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)

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)

Eric Baculinao is the NBC News Beijing Bureau Chief. He first moved to China from the Philippines in 1971 as a member of a visiting youth delegation and has lived in China ever since.

BEIJING – I remember the palpable air of excitement in our school as the news began to trickle in.

Thirty years ago, on Dec. 18, 1978, a pivotal secret meeting of China’s Communist Party leadership began, concluding in a decisive victory for Deng Xiaoping.

Courtesy Eric Baculinao

Eric Baculinao, center of back row, in a 1970’s group photo outside of Mao’s village home.

The party’s decision to shift the country’s focus to economic modernization marked the beginning of China’s new era of open door policies and economic reform. But for foreign students like us, there was a more practical, immediate cause for celebration

‘Confused’ gatekeeper
Deng was popular because he symbolized open-mindedness and pragmatism, as opposed to the Maoist radicalism and isolationism of the past. Foreign students in Beijing took Deng’s political ascendancy as a signal, at last, for throwing away restrictions and relating with China and the Chinese people in a new and normal way.

For weeks, my dormitory on the campus of the Beijing Language Institute pulsated with dance parties, as if Boney M and the Bee Gees were the anthem of reform.

The restrictive system of curfews and gate registration – that effectively barred Chinese guests or Chinese girl friends during late hours – broke down. I once asked the old gatekeeper why he was no longer doing the job of screening and registering guests.

“It’s supposed to be open-door now,” he said. “I’m not sure, I’m confused.”
…(read more)