JOHANNESBURG – With the World Cup kick-off just days away, HIV/AIDS prevention groups in South Africa have been ramping up their public protests against FIFA, the world body of soccer.

The activists claim that that the tournament’s organizers have hindered HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention campaigns by blocking condom and safe-sex information distribution at official game venues.

The protests are the culmination of a long-simmering feud between FIFA and HIV/AIDS awareness groups here, with health experts concerned that the arrival of an estimated 300,000 fans from all over the globe could exacerbate the already serious health crisis. An estimated 1 in 5 adults – around 5.7 million South Africans – are already infected with HIV/AIDS.

The public barbs started last week when a joint statement was issued by nine prominent AIDS organizations in South Africa, including the AIDS Consortium, Community Media Trust and the Johns Hopkins Health and Education in South Africa, a non-profit organization affiliated with Johns Hopkins University that works on HIV prevention, lashing out at FIFA.

“To date FIFA has not permitted any civil society organization to distribute HIV or health related information and FIFA has not provided any written confirmation that condoms may be distributed at stadia and within the fan fest,” said the statement.

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Same story, greater challenges
It’s a situation that seems to repeat itself every couple years: Mass sporting events + thousands of excited, often inebriated fans = prostitution explosion.

In Sydney before the 2000 Olympics, Athens in 2004 and Germany for the 2006 World Cup, news features highlighted the arrival of increased sex workers to service the influx of fans.

However, with an estimated one in two prostitutes working in South Africa being HIV-positive, the arrival of a financial bonanza for the sex industry here could be quickly followed with a spike in infection rates.

FIFA disputes that it has not taken the situation seriously.

In a statement reported by local newspaper on Monday, FIFA rebuffed the charges made by the members of the South African National AIDS Council (SANAC), saying that AIDS awareness and prevention campaigns were already planned for FIFA stadiums and “Fan Zones” (public squares where games will be broadcast for thousands of ticketless fans).

“Neither FIFA nor the Organizing Committee for the FIFA World Cup have blocked activities like HIV counseling and testing,” said the statement. “FIFA can confirm that it has encouraged the host cities, as main organizers of the FIFA Fan Fests, to install a Fan Service Area where not only basic medicines and condoms can be distributed for free.”

FIFA did not respond to repeated requests for comment from NBC News.

Activists strike back
On Tuesday morning, AIDS organizations struck back, saying that FIFA’s statement was inconsistent with the reality on the ground. They also claimed that FIFA is charging exorbitant prices to broadcast public service announcements at Fan Zones and is charging AIDS organizations for the right to distribute condoms at World Cup sites.

They also said that FIFA had only just woken up about the AIDS situation. Richard Delate, country program director for Johns Hopkins Health and Education in South Africa, told NBC News that his agency and other partner members of SANAC had been working in vain over the past year to start talks with FIFA about AIDS awareness campaigns for the World Cup. So it came as a surprise, he said, when FIFA’s statement came out declaring a plan for condom and health awareness information distribution.

“We went out and fact-checked that claim with the major condom suppliers in South Africa and they said they had received a phone call from FIFA on Monday,” said Delate, who noted that this was soon after the official FIFA statement came out.

“What has begun is a process that will allow condoms to be distributed during the Word Cup. As of right now though, there is no distribution plan, no plan for access to FIFA sites, no access to control areas.”

Furthermore, while FIFA’s statement that a Johannesburg-based organization called Right to Care would be allowed to distribute at FIFA Fan Zones, they, like other SANAC groups, were paying for that right.

“I spoke to the Right to Care people today,” said Delate. “They have paid for space at Fan Zones in Soweto, Sandton and Pretoria.” He added that his organization had access to two parks and FIFA had offered them access to a third park, but that they simply didn’t have the budget for it.

By Jim Maceda, NBC News Correspondent

ISTANBUL – In stifling heat, the coffins of eight out of nine Turkish activists killed by Israeli commandos – draped in Turkish and Palestinian flags as well as green cloths covered in Koranic verses – were carried through the streets Thursday.

Speakers decried Israel’s “murderers,” saying they had martyred not only the activists, but all Turks. Huge crowds of bearded men and veiled women pumped their fists and chanted “Death to Israel.”

The scene could have been a Hezbollah mass funeral in Beirut, or a Hamas rally in Gaza.

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But this was Istanbul, Turkey, the largest city of a NATO country which aspires to join the European Union.

And where, in the five years since I’d last been here, the shift towards more conservative – even radical – Islamic practice, policies and dress was palpable.

 

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Changing role
Turkey is changing on many levels, and it’s unclear whether those changes will help or hurt a nation emerging from the shadows of a decades-long, U.S.-driven, foreign policy.

Turkey’s famous “bridge between East and West” moniker used to be symbolic. But now it’s a real bridge in many ways.

“It’s an energy bridge between energy sources in the Middle East, Russia and Central Asia on the one hand, and Europe on the other,” Halmuk Sasin, a U.S.-educated professor of communications at Istanbul’s Bilgi University. “And it’s a business bridge between the emerging economic super-powers like China and India, and the West. Therefore America will want to make sure that Turkey is among her friends.”

But after the “Freedom Flotilla” heading to Gaza was attacked by Israel last week, being friends with America suddenly became much harder.

At another event, a thronged welcome-home in Istanbul’s Taksim Square for the surviving activists, many Turks described to me their frustration with America, a country which shares, they thought, their democratic values.

“We don’t take America seriously anymore,” said Erjan Uner, a lawyer. “Isn’t America the great defender of human rights? So why isn’t it condemning its ‘spoiled child’ [Israel] for this criminal act in international waters?” he asked.

Turks are losing patience with what they perceive to be the U.S.’s unconditional support for Israel. And that should matter to the U.S. Even though it may rarely be in the American limelight, Turkey has evolved into a regional economic and military power, more willing than ever to flex its muscles.

Perhaps taking a page from Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s playbook, the Islamist-leaning government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has recently elaborated a new foreign policy that considers any area inside the former Ottoman Empire (like Putin with the former Soviet Union) as a legitimate “sphere of interest” for Turkey.

“This has also brought Turkey into conflict with Israel,” explained Sasin, “because Israel itself is a major power in this part of the world. She has her own interests, and in a way it was inevitable that a clash of some sort would take place,”

Seen in that light, the deadly assault on the Mavi Marmara was much more than a blockade-enforcement operation gone awry. The chaos may have rewritten the rule book between two former allies.

“You have just lost a good friend,” said Sim Inush, another Turk at the rally on Taksim Square, when I asked him what he had to say to Israel. He wasn’t among those chanting “Death to Israel,” but he seemed just as angry.

Still, some analysts – those who think Turkey’s shared interests with the U.S. and even with Israel more than outweigh the current tensions – hope that, once tempers have cooled, all sides will begin to patch things up.

They say that, while the more radical Islamist movement is growing in Turkey, it does not reflect the secular majority. And that while Erdogan has great ambitions for Turkey, he’s also a shrewd pragmatist who knows his nation can’t go it alone.

Turkey still needs America’s trade and support, and Israel’s drones. The U.S. needs Turkey’s clout with Syria, while Israel needs natural gas via Turkey’s pipeline. (Turkey’s energy minister said several energy projects with Israel have been suspended until ties are normalized.)

But Turks on the streets of Istanbul, as well as in their think tanks, agree that the crisis between America’s two most important allies in the Middle East will not improve until Israel makes some positive gestures, such as lifting the blockade or at least apologizing for the flotilla incident. But is that even possible?

“With [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu in power,” said Sasin, “I see no hope.”

Jim Maceda is an NBC News correspondent based in London, who has covered the Middle East for 30 years.

JOHANNESBURG – Earlier this week, our NBC News crew was shooting students milling around outside Nelson Mandela’s home in the heart of Soweto when cameraman Kyle Eppler turned to me between shots and remarked, "I don’t feel the energy here yet."

It was an uncomfortable thought that had been nagging at me for much of my, albeit short, time here in South Africa, but one I dared not share with anyone.

Please don’t interpret this to mean unpreparedness for the World Cup on the part of the South African Organizing Committee or disinterest on the part of the people here. On the contrary, everything you associate with a major sporting event – signage, shiny new public works, national flags flying proudly over cars, fans breathlessly discussing the latest sporting news – all those things are prominently on display in Johannesburg.

Yet, here we were in the townships of Johannesburg, the proverbial heart of soccer in this country, and something seemed to be missing.

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Nervous tension and electric buzz – the key elements that seemingly whip through communities as start of a big event approaches felt absent.

For someone who has been in cities like San Francisco before the start of the ill-fated 1989 Bay Bridge Series, Boston before its 2004 World Series win and Beijing before the 2008 Olympics, I’m familiar with that feeling of excitement that can capture a city.

But my hangdog perception of the World Cup experience so far was shattered today after discovering perhaps the most simple, but singularly unifying event: Football (soccer) Fridays.
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Wear yellow – or watch out!
In an effort to encourage South Africans to support the national team, known locally as "Bafana Bafana," or "the Boys," and the tournament as a whole, the government announced the creation of the first Football Friday in September 2009.

Since then, every Friday has become an opportunity for South Africans of all stripes to go to work in yellow national team jerseys, blow vuvuzelas (long horns) and attend special concerts and shows across the country.

On the final Football Friday before the start of the World Cup, all the stops were pulled out and the city appeared to be on the verge of full celebration mode.

On a visit to popular talk radio station Kaya 95.9, staffers resplendent in their Bafana Bafana jerseys danced to high octane dancehall reggae blasting over the office speakers while popular radio host Kgomotso Matsunyane grilled a line-up of eager female (and a few surprised male) callers on their picks for hottest soccer stars.

"I got the green, but I can’t wear green every Friday. ... My laundry cycle doesn’t go that quick!" piped the show’s sports announcer, referring on air to his noticeably absent jersey before being shouted down by the rest of the morning DJ team.

As far as the Kaya 95.9 radio team was concerned, the absence of yellow and green on Fridays was tantamount to mutiny and punishable by open mockery.

Tangled portraits, dancing mayors
A few blocks away from Kaya’s offices, a more dignified celebration kicked off as Nelson Mandela’s portrait was unveiled high above the eponymous bridge in downtown Johannesburg by longtime Mayor Amos Masondo.

I’ve attended many similar ribbon-cuttings working in China. There, these types of formal events are usually long on stiffness and short on levity as a careful script is followed by dignitaries soberly reading prepared speeches while citizens dutifully stand by and applaud until the ribbon is cut.

So it came as a pleasant surprise for me to see that throughout Masondo’s speech, fans cheered spontaneously, blew vuvuzelas and gamely waved South African flags. And even though they were standing on Mandela Bridge in a strong breeze, people continued to sing and dance. http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/article487275.ece/Decorated-Mandela-bridge-opens

After a little prodding from one of his advisers, the mayor hopped down into a surging crowd and put on a dancing exhibition that belied his stature as the leader of Africa’s richest city.

It was only then, watching the onetime 2008 finalist for Mayor of the Year shake his booty and having the time of his life dancing with dozens of his constituents that I sheepishly realized that the buzz and excitement I had sought all week had been right in front of me all along.

I had been so caught up seeking the grandiosity, the pomp and circumstance that a country like China was able to pull off with such success in 2008, that I had lost sight of the people and country I had come ostensibly to cover.

Portrait unveiling mishaps, world-class stadiums, security issues and line-dancing mayors – Johannesburg is a big city with a small town temperament and global aspirations.

To seek the spectacle of so many major global sporting events of the past is to ignore the greatest asset South Africa will bring to this World Cup: everyday people earnestly passionate about this beautiful game.

NBC News’ Ed Flanagan is based in Beijing.

ASHDOD, Israel – Tensions are high at the moment. Everywhere you go, all people are discussing is the Israeli military’s deadly attack on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla.

The Israeli government is standing by its claim that commandos used force – killing nine people – only after activists attacked them with knives, crowbars and clubs. But the activists, who had set sail for Gaza with tons of aid hoping to break Israel's 3-year-old blockade of Gaza, counter that the Israeli commandos fired first.

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‘Long live Israel’
Our NBC News team has been doing live TV reports for the last several days from a hill overlooking the port of Ashdod, where the convoy of ships was forced to dock.

Residents arrived on the scene immediately to show their support for Israel and their outrage at the media for what they perceive as their role in helping to turn the raid into an international affair.

Demonstrators carrying flags, singing the Israeli national anthem and chanting “long live Israel” quickly appeared on the scene. One demonstrator painted graffiti on a nearby wall saying, “We don’t forget the Armenian blood,” referring to the Armenian massacre by the Turks in 1915.

And the Navy commandos involved in the operation have received some unlikely support from about 70,000 people on Facebook who started an Internet campaign saluting them.

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Outburst in the Knesset
Meanwhile, the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, saw perhaps the strongest reaction to the incident when the Israeli-Arab lawmaker Haneen Zoabi, who was onboard the Gaza-bound flotilla when it was raided, tried to speak Wednesday.

Members of the Knesset erupted in anger – yelling, cursing and even charging the podium in an attempt to stop her from continuing her speech.

From the podium she said that she agreed to participate in the flotilla because it was a “political, human and moral imperative to oppose the imprisonment of 1.5 million people.”

She described the blockade of Gaza as an “illegal, inhuman, illegitimate siege opposed by every politician who has a moral position.... Only the immoral support the blockade.”

Her remarks caused violent jeers from other members of the Knesset, with shouts accusing her of being a terrorist and saying she should be checked for weapons.

Trip to Turkey this summer, maybe not
But the biggest reverberation from the Israeli military’s actions may be the hitherto close relations between Israel and what was its most important Muslim ally, Turkey.

The summer months are usually marked by the mass migration of vacationing Israelis to Turkey. Cheap “all inclusive” deals to beaches in Anatalya and Bodrum have become havens for Israeli summer vacationers.

But that movement of people may not happen this summer.

“I wouldn’t suggest to any Israelis in the near future to be a tourist in Turkey, because it will be very dangerous for Israelis to go there,” Shimon Shiffer, a reporter for the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronoth said.

The airlines may already be adjusting their schedules. My travel agent said that over the next two weeks, only two flights will fly to Turkey. Last week there were two flights a day.

Paul Goldman is an NBC News Producer based in Tel Aviv.

By Arata Yamamoto, NBC News producer

TOKYO – Succumbing to pressures from within his own party for his repeated political fumbles, Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama resigned Wednesday, just eight months after coming to power.

When Hatoyama's Democratic Party of Japan won a landslide victory during last year's general elections, the prime minister enjoyed an approval rating of over 70 percent, riding on the public’s fatigue with the politics of the Liberal Democratic Party that had been in power almost continuously since 1954.

While Hatoyama's tenure kicked off with a series of controversial, yet ambitious plans, it seemed doomed from the start.

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It started with his pledge to weigh in on the power and influence accumulated by the nation's bureaucrats who are often blamed for the nation's stagnant policies and wasteful spending. In what has become one of the highlights of the Democrats' reforms, his administration launched a major review of government spending by holding court-like hearings, where government bureaucrats had to account for their budgets in front of live TV cameras and public spectators.

He also won praise from environmentalists, but ire from Japanese businesses when he announced at the United Nations last September that he promised to cut Japan's greenhouse emission 25 percent by 2020. Japanese industries were up in arms warning that the move could serve a blow to the frail economy, but the move was also heralded by many as bold and forward-looking.

Support for the Hatoyama administration quickly started to plummet.

Revelations about unreported political donations and unfiled personal taxes didn’t help Hatoyama. The case was eventually dropped after prosecutors decided that there was not enough evidence to determine criminal intent, but the accusations still didn’t help his poll numbers.

However, the final straw that broke the camel's back was Hatoyama's inability to keep his campaign pledge to overturn a military deal struck between the former administration and the United States and move a US Marine base off of the southern island of Okinawa.

Tokyo and Washington struck a deal in 2006 that the U.S. Marine base on Okinawa would be moved from the city of Futenma to another city on the island, Henoko.

But after Hatoyama promised to get the U.S. military base off the island entirely, last week he said he would go along with the original agreement to move the base to the north of the island, angering local residents who want it off the island entirely.

The political fallout forced one of the coalition partners to quit the ruling administration. Hatoyama administration's approval rating plunged below 20 percent, creating a dangerous predicament for the Democrats ahead of the upcoming upper house elections in July.

Since the charismatic Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi stepped down in 2006 at the end of his term, Japan has had four leaders resign in the span of four years – a fact that hasn't been lost on anyone here.

Akihisa Nagashima, a Democrat lawmaker speaking on Japanese television ruefully pointed out, “This is the fourth resignation. It will have a very significant effect on how the world community views Japan,” Akihisa Nagashima, a Democrat lawmaker ruefully pointed out on Japanese television.

As for Hatoyama's successor, pundits are speculating that the popular Vice Prime Minister Naoto Kan, currently Japan’s finance minister, may take the helm in the interim. His candidacy is expected to be announced on Friday after the party's selection procedure, and then a voted on in parliament.

"People often describe me as someone from outer space, and my own interpretation for this is that I've been presenting to the public, not the image of Japan today but the image of how this country should be five, ten, or 30 years from now,” Hatoyama said when he announced his resignation.

But with all the immediate woes facing Japan: the threat of North Korea, growing unemployment and the national debt, it’s probably safe to say that the Japanese public is looking for are actions that would shape this country today, not 30 years from now.

JOHANNESBURG – The array of statistics South African officials have been touting in the lead up to the start of the World Cup on June 11 has certainly been impressive.

Fifty-five thousand new police officers, $88 million in new police equipment, the largest deployment of Interpol officers in the organization's history and up to eight police officers from each of the 31 visiting teams in country to assist in crime prevention.

Yet, despite the heavy investment in South Africa's defense infrastructure, this cup-crazed country has found itself facing fresh criticism over its security preparations on the eve of the big event.

South Africans were hit with a bombshell when a Johannesburg paper article reported that members of the U.S. Congress had been briefed on credible threats of attacks being planned by terrorist groups like al-Qaida and the Somalia based, al-Shahaab.

The report said that operatives from militant organizations had trained in terror camps in northern Mozambique may have already infiltrated South Africa and were poised to strike World Cup matches and events.

South Africa's top security officials were quick to dismiss the claims of a terrorist threat and expressed confidence in the revamped security force being rolled out.

Domestic crime
Whether the new revelations are enough to sway travelers to abandon their World Cup plans remains to be seen. But it is just another blemish on South Africa's desperate bid to change the perception of the country as a rough and tumble place unsafe for such a massive global event.

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Recent statistics demonstrate that public perception is not far from the truth.

Statistics released by the South African Police Service showed that between April 2008 and March 2009, this country of 48 million million people had 18,148 murders and 70,514 sexual crimes. By comparison, the United States, with a population of 300 million, had 14,180 murders and 89,000 sexual crimes in 2008.

That means almost 50 murders are committed each day in South Africa. Yet, in the most recent State of the Union address by President Jacob Zuma in February, crime was only mentioned three times in his speech and no concrete prevention strategy was mentioned, much to the frustration of many South Africans.

The widespread perception of how commonplace violent crime is here may be far more damaging to the 2010 World Cup then any terrorist threat. People who live here are so used to the ubiquitous crime that they speak of it as something that can’t be avoided, only confronted.

At a popular watering hole in Johannesburg's suburb of Melville over the weekend, long-time patrons watched highlights of last week's South Africa vs. Columbia friendly match and offered player profiles over the dull groan of thousands of horns from the TV.

When discussion shifted inevitably to the front page news of the day about terrorist threats, opinions divided sharply over the veracity of those reports. However, all were quick to drive discussion away from terrorist threats to everyday crime. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the 55,000 additional police quickly became the butt of many complaints.

"Fifty-five thousand new police and I still get nervous if I have to walk home alone late at night" moaned one area resident working on a World Cup project. Another long time resident wondered aloud “Fifty-five thousand, but where are they?”

Indeed, driving extensively through the famously poor area of Soweto and Soccer City – the site of one of the beautiful new stadiums South Africa has erected for the World Cup – it is difficult to sense any significant police presence, a sentiment confirmed by longtime residents of Johannesburg.

Yet, despite the pervasiveness of crime here and the looming threat of terrorist threat, it seemed that night nobody at the bar was deterred from their belief that this World Cup was going to be the biggest, most successful party in African history.

Here’s to that dream coming true.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – A recent Washington Post article asserted that there has been a decline in Pakistan applications for student visas in the U.S. as a result of a series of terrorism incidents linked to Pakistanis, including the recent Times Square terrorist attempt.

According to the article, accounts of mistreatment and humiliation as a result of rigorous checks have created a sense of dread for many Pakistanis considering travel to the States, so they are choosing other destinations.

But students from Pakistan have long had a preference for pursuing higher education in the U.K. over the U.S. In part this is because colonial ties have made the Pakistani and British education systems much more in aligned with one another, meaning that entry requirements are easier to attain and the resulting degrees fit in better with Pakistani standards and laws.

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Easier to go elsewhere
On a recent day in Islamabad, long lines of people waited to have their applications seen by immigration consultants.

“I am going to the U.K. so I can complete my masters in law. With a British qualification there are better prospects of a job when I come back here,” said Ansar Mehmood, who had just been admitted to University of Central Lancashire, in the north of England.

Standing in line outside the U.K. visa application center, Mehmood said students find it easier to apply for higher education degrees in Britain because the application process is more streamlined and the rules are more in tune with Pakistani standards.

Khalil ur Rehman, who has run a visa consultancy business in Lahore for over 15 years, said he’s seen a similar trend. “Pakistanis apply for mainly U.K. and also Australia [another former British colony], as the education systems are similar,” said Rehman.

However, the statistics division of Pakistan’s government said that while applications for U.S. student visas have traditionally been fewer than for the U.K., Australia and Canada, they have decreased further since the 9/11 attacks.

And Mehmood’s said that his lack of interest in applying to schools in America was deeper than simply which programs have easier admissions policies. “They treat Pakistani people [and] Pakistani students like animals in America,” he asserted. “That is why people don’t like to go over there.”

In particular, Mehmood said his experiences with American border control officers during previous visits discouraged him from even considering the U.S. for school. Other students and applicants we spoke to expressed similar sentiments.

But travel agents and visa consultants in Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore said that while the trend to avoid the U.S. accelerated after the 9/11 attacks, it was mostly a matter of unaligned educational systems.

“It is just easier to apply to places like the U.K. and Canada, it always has been,” said a visa consultant at the Aamir Ismail agency in Karachi said. “I don’t think it is that much related to Pakistani treatment.”

Sohel Uddin is an NBC News Producer on assignment in Islamabad, Pakistan.