Myanmar’s recent moves toward a more democratic government hold promise that its leaders are serious about ending its days as one of the most repressive backwaters on the planet. But as Reuters reporter Andrew R.C. Marshall found during an examination of the Southeast Asian nation’s treatment of political prisoners, it still has a long way to go

Here are some excerpts from his special report:

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Reformist (Myanmar) President Thein Sein has relaxed media censorship, started peace talks with ethnic rebels, and held by-elections that put democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi into Myanmar's parliament.

Most dramatically, perhaps, more than 650 political prisoners were freed between May 2011 and January 2012, according to Amnesty International. Among those released were celebrated dissidents such as Min Ko Naing and U Gambira, jailed for their role in a 2007 democracy protest led by Buddhist monks.

These reprieves, and the April by-elections that Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won by a landslide, helped convince the United States and Europe to suspend economic sanctions against Myanmar earlier this year.

But a Reuters examination shows that ... political prisoners continue to suffer incarceration and abuse in an era of uncertain reform. Their stories hold dangerous implications for Myanmar's future.

The military junta that ruled the country for nearly 50 years is gone. But it is survived by a formidable apparatus of oppression: corrupt judges, horrific prison conditions, draconian laws still on the books, and police and soldiers who torture with impunity. Until it is dismantled, democracy activists here say, nobody is safe from arbitrary arrest, torture and wrongful imprisonment.

As Myanmar's long moribund economy opens up, there are signs that repressive system once used to silence political opponents is being retooled for a new era - to sweep away opposition to breakneck economic development. The Thailand-based AAPPB prisoner-monitoring group reports an increase in people being interrogated and jailed for resisting land confiscations and forced evictions, often by the military or businesses with close government connections.

Click here to read the full story.

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- Those who know the house on Bernel Road will tell you it’s behind Beaver Stadium, near the airport on the outskirts of town -- a town still trying to piece itself together in the wake of one of the biggest scandals in college football history.

The two-story white colonial home represents the past, and future, of The Second Mile, a charity founded by Jerry Sandusky. It was on this land that Sandusky first realized his dream to create an organization for disadvantaged children. Until last November, it was also to be the home of The Second Mile’s most ambitious project to date — a multimillion-dollar “Center for Excellence” intended to help those kids pursue big dreams.

Instead, it now sits quiet and empty on the edge of about 60 acres of overturned earth, a reminder of the crushed aspirations attributable to a criminal case unfolding less than a dozen miles to the north.

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The fate of The Second Mile is inextricably linked to that of Sandusky, the 68-year-old former Penn State assistant football coach now on trial on 51 counts of sexually abusing 10 young boys over a15-year period.  

And the existence of the well-respected charity cuts to the heart of the central question in the criminal case: Was it the life’s work of a man who genuinely cared about the well-being of disadvantaged kids, or merely a cover for his illicit appetites?

Last week, eight of the alleged victims -- two remain unknown to prosecutors -- offered tearful testimony in a small-town courthouse in Bellefonte, Pa., about the sexual abuse they say they endured at the hands of Sandusky.

Sandusky’s defense began presenting its case on Monday, calling several former coaching colleagues and others as character witnesses.

'He's a saint'
Sandusky’s reputation as a man devoted to helping kids served as protection when questions about his character arose.

During the first week of his trial, one of Sandusky’s alleged victims testified that school authorities did not believe him when he first reported the sexual abuse in 2008. Known as “Victim 1” in the indictment against Sandusky, the 18-year-old recent high school graduate testified that a school official told him and his mother, “Jerry wouldn’t do something like that,” and that they needed to “think about it” before they reported it to Children and Youth Services.

“They didn’t believe me,” the teenager said tearfully.

Joe Miller, a former wrestling coach at Central Mountain High School, which “Victim 1” attended, said in court that he didn’t think twice about seeing Jerry Sandusky lying next to the young boy on the floor of an athletic room one day after school in 2006 or 2007. “I thought, ‘It's Jerry Sandusky,’” Miller testified. “’He's a saint. What he's doing with these kids, it's fantastic,’ so I didn’t think anything of it.”

That faith in Sandusky’s character came from his work with The Second Mile, which he founded in 1977. In his autobiography, “Touched: The Jerry Sandusky Story” -- a book which helped prosecutors find some of his alleged victims -- he wrote that he initially envisioned the charity as a home for foster children. Sandusky and his wife, Dottie, who were unable to have children themselves, had been foster parents to at least three children and adopted five others -- including a girl, Kara -- during the 1970s.

Does it matter if Sandusky has a personality disorder?

As their expanding brood made it impossible to foster more children, Sandusky has said, he decided instead to start a foster home. He gathered powerful friends and acquaintances from Penn State and the surrounding community to help him.

Sales from his football book, “Developing Linebackers,” provided the seed money, along with donations and celebrity golf tournaments that would soon become an annual affair. In 1981, The Second Mile bought a 20-acre plot on Bernel Road for $64,000. The next year, the state licensed The Second Mile to serve as a private foster care agency. 

By October 1982, at least three foster children – all boys, ages 10 to 18 -- lived in the house. An article in The Daily Collegian, the Penn State newspaper, described a typical day: Doing chores, playing games and going on picnics with the house parents, a couple chosen by Sandusky and The Second Mile. Each resident had a member of the Penn State football team as a mentor.

In 1983, The Second Mile hired Jack Raykovitz, who had recently finished his Ph.D. in school psychology at Penn State. In its early days, Raykovitz ran the day-to-day operations of the charity, which included week-long camps -- first for boys, then also for girls -- on the Penn State campus. He signed off on licensing documents for the foster care agency. For a short time, state records show, he also provided psychological counseling to some of the foster children.

Analysis: Prosecution presented strong case against Jerry Sandusky

Raykovitz would continue to head the program for almost 30 years. By the time he stepped down in November, he and his wife, Katherine Genovese -- who served as executive vice president -- were earning a combined salary of over $230,000 a year.

Raykovitz did not respond to requests for comment from NBC News, but in a statement issued at the time of his resignation, he said, "I hope that my resignation brings with it the beginning of that restoration of faith in the community of volunteers and staff that, along with the children and families we serve, are The Second Mile.”

In 1988, records show the charity stopped actively operating as a foster care agency, but it kept its license active through 2011.

The Second Mile Grows
During the late 1980s, The Second Mile grew from an organization focused on a few foster children to a large network of programs offering services to thousands of children annually.

Each year, more than a thousand families attended picnics and events at local amusement parks and farms hosted by The Second Mile for foster children and parents. Several hundred families a year received counseling, assistance and money for “personal items.” Schools received Second Mile trading cards with facts about Penn State football players and tips on how to handle bullying, achieve in school -- even practice good hygiene.

By the late 1990s, The Second Mile children had become known simply as “Jerry’s kids.” He appeared at fundraisers, football games and other events, usually accompanied by one or more children.

Second Mile’s week-long Summer Challenge Camp had by that time become the centerpiece of the organization, serving more than 500 children each year. Attendance was usually recommended by school counselors, who singled out children that had trouble in school or came from single-parent homes or other disadvantaged backgrounds. Teenage boys and girls from high schools near Second Mile Chapters volunteered as counselors and mentors.

It was through the camps, many alleged victims testified last week, that they first met Sandusky.

At the camps, usually held on the Penn State campus, young Second Mile participants swam, played games, and practiced football drills. They stayed in Penn State housing.

“Victim 4,” according to the indictment, now 28, testified that he met Sandusky in 1997 in a Penn State dorm during the camp. “The roommate I was staying with knew Jerry Sandusky somehow, and he had come to the room to talk to him,” he said. Later, he testified, Sandusky told him he was a coach for Penn State and invited him to a family picnic.

“Probably a week or two” later, he said, “He called me again.”

The connection to football – both the charity’s and Sandusky’s -- was a particular draw for young Penn State fans. “I went up to him,” testified “Victim 6,” a 25-year-old man who recently graduated from Bible college. “Anything to do with Penn State I just wanted to be a part of it. I was a huge football fan.” 

Sizing up boys?
Prosecutors introduced evidence they said showed that Sandusky was sizing up the boys who attended the camp as well. Among the exhibits: Rosters of male participants in the summer camps, with phone numbers and addresses. Next to the names of some of the alleged victims, which were marked with one or two asterisks, were handwritten notes about clothing and shoe sizes. A handful of other names, not among the alleged victims in the case, also were asterisked. A few others had question marks.

Of the hundreds of kids who attended the camp over the years, many left happy.

“It was a very good experience for me, and it actually did help build my esteem and self-confidence,” said Douglas Spengler, now 30, who went to the camps in State College in the mid-’90s. Spengler said Sandusky would show up once a session, usually for a group activity. “I never saw anything that made me uncomfortable in any way,” he added.

Spengler later received scholarships from The Second Mile that helped cover his two years at Pennsylvania College of Technology. News of the Sandusky investigation made him think of the impact on an organization that had done right by him. “Honestly, I thought it was a shame for the program,” he said. “You can’t judge a program based on one person.”

Several of the alleged victims described getting a call from Sandusky after meeting him through The Second Mile. He would pick them up at home. Seven out of eight testified that Sandusky first put his hand on their knee or thigh when they got into his car to go to a Penn State football game, to Holuba Hall on the Penn State Campus to work out, or to Sandusky’s house.

In 1998, “Victim 6,” then 11, came home with his hair wet. According to his testimony, he told his mother that had showered with Sandusky. That sparked an investigation by campus police, Children and Youth Services, the Centre County agency that investigates child abuse, and the state Welfare Department.

The investigation was closed, but NBC News reported in March that one psychologist warned investigators that Sandusky was a “likely pedophile.” But a second psychologist who had worked with the local Centre County Child and Youth Services, which had licensed Sandusky as a foster parent, concluded after an hour-long meeting with the alleged victim, concluded that no sexual offense had taken place nor was there “grooming” or “inappropriate sexual behavior” by Sandusky.

That same year, at least six children -- three boys and three girls -- in their early teens were living at the house on Bernel Road.

Todd Keith spent about two years as the resident director at the house in the late 1990s. “Sandusky would come to the house probably once a month,” Keith told NBC News last fall. “Sometimes for photo ops, other times it would be just to interact with the kids and stuff.”

Though he thought little of it at the time, Keith remembered the boys tended to shy away from Sandusky, retreating to their basement bedrooms when he stopped in. “At the time I truly just thought it was adolescent boys not wanting to be around adults,” he said. After hearing the initial allegations, Keith wondered if he hadn’t missed something.

None of the alleged victims who testified against Sandusky lived in the house on Bernel Road.

After the Nittany Lions
In July 1999, Sandusky announced that the upcoming season would be his last. That September, he incorporated Sandusky Associates, Inc. with his son Jon, who had just graduated from Penn State.

In the summer of 2000, they started a series of  four-day, three-night football camp for boys at Albright College in Reading, Penn, where Sandusky’s son E.J. was head football coach.

The camps continued until about 2009 and were held at various sites, including Penn State satellite campuses.

Sandusky’s last game as Penn State defensive coordinator came in the December 1999 Alamo Bowl in Texas. According to testimony, he took one of the boys – a 15-year-old “fixture in the Sandusky household” identified in the indictment as “Victim 4”  -- with him to that game.

At the trial, “Victim 4” described some of the most serious sexual abuse of any of the alleged victims, which he said occurred before he began to distance himself from Sandusky around 2001 or 2002. 

To support his testimony, the prosecution presented "contracts" obtained in searches of the Sanduskys' home and his office. Some of the contracts asked “Victim 4” to agree to attend Second Mile programs, sports and workouts in exchange for money and other favors.

Other witnesses called by the prosecution raised questions about some of the programs. Mark McCann, who directed programming for The Second Mile, testified that several of the contracts, including one that asked “Victim 4 to commit to The Second Mile's "Positive Action Program," were for programs that never existed.

The defense later called a witness who said that at least one program not associated with The Second Mile, called “GOLF for L.I.F.E,” did exist for a short time, but she remembered few details about how children might have been enrolled.

After retiring, Sandusky’s involvement with The Second Mile grew. So did the organization’s coffers. Sandusky was paid at least $399,000 since 2001 as a consultant, tax records from the organization show. Assets grew from $2.5 million in 2001 to nearly $9.2 million by August 2009.

Over the years, powerful men and women in Centre County, and beyond, volunteered for the charity or joined its board of directors, helping to launch programs and raise money. The charity became nearly synonymous with Penn State. It held fundraisers across the state, including golf tournaments at the Toftrees Hotel, attended by star athletes, university officials and Centre County power brokers.

In September 2001, seven months after Mike McQueary testified that he told Penn State officials he saw Sandusky abusing a boy in a Penn State locker room, the university’s Board of Trustees approved the sale of university land to Sandusky’s charity. In April 2002, the $168,500 sale went through, and The Second Mile had 40 acres of land adjacent to the house on Bernel Road to fulfill one of Sandusky’s dreams.

Center for Excellence
In November 2008, as investigators were looking into the allegations made by “Victim 1,” Sandusky informed The Second Mile that he was under investigation, according to a statement from the organization.

From that point forward, Second Mile said Sandusky had “no involvement with Second Mile programs involving children.” But he remained active at Second Mile events. According to a local newspaper, he was still slated to speak at a Second Mile fundraising banquet in February 2009 geared toward local families. Sandusky formally stepped down in 2010, saying he wanted to spend more time with family.

By that time, The Second Mile was focused on raising money to fund the $11.5 million dollar “Center for Excellence.” Sandusky envisioned it as a “permanent home” for Second Mile children, with an athletic and recreation center featuring two basketball courts, a pool, football fields, classrooms and dormitories for the summer camp. It was to be both privately and publicly funded. In the summer of 2011, the organization received a $3 million dollar state grant for construction from Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett. His administration rescinded the funding after charges against Sandusky became public.

Robert Poole, chairman of The Second Mile board for 17 years and president and CEO of Poole Anderson Construction, was awarded the contract to serve as construction manager of the project. His firm had previously overseen the construction of many Penn State projects, including renovations of  the university's Beaver Stadium.

In November, allegations of sexual abuse by Sandusky rocked the world of sports, and Centre County. The Second Mile found itself embroiled in scandal and facing multiple lawsuits. Its future unclear, the organization halted construction on the Center for Excellence.

Then, this spring, The Second Mile announced it would transfer its programs to the Arrow Child & Family Ministries Inc., a Texas-based nonprofit, and begin the process to eventually dissolve itself.

As the trial of Jerry Sandusky nears its conclusion it’s unclear what will happen to the land on Bernel Road.

Acres of overturned earth still surround the white house. A sign advertises the sale of the 60 acres. But remnants of the children who once lived there are visible to this day:  a sheaf of colored construction paper in the garage, a set of monkey bars, and two white hands painted on the blacktop driveway, fingers bent to form the sign language message, “I love you.”

Michael Isikoff, NBC News national investigative correspondent, contributed to this report. 

 

Efforts to tighten international sanctions against Iran in an effort to stall its nuclear ambitions are said to be having a significant impact, but international companies that see business opportunities in the Persian Gulf nation aren’t always dissuaded from doing business with the government in Tehran.

In a special report on Friday, Reuters  details charges from a lawsuit unfolding in Washington, D.C., alleging that one such company – South African telecommunications company MTN – went to amazing links to win a license to launch a new Iranian mobile phone carrier.

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Here are some key excerpts from the report, by Steve Stecklow and David Dolan:

Seven years after and its local partners won a lucrative license to launch a new Iranian mobile-phone carrier, the deal is swirling in controversy and raising embarrassing questions for South Africa at a time when the Western world is trying to contain Iran's nuclear ambitions.

Turkcell, an Istanbul-based rival, in March filed a federal lawsuit in Washington alleging MTN bribed its way into Iran and stole the license.

...

During three days of sworn testimony in Washington that concluded May 2, [former MTN executive Chris] Kilowan presented an extraordinary tale of a multinational company so intent on winning a contract, it was willing to help Tehran obtain military hardware, sway South Africa's votes before the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency and pay bribes, sometimes in the guise of consulting fees. MTN has yet to give evidence in the case, which is continuing and may go on for years.

...

The dramatic testimony comes at a time when the Western world is trying to contain Iran with forceful sanctions intended to deter its nuclear development program, which Iran maintains is peaceful. After choking off Iran's banks from the international monetary system, the European Union plans to implement an embargo on Iranian oil and a ban on insuring oil cargoes on July 1.

The sanctions haven't been leak-proof. Reuters has documented in a recent series of articles how Iranian telecoms - including the MTN joint venture - have managed to obtain embargoed U.S. computer equipment through a network of Chinese, Middle Eastern and Iranian firms. The Turkcell-MTN case offers further evidence that there are always companies willing to do business with a country even when it becomes an international pariah.

That goes for some governments as well. South Africa's ruling party, the African National Congress, has long maintained close ties with Tehran, which during the 1980s supported the anti-apartheid underground and imposed a trade boycott on the white-ruled government.

In an interview last month with Reuters, Gwede Mantashe, the ANC's secretary general, said he had "no problem at all" with South Africa "trading anything" with Iran today, including weapons.

Click here to read the full story.

The limping gait of the U.S. economy remains painful for many Americans and for President Barack Obama's re-election chances, with the vast majority of metro areas making only small, halting steps toward recovery, according to the latest Adversity Index data from Moody’s Analytics and msnbc.com.

Data released this week and included in the index, which measures changes in jobs, housing starts, industrial production and house prices, reflect changes in the economy through April.

The good news: The economy improved in April in every region of the country. Not a single state remains in recession. If someone in your family is out of work, that label may require a bit of clarification: While many have not recovered the jobs lost in the recession, no state is still in a sharp decline. In other words, one can be climbing out of a hole and still be in the hole. And looking more closely at the nation's 384 metro areas, nearly 90 percent have moved out of the recession into at least a modest recovery. The share of metro areas in recession in April was the lowest since the previous July.

The bad news: Only two states have entered a robust economic expansion. Among metro areas, only 6 percent are in expansion. The rest are stuck in a weak recovery, making small advances and not gaining much economic traction.

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Four years earlier, at the same point in President George W. Bush's second term, 19 states had expanding economies. That number fell rapidly to only one by the time of the 2008 election, when Obama defeated Republican Sen. John McCain, and was at zero just a month after his inauguration. In the three-plus years of the Obama administration, only Alaska and North Dakota have accelerated into a full recovery, and no one expects either of those two Republican states to vote for Obama in 2012.

Check your state or metro area
The Adversity Index is calculated by Moody's Analytics based on a design developed with msnbc.com. It places each area in one of five economic categories: Expansion is the best, recession the worst, and in the middle are three transition categories.

You can see the economic status of each state or metro area on an interactive map from Moody's Analytics. Here's the link for free access through a Moody's partnership with msnbc.com.

A slow recovery
"Although April regional data appeared favorable for continued recovery, more recent national data have been soft," reported economist Brent Campbell at Moody's Analytics. "May payroll employment came in below expectations, and the forecast has been revised lower. As a result, risk levels could rise for metro area and state economies in coming months."

Here's a snapshot from the April data:

States

• 2 states are in a steady expansion: Alaska, North Dakota.
• 5 are at risk, meaning they're still in positive territory but slipping toward recession: Illinois, Maine, Mississippi, Rhode Island, Wisconsin.
• The remaining 44 (including D.C.) are in recovery, meaning they're still weak but rising toward expansion. The states improving into this category in April were Alabama, Connecticut, Missouri, Oregon and South Carolina, according to Moody's.
• 0 are in a moderating recession, meaning their economies are not contracting as severely as six months earlier.
• 0 are in an unrelenting recession. It's been that way since January. The last state out was Georgia.

Metro areas

• 21 metro areas are in a steady expansion: Amarillo, Texas; Anchorage, Alaska; Austin, Texas; Bismarck, N.D.; Burlington, Vt.; Cheyenne, Wyo.; Clarksville, Tenn.; Columbia, Mo.; Columbus, Ind.; Dubuque, Iowa; Fargo, N.D.; Grand Forks, N.D.; Holland, Mich.; Lafayette, Ind.; Lafayette, La.; Lubbock, Texas; McAllen, Texas; Midland, Texas; Odessa, Texas; Sioux City, Iowa; Waterloo, Iowa.
• 76 are at risk, meaning they're still in positive territory but slipping toward recession. That's the fewest since September 2010, Moody's reported. They are Abilene, Texas; Akron, Ohio; Alexandria, La.; Auburn, Ala.; Augusta, Ga.; Bangor, Maine; Battle Creek, Mich.; Beaumont, Texas; Bloomington, Ind.; Bloomington, Ill.; Bridgeport, Conn.; Brunswick, Ga.; Chicago, Ill.; Chico, Calif.; Cleveland, Ohio; College Station, Texas; Columbus, Ga.; Columbus, Ohio; Danville, Ill.; Decatur, Ala.; Eau Claire, Wisc.; Elizabethtown, Ky.; Eugene, Ore.; Farmington, N.M.; Flagstaff, Ariz.; Florence, Ala.; Fond du Lac, Wisc.; Gainesville, Fla.; Great Falls, Mont.; Greeley, Colo.; Ithaca, N.Y.; Kennewick, Wash.; La Crosse, Wisc.; Lake Charles, La.; Lake County, Ill.; Lancaster, Pa.; Las Cruces, N.M.; Lebanon, Pa.; Lewiston, Maine; Los Angeles, Calif.; Madison, Wisc.; Mansfield, Ohio; Merced, Calif.; Michigan City, Ind.; Milwaukee, Wisc.; Monroe, Mich.; Morristown, Tenn.; Mount Vernon, Wash.; Muncie, Ind.; Myrtle Beach, S.C.; Naples, Fla.; North Port, Fla.; Olympia, Wash.; Owensboro, Ky.; Panama City, Fla.; Pensacola, Fla.; Pittsfield, Mass.; Port St. Lucie, Fla.; Portland, Maine; Providence, R.I.; Punta Gorda, Fla.; Richmond, Va.; Saginaw, Mich.; Sandusky, Ohio; Santa Rosa, Calif.; Sheboygan,  Wisc.; Springfield, Ill.; Sumter, S.C.; Virginia Beach, Va.; Waco, Texas; Warner Robins, Ga.; Wausau, Wisc.; Wenatchee, Wash.; Wichita Falls, Texas; Wilmington, N.C.; Yakima, Wash.
• The largest group, the 242 metro areas not named here, are in recovery, meaning they're still weak but rising toward expansion.
• 31 are in a moderating recession, meaning their economies are not contracting as severely as six months earlier: Albuquerque, N.M.; Anderson, Ind.; Anderson, S.C.; Anniston, Ala.; Bremerton, Wash.; Carson City, Nev.; Cleveland, Tenn.; Dalton, Ga.; El Centro, Calif.; Jackson, Tenn.; Lake Havasu, Ariz.; Lakeland, Fla.; Lewiston, Idaho; Longview, Wash.; Madera, Calif.; Missoula, Mont.; Modesto, Calif.; Ocala, Fla.; Palm Bay, Fla.; Palm Coast, Fla.; Pine Bluff, Ark.; Prescott, Ariz.; Racine, Wisc.; Rocky Mount, N.C.; Rome, Ga.; Salem, Ore.; Tallahassee, Fla.; Visalia, Calif.; Youngstown, Ohio; Yuba City, Calif.; Yuma, Ariz.
• 14 are in an unrelenting recession: Albany, Ga.; Champaign, Ill.; Dothan, Ala.; Elmira, N.Y.; Fort Smith, Ark.; Gulfport, Miss.; Huntsville, Ala.; Lawton, Okla.; Montgomery, Ala.; Norwich, Conn.; Pascagoula, Miss.; Pueblo, Colo.; Reno, N.V.; Spokane, Wash.

About the Adversity Index

The index is based on changes in employment, housing starts, industrial production and house prices. Each geographic area is judged to be in recession, at risk of recession, recovering from recession, or expanding. More about the index is at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29866676/ns/us_news-the_elkhart_project/t/how-adversity-index-detects-trends-local-economies/.

For an area to be deemed in recession, the six-month moving average of the index is lower than it was six months earlier. To be deemed in expansion, the opposite is true. The categories "at risk" and "recovery" are transition stages: At risk indicates that the economy is slipping from expansion toward recession, while recovery indicates movement from recession toward expansion.

Updated at 8 p.m. ET: The Air Force this week directed F-22 pilots to stop wearing pressure suit vests during routine flights after tests determined the garments could contribute to ongoing oxygen deprivation problems, NBC News has learned.

A senior U.S. military official said that Air Force investigators “haven’t determined definitively that this is the smoking gun that everyone is looking for” but that “this is a significant development.”

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During centrifuge testing at Brooks-City Base in Texas, the Air Force was able to recreate some of the hypoxia-like symptoms that pilots have experienced in the F-22, the official told NBC News.

The testers, from the 711th Human Performance Wing, determined that the upper pressure vests do not always deflate properly, making it hard for the pilots to breathe. When tests were done in a high G environment (high levels of acceleration), some pilots could not get their breath at all, the official said.

The official added that the Air Force will continue testing to ensure they “have this situation squared away.”

Lt. Col. Edward Sholtis, a spokesman for the Air Combat Command, said the upper pressure garment is not "the" cause of physiological incidents and that investigators also are looking at the layering of other Aircrew Flight Equipment as contributing to breathing difficulties.

Senator Mark Warner, D-Va., and Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., said Wednesday in a joint statement that the F-22 problems are more widespread than earlier reported.

The Air Force told the lawmakers that through May 31 there were 26.43 hypoxia or hypoxia-like incidents per 100,000 flight hours among F-22 pilots -- a rate at least 10 times higher than any other Air Force aircraft, according to the statement.

They said the equipment test results revealed this week were the result of collaboration they recommended with a Navy dive team in Panama City, Fla.

F-22 troubles were widely publicized in a May “60 Minutes” appearance by Virginia Air National Guard Capt. Joshua Wilson and Maj. Jeremy Gordon, who refused to fly the fighter jet and claimed its oxygen system was poisoning them.

"The safety of these pilots and the communities over which they fly should be everyone's paramount concern," Warner said. "The F-22 program has cost $80 billion so far, but the most expensive fighter jet in the world is useless if we cannot ensure the safety of the pilots who fly it."

“As the nation with the strongest military and the brightest minds in the world, we must make certain that we provide our men and women in uniform with the best equipment possible,” Kinzinger said.

In May, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta ordered the Air Force to restrict F-22 flights because of continuing problems with the Raptor's oxygen system. At least 22 pilots suffered from oxygen deprivation while in flight since April 2008.

Panetta ordered that all F-22 flights remain within a "proximate distance" of an airfield in case a pilot should suffer from a hypoxia event and be forced to land. Some F-22s are deployed to southwest Asia.

Panetta also ordered the Air Force to accelerate installment of a backup oxygen system in all F-22s, a process the Air Force does not expect to begin until December. The Air Force awarded a $19 million contract to Lockheed Martin Corp. to install a backup oxygen system in the F-22 Raptor that it makes.

The aircraft were grounded last year temporarily so the Air Force could study its oxygen system.

The Air Force reports that each of the aircraft costs $143 million. The U.S. Government Accountability Office, however, estimates that each F-22 cost taxpayers $412 million, if upgrades and research and development expenses are included.

 

Courtney Kube is NBC News' Pentagon producer. NBC News' Libby Leist contributed to this report.

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Updated at 10:33 p.m. ET: China state media says city officials have apologized to Feng Jiamei and suspended three officials, the BBC reported.

Xinhua news said the Ankang city government will urge the county government to review its family planning operations, according to the BBC report.

BEIJING – Feng Jianmei  says she was manhandled by seven people, some of them local family planning officials, some of whom she didn’t know. 

Feng, 22 years old and seven months pregnant, was dragged out of her relative’s home, carried and shoved into a van that headed straight to a hospital on June 2, she told NBC News in phone interview.

She was blindfolded, thrown on a bed, and forced to sign a document that she couldn’t read with the blindfold still on her eyes. Then two shots were injected into her belly. Thirty hours later, on the morning June 4, she gave birth to a dead baby girl.

Feng is one of the many Chinese women who have been forced to have abortions under China’s strict one-child-only policy started in late 1970s to contain the country’s fast growing population, which has now topped 1.3 billion people.

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One-child policy
China’s long time Communist leader Chairman Mao Zedong originally encouraged women to have as many children as possible during the Cold War-era when human power was believed to be an important force if war broke out. But the country’s rulers soon found it too difficult to feed the huge population – so they adopted a harsh policy that allows urban citizens to have only one child, and rural couples to have two, if the first child is a girl.  

The policy has been carried out for more than three decades despite public opposition, from human rights activists to ordinary people. Thousands of years of Chinese culture fostered the belief that “more children is more blessing,” especially in remote and rural areas where the elderly lack adequate social benefits and depend on children as they grow old.

Government family planning officials are also under pressure to make sure their constituencies follow the quota of babies allowed. When there’s no clear law telling them what they can and cannot do, forced abortions, often on late-terms pregnancies, have become the norm, particularly for the poor who are unable to pay the hefty fines to have additional children.   

Advocates on behalf of these women are usually ignored or face government repression. For example, Chen Guangcheng, the famous blind lawyer and human rights activist, represented victims of family planning abuse in Shandong Province. Chen was jailed for four years for his advocacy and put under house arrest until he recently escaped illegal detainment and fled to the U.S. last month.

More on Chen Guangcheng

There are no official figures of how many women in China unwillingly terminate pregnancies every year. “All Girls Allowed,” an organized founded by former 1989 student protest leader Chai Ling, claims there are 1.3 million forced abortions annually. 

‘How can I agree to do that, as a mother?’
Feng Jianmei didn’t realize she wasn’t allowed to have a second child (her first daughter was born in 2007) since everyone else around her was permitted to have a second child. Both she and her husband Deng Jiyuan took for granted that they would have the same right.  But the family planning office in Zengjiazhen, a small town in Shaanxi province in the heart of China, thought differently.  

Through a rigorous and rigid household registration system designed to control population movement, the central government classifies all its citizens as either city dwellers or rural peasants.  The registration, also known in Chinese as hukou, determines not only a citizen’s residence but also what kind of social services individuals are eligible for.

It is very difficult to change one’s hukou although there are many ways, including marrying a person with a different registration status, applying for a new status through one’s job, or paying an enormous sum of money. 

The local family planning office decided that Feng wasn’t allowed to have a second child because she didn’t have the necessary permit – apparently she had failed to relocate her hukou to Zengjiazhen when she moved from her original province of Inner Mongolia.

But the couple says they had no idea their plan to have a second child was connected with Feng’s hukou.

They were given another option that would solve the problem: pay a fine of $6,400. But that was an impossible amount for the couple to afford – Deng is a migrant worker and Feng is a farmer. 

“I told you, $6,400, not even a penny less. I told your dad that and he said he has no money,” the family planning official wrote to Deng in a text message that has been made public. “You were too careless, you didn’t think this was a big deal.”

Feng’s sister received the same warning;  if they couldn’t afford to help pay the fine, it was only a matter of time before her sister had to get rid of the baby, whether she wanted to or not.

Things came to a head on June 2, but according to the local government, Feng agreed to the abortion.

The Zhenping Population and Family Planning Bureau released on June 11 an official stamped document, which says  that “after government cadre’s repeated persuasion, Feng Jianmei agreed to have an abortion at 15:40 on June 2.” 

“No, I didn’t agree to do it,” Feng told NBC News. “How can I agree to do that, as a mother?”

She sobbed when asked what happened next, and said she was too upset to think about it. She said all those officials who kidnapped her disappeared after the abortion, and she’s still suffering from a constant headache.

Two appalling photos of her were taken and posted online that show her lying in bed, looking weak and helpless, with a dead and bloody baby next to her. The photos were taken by her sister who in turn contacted the media about the story. The photos originally appeared in a local newspaper report online and then they were picked by netizens and distributed online.

‘If this evil policy is not stopped, this country will have no humanity’
Forced abortions in China are not new, but Feng’s story spread rapidly via social media, and outrage was immediate and unanimous. On Weibo, China’s Twitter-like microblogging site, netizens left thousands of angry comments, although many of the posts were quickly deleted by government censors.   

“The purpose of family planning was to control population, but now it has become murder population,” wrote Li Chengpeng, a well-known Chinese writer. “It was a method to contain population, but now it is a way to make money. When you can make money by killing, what else are you afraid to do? A seven-month baby can think already. I want to ask the murderer, how do you face your own mother when you go home? If this evil policy is not stopped, this country will have no humanity.”

Zhao Chu, another writer, called it pure murder. “This is not about enforcing the policy, it is about depriving someone’s right to live. We avoid the nature of it by using a medical word ‘enforced abortion.’ For so long family planning seems like something completely irrelevant of human life. It’s like coal mining or digging mushrooms. Human life has become lifeless indexes, some cold, meaningless numbers.

“Also, pushed by heavy fines, the controversial policy has become profit-oriented activities that everyone hates. The worst victims are those of low-class rural people who have no power to fight. Their tears and cries are not heard by so called mainstream society and the victims become worse than the untouchables,” said Zhao.

Many called for the one-child policy to be outlawed. “We feel so sorry for the dead baby girl, we criticize those so-called law enforcers. But we should rethink the 30-year-long family planning policy. It’d be worth it if this could help to change the policy! We keep our eyes open!” commented user A-Kun on his Weibo page.

Even Hu Xijin, chief editor of Global Times, one of China’s most pro-government newspapers, criticized the forced abortion on his Weibo account.

“I strongly oppose the barbarous forced abortion to this 7-month-pregnant mother. Time has changed and the intensity of enforcing family planning has changed. We should promote civilized family planning,” Hu wrote.

But he added that he didn’t think the whole policy should be abolished. “Don’t use Hong Kong and Japan as an argument to deny China’s population policy. Those places are small and developed early, fed by the whole world’s resources. But the world resources cannot afford to feed a China with billions of people.”

‘This has damaged the image of family planning work’
NBC News tried to contact both town and city level family planning offices in Zengjiazhen and Ankang, but the calls went unanswered.  

A report from Xinhua, China’s official government news agency, released on Thursday said that the Shaanxi Provincial Family Planning Committee has sent an investigation team to Zengjiazhen and requested local government to have the responsible parties held accountable.

“This has damaged the image of family planning work, and had an adverse effect on the society. The committee will resolutely prevent such things from happening again,” the Xinhua news report said.

Feng’s conversation with NBC News was interrupted three times by what she said were government cadres entering her hospital ward to talk.

When asked what she would do next or whether they will seek legal help, she uttered an answer in a very low voice: “I have no idea.” 

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SANFORD, Fla. -- It was once Florida’s tourism motto: “The rules are different here.”

And that is now once again holding true as this state’s permissive public records laws are clarified by Circuit Judge Kenneth Lester.

In the highly charged second-degree murder case against George Zimmerman, accused of shooting unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin, evidence that would ordinarily remain sealed from public view in many other states will soon be revealed for any and all to see. Zimmerman has pleaded not guilty. Police in Sanford say he told officers on the night of the shooting that he acted in self-defense.

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Florida’s public records laws date to 1967, and while they’ve stood the test of time through a series of high-profile cases, including the trials of serial killer Ted Bundy, serial killer Danny Rolling and accused baby killer Casey Anthony – who was acquitted on all charges – Lester says 2012 is a different time.

“The majority of case law … predates the rise of the blogosphere, where the Internet has made news and opinion instantly available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,” he writes.   

“Until recently, a change of venue would be sufficient to ensure that an impartial jury could be selected because the local print and television media would primarily focus on local news.” 
 
So what new evidence can the public expect to see? 

• Zimmerman spoke to law enforcement and those conversations, interrogations and interviews were likely recorded.  While prosecutors claim they’re confessions, the defense says they are not.  Soon, you’ll be able to read transcripts, and perhaps listen, too, and draw your own conclusions. 

• Statement by Witness No. 9. Sources tell NBC News Witness No. 9 made some highly inflammatory claims about Zimmerman. They’re the type of claims, say those familiar with the recording, that may be off-topic but are an assault on Zimmerman’s character. For Zimmerman’s defense team, this witness may offer little in the courtroom, but sources familiar with the statements say they could be devastating in the court of public opinion. 

• Zimmerman was given a “stress test” by Sanford police the night of the shooting. Sources tell NBC News he passed the test. Prosecutors did not want the test released because they say the science is suspect. While it’s unclear whether the test would be acceptable in a court of law, it’s about to become public, again for any and all to judge relevant or worthless.

• All the crime scene photos, other than those showing Martin’s body, will become public. That again will allow amateur sleuths to piece together theories of the crime and, as the judge notes, publish any and all opinions and conclusions on the Internet.

Defense Attorney Mark O’Mara said at a recent hearing the problem with making all of these records public is “we can’t control what the media chooses to publish.”

Related story

Court docs: Trayvon Martin shooting 'ultimately avoidable by Zimmerman'

The lawmakers who long ago established Florida’s public records laws argued, in part, that the purpose of opening all files was to let anyone choose what they find important. Transparency, they argued, also holds everyone accountable, including the prosecutor, who by nature of the job has an established authority and presumed unassailable integrity.

But in an evolving Internet-driven world, Special Prosecutor Angela Corey believes it’s time for change. She says she’s going to take the public records debate to the Florida Legislature in 2013. She says she wants to change the laws established 45 years ago because she says lawmakers then could not have predicted the impact of the Internet today on our justice system.

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Senior al-Qaida leader Abu Yahya al-Libi, who was reportedly killed in a U.S. drone strike last week in Pakistan, appeared in a video published Tuesday by the terrorist group’s propaganda wing. 

NBC News terrorism analyst Evan Kohlmann, whose company Flashpoint Global Partners spotted the video titled  "The Tragedy of Syria: Between the Crimes of the Nusayris and the Scheming of the West," said the video made no reference to the reported drone strike early on June 4, and was very likely recorded prior to the attack.

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Though al-Qaida’s As-Sahab propaganda wing and jihadist Web forums hosting the video continue to describe al-Libi with honorific titles suggesting he is  alive, the video itself did not indicate whether he was living or dead.

According to a Reuters translation of the video, al-Libi called on Islamist fighters outside Syria to join rebels in their fight against President Bashar al-Assad.

"We call on our brothers in Iraq, Jordan and Turkey to go to help their brothers,'' he said. "If your revolution was to be peaceful, God would have chosen it that way, but now the illusion of peaceful means after these great sacrifices ... would show weakness."

White House spokesman Jay Carney said a week ago that al-Libi had been killed in North Waziristan, part of Pakistan’s northwest tribal area, but did not confirm that he died in a U.S. drone attack – a sensitive matter with Pakistani officials. 

 “I can’t get into details about how his death was brought about, but I can tell you that he served as al-Qaida’s general manger, responsible for overseeing the group’s day-to-day operations in the tribal areas of Pakistan and he managed the outreach to al-Qaida’s regional affiliates,” Carney said.

Related stories 

Al-Qaida goes to the bench, seeks next-generation leader  

Al-Qaida leader killed in drone strike allegedly linked to NYC terror plots

Deputy al-Qaida leader killed in Pakistan, White House confirms

 Previously, Pakistani security sources said al-Libi had died in  a pre-dawn attack on June 4, the last in a series of three U.S. drone attacks over the weekend. 

If al-Libi’s death is confirmed, he would be the fifth senior al-Qaida leader killed since U.S. Navy SEALs killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden on May1, 2011, in a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

Reuters contributed to this report.

 

In one of the most audacious money-laundering schemes of all time, a senior member of Mexico’s Zetas drug cartel used several associates and relatives to purchase a 300-acre ranch in Oklahoma and build a successful quarter horse racing and breeding operation, the New York Times reported Tuesday.

The newspaper, citing current and former federal law enforcement officials, said Miguel Ángel Treviño Morales, one of the most wanted drug traffickers in the world,, bankrolled the prominent horse breeding operation, Tremor Enterprises, and used it to launder millions of dollars in drug money.

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The group won three of quarter horse racing’s biggest races, including the 2010 All American Futurity at Riudoso Downs in New Mexico with longshot Mr. Piloto, it said.

Others involved in the plot were José Treviño Morales, 45, older brother of Miguel Treviño Morales, who is alleged to be No. 2 in the feared Zetas drug cartel, and Ramiro Villarreal, who helped select Tremor’s racing prospects, including Mr. Piloto, the Times reported.

The scheme unraveled early Tuesday, according to the Times:

The Justice Department moved against Tremor on Tuesday morning, dispatching several helicopters and hundreds of law enforcement agents to the company’s stables in Ruidoso and its ranch in Oklahoma. Jose Treviño and several associates were taken into custody and were expected to be charged later in the day, authorities said.

An affidavit prepared before the raids said the Zetas funneled about $1 million a month into buying quarter horses in the United States. The authorities were tipped off to Tremor’s activities in January 2010, when the Zetas paid more than $1 million in a single day for two broodmares, the affidavit said.

The New York Times became aware of Tremor’s activities in December 2011 while reporting on the Zetas. The Times learned of the government’s investigation last month and agreed to hold this story until Tuesday morning’s arrests.

Click here to read the full story.