A paragliding Greenpeace activist who dropped a smoke bomb over a French nuclear reactor on Wednesday added a new element to the presidential race there -- and raised the question of whether the same, or worse, could happen at a U.S. nuclear reactor.

"At no moment was the safety of the installations at risk," said the plant's operator, French utility giant EDF, adding that the pilot was arrested by security staff at the Bugey nuclear plant in southeast France.

EDF acknowledged that a second activist was arrested at another nuclear site in southwest France after entering via a truck gate and hiding for an hour in brush within the "surveillance zone," Reuters reported.

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Greenpeace said it was raising awareness of nuclear power issues ahead of France's presidential elections on Sunday.

It "illustrates the vulnerability of French nuclear to the threat of air attack," Greenpeace France spokeswoman Sophia Majnoni d'Intignano said in a statement. "While Germany took into account the aircraft crash in its safety testing, France still refuses to analyze this risk for our plants."

France, which gets 80 percent of its electricity from nuclear power, pledged special safety tests at its 58 reactors after Japan's Fukushima nuclear disaster in March 2011.

Those tests include standing up to floods, earthquakes, power outages and cooling system failures -- but not terrorist attacks or even a plane crash.

So could a paraglider attack happen in the U.S. -- or would it be shot down before even getting to a nuclear site?

"Completely speculative," Steve Kerekes, a spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute, told msnbc.com. "Our facilities are extremely well-defended. Let's leave it at that."

Over at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a group that says it's neither for nor against nuclear power, two nuclear experts said that while a reactor's containment dome would be hard to penetrate other targets are available.

The intake structure, where water is brought in to cool the reactor fuel, "is an easier target," Dave Lochbaum told msnbc.com. Without coolant, that fuel could cause a meltdown.

The aerial threat exists, added Edwin Lyman, because the Nuclear Regulatory Commission "decided in 2007 to exclude any kind of aerial attack from the 'design basis threat' -- that is, the set of attacks that reactor operators must provide protection to defend against.

"So the NRC doesn't require that nuclear plants have means to detect or defend against intrusions from the air," he added. "And the federal government also does not require 'no fly zones' around nuclear plants that could be enforced by the military."

Kerekes countered by noting that an independent study in 2002 found that U.S. nuclear containment structures can withstand even a crash from a commercial airliner.

As for paragliders, Lochbaum said a more likely scenario is where one or more are used at night in an attempt to get into a nuclear plant.

"While nuclear plant security perimeter fences are well lit, the lighting is to allow security officers to catch anyone trying to climb over, cut through, or tunnel under the fences," he said. "The lights and the camera angles might not readily show someone flying in. That someone could be carrying sufficient weapons to cause problems."

At that point, Lochbaum said, "it becomes a race -- can the intruder access area(s) needed to sabotage the plant before the security officers intervene?"

Nuclear plants already test such scenarios, and Lochbaum said "the good guys sometimes lose the race" in testing -- even with the six weeks notice given by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

"Typically, the force-on-force tests are conducted once every three years at each U.S. nuclear plant," he said. "A test may consist of four exercises -- different entry points and different targets. It would be useful to periodically throw in a glider or parachute entry to make sure the security officers practice handling such threats, too."

Nuclear power debate in France includes Libya project

Back in France, the stunt certainly got attention -- but not all of it flattering for Greenpeace.

"The main consequence of this stupid action will be to prevent any air recreation within more areas of France," posted one person on Greenpeace's main blog on the stunt.

An anonymous post on another Greenpeace blog criticized the stunt, saying a paraglider couldn't carry enough explosives to damage nuclear containment areas. 

"You've also missed the point," the writer added, "that someone could cause far graver damage by carrying out a similar attack on the Olympic Stadium in London later in the year."

Reuters contributed to this report.

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JERUSALEM – The Har Menuchot Cemetery looked like it was painted in black Wednesday. Hundreds of mourners, many of them men dressed in the black suits and broad-brimmed hats worn by orthodox Jews, came to pay their respects for the four Jews killed by a gunman in Toulouse, France, on Monday.

The bodies of 30-year-old Rabbi Jonathan Sandler, his sons, Arieh, 5, and Gabriel, 4, and 8-year-old Myriam Monsenego were laid on stretchers after being flown to Israel from France.

Small white cards were placed on each body indicating their names.

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The announcer asked dignitaries to limit their speeches to five minutes due to the heat and out of respect for the bereaved families.    

In tears, Shlomo Amar, the Chief Sephardi Rabbi of Israel, was defiant. "We will keep on fighting and teaching our youth with our heads high up,” he said. “Our enemy will not defeat us.”

A woman started shouting and other weeping women soon followed. Someone brought a large cotton cloth to cover the victims’ families from the sun.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe sat still with a somber face throughout the speeches; eventually, he spoke in French, which was translated into Hebrew. "The French nation is in shock,” he said. “I came here today to show the French nation's respect. We will do our out most to protect the Jewish community in France. We will not tolerate terror."

Monsenego's grandfather was asked to say a few words, but he couldn’t find the strength to stand up and talk.

Photo Blog: Jerusalem funeral for victims of French school shooting 

But Myriam's eldest brother, Avishai, offered some words. He wailed and had one last plea for his dead sister” "Please give strength to father and mother to overcome this tragedy.”

Then the slain rabbi’s father, Shmuel Sandler, spoke about his son, "You were a magnificent person killed by a barbaric person," he said. Unfortunately, the middle of his speech was interrupted by police using a megaphone asking the owner of a Daihatsu car to move the vehicle because it was blocking the road.

While the bodies were taken to be buried, I spoke to David Naor, a relative of the Sandler familyr. I asked him about the news coming out of Toulouse that the suspected gunman had been found.

“Finding the killer won’t help the dead children,” he replied. “But it helps to know that he won’t kill again.”

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.

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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

By Adrienne Mong, NBC News Correspondent  

NICE, France – As the Group of 20 leaders, aka the G-20, begin descending on the French Riviera for their annual summit this week, demonstrators have started to converge, too.

Protest organizers said some 6,000 people were expected to participate Tuesday in what they said would be their biggest march, but the group gathered around De Lattre de Tassigny Square in Nice looked to be a fraction of that forecast.

Despite the low turnout, the variety of interests represented was high. Some 40 different organizations, from the large (think Oxfam France and Greenpeace) to the small (local trade unions and grassroots Nice citizens' groups) had joined forces. There were South Korean trade unionists and nurses from Australia.

"I'm here to show support for Tibet," said Patrick Magne, a 50-something Nice resident toting a giant “Free Tibet” flag.  "And to demonstrate against the G-20.  China's government is a member of the G-20, and they've committed atrocities in Tibet."

“But,” he added as he looked at the myriad of demonstrators, “this protest here – it represents all my ideals and values."

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Many of the placards called for higher taxes on the wealthy, an end to free trade, or a dissolution of the G-20.  There were also more specialized voices in the mix, such as the one urging support for the women of Fukushima, the site of the nuclear power plant that was critically damaged by Japan's earthquake and tsunami last March.

"We're not happy with the financial system that has crushed everyone and crushed the whole world," said Linda Zuppiroli, a local Italian-French resident. 

Zuppiroli, who is retired, said she and her husband had participated in many demonstrations in the past, but "they were to do with human rights."

They'd decided to join Tuesday's march because they felt life had become more difficult and more costly with "fewer liberties. … Too few people have equal access to opportunities or resources and everyone is paying for the mistakes of the greedy."

"The world debt system is destroying Europe and will destroy your country, too," said Jean Galmzhorn, a Frenchman who works in the construction business, where he says rampant property speculation and sky-high real estate prices have contributed to the decline of the quality of life in his community.

High security
Despite the low turnout, the French authorities were taking no chances.  An estimated 12,000 security forces have been deployed across the French Riviera.

Police speedboats and jet-skis bobbed side by side with the super yachts in the picturesque Cannes and Nice harbors.  Hovering over the demonstrators were two helicopters. And on virtually every street corner of the protest route were clusters of helmeted riot police with batons and shields at the ready.

Their presence seemed rather incongruous with the protest's somewhat festive and family-friendly atmosphere set against the sunny backdrop of the French Riviera.

"It does seem as though fewer people are taking part," said Galmzhorn, whose infant was sleeping in a stroller.  "I've participated in demonstrations like this for 10 years, and it does seem to be fewer people."

"Maybe they're too preoccupied with making ends meet," he added.  "Or maybe they're too busy trying to find a way to speculate, too."

With additional reporting from NBC's Peter Jeary and Nancy Ing.
 

Related story: Occupy the Champs Elysees? Non, merci!

By Stephanie Gosk, NBC News Correspondent

PARIS - Sunday night saw an unprecedented moment in French history: More than 13 million people, the biggest TV audience since 2005, tuned in to watch a man once thought to be a top presidential contender discuss private indiscretions and express regret. 

The live appearance, watched closely by both the general public and the country’s chattering classes, was France’s “Clinton moment,” one historian said, referring to the former American president’s public pronouncements on his relationship with  Monica Lewinsky.

With his career and reputation in tatters, the former highly respected head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn said he was guilty of moral wrongdoing when he had sex with a hotel maid in New York City last May.

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Nevertheless, he denied that he tried to rape the woman, Nafissatou Diallo.

“So what happened? What happened didn’t involve violence, no criminal act,” the 62-year-old told a TV news anchor.  “What happened was not only an inappropriate relationship, but more than that it was an error.  It was a failing vis-à-vis my wife, my children and my friends, but also a failing vis-à-vis the French people, who had vested their hopes for change in me.”

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance dropped all charges against Strauss-Kahn on Aug. 23, telling a judge that Diallo was simply not credible.

Despite French’s reputation for indifference to their politicians’ private failings, that was not enough for Strauss-Kahn’s critics.  A recent poll by Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper showed that more than 50 percent of the public want DSK (as he is often referred to here) to retire from politics altogether.

The NBC News crew watched the interview with author, journalist and fierce Strauss-Kahn critic Nicole Bacharan.  Even before it began, Bacharan was pointed out that the TV news anchor asking the questions also was also a close friend of DSK's wife, Anne Sinclair.

“It’s not very satisfying,” she said when the interview was over. “He didn’t give a credible version of what happened (in the hotel room).  He didn’t give any version of what happened in that six to nine-minute encounter.”

Strauss-Kahn’s demeanor also stuck Bacharan.

“He seemed very angry to be in that position to have to explain himself about such a tawdry affair,” she said.  “I didn’t hear him say he was sorry to the French people.”

'Like Indiana Jones'
Strauss-Kahn will have to do more to win back the trust of people throughout the country if he hopes to return fully to the French political scene. 

Acknowledging that fact, Strauss-Kahn said he wouldn’t seek the presidency.  He does hope to regain his position as a prominent economist, however.

Strauss-Kahn is largely credited with bringing relevance back to the International Monetary Fund during the global economic crisis. 
Many also believe he is one of a small handful of economists capable of guiding Europe out of its current deep economic crisis.

That is the role he hopes to take on assuming he can salvage a career out of the aftermath of the scandal.  Biographer Michele Taubmann believes he can.  “He is the comeback kid,” he said.  “He is like Indiana Jones.”

“He has the experience of pain.  He is not only a bright man, a competent man,” Taubmann said. “He is also a man who has suffered, a man who has recognized his mistakes.”

Strauss-Kahn said several times that he has paid and paid dearly for those mistakes. 

The question the French need to answer now is whether he has paid enough.