millionaires, it lives in the hand of an unknown bidder who at $11.8 million has bought not only a pearl, but history in the shape of a tear.  
 

Read this story in Spanish from Telemundo

See more news from Telemundo

Amr Nabil / AP

Egyptian representatives of candidates and army soldiers guard ballot boxes on a vehicle as anti-riot policemen line up in front of supporters outside a counting center in Giza, Egypt on Thursday.

DOKKI, EGYPT – Mona Al Shabrawy came into her daughter’s room and eagerly woke her up Wednesday morning. The gynecologist was getting ready to go vote in the second round of Egypt’s parliamentary elections, but there was one problem: She didn’t know who to vote for; her instinct was to turn to her daughter, Aisha, for advice.

Aisha Al Shabrawy has been closely following the evolving political landscape in post-revolution Egypt. Party pamphlets and candidate manifestos litter the family home. Aisha took to the streets during Egypt’s revolution in February of year, and since then, she has been to many other protests in Tahrir Square.

She has her finger on the pulse on the debate raging across Egypt over the role of religion in politics, which grew more intense after the first round of elections that saw Islamist parties decimate their liberal counterparts and win close to 60 percent of the seats. Aisha didn’t hold back when suggesting to her mother how she should make her choice.

“I told her to vote for the Kotla,” Aisha said. “Kotla” is the Arabic word for “Bloc” – it is short form among Egyptians these days referring to the liberal leaning bloc of political parties running together.

A few hours later, Aisha cast her own ballot at a polling station in Agouza, a town just outside Cairo, for the first time in her life. The second round of parliamentary elections were held Wednesday and Thursday in nine out of Egypt’s 27 provinces.  She voted for the liberals at a women-only polling station.

It was the culmination of a personal journey for this 31-year-old aspiring jewelry designer that highlights how identity is shaping Egypt’s new political landscape more so than policy. And at a time when results from Egypt’s first round of elections suggest the country as a whole is shifting toward conservative Islamist parties, Aisha is moving in the opposite direction.

Story of an ex-Islamist
At the age of 18, Aisha noticed she was increasingly at odds with what she considered to be the materialistic and superficial society around her. Aisha began to find comfort and solace among her more religious friends and ultimately was drawn to the appeal of Islamic preachers like Amr Khaled, who like many other Muslim preachers has amassed a huge online and public following.

Amr Nabil / AP

Egyptian women read a candidates list at a polling center in Giza, Egypt on Thursday.

She began attending religious lessons and meetings that were geared toward the young. “They knew about the young generation, they were very practical and pragmatic in appealing to the youth,” she said.

By the age of 21, Aisha had embraced the ultra-conservative teachings of the Salafi movement. Many Salafis say their “interpretation of Islam is the correct interpretation.” They believe in “the righteous ancestors” of Islam, or as known in Arabic, the “Salaf el Salah.”

For the next two years, she was a self-described Salafist, a pious individual who loved wearing the Niqab – or full-face veil. She appreciated the sense of community enjoyed by Salafists and their straightforwardness about their beliefs and viewpoints.

But Aisha also began to see rigidity in how Salafis practiced their religion. She felt the Salafis were putting too much of an emphasis on the external image and behavior that should be projected by its followers, rather than on the spiritual journey inside. They would use guilt and fear to persuade or dissuade their followers from certain actions. It was all beginning to take its toll on how Aisha viewed herself.

Nearly five years after beginning to embrace Salafist ideology and practices, she began to withdraw from the movement and its associations, opting instead to focus on her own spiritual journey. In 2003, she stopped wearing the niqab and today considers herself liberal.

Related link: Accusations fly in second round of Egypt vote

Explosion of political parties
With the fall of the Mubarak regime and the explosion of political parties, Aisha is figuring out where she fits into the political scene. Many Egyptians expected the emergence of Islamist parties after Mubarak’s ouster. In this conservative society that is often considered the birthplace of political Islamist movements in other parts of the world, Egyptians had grown accustomed to the presence of socio-religious political organizations.

One movement for close to 80 years has dominated political Islam in Egypt: the Muslim Brotherhood. And after the first round of parliamentary voting two weeks ago, its political wing, known as the Freedom and Justice Party, ascended to the top of the political ladder.

But the election result that surprised many Egyptians was the strong performance of the even-more-conservative parties known as Salafists. These parties managed to garner close to a quarter of the seats in the first round, which took place in the country’s more urban areas, like Cairo.

Now, as the voting moves into more rural areas with lower incomes, Salafist (and other Islamist) parties are expected to do just as well, if not better. In poor areas across Egypt, the state for years has failed to provide adequate social services like hospitals, clinics, schools and jobs. These shortcomings were often filled by socio-religious organizations through charitable work.

These very same charitable organizations are now part of larger political movements and are reaping the political benefits of years of service to the previously neglected masses.

Identity politics
At a polling station in Giza, one woman gave her take on Egypt’s elections. “We are not voting based on policies and solutions to our problems. I don’t think any of these candidates actually have solutions to our daily problems. I don’t know who any of them are, to be honest, but I know what they represent.”

In that sense, many believe Egypt’s elections are as much about identity as they are about politics.

“This vote should not be called elections, these elections should be called a census,” said Mohsen, a 42-year-old computer engineer, walking out of a polling station after voting in Dokki,  a town in Giza governorate just outside of Cairo. “Based on the results we will know the religious and political orientation of our society, not the policies we need,” he added.

The notion that many Egyptians are voting based on their identity in elections, which so far have been considered mostly free and fair, after decades of rigged elections and politics dominated by single party rule, may not be a surprise to many Egyptians. But some voters are concerned about what effect identity politics could have on future policies.

Omar Hikal, a businessman also voting in Dokki, was a first-timer at the polls. “I don’t believe religion should be the basis for political decisions.”

And that’s what has many liberals concerned about the first round of voting. “Egypt is not an Islamic country, it should be a Muslim country,” Hikal said. Liberals like Hikal don’t want Egypt’s largely Muslim identity to become the basis for an Islamic state.

The country’s military rulers have already suggested that the body drafting the constitution has to reflect Egyptian diversity, something that angered Islamist parties and raised worries about a looming political confrontation between an Islamist-dominated parliament and the generals.

While the Freedom and Justice Party has tried to allay fears by assuring the public that social restrictions do not top the party’s legislative agenda, not everyone is convinced.

Aisha, the one-time Salafist turned liberal, said, “the Muslim Brotherhood may not be lying, but they don’t always say the whole truth.”

To some, like Aisha and Hikal, both liberal voters, at least the Salafists are “straight shooters.”
“If they want women to stay at home and wear veils, they will tell everyone that’s what we want to do,” said Hikal.
Others don’t see it that way.

“We had the liberals like Mubarak and his children for 30 years and look what he did to the country,” said Mohammed, a 47-year-old barber who voted for the Salafist Nour Party.

Associating liberals with the era of Mubarak’s rule is a common sentiment among many conservatives who believe the pro-American and pro-Israeli leader was emblematic of liberal ideology of trying to keep religion and religious parties marginalized from politics by force.

Extremist or an inspiration?
For Aisha, the sudden emergence of Salafist parties is not a surprise. But their transformation into a political movement is new and will be tested in an expanding political environment. 

Today, Aisha believes Salafis and other parties have a place in the new Egypt, so long as they don’t force their ideology onto others, something she warns Salafists do subtly well.

Since leaving behind Salafist ideology, Aisha has been contemplating turning her personal diary into a book.

A few weeks before the elections, she posted on her Facebook page what she thought would be a fitting title for her story, “Diaries of an Ex-extremist.” A few hours later, one of her Salafi friends replied… “You were never an extremist, you were an inspiration.”

After nearly nine years of war and occupation, the final U.S. troops left Iraq Thursday.

Richard Engel, NBC News' Chief Foreign News Correspondent, covered the war from the start. Earlier today he answered reader questions about the U.S. withdrawal and what it means for the future of Iraq.

Please replay the chat below to see his responses.

Recent reports from Richard:

Post-U.S. Iraq: Welcome to Shia-stan 

Today Show video: U.S. troops leave Iraq

This chat is moderated, as many questions as possible will be answered.

Afp Photo / AFP - Getty Images

Residents of Wukan, a fishing village in the southern province of Guangdong march to demand the government take action over illegal land grabs and the death in custody of a local leader on Thursday. Click on the photo to see more images from the village.

BEIJING – As the Chinese village of Wukan entered its fifth day besieged by a police cordon cutting off food and water from entering the village, reports from inside the cordon suggest villagers have continued to resist government overtures to end their protest.

What’s going on outside the cordon, though, is a very different story.

Even as Chinese and foreign press have begun sneaking around the security cordon into town – likely assuring at least temporarily that no draconian, military-style raid on the villagers occurs – Chinese state media have started to create an alternative and unverifiable storyline about what triggered the hostilities.

‘Official’ version of events
The China Media Project at Hong Kong University noted Thursday that late last night, the state-run China News Service reported on a press conference that allegedly confirmed that “preliminary investigations have ruled out external force as the cause of death” in the case of Xue Jinbo.

Xue, a village representative who was detained along with several other local leaders by police last Friday during a raid on Wukan, died in custody – alleged of a heart attack.

But his family was permitted to see the body and reported seeing fractures and bruising all over his body. And they were not permitted to take his remains home for burial.

However, the China News Service report said the town’s medical expert had shared photographic evidence of Xue’s body which refuted the family’s accusations that police beatings caused his death. The reporter was allegedly not permitted copies of the photos for publication.

Xue’s death and its suspicious circumstances sparked the mass protests in Wukan that eventually drove village officials and police out of the area earlier this week.

Another report from the China News Service said various Wukan village officials had been detained for discipline violations.

Afp Photo / AFP - Getty Images

Residents prepare for the funeral of Xue Jinbo, a local leader who died in police custody, in the fishing village of Wukan in the southern province of Guangdong on Thursday.

That no other local Chinese media – and certainly no foreign press – had reported on the press conference suggests that local government officials are engaging in what the China Media Project dubbed, “public opinion channeling” tactics.

In layman’s terms: they are dictating the narrative by creating only one plausible sequence of events.

The two separate reports are intended to get the following results:
1) Absolve local police of brutality and murder accusations – eliminating at least one of the reasons for unrest in Wukan.
2) “Detaining” – as opposed to arresting – Wukan’s senior officials demonstrate that the government is being pro-active against corruption, without officially conceding guilt. And it obfuscates the other central reason behind the villagers’ anger – illegal land seizures.

PHOTO BLOG: Chinese villagers defy government in standoff over land rights

Scapegoat a few
Another piece of the local government’s strategy to quell the unrest has emerged: scapegoat a few to spare the majority.

The Shanwei County government Thursday named two village leaders it claims are ringleaders behind the revolt and vowed harsh punishments for them and other protest leaders.

Wu Zili, the acting mayor of Shanwei County, accused two village leaders, Lin Zulian and Yang Semao, of actively spreading rumors and encouraging villagers to build barricades around the city. The mayor gravely warned that “the authorities will firmly crack down on anyone who organizes and incites the villagers,” according to Telegraph reporter Malcolm Moore.    
 
For longtime China watchers, the combination of the earlier local media reports, news that the government is attempting to negotiate a peaceful end to the standoff and Mayor Wu’s threat toward the supposed ringleaders are clear signals that the government is eager to bring an end to the conflict by providing an exit plan for the majority of Wukan’s citizens.

However, taking that path will come with a price: selling out the people the government has branded as ringleaders of the rebellion.

For at least one person, this is unacceptable. “Everything they said at the press conference [about Lin and Yang] is a lie!” said one villager NBC News reached by phone Thursday afternoon. “We simply elected those two to be our representatives.”

Villagers’ side of the story: Beijing will come to the rescue
Villagers in Wukan Thursday were actively working the phones, talking to the media who called in or slipped into town. However, as the world’s attention has started to focus on the events in Guangdong, they appeared anxious to push their own storyline, which is full of condemnation for corrupt local officials and deep-rooted respect for the central government, which they seem confident will come to their rescue.

“We don’t want any foreign press here! We expect the central government to come here and rescue us,” said another villager by phone, “We have great leaders in [President] Hu Jintao and [Prime Minister] Wen Jiabao!”

However, that sentiment is not shared by all. As one Wukan native told NBC, “If the press was not here, the police would come into the village and harass us.”

National implications
Whatever tact the local government takes in Wukan, the results could have serious implications for one man in particular: Wang Yang, the Communist Party chief of Guangdong Province.

With China poised to complete a rare leadership change next year, Wang had in recent years been positioning himself to compete for a promotion to the Politburo Standing Committee, which serves effectively as the nation’s top political body.

Having championed a “Happy Guangdong” campaign that he claimed would focus on improving the living standards in the province, Wang has instead found himself dealing with labor protests that have coincided with the economic slowdown in China. Public anger over rising inflation and fewer jobs has led to factory strikes and violence throughout Guangdong, which has been dubbed “The Workshop of the World.”

Now with open rebellion in what was once proudly referred to as a “model village,” Wang finds himself struggling to peacefully and definitively end the uprising – before it kills his chances of being elevated to the standing committee.

Until that elusive win-win resolution appears, expect the siege of Wukan to continue.

NBC News Producer Bo Gu contributed to this report.

Related link: Rebellious Chinese village under siege by police

Iranian exiles in Los Angeles use their musical talents to inspire change in the Middle East. These world famous performers, considered revolutionaries among their fans and blacklisted by their foes in the Iranian government, travel to the borders of Iran to sing and inspire change.

They even got Bon Jovi to sing one rock anthem in solidarity with them - in Farsi! Watch the video above to see them perform and tell their story.

AFP - Getty Images

An undated cellphone picture shows thousands of residents of Wukan village in China's Guangdong province carrying a banner saying "Wukan's people were treated unjustly" during a protest of alleged illegal land seizures.

BEIJING– For years, in the name of social harmony, China’s ruling Communist Party has been highly successful in masking, placating or simply distorting the tens of thousands of protests – dubbed “mass demonstrations” – that occur here ever year.

The Wukan rebellion will prove a tougher dilemma for Beijing to solve.

From The Telegraph newspaper’s Malcolm Moore comes details of the stunning story of Wukan, a fishing village of 20,000 in China’s southern Guangdong Province.  Earlier this week, the entire town rose up and threw out local party officials and police forces following years of having the people’s land sold out from underneath them.

The villagers’ frustration mixed with anger over news that one of the protest organizers, Xue Jinbo, died in police custody, allegedly from a heart attack.  Since the start of the revolt in September, Wukan residents have successfully thwarted multiple attempts by the police to re-enter the town by creating roadblocks out of fallen trees or just using themselves.

They are now in a tense standoff with security forces, which earlier formed a cordon around Wukan--although a villager inside the perimeter told NBC News earlier today by phone that the cordon has been removed, leaving one checkpoint blocking the central access into the town.

Scores of state security officers are said to be still positioned around the edge of Wukan, which has begun seven days of mourning for the fallen protest leader.

Moore also reports that the town has enough food to last ten more days and that the security cordon is in fact still in effect (Click here to read more on how Malcolm Moore slipped through the security cordon).

That we know anything about this explosive story – which has been months in the making but appears to be coming to a head this week – is largely due to Moore, who earlier successfully slipped through the security cordon and since has been filing articles and Tweets on events occurring within Wukan.  (Follow him on twitter: @MalcolmMoore)

The reports have given everyone a rare inside look at the mindset and mechanics of a popular uprising in China--a rarity for foreign journalists who often face tight, sometimes arbitrary restrictions, and harassment by local government forces when trying to report on issues deemed sensitive.

Slipping through China’s security
To say that foreign journalists in China know a thing or two about security cordons is an understatement.

Over the years, the security apparatus has become exceptionally good at quickly sealing off and containing problem areas while at the same time wallpapering over dissent with state media coverage.

In 2008, during the spring Tibetan uprisings, NBC attempted multiple times to enter the Tibetan areas of Sichuan Province for coverage but was turned back by security forces that had formed roadblocks around the region to prevent independent reporters and observers from entering.

Similar restrictions have continued this year.  Journalists have attempted to enter those areas again following a wave of self-immolations by Tibetans that has called renewed attention to the plight of China’s Tibetan minority.

Most recently, local government officials in the Shandong town of Linyi have effectively bottled up local dissent by keeping blind lawyer and social activist, Chen Guangcheng, under perpetual house arrest.

Supporters of Chen – who in 2006 famously filed a lawsuit on behalf of his fellow residents against the local government over its practice of forced abortions and sterilizations – and foreign journalists have attempted many times this year to visit the activist and his family.  But they’ve been met at the town’s edge by plain-clothed security agents who forcibly restrict visitors from entering by throwing rocks and swinging sticks.

It was only in the last week – under intense public pressure – that the provincial government of Shandong intervened, permitting ulcer medicine to be brought to Chen.

Peter Parks / AFP - Getty Images

Armed police in riot gear stand at a roadblock en route to Wukan on Wednesday. Residents of the village, which was surrounded by police after protests over the death in custody of a community, leader vowed to continue their fight for land rights.

Will other Chinese dominos fall?
The dramatic chain of events in Wukan begs the obvious question, could this be the proverbial “first domino” that falls in a wave of similar copycat protests nationwide?  As Moore stresses in his coverage of the rebellion, the people of Wukan are counting on the central government to come to the rescue and depose the corrupt local officials whom they believe responsible for their current plight.

That hope has manifested itself in the numerous rumors, as Moore reports, swirling around the village.  The most recent is that China’s state news channel, CCTV, is coming later this week to cover the standoff.  Some of the villagers have concluded amongst themselves that national coverage of their plight will lead to swift action by China’s ruling party against the corrupt Wukan government.

How the central government manages Wukan’s revolt against party authority is a source of intense speculation.  Its action will generate strong responses both nationally and abroad and will reveal to China watchers which audience the party wishes to anger less.

On one hand, Beijing could do as Wukan’s villagers wish and come down hard on the local officials, reaffirming the Communist Party’s often-repeated mantra of “serving the people.”  This path, however, could have the unintended consequence of convincing local governments throughout the mainland that Beijing is willing to sell out its own in order to preserve social harmony, potentially forming a rift between local and central government apparatuses.

On the other hand, Beijing could determine that preservation of Party rule is the single most important priority and elect to crush the rebellion through force or the threat of it.  Such a tack would instantly draw international condemnation, but as China has shown in the past international opinion plays a very distant second to its interest in preserving national stability.

A dark horse in changing that thinking is the ever-evolving Chinese blogosphere, which increasingly has filled the role as national zeitgeist.  Ironically, even as state censors work overtime to scrub the web of news and discussion of socially delicate issues like Wukan, decision-makers here increasingly must account for public reaction on these matters and factor potential online anger in the complex calculus that is governing.

Where China will fall on this matter remains to be seen, but the next few days will tell us a lot about how Beijing plans to handle mass disturbances in the near future.

NBC News producer Bo Gu contributed to this report.

BEIJING – Zhang Bingjian’s art studio in the northern suburb of Beijing looks like a simple one. Spiral stairs lead to a small penthouse where he stores his books and makes tea for guests, a big wooden desk sits downstairs, and a huge map of China hangs on the wall. 

But something catches your attention when you walk in: Dozens of huge portraits on the wall, all in bright pink, all of Chinese government officials convicted of corruption charges.

Most of the officials are in prison, some have been executed, and others have been sentenced to “death with reprieve” – which in China means a life sentence.

Zhang came up with the idea of creating his “hall of shame” as early as March 2009, during China’s National People’s Congress, the annual meeting of Communist Party officials.  It was then that he learned that 3,000 officials had been convicted for corruption in the previous year alone. 

“I was shocked at the numbers, I did not realize there were so many,” Zhang told NBC News during a recent visit to his studio.  “China is in such a transition period, those corruption issues also should be witnessed in a historic context.”

The artist decided to depict the history of China’s shame as part of an ongoing project. But he is not the actual painter – the portraits are mass-produced just like other “made-in-China” commodities. 

Zhang picks a publicly prosecuted government official, finds his age, crime, and most importantly, a photo of him – then he sends it to Dafen village in southern China, a place famous for churning out cheap, Wal-Mart-quality oil paintings for the whole world.  Through an assistant, Zhang finds artists in Dafen village to paint the portraits in a deliberately tacky and assembly-line style to reflect China’s 30 years as the world’s leading exporter of low-end, mass manufacturing. Their rosy hue is the same bright pink color as the Chinese currency.

Zhang doesn’t remember all the names of the officials portrayed and says he doesn’t want to play the role of a judge or prosecutor. “For me, I see the project as a whole instead of each individual portion,” he said.

Widespread corruption
Critics say corruption has long been one of China’s most chronic problems. Chinese presidents and premiers, including the current leaders Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao, have publicly denounced rampant corruption for years, but standards of conduct only seem to deteriorate. 

Out of 178 countries in Transparency International’s 2010 Corruption Perception Index – which measures the perceived levels of corruption in public sectors – China ranked 78th.

That’s lower than most other developed countries, as well as many developing countries such as Brazil and Cuba.
According to a Beijing News report last May, 24,406 government officials were jailed in 2010 for corruption, up 9.4 percent from 2009.  Almost 6,000 of them were sentenced to more than five years in prison.  

China is also one of the few countries in the world that executes its citizens on corruption charges.  Some of the officials captured in Zhang’s portraits have already been executed, including the former head of the State Food and Drug Administration and the former governor of Guangxi province.

As of today, Zhang has produced about 1,600 portraits.  Some hang on his studio wall; others are stacked in wooden crates, waiting to be displayed either in China or overseas. 

Zhang joked about ideas for his next exhibition.

“Maybe we can do another project for the U.S. America also has corrupt officials so the painting would be green, the color of U.S. dollars,” he said.

When asked whether or when he will ever finish the project, Zhang admitted one day he might have to stop producing the portraits if he cannot continue to finance himself and the 20-plus painters he employs.  Still, he doesn’t really know when he’ll move on.
 “It could end soon, probably within the next five years.  It could also be the next 15 years.  Part of the beauty of this piece is it’s open-ended,” he said with a smile. 

(Celeste Ho contributed to the story.)

LONDON – The scandal that has shaken Rupert Murdoch's media empire in Britain has taken a new twist, with police saying that messages missing from a murdered girl’s cell phone could have been deleted automatically rather than being erased by journalists trying to create more space for new calls.

Outrage over allegations that News of the World staffers had deleted the messages while police were searching for 13-year-old Milly Dowler – revealed earlier this year in an article in The Guardian newspaper – contributed to the closure of the tabloid, Murdoch's largest-circulation publication, in July 2011. Apart from the demise of the paper, the public outcry caused by the revelations resulted in the setting up of a public inquiry looking into the behavior of the press.

Dowler had been missing for a few days when activity on the phone’s message system gave her family false hope that the girl was alive and checking her voicemail. Her body was found about six months after she went missing, in March 2002.

However, Glenn Mulcaire, the private detective at the center of the scandal who was employed by the News of the World to help journalists hack phones, has always denied he was responsible for deleting the messages, which was alleged to have been done in order to free up space in Dowler’s mailbox.

And on Monday police backed his statement. Police officers told the Levenson Inquiry into media ethics and standards that they do not have evidence that Mulcaire or the paper’s journalists did the deleting.

One explanation is that the voicemail messages were deleted by the mobile phone provider as their time expired. 

"It is conceivable that News International journalists deleted the voicemails, but the Metropolitan Police Service have no evidence to support that,” Neil Garnham of the Metropolitan Police testified in a statement to the inquiry Monday. He added that the “most likely explanation” was that the messages were automatically removed after 72 hours since that was "a standard automatic function of that voicemail box system at the time.”   

‘The Fake Sheikh’
Also featured at the inquiry Monday was testimony by two of the News of the World's most well-known former reporters. (Previous witnesses include actor Hugh Grant, “Harry Potter” author JK Rowling and the actress Sienna Miller).

The first, Mazher Mahmood, known as the “the Fake Sheikh” for famously disguising himself as a Middle-Eastern businessman and recording conversations with corrupt individuals, claimed his investigations had led to the imprisonment of more than 260 criminals. But his success, he said, had also resulted in multiple death-threats. For this reason his identity was protected at the hearing: journalists were not allowed to attend and the usual video feed from the hearing was shut down (only his voice could be heard).

Mahmood defended practices at the newspaper, saying that the “ends justified the means” when a criminal was arrested as result of their reporting. But he admitted processes to ensure a story was both in the public interest and the source was credible were not as developed at the News of the World as they are at the newspaper where he now works, The Sunday Times (also part of the Murdoch empire). And, though he acknowledged using several covert practices, he denied any knowledge of phone hacking at his former paper.

The second ex-News of the World journalist to appear, Neville Thurlbeck, did not face any questions on phone hacking because he had been arrested in connection with the case and could have been in danger of self-incrimination.

Like Mahmood, he defended practices at the paper, including the kiss-and-tell reports of an affair involving soccer star David Beckham. He said the methods involved in getting the story were justified since the soccer player was trading on his image as a devoted family man to cash-in on huge sponsorships and advertising deals. He confirmed that the woman involved had received a six-figure sum for her story.

The U.N. estimates that about 90 percent of Afghan women suffer some sort of domestic abuse, but the victims see more repercussions than the abusers.

Gulnaz, a 19-year-old Afghan woman was jailed for two years on adultery charges after she was raped. She has now been pardoned - on the condition she marry her rapist.

Watch video of NBC News' Atia Abawi interview with Gulnaz, still in her prison cell, above.

Related story: Afghan woman: I'll mary rapist, 'even though I can't look at him'

Across Iraq, U.S. troops are packing up everything and preparing to leave the country, leaving many bases surreally quiet. NBC's Richard Engel reports. 
 

Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi / AP

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe greets the crowd upon his arrival for the official opening of the Zanu PF Congress in Bulawayo, on Thursday, Dec. 8, 2011. Loyalists of the Zimbabwe president's party are gathering for a party conference in preparation next year's election.

BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe – Dancing erratically and singing passionately outside the conference hall, an elderly woman named Grace anticipates the arrival of the president. While many people refer to him simply as a “tyrant” and a “dictator,” she calls him “our liberation hero, Mr. R.G. Mugabe.”

His smiling face is stitched onto her outfit. She sings his name and throws her body from side to side close to the edge of the red carpet. “He is our savior, he freed us from the imperialists,” she says, referring to Britain, the old colonial power.

Suddenly she spots “His Excellency” walking toward the auditorium to open the congress of his party, ZANU-PF, where he is confirmed as a candidate for elections, expected next year. Grace joins the crowd that is following him – a mix of loyal supporters, loyal civil servants and loyal security guards.

Eventually, seven hours after he was due to begin, Mugabe delivers his speech.

Familiar rhetoric
It suddenly becomes obvious where Grace has picked up her language. Her leader defines Zimbabwe’s enemies as “the imperialists,” too – in this case, the American and European powers involved in the NATO campaign in Libya, a “bloody tragedy” motivated by “oil and reconstruction projects.” Only “a dead imperialist” is a good one, he says.

It is a long speech, and some of the slogans about the West are familiar. The apparent evil of the white world, particularly Britain, has formed part of the rhetoric of Robert Mugabe for his whole political life. The ZANU-PF party congress started Thursday with Mugabe’s appearance and continues until Saturday.

Delivering his speech wearing a bright red suit, Mugabe throws his fist around, switching between languages as he works through the address.  But the country and the world beyond the heavily armed gates has evolved much faster than the president’s favorite lines.

Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi / AP

Supporters of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe are seen before his arrival for the official opening of the Zanu PF Congress in Zimbabwe's second city of Bulawayo, Thursday, Dec. 8, 2011.

For one, Mugabe’s closest enemies are no longer in foreign capitals, but a few blocks from the presidential state house in Harare.

Though he remains an autocrat in control of most organs of the state, the disputed results of elections in 2008 forced him into an uneasy power-sharing agreement with his party’s rival, the Movement for Democratic Change, led by the prime minister, Morgan Tsvangirai. “They are a party for women,” said one delegate, emulating part of Mugabe’s speech, though he then named the older enemy, Britain, as Zimbabwe’s true foe.

With school choirs singing celebratory songs in the background, many ZANU-PF supporters are keen to highlight Zimbabwe’s successes. Literacy rates are relatively high; the economy is growing as natural resources are exploited; the terrifying days of 2008, when hyper-inflation forced the economy into free-fall, have passed. But in the run-down townships a few miles from the conference hall, it is clear that extreme poverty and disease haunt many parts of Zimbabwe.

Divisions among the ranks
There, many people no longer accept the president’s claim that they are suffering the destructive impact of international sanctions; some do not believe his proposed solution of ensuring that black Zimbabweans own 51 percent of foreign companies based within the country. And many are concerned that under Mugabe the country will never be far from another explosion of violence.

There are rumors of divisions at the congress – unheard of at previous meetings. Independent newspapers claim that delegates are worried about the ability of the 87-year-old president to fight an election campaign and they have been plotting to find a successor. One loyal supporter rolls his eyes when I mention such concerns. He is frustrated by the very suggestion, but his response suggests that it is one that he is used to hearing. Another senior supporter calls Mugabe “the fittest public figure in Zimbabwe.”

That may be a wildly exaggerated assessment for a man who appears to nod off during some meetings, but he seemed to be healthy as he stormed into the conference hall to speak for more than two hours. However, that will not have convinced some of his opponents. They claim that the octogenarian’s frequent trips to Singapore are not to visit his daughter, as his people claim, but for medical treatment.

'Last dictator standing' ad
Then there’s one unexpected issue that has cropped up as a last-minute talking point on the fringes of the congress – a controversial fast food commercial that many see as a humiliating attack on the president. When I mention it to one delegate, he gulps and warns me that “‘Nando’s’ is a dirty word here.”

We’re talking, in hushed tones, about a TV commercial for the restaurant chain that stars an actor depicting Mugabe as “the last dictator standing.” To the soundtrack ‘Those Were The Days’, the look-a-like recalls the president during happier times – laughing uncontrollably during cozy moments with the dictators of the world – playing in the sand with Saddam Hussein and sharing the microphone with Mao Tse-tung at a raucous karaoke evening. After the reminiscing, a lonely “Mugabe” is seen sitting mournfully at the head of a presidential dining table set for his fallen foreign friends. “No one should ever have to eat alone” the voiceover guy tells us, with the final pitch for a family-size portion of fast-food chicken. 

The ad, broadcast across southern Africa, was pulled because of fears of attacks on Nando’s restaurants in Harare, but only after raising many laughs and a few questions about Mugabe’s future after this year of revolution.

For Mugabe, heading into a likely election year, the Arab Spring simply teaches Zimbabwe to beware of the West and to consolidate sovereignty. His opponents worry what that might mean. They believe that the pace of democratic reform must accelerate, and the president must accept the need for change.

But Grace, his singing, dancing elderly supporter outside, believes “He must rule forever.”

According to the feverish rhetoric of the Congress, there can be no Zimbabwe without him.