YUBAI QU, Chongqing Municipality – It was a Chinese stand-off. 

Wang Chen, our 30-something driver from Chongqing, was looking at me anxiously.

I was grappling with not just anxiety (his) but also a mixture of guilt and resentment (mine).

The problem came up when Wang teased us with the prospect of interviewing migrant workers from his wife’s ancestral village about 40 miles outside of the center of Chongqing.   

Adrienne Mong/NBC News

Paying respects during the Lunar New Year.

We were working on a story about how the global economic meltdown is affecting Chinese migrant workers and their hopes for the New Year. For the past couple of days, we had been driving around one small town several hours’ drive away, talking to workers who had returned from the economically blighted coastal areas for the weeks-long Lunar New Year holiday.

But a group of local officials turned up, and in spite of their friendly demeanor, their presence intimidated the villagers. Where earlier the workers had spoken frankly about the difficulties of trying to make ends meet in an economic downturn, they suddenly were limiting their comments to praise for the government. Needless to say, we weren’t entirely satisfied with the quality of the interviews.

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By NBC News’ Carol Grisanti and Mushtaq Yusufzai

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – The message from Washington to Pakistan was clear: there is no change in U.S. policy when it comes to going after al-Qaida and Taliban targets in Pakistan’s lawless border areas. After all, Barack Obama warned during his presidential campaign that America must go after terrorist targets if Pakistan did not act first.

It should not have been a surprise, then, to Pakistanis when on Friday night, five missiles from remotely piloted Predator drones struck targets in the lawless tribal areas of North and South Waziristan – but it was. 

The twin attacks killed 22 people, including some foreign militants, but also many civilians.

Athar Hussain / Reuters

Supporters of the Pakistani Islamist party Jamat-e-Islami protest U.S. drone attacks in Karachi on Sunday.

Who’s in charge?
The Pakistan government quickly voiced its outrage. ”These attacks can affect Pakistan’s cooperation in the war on terror,” Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari told U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson the following day.

The foreign ministry followed up with a terse statement expressing “the sincere hope that the United States will review its policy.” And Pakistan’s Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani – already on record promising the country there would be no more drone attacks once Obama became president – was embarrassed

Adding to the government’s problems, many Pakistanis no longer believe their government is being honest when protesting the attacks. 

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“TEL AVIV, Israel – Danny Mahlouf, a 70-year-old Israeli plasterer from Ashkelon, has a message for Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, and it’s personal. “Tell Ismail Haniyeh to lose the beard, and stop making trouble!”

They go way back. In the late ‘80s, Haniyeh worked for five years as a plasterer in Ashkelon and Mahlouf was his boss. “We were close friends but we lost contact,” Mahlouf said. “Then one day my son was watching TV and suddenly he shouted, Dad, come quickly, Ismail’s on TV. He’s prime minister!”

Hatem Moussa / AP file

Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh waves to supporters in Gaza City, Dec. 8.

Their story tells much about the ties between Jews and Arabs that have been lost in the violence. The relationships between Israelis and Palestinians weren’t always full of the tension and hatred that often characterize them today, and that raises the possibility that one day, somehow, it could go back to the more peaceful days.
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