World Blog

Gunpowder, fireworks, Guy Fawkes will never be 'forgot'

Petra Cahill — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:45:00 GMT

By Chris Hampson, NBC News Director of International News

LONDON – It get darks very early in London at this time of year. By five o'clock it’s pitch black.

Tonight, though, the sky is lit up with the bright and sparkling explosions of fireworks.

Bonfires blaze in towns and villages across the country.

If you want to know why, you'll need a kid of my generation or older to tell you.

"Remember, remember the Fifth of November, Gunpowder, treason and plot.

I see no reason why gunpowder treason, Should ever be forgot …"

We used to chant this scrap of verse every year.

Nowadays it's Halloween that captures the imagination. But for close to 400 years we've celebrated a quaint little custom here called Guy Fawkes night.

Mike Hewitt / Getty Images

Conor Hewitt, 11, makes light circles with a sparkler during Guy Fawkes Night celebrations in Brighton.

Back in 1605 a bunch of conspirators – disgruntled Catholics – decided to try to kill the king and members of parliament because they felt badly treated. They smuggled 36 barrels of gunpowder into a cellar under the House of Lords with a plan to blow the place sky-high.

But the aforementioned Mr. Fawkes got caught red-handed in the early hours of Nov. 5 and, as was the custom back then, got tortured and executed for his trouble.

Londoners were encouraged to celebrate the safe deliverance of the king with bonfires. Then a hundred years or so later someone got the smart idea of putting an effigy of Guy Fawkes on top and burning it. Someone else added fireworks. And so the tradition was born.

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Wall long gone, but still grappling with the change

Petra Cahill — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:41:00 GMT

By Andy Eckardt, NBC News Producer

MAINZ, Germany – I vividly recall the car journeys I would take as a teenager from Frankfurt to Berlin. In those days, the trip to the isolated city of West Berlin, which was located in the heart of East Germany, required us to take the so-called "transit route" through communist East Germany. It was a bumpy ride in many ways.

There were extensive waits at the Herleshausen border crossing, where grim and often unfriendly East German border guards took our passports and checked them for hours. Once allowed through, we had to travel for more than 200 miles through the communist country on roads that made a clacking sound as you drove over them – making it feel like a journey on old railroad tracks.

Along the roadside we passed East German police, who laid in wait to issue speeding tickets to "foreigners," as it was a quick and easy way to get some cash in the much stronger West German currency.

But that all changed after the collapse of the Berlin Wall on Nov. 9, 1989.

VIDEO: Brokaw reports from the Berlin Wall

Today, we travel the same route from Frankfurt to Berlin on spanking new highways. And it is difficult to find traces of the former 870 mile long East-West border with its hundreds of watch towers, barbed-wire fences and automatic shooting devices that once divided the two Germanys.

And there are only few signs of the original Berlin Wall, which was fortified with tank barriers, search lights and armed guards patrolling with their dogs.

"If you look at Checkpoint Charlie today, Berlin's famous Allied border crossing, it is really nothing more than a commercialized Disneyland of the Cold War," said Fabian Rueger, a historian and tour guide in Berlin.

The actors in old military uniforms at Checkpoint Charlie and the street vendors selling fake pieces of the wall are surreal images for those who actually grew up during in Cold War times.

Today, it is mainly my generation and that of my parents, who have vivid and very emotional memories of what it was like to live through the Cold War and the "peaceful revolution" that swept across Eastern Europe and ultimately brought down the internal German border in 1989.

It’s created a quandary: How do the different generations reconcile the vast and extreme changes that have altered the country in such a short period of time?

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Cuban musicians get U.S. encore

Petra Cahill — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:43:00 GMT

By Mary Murray, NBC News Havana Bureau Chief

HAVANA, Cuba – Cuban diva Omara Portuondo will heat up the stage at the 10th Annual Latin Grammy Awards during a rare U.S. appearance this Thursday.

Dubbed the queen of Cuban vocals, Portuondo will be presenting an award during the televised show and her latest CD, "Gracias," has been nominated in the Best Contemporary Tropical Album category.

VIDEO: Cuban musicians get U.S. encore

Her appearance at the Las Vegas awards show demonstrates the slow loosening of restrictions on travel between the U.S. and Cuba.

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The reality of the war in Afghanistan

Ian Sager — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 14:25:00 GMT

By Nightly News staff

It was supposed to be a week devoted to reporting on the military and political situation in Afghanistan, where a runoff presidential election is scheduled for Nov. 7.

Yet even as “NBC Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams was still in the air, making his way toward his first visit to the country in more than a year, assignments were being overturned. It would turn out to be a week looking for stories amid extraordinary violence that NBC’s Richard Engel reported has reached record levels.

First came the crashes of three helicopters on Monday, which killed 14 Americans, making October the deadliest month for U.S. forces since the war in Afghanistan began eight years ago. Then came the Taliban attack on a U.N. guesthouse Wednesday in Kabul, the capital, which killed eight people — five of them U.N. workers — plus the attackers.

In Kabul, the vibe has changed “literally overnight,” Williams observed in an e-mail interview with the Huffington Post.

“Kabul has hardened and tightened — it’s much more about security now that the Taliban has ‘entered the battle space’” with its attack Wednesday, which has prompted a reassessment of the U.N. role in promoting the election, Engel reported.

After the blast, "there was nothing here to salvage," Chris Turner, a truck driver working as a contractor for the U.S. Defense Department, told Williams, who toured the devastation afterward.

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Highly touted, but misguided ideas about Afghanistan

Petra Cahill — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:12:00 GMT

ANALYSIS

By Jim Maceda, NBC News Correspondent

I’ve spent much of the past two weeks – some in New York and the rest in Los Angeles – listening to the pundits and experts talk about the war in Afghanistan. From the Sunday morning network round tables to the Saturday evening interviews on National Public Radio, I’ve enjoyed a lot of good debate, from both sides of the issue. I’ve also heard quite a few jaw-droppers.

Here are five popular ideas on the war, the strategy, the nation and the people of Afghanistan – which those of us who spend years reporting from the region find a little misguided.

1) Afghanistan is like Vietnam. It will turn into a quagmire, and lead to another ignominious defeat for the U.S.

This is a favorite argument among left-leaning pundits, but while Afghanistan’s remoteness may smack of Vietnam, there is a big difference: This is no war of national liberation, embraced by a whole population.

If there’s a national "idea" sweeping Afghanistan it isn’t freedom from Western colonialists, its freedom from 30 years of conflict.

SLIDESHOW: On the front lines in Afghanistan

Many Afghans will no doubt continue to sit on the fence until they can see a clear victor – coalition forces or the Taliban. But the vast majority of Afghans do not want a return to the hellish years of the Taliban regime.

They’re willing to give coalition forces a chance if that can bring peace to their lives, without fear of revenge attacks or recrimination by the Taliban. That yearning for something other than the Taliban, is one key plus for those who argue that the war is still "winnable."

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Pakistan’s military braces for a ‘long-drawn haul’

Petra Cahill — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:25:00 GMT

By Stephanie Gosk, NBC News Correspondent

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, the spokesman for Pakistan’s military, calls South Waziristan the "center of gravity" for terrorism in this country and a sanctuary for both Taliban and al-Qaida fighters.

The Pakistani military took foreign and local journalists on a guided tour of South Waziristan on Thursday, the first look inside the lawless area since the military launched a major ground offensive there in mid-October.

During the tour, journalists were shown two passports with alleged links to 9/11 suspects that the military says were recovered in a small Taliban outpost in the town of Sherwangai.

One passport allegedly belonged to German citizen Said Bahaji who is thought to have lived with 9/11 leader Mohammed Atta in Hamburg. Another Spanish passport had the name of Raquel Burgos Garcia. She is believed to be married to Amer Azizi, a Moroccan terrorist suspect who has been linked to both the September 11th attacks and the Madrid bombings.

VIDEO: Clinton on Pakistan: 'It's a two-way street'

U.S. officials regularly criticize the Pakistani government for not aggressively pursuing al-Qaida within its borders and on her first trip to Pakistan as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton has been blunt about voicing that criticism. She told a group of local reporters on Thursday, "I find it hard to believe that nobody in your government knows where they are and couldn't get them if they really wanted to."

But Pakistani officials say the ongoing battle in South Waziristan is proof of their determination to confront the terrorism threat directly. It follows a similar and successful operation launched last May in the Swat valley.

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U.S. and China tackle clean energy challenge

Petra Cahill — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:01:00 GMT

BEIJING – Ahead of President Barack Obama’s first visit to China next month, American and Chinese officials and scholars are engaged in intense discussions on how the world’s two biggest polluting nations should manage their responsibility to address climate change and clean energy issues, which are expected to be high on the president’s agenda. With the U.N. Copenhagen Climate Change Conference scheduled for December, China and the United States, which account for a combined 40 percent of the...(read more)

Afghan girls burn themselves to escape marriage

Petra Cahill — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:04:00 GMT

By Adrienne Mong, NBC News Correspondent

HERAT, Afghanistan – We watched a teenage girl die last Friday.

Seventeen-year-old Shirin had been brought to the Herat Regional Hospital Burns Unit a few days before we met her. Ninety percent of her body was covered in third-degree burns.

Her mother-in-law said Shirin had burned herself by accident. The girl was preparing a meal in the kitchen but somehow confused cooking gasoline with petrol, she said.

But Dr. Mohamed Aref Jalali, the director of the burns unit, said Shirin told him in private that she had set herself on fire deliberately after fighting with her mother-in-law and her sister-in-law.

Adrienne Mong/ NBC News

Rezagul set herself on fire to escape her marriage to an abusive and much older husband.

SLIDESHOW: See other images of Afghan victims of self-immolation

Many girls in Afghanistan think self-immolation is the best solution for family problems, according to Jalali.

"[For these girls], it’s no good to solve the problem with the father-in-law, with the mother-in-law," said the doctor. "They think self-immolation will solve the problem."

It’s a "solution" that appears to be a major problem in Afghanistan, particularly among young women between the ages 13 and 25.

In the first seven months of this year, medical staff at the Herat’s burns unit – the only one of its kind in the entire country – said they have seen 51 cases of female self-immolation. Only 13 have survived.

The practice comes from Iran, where many Afghan refugees had fled to during the decade-long war with the Soviet Union (1979-1989) and the era of mujahedeen fighting that followed in the 1990s, said Jalali. But its popularity has spread among Afghan women, often from poor, uneducated backgrounds, where the tradition of child or forced marriages runs strong.

"The forced marriage is the best reason and the important reason, and it starts from the economic problem," said Jalali.

Often in arranged marriages, women are viewed in very stark terms.

"She is here only to wash, to clean, to give baby … and nothing more," said Marie-Jose Brunel, a French volunteer nurse at the burns unit who was full of Gallic warmth and purposeful seriousness. "If they have no freedom, no possibility to study, to be considered like nothing, it’s very, very difficult."

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Attention, shoppers! Gold bars in Aisle Three!

Petra Cahill — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:31:00 GMT

By NBC News' Emily Wither

LONDON – It’s a gift they’re sure to treasure.

Customers flocking to Britain’s most prestigious department store, Harrods, this holiday season will now be able to add gold bars to their basket while shopping for the perfect present.

This latest arrival to hit the shelves comes in a range of sizes, from just under one pound to 27.5 pounds. There’s also a range of coins on offer, from British sovereigns to South African Krugerrands to American gold eagles.

AFP - Getty Images

A selection of gold ingots and coins for sale in Harrods department store.

With new figures out last week showing Britain’s current recession as the longest on record, the strategy could be a successful one as up-market customers look for somewhere safe to put their money.

Chris Hall, head of Harrods’ bullion department, said the store saw a gap in the market.

"Up until now, London has had no well recognized name serving this market," he said. "Harrods saw the opportunity to help individuals buy physical gold in a prudent manner."

But the glittery metal probably won’t be flying off the shelves through the festive season. At today’s market prices, 2.2 pounds of Harrods gold will set you back about $35,000. And the top-of-the-line bar, which weighs in at 27.5 pounds, will cost you $429,482.

But Hall said sales had been promising, with several pieces of gold having been snapped up in the week or so it has been on sale.

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Baghdad blasts moment of impact

Petra Cahill — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:26:00 GMT

The moment of impact when two blasts struck near Iraq's Ministry of Justice on Sunday, killing at least 147 people, was caught on tape. The twin suicide bombings, the deadliest bomb attacks in Iraq in two years, has sparked questions about Iraq's security. NBC's Steve Wende reports from Baghdad. VIDEO: Bahdad blast momemt of impact...(read more)