Heavily armed police and soldiers have been clashing with die-hard defenders of the drug boss Christopher "Dudus" Coke in Kingston, Jamaica, for three consecutive days.

Cook is wanted for extradition to the United States, where he faces a possible sentence of life in prison for drug trafficking and other charges.

Andre Wright, an editor for the Jamaica's Gleaner newspaper, spoke with msnbc.com by telephone from Kingston about what sparked the current clashes, who Coke is and how the media there is reporting on the crisis.

What is the background of the gang boss Christopher "Dudus" Coke? Who is he?
Cook is alleged to be the major drug lord here. He is linked to the "Shower Posse," which is responsible for mayhem in Jamaica, as well as in areas of the United States, particularly the East Coast.

His group allegedly peddled drugs and executed mayhem throughout much of the United States. They have been linked to be more than 1,400 murders throughout the 80s and 90s. Coke is also said to be in charge of Tivoli Gardens, a neighborhood of Kingston, which is the crime den security forces have invaded over the last three days. 

Andrew P. Smith / Reuters

Police patrol the streets outside the neighborhood of Tivoli Gardens in Kingston on Tuesday.

From there he is alleged to have tentacles throughout various areas of the country. He has other enclaves that are loyal to him because he has been a benefactor to communities, he has had political links and he has allegedly been able to extort money from businessmen.

He is said to be the number one criminal in Jamaica. And of course, the U.S. grand jury indictment indicates that.

(For more background from the Gleaner on Coke, see their article: "DUDUS: The Man Who Holds A Nation Hostage…")

What is the political connection between Coke and the political leaders in Jamaica?
"Garrison communities" in Jamaica are areas where gangs are able to enforce political commitment in terms of votes for politicians. In these areas, local gunmen and other gangsters are able to ensure that people vote a particular way.  

So political parties have various garrison communities where they are able to enforce support by paramilitary muscle. Those who may support another party have to fall in line – or else. 

Coke is from Tivoli Gardens, a section of Western Kingston, which is the constituency of the Prime Minister Bruce Golding. That constituency has always had political allegiance to the Jamaica Labor Party.

But police received a warrant for Coke's arrest on May 17 in connection to the U.S. extradition proceedings.   

Since then, residents of the community – a mixture of gunmen as well residents of the community who are sympathetic to Coke – have barricaded themselves in insisting that they would defend Coke and protect that area.

Defenders of Coke have set booby traps and barricades using LPG cylinders and live electricity wires. The area has become a war zone.

Reuters The U.S. Justice Department considers Christopher "Dudus" Coke one of the world's most dangerous drug lords.

For nine months, Prime Minister Bruce Golding refused to extradite Coke. Why did he change his mind and suddenly support his extradition?  
For nine months, the government claimed that the extradition was flawed because they said the wiretap was illegally obtained. Basically the government claimed that the U.S. had not gone through the proper judicial channels to get that wiretap. 

The government never questioned the validity of the content obtained by that wire tap, but they questioned how the U.S. came to get the wiretap in the first place.

On those grounds, the government tried to block the U.S. request for Coke to be extradited.

But there has been significant pressure on the prime minister from the media, civil society groups and businessmen that he needed to take charge of this matter and he needed to deal with it.

And because of that overwhelming pressure, the prime minister decided to sign the extradition request and to expedite proceedings for the arrest of Coke.  

Has it been an embarrassment for the Jamaican government that they can't get Coke now that they have approved his extradition?
That has been part of the embarrassment, but also the very fact that there has been mayhem in the capital for the past two days.

So far, the police said that at least 30 people have been killed in the clashes – civilians as well gunmen loyal to Coke. At least one soldier and two policemen have been killed as well. Security forces have also sustained over a dozen injuries.

The media have been unable to get into the actual war zone. The core area, Tivoli Gardens, where the major assault has been ongoing, is inaccessible to us.

We have been able to cover some clashes outside of that main area, but Tivoli Gardens is pretty much no one in, no one out, because the military operation is still under way.

Prior to these recent clashes, how dangerous was it for reporters there to cover the drug lords? In Mexico, we've seen journalists who report on the drug lords become targets of their violence. Is it the same there?
It is not as grave as in Mexico. Reporters have been threatened, even during this current conflict, but no reporter from the various media agencies here has been attacked so far.

At least three news agencies have been threatened, as recently as yesterday. But  no reporters have been killed or injured.

There is an article on your web site that says: "A Gleaner news team was pinned down for more than 40 minutes at the intersection of East and East Queen streets in downtown Kingston as militants loyal to reputed gangster Christopher 'Dudus' Coke' traded bullets with the police." What happened?  
They have been caught in the crossfires. Our headquarters are located in the center of the capital. So the shootings have been all around us.

When reporters have gone out into the field, sometimes they have gotten pinned down.

Sometimes they have had to abandon their cars for a period until things have died down and they were able to hop back in and drive to safety.

So it's very dangerous, very tense atmosphere.  

For more from the Gleaner, click here:
All Out War - As Tivoli Assault Deepens, Casualties Rise
DUDUS: The Man Who Holds A Nation Hostage…

MANILA, Philippines – Will a computer memory card bring chaos or calm to the Philippines?

With more than 50 million Filipino voters expected to go to the polls for the 2010 general election, there are fears that a new high-tech ballot scanner that reads and transmits votes in real time – designed to cure the ballot tampering and cheating that have notoriously characterized Philippines elections in the past – is technologically unstable and lacking safeguards that may lead to the very election failure it was designed to prevent.  

With some 85,000 candidates running from numerous political parties for 17,000 positions – from town council member to president – and a ballot sheet that runs more than two feet long, the election presents a chaotic spectacle on a good day.

Critics of the automated machines, including several of the presidential candidates, are demanding a parallel manual count, which authorities have dismissed as unnecessary and too late to implement.

Pat Roque / AP

A young girl extends her hand to ask for promotional items distributed to the crowd during a campaign sortie of former President Joseph Estrada on May 6 in suburban Quezon City north of Manila, Philippines. Â

Earlier this week, the Commission on Elections discovered a problem with the memory cards of the optical counting machines, forcing them to recall the cards in about 76,000 machines after tests found they failed to read ballots and print accurate results.

Election officials and the manufacturer of the new machines assured Filipino voters they were correcting the defective memory cards and that the election would go on as scheduled on Monday.

But with just days before the archipelago goes to the polls, the last-minute glitch only fueled previous suspicions about possible vote-rigging and fears that a political crisis could be on the horizon.

Voters have a choice between nine candidates competing for the presidency, but pundits have narrowed the main battle as being between Senator Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino, son of the late former President Corazon Aquino, and Senator Manuel Villar "Manny" Villar, a real estate tycoon with a rags-to-riches story. Both are leaders of opposition parties promising reforms after nearly a decade of the Arroyo presidency.

Another candidate from the past is former First Lady Imelda Marcos, now 80, who is trying to make a political comeback as a candidate for the lower house of congress. Adding to the mix, boxing legend Manny Pacquiao – the only boxer in history to have won seven world titles in seven weight divisions – is also aiming for a congressional seat, despite anecdotal reports that people might not elect him because they want him to continue winning honors for the country and not hang up his gloves.

Even outgoing President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, leaving due to term limits after nearly a decade in power, is joining the fray as a candidate for congress. Her candidacy, unprecedented for a president, is fueling speculation of a sinister plot to prolong her grip on the presidential palace, which critics say would be neatly aided by a power vacuum that could result from an election failure.

"I can categorically state that the president will step down on June 30 and, if elected, will revert to being a congressman from her home province," presidential spokesperson Gary Olivar told NBC News, when asked about the president's intentions at the end of her term.

Bullit Marquez / AP

Poll watchers look at test ballots as Election Precinct chair Syren Arceta, left, prepares to insert the new compact flash card that would be used to replace the defective card prior to retesting the Precinct Count Optical Scan machine for Monday's first automated presidential elections, at Manila's financial district of Makati city on Thursday May 6. Â

The new automated system being used in the election is essentially a high-tech ballot scanner. The $160 million project includes 82,000 "precinct count optical scans," as well as supporting components like servers, printers, power generators, memory cards, batteries, and broadband and satellite transmission equipment. (Ironically, parts of the ballot counter were manufactured in China, giving the one-party state an unlikely involvement in the Philippines' democracy.)

The system is ready to deliver "fast, accurate and auditable" tallies, according to Cesar Flores, the spokesperson for Smartmatic, the private consortium that won the contract to computerize the system. "This will be the best election in the history of the Philippines. It won't be perfect but it will be the best," Flores recently told the media.

The Philippines election commission estimates that thanks to the automated machines, election results could be known within 48 or 72 hours – a sharp contrast to the more than 40 days that it took for the 2004 elections results to be proclaimed. The votes will be subject to audit by random manual count, as required by election law.

Still, the one thing everyone seems to agree on is that the machines need to work properly to ensure a smooth electoral transition.

"This is a critical election for two reasons," said Olivar. He cited the automation as a "big step towards erasing the chronic cheating and inefficiencies of past elections and thus stabilizing our democracy by boosting public confidence in the integrity of suffrage and legitimacy of our elected leaders."

"And second, the leaders we elect in May will assume office with a huge responsibility to keep pace with the spread of global recovery and continue the unbroken economic growth that has been achieved by this administration," he added.

Bullit Marquez / AP

Election Precinct chair Syren Arceta shows the new compact flash card that would be used to replace the defective card for Monday's first automated presidential elections, at Manila's financial district of Makati city on Thursday.

Fearing the worst case scenario
Nelson Navarro, an analyst and political biographer, said transparency is particularly important in light of problems during the last election. 

"The 2004 election was marked with so much fraud that there is the popular belief that President Arroyo stole the elections," said Navarro. 

"Already the Philippines is a laggard in Southeast Asia, so we need to clean up our act, we need a popular president with clear indisputable mandate, who can prevent the country from further falling apart," added Navarro.

"If the election does not produce a clear leader, if the results are not convincing, then there will be another period of instability," he warned. "A government without a clear mandate will be unable to govern, which means the door will be open to possible military takeover or dictatorship."

In fact, international observers fear just that.  

The Pacific Strategies and Assessments, an Asia-focused business risk consultancy group, recently issued a hard-hitting report about the election.

"If the poll automation falters or fails, the country could very well experience levels of political instability and constitutional crisis that would drastically increase its overall risk climate for years to come," the report warned. "There is no official record of any country in the world transitioning completely from a pure manual to full automated elections system in one electoral exercise."
 
"The pursuit of poll automation represents the most serious risk to conducting a credible election," said Pete Troilo, Director of Business Intelligence for the Pacific Strategies and Assessments consultancy group, while conceding that automation is a reasonable attempt to deal with election fraud and mismanagement.

"If locally-borne protests reach a critical tipping point in terms of number and intensity, the entire electoral exercise could be compromised and disputed," warned Troilo, noting that the country "simply does not have the democratic institutions, procedures, or leaders to endure the non-proclamation of the next president and vice-president."
 
"Any formidable popular revolt would require the mobilization of the middle class, the support of civil society – including the Catholic Church – as well as the military, these are the parties to watch closely through the elections period," he added.
 
Still, Olivar, the presidential spokesman, believes that the election-failure scenario is merely a pretext by certain quarters "to mount street adventurism" in the event of election defeat.

"On a scale of zero to ten, I would rate the chances of clean credible elections a 9.9, certainly much higher than any previous elections," he said.

By Shawna Thomas, NBC News Producer

Shawna Thomas is an NBC News producer on assignment in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to cover a pre-trial military commission hearing for Omar Khadr.

Thomas is one of 37 print and television journalists from across the world covering Khadr's proceedings.

GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA – The hearing on whether to suppress Omar Khadr's statements has been put on hold until the prosecution has a chance to complete a psychological evaluation on him. The judge said he would inform everyone next week of the new schedule.  That means the hearing will have to resume here at Gitmo, probably in June, and then push the trial date further into the future.

So after 10 days that became 11, there's no resolution.  But in this last day of testimony, there were many developments.

First, we finally came face-to-face (via video teleconference) with the infamous Interrogator #1.  (Interrogator #1 has a protective order that bars the media from releasing his name, although his name has been reported in the past.)  Interrogator #1 was the self-proclaimed lead interrogator of then 15-year-old Khadr while he was at the Bagram air base in Afghanistan before being sent to Guantanamo Bay.

Interrogator #1 said that he, at times, would utilize "Fear Up" techniques to interrogate Khadr, though he admitted that these techniques usually didn't illicit actionable information.  "Fear Up" is pretty much anything that scares the detainee. Interrogator #1 said he screamed at Khadr. "I cussed at him because I knew he didn't like it." He also said, "I flipped a bench once."

While Interrogator #1 did not corroborate every allegation of mistreatment in Khadr's affidavit, he did tell a chilling story about a rape tale that he and other interrogators at Bagram invented to scare the detainees. 

The interrogator said that during the detainee interviews they found out that Afghans were "terrified" of rape and "general homosexuality."  The story they created involved a fictitious Afghan man who is sent to an American prison for lying.  The man comes into contact with a "bunch of big black guys" and skinheads who don't like Muslims because of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.  Interrogator #1 said the tale ended with the Afghan being raped by "four big black guys" in the shower and dying.

Interrogator #1 said interrogators would tell detainees such a story to try to scare them into cooperation, but that the story was "never about the detainee."  He continued, "It's all a fictitious story to make them afraid of American prisons."  He said he told Khadr the story, but he didn't recall exactly when. 

Khadr's affidavit recounts being threatened with rape.

The defense is attempting to have Khadr's statements to investigators declared inadmissible. A key element of the prosecution's case is a video of the boy helping to make bombs and plant them. So the defense is hoping to directly link the information obtained from Khadr to the finding of the video – but Interrogator #1's testimony today didn't do that. It's also unclear if other mistreatment that the defense alleges, like the use of barking dogs and bright lights on Khadr, happened at Bagram.

It will be at least a month before we know how the judge rules on the last two weeks' proceedings.

A media controversy played itself out at the end of our time here at Gitmo. Four journalists who are covering Khadr's hearing were told late this afternoon that they would be barred from coming back to Guantanamo Bay because they violated a court order to protect the identities of witnesses that were referred to by aliases in the courtroom.

Specifically, they published the name of Interrogator #1. At issue is the fact that Interrogator #1 has been identified in the press before today. One reporter who has been reprimanded even interviewed Interrogator #1 herself in 2008.

Below is the video of Maj. Tanya Bradsher, who works for Defense Department Press Operations, reading part of the statement informing the journalists that they would be barred from covering further proceedings at Gitmo. The statement makes clear that their news organizations are not barred from sending other reporters to the island.

Watch video of Maj. Tanya Bradsher reading the statement

Shawna Thomas is an NBC News producer on assignment in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to cover a pre-trial military commission hearing for Omar Khadr.

Khadr is a Canadian citizen who is accused of murder and providing material support for terrorism along with other charges stemming from his alleged participation in a 2002 firefight with American troops in Afghanistan.

Khadr was 15 years old when he was captured in 2002 and is expected to stand trial at Guantanamo Bay in July of this year. His military trial would be the first governed by the 2009 Military Commissions Act that was signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2009.

Thomas is one of 37 print and television journalists from across the world covering Khadr's proceedings.

GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA – Did Omar Khadr not show up in court today because he felt humiliated or because he was in pain?

The second day of Khadr's hearing was set to begin at 9 a.m. ET. It didn't start until 10 a.m. and Khadr was not in the seat he had occupied the day before.

A captain was called to the stand to testify about Khadr's whereabouts. She said he'd agreed to come to court but asked to see a doctor first because his eyes were causing him pain.

Khadr has shrapnel in both from the firefight that occurred before he was captured in 2002 in Afghanistan. He is blind in his left eye, and at times, he has severe pain in both eyes.

A doctor gave Khadr eye drops to help with the pain, but when he was returned to Camp 4 he refused to wear the "eyes and ears" for the ride to the courtroom, according to the captain.

She said he told her that he felt wearing the "eyes and ears" while in the windowless van ride to the court was humiliating.

The "eyes and ears" is shorthand for blacked-out ski goggles and noise-canceling earphones that prevent the detainee from knowing the route that's taken to the courthouse. Detainees who leave housing areas are forced to wear the gear.

In an email this morning, Navy Cmdr. Brad Fagan, director of public affairs for Joint Task Force Guantanamo said, "Khadr didn't attend court this morning because he's refusing to follow longstanding security transport procedures."

Now, Khadr doesn't have to come to court every day, but it could be detrimental to his case if he chooses not to attend, because he's not there to aid in his defense. There's a whole section in the very new Manual for Military Commissions that stresses the importance of the presence of the accused at the hearing and defines what a voluntary absence from court is.

The judge was going to consider this a voluntary absence and continue the proceedings without Khadr present. But after a short break, he told the court that he could find no record that Khadr ever was informed of his right to appear or to not appear and that Khadr had to be informed of his rights before the hearing could continue.

If the defense couldn't convince Khadr to come to court in the afternoon, the judge would order that Khadr be forced to appear.

When court was gaveled back into session at 2 p.m. ET, Khadr was in his seat with his head bowed and his hand covering his eyes. The judge informed Khadr of his rights and asked him if he understood. Khadr looked up, said a quiet "yes" and covered his eyes again. This Omar Khadr was a different person compared to the one that walked into the court with a smile on his face the first day of the commission.

Defense counsel Barry Coburn said the reason Khadr had refused to wear the blacked-out goggles is they made the pain in his eyes worse.

While I can't tell you if Khadr was physically in pain, his demeanor had definitely changed. No longer was he chatting with his lawyers periodically and scribbling and smiling. Today he just sat with head bowed and his hand over his eyes. Not even when the incriminating video of him allegedly helping to make and plant IEDs was played did he look up from the table. At times Khadr appeared to even be sobbing.

After today's hearing was over, Coburn said Khadr sobbed because he was in extreme pain. One of the defense's expert witnesses, a doctor, examined Khadr during the lunch recess and determined that in addition to the remaining shrapnel, he has conjunctivitis. While Coburn said he wouldn't second-guess base doctors, he questioned the fairness of proceedings taking place while Khadr was supposedly in severe pain.

While the defense has been very vocal in speaking to the media, today was the first time Fagan went in front of cameras. He said that after the hearing was over, Khadr was taken to a doctor and had another appointment scheduled with an optometrist afterward. Fagan reiterated that the "eyes and ears" is standard operating procedure and that he wasn't prepared to change that procedure for Khadr.

Can Khadr actively participate in his own defense if he is in severe pain? If a military doctor confirms he is in severe pain and he is absent from the proceedings, can that be considered a voluntary absence and can the commission proceed with his seat empty? And if Khadr didn't want to wear the goggles because of the pain they caused him, why did he say the "eyes and ears" humiliated him?

Let's see what happens tomorrow.

Shawna Thomas is an NBC News producer on assignment in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to cover a pre-trial military commission hearing for Omar Khadr.

Khadr is a Canadian citizen who is accused of murder and providing material support for terrorism along with other charges stemming from his alleged participation in a 2002 firefight with American troops in Afghanistan.

Khadr was 15 years old when he was captured in 2002 and is expected to stand trial at Guantanamo Bay in July of this year. His military trial would be the first governed by the 2009 Military Commissions Act that was signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2009.

Thomas is one of 37 print and television journalists from across the world covering Khadr's proceedings. 

GUANTANAMO BAY, CUBA – At the end of Recreation Road in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba are at least three detention facilities known as Camps 4, 5 and 6. The media is prohibited from visiting Camp 7, a maximum-security facility, and Camps 1, 2 and 3 are not in use.

Earlier this week, we were given a tour of Camp 4, where Omar Khadr is being held. We also got a tour of Camp 6.

SLIDESHOW: Life goes on in Guantanamo

Camp placement depends on the detainees' level of compliance. Detainees are neither bad nor good, but compliant and non-compliant. Camp 4 is for the most compliant detainees.

But no matter how compliant detainees are, the prevailing image is of the leg restraints, which are found in all of the empty classrooms and communal locations. A guard explained that the leg restraints are for the protection of the guards.

Games of backgammon, checkers and the coveted Nintendo DS units are some of the comfort items offered to the detainees, along with copies of USA Today and Arabic-language newspapers. 

The games and newspapers were laid out in the classroom for the media to see and shoot, but all of the cameras kept drifting to the ground where the restraints lay waiting to be used inside classrooms surrounded by razor wire.

But of course, the shot everybody wants is of the detainees. We inched our cameras as close as possible to a chain link fence that allowed us to view detainee comings and goings in the yard of Camp 4.

We recorded men in white robes walking by, talking to each other and at times staring at our cameras. But, every time someone turned around and looked directly at us – it became another shot that was going to have to be removed from our tapes and media cards at the end of the day. 

The media are restricted from photographing faces or distinguishing features of detainees because it could be a violation of the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War.

In addition to requiring that prisoners of war "must at all times be treated humanely," Article 13 states prisoners must be protected against acts of violence and intimidation, but also "against insults and public curiosity."

We left Krakow, Poland, on Monday afternoon.

At the end of an eight-day assignment covering the death of Poland's president and many of its elite in a plane crash, the eruption of a volcano in Iceland resulted in what looked like an epic voyage home to England. Instead of a 150-minute flight, we embarked on a journey that was set to take us through five countries: Poland, Germany, Holland, Belgium and France.

 HVOLSVOLLUR, ICELAND – For almost 24 hours after the cloud cover had lifted, I'd been watching with awe as the volcanic plume over Eyjafjallajokull grew. 

It was especially dramatic at night with bright white lightning strikes and bursts of energy glowing orange and red against the backdrop of that now enormous gray-black plume.

 But nothing prepared me for what it would be like to fly over the open mouth of the crater and watch a non-stop display of massive, heart-stopping eruptions.

As the helicopter ascended to 5,000, then 6,000 feet - hovering right against the side of these eruptions - the view was unlike anything I could ever have imagined.

The billowing mounds that appear largely benign from the ground; that seem to move only in shifting winds, were instead dramatically alive.  There were so many different kinds of eruptions – ferocious, riveting explosions – it was like watching multiple displays of Fourth of July fireworks at once, and at eye level. And they were so tantalizingly – and terrifyingly – close, I felt I could almost reach out and touch them.

The door of the helicopter was wide open with the legs of my phenomenal videographer, Carlos, hanging out the side.  And me, simultaneously mesmerized by the awesome display and protectively grasping the strap of his camera from the back. 

This is one time when I don't think if I sat at my computer for days the words would come to describe what many of you may have already seen on Nightly News or TODAY.

But suffice it to say that what a lens can't begin to adequately capture is the sheer size and unbelievable force of that volcanic ice mixing with superheated magma: a mountain belching out tons of molten rock is a mind-blowing spectacle.

VIDEO: Hovering over Hell

Soon, we were circling around the mouth of the volcano, only occasionally catching a glimpse down into the crater as yet another blast would momentarily light the opening in the Earth. From every angle and every changing direction, the scene dazzled. Unlike those Independence Day celebrations, there were no breaks in the action, and no SOUND to be heard over the roaring of the helicopter blades and what I felt, but surely couldn't actually hear:  the pounding of my heart.

Eight miles and a swift ride away we descended more closely above the blindingly sunlit Katla. Eyafjalla is the fifth largest volcano of the 35 in Iceland, Katla the biggest.  Geologically, there is no link between the two, though physically they are close enough that the visual contrast between the glistening glacier blanketing Katla and the exploding glacier that had capped Eyafjalla was enough to leave even our University of Cambridge volcanologist temporarily speechless. I knew from earlier interviews that small earthquakes were rumbling beneath Eyafjalla, shifting the flow of magma and opening new pathways for its movements. It is entirely possible – some experts believe even likely  - that one of those seismic shifts will travel across the eight miles and spark Katla to blow. She's about 40 years overdue, and if Katla goes, my new volcanologist friend finally told me, the force could be ONE HUNDRED TIMES what we're seeing now. Given what I had just witnessed, I cannot begin to fathom the enormity of that kind of brilliant, destructive power. 

After an hour in the air, astounded, shaken, and convinced that I would never see a display of Mother Nature quite like what I had just witnessed, we drove around the mountain through police roadblocks, cautiously aware of warnings about the unpredictable danger on the other side, and entered what I described in my story as hell. The wind had changed direction overnight, and the ever-growing cloud of ash was now blanketing farms along the southern edge of the volcano. At first, it looked like driving into a tornado. There were even small funnels of volcanic grit moving across open fields, like mini-twisters.  But again, the landscape would change in an instant and we went from daylight to darkness and back again in the course of 30 seconds. Our SUV was soon coated in fine ash and within moments of stepping out onto the desolate road, so were we.  I only had my mask off for a few minutes, but my throat and eyes were burning as I breathed in the miniscule shards of ice and rock blown apart by volcanic energy. A few cars, then trucks hauling horse trailers, rushed by - escaping the dark, enveloping cloud. I felt conflicted: wanting to escape myself from something so frightening and erratic, and yet completely captivated by those same forces. Wind gusts blew the camera over and nearly knocked me off my feet. A pair of birds, coated in ash, struggled with limited success to take flight. Then the clock made my stay-or-flee decision for me: we had to get back, write and edit, and set up for a liveshot. 

After being calmed and cleansed by a hot shower and the brief quiet of my hotel room, we were back in the filthy car driving up a gravel road to a house in the shadow of Eyjafjalla. The cattle farm needed no adornment to look like a movie set: a corrugated metal barn door, a bale of hay, and a trailer hitch aglow in sea of television lights. It's all so surreal I wonder for a fleeting moment if I really did see and experience so much in one day – or was it a creation for the cameras? In reality, no studio budget, however large, could concoct what unfolded before me or make me feel what it did.  I've been awed and alarmed by Mother Nature before – covering fires, floods, hurricanes and earthquakes  - but never, ever, quite like this.

VATICAN CITY – The view of St. Peter's Basilica down via della Conciliazione is still spectacular, especially at sunset. Tourists meander on the sidewalks and still eat gelato. The faithful bring rosary beads, medals, and other religious symbols to the weekly papal audience and still yearn for the blessing.

But Holy Week 2010 is different. Instead of just the annual reflection on the death and resurrection of Jesus, this year there is an undercurrent of anger over the revelations of clergy sexual abuse here in Europe.

Maciej Bugajak / NBC News

The sun sets on St. Peter's Square as Roman Catholic pilgrims observe Holy Week.

"They feel very betrayed, very betrayed. But they'll get through it just like we did in America," said Bob Duncan who hails from Avondale, Pa. He and his wife, Sue, are on a 40th wedding anniversary trip to Italy. A papal mass is a must for them this Holy Week.

"Certainly, we want those people to be comforted," said Sue, referring to the abuse victims. "But I do not think it overrides Easter."

The scandal was mentioned in almost every sentence when people talked about the Catholic Church this week. All eyes are on Pope Benedict XVI, who celebrated Holy Thursday Mass earlier today. He will lead the Way of the Cross on Good Friday and delivers his annual speech to the city and the world on Easter Sunday.

I asked the Vatican's spokesperson, Father Federico Lombardi, on Wednesday if the pope would address the issue this week. "You will have to listen," he told me, impatient with the questions that will not stop. 

While there is plenty of debate about what Pope Benedict knew about two cases of abusive priests when he was Cardinal Josef Ratzinger, there is a yearning among visitors, especially Catholic visitors, to hear from the pope on the issue.

VIDEO: Cardinals continue defense of Pope Benedict XVI

Lombardi insisted that the pope has not been silent or insensitive to this difficult issue. "He has been a witness of clarity, of decision, of transparency in all the problem of sexual abuses," he said.

When I asked why the pope hasn't said anything to the Catholics in the Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, even his native Germany, Lombardi directed me to the letter Benedict wrote to the Irish church about its abusive priest crisis two weeks ago.

"But everyone can understand also many references to situations that are also in other lands," Lombardi said. "There are very, very profound and touching words for the victims with the profound understanding of the suffering of the situations. Also, with very hard words for the abusers. And also, with important words of responsibilities for the bishops."

In world of 24-hour news cycles, the Vatican continues to move at its own pace, confounding many here who want comfort, apologies, and most of all, assurance that when a priest is found to be an abuser that he will be thrown out instead to another assignment where he can abuse again. 

Though many are frustrated, they are also quick to separate the predators from the rest of the priesthood. 

Rob Coppedge was visiting Rome with his fiancée, Anastasia. He is a student at Georgetown University, run by the Jesuit order. He said that when he hears about the increasing number of accusations, he thinks of the wonderful priests he knows at Georgetown.

"I see those as acts of individuals rather than being institutional acts," said Coppedge, while visiting St. Peter's Square. 

I heard many comments like that from Catholics who have respect for the priests they know, the ones who teach, counsel and obey their vows. 

Their real anger is directed at the leadership, or lack of leadership, at the Vatican during this very sacred week for the Christian world.

Related story: Vatican: Pope has immunity in sex abuse trials

ACAPULCO, Mexico – On the surface, the beach town here is idyllic.

Crystal blue waters. Song birds with bright yellow wings darting from tree to tree.

And then there are the American college students.

They're tanning, tossing Frisbees and in some cases stumbling along the strip here with Corona beers in hand.

VIDEO: Killings dampen spring break fun in Acapulco

But what seems like paradise has been invaded by the harsh reality of drug cartel violence that has spilled from Mexico's underworld to the nation's streets.

Just this past weekend, nearly 50 people were killed nationwide in apparent drug-gang violence – 13 people were killed in and around Acapulco, with four victims found beheaded. 
 
Three people with ties to the U.S. Consulate were killed Saturday in Ciudad Juarez, a city along the Texas border more than 1,000 miles from here. The victims – who were chased down in broad daylight while returning home from a child's birthday party – are believed to have been mistakenly targeted by drug cartel hit men.

Drug violence is endemic in Mexico. The casualty numbers sound like those from a conventional war. Fifty uniformed police officers murdered in just three days; 2,009 people killed since the beginning of the year. And many of the assassinations carry a brutal cartel trademark: beheading.

Still, an estimated 10,000 American college students will come to Acapulco – drawn by MTV's annual spring break production, and by lax enforcement of drinking laws.

"It's definitely on your mind, but I think I feel pretty safe with the military and the police all around the hotels," said Amber Hay, on break from Los Angles.

"We're trying to have a good time, me and my friends," said Alex Warren, a student from Indiana University. "We're trying to stick in groups and at nighttime, we're trying to make sure that even though the clubs are far away, we're not trying to venture off from the touristy area."

The state government, admitting it can do little to curb the violence, is worried about how the surge in violence is cutting into already low tourist levels. By some estimates, just half as many Americans visited Acapulco in 2009 as in the year before. In an effort to calm fears, authorities in Acapulco are flooding the tourist strip, known as the "Golden Zone," with police.

Dozens of police on foot, motor scooters and dune buggies are now stationed around and along the beach of Playa Suites, Acapulco's main hotel hosting the Spring Break parties. Authorities are advising the students to stay safe by keeping their partying close to the tourist zone. So far it's working.

 VICTORIA, Seychelles – With mouths shut and eyes downcast, a group of Somali men and boys sat around a table in the police station in Victoria, the Seychelles' capital city on the island of Mahé.

A police officer un-cuffed the 11 prisoners, some of whom were barefoot, and left the room as their court-appointed lawyer explained that they faced seven years to life in prison on charges of piracy and terrorism. 

"Make no mistake, you are facing some very, very, very serious charges," defense lawyer Anthony Juliette said through an interpreter flown in from Kenya.

"The evidence against you is quite overwhelming," said Juliette, while promising to do everything in his power to fight the charges against them.

It isn't every day I find myself in a room full of alleged pirates. But that is where I was recently in the Seychelles, an archipelago made of 115 tropical islands in the Indian Ocean, about 900 miles off the east coast of Africa. 

The group I was sitting with is accused of firing on a Seychellois coast guard ship before being captured along with AK-47s, a global positioning device and a rocket-propelled grenade. The men and boys, some as young as 14, claimed to be fishermen, but were found without a line, fish or bait, according to Seychelles' Coast Guard.

Piracy spreading
With the world's navies squeezing Somali pirates out of the Gulf of Aden, their recent hunting grounds, the bandits have begun targeting shipping in the vast Indian Ocean.

As a result, the Seychelles, long a vacation destination for the world's beautiful and rich and also home to a sizeable tuna fishing industry, has recently found itself at the center of the global battle on piracy. 

In February 2009, pirates seized the ship "Serenity" with Seychellois citizens Gilbert Victor, Conrad Andre and Robin Samson aboard. The men were released after seven months, but that was not the last incident to strike the archipelago's waters.

Courtesy Seychelles government

Gilbert Victor, a Seychelles citizen who was on a ship that was seized by pirates and held captive for seven months, is embraced after his release.

In October, Paul Chandler and his wife Rachel, both of Kent, England, were captured as their yacht sailed from the Seychelles to Tanzania. The hostage-takers initially demanded $7 million, a vast amount for the middle class family, relatives countered. The figure has reportedly gone down to $2 million, but the Chandlers are still captive.

But pirates prefer to hunt larger prey, and have been known to hijack oil tankers and cargo ships carrying aid. And while few Western hostages have been killed, pirates have been known to simply throw Filipino and Chinese sailors overboard because their countries' governments usually refuse to pay ransoms.

The growing high-seas banditry is a blow to Seychelles' economy, and piracy is cited as one of the major reasons for last year's 30 percent fall in port activity, Srdjana Janosevic, the Seychelles presidential spokeswoman said. 

So the Seychelles has had to appeal to mightier countries for aid.  In the last six months, the government signed agreements allowing ships and planes from NATO, the European Union and the United States to patrol its waters.

The help may have paid off on Dec. 5 when a NATO spy plane spotted three boats allegedly carrying the men and boys I sat with more than a month later in the Victoria police station.

F. Brinley Bruton / msnbc.com

A group of alleged Somali pirates listen to their lawyer during a meeting in Victoria, Seychelles.

Trying to combat an increasingly 'attractive option'
Their trial, which is expected to begin on Monday, March 15, is the first case to be brought against pirates in this small nation. It is unlikely to be the last. 

"There is a definite preference from naval states policing this area for pirates to be tried and incarcerated in the region, and that means Kenya and Seychelles at the moment," said Roger Middleton, a researcher specializing in the Horn of Africa at Chatham House, a London think tank. "[Western countries] are nervous about bringing hundreds of Somalis into Europe and having them claim asylum."

The Seychelles says it is committed to doing its part.

"Everybody has to put in their effort to combat the scourge of piracy," said the country's Attorney General Ronny Govinden.  "We want this trial to be a deterrent to the potential criminals."

But even if the Seychelles and Kenya, which holds about 100 alleged pirates, step up to the plate, it is hard to see how this and the heavy naval presence in the area will stamp-out  a problem stemming from Somalia, a failed state about hundreds of miles away.

"All the money, all the ships being spent trying to stop these boys of 14, 15, that could be spent on making sure they stay on land," the court-appointed interpreter said to me shaking his head.

With an ongoing civil war, severe drought, collapsed economy and no functioning government, the pirates are one of Somalia's only exports. Currently, these high-seas bandits hold seven major vessels and about 160 crew members hostage, according to State Department numbers.

"There are massive problems with unemployment (in Somalia), so the option for most young men is to join some militia or some kind of government-ish kind of force," Chatham House's Middleton said.

"So piracy seems like an attractive option. You can make about $10,000 from being a pirate foot soldier, while a normal guy in Somalia makes $600 a year," he said.

Juliette, the Somalis' lawyer, believes that the international community has failed in its obligation to try and make peace in the Horn of Africa, and is now transferring the burden onto the tiny Seychelles.

"There is a big international concern regarding piracy around the world so a lot of eyes are watching … The Seychelles government will want to be seen to be doing a lot," Juliette told his clients, who mainly looked distracted and nervous.

One of the Somalis, a young man with a wispy beard who appeared to speak on behalf of the group, repeatedly said that all of them were innocent fishermen and had been badly beaten by the Coast Guard when they were picked up.

"We never saw the weapons until we were in custody," the man said through the interpreter. "We didn't even think we were in the Seychelles when we were caught."

Juliette countered.

"If you are fishermen, I want lines, hooks, bait," he said. "You prove you were fishing, you prove that you were there for a legitimate reason."

By Kiko Itasaka, NBC News producer 
More than 8 million Toyota owners had been waiting for an explanation and an apology. They were kept waiting for a reason -- saying sorry is no simple matter in Japan.

The art of expressing regret is very nuanced. There are different levels of saying sorry, ranging from a simple "excuse me" to "please accept my most humble regrets," and these words are accompanied with bows of varying degrees. The degree of apology is often carefully considered.
 
On Tuesday, in heavily accented and carefully phrased English, Toyota's president Akio Toyoda apologized for letting down his customers. It is not unusual for a Japanese executive to take responsibility. In fact it is very typically Japanese. Toyoda's departure was to issue his statement in English. Normally a Japanese executive would speak in Japanese with simultaneous translation rather than be embarrassed by less-than-perfect English. Toyota is clearly desperate to reach out to its global audience and in particular, the huge American market.
 
Separately, in the Washington Post, Toyoda accepted that his company had let down their customers. "As president of Toyota, I take personal responsibility" he wrote. That is why I am personally leading the effort to restore trust in our world and in our products."
 
Long history of apologies
Japan has a long history of corporate personal apology in Japan. In 1985, following the crash of Japan Airlines flight 123, the president of JAL Yasumoto Tagaki assumed full responsibility for the accident, the worst single-airplane incident in aviation history. Of the 524 passengers only four survived.  Takagi went to the extraordinary length of personally visiting the families of the victims. It was only after he had fulfilled this obligation and offered one last public apology that he resigned. Another JAL employee, a maintenance manager apologized in a more extreme manner: he committed suicide.
 
The Japanese government has yet to apologize directly to the "Comfort Women," Chinese and Korean and Filipino women who were forced to provide sexual services for Japanese soldiers during World War II. The Japanese government has expressed regret and deep remorse, and has offered forms of financial compensation, without actually outright apologizing. Again, the degree of contrition has been much-debated. They may well be sorry, but in a measured manner. 
 
The art of apology is an intrinsic part of Japanese culture. When you ask a shopkeeper for help, or when you bump into someone on the inevitably crowded trains, you say "sumimasen." A direct translation of this phrase is "excuse me," but a more a more accurate rendition is "I am so sorry to bother you."

Apologizing is as common as saying please and thank you. It is a way of maintaining harmony in social situations. If you are the first to leave work in a Japanese office, you say "Osaki ni sitsuree simasu," which means "I commit the great rudeness of leaving first."
 
And apologies are a part of the business world for Japanese companies. A corporate leader accepts responsibility for all accomplishments and failures of his business, and because Japan is not a litigious society, they worry less about lawsuits. Toyota's apology was carefully planned. It may have been a long time coming, but there was a lot of planning and plotting before Toyota expressed its regrets.
 
At his press conference Toyoda said, "We will do everything in our power to regain the confidence of our customers."

He ended his statement with a deep and proper bow. His message: he is truly sorry. 

TOKYO, Japan – I've always found Japanese press conferences to be infuriatingly polite.

And that's initially how it seemed Thursday as we were ushered into a large conference hall at Toyota's Tokyo headquarters for a presser called to unveil the company's much improved quarterly results.

It was packed, and soon highjacked by the recall crisis, putting beleaguered executives on the defensive, describing quality as their "lifeline." They revealed that the recalls would cost Toyota a staggering $2 billion in lost sales and costs to put right the gas pedal problems which have led to the recall of more than 8 million vehicles worldwide.

VIDEO: Hearts sinking in Toyota ci

Just as I was beginning to enjoy it, Toyota called time. Thirty minutes had been allocated, and after precisely 30 minutes, that part ended. Then another executive in a grey suit took the hot seat to talk – for exactly 30 minutes more – about new problems, this time with Toyota's best selling hybrid, the Prius.

The Prius problem is a brake problem, and involves dozens of complaints about inadequate braking on bumpy or frozen roads. It doesn't appear to be on the scale of the gas pedal recalls, although the company plans to recall 270,000 of its Prius hybrid in Japan and the U.S., according to a report by the Nikkei News Service. However, on Thursday afternoon, a spokesperson at Toyota's U.S. sales division said he did not have any information about Toyota's decision to recall the Prius.

Still, Prius' woes have a broader significance – the hybrid is the jewel in Toyota's crown, and these cars were made in Japan.

Until now, there has been a real tendency here to see the quality problems as a foreign problem. Several times I've been told, "This could never happen in Japan."

Toyota here is more than a car company – it's a national icon. Only last week it was named as Japan's best known and most valuable global brand.

'Welcome to Toyota City'
On Wednesday, I took the bullet train from Tokyo for the two-hour ride to Nagoya, the heart of Toyota country, where the company and its suppliers employ tens of thousands of people.

The region boomed as Toyota conquered the world, and the world's biggest car maker is a source of enormous pride in Nagoya, even though there have been unprecedented job losses over the past year as a result of the global financial crisis, that plunged the company into the red for the first time in 70 years.

I took a taxi – a Toyota, naturally – to Toyota City, the manufacturing hub.

"This region is totally dependent on Toyota," my driver, Seiji Sekoguchi, told me. He's now keeping a wary eye on the snowballing quality problems. "It's been a shock for Toyota and the auto industry here," he told me.

A large banner across the road read: "Welcome to Toyota City," and we were soon surrounded by massive car assembly plants.

The workers here are only too aware of how Toyota's reputation for quality has brought wealth and prosperity to the region, but they are now learning how fragile reputation can be.

"It's not a good thing," one worker said of the worldwide recalls, as he ended a shift in a plant making luxury cars.

While another said he regrets the recalls, he was confident the quality problems could never happen in Japan. That was before the news about the Prius.

The region's most famous resident is Akio Toyoda, the grandson of the company's founder (who retains the original spelling of name). He was briefly confronted by journalists at the economic summit in Davos, but otherwise has been almost invisible since the crisis began, a source of growing consternation here in Japan.

Pride of place in Toyota City is a Toyota museum, a monument to the glory days, where thousands come to be entertained by musical robots and wooed by the company's cutting edge design and technology.

But today, you won't find such a confident note outside, in the town that Toyota built.

Related story: As Toyota stumbles, schadenfreude lurks