• On lacrosse field, inner city kids dream big

    A nonprofit connecting middle school kids with lacrosse coaches at elite universities, not only teaches them the game, but also the value of a good education. NBC's Ron Mott reports.

    By Andrew Hongo, NBC News

    HARTFORD, Conn. -- On the bright green lacrosse fields of Trinity College, dozens of middle-school players ran back and forth clutching shiny, new lacrosse sticks. Their parents cheered for goals from the sidelines, and groaned at near-misses. Against a backdrop of blue skies and falling leaves, it made for an idyllic New England scene. 

    But this was no prep school lacrosse league; it was the inaugural scrimmage for Inner City Lacrosse (ICL), a non-profit that brings volunteer coaches from Yale and Trinity’s lacrosse teams together with more than 50 boys and girls from New Haven and Hartford, almost all from public schools that don’t offer the sport. 

    “Scoring a goal in lacrosse is exciting,” said ICL program founder Michael Gary, who grew up in New Haven’s projects. “But scoring well on an exam is most important and equally exciting. I hope they can understand the importance of doing well academically in the classroom.”

    During their seven weekly practices, kids learn more than just lacrosse basics; Gary hopes bonds with student athletes from elite colleges will encourage the young players to pursue academic excellence of their own.

    Kobi Spence, 11, who’s been in attendance since week one, got the message. Bright and ambitious, she said that not only does she want to go to Yale like her coaches, she also wants to become a successful lawyer, president of the United States, a forensic scientist—or some combination thereof. 

    When asked to describe her coach, 18-year-old Yale varsity midfielder Nicole Daniggelis, Kobi struggled to find the right words. 

    Kobi Spence, her mother and coaches at Inner City Lacrosse describe their passion for the sport, sense of accomplishment and commitment to teamwork.

    “All I can say is, ‘Wow!’” said Kobi. “Not only is she an amazing lacrosse player, she’s also a really good friend.” 

    Kobi added Daniggelis is “also very good at academics. I can tell because her vocabulary is extraordinary.”

    From Daniggelis’ side, the admiration was mutual.

    “Kobi is such a great kid,” said Daniggelis. She continued, “She just has such a great attitude, 100 percent focus all the time, and her enthusiasm is amazing. She brings the program up so much by her enthusiasm, getting all the other kids involved and wanting to play just as hard as her, like she does every play.”

    An ‘elite’ sport becomes more diverse  

    Though lacrosse has a reputation as an elite sport, the National Federation of State High School Associations says it’s been the fastest growing team sport in the nation over the past five years. 

    Gary said one of the goals of ICL (which is free of charge) is to bring more diversity to a cost-prohibitive sport. (Basic gear—pads, sticks, pennies, gloves, and helmets for the boys—can cost hundreds of dollars; Gary arranged for the equipment to be donated to the program.)

    “You don’t find it as readily in the inner city,” Gary said. “So giving these kids an opportunity to play the sport, hopefully, you will see more kids of color playing the sport of lacrosse.”

    Michael Gary, the founder of Inner City Lacrosse, grew up with very little. He is now giving back, by giving kids a whole new field of dreams.

    Gary himself was once a kid without much opportunity. He grew up the youngest of six to a single mom in the Ashman Street Projects -- just steps away from Yale University, in a neighborhood he described as “the section where they told the Yale students not to go.” 

    But Gary’s world changed when at age 13, he began participating in the U.S. Grant Foundation, which gave him a chance to be mentored by Yale students. He learned about math, he learned about literature, and for the first time he learned about boarding schools.

    “I was saying to myself, ‘Wow. If I can leave New Haven and be a part of that environment that will be absolutely remarkable,’” said Gary. 

    He ended up attending boarding school at Pomfret and then college at Trinity. Gary ultimately chose academia as a career and has been an admissions officer for 23 years -- 10 of them at the prestigious Phillips Exeter Academy, where he now serves as Director of Admissions.

    More than a coach 

    As Kobi chatted with her friends during their pre-game warm-ups, they displayed all the signs of hero worship. They talked about how tall coach Daniggelis is, how good at lacrosse she is, and at one point they even tried to imitate a trick Daniggelis does, where she bounces her lacrosse stick off the ground then catches it. Daniggelis was ever-patient, and always positive throughout the game: reminding the girls of the proper scooping technique, demonstrating how to cradle the ball and shoot, and at one point tying Kobi’s shoelaces when her gloves proved an impediment.

    “To be a part of this program is really something special because it’s taught me how to give back to a community that I’m new to,” said Daniggelis. “And I find that really rewarding.” 

    When the game-ending whistle blew -- no one seemed to care much about the final score. The girls huddled for one final cheer, then lined up in rows for a team picture with their coaches. Proud moms counted to three, capturing memories that would last them until next season. 

    The large group disbanded, and Kobi and Nicole posed for a picture, just the two of them, arms around each other, Kobi in her black and white striped leggings holding a pink lacrosse stick, Daniggelis in a white knit sweater with a big, blue “Y” on the front.           

    Gary stressed that the program, ultimately, isn’t only about athletics, or even academics. It’s about something more—something he experienced all those years ago as a little boy being tutored by Yale students.

    “The attention I was getting and working with college students…it just made me feel really valued,” he said.

    His wife, Trina Gary, who has been his ICL partner since day one, echoed the same sentiment when reflecting on the past season.

    “I think everybody learns in these situations when they give of themselves and put themselves into situations to help others,” she said. “To realize that we all need help, we all need someone there. We all need someone to say, ‘I see you. You matter.’”

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  • Antarctica, Greenland ice definitely melting into sea, and speeding up, experts warn

    A new study published in 'Science' found the ice in Greenland is melting five times faster than in the early 90s, part of what accounts for a 20 percent rise in sea level over the past two decades. NBC's Anne Thompson reports.

    Miguel Llanos writes

    What had been a blurry picture about polar ice — especially how it impacts sea levels — just got a whole lot clearer as experts on Thursday published a peer-reviewed study they say puts to rest the debate over whether the poles added to, or subtracted from, sea level rise over the last two decades.


    "This improved certainty allows us to say definitively that both Antarctica and Greenland have been losing ice," lead author Andrew Shepherd of the University of Leeds in Britain, told reporters. Not only that, but the pace has tripled from the 1990s, the data indicate.

    Combining satellite data from dozens of earlier studies, the study "shows that the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets have contributed just over 11 millimeters (0.4 inches) to global sea levels since 1992," he added. Two-thirds was from Greenland, a third from Antarctica.

    NASA Earth Observatory

    This 20-mile-long rift on Antarctica's Pine Island Glacier, seen from a satellite on Oct. 26, will eventually calve off, possibly in the next few months, creating an iceberg the size of New York City. While that won't raise sea levels since the glacial tongue sits on water, the loss could speed up the flow of ice from Antarctica's mainland into the sea.

    That's 20 percent of all sea level rise over the last two decades, with the rest mostly from thermal expansion of waters due to warming sea temperatures, the authors noted. In recent years, however, the percentage "has gone up significantly" to nearly 40 percent, added co-author Michiel van den Broeke from Utrecht University in the Netherlands.

    Published in the journal Science, the study was based on input from 47 experts at the 26 institutes that produced earlier studies with wild variations. Some of those studies estimated melt was raising sea levels by up to 2 millimeters a year, Shepherd noted, while a few said that overall polar ice was growing, and thus countering sea level rise.

    Much of the discrepancy was due to data showing that Antarctica's vast eastern ice sheet was adding, not losing ice.

    Eastern Antarctica has indeed added ice, but continent-wide the last decade shows a "50 percent increase in ice loss rate," said study co-author Erik Ivins, a satellite data expert with NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab. 

    Most of that loss is in western Antarctica — at places like Pine Island Glacier, where an iceberg the size of New York City is set to calve off. The iceberg itself won't raise sea levels since that ice is already atop water, but thinning glaciers mean that ice on the mainland can make its way downhill to the sea faster.

    ESA/NASA/Planetary Visions

    Based on the new study in Science, this chart shows changes in global sea level due to ice sheet melting since 1992. The background image shows thickening (blue) and thinning (red) of Antarctica's ice sheets over the same period.

    Even more dramatic, Ivins said, is that Greenland "is losing mass at about five times the rate today as it was in the early 1990s."

    Greenland's melt rate has gone from 55 billion tons a year in the 1990s to nearly 290 billion tons a year recently, according to the study. 

    A top ice expert who was not a study co-author told NBC News that the new data mark "an important step forward" in better estimating future sea level rise.

    "While we had a basic picture of what was going on, it was an incomplete and blurry one," said Mark Serreze, director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado-Boulder. "We needed to step back and take a fresh look, making the best use of all of the different data sources that we have.

    "With this study," he added, "we now have a lot confidence in how the ice sheets are behaving."

    The findings come as nations negotiate in Qatar over a new climate treaty to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which aimed to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases tied to a warming Earth. 

    And while a 0.4 inch rise in sea levels over 20 years doesn't sound like much, many experts fear further warming will accelerate the polar melt. The ice sheets would raise sea levels by more than 200 feet if they completely melted over centuries — not likely, but even a tenth of that would have catastrophic impacts on coastal areas.

    The authors warned that while the new data should become the benchmark for future forecasts, any new studies could be compromised if aging satellites are not replaced. In the U.S., the Obama administration is overhauling its satellite program after an outside review team found it "dysfunctional."

    Related: Sea levels rose 60 percent faster than forecast, study finds

    "It’s really critical that these measurements are sustained and several satellites are beginning to fail," noted Ian Joughin, a University of Washington researcher.

    "If we really want to have meaningful information that you know planners can use to build seawalls," he added, "there’s going to have to be a big push to improve our projections of sea level rise using models."

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  • No health insurance? At Florida clinic, no problem

    One clinic in Daytona Beach, Fla., is providing free medical care to the poor. In some cases, it has literally meant the difference between life and death. Dr. Bill Gilmer, the force behind the clinic, says he is driven by faith. NBC's Gabe Gutierrez reports.

    By Gabe Gutierrez, NBC News correspondent

    DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The diagnosis was bad enough. But when doctors told Lesa Ashley that she had breast cancer in 2006, the part-time waitress immediately thought of her two children, now ages 10 and 13.

    "There's no words," she said, holding back tears. "There's no words."

    As a 49-year-old single mom without health insurance, Ashley is part of the group known as the “working poor” -- people who have jobs so they can’t qualify for Medicaid, but who don’t earn enough to afford health insurance.

    Ashley, who was earning between $12,000 and $14,000 at the time, had no idea how she would pay for treatment.

    And then, Dr. Bill Gilmer stepped in.

    "If we don't serve this particular population, no one else does," Gilmer told NBC News.

    Here in Volusia County, roughly one in five adults doesn’t have health insurance, according to the local health department. Dr. Gilmer said that means those people don’t have access to routine primary medical care.

    "It's terribly sad because when you live in a country that's as wealthy as this country and there are resources available,” said his wife, Pam. “It's just not right."

    So nearly seven years ago, Dr. Gilmer and his wife -- a nurse – took action.

    They started the Jesus Clinic in Daytona Beach. Since then, the clinic’s grown to 35 volunteers treating about 100 patients a week.

    For free.

    “These people have been angels,” said Debby Sturges, one of the patients. “Absolute angels."

    Dr. Bill Gilmer, who runs a free medical clinic in Daytona Beach, Fla., says if his clinic doesn't serve the working poor, nobody else will -- except the emergency rooms. And according to Gilmer, that's inadequate for primary medical care.

    Dr. Gilmer estimates he and his volunteers provided more than $900,000 in free medical care last year. They are funded entirely through donations and volunteers. His patients must meet certain criteria, he said, such as being employed full or part-time and being below specific income levels.

    The demand is so great for his cramped clinic that he’s had to limit the number of new patients.

    "We'd like to have more resources to do more,” he said.

    Some of his patients claim his work has made the difference between life and death.

    For Lesa Ashley, who is now studying law at the University of Central Florida after losing her job as a waitress, that difference is evident every hour she enjoys with her kids.

    "I just sit back and just watch them in awe,” she said. “I'm so grateful that I can see them." 

    She hopes Dr. Gilmer can expand his clinic.

    "It renewed my faith in mankind and humanity,” she said. “I'd lost that.”

    To learn more about the Jesus Clinic, visit their website at www.jesusclinic.com. 

  • $550 million will buy you a lot of ... misery

    As the Powerball frenzy continues, people across the nation are rushing out to buy their ticket to a dream, but winning the jackpot can sometime translate to major losses. NBC's Erica Hill reports on the lottery "curse" and two September Powerball winners how their lives have changed, for better and for worse.

    Melissa Dahl, NBC News writes

    You surely know by now that the Powerball jackpot is set to hit at least $550 million tonight. You should also know that your odds of winning the grand prize are somewhere around 1 in 176 million (at least, we really hope you know that). So here's a bit of comfort for you tonight as you stare dejectedly at your losing ticket: Most lottery winners don't end up any happier than the rest of us. 

    Yeah, yeah, you can probably name 550 million reasons why winning the jackpot tonight will make you happy. But here's the truth: A handful of psychology studies over the years have evaluated the happiness of lottery winners over time, and found that after the initial glee of getting one of those big giant checks has faded away, most winners actually end up no happier than they were before hitting the jackpot.

    Arguably the most famous paper on this subject was published the late 1970s, and it's a doozy: Psychologists interviewed winners of the Illinois State Lottery and compared them with non-winners -- and, just for good measure, people who had suffered some terrible accident that left them paraplegic or quadriplegic. (You can find the abstract here, but you'll have to pay to read the full report.) Each group answered a series of questions designed to measure their level of happiness.

    Joe Raedle / Getty Images

    Stefanie Graef holds what she hopes is the winning Powerball ticket she just bought at Circle News Stand on Tuesday in Hollywood, Fla. If she's lucky, she won't win.

    What they found was counterintuitive, to say the least: In terms of overall happiness, the lottery winners were not significantly happier than the non-lottery winners. (The accident victims were less happy, but not by much.) But when it came to rating everyday happiness, the lottery winners took "significantly less pleasure" in the simple things like chatting with a friend, reading a magazine or receiving a compliment. 

    "Humans tend to have a relatively set point of mood," explains Gail Saltz, a New York City psychiatrist and frequent TODAY contributor. Most people tend to bounce back to that set point after a major life event, whether it's something negative or positive. But for some lottery winners, psychologists believe hitting an especially huge jackpot may alter that happiness baseline, making it harder to see the joy in everyday things. 

    More recently than the '70s research, a 2008 University of California, Santa Barbara, paper measured people's happiness six months after winning a relatively modest lottery prize -- a lump sum equivalent to about eight months' worth of income. "We found that this had zero detectable effect on happiness at that time," says Peter Kuhn, one of the study authors and a professor of economics at the university. 

    Andrew Jackson "Jack'' Whittaker Jr., his wife Jewell, right, and their granddaughter Brandi Bragg, left, pose for a photograph after being interviewed by TODAY in this December 2002. In his darkest moments, Whittaker has said he sometimes wondered if winning the nearly $315 million Powerball game was really worth it.

    You've heard the stories of lottery winners whose post-jackpot lives turned sour. There's Jack Whittaker, the West Virginia man who in 2002 won the nearly $315 million Powerball jackpot. Initially, he generously gave millions to charities, including $14 million to start his own Jack Whittaker Foundation. But later, the dream turned to nightmare: A briefcase with $545,000 in cash and cashier's checks was stolen from his car while it was parked outside of a Cross Lanes, W. Va., strip club. His office and home were broken into, he was arrested twice for drunken-driving -- and the list goes on. 

    Or there's Alex Toth, a Florida man who in 1990 won $13 million to be doled out in 20-year-payments of $666,666. (Seriously.) At his death in 2008, the Tampa Bay Times reported on the sad direction his life had taken: Years of living it up led to a split from his wife and charges of fradulent tax returns, among other serious woes.

    What gives? Behavior experts have a couple theories. One is simply that we humans just tend to get used to stuff -- the good and the bad. The psychological concept is called "happiness adaptation," and Michael Norton, associate professor at Harvard Business School, co-authored a 2007 paper that sought to uncover why hitting major life goals -- including the dreamlike goal of winning the lottery and the more down-to-earth goal of getting married -- don't end up making us as happy as we expect them to. 

    "The idea of adaptation seems like a negative thing --  it's a shame that we have to get used to the good things in our life, from lottery winnings to ice cream. But adaptation also helps us when bad things happen to us, making the impact of losing our job or getting divorced less painful over time," explains Norton, who is also the coauthor of the forthcoming book, "Happy Money: The Science of Smarter Spending." 

    He continues, "Big positive and negative events can have a lasting impact on our happiness, but this impact tends to decrease over time. In some sense, because people have so many facets of their life - from their job to their friends to their family to their hobbies - the impact of a change in any one of those facets is less extreme than we think, because many of the other things in our lives stay the same. (We win the lottery but we are still stuck with our same siblings, for example.) As a result of this, people tend to adapt to life events and end up closer to where they were than they think they'd be."

    Tonight's historic Powerball jackpot has reached a whopping half-billion dollars and continues to grow. Andrea Canning reports on the frenzy for tickets in New York City.

    This is partially because we are terrible at predicting how happy more money is going to make us. The truth is, money can make you happy -- but only up to a point. "Research shows that the impact of additional income on happiness begins to level off around $75,000 of income - but people keep trying to make more and more money in the mistaken belief that their happiness will continue to increase," Norton says. "As a result of this mistaken belief, people think that big windfalls will change their happiness dramatically - and may end up with less happiness than they expected."

    On the other end of the spectrum, landing a windfall that lifts you out of a financial pit really can provide significant, lasting happiness. In 2006, Sandra Hayes, then a 46-year-old social worker making $25,000 a year, and 12 of her coworkers won the $224 million Powerball jackpot. After taxes and splitting the money with her coworkers, Hayes had won $10 million. She bought her dream car (a brand-new Lexus) and her dream home (a half-million dollar house in St. Louis). But first, she paid off her current home and then gave that house to her daughter and grandchildren, who'd been living in a rough neighborhood. She quit her job and now spends her days writing -- she's already published one book and is working on a second one. 

    "Yes, my life is different, and it feels good," says Hayes. "This summer I had a $900 water bill. Six years ago, well, if I had a substantially huge bill, I would’ve had to make payment arrangements. That’s one of the things I like, that I’m able to pay my bills in full and not scuffle."

    The first secret, as Hayes tells it, to winning the lottery without losing your mind is to immediately meet with a financial planner you trust and make a plan that works for you. The second is a little simpler. She says, "Just because you win the lottery, it does not change you as a person."

    Related: 

    Hey, Powerball winner: Here's your holiday shopping list

    Advice for the Powerball winner: Pay taxes

    11 crazy things more likely to happen than winning the Powerball jackpot

    Follow NBCNews.com health writer Melissa Dahl on Twitter: @melissadahl. 

  • 'Leave, leave': Egyptians gather in Cairo's Tahrir Square to protest president's decree

    A protester runs to throw a tear gas canister back to riot police during clashes in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Tuesday. President Mohammed Morsi's declaration last week of new powers for himself has sparked days of demonstrations.

    The Associated Press writes

    CAIRO — Egyptian protesters and police clashed in Cairo on Tuesday just hours ahead of a planned massive rally by opponents of the country's Islamist president demanding he rescind decrees that granted him near-absolute powers.

    Police fired tear gas and hundreds of protesters pelted them with rocks at a street between the U.S. Embassy and Tahrir Square, birthplace of the uprising that toppled president Hosni Mubarak's authoritarian regime nearly two years ago.


    The protesters have been staging a sit-in at the square since Friday night to demand President Mohammed Morsi revoke his decrees.

     

    By midday, hundreds were starting to gather in Tahrir, chanting against Morsi's decrees and the Brotherhood. A new banner in the square proclaimed, "The Brotherhood stole the country."

    "We are here to bring down the constitutional declaration issued by Morsi," said one protester at Tahrir, Mahmoud Youssef.

    Egypt's Morsi, top judges compromise to defuse soaring tensions over decree

    Hundreds of lawyers meanwhile gathered outside their union building in downtown Cairo ahead of their march to Tahrir. "Leave, leave," they chanted, addressing Morsi.

    The rally planned for later Tuesday, with marches from various parts of Cairo to converge on Tahrir, is to be a significant test of the opposition's ability to bring out supporters and the public against Morsi's edicts issued last week.

    The opposition says the decrees give Morsi near dictatorial powers by neutralizing the judiciary at a time when he already holds executive and legislative powers. Key parts of the judicial system have denounced the measures.

    After encountering a wave of protests in response to a decree from Egypt's President Mohamed Morsi that would have raised his edicts above judicial review, Morsi moved quickly to contain the damage. NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reports.

    Morsi, in office since June, says the decrees are necessary to protect the "revolution" and the nation's transition to democratic rule. His declaration made all his decisions immune to judicial review and banned the courts from dissolving the upper house of parliament and an assembly writing the new constitution, both of which are dominated by Islamists. The decree also gave Morsi sweeping authority to stop any "threats" to the revolution.

    Morsi's supporters canceled a massive rally they had planned for Tuesday, citing the need to "defuse tension" after a series of clashes between the two camps since the decrees were issued Thursday.

    But a spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood, the fundamentalist group from which Morsi hails, said demonstrations supporting the president could go ahead outside the capital and that supporters would form human chains in some provinces to protect Brotherhood offices. Morsi's supporters say more than a dozen of their offices have been ransacked or set ablaze since Friday.

    President within his rights?
    On Monday, Morsi met with the nation's top judges and tried to win their acceptance of his decrees. But the move was dismissed by many in the opposition and the judiciary as providing no real concessions.

    Riot police use tear gas on protesters during clashes in Tahrir Square on Tuesday.

    Presidential spokeman Yasser Ali, said Morsi told the judges that he acted within his rights as the nation's sole source of legislation, assuring them that the decrees were temporary and did not in any way infringe on the judiciary. He underlined repeatedly that the president had no plans to change or amend his decrees.

    According to a presidential statement late Monday, Morsi told the judges that his decree meant that any decisions he makes on "issues of sovereignty" are immune from judicial review.

    The vaguely worded statement did not define those issues, but they were widely interpreted to cover declaration of war, imposition of martial law, breaking diplomatic relations with a foreign nation or dismissing a Cabinet. Morsi's original edict, however, explicitly gives immunity to all his decisions and there was no sign it had been changed.

    Photoblog: Protesters in Tahrir Square hold funeral for activist killed in clashes

    The statement Monday did not touch the immunity that Morsi gave the constitutional assembly or the upper chamber of parliament, known as the Shura Council. It also did not affect the edict that the president can take any measures he sees as necessary to stop threats to the revolution, stability or public institutions. Many see that edict as granting Morsi unlimited emergency powers.

    The Shura Council does not have lawmaking authorities but, in the absence of the more powerful lower chamber, the People's Assembly, it is the only popularly elected, national body where the Brotherhood and other Islamists have a majority. The People's Assembly was dissolved by a court ruling in June.

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  • Arafat's body exhumed; experts to investigate if he was poisoned

    Labs in France, Russia and Switzerland will conduct independent tests of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's bone samples, searching for evidence that he could have been poisoned. NBC's Martin Fletcher reports.

    NBC News staff and wire services writes

    Updated at 10:40 a.m. ET: The remains of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat were exhumed from his grave on Tuesday -- eight years after his death at age 75 — as part of an investigation into allegations that he was poisoned, according to official Palestinian radio. 


    Arafat's body was uncovered in its grave and samples were removed without having to lift the corpse from the ground. As a result, a planned reburial ceremony with full military honors was called off.

    The tomb was resealed in hours and wreaths were placed by Palestinian leaders including Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.

     

    "The state of the body was exactly what you would expect to find for someone who has been buried for eight years. There was nothing out of the ordinary," Health Minister Hani Abdeen told a news conference.

    A Palestinian medical team took samples and gave them to Swiss, French and Russian experts who flew in for the exhumation and who will examine them in their home countries, the officials said. Samples were taken earlier from Arafat's bedroom, office and personal belongings, they said.

    Arafat case: 'Proof' still might elude Palestinians

    French judges opened a murder inquiry into Arafat's death in August after a Swiss institute said it had discovered high levels of radioactive polonium on his clothing.

    Slideshow: Arafat, in images

    AP

    See key moments and memorable scenes from Yasser Arafat's life.

    Launch slideshow

    Jordanian doctor Abdullah al Bashir, head of the Palestinian medical committee, said about 20 samples were taken and analysis would take at least three months.

    "In order to do these analyses, to check, cross-check and double cross-check, it will take several months and I don't think we'll have anything tangible available before March or April next year," said Darcy Christen, spokesman for Lausanne University Hospital in Switzerland that carried out tests on Arafat's clothes.

    Rumors of foul play have long surrounded the sudden demise of Arafat, a champion of Palestinian statehood from the time he was 19, and eventually, the democratically elected president of the Palestinian Authority.

    Arafat was revered by many Palestinians and Arabs as a freedom fighter and reviled by many Israelis and its allies as a terrorist for his relentless fight for Palestinian self-determination. But he also had enemies and rivals within the Arab and Palestinian political circles.

    He died in November 2004 at a French military hospital, a month after suddenly falling ill. The rapid deterioration of his health and death baffled doctors who were trying to treat him in France, and an autopsy was never performed at the request of his widow, Suha.

    'A painful necessity'
    While the immediate cause of death was a stroke, the underlying source of an illness he suffered in his final weeks has never been clear, leading to persistent speculation in the Arab world that Israel poisoned him. Israel has denied such allegations.

    Poisoning as a cause of death gained currency after a Swiss institute said it had found high levels of radioactive polonium on Arafat's clothing, which was supplied by Suha, prompting the French to open a formal murder inquiry.

    Polonium was the substance that killed Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006. Litvenenko was a Russian ex-spy who later became a relentless critic of the Kremlin.

    "It is a painful necessity" to exhume the body of Arafat, said Tawfiq al-Tirawi, who is in charge of the Palestinian committee overseeing the investigation, speaking to reporters in Ramallah on Saturday.

    Tirawi said the Palestinians had "evidence which suggests Arafat was assassinated by Israelis," Reuters reported.

    The exhumation might not resolve the mystery. Polonium-210 decomposes rapidly, and some experts say it is not clear whether any remaining samples will be sufficient for testing. 

    NBC's Kari Huus, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

    Palestinians have begun to exhume the body of Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat in an attempt to determine whether he was assassinated by lethal doses of radioactive poison. NBC's John Ray reports.

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  • Love among the ruins: Sandy decimates community, but wedding goes on

    John Makely / NBC News

    James Keane, a volunteer with the Rockaway Point F.D and a full-time dispatcher for the FDNY, and his fiancee Kristen Diffendale on Sunday in Breezy Point.

    Miranda Leitsinger writes

    BREEZY POINT, N.Y. -- The wedding had been two years in the making: The church was booked, the custom fuchsia and blue Converse sneakers for the bridesmaids were ordered, and the firehouse was secured as a staging ground for the groomsmen.

    But then Superstorm Sandy struck, flooding the firehouse, forcing the church to turn into a command center, and scattering the guests and the newlyweds-to-be, as well as the custom Converse, less than a month before the big day: Friday, Nov. 23.

    Now, with much of their Breezy Point community in ruins, Kristen Diffendale, 29, and James Keane, 28, are turning their wedding into a celebration of what the storm couldn’t take away.

    “All of our family and friends are from Breezy Point and from Rockaway (another hard-hit community nearby) so we figured this is, it’s not only a night for us, it’s a night for all of our friends and family to get to some sort of normalcy, to feel like everything’s alright, to be away from this for a day,” she said. “We want to give that to our friends, just a night of just absolute back to normal.”

    As Sandy swept through the seaside community of Breezy Point on Oct. 29, Diffendale hunkered down at the home she shares with her future in-laws and her three-year-old daughter, Madison Shea. Keane, her fiancé and Madison’s dad, was in Brooklyn working as a dispatcher for the New York City Fire Department.

    'What Thanksgiving is all about': Breezy Point teen lifts spirits in devastated hometown

    “It was pretty scary … I was a little worried when the water came up. We just, we didn’t know where it was coming from and we figured out it was the ocean that was coming towards us,” she said. “And then we saw the fire, we saw the glow … and then I started to get really nervous because it wasn’t stopping.”

    In Breezy Point in Queens, a couple said "I do" despite Superstorm Sandy. NBC's Kate Snow reports.

    'I thought everybody was gone'
    Keane lost cellphone contact with his family around 7 p.m. that night. He got permission to leave his job and raced to a firehouse close to his home. But due to the flooding, no fire trucks were being allowed into the area in southern Queens where Breezy Point is located.

    When that order lifted, and he was finally able to get on a truck speeding to the area, he spotted the fires lighting up the night sky.

    John Makely / NBC News

    James Keane and his fiancee, Kristen Diffendale, hope their wedding will provide respite for their guests.

    “I didn’t know what was happening down here. I thought it was gone down here,” he said this week, standing amid volunteers and victims near the relief center in their once idyllic community. 

    “He thought I left him,” Diffendale said, looking into his eyes, breaking from the couple’s otherwise jovial banter.

    “I thought everybody was gone,” Keane said.


    Their home took in several feet of water in the basement and there was damage to the roof, but the dwelling did not burn. The family, however, spent a frightful night riding out the storm, with Diffendale clutching her grandmother's rosary and in tears. 

    Once Keane, a volunteer firefighter at the Rockaway Point Volunteer Fire Department, learned his family was all right, he joined the effort to battle the blaze.

    Diffendale and Keane are among the lucky ones in Breezy Point, where Sandy’s hurricane-force winds sparked a six-alarm blaze that burned more than 100 homes to the ground. It is believed that the rest of the 2,100 homes in this close-knit community were also damaged, many due to flooding.

    PhotoBlog: Cooking a Thanksgiving feast in Breezy Point

    The couple was unsure about keeping their post-Thanksgiving wedding date in the aftermath of the disaster. Like many of their friends and neighbors, they have been busy with the relief effort: he, cleaning and gutting flooded basements, and she, hauling supplies to victims.

    “For a while, people were asking, ‘What about the wedding?’” said Diffendale, who works in special education. “But we were, like, ‘We’re worrying about what’s going on right now.' … We put ourselves last for a couple of weeks.”

    But as the date approached, and more people asked them not to postpone their impending nuptials, the couple decided the community needed a party.

    “We’ve been planning this wedding for two years and we had to re-plan it in two weeks,” Keane said.

    Slideshow: Recovering after Sandy

    Mario Tama / Getty Images

    Residents of the Northeast are still picking up the pieces after Superstorm Sandy.

    Launch slideshow

    'People need a break from this'
    The change in plans entailed: moving their wedding to a hall in Long Island and getting permission from leaders at Saint Frances de Sales Parish to still have their marriage recognized by the church; booking rooms at a local hotel for Keane and the groomsmen because the firehouse was out of commission; and arranging for buses to transport many of the 300 guests to the wedding, since so many were forced to relocate.

    Diffendale said they weren’t “stressing the little stuff anymore,” and her only near-Bridezilla moment came while tracking down the special-made sneakers, which have the wedding date inscribed on them. The mail delivery was interrupted by the storm and because the shoes were in different packages, they ended up in different locations. Diffendale was told the shoes would be delivered Nov. 28, after the wedding, but a shipping agent helped her locate them.

    Read more coverage of Breezy Point on NBCNews.com

    “People need a break from this,” Keane said of the weeks-long cleanup and repair in chilly temperatures. “They need a break from doing this every day.”

    The wedding has taken on new meaning for the couple, too.

    “Absolutely,” Diffendale said. “We thought each other were dead.”

    “You thought you had, I don’t know, nothing," Keane said. "I didn’t even know there was even a neighborhood here anymore ... when I came down."

    Despite the disaster that befell their community, they don’t expect a sullen affair.

    “We’re an Irish neighborhood so we know how to have a good time,” Diffendale said, laughing. “It’s going to be a very good time.”

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  • Israel and Hamas agree to Gaza cease-fire

    If the cease-fire holds for 24 hours, Israel will start talking about lifting border control on Gaza. In the meantime, Israeli ground troops remain mobilized in case Hamas resumes rocket attacks from Gaza. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.

    NBC News staff and wire reports writes

    Updated at 4 p.m. ET: Israel and Hamas agreed to a cease-fire Wednesday, ending eight days of fighting that killed more than 140 Palestinians and five Israelis.


    “The United States welcomes the agreement today for the cease-fire in Gaza," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said at a news conference alongside Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr. "This is a critical moment for the region."

    The cease-fire started at 9 p.m. Cairo time (2 p.m. ET). Hundreds took to the streets of Gaza City to celebrate the cease-fire, NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reported. Celebratory gun fire erupted across the city, whose streets gradually filled with crowds waving Palestinian flags. Ululating women leaned out of windows and fireworks lit up the sky.

    "Allahu akbar, (God is greatest), dear people of Gaza you won," blared mosque loudspeakers in the enclave as the truce took effect. "You have broken the arrogance of the Jews."

    Both sides fought right up to 9 p.m., when hostilities were due to stop, with several explosions shaking Gaza City and rockets hitting the Israeli city of Beersheba.

    If it holds, the truce will give 1.7 million Gazans respite from days of ferocious air strikes and halt rocket salvoes from militants that unnerved a million people in southern Israel and reached Tel Aviv and Jerusalem for the first time.

    During the Cairo news conference, Clinton thanked Egypt's Islamist President Mohammed Morsi for his mediation efforts and pledged to work with partners in the region "to consolidate this progress, improve conditions for the people of Gaza, provide security for the people of Israel."

    In Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed the agreement, adding that he had spoken with President Barack Obama and had agreed to fight together against "weapons of terror."

    "Israel cannot sit with its arms folded against its enemies," he said in a news conference.

    Hamas paid a big price for what it believes was its return to the world stage. With more than 160 dead, and over 1200 injured, Gazans and their government buildings have endured numerous attacks. NBC's Richard Engel reports.

    Netanyahu paid tribute to U.S. diplomacy and Morsi's leadership, but also to Israel's resolve and the armed forces.

    "I am proud to be your prime minister," he said.

    According to the cease-fire agreement: Israel will stop attacks on Gaza by land, sea and air and stop incursions and targeted assassinations; Palestinian factions will stop hostilities from the Gaza Strip against Israel; Israel will ease the movement of people and goods at border-crossing areas.

    Egypt is the "sponsor" of the cease-fire agreement.

    In comments following the cease-fire announcement, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the army had been effective, achieving maximum destruction to Hamas with minimum loss of civilian life.

    Barak added that the Iron Dome defense system was "an exceptional success," knocking down 500 incoming missiles.

    The exiled leader of Hamas said that if Israel complied with the cease-fire, Palestinians would as well but they would respond to any Israeli violation.

    "If Israel complies, we are compliant. If it does not comply, our hands are on the trigger," Khaled Meshaal said in Cairo. 

    Meshaal also thanked Egypt for helping mediate the Gaza ceasefire and praised Iran for providing Gazans with financing and arms.

    The cease-fire that capped a day of 130 rocket attacks, brought relief to the region but also skepticism – especially so soon after a man bombed a bus in Tel Aviv, then escaped. NBC's Martin Fletcher reports.

    "We have come out of this battle with our heads up high," he said, adding that Israel had been defeated and failed in its "adventure."

    "It failed, praise be to God," Meshaal said of Israel's eight days of attacks on Gaza, which the Jewish state said were meant to stop increasing Palestinian rocket fire from the enclave targeting its cities and towns.

    Hours before the cease-fire announcement, an explosion on a bus in Tel Aviv injured 19 people, three of them seriously, an official told NBC News.

    Tel Aviv police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told the U.K.'s Sky News that the bus blast took place in the heart of the city and that the surrounding area had been cordoned off as police searched for suspects.

    "This was a terrorist attack," Ofir Gendelman, a spokesman for Netanyahu, told Reuters.

    The White House condemned the attack as "outrageous." In a statement, it reaffirmed the United States' "unshakable commitment to Israel's security and our deep friendship and solidarity with the Israeli people."

    A bomb ripped through a bus in Tel Aviv on Wednesday, wounding at least 16 people. NBC's Stephanie Gosk reports.

    Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri praised the bombing, but stopped short of claiming responsibility.

    "Hamas blesses the attack in Tel Aviv and sees it as a natural response to the Israeli massacres...in Gaza," he told Reuters. "Palestinian factions will resort to all means in order to protect our Palestinian civilians in the absence of a world effort to stop the Israeli aggression."

    More photos: Explosion hits bus in Tel Aviv

    Sweet cakes were handed out in celebration of the blast in Gaza's main hospital, which has been inundated with wounded from the round-the-clock Israeli bombing and shelling, Reuters reported. Celebratory gunfire rang out in Gaza City when local radio stations reported the news.

    The last time Israel's commercial capital was hit by a serious bomb blast was in April 2006, when a Palestinian suicide bomber killed 11 people at a sandwich stand near the city's old central bus station.

    Related stories
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    'We are very scared': Egyptians fear being mired in Gaza-Israel crisis
    'Army must invade': In southern Israel, support grows for action in Gaza
    Americans caught in chaos of Gaza conflict

    Like most Western powers, Washington shuns Hamas as an obstacle to peace and has blamed it for the Gaza conflagration.

    A U.N. Security Council statement condemning the conflict was blocked on Tuesday by the United States, which complained that it "failed to address the root cause" -- the Palestinian rockets.

    Meanwhile, the head of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard has disclosed his country has given fighters in Gaza the ability to produce longer-range missiles on their own, without direct shipments. The comments, by Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, quoted by the semi-official ISNA news agency, offer some of the clearest insights on Iran's weapons support for Hamas.

    Previously, Iran denied it directly supplied Hamas with the Fajr-5 rockets being fired at Israel in recent days.

    NBC's Lawahez Jabari, Ian Johnston and Andy Eckardt, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

    Slideshow: Israel, Gaza violence escalates

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    Two sides exchange deadly airstrikes, rocket attacks.

    Launch slideshow

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  • US seeks 'durable outcome' in Gaza truce talks, Clinton says in Israel

    Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has undertaken the difficult task of helping to shepherd a possible ceasefire. Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi, meanwhile, is playing a key role as an intermediary with Hamas, a group labeled by the U.S. as a terrorist organization. NBC's Stephanie Gosk reports.

    NBC News staff and wire reports writes

    Updated at 4:50 p.m. ET: Following her arrival in Israel, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reiterated at a press conference Tuesday that America's commitment to Israel's security is "rock solid," adding that "the goal must be a durable outcome that promotes regional stability and advances the security and legitimate aspirations of Israelis and Palestinians alike."

    "The rocket attacks from terrorist organizations inside Gaza on Israeli cities and towns must end, and a broader calm restored," Clinton said, adding that there are no substitutes for security and a just and lasting peace.

    Speaking in Jerusalem, Clinton also offered her condolences for those lost in the violence.


    "Our hearts break for the loss of every civilian, Israeli and Palestinian, and for all those who have been wounded and are living in fear and danger," she said, adding that she would work with Israel and Egypt on brokering a truce in Gaza "in the days ahead."

    Israel is prepared to escalate its offensive but would prefer a long-term diplomatic solution, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday.

    "If there is a possibility of achieving a long-term solution to this problem with diplomatic means, we prefer that," he said in a public statement alongside Clinton.

    "But if not, I'm sure you understand that Israel will have to take whatever action is necessary to defend its people."

    Earlier, a Hamas official said a truce with Israel would not be reached Tuesday because the Israeli government had yet to respond to proposals.

    "The Israeli side has not responded yet, so we will not hold a (news) conference this evening and must wait until tomorrow," Ezzat al-Rishq, a senior Hamas leader, told Reuters. "The truce is now held up because we are waiting for the Israeli side to respond," he added in a short telephone interview.

    A flurry of violence hit Gaza Tuesday as Israel bombed a Gaza bank and targeted the homes of militants. Hamas responded with more than 100 rockets. NBC's Richard Engel reports.

    Clinton landed at 9:51 p.m. local time in Tel Aviv, where she met with Netanyahu. Later, Clinton will meet with the President of the Palestinian National Authority Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah before heading to Cairo.

    A U.S. official stressed to NBC News that Clinton would not meet with representatives of Hamas, the Islamist organization that controls the Gaza Strip, largely because of its failure to renounce terrorism and recognize Israel's right to exist.

    Egyptian officials said talks are ongoing to reach a truce in Gaza, although any agreement appears unlikely to address the long-term areas of disagreement between Israel and the Hamas leaders of the Gaza Strip, NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reported Tuesday.

    The expected "cessation of hostilities" will call on all parties to use maximum restraint, according to one former intelligence official familiar with the talks.

    Slideshow: Israel, Gaza violence escalates

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    Two sides exchange deadly airstrikes, rocket attacks.

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    Earlier Tuesday, President Barack Obama spoke to Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, who is seeking to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. 

    According to White House officials, Obama spoke to Morsi for the third time in 24 hours. Deputy National Security adviser Ben Rhodes said Obama wanted to talk to Morsi before Clinton's arrival in Israel.

    Rhodes said Obama underscored the importance of Morsi working toward a de-escalation to the conflict in Gaza. He also commended Morsi's efforts to pursue a de-escalation and acknowledged Egypt's important role in the region's security.

    Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is attempting to bring about a ceasefire, or to prevent Israel from invading Gaza while convincing Egypt's president to pressure Hamas to stop firing rockets. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.

    Rhodes said Obama emphasized the importance of a diplomatic solution, but said that rocket fire from Gaza into Israel must stop.

    Israel Defense Forces continued airstrikes overnight, and also said 39 rockets fired from Gaza hit Israel Tuesday in a message on its Twitter account.

    Since Israel launched its military campaign seven days ago in response to rocket fire, more than 100 people in Gaza and three people in Israel have been killed.

    Internationally, the main focus was on stopping the violence, and Morsi hinted at a possible breakthrough Tuesday.

    Speaking at his sister's funeral in Egypt, Morsi said the "aggression on Gaza" would end Tuesday. He made the apparently off-the-cuff comments in front of mourners who had come to pay their respects, but did not elaborate. Several journalists traveling with Morsi confirmed he made the remark.

    'Army must invade': In southern Israel, support grows for action in Gaza

    In Jerusalem, Netanyahu said Israel would be a “willing partner” in a cease-fire, but also issued a warning.

    He said if further military action proved necessary “to stop the constant barrage of rockets, Israel will not hesitate to do what is necessary to defend our people.”

    And Mohammed Deif, the new leader of Hamas' military wing, sounded a defiant note, saying that the movement was ready to fight and would not back down from its efforts to liberate Palestine.

    He was speaking in his first audio recording since the group’s previous top military commander, Ahmed Jabari, was killed in an Israeli airstrike Wednesday. Deif, who has survived several assassination attempts in the past, called for Hamas’ supporters to remain steadfast. 

    We are very scared': Egyptians fear being mired in Gaza-Israel crisis

    Related stories:

    Hamas says 'land war' would cost Israeli PM Netanyahu the election

    Key players in the Israel-Gaza cross-border conflict

    How Israel's 'Iron Dome' intercepts incoming rockets in Gaza conflict

    Israeli government websites under mass hacking attack

    'Difficult' situation

    It is unclear how much influence Clinton can have on the situation.

    “She is going to go out there to be in the region to have direct, face-to-face discussions with those leaders,” Rhodes said. “I don’t want to predict exactly what the outcome of those discussions will be. We all know how difficult this situation is.” 

    The White House thinks the leaders who are heavily involved in the region “understand what the best outcome is,” Rhodes added, but that a peaceful goal is only achievable “if Hamas takes action to stop what they’ve been doing.”

    An Israeli soldier and a civilian died when rockets exploded near the Gaza frontier, police and the army said.

    An Israeli air strike on two cars in the Gaza Strip killed six Palestinians Tuesday, while two children died in an attack in the north of the territory, local residents and medics told Reuters. 

    United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called Tuesday for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and said a threatened Israeli ground operation in the Palestinian enclave would be a “dangerous escalation” that must be avoided.

    Later, standing alongside Netanyahu in Jerusalem, Ban urged Israel to show "maximum restraint" and condemned rocket attacks on Israel.

    Also Tuesday, Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby and the foreign ministers of Turkey, Egypt, Lebanon, Tunisia and Sudan traveled from Egypt to Gaza in an unprecedented move designed to show solidarity with the Palestinians, NBC News reported.

    US Embassy guard wounded
    Meanwhile, a man was arrested after he stabbed a security guard Tuesday at the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, a police spokesman told Reuters. 

    The spokesman said the guard opened fire during the attack.

    Israel Radio said the attacker, who police said was armed with a knife and an ax, was wounded. 

    Oded Balilty / AP

    Israeli police officers detain a man who attacked a security guard at the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel, Tuesday.

    NBC's Shawna Thomas, Ayman Mohyeldin and Ian Johnston, and Reuters contributed to this report.

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  • Hamas says 'land war' would cost Israeli PM Netanyahu the election

    The violence continues in Gaza while negotiations between Hamas and Israel are taking place in Egypt. An estimated 100 Palestinians and three Israelis have been killed so far. NBC's John Ray reports.

    NBC News and wire reports writes

    Updated at 3:02 p.m. ET: GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- The leader of Hamas said Monday it was up to Israel to end the new conflict it had started, adding that a "land war" would cost Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the election.

    "[Netanyahu] can do it, but he knows that it will not be a picnic and that it could be his political death and cost him the elections," Khaled Meshaal, exiled leader of Hamas, told a news conference in Cairo.

    "Whoever started the war must end it," Meshaal said, adding that Netanyahu, who faces an election in January, had asked for a truce, an assertion a senior Israeli official described as untrue.

    For its part, Israel said that while it was prepared to step up its offensive by sending in troops, it preferred a diplomatic solution that would end Palestinian rocket fire.

    Israeli Vice Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon has said that "if there is quiet in the south and no rockets and missiles are fired at Israel's citizens, nor terrorist attacks engineered from the Gaza Strip, we will not attack."

    According to a poll by Israel's Haaretz newspaper, 84 percent of Israelis supported the current Gaza assault, but only 30 percent wanted an invasion, while 19 percent wanted their government to work on securing a truce soon.

    Acting as a mediator, Egypt said Monday that a deal for a truce to end the fighting could be close, as Israel bombed dozens of suspected guerrilla sites in the densely populated Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip in its campaign to quell militant rocket fire menacing nearly half of Israel's population.

    Twelve Palestinian civilians and four fighters were killed in the sixth day of fighting, local officials said, raising the number of Palestinian dead to 101, the Hamas-run Health Ministry told Reuters, listing 24 children among them. Hospital officials in Gaza said more than half of those killed were non-combatants. Three Israeli civilians died on Thursday in a rocket strike and dozens others have been wounded.

    Slideshow: Israel, Gaza violence escalates

    Ammar Awad / Reuters

    Two sides exchange deadly airstrikes, rocket attacks.

    Launch slideshow

    Among the targets struck in Gaza City Monday was the Al Shorouq media building, which Israeli warplanes hit for the second straight day. The attack targeted a second-floor apartment used by a leading Islamic Jihad militant. He was killed and four others were injured, NBC News' Ayman Mohyeldin reported.

    The Israeli military said it targeted only the floor used by the militants. “The senior [Islamic Jihad] cadre was operating in a media building. They weren’t there to be interviewed. They were using reporters as human shields,” it said on Twitter.

    But the lower floors of the building caught fire, trapping journalists on the higher levels. Firefighters were trying to put out the blaze and get the journalists out of the building. The Hamas TV station is located on the top floor.


    Family mourned
    Thousands turned out on Gaza's streets Monday to mourn four children and five women, who were among the 11 people killed in an Israeli strike that flattened a three-story home the previous day.

    The bodies were wrapped in Palestinian and Hamas flags. Echoes of explosions mixed with cries of grief and defiant chants of "God is greatest."

    Israel said it was investigating the strike that brought the home crashing down on the al-Dalu family, where the dead spanned four generations. Some Israeli newspapers said the wrong house may have been mistakenly targeted.

    Since Wednesday, 877 rockets have been fired from Gaza toward Israel, the Israeli military said Monday. Of those, 570 rockets have struck Israel while the country’s air defense system has intercepted 307, according to the military. Forty-five rockets were fired at southern Israel on Monday, causing no casualties, police said.

    Israel's decision to step up targeted attacks on leaders in Gaza on Sunday marked a new and risky phase of the operation, given the likelihood of civilian casualties in the crowded territory of 1.6 million Palestinians.

    A three-story building in Gaza was flattened by an overnight Israeli airstrike that was targeted at a Hamas militant. NBC's Richard Engel reports.

    Negotiations inch forward
    International efforts to wrest a cease-fire from the two sides has intensified despite the escalated hostilities. The failure to end the fighting could touch off an Israeli ground invasion, for which thousands of soldiers, backed by tanks and armored vehicles, have already been mobilized and dispatched to Gaza's border.

    Leading cease-fire mediation efforts is Egypt, which borders both Israel and Gaza and whose Islamist-rooted government has been hosting leaders of Hamas.

    “I strongly urge the parties to cooperate with all efforts led by Egypt to reach an immediate cease-fire," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said before leaving for Egypt. He visits Israel on Tuesday.

    European Union governments also said they supported Egyptian efforts to mediate.

    Related links:

    NY Times columnist, Tom Friedman and NBC News Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent, Andrea Mitchell discuss America's role in the conflict between Hamas and Israel.

    Key players in the Israel-Gaza cross-border conflict

    How Israel's 'Iron Dome' intercepts incoming rockets in Gaza conflict

    Israeli government websites under mass hacking attack

    On Sunday, President Barack Obama said it would be "preferable" to avoid a move into Gaza, but that Israel had a right to self-defense and no country would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens.

    Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr, Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby and several other Arab foreign ministers will visit Gaza on Tuesday to show solidarity with Palestinians. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu will accompany them, officials said.

    Mohammed Saber / EPA

    A Palestinian woman inspects the rubble of her destroyed house after an Israeli airstrike in the eastern part of Gaza City on Monday.

    Forces gather
    Israel launched the current offensive Wednesday after months of intensifying rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, which continued despite the strikes.

    Israeli tanks, artillery and infantry have massed in field encampments along the sandy, fenced-off border and military convoys moved on roads in the area. Israel has also authorized the call-up of 75,000 military reservists, so far mobilizing around half that number.

    Overnight, aircraft targeted about 80 militant sites, including underground rocket-launching sites, smuggling tunnels and training bases, as well as command posts and weapons storage facilities located in buildings owned by militant commanders, the military said Monday in a release.  

    Aircraft and gunboats joined forces to attack police headquarters, and rocket squads were struck as they prepared to fire, the release said.

    In all, more than 1,000 Gaza targets have been struck since the operation began.

    Some Hamas rockets reached as far as Tel Aviv, Israel's commercial capital, but were shot down by the country's air defense system.

    As a precaution against the rocket interceptions endangering nearby Ben-Gurion International Airport, civil aviation authorities said on Monday new flight paths were being used.

    Complete World coverage on NBCNews.com

    Israel's declared goal is to deplete Gaza arsenals and force Hamas to stop rocket fire that has bedeviled Israeli border towns for years. The rockets now have greater range, putting Tel Aviv and Jerusalem within their reach -- a strategic weapon for Gaza's otherwise massively outgunned guerrillas.

    Lior Mizrahi / Getty Images

    Israeli soldiers prepare their weapons in a deployment area near the Gaza border on Monday.

    NBC News' Ayman Mohyeldin, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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  • Where Titanic wrecked, the jewels tell a story

     

    Edgar Zuniga writes

    Titanic: The word evokes one of the most tragic moments in modern history.

    On her maiden voyage 100 years ago, the world's largest ocean liner struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic, sinking within two hours on April 14, 1912. The deaths of more than 1,500 passengers, paired with harrowing stories of survival, made headlines around the world.

    But the Titanic also evokes a time of grandiosity and pomp, which Premier Exhibitions Inc. will display with a collection of recovered Titanic jewels for the next two months in Atlanta, Ga.

    Most of the jewelry recovered from the wreckage of the Titanic goes on public display for the first time with a three-city tour. The jewelry is from a single purser's bag found during a 1987 research and recovery mission. Mark Lach, Creative Director of the Titanic Artifact Exhibition says each piece "has a story to tell."

    Most of the jewels come from a single leather bag found two and half miles below the ocean's surface in 1987, during one of the earliest expeditions to the site of the wreck of the Titanic.

    On that fateful night, when passengers and crew members aboard the Titanic were ordered to abandon ship, pursers placed banknotes, documents and jewels in leather bags with the intention of placing them on lifeboats and later returning them to their rightful owners. The chemicals used to tan the leather bags repelled microorganisms that would have eaten away at the contents and which allowed them to be discovered on the ocean floor 75 years later.

    Since their recovery, retrieved objects have brought the story of the Titanic to life.

    Mark Lach, creative director of "Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition" said the first-ever showcasing of these Titanic jewels provides a unique look at another era.

    "We are all fascinated with the rich and famous of the world, and the Titanic had those passengers on board. When we study these pieces of jewelry there is something to learn. We're fascinated by their beauty, but they also have fascinating stories to tell from another time."

    Most of the passengers aboard the Titanic were would-be European immigrants to the United States on third-class tickets, but a who's who of the world's elite also was aboard what was billed as the most luxurious ocean liner of its day, with first-class tickets starting at $57,200 in today's dollars.

    Lach said one of his favorite pieces is a gold nugget necklace, thought to belong to philanthropist and socialite Margaret Brown – the “Unsinkable Molly Brown” of Broadway and film. The unrefined gold nuggets are believed to have been a gift from her husband, J.J. Brown, representing the wealth the family accumulated in the mining industry.

    A pocket watch, belonging to hotelier Thomas William Solomon Brown, was returned to his surviving daughter, Edith Brown Haisman in the 1990s after it was recovered. Brown Haisman, who was also a passenger on the Titanic, bequeathed the watch to Premier Exhibitions upon her death.

    One of the most curious pieces of jewelry is a charm necklace, whose owner has never been identified, with the inscription, "This be your lucky star."

    Lach said we can all relate to that sad irony. "I think we all put ourselves on that ship. We think about our own families when we think about that great tragedy and we are still fascinated these many years later."

    The 15-piece exhibition opens this Friday in Atlanta, and then moves to Orlando, Fla. and Las Vegas.

  • Recovery and loss on Staten Island

    Those who lost their homes during Hurricane Sandy are salvaging what they can from the wreckage, and trying to stay afloat financially as they cope with the aftermath of the storm. NBC's Ann Curry reports.

    In case you missed it, last night on "NBC Nightly News" Ann Curry visited residents of Staten Island who are still suffering in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. If you would like to help any of the families mentioned in the report, please click on the links below to learn more.

    Help Jen and Pedro Correa rebuild
    How to help the Wright family
    Donate to the Puglias

     

  • In wake of nor'easter, 'patience is the name of the game'

    Those who lost their homes during Hurricane Sandy are salvaging what they can from the wreckage, and trying to stay afloat financially as they cope with the aftermath of the storm. NBC's Ann Curry reports.

    Miranda Leitsinger and Miguel Llanos, NBC News writes

    Updated at 11:24 p.m. ET: BREEZY POINT, N.Y. -- After waking up to several inches of snow and more than 200,000 new power outages, residents in areas battered by Superstorm Sandy on Thursday got back to the long-term work of rebuilding. 

    Miranda Leitsinger

    Snow dusted debris outside homes Thursday in Breezy Point, a community in the Rockaways section of New York City.

    "Patience is the name of the game here," said Joseph Murray in Breezy Point, where snow from the nor’easter dusted the New York City community destroyed last week by flooding and a fire. 

    Families here on Thursday continued efforts to save their waterlogged homes from mold, with some piling items on the layer of snow in 40-degree weather. 

    New York City and Long Island will begin rationing gas to relieve frustration and long lines at the pump, NBCNewYork.com reported. The rationing does not apply to emergency vehicles, taxis or individual gas cans.

    Murray, 27, was at his family’s home after sanitation workers cleared out their pile of garbage, leaving three salvageable nightstands and a lamp standing outside. 

    "Be patient with Mother Nature  because she doesn’t care about any of us," was how Murray rationalized the bizarre bouts of weather. "Let her do her thing and then when she’s ready to let you do your thing, she will."

    Cleanup crews already overextended from Hurricane Sandy are working around the clock to clear snow that recently fell across the region, causing more people to lose power. NBC's Stephanie Gosk reports.

    Murray did have an eye on Friday’s weather forecast, noting that "it’s going to be 60 degrees, this is all going to melt." 

    By late Thursday, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island had their power fully restored. New York and New Jersey saw a drop in the number of customers affected by the nor'easter. Now about 60,000 customers are without power between the two states because of the storm; more than half a million remain without power total in the two states, including outages caused by Sandy.

    West Virginia, however, has struggled to bring power customers back online.

    The overnight nor’easter boasted wind gusts of more than 50 mph and dropped heavy snow on already-weakened tree limbs, leading to new power outages. 

    In New Jersey alone, 167,000 homes and businesses lost power overnight, Gov. Chris Christie said Thursday. "This sets us back about a day" in terms of getting all power restored, he added. 

    "We're right back to the same situation," Kirk Walker of Hackensack, N.J., told NBCNewYork.com after power went out for the third time at his home since Sandy struck. 

    "They said it was gonna be a rough winter," Walker added. "Sign of things to come, I guess."

    Officials there on Thursday said they had convinced the local utility to scrap its policy requiring that each home without power be inspected before power is restored, Newsday.com reported. 

    With the new outages, some 700,000 customers were without power across the Northeast around midday. That number was reduced to some 600,000 by early evening.

    Are you left in the lurch after Sandy? 

    Record snowfall totals were recorded across the area:

    • New York’s Central Park received 4.4 inches of snow on Wednesday -- a record for a Nov. 7 and the earliest 4-inch total in the park's history, NBCNewYork.com reported. By Thursday morning the total had reached 4.7 inches.
    • Newark, N.J., got 6 inches by Thursday -- more snow in 24 hours than during any previous November on record.
    • Bridgeport, Conn., received 3.5 inches of snow, beating the Nov. 7 record of 2 inches set in 1953.

    Some areas inland got 12 to 13 inches of snow.


    "This is a classic nor'easter," NBC meteorologist Al Roker said on TODAY, "just very early."

    PhotoBlog: Hot meals on Staten Island

    Conditions were still miserable Thursday morning. In New York City, winds were around 25 mph and it was 36 degrees with showers forecast before sunny skies on Friday.

    In New Jersey, parts of which saw 9 inches of snow, police said ice and snow contributed to the deaths of two people in a car whose driver was speeding, NBCPhiladelphia reported.

    Two people also died in Connecticut in traffic accidents attributed to snow, The Associated Press reported.

    Full NBC coverage of Sandy's aftermath

    Hundreds were evacuated ahead of the nor'easter, some because of flooding fears and others due to post-Sandy logistics.

    John Makely / NBC News

    Medeleine Dobriner was moved by the Red Cross to the Manresa Jesuit Center shelter on Staten Island so that her earlier shelter, a school, could reopen.

    Medeleine Dobriner of New Dorp on Staten Island was among the latter -- having to move because her shelter was in a school that was reopening.

    "This is my third shelter and usually change is good," Dobriner, 66, told NBC News, "but not in this case."

    Throughout the region, people wore coats indoors as they endured yet another night without heat.

    "I thought I was lucky when power was restored last Thursday, but last night it went out again," said Michael Platt, an electrician from Toms River, N.J., who estimated a foot of snow fell in his area. "The kids have been home for nearly two weeks and I'm not working, and when I'm not working I'm not making any money. This hasn't been easy." 

    "Can you believe this? Enough is enough," added Cindy Casey, whose Belle Harbor home one block from the beach in the Rockaways was swamped by Sandy, as she looked out at the snow blanketing the neighborhood devastated by flooding and fire. 

    Some of those who had weathered Sandy told NBCNewYork.com they felt like a cruel joke was being played on them.

    "Kind of laughing about it at this point," said Danny Arnedos, of Oyster Bay, Long Island. "To go from a hurricane to a nor'easter and driving in the snow in 10 days is pretty unbelievable."

    "I am waiting for the locusts and pestilence next," New Jersey Gov. Christie said Wednesday. 

    Coastal flooding proved minimal, but commuter bus and train services were disrupted by the storm, with the Long Island Rail Road briefly shutting down all operations to the city's eastern suburbs on Wednesday night.

    Gasoline remained in short supply in the New York City area, where Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Thursday announced rationing based on odd and even number license plates.

    Official: NY disaster chief fired over tree removal

    Airports saw 1,600 canceled flights on Wednesday due to the storm. Some 600 more flights were scratched Thursday, according to the flight tracking service FlightAware. The majority of those are in the New York area.

    The losses from Superstorm Sandy are still rough, but New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Thursday he had seen a report estimating $50 billion in damage and economic losses across the region, with $33 billion in New York state.

    "That's a staggering number," he said.

    Slideshow: Recovering after Sandy

    Mario Tama / Getty Images

    A snowstorm hits the Northeast as residents are still struggling to pick up the pieces after Superstorm Sandy.

    Launch slideshow

    NBC's John Makely as well as Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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