June 2008 - Posts
By Mary Murray, NBC News Havana Bureau Chief
HAVANA – A Cuban Scientific Research Institute just patented a promising new drug that it says helps terminal lung cancer patients live longer.
In some cases, the drug known as CimaVax EGF extended the lives of participants in the treatment trials by close to a year.
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| Roberto Leon / NBC News |
| Dr. Gisela Gonzalez, head of the Cuban cancer research team, holding vials of the new drug. |
CimaVax EGF, is classified as a therapeutic vaccine, because it is composed of modified proteins that help the body recognize and destroy cancer cells for those already suffering from lung cancer. It does not prevent lung cancer.
"It is the first lung cancer vaccine to be patented in the world," said Dr. Gisela Gonzalez, head of the team that researched and developed the drug through testing with hundreds of patients over 16 years.
She did point out that other countries are working on similar vaccines, but that they are still in the development stage.
Gonzalez cautioned that while it is "not a miracle drug," she does believe it is a "breakthrough in treating terminally ill patients."
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Long-renown as the birthplace of pizza, the Italian city of Naples now has a more ignominious reputation: garbage-strewn streets.
As NBC's Ned Colt reports, organized crime and an ineffective local government appear to be behind this smelly crisis. Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi put the issue on the top of his agenda, but the verdict is still out on whether or not it will be another stinky summer in Naples.
By Mark Mullen, NBC News Correspondent
BEIJING – I think the average Chinese is genuinely puzzled when the West, especially the United States, points its finger at China as a gas-guzzling energy hog responsible for driving up fuel costs worldwide and polluting the planet all at once.
After all, in this developing country where hardship is a not a distant memory and where conservation was a learned necessity, the amount of energy consumed by the average Chinese is still roughly one-sixth of the typical American. The majority of pollution comes from industry, not individuals.
The problem for China is its population: 1.3 billion people, many of whom are experiencing economic opportunity for the first time and who are working for some of the advantages many Americans take for granted, including owning a car.
In the world’s most populous country, it means every day about 1,000 new cars hit the streets in the capital city of Beijing alone. These new cars and the existing ones require fuel, which accounts for some of the reason why China’s oil consumption has been increasing by about 9 percent annually.
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By Andy Eckardt, NBC News Producer
MAINZ, Germany – With nearly 3 million people of Turkish descent living in Germany, it’s going to be a night of fierce but mostly friendly rivalry when the two countries play in the semi-finals of the European Soccer Championship. (The match starts at 2:45 p.m. ET).
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| AFP - Getty Images |
| Crowds of supporters of the German and Turkish teams wave their national flags in the "Fan zone" in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin on June 25. |
Hundreds of thousands of soccer-crazy fans from both nations will be flocking to "public viewing sites" in major German cities.
In Berlin alone, up to 500,000 spectators with German and Turkish flags are expected to gather at the "fan mile" in front of Brandenburg Gate.
Many of Turkish origin find their loyalties are split.
"I had been rooting for Germany at the beginning of the tournament, but tonight my heart goes out to the Turks, the underdog, who showed amazing morale in the last two matches," said Cueneyt Goekcoel, a 35-year-old German of Turkish descent.
"In my head, I feel German," Cueneyt said, "but tonight I am Turkish."
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By Mark Potter, NBC News Correspondent
MEXICO CITY – Virtually every day now there are disturbing headlines here about the assassination of yet another Mexican official, gangland-style shootouts in broad daylight, the gruesome discoveries of kidnapped and tortured murder victims – many of them beheaded – and police chiefs quitting their jobs and fleeing the country in terror.
Since Mexican President Felipe Calderon vowed a year and a half ago to confront the drug cartels and take back vast areas of the country that these powerful criminals have controlled for years, more than 4,000 people have been killed. The murder victims include some 500 police officers, soldiers, mayors and other officials.
As the government pushes into cartel territory, the traffickers fight back while at the same time killing each other in internal battles over the remaining turf and smuggling routes – most of this occurring just south of the U.S. border.
Borrowing a page from Colombian President Alvaro Uribe's playbook for fighting traffickers and guerrillas, Calderon has deployed 25,000 army troops and federal police forces around Mexico.
Their primary mission is to regain control, establish peace, rebuild judicial institutions and try to reign in some of the endemic corruption infecting local police departments.
The jury is still out on whether any of that has been accomplished yet. But the current Mexican government is certainly trying and is paying a horrible price in human lives. Even Mexico's National Police Chief Edgar Millan was murdered in a hail of bullets inside the protective walls of a Mexico City home.
"We have no choice, there is no alternative here," Mexico's Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora said, defending the government's crackdown. "If we want to build a sound democracy, a country with a rule of law with liberties, we have to do this and we will."
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Despite being too expensive for most of the population, golf is gaining popularity in China and some of the rising stars come from surprising backgrounds. NBC’s Mark Mullen reports from Beijing.
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By Lawahez Jabari, NBC News Producer
JERUSALEM – The truce concluded this week by Hamas and Israel in their ongoing struggle has received generally favorable reaction from both Palestinians and Israelis.
“Gazans are happy and comfortable with the truce," said Dr Naji Shurab, a political scientist from Al-Azhar University in Gaza City. “All what we want is to be able to have food, gas and to travel – no more killing."
The cease-fire would end Palestinian rocket attacks on Israeli targets and would ease Israel's blockade of Gaza, a 144-square-mile coastal strip that it is home to about 1.5 million people. The Israeli pressure began after Hamas won Palestinian elections in 2006 and took over control of the area. (The other Palestinian area, the West Bank, is run by the rival Fatah organization.)
According to Dr Shurab, life for Gaza's people has been miserable. “The blockade has affected all sectors in our life,” he said. “We have food shortages, gas and fuel shortages. We are stuck in this jail, dying every day.”
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By Mary Murray, NBC News Havana Bureau Chief
Like many who live along Cuba’s northern coast, Ivis Gonzalez has been dodging hurricanes her entire life. But in the record-breaking 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, she came close to dying.
Some 28 tropical storms swept the region, with 15 developing into full-blown hurricanes.
That included Hurricane Wilma – a tropical storm that turned into a category five hurricane in less than 24 hours. Wilma never touched Cuban shores, but it did cause a massive storm surge.
As Wilma approached, Cuban Civil Defense evacuated everyone in Gonzalez’s small fishing village of Playa Baracoa. Residents spent 36 anxious hours in a high school, where they were given cots, drinking water and a few hot meals.
After the rain passed and with the sun shining, Gonzalez and her neighbors rushed to get home – anxious to see what was left.
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| Roberto León / NBC News |
| Ivis Gonzalez was lucky to escape the storm surge of a 2005 hurricane. |
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By Jennifer Carlile, msnbc.com
SODERTALJE, Sweden – "Life is so different here than in Baghdad," Duraid Faraj said of his new, unlikely home of Sodertalje, a small Swedish city near Stockholm.
In a country known for its dark winters, and its seafaring and seafood-loving people, Middle Easterners can feel like fish out of water.
In the center of town, Swedes and Iraqis walk along the lakeside waterfront and watch their children play on jungle gyms, but they never appear to mix or talk with each other.
With around 6,000 Iraqis living in this city, refugees arriving here are welcomed by friends, relatives, and neighbors from back home and can easily get by only speaking Arabic. Although many Iraqis in Sweden are Muslim – especially around the southern city of Malmo – the vast majority in Sodertalje are Christian. Iraqi churches here serve as both places of worship and as informal community centers, offering refugees a sense of belonging.
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By Mary Murray, NBC News Havana Bureau Chief
VARADERO – Cuba may be
in the grips of political shifts but some things never change.
The Caribbean island continues to turn out world class musicians.
This past weekend no matter where you wandered in the beach resort of Varadero every corner offered up top performers singing their songs and thousands of Cuban fans packed the town for the summer’s hottest music festival.
More than 130 artists and groups wove a medley of generations and sounds that ranged from salsa and jazz fusion to the best in timba and hip hop. The music started blaring at noon and didn’t stop until the next day. All you had to do was follow your ears.
Artist Carlos Varela, known as the Bob Dylan of Cuba, improvised on a stage set up on an old landing strip, playing free-of-charge before 30,000 fans. He sang energetic lyrics filled with political messages and the frustration of life in contemporary Cuba.
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Heidi Holland, a journalist and author, speaks about her recent interview with Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe and what she learned about him while researching her new book "Dinner with Mugabe: The untold story of a freedom fighter who became a tyrant."
Cuba gets pounded every hurricane season, but so far, Havana has thankfully been spared from a major storm. Although with forecasters already calling for an active season, with up to nine hurricanes sweeping through the Atlantic, evacuation exercises have already started. NBC News' Mary Murray reports from Havana.
Wu Daifu, a panda keepers, explains how China's famous pandas were protected after the devastating quake struck China on May 12.
By Sohel Uddin, NBC News Producer
When Prince William was made a Royal Knight of the Garter on Monday, the historic town of Windsor once again saw carefully planned pageantry at its height.
As members of the public gathered at the entrance of the castle in an attempt to catch a glimpse of the man who could be the future king emerging with his first major honor, they saw the royal family in its traditional role, meticulously adhering to historical customs and rituals.
It was another step on the journey of grooming William to one day become king, following his father, who has enjoyed a lifetime of such honors. In fact, if one were to officially announce Prince Charles it would be as His Royal Highness Prince Charles Philip Arthur George, The Prince of Wales, Knight of the Garter, Knight of the Thistle, Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath, Order of Merit, Knight of the Order of Australia, Companion of the Queen's Service Order, Privy Counselor, Aide-de-Camp, Earl of Chester, Duke of Cornwall, Duke of Rothesay, Earl of Carrick and Baron of Renfrew, Lord of The Isles, Prince and Great Steward of Scotland.
Every one of these titles is steeped in historical significance, with the Knight of the Garter, one of the most important, representing the highest level of British chivalry.
The honor dates back 640 years to King Edward III’s reign, when a female member of the aristocracy dropped her garter during a dance. Amidst the ensuing laughter, Edward, in an effort to stop the lady from being embarrassed, picked it up and tied it to his leg, saying "Shamed be the person who thinks evil of it."
And, although Great Britain no longer a feudal kingdom and the power that such titles once had has been reduced to symbolism, the sense of fanfare and the fastidiousness with which the ceremony is performed convey the same message.
By Adrienne Mong, NBC News Producer
CHENGDU, Sichuan Province – It wasn’t until moving permanently to Beijing that I realized how much of a "shu daizi" the Chinese might consider me. "Shu daizi" literally means "book idiot," and is the Mandarin-language phrase for bookworm.
When the shippers came to take my belongings from my apartment in London before moving to Beijing, one of the first things they did was count the number of books I own – all 998 of them. When I asked why, they told me it was required by Chinese customs.
I immediately sent an email to our Beijing bureau chief, Eric Baculinao, "When was the last time you heard of any one getting their books impounded by the Chinese?"
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| Adrienne Mong / Adrienne Mong |
| Boxes of books sealed with Chinese customs inspection tape. |
Not that I thought I had reason to be overly concerned. Of the China-related books, only a handful – a few Tibet history texts – elicit interest from the authorities. None advocate Tibetan independence.
Nor do any of the books touch on other sensitive subjects like the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, Taiwan independence, or the Falun Gong, a quasi-religious organization banned in China.
Moreover, the central government had made a noisy show of promising greater press freedoms ahead of the Olympic Games.
But as my books wound their way across the ocean – literally on a slow boat to China – my skepticism began to grow.
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By Martin Fletcher, NBC News Correspondent
KABUL, Afghanistan – Behind a metal door on Flower Street, past a courtyard piled with junk, up some steep concrete stairs and along a narrow corridor with ornate metal railings in the style of Stars of David,
lives the last Jew in Afghanistan.
His home is a side-room off the synagogue; a thin mattress laid along one wall is his bed. In one corner, there is a small table with dusty prayer books, three folding chairs, a crumbling carpet, and a few pictures on the wall, including one of a bearded Hassidic Jew. In the corner by the door, opposite the guest’s chair, there is a small blackboard with his name spelled clearly in chalk: Zebulon Simantov. "So that journalists spell my name correctly," he said.
"Who do you work for?" Simantov asked straightaway.
"NBC News," I answered proudly.
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| AP file |
| Zebulon Simantov, 45, poses at the synagogue in Kabul on Jan. 25, 2005. |
"So can you give me lots of money," he said, his tone turning a question into a blunt demand.
"No, I’m afraid not."
"Did you bring me whiskey?"
The interview, which I had looked forward to ever since I received the assignment to visit Kabul, quickly became an embarrassment.
"I bring greetings from a friend of yours in Israel," I said.
"That bastard," Simantov said, spitting out a nut, "he’s no friend of mine!"
I knew that Isaac Levy, a Jew who lived in another room in the synagogue, making this odd couple the last two Jews in Israel, had died three years ago. I expressed sympathy.
"Huh," Simantov answered, "I was glad when he died. I didn’t speak to him for years. He tried to get me killed." http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4206909.stm
About 5,000 Jews left Afghanistan after the creation of Israel in 1948, and others left after the 1979 Soviet invasion.
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By Lawahez Jabari, NBC News Producer
JERUSALEM – A year since the militant group Hamas engaged in bloody street battles with its rival Fatah and seized control of the Gaza Strip, the group’s hold on power in the area is stronger than ever, but the lives of many ordinary Gazans has grown worse.
After Hamas took power in Gaza – one radio announcer described it as "a second liberation," in reference to Israel's withdrawal of military bases and settlements in the Gaza Strip in 2005 – Israel and Egypt swiftly sealed their border crossings with the territory.
The move effectively locked 1.5 million people into the tiny coastal patch and killed off most trade – allowing only humanitarian aid, fuel and a trickle of commercial goods in. Months later, Israel also began restricting fuel further in response to continued militant attacks, prompting shortages that have forced cars off the streets, hours-long power blackouts and an expensive black market trade in gas.
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| AP |
| A Palestinian woman sits outside a family house that was destroyed in an Israeli army operation near Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on June 5. |
Hamas’ move politically divided the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the two swathes of territory Palestinians want for their future state, which are geographically separated, lying to the north and south of Israel.
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Girls were not allowed to be educated in Afghanistan under Taliban rule, but today as many as 35 percent of school students are female. NBC News' Martin Fletcher reports.
By Jim Maceda, NBC News Correspondent
Dora, in Saddam’s time, had it all – a power station and oil refinery provided jobs and its large bungalows hidden in date palm groves drew rich, powerful Sunnis and their families to this southern suburb of Baghdad.
But Dora fell on hard times at the start of the war in 2003.
When I visited Dora about 18 months ago, it was with the U.S. 1st Cavalry Division, before the surge of U.S. and Iraqi forces into Baghdad began. The once bustling "gateway to the South" was a ghost town. It smelled of cordite, an explosive powder.
Sunni residents were in hiding; Dora’s Shiites were dead or had fled to other provinces; its many Christians – doctors, architects and other professionals – had also fled to escape the sectarian killing. The insurgent town had become an al-Qaida stronghold. But that wasn’t the only threat: Shiite death squads, masquerading as National Police, had murdered and maimed so many Sunnis that the 1st Cavalry had to force the police out of their precinct and cordon off the area.
It was a very different Dora that I saw this past week, once again embedded with U.S. forces – this time with the 4th Infantry Division. Life had returned. Dora’s famous Friday open market was bubbling with people, produce and color. No one looked afraid.
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The U.S. has reinstated the Fulbright scholarships of seven Gaza Strip students who had been blocked from leaving the Hamas-ruled territory by Israel, the State Department announced on Monday.
The students, who had been awarded the scholarships for the upcoming academic year, were informed last week that their scholarships would be deferred because they couldn't get out of Gaza, which Israel blockaded after the Islamic militants seized power a year ago.
The situation turned into an international incident once Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice heard about the scholarship snafu on Friday.
NBC News' Tom Aspell reports on how the visa misunderstaning was resolved.
By Scott Foster, NBC News Pentagon Producer
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, CUBA – Last week, NBC News Pentagon correspondent Jim Miklaszewski and I joined 60 other journalists from around the world on a U.S. military sponsored trip to the isolated Guantanamo Bay Naval Base to report on the much anticipated start of the military war crimes trial of the self-confessed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the man also known as KSM who had boasted to interrogators he planned the attacks of Sept.11 "from A to Z," hadn't been seen by anyone outside the U.S. government in over five years – not since that notorious photo when he appeared disheveled and confused after his capture in Pakistan in 2003.
This would be the public's first glimpse of Mohammed and four other alleged Sept.11 plotters, who were all being tried jointly. It would also mark the first time anyone directly involved in the Sept. 11 hijackings would face charges in an American courtroom.
The high-stakes drama was in place, but the legal backdrop to these proceedings was sure to be equally as significant.
This was an arraignment, so legally their cases wouldn't be advanced much, but it was clear the controversial military commission itself would also be on trial.
Legal experts have decried commission rules that prevent the accused and their attorneys from seeing sensitive evidence, some of which may have been obtained from coercive interrogation techniques, which human rights advocates have called torture.
This was the commission’s first major test, and the world was watching.
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By Michele Neubert, NBC News Producer
The last time I was in Ljubljana, Slovenia, was during the mid-1990s. I was there for all of 20 minutes.
I’d flown in with an NBC News cameraman on a U.S. military medivac plane whose mission it was to collect some badly injured victims of one of the Balkan wars. With time very much of the essence, we filmed on the airport tarmac as the wounded were loaded from stretchers to secure cots onboard. The plane then flew them to a U.S. facility in Germany for treatment.
It my first exposure to what would be several years covering the bloodshed of the Balkans – a series of conflicts from which Slovenia, the first of the former Yugoslav republics to declare its independence from Yugoslavia, managed to escape relatively unscathed. After a nearly bloodless 10-day war in June 1991, Yugoslav forces withdrew from the country, leaving it to serve as a safe transportation hub in the midst of the other Balkan conflicts.
Fifteen years or so later, I’m back to cover a visit by President Bush, the first stop on his farewell tour of Europe. I’m eager to check out the city I'd never had a chance to see, which is now the capital of a vibrant democracy, part of NATO and currently presiding over the European Union’s rotating presidency.
We landed on the same compact airport. This time, however, sleek commercial jets have replaced the busloads of injured awaiting us back then.
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Ali Gul is one of many Afghans who lost his entire poppy crop to a police crackdown trying to stop the supply of heroin streaming out of Afghanistan and on to the world market.
Unable to pay off a $2,000 debt to a drug trafficker, Ali was forced to sell his daughter to the person he borrowed money from – making her one of many young women in Afghanistan becoming known as "Opium Brides." NBC News Jim Maceda reports from Kabul, Afghanistan.
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Driulis Gonzalez, Cuba's judo powerhouse, is heading to Beijing and hoping to bring home her fifth Olympic medal.
By NBC’s Warangkana Chomchuen
BANGKOK – One evening I asked my mother how much she would ask for a dowry if I were to get married. (A friend of mine is going to tie the knot this year and it made me curious about what my "bride price" would be.)
"Maybe a million Baht," she said after a pause. A million Baht, or roughly $32,000, should cover a down payment for a 500-square foot condominium in Bangkok or buy me a brand new Toyota Camry.
Unlike India, where the bride’s family pays a dowry to the groom to recognize that he will provide for his wife, in Thailand it’s the other way round. The Thai groom pays "Sin Sod" (or dowry) to prove to the bride’s family that he will be a good provider.
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| AFP - Getty Images file |
| A Thai woman looks at bride dresses during a Wedding Fair in Bangkok. |
The dowry usually comprises cash, jewelry, gold or property. The rate varies according to the social status of the two families. For lower-to-middle-class families the dowry can range from $2,000-$50,000, but in a marriage between two more affluent families, the dowry may reach as high as $100,000-$500,000.
When a famous Thai pop singer got engaged to a son of a millionaire late last year, her dowry – cash, diamond rings, and a posh Audi sport car – was worth $3 million.
In Thailand, a dowry is sometimes called a "breastfeeding fee" – a symbolic payment for raising a good daughter who hopefully will also become a good wife. A more accomplished bride – such as Miss Thailand – is likely, though not always, expected to be pricier.
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Since 2003, NBC News Chief Foreign News Correspondent Richard Engel has provided television viewers and readers of the World Blog and Baghdad Blog with an unvarnished look at the war Iraq.
He has written a new book about his experiences covering the war, "War Journal: My Five Years in Iraq." Watch video of Engel reading a portion of the book below.
VIDEO: Richard Engel reads portions of his new book War Journals
Click here to read an excerpt from the book "War Journal: My Five Years in Iraq"
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By Lawahez Jabari, NBC News Producer
Sen. Barack Obama's speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) on Wednesday shocked many Palestinians, who had hoped he would be a sympathetic advocate for the Palestinian cause in the White House.
Ayman abu Syrieh, 45, owns a grocery store owner in the Old City of East Jerusalem and has been following the campaign on a daily basis. "Every time Obama was on TV, I asked everyone to be quiet, so I could listen to him," Syrieh said. "When he was talking, he represented hope for me and I believed that he would be the one to bring real peace between Palestinians and Israelis."
But Syrieh’s feelings changed after Obama stressed his support for Israel in the AIPAC speech.
"We were looking at him differently, from Bush and the others," Syrieh, the grocer said. "We thought he would bring real peace to the Middle East. I have to be honest with you, I am shocked now."
Throughout Obama’s run for the Democratic nomination, the sentiment toward him has been extremely warm on the streets of Gaza, the West Bank, and east Jerusalem. Many Palestinians see him as charismatic. They believe that because he is African-American, he knows what it is like to be discriminated against, has empathy for the Palestinians plight, and therefore will be more balanced in peace negotiations than they think past presidents have been.
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| Ryan Pyle / Special to msnbc.com |
| He Riguang, a computer programer from Hangzhou, rode his bicycle to volunteer in the destroyed city of Yingxiu, Sichuan, China. |
By Kari Huus, msnbc.com reporter
YINXIU, China -- It is testimony to how much China has changed in the last decade that so many people have the time and the wherewithal — not to mention the access to information — to volunteer in the earthquake relief effort. A veritable army of students, retirees, groups of office workers and others from around the country are helping with everything from rubble removal to medical care in the wake of the devastating May 12 earthquake.
Among the many volunteers working in this hard-hit town, He Riguang stands out. The 25-year old computer programmer rode his bicycle from the Chinese city of Hangzhou, about 1,000 miles east of here.
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By Karl Bostic, NBC News Producer
BAGHDAD – Almost exactly a year ago, I filed a blog about Mohammed Abdul-Latif al-Kharki, one of my Iraqi colleagues, who after four years of dedicated service as a local producer, was leaving Iraq for good.
After being sought repeatedly by Shiite militias, both the Mahdi Army and the Badr Brigade in his neighborhood, he knew it was only a matter of time before they found him. They knew he worked with Americans. And the dangers were becoming a reality – his wife's father had already been kidnapped and held until ransom was paid.
With great sadness he handed in his resignation and left to join his wife and children, who were already living in exile Syria, along with the nearly 1 million other Iraqi refugees who had fled the sectarian violence in Iraq.
Hello, America
After more than a year of ups and downs, I spoke on the phone to Mohammed in Damascus last week and he finally had good news. He and his wife, Ala'a, and their three children, Mais, 15, Reem, 10, and Ibrahim, 9, had been accepted for an asylum resettlement program run by the Department of Homeland Security. On Monday, they were bound for New York.
"Only 10 days ago, Marc called to say we had the OK to come to the U.S.," he said an excited voice last week. "I will be able to work, and in one year can apply for a green card. And after five years I can apply for citizenship!"
Mohammed was referring to Marc Kusnetz, a consultant with Human Rights First. The agency was a key piece in the jigsaw puzzle of non-governmental organizations, the U.N. and ultimately the U.S. government that were involved in his asylum case.
"I am thrilled," said Kusnetz. "I assumed nothing every step of the way. We had heard so many stories of what works and what doesn’t work. There would be a burst of forward movement, and then nothing for a long time. But then the dam burst."
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