• Is peace really in the air in Afghanistan?

    Naweed Haqjoo / EPA

    Relatives greet the former Taliban militants following their release from Bagram detention center in Kabul, after they reached their home town in Ghazni, Afghanistan, Jan. 2, 2013. Some 16 former Taliban members who were detained during operations in Ghazni by the U.S. and Afghan forces were released as part of a government-backed program called Takhim-e-Solh, or "Strengthening Peace."

    By Jim Maceda, NBC News

    News analysis

    There’s something wafting in the air in Afghanistan, and for once it’s not the smell of detritus, diesel or cordite.  People – rivals, even enemies -- are talking about peace. Not just talks about talks – those have been going on – and off – for a couple of years now.  But serious, genuine moves toward reconciliation are – for the first time since I can remember – actually squeezing into an otherwise depressing narrative of stalemate and loss.


    Take the Pakistani government’s Dec. 31 release from prison of eight former Taliban members, including Taliban leader Mullah Omar’s right-hand man and former justice minister, Mullah Turabi. This move, Afghan analysts say, is part of a new strategy, formulated in a November meeting between Afghan and Pakistani officials in Islamabad. The release, they say, was more than a goodwill gesture between bitter rivals. The clear hope was that freed former Taliban officials with the stature of Turabi would serve as emissaries, clearing the way for peace talks between Hamid Karzai’s government and the current Taliban leadership – based in Pakistan – and with the Pakistan government’s blessing. 

    This was no isolated move. Eighteen other jailed Taliban were released earlier in December, among them men who used to command Taliban units in the field. Not surprisingly, official Afghan reaction has been quick and positive. Ismail Qasimyar, a ranking member of the High Peace Council, Karzai’s appointed group of diplomats seeking reconciliation, said the gesture "shows the Pakistani authorities have opened a new chapter for positive cooperation with Afghanistan." It’s the first time since the war began that I’ve seen Afghanistan and Pakistan treat each other as potential partners, not spoilers.

    Pakistan’s military, believed by many to be supporting the Afghan Taliban as a means of leveraging its influence with its chaotic neighbor, is now jumping on the peace bandwagon as well. And it’s not just Pakistan’s Army Chief Ashfaq Kayani, the alleged driving force behind the new rapprochement, who is changing his tune.

    Buried in the pre-holiday build-up, a semi-secret meeting took place outside Paris between 20 key Afghan players, under the auspices of a French think tank. Afghan government and opposition figures, and, for the first time, insurgent leaders, including the Taliban and its offshoot, Hezb-e-Islami, all sat down together. There were no breakthroughs, or even concessions, but the point was to get all the warring sides to do something they hadn’t done in some 30 years: talk directly to each other. 

    Officially, the Taliban stuck to its public positions. It called the Afghan constitution illegitimate and refused to negotiate with the "U.S. puppet" Karzai government, but a positive momentum does seem to be building. More "secret" talks are set to follow. The United Nations office in Kabul has invited the Taliban to a conference there. Meanwhile, an official Taliban bureau will soon open in Qatar for parallel talks with the United States.

    Watch World News videos on NBCNews.com

    Even the much-feared warlord and former Mujahedeen commander Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who was labeled a global terrorist by the U.S. and has been on the lam for the past dozen years, is now launching his own peace balloons. In an interview that appeared in Wednesday’s British "Daily Telegraph," the man who, as prime minister in the 1990s, oversaw the brutal flattening of much of Kabul, spells out a 10-point peace plan, calling on all Afghan brothers to unite, asking "all the stakeholders within Afghanistan to join hands for a workable solution for Afghanistan and resolve disputes.’’

    Cynics – and there are many – aren’t buying any of it. Their arguments are well-known: They say civil war will break out as soon as the U.S. and its allies go home; that the moderate Taliban may want to put down their AKs and become a political force, but it’s the hard-core who rule, and who believe they’re winning the war; that all the peace feelers are just ways of buying time while the Afghan Taliban ratchets up its attacks on local security forces and the Pakistani Taliban doubles down on its side of the border, most recently killing a group of female NGO and aid workers.

    All that rings true. But then I take a deep breath –- and smell that very different smell -– and ask: could this really be the turning point I’ve been writing about for so long?

    Jim Maceda is an NBC News foreign correspondent based in London and currently on assignment in Kabul, who’s covered Afghanistan since the 1980s.

    Slideshow: Afghanistan: Nation at a crossroads

    Daniel Berehulak / Getty Images

    More than ten years after the beginning of the war, Afghanistan faces external pressure to reform as well as ongoing internal conflicts.

    Launch slideshow

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  • Commemoration or deification? Pakistanis honor 'martyred queen' Benazir Bhutto

    Rizwan Tabassum / AFP - Getty Images

    Crowds gather outside the Bhutto family mausoleum in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh on Thursday.

    By Waj S. Khan, NBC News

    GARHI KHUDA BAKHSH, Pakistan --  In a country where ethnicity is more important than nationalism, little is celebrated collectively other than the odd cricket victory, and most fallen heroes are forgotten or berated, the commemoration of assassinated Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has gone the other direction and is verging on deification.

    Since Bhutto’s death on Dec. 27, 2007, the region’s deep obsession with mysticism and the occult has evolved to incorporate her legacy.

    “I’m here because the ‘martyred queen’ was there for us,” said Mustafa, a police officer from Bhutto’s nearby hometown of Larkana who volunteered to oversee security during a rally last week at a massive Bhutto mausoleum, a modern rendition of the Taj Mahal.

    As Mustafa talked, electricity seemed to fill what is now Pakistan's most politicized tomb, with nearly a quarter of a million followers thronging to Bhutto’s ancestral graveyard. It was Pakistan’s State of the Union, Woodstock and Thanksgiving Day Parade, all rolled into one.

    Wajahat S. Khan / NBC News

    The Bhutto family mausoleum in Garhi Dera Bakhsh in the southern province of Sindh, Pakistan.

    “I have this honor to serve in uniform because she bequeathed it,” the 29-year-old Mustafa told NBC News, as house music remixed with Sufi poetry and Bhutto’s own speeches rang through state-of-the-art speakers in a walled-off compound the size of a dozen football fields. 

    The posthumous granting of titular royalty upon Bhutto is hardly surprising. Bhutto’s brand of populism raged in the days leading to the main event -- a speech on Thursday by her son, 24-year old Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, which propelled him into the rough and tumble mainstream of Pakistani politics.

    An A to Z guide to the Islamic Republic of 'Banistan'

    Considered Pakistan’s most important political dynasty, the Bhuttos have crafted a critical brand over nearly five decades: Ivy Leaguers with feudal holdings; anti-military progressives with Islamic leanings; minority Sindhis who have challenged the Punjabi majority; loud and proud Shiites in an increasingly tense and sectarian Sunni country -- a modern cross between the Kennedys, the Tudors and the landed rajas of the subcontinent.

    Bhutto's assassination just reinforced the existing cult of martyrdom widely followed by many in her constituency in the Sindh province and throughout Pakistan, according to Raza Rumi, who directs policy for The Jinnah Institute, one of Pakistan's leading and more liberal think tanks.

    Rizwan Tabassum / AFP - Getty Images

    President Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of assassinated former premier Benazir Bhutto, embraces his son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari outside the Bhutto family mausoleum in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh, Pakistan, on Thursday.

    "The legends and myths of famous Muslim sacrifices through the centuries have set the parameter for this religious/magical/political framework that now dominates her narrative," he said. 

    Hashish, whiskey
    At last week's rally, the smell of hashish and whiskey whiffed from dark corners, mixing exotically with the aroma of the langar, a makeshift community cafeteria designed to feed thousands. But it was the combination of mysticism and politics that make the growing movement surrounding the Bhutto legacy unique.  

    Full NBC News coverage of Pakistan

    Dilawar, 28, and Samina, 20, who had trekked from neighboring Dadu with their 2-year-old child, swore about the magical powers of “Bibi Shaheed,” which translates from Urdu as “Martyred Lady.”

    “It was this annual ziarat and dua (pilgrimage and prayers) to her grave that made our baby come into the world. Our conditions got better. That’s why we come every year,” Dilawar told NBC News.

    A suicide bombing at a political rally kills Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto. NBC's Matt Lauer reports.

    7 aid workers shot and killed in Pakistan

    Speaker after speaker took to the 40-feet high stage protected by bulletproof glass. “One Zardari outweighs them all!” the crowd chanted.

    The reference was for the man who had just landed via helicopter, the current president and Bhutto’s widower, Asif Ali Zardari, who has managed to keep her party -- Pakistan’s most popular -- intact and in command, but barely, of the nation’s divided and war-torn polity.

    'Modern political goddess'
    "[During the] last five years, the death anniversary of Bhutto has turned out to be a bigger event than many actual mainstream religious events across Pakistan," said Rumi, the policy analyst. "That's phenomenal politics. The invocation of Sufi legends with a modern political goddess have altered the spiritual consciousness of the rural population." 

    Slideshow: Pakistan: A nation in turmoil

    Muhammed Muheisen / AP

    Images of daily life, political pursuits, religious rites and deadly violence.

    Launch slideshow

    The credit for sustaining the Bhutto brand through the institutionalization of this commemorative rally goes to Zardari. In a country accustomed to military coups, he has almost completing the full term of an elected civilian government for the first time since the Pakistan's independence 65 years ago.

    Can social media propel 'rock star' politician Imran Khan to power in Pakistan?

    While Zardari is considered one of Pakistan's sharpest political operatives, he is less popular than Bhutto was, and spent the years between 1996 to 2004 in jail on corruption charges that he says were politically motivated. But as he grooms his son to take over the country's largest political party, he continues to be locked in a power struggle with the judiciary as well as the so-called deep state, local parlance for the military establishment.

    At the rally, which his government branded “The Day of Martyrdom," the hundreds of thousands greeted Zardari with a roar of approval as he pledged free elections in a country unaccustomed to them.

    Dec. 27: Benazir Bhutto was born to lead the fight for Democracy in a hard-line Muslim nation. NBC's Chris Clackum looks back at her life.

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  • Drug-resistant malaria in Thailand threatens deadly global 'nightmare'

    Scientists are battling to stop a drug-resistant malaria that could threaten the lives of millions. "We worry that we are running out of time," one scientist says. NBC News' Ian Williams reports from northwestern Thailand.

    By Ian Williams, NBC News

    MAE SOT, Thailand -- Clipboard in hand, Dr Francois Nosten worked his way down a ward of malaria patients. He stopped in front of five-year-old Ayemyint Than, who sat to attention and smiled. The smile told Nosten as much as his lines of graphs and figures.

    Ian Williams / NBC News

    Ayemyint Than, 5, is being treated for malaria in northwestern Thailand.

    "She's doing well," he said, moving to an older man, whose pale face and dull sunken eyes told a very different story. "Day five, and he's still positive?" he asked another of the doctors. "That's not very good. It means he was very slow to clear the parasite, no?"

    To Nosten, it was further evidence of an alarming rise in resistance to artemisinin, currently the front-line drug in the treatment of malaria. He fears it could be the start of a global "nightmare" in which millions of people could lose their lives.

    "We have to beat this resistance, win this race and eliminate the parasite before it’s too late. That's our challenge now," he said.

    He said that artemisinin should take about 24 hours to deal with the parasite, but it was now taking three or four days in some cases. "We are going to see patients that don't respond to the treatment anymore,” he warned.

    Nosten runs the Shoklo Malaria Research Unit, which is part of the Faculty of Tropical Medicine at Thailand's Mahidol University.

    The unit has a string of clinics on both sides of the Moi River, which marks the porous border between Thailand and Myanmar.

    Ian Williams / NBC News

    Migrants cross the Moi River, marking the border between Myanmar and Thailand.

    Nosten set up the first one in 1986, since when there has been a steady fall in the total number of cases of malaria, but most recently a worrying emergence of drug resistance.

    He first sounded the alarm in research published earlier this year, following the emergence of similar drug resistance along the Thai-Cambodia border.

    Full health coverage from NBC News

    Nosten’s not sure whether the resistance he's found has spread from the Cambodia border or is home-grown. Either way, he's worried.

    "It means that all the progress of the last 10 to 15 years will be lost," he warned. "Now the resistance is here, we worry that we are running out of time."

    Ian Williams / NBC News

    Staff examine a baby who has been brought to the clinic with a fever, suspected to be malaria.

    The malaria parasite -- carried by infected mosquitoes from person to person -- still kills an estimated 655,000 people a year.

    That's almost 2,000 a day, mostly in Africa, with children being most at risk.

    If the world loses its front-line drug, the impact could be devastating.

    "The nightmare scenario is that the resistance will travel," Nosten said.

    "We know what will happen in Africa when resistance is bad because we've been there before in the 1990s with chloroquine (another anti-malarial drug) … millions of deaths," he warned.

    "We must prevent artemisinin resistance reaching Africa, but we also need to control it for the people in Asia - for their future."

    Ian Williams / NBC News

    Dr Francois Nosten, right, consults staff as he meets malaria patients at a clinic near Mae Sot, Thailand.

    Resistance to just about every major anti-malarial drug has started in the border regions that have been home to Nosten for more than 25 years.

    Nobody knows exactly why, but poverty, conflict and large migrant and refugee populations constantly on the move all likely play a part. As do fake drugs or a failure to properly complete a course of treatment.

    In the case of chloroquine, once the anti-malarial drug of choice, it took less than 20 years for resistance to spread from the borders of Thailand to Africa.

    Study: Mosquitoes change habits to avoid anti-malaria nets

    Nosten is worried that artemisinin resistance is growing much faster than he'd anticipated, with the drug failing initially to fully clear the parasite in more than half the cases he now sees.

    "It initially goes after a few days, then it comes back. We see that more and more now," he said.

    "In 2009, we still had 90 percent of patients cured. In 2010, it dropped to 60 to 70 percent. Now it's about 50 percent," he added.

    Ian Williams / NBC News

    Migrants from Myanmar wait to be examined at a clinic on the Thai side of the border.

    Some scientists claim this is too alarmist, since the parasite does eventually die, with longer treatment and higher drug doses, but Nosten sees no room for complacency.

    "We have to respond quickly, not next year or three years' time. It's now or probably it will be too late," he said.

    Artemisinin comes from a Chinese plant and is quick, potent and with no side effects. Little wonder it has been hailed as a wonder drug, the golden bullet in the global fight against malaria.

    What makes the resistance so worrying is that there is no new drug ready to replace it.

    Nosten said that although several drugs are in development, they could be five to 10 years away from deployment "if they make it  … and we haven't got five to 10 years.”

    The Shoklo Malaria Research Unit runs its own labs fashioned out of a sprawling old Thai house in the border town of Mae Sot, where teams of research scientists are working to better understand the parasite and the mosquitoes that carry it from person to person.

    It is here that Chiara Andolina keeps mosquitoes that are literally hand-reared -- fed from her arm, which she extends through a mesh hole into a container of the hungry creatures every three days.

    "Usually I feed around 600 of them in a cage like this," she said.

    Of course these are not infected mosquitoes, though watching them settle on her arm for a good lunch is not a sight for the squeamish.

    Read more international coverage from NBC News

    In another room, Nosten settled over photographs showing the rapid development of the parasite once it has invaded a blood cell.

    "If you can kill them very, very young -- like these -- they don't have time to develop into big fatty ones," he said, his pen jabbing at the photo. "These fatty ones are the ones that get stuck in your brain and kill you."

    In other rooms, the DNA of parasites was being isolated and sequenced and drugs were being tested as part of Nosten and his team’s efforts to figure out what's behind the emerging resistance.

    They are also looking for vulnerabilities and new ways to attack their enemy.

    "It's hugely important to understand what's going on and contain it if we can," Nosten said. "We need to try things. We need to explore. It’s like exploring new territories in malaria."

    Bazell: Malaria vaccine a half-effective, temporary protection

    The French scientist has spent most of his working life in the tropics, initially with the medical humanitarian group Médecins Sans Frontières.

    He believes he is engaged in a vital battle -- "a race against malaria" -- as he puts it.

    After so many years on the malarial front lines, the battle has become deeply personal.

    He dreams of completely eliminating this familiar but wily enemy.

    However, he also knows that with the emergence of artemisinin resistance the stakes have never been higher.

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  • US drone strike kills Taliban commander, sources say

    By Reuters
    ISLAMABAD - A U.S. drone strike killed a Taliban commander, his deputy and eight others in northern Pakistan, intelligence sources and tribal leaders said Thursday.

    Maulvi Nazir Wazir, also known as Mullah Nazir, an important commander from the Wazir tribe, was killed on Wednesday night when missiles struck a house in Angoor Adda, near the capital of Wana, South Waziristan, near the Afghan border, seven intelligence sources and two residents from his tribe said.


    His deputy, Ratta Khan, was also killed, three sources said.

    He favored attacking American forces in Afghanistan rather than Pakistani soldiers in Pakistan, a position that put him at odds with some other Pakistan Taliban commanders.

    Nazir was wounded in a bombing in November, widely believed to be as a result of his rivalries with other Taliban commanders. 

    Shortly after the bombing, his Wazir tribe told the Mehsud tribe, related to Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud, to leave the area.

    The Pakistani army has clawed back territory from the Taliban since launching a military offensive in 2009. Intensified drone strikes have also killed many senior Taliban leaders, including Mehsud's predecessor, Baitullah Mehsud, in 2009.

    Drone strikes have dramatically increased since U.S. President Barack Obama took office. There were only five drone strikes in 2007, peaking at 117 in 2010, then down to 46 last year.

    Most of the strikes hit militants although civilians have also been killed. Rights groups say that some residents are so afraid of the strikes they don't want to leave their homes.

    Data collected from news reports by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism say that between 2,600-3,404 Pakistanis have been killed by drones, of which 473-889 were reported to be civilians.

    It is difficult to verify civilian casualties because Taliban fighters often seal off the sites of drone strikes immediately.

    Some Pakistanis say the drone strikes are an infringement of their national sovereignty and have called for them to stop.

    Others, including some residents of the tribal areas along the Afghan border, say they are killing Taliban commanders who have terrorized the local population.

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    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • Venezuela opposition demands update on health of ailing Chavez

    Ariana Cubillos / AP

    A man walks past a mural of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2013. Both supporters and opponents of Chavez have been on edge in the past week amid shifting signals from the government about the president's health. Chavez has not been seen or heard from since his Dec. 11 operation, and officials have reported a series of ups and downs in his recovery.

    By Ian James, The Associated Press

    Venezuela's opposition demanded that the government reveal specifics of President Hugo Chavez's condition on Wednesday, criticizing secrecy surrounding the ailing leader's health more than three weeks after his cancer surgery in Cuba.


    Opposition coalition leader Ramon Guillermo Aveledo said at a news conference that the information provided by government officials "continues to be insufficient."

    Chavez has not been seen or heard from since the Dec. 11 operation, and Vice President Nicolas Maduro on Tuesday said the president's condition remained "delicate" due to complications arising from a respiratory infection.

    Venezuela's Chavez 'stable' in hospital, son-in-law says

    Maduro also urged Venezuelans to ignore rumors about Chavez's condition. Aveledo said the opposition has been respectful during Chavez's illness but that "the secrecy is the source of the rumors."

    "They should tell the truth," Aveledo said, noting that Maduro had pledged to provide full reports about Chavez's condition. He reiterated the opposition's call for the government to release a medical report, and said all indications are that Chavez won't be able to be sworn in to begin a new term on Jan. 10.

    If Chavez can't take office on that date, Aveledo said the constitution is clear that the National Assembly president should then take over temporarily until a new election is held. He said what happens next in Venezuela should be guided by "the truth and the constitution."

    If Chavez dies or is unable to continue in office, the Venezuelan Constitution says a new election should be held within 30 days.

    With rumors swirling that Chavez had taken a turn for the worse, Maduro said on Tuesday that he had met with the president twice, had spoken with him and would return to Caracas on Wednesday.

    "He's totally conscious of the complexity of his post-operative state and he expressly asked us ... to keep the nation informed always, always with the truth, as hard as it may be in certain circumstances," Maduro said in the prerecorded interview in Havana, which was broadcast Tuesday night by the Caracas-based television network Telesur.

    Watch World News videos on NBCNews.com

    Both supporters and opponents of Chavez have been on edge in the past week amid shifting signals from the government about the president's health. Officials have reported a series of ups and downs in his recovery — the most recent, on Sunday, announcing that he faced the new complications from a respiratory infection.

    'Delicate' health
    Maduro did not provide any new details about Chavez's complications during Tuesday's interview. But he joined other Chavez allies in urging Venezuelans to ignore gossip, saying rumors were being spread due to "the hatred of the enemies of Venezuela."

    He didn't refer to any rumors in particular, though one circulating online had described Chavez as being in a coma.

    Maduro said Chavez faces "a complex and delicate situation." But Maduro also said that when he talked with the president and looked at his face, he seemed to have "the same strength as always."

    "All the time we've been hoping for his positive evolution. Sometimes he has had light improvements, sometimes stationary situations," he said.

    Maduro's remarks about the president came at the end of an interview in which he praised Cuba's government effusively and touched on what he called the long-term strength of Chavez's socialist Bolivarian Revolution movement. He mentioned that former Cuban President Fidel Castro had visited the hospital where Chavez was treated.

    In Bolivia, President Evo Morales said he is concerned about his friend and ally.

    "I hope we can see him soon," Morales told reporters at a news conference Wednesday. "But it's a very worrying situation."

    "I've tried to make contact with the vice president, and it's been difficult. I hope all of their aims are achieved to save President Chavez's life."

    Before his operation, Chavez acknowledged he faced risks and designated Maduro as his successor, telling supporters they should vote for the vice president if a new presidential election was necessary.

    Maduro didn't discuss the upcoming inauguration plans, saying only that he is hopeful Chavez will improve.

    The vice president said that Chavez "has faced an illness with courage and dignity, and he's there fighting, fighting."

    "Someone asked me yesterday by text message: How is the president? And I said, 'With giant strength,'" Maduro said. He recalled taking Chavez by the hand: "He squeezed me with gigantic strength as we talked."

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    © 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

  • India's ruling party considers chemical castration, other tough punishments for sex crimes

    Adnan Abidi / Reuters

    Women hold placards as they join others in a march past a metro station undergoing construction during a rally organized by Delhi's chief minister protesting for justice and security for women, in New Delhi on Jan. 2. The ashes of the Indian student who died after being gang-raped were scattered in the Ganges river on Tuesday as reports of more attacks stoked a growing national debate on violence against women. The death of the 23-year-old woman, who has not been named, prompted street protests across India, international outrage and promises from the government of tougher punishments for offenders.

    Marchers protested in New Delhi on Wednesday as the horrific gang rape and murder of a student continued to reverberate across India. The 23 year old victim's family said that they would not rest until her killers are hanged. Police are finalizing their investigation before charges are laid against the suspects this week. The ruling Congress party reportedly pushed for tougher punishments for sex crimes, including chemical castration, and authorities in New Delhi launched a hotline to improve safety for women in a city dubbed "India's rape capital."

    -- Agence France-Presse

    Dar Yasin / AP

    Delhi's chief minister, center, and others offer prayers for a gang rape victim, at Mahatma Gandhi memorial, in New Delhi, India, Jan. 2.

    Raveendran / AFP - Getty Images

    Indian protesters shout anti-government slogans during a protest against rape in New Delhi on Jan. 2. The family of an Indian gang rape victim said that they would not rest until her killers are hanged as police finalized their investigation before charges are laid against the suspects this week. The ruling Congress party reportedly pushed for tougher punishments for sex crimes, including chemical castration, and authorities in New Delhi launched a hotline to improve safety for women in a city dubbed "India's rape capital."

    Anindito Mukherjee / EPA

    A child carries placards that contain pro-women slogans at the Mahatma Gandhi memorial, Rajghat, during a peace prayer meeting in New Delhi, India, on Jan. 2. The event was organized by the Delhi Government, Delhi Commission for Women to pay homage to the 23 year old Delhi gang rape victim and for women safety.

    Dar Yasin / AP

    Female Indian paramilitary soldiers watch as Indian women march to mourn the death of a gang rape victim in New Delhi, India, on Jan. 2. India's top court said it will decide whether to suspend lawmakers facing sexual assault charges as thousands of women gathered at the memorial to independence leader Mohandas K. Gandhi to demand stronger protection for their safety.

    Previously on PhotoBlog:

  • Dozens killed in Syrian blast as UN says 60,000 dead in conflict

    The United Nations is now raising the death toll in Syria to over 60,000 as fighting in the country continues. NBC's Frances Kuo reports.

    By NBC News wire services

    Updated at 11:40 a.m. ET: At least 30 civilians were killed Wednesday when Syrian warplanes bombed a gas station in a suburb on the eastern edge of Damascus, opposition campaigners told news agencies, as the United Nations announced that the death toll from the conflict had surpassed 60,000.

    "The number of casualties is much higher than we expected and is truly shocking," U.N. Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay said, citing an "exhaustive" U.N.-commissioned study into more than a year and a half of fighting in Syria.

    Of Wednesday's incident near Damascus, activist Abu Saeed told Reuters: "I counted at least 30 bodies. They were either burnt or dismembered."

    Shaam News Network via AP video

    This still image taken from video shows a wounded man being pulled from the site of a purported Syrian government airstrike on a gas station in the eastern Damascus suburb of Mleiha on Wednesday.

    Another activist, Abu Fouad, said warplanes had bombarded the area as a consignment of fuel arrived and crowds packed the station.

    An amateur video posted online showed charred and dismembered bodies and vehicles in flames. The Associated Press reported that the video appeared genuine and was consistent with information it had received.

    NBC News has been unable to independently confirm the accounts.

    The reported airstrike continued a day of intense violence in the country.


    Earlier, rebels in the north attacked a sprawling air base as the opposition expanded its offensive on military airports.

    The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the rebel assault on the Afis military air base near Taftanaz was preceded by heavy shelling of the area, and the fighters appeared to be trying to storm the facility.

    Observatory director Rami Abdul-Rahman described the attack as one "of the most intense" on the airfield. There was no immediate account of the fighting around the air base from Syrian state media.

    Grim accounting
    Wednesday's violence served to underscore the U.N. report on the bloody conflict. Pillay said in Geneva that researchers cross-referencing seven sources over five months of analysis had listed 59,648 people killed in Syria between March 15, 2011, and Nov. 30, 2012.

    Opposition activists in Syria say government warplanes bombed a gas station in Damascus as fuel arrived, killing at least 30 people. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.  

    "Given that there has been no let-up in the conflict since the end of November, we can assume that more than 60,000 people have been killed by the beginning of 2013," she said.

    There was no breakdown by ethnicity or information about whether the dead were rebels, soldiers or civilians. Previously, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights had put the toll at around 45,000 confirmed dead but said the real number was likely to be much higher.

    PhotoBlog: Syrian rebel chief tries to unite militias

    Increased attacks on airports
    In the past few weeks, Syrian rebels have stepped up their attacks on airports around the neighboring province of Aleppo, trying to chip away at President Bashar Assad's air power, which poses the biggest obstacle to the opposition fighters' advances.

    Slideshow: Syria uprising

    Muhammed Muheisen / AP

    A look back at the violence that has overtaken Syria.

    Launch slideshow

    As its control of large swaths of territory has slipped over the past year, the government has increasingly relied on its warplanes and helicopters to strike rebel-held areas.

    Several past rebel attempts to capture the Taftanaz base have failed.

    View from northern Syria: Rebels control countryside

    The Observatory said Syrian army helicopters were helping defend the airfield against the rebel assault. It added that four rebels were killed in the clashes around the base and that one helicopter was hit by rebel fire.

    The Observatory said the rebels attacking Taftanaz base included members of Jabhat al-Nusra, which has been branded a terrorist organization by the United States and is affiliated with al-Qaida, Ahrar al-Sham Brigade and other units operating in Syria's northwestern province of Idlib. The group's fighters have been among the most effective on the rebel side in their battle to oust Assad.

    Aleppo forced to halt flights
    On Tuesday, clashes between government troops and rebels forced the international airport in Aleppo to stop all flights in and out of Syria's largest city.

    ITV's Emma Murphy spoke with Syrian refugee women in Jordan who described harrowing, brutal treatment.

    The rebels have been attacking three other airports in the Aleppo area, including the Mannagh military helicopter base near the Turkish border. They have posted dozens of videos online that appear to show fighters shooting mortars, homemade rockets and sniper rifles at targets inside the bases.

    The Local Coordination Committees, another activist group, said rebels Wednesday bombarded the Mannagh air base, which has been subjected to almost daily attacks since late last month. 

    Rebels have been fighting for control of Aleppo since launching an offensive on the city over the summer.

    The fight over the commercial hub has turned into a bloody stalemate, although rebels have captured large swathes of territory in the surrounding Aleppo province west and north of the city up to the Turkish border.

    The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

    Slideshow: Behind Syrian rebel lines

    Machine guns operated by motorcycle brakes? Get a glimpse at the rebels fighting against Assad's forces in Syria's mountainous Jabal al-Zawiya area.

    Launch slideshow

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  • Death toll rises to 16 in stampede at church event in Angola

    At least 16 people were crushed to death during a stampede at a religious vigil held on New Year's Eve. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.

    By Reuters

    Updated at 10:40 a.m. ET: The death toll from a New Year's Eve stampede at a religious gathering in the Angolan capital Luanda has risen to 16, the state-owned daily newspaper Jornal de Angola reported Wednesday.

    The victims, including about 120 people who were injured, were trying to enter an overcrowded stadium for a vigil organized by a Pentecostal church, the state news agency Angop said Tuesday.


    Angop cited an emergency services spokesman as saying the victims, including four children, were crushed at the gates of the Cidadela Desportiva stadium, where the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God organized a vigil on Monday night.

    Angop cited Paulo de Almeida, the deputy leader of the Angolan police, as saying appropriate security measures for the vigil had been put in place but attendance exceeded estimates.

    Ivory Coast stampede survivors tell of New Year horror

    He said that around 150,000 people tried to attend the event at a stadium that has capacity for 50,000.

    The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God is a Pentecostal Christian church created in 1977 in Brazil, where it has over 8 million followers, according to its own website. The church says it is present in most countries of the world.

    Full World coverage on NBCNews.com

    Ferner Batalha, the church's deputy bishop for Angola, said the vigil had been overcrowded.

    "Our expectation was to have 70,000 people, but that was surpassed by far," Angop cited him as saying.

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    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • Ivory Coast crush survivors tell of horror: 'I was powerless and fighting against death'

    Issouf Sanogo / AFP - Getty Images

    A pile of abandoned shoes in the street of Abidjian, Ivory Coast, on Wednesday. Sixty-one people died in a stampede at a New Year's Eve celebration there that also left dozens injured.

    By The Associated Press

    ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast -- Survivors of a stampede in Ivory Coast that killed 61 people, most of them children and teenagers, after a New Year's Eve fireworks display, said Wednesday that makeshift barricades stopped them from moving along a main boulevard, causing the crush of people.

    Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara ordered three days of national mourning and launched an investigation into the causes of the tragedy but two survivors, in interviews with The Associated Press, indicated why so many died in what would normally be an open area, the Boulevard de la Republic.

    An estimated 50,000 people had gathered in Felix Houphouet Boigny Stadium and elsewhere in Abidjan's Plateau district to watch the fireworks. As they streamed away from the show some encountered blockades.


    "Near the Justice Palace we were stopped by some people who built wooden blockades in the street," 33-year-old Zoure Sanate said from her bed in Cocody Hospital.

    "They told us we must stay in the Plateau area until morning. None of us accepted to stay in Plateau until the morning for a celebration that ended at around 1 a.m.," she told the AP.

    "Then came the stampede of people behind us," she said. "My four children and I were knocked to the ground. I was hearing my kids calling me, but I was powerless and fighting against death. Two of my kids are in hospital with me, but two others are missing. They cannot be found."

    Another hospital patient, Brahima Compaore, 39, said he also was caught in the pile of people stopped by the roadblock.

    "I found myself on the ground and people were walking on me," Compaore told the AP. "I was only saved by people who pulled me onto the sidewalk."

    Set up by thieves?
    Local newspapers are speculating that thieves set up the roadblocks so that pickpockets could steal money and mobile phones from the packed-in people.

    Ouattara pledged to get answers. Some observers wondered why police did not prevent the tragedy.

    Thierry Gouegnon / Reuters

    People wounded from a stampede that occurred after a New Year's Eve fireworks display are seen in Cocody's Hospital in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, on Tuesday.

    "The investigation must take into account all the testimonies of victims," he said Wednesday. "We will have a crisis center to share and receive information."

    Ouattara also postponed the traditional New Year's receptions at his residence, which had been scheduled for Thursday and Friday.

    Advocate: Incident was unsurprising
    The leader of a human rights organization said that deadly incidents were predictable because the police and civil authorities had not taken adequate protective measures.

    "The situation is deplorable," said Thierry Legre, president of the Ivorian League of Human Rights. "It is our first tragedy of 2013 but in 2012 we could already see possibility of such a tragedy because there are not adequate authorities patrolling our roads and waters."

    More Africa coverage on NBCNews.com

    He called on the government "to implement measures to avoid such tragedies in the future by reinforcing the civil protection system."

    Just one night before the New Year's incident, there had been a big concert at the Felix Houphouet-Boigny Stadium where American rap star Chris Brown performed. That Sunday night event was for the Kora Awards for African musicians. No serious incidents were reported from that event.

    Event intended to celebrate peace
    The government organized the fireworks to celebrate Ivory Coast's peace, after several months of political violence in early 2011 following disputed elections.

    Complete World coverage on NBCNews.com

    In 2009, 22 people died and over 130 were injured in a stampede at a World Cup qualifying match at the Houphouet Boigny Stadium, prompting FIFA, soccer's global governing body, to impose a fine of tens of thousands of dollars on Ivory Coast's soccer federation. The stadium, which officially holds 35,000, was overcrowded at the time of the disaster.

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    © 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

  • Israeli-Palestinian conflict plays out in a rocky field

    Majdi Mohammed / AP

    Surrounded by Israeli border police, Jewish settlers from the Esh Kodesh settlement outpost sit in a field in an attempt to prevent Palestinians from farming land in the northern West Bank, on Jan. 2. Both the settlers and Palestinians living in the area claim ownership of the disputed land.

    Reports state that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas insists that talks cannot proceed without a construction freeze on Israeli West Bank settlements, a precondition that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects.

    -- The Associated Press, European Pressphoto Agency

    Alaa Badarneh / EPA

    An Israeli soldier runs to stop a Jewish settler as she tries to prevent a Palestinian farmer from ploughing his fields near the West Bank village of Jaloud on Jan. 2.

    Alaa Badarneh / EPA

    Israeli soldiers prepare to remove a Jewish settler as she tries to stop a Palestinian farmer from ploughing his fields near the West Bank village of Jaloud near Nablus on Jan. 2.

    Previously on PhotoBlog:

  • Backlash forces shark fin traders onto Hong Kong rooftops

    Antony Dickson / AFP - Getty Images

    Shark fins drying in the sun cover the roof of a factory building in Hong Kong on Jan. 2, 2013.

    Paul Hilton / EPA

    Approximately 18 thousand shark fins are left out to dry on top of an industrial building in Hong Kong's Kennedy Town district on Jan. 2, 2013.

    Bobby Yip / Reuters

    Shark fins, which cost between HK$2,880 ($369) and HK$3,580 ($459) per Chinese catty (1 pound), are seen on display inside a dried seafood store in Hong Kong on Jan. 2, 2013.

    Shark fin traders in Hong Kong have taken to drying freshly sliced fins on rooftops since a public outcry over them drying the fins on public sidewalks forced them to move the trade out of sight. 

    Activists have raised concerns that the over-harvesting of fins is causing an environmental calamity. Although sales have fallen in recent years Hong Kong remains one of the world's biggest markets for shark fins, which are used to make soup that is an expensive staple at Chinese banquets.  

    -- European Pressphoto Agency, Agence France-Presse, Reuters

    Bobby Yip / Reuters

    Thousands of pieces of shark fin are dried on the rooftop of a factory building in Hong Kong on Jan. 2, 2013. The fins were shipped from an unknown location and unloaded at a nearby pier to be dried on the rooftop.

    Bobby Yip / Reuters

    Workers lay out pieces of shark fin to dry on a rooftop of a factory building in Hong Kong on Jan. 2, 2013. Local sales of the luxurious gourmet food have fallen in recent years due to its controversial nature, but activists demand a total shark fin ban in the city, labelled by some as the shark fin capital of the world.

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  • Egypt investigating popular TV host over presidential satire

    Ahmed Omar / AP, file

    TV host Bassem Youssef addresses attendants at a dinner party in Cairo on Dec. 8. Prosecutors launched an investigation Tuesday against Youssef for allegedly insulting the president.

    By NBC News wire services

    Egyptian prosecutors launched an investigation Tuesday against a popular television satirist for allegedly insulting the president in the latest case raised by Islamist lawyers against outspoken media personalities.

    Lawyer Ramadan Abdel-Hamid Oqsori charged that TV host Bassem Youssef insulted President Mohammed Morsi by putting the leader's image on a pillow and parodying his speeches.

    Youssef's case will increase worries about freedom of speech in the post-Hosni Mubarak era, especially when the country's new constitution includes provisions criticized by rights activists for, among other things, forbidding insults.


    In a separate case that fuels concern about press freedom, one of Egypt's leading independent newspapers said it was being investigated by the prosecutor following a complaint from the presidency, which accused it of publishing false news.

    Egypt votes on its constitution: What's at stake?

    Other cases have been brought against media personalities who have criticized the president. Some of the cases have ended with charges being dropped. Morsi's office maintains that the president has nothing to do with legal procedures against media critics.

    A local committee of journalists and editors has called for stronger guarantees of press freedoms and a rejection of the current constitution, fearing it allows for jailing journalists under broadly-worded articles regarding media offenses.

    Authorities ordered the closure of TV station Al-Fareen last summer after bringing its owner, Tawfiq Okasha, to trial for scathing attacks against Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood group. Okasha had emerged as one of the most popular TV personalities of post-Mubarak Egypt by railing against the uprising that toppled Mubarak's 29-year rule in February 2011.

    PhotoBlog: Egyptian Copts gather before constitution vote

    Rise to fame
    Youssef, a doctor, catapulted to fame when his video blogs mocking politics received hundreds of thousands of hits shortly after the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime leader Mubarak.

    Youssef's program is modeled after Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show," where he has appeared as a guest.

    Unlike other local TV presenters, Youssef uses satire to mock fiery comments made by ultraconservative clerics and politicians, garnering him a legion of fans among the country's revolutionaries and liberals.

    Egypt's ex-dictator Mubarak to be moved to military hospital

    Huge online following
    Among his most popular clips are the ones where he pokes fun at the president's speeches and decisions.

    While holding a red, furry pillow with Morsi's picture on it, Youssef satirizes Morsi's style of speech.

    "He tells us things we never knew," he says, before wordy clips of Morsi going into detail about the day of the week and other basic facts.

    Complete World coverage on NBCNews.com

    "It's October 6! Tell us when it's Christmas!" Youssef shouts to the camera as the audience erupts in laughter and applause.

    Youssef, 38, is one of Egypt's most popular TV presenters with 1.4 million fans on Facebook and nearly 850,000 followers on Twitter, just shy of the president's number of followers.

    The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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