World Blog
As calls for ceasefire mount, Gaza hospitals overwhelmed
As Israel's Gaza offensive continues, two reports from NBC News' reporters in the field.
NBC's Richard Engel reports on the international calls for a ceasefire as the casualties mount.
VIDEO: Push for ceasefire intensifies in Gaza
And Martin Fletcher reports on how doctors at Shifa, Gaza's under-equipped main hospital, are straining to keep up with the onslaught of mostly civilian victims.
VIDEO: Gaza hospitals overwhelmed...(read more)
China’s petitioners demand answers
SHIJIAZHUANG, Hebei Province, China – At first we thought we had hit the jackpot.
It was a brisk winter morning when my colleague, Gu Bo, and I arrived at the Shijiazhuang Intermediate People’s Court in Hebei’s capital last week. Inside, the former head of Sanlu Group, a leading Chinese dairy company, was standing trial for her role in the melamine-tainted milk scandal that has sickened hundreds of thousands of infants and caused the deaths of a handful of others. Outside, we hoped, would be families of victims.
As we stepped out of the car with a small camera, groups of Chinese approached us, waving sheaves of documents. Excellent, I thought, parents who are willing to talk to the press and they have medical records of their sick children.
But it turned out I was wrong
 |
| Adrienne Mong/NBC News |
| Petitioners like these people approached the NBC News team outside a courthouse in Hebei's capital. |
Tu Min, a 50-something-year-old woman carrying a tote bag brimming with papers, was one of the first to park herself in front of us as we fiddled with our camera. She pressed several papers into Bo’s hands. "You are media. You can help me, please," she said.
Bo looked through the documents and realized that the woman was not the parent or even grandparent of a child sick from drinking powdered milk containing melamine. Tu was just a petitioner.
And so were the others who trailed us around the edge of the courthouse, eager to enlist the help of journalists to publicize their grievances.
...(read more)Israel and Hamas: Controlling the message
TEL AVIV – Have you noticed that in the TV coverage of the Gaza conflict between Israel and Hamas, all we’ve seen are missiles, explosions and their sad aftermath?
We haven’t seen one image of an Israeli firing a gun. Same thing goes for Hamas.
Although Hamas fighters are hunkered down in homes, mosques, schools and even in hospitals, according to Palestinians who can see them, we haven’t seen one picture of a Hamas fighter with a gun in a military situation, let alone firing it.
It’s an extreme case of "Control the Message."
 |
| SLIDESHOW: Gaza chaos |
Hamas achieves the same result in a different way: they simply threaten to kill anybody who films them. That’s a persuasive argument, especially as most, if not all, of the reporters in Gaza at the moment are local Palestinians, who have nowhere to escape to.
...(read more)2008 was not a good year for parents in China.
And 2009 might not be much of an improvement.
Last May’s earthquake in Sichuan saw the collapse of some 7,000 classrooms, killing thousands of students.
Four months later, news surfaced that a major brand of infant formula contained melamine, an industrial chemical that was added to help artificially boost the protein levels in watered-down milk. At least six babies have died and more than a quarter million more have fallen ill from drinking the tainted formula.
Compensation will be available to families of victims in both instances. The government has offered $8,823 for each killed child to the quake parents. The China Dairy Association this week confirmed a compensation plan was in the works for the milk parents. Some reports have said families could receive up to $29,000 if their children died, but the details are still unclear.
But parents in both cases are outraged.
...(read more)Israeli tank build-up on Gaza border
NBC News' Martin Fletcher reports from the Israel-Gaza border, where the number of tanks has built up over the past few days, but Israel's intentions for a possible ground invasion are unclear.
VIDEO: Israeli tanks ready, but intentions 'unclear'...(read more)
Analysis: What is Israel's end game in Gaza?
TEL AVIV – As Israel vows a war "to the bitter end" against Hamas, the surge in violence has spurred worries about another regional Mideast war as well as speculation about Israel’s ultimate aim with its broad assault on targets inside the Gaza Strip.
On the former question, there’s not a chance. Who would fight it?
Apart from the usual suspects -- Iran, Syria and their Lebanese proxies, Hezbollah -- most Arab leaders are probably delighted that Israel is taking apart Hamas fighting ability. Most pleased, some of my regular Fatah sources tell me privately, is the West Bank Palestinian leadership of Fatah, which saw Hamas obliterate its own power structure in Gaza in a few violent days 18 months ago.
 |
| VIDEO: Israel air strikes continue |
This is payback time, courtesy of Israel. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and other Fatah leaders, after calling for an urgent cease-fire, blame Hamas for provoking Israel by its refusal to continue the six-month truce, and its repeated rocket attacks into Israel.
Just as pleased is Egypt, which fears that its own fundamentalist Muslims will be encouraged by Hamas' success in Gaza. A bloody nose for Hamas fits Egypt's needs perfectly. Just as Palestinian police in the West Bank opened fire on pro-Hamas protestors on Sunday, so did Egyptian police on their border with Gaza.
Likewise, pro-Hamas demonstrations in Arab capitals like Amman and Baghdad will not force any military moves against Israel by their governments. And Iran, apart from its ability to support and encourage Hezbollah and Hamas, is a thousand miles away. The most Syria can do is to call off its indirect peace talks with Israel, which it has already done.
...(read more)China enters new waters with pirate mission
By Eric BaculinaoNBC News Beijing bureau chief
Three Chinese navy ships set sail today to join the international fight against pirates off the coast of Somalia, marking a defining moment in China's efforts to project its force and gain a greater role in maintaining global peace and security.
But the deployment is also triggering concerns that China may be slowly giving up the long-standing "lie-low" strategy that Deng Xiaoping had espoused to guide China's diplomatic and security strategy.
...(read more)
Hero therapist gives hope to Afghan disabled
KABUL, Afghanistan – Alberto Cairo describes himself as moody, temperamental, impatient and pushy. But to the disabled patients he has treated for 19 years at the Red Cross Rehabilitation Center – most of them victims of violence in this war-torn country – he is an angel of mercy.
"If you see someone coming here depressed, and you see if after a few minutes he’s a little less depressed, and then after a few days he’s even better, and then he starts smiling again – that’s a huge reward," Cairo said. "What can you expect, more than that?" he asked.
In a back corner of the Red Cross center’s male ward, 12-year-old Mohammed smiled broadly as Cairo walked over to him. Mohammed was sitting with his younger brother, Ahmad, on the edge of a cot. His one good foot, shod in a torn shoe, dangled down.
 |
| VIDEO: 'Angel of mercy' gives hope to Afghan disabled |
The lanky Cairo inspected the stump of Mohammed’s amputated leg and affectionately ruffled his younger brother’s hair before moving on through the ward, dashing in and out of the center’s therapy rooms in his mid-length Red Cross smock.
The gray-haired Italian lawyer turned physiotherapist, teased and scolded the male patients in fluent Dari, their native language. He hugged the kids and then bicycled over to the female area to chat with the women. Cairo, 51, seemed to be everywhere at once, the driving force at the clinic, which is the largest orthopedic center in the world for disabled persons.
...(read more)Afghan schoolgirls defy Taliban
Zahara, 13, and her older cousin, Shamsiya, were walking to the Mirwais Mina girl's school in Kandahar, Afghanistan when three men on motorbikes suddenly blocked their path and sprayed something in their faces.
They thought it was water - just a prank - until it started to sting. The two girls were the victims of a brutal acid attack. Their crime according to the militants who threw the acid: going to school. Now NBC News' Jim Maceda reports on how they have become the...(read more)
China lives through 'year of extremes'
BEIJING – The number eight is considered so auspicious here that the Chinese leadership decided to launch the Summer Olympic Games at 8 p.m. on the eighth day of the eighth month of the year.
The number eight has long suggested luck and good fortune because in Mandarin it sounds like the word for prosperity, as Raymond Lo, a feng shui expert, explained to us back in July. But, depending on the time cycle mapped out on the Chinese calendar of elements, eight could have positive or negative portents....(read more)
Filed under: World Blog