Sharon Schieding

Ruairi McLaughlin with his boss in Japan in 2008.

One American family is desperately waiting for word from their son, an interpreter in a northern Japan town near the coast.

Sharon Schieding, of Fort Mill, S.C., said she has not been able to reach her 34-year-old son, Ruairi McLaughlin, since the quake ripped through Japan. He has been living in Japan for two and a half years and is engaged to a Japanese woman.

“I’m devastated. I can’t believe this is happening. I try not to watch too much on the news because when I see all those pictures, I just can’t imagine people surviving that,” she told msnbc.com in a telephone interview. “It is very hard to see that.”

The family last heard from him earlier this week, following an earthquake on Wednesday.

“I’m sure he has been prepared. He is very knowledgeable of his surroundings,” she said. “We’re just waiting to hear anything.”

His father, John Schieding, of Bristol, Conn., said he first heard about the quake and tsunami from Sharon and felt “sheer panic.” He said, to his best recollection, his son was living less than a mile from the beach in the city of Oirase.

“It’s the kind of thing, nobody ever wants to have to deal with,” he said. “It’s kind of ironic that when there’s tragedies in other places in the world, you know, we all observe it  and see it on the news and go on with your life, and it’s pretty impersonal. But, when it involves somebody you know, especially a family member, all of a sudden the world becomes a pretty small place.”

There is one piece of encouraging news: “They’ve repeatedly said on the news that all the U.S. military bases are intact, that there were no injuries to any military personnel or equipment and the town he is in is very near an airbase. I’m kind of clinging to that.”

John Schieding said his son graduated from Central Connecticut State University with a degree in East Asian Studies. He last saw him over Christmas 2009, when he brought his fiancée home.

“They obviously were and are very serious about each other, and hopefully they get to have a long life together.”

By Miranda Leitsinger, msnbc.com
People are fleeing the eastern oil town of Ras Lanouf, which is coming under heavy bombardment from the air, sea and mountains by Gadhafi forces, a human rights activist on the frontline says.

Most civilian buildings were destroyed and a large mosque was also bombed on Thursday, said the activist with the Free Libo Group (Libo refers to the aboriginal tribe of Libya). Though most civilians escaped, some people were trapped in town, including some Western journalists.

"We left them behind. We do not know their fate," the activist said in a Skype call with msnbc.com. He spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the threats to opposition forces. 

The bodies of seven men killed in the fighting were taken to a hospital in Brega, a town next to Ras Lanouf. Another 22 injured men were being treated at the hospital, though overall casualty numbers were hard to determine, the activist said.

"It’s mostly empty, the town. The medical center in town is not fully equipped to deal with a catastrophe."

The attack on Ras Lanouf intensified in the afternoon, and the activist said he escaped injury after shrapnel struck the car he was in.

Residents were heading east. A family that headed west two days ago died when their car was hit in an attack, and now anti-Gadhafi fighters were blocking movement west to protect people.

Most of containers at the port were hit, according to engineers the activist spoke with, and water supplies that go into town were also struck.

People were "upset and depressed, frightened – both the civilians and the fighters.”

Related story: Pro-Gadhafi kidnap gangs silencing foes – sometimes for good

By Miranda Leitsinger, msnbc.com 
Despite reports of more bloodshed and violence in Libya, there is at least some happy news for one Libyan man: his brother, detained last week in Tripoli by pro-Gadhafi forces along with his father and two others brothers, has been released.

Ahmed Sewehli, a Britain-based psychiatrist, said his 19-year-old brother Mohammed was released Sunday night. He had only a brief conversation with him since he believes the telephone lines are being monitored in Libya.

“He was in good condition and he said that he saw my family (father, two brothers) a couple of days or something before he was released and they were okay,” he said in a telephone interview with msnbc.com from London.

Sewehli said his father, 65-year-old retired engineer Abdurrahman, and Mohammed were taken from their family home on Feb. 28. His two other brothers, Khaleel, 31, and Shtewi, 25, had been abducted from a friend’s house earlier the same day. Two of his brothers were taken by Gadhafi’s men, a witness told him, while his father and another brother were taken by mercenaries and people in “uniforms,” he said.

The father and sons had been participating in anti-Gadhafi protests, and his father had spoken out against the embattled Libyan leader on Arabic television, Sewehli said.

When asked if the family was given an explanation for why Mohammed was released, he said: “No.”

“Nobody is even acknowledging that he was either released or kidnapped in the first place. That’s the way it works in Libya. Ghadafi doesn’t explain anything, neither do his thugs.”

But he believed it was a “scare tactic” to “set an example to anybody who protests or opposes the regime, this is what’s going to happen to you.”

The tactic was “probably working because people in Tripoli are not protesting anymore. Because, they protest, they are either going to be shot or kidnapped,” said Sewehli, 36, who has left his job to focus on a medical aid effort to Libya, Libyan Doctors Relief.

His mother could no longer live in the family home, which had been turned upside down after the arrests, and she was “completely distraught,” he said, noting that he did not believe his father and brothers would be released until the situation was resolved.

“We just have to wait. … It is a nightmare, a very long nightmare."

Francois Durand / Getty Images file

Suzanne Mubarak,left, and Carla Bruni-Sarkozy attend a Bastille Day ceremony in Paris on July 14, 2008.

By Miranda Leitsinger, msnbc.com

In the wake of the news that Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s leader for the last 29 years, has finally responded to the demands of protesters and stepped down, who will he spend the rest of his life in “retirement” with?

Perhaps he will enjoy his life in exile with his wife of over 50 years, Suzanne Mubarak. (Although, rumor has it she may have fled to London several weeks ago when the protests got underway).

Nevertheless, who is she? 

An advocate for women's rights
She has been noted for her fashion sense, cited as a Clinton family friend and was the subject of a fairly unflattering portrait in diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks.

But the sociologist and mother of two is most well-known for her fight to improve women’s and children’s rights – for which she has received many awards.

Suzanne was born in Menya, a town about 150 miles south of Cairo known for sugar processing and producing perfumes and soap. She met her future husband in the late 1950s when she was 16 and he was an officer in the Egyptian Air Force.

They married the next year, and a decade later she returned to school, eventually earning her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the American University in Cairo.

"I used to hear about Hosni Mubarak three years before I met him. My brother was his student at the Air Force Academy," according to a state-owned Egyptian TV documentary on the couple.  

Her resume cites a number of activities, including serving as president of the Egyptian Red Crescent Society, founder of the Integrated Care Society in 1977, a non-profit aimed at providing health care and other social, cultural services to schoolchildren; and president of the Egyptian National Women Committee in the mid-1990s.

Dylan Martinez / Reuters

Anti-government protesters celebrate inside Tahrir Square after the announcement of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's resignation in Cairo on Friday. Click the photo to see a complete slideshow of the days events.

She also has a number of organizations and museums named after her, such as the Suzanne Mubarak Women’s International Peace Movement, the Suzanne Mubarak Museum for Children and the Suzanne Mubarak Family Park.

While she has never played an overtly political role, during the weeks of massive anti-government protests people online were urging her to push her husband to step down. Kayak175 wrote on twitter: “Suzanne Mubarak - it's time for you to have a chat with your husband.”

'Less flattering' portrait in WikiLeaks cables
But some also alluded to corruption allegations dogging her family.

The New York Times reported that, “A 2006 cable obtained by WikiLeaks described a 274-page report by an opposition political group detailing accusations of corruption by the president’s wife, Suzanne, as well as Gamal Mubarak and his brother, Alaa, a businessman. The cable, from the American ambassador in Cairo, Francis J. Ricciardone, noted that the accusations were unproven but called the report evidence of growing public anger.”

The Times noted in another dispatch that the cables also offered “a less flattering picture” of Suzanne, “(H)owever effusive the Americans were about Mr. Mubarak in public.”

“During a visit to the Sinai, one reported, she commandeered a bus that had been bought with money from the United States Agency for International Development and that had been meant to carry children to school.” 

On the lighter side, The Huffington Post commented on Suzanne Mubarak’s commonsense fashion sense to deal with Egypt’s hot climes: “Whether she wears her light-colored skirt and blazer with a chunky necklace, a dark camisole, a thin scarf or dark sunglasses, Suzanne has a stellar summer style strategy: she keeps her clothing simple and selects accessories that speak for themselves.”

The report also highlighted her “signature bouffant hairdo,” her use of “pearls and lace detail keep things chic” and included photos of her with former First Lady Laura Bush, who goes “matchy-matchy” in her outfit with Mubarak.  

Nasser Nasser / AP

Tourists sunbathe at a resort in Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt in a Dec, 2010 file photo.

Update 12:15 p.m. ET: A U.S. official tells NBC News it's confirmed that President Hosni Mubarak, apparently with his family, is in Sharm el-Sheik. Asked whether Mubarak plans to leave Egypt, the official said he had no information.

By Miranda Leitsinger, msnbc.com reporter

With the announcement that Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak has resigned as president and handed over control to the military after 29 years in power, U.S. officials confirm for NBC News that Mubarak has arrived in the popular Red Sea resort of Sharm el- Sheikh, where he typically spends a good part of the year. 
 
The Associated Press reports that the embattled leader was greeted by the local governor upon his arrival at the airport in the Sinai’s southern tip on the Mediterranean coast.

Mubarak often receives official guests, and schedules summits and conferences at Sharm el-Sheikh, where he has a villa.

It's not a bad place for the embattled leader to start his retirement, Sharm el-Sheikh is known as a popular diving destination.  

Before his arrival, Carole Edrich reported for The Telegraph that the tourist center “was eerily quiet this week. Hordes of winter sun worshippers had been replaced by empty beaches, deserted hotels and restaurants and taxi drivers reduced to playing cards at their ranks.”   

Late last year, beaches in the area were closed due to a series of shark attacks, one that resulted in the death of a German woman, the BBC reports.

Online responses to Mubarak’s move, before the world learned that he was stepping down, were not kind. Jheri27 on Twitter wrote: “Mubarak is at his seaside resort in Sharm el Sheikh. Egypt is in turmoil and he goes on vacation. Get back to work, Hosni. Egypt needs you!”  And mikerizk: “Mubarak to Sharm el Sheikh, Dubai … Does it matter...GO!”

Yet some had another take. Tchalla7 Tweeted: “This is not a vacation, this is an escape.”

The New York Times reports that Egypt is one of the top 25 destinations worldwide, accounting for 1 percent of the global tourism market, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organization.

However, the current crisis has put a serious dent in the tourist industry. “The current crisis is estimated to be costing Egypt $310 million a day, according to a recent report from Credit Agricole, a bank based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which also reported that tourism last year accounted for 6 percent of Egypt’s gross national product.”