Orgasms are pretty damn awesome, but they might also affect
how happy you are in your relationship, according to new research in The Journal of Sexual Medicine.
In a recent study, researchers gathered 85 Czech couples
between the ages of 20 and 40. All couples lived together and were in a
long-term relationship for an average of 5.4 years. Both partners took
separate surveys to analyze their relationship happiness and
satisfaction with their sex lives, with questions about how well their
partner understands them sexually and what they typically do between the
sheets. They also offered up details of the recent happenings in their
sex lives and how often they’d been reaching the big O.
It turns out, having more sex—and more orgasms—was crucial
in a happy, satisfying bond. They found that female relationship
happiness was associated with more frequent vaginal orgasms and less
frequent masturbation. Plus, sexual compatibility for both members of
the couple was predicted by a higher frequency of intercourse and
increased vaginal orgasms. Even male sexual satisfaction was higher when
their partners had more orgasms.
Basically, a woman's orgasm is pretty important when it
comes to your relationship happiness and your bedroom compatibility—and
that’s true for women and men in the bond.
But here's the big caveat to this research: These findings
are correlational, so all of the associations could really go either
way. That is, more orgasms could make you happier with the relationship,
or a happy relationship could lead to more orgasms. Similarly, men may be more sexually satisfied when their partners orgasm, or they could be more likely to focus on their partner's pleasure when they're already sexually satisfied.
While it's important not to draw any cause-and-effect
conclusions from this research, one thing is pretty clear: Sexual
satisfaction and relationship happiness often go hand-in-hand. So
consider this one more reason to focus on intimacy in your bond, and add
it to the long list of fantastic reasons to have sex tonight.
As a nation, we’ve got a problem with sugar. Our damaging relationship with the sweet stuff is the impetus behind the creation of SugarScience,
a new Web site from researchers at University of California San
Francisco. Thanks to their extensive analysis of more than 8,000 papers
about the health-wrecking properties of too much sugar, they’ve gathered
compelling evidence about just how harmful sugar can actually be. Read
on for the jaw-dropping facts.
Liquid Sugar Is Wreaking Havoc on Americans' Diets
Desserts aren't the only
culprit! Sugar in a liquid form via beverages like sodas, energy drinks,
and sports drinks is the largest single source of added sugar in
Americans’ diets, according to the USDA.
It comprises 36 percent of the added sugar Americans take in. Think
about how much easier it is to overdo it with an energy drink than it is
to do the same with a bowl of ice cream, and you’ll start to realize
how this works. Science even says so: It's hard to feel as full from a
high-calorie drink as it is from chowing down on the same amount of
calories, according to research in Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics.
Soda Is Straight-Up Terrible
Time to kick that cola habit
to the curb: Chugging one can of soda per day can increase your risk of
dying from heart disease by almost one-third, according to a study in JAMA Internal Medicine. Even worse, a study in Current Diabetes Reports
showed that, compared to drinking sugary beverages like soda less than
once a month, indulging one to two times per day results in a 26 percent
higher chance of struggling with type 2 Diabetes.
Your Liver Might Suffer
Fructose, an increasingly popular type of sugar, can harm the liver much like alcohol, according to research in Journal of Hepatology and Nature.
Fructose is what makes fruit taste so delicious, and as you know, sugar
in fruit is a-okay since it’s naturally occurring. The problem is when
fructose is manipulated: manufacturers take it from corn, beets, and
sugarcane. Much like grain when it undergoes the refining process,
fructose loses fiber and nutrients that help your body handle it
properly—so it taxes the liver. Specifically, scientists are starting to
link fructose consumption to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (too
much fat build-up) and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (liver scarring,
inflammation, and fat build-up).
There Are At Least 61 Different Names for Sugar
From sucrose, which is table sugar, to high-fructose corn syrup, which is liquid sugar, food producers have
come up with a plethora of ways to list this nutrient on labels. This
makes it even easier to skim over a long ingredient name in a shopping
hurry and inadvertently take in more sugar than you meant to. Check out
an extensive list of 56 names for sugar.
Sugar Belly' May Lead to Metabolic Syndrome
Metabolic syndrome is an
umbrella term for chronic issues like heart disease, diabetes, and liver
disease. High blood sugar is one of the five risk factors, according
to research in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
That's because it can affect organs like the pancreas and liver,
leading to screwed-up blood-sugar regulation. One of the biggest signs
of metabolic syndrome, according to SugarScience, is the apple body
shape known as "sugar belly." If you or a family member have a waist
measurement that's larger than that of your hips, that can be a sign you
should monitor your health more closely so as to ward off problems in
the future.
Women Consume Triple the Recommended Limit Per Day
The American Heart Association suggests
no more than six teaspoons (25 grams) of added sugar per day for women.
That backs up the World Health Organization's recommendation that
adults get less than 10 percent of their daily calories from added sugar
or natural sugar present in honey, syrup, or fruit juice. Ideally, they
say less than five percent of your diet should come from the sweet
stuff—and that comes out to 25 grams for a 2,000 calorie diet. At the
same time, the average American takes in a whopping 19.5 teaspoons (82
grams) every single day, according to research from the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention.
It Can Cause Major Cravings
Eating sugar might lead to
just wanting more of it down the line. Sugar can affect the brain much
like cocaine and alcohol, according to a brain-scan study from
the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse. Those changes, in turn, can
lead to more cravings for sugar. There's the good kind of cycle that
follows the word "Soul," then there's the bad kind that turns into an
endless loop of sugar cravings. Thankfully, there are ways to wean your
brain off and train it to go gaga for the healthy stuff.
Added Sugar Is Hiding in Plain Sight
You'd think you can reduce
your sugar intake by just saying no to cookies and ice cream, right?
Wrong. Added sugar is present in 74 percent of packaged foods in
supermarkets, says a report in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
It's an ingredient in things that don’t seem sweet, like bread and
pasta sauce. Since you don't expect them to have sugar, you might miss
out on the sky-high levels on the labels.
Too Much Sugar Is Potentially Linked to Tons of Diseases
New studies are showing
possible links between too much added sugar and various diseases beyond
the ones covered in metabolic syndrome. Although none of them are
confirmed, the research is mounting.
Overconsumption of sugars and refined carbs might raise the risk of
certain cancers and bring about higher rates of recurrence and lower
rates of survival after therapy, according to research in the New England Journal of Medicine, Clinical Advances in Hematology & Oncology, and The Journal of Physiology. It’'s also potentially connected to Alzheimer's disease, per a study in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
If that isn't enough to convince you, there might be an association
between how much sugar you eat and how quickly your skin ages (think:
wrinkles!), says research in The Journal of Physiology, Clinics in Dermatology, and Physiological Research / Academia Scientiarum Bohemoslovaca.
In case you needed proof that bangs do, as hairstylists
always promise, make you look younger, how's this: At 17 years older
than the legal drinking limit, I was carded the other night at a wine
store! For the first time in Dionysus-knows-when.
This isn't the first such bangs-take-off-years incident I've
experienced: Several years ago, right after a haircut involving bangs, I
went out for pizza with my friend Jolene—who had also gotten bangs,
because, you know, that's what girls do when they're not having pillow
fights—and the waiter asked if we wanted a drink: "Like a root beer or
sumthin'?" he chirped. Uh huh.
But here's the secret: Not just any old fringe will do. The
keys to young-looking bangs, according to hairstylist Matt Fugate of the
Sally Hershberger Downtown salon (who snipped my bangs a few weeks
ago), are as follows:
1. They should be thick. Wispy pieces can
make hair look thin. And anthropologically speaking, thick, lush hair is
a sign of youth and fertility. You know, if looking fertile is your
thing.
2. They shouldn't be totally blunt. "I love my razor," says Fugate, who uses it to ever so slightly vary the lengths of the ends.
3. They should hit between the eyebrows and tops of your eyes. Super-short bangs can be cute, but they have a retro feel…which, visually, can = old.
Another
new trial of an Ebola vaccine has started, this time in Baltimore. It’s
part of a flurry of efforts to kick-start stalled Ebola vaccine trials
in the hope of using some soon to fight the exploding epidemic in
Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
The University of
Maryland is running the trial, which uses the same GlaxoSmithKline
vaccine that the university is helping to test in Mali. The vaccine,
which uses a common cold virus genetically engineered with a tiny piece
of Ebola virus, is also being tested in Britain and Switzerland.
So far, 20 people have
been vaccinated in the latest trial. First results could be back within a
month or two. “The study will provide important results about the
safety of the different doses and their ability to stimulate immune
responses,” the school said in a statement.
Tom Jemski / University of Maryland
A volunteer gets vaccinated with an experimental Ebola vaccine at the University of Maryland.
“This is a key step in the
accelerated Ebola vaccine testing process,” said Dr. Myron Levine,
who’s helping lead the efforts. The vaccine was developed at the
National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of
the National Institutes of Health.
Ebola’s spread
continues to worsen across Sierra Leone and Guinea, and it’s still
raging in Liberia also. Worse, health officials fear an outbreak may be
under way in Mali, with five out of six confirmed cases there fatal and
hundreds of people exposed. So far, Ebola has infected more than 15,000
people and killed at least 5,000 of them.
A
second band of lake-effect snow pounded cities and towns near Buffalo,
New York, early Thursday, piling more misery on communities already
paralyzed by a 5-foot blanket of snow. Authorities confirmed an eighth
death blamed on the storm.
“A few areas are
getting close to a foot right now, but the worst of it is the additional
accumulation and that will occur today,” The Weather Channel’s Michael
Palmer said. “So its just going to prolong people getting in and trying
clearing the snow away — that’s just not going to happen until the
weekend.”
The Buffalo area was
buried under as much as 5½ feet of snow Wednesday. Two additional feet
were expected in some areas during the day, topping off with another 5
to 8 inches on Thursday night.
The eighth death was a
60-year-old man who had a heart condition and was stricken while
operating a snowblower, said authorities in Erie County, which includes
Buffalo.
Because wet air blowing
in from Lake Erie is so much warmer than the prevailing air in the
region, the result will again be thunderstorms that drop snow, not rain —
the oddity called thundersnow.
The
snow had taken a break in downtown Buffalo by 6:30 a.m. ET, but was
picking up steam south of the city, with areas such as Dunkirk, Gowanda
and Springville especially hard hit, according to The Weather Channel.
“It may still come back
[to Buffalo] late morning, early afternoon,” Palmer said. “Buffalo may
not be done with this, and they’re getting creamed in areas that got
heavy snow on Tuesday.”
The new snow began
falling as troopers in all-terrain vehicles and rescue crews working
without sleep were still trying to reach drivers trapped in the first
wave of the ferocious storm.
About 140 miles of
Interstate 90, the main artery running east and west across New York
state, remained closed Thursday morning, from Rochester to the New
York-Pennsylvania state line. There was no word when it would reopen.
“Mother Nature is
showing us who's boss once again," Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday.
"This is an historic event. When all is said and done, this snowstorm
will break all sorts of records, and that's saying something in
Buffalo.”
A Greyhound bus was stranded for a day and a half on I-90.
People stared out the windows at a highway littered with abandoned
cars. The bus was running on a generator, and passengers could charge
their phones, but they were hungry, said Endjie Ulysses, a college
student who was on board.
After 34 hours, the people on board were finally rescued by a state trooper.
"I'm feeling OK. I'm just tired," Ulysses told NBC News by phone from the bus. "I've only slept for about two or three hours."
Authorities around
Buffalo reported the fifth, sixth and seventh deaths from the snowstorm:
a 46-year-old man found in a car, someone who had a heart attack while
operating a snowblower and an elderly man who needed care for what
doctors called an "urgent cardiac condition" who died because rescue
crews couldn't get him to a hospital. Four deaths were reported Tuesday,
one in a car crash and three from heart attacks, including two people
who were shoveling snow.
On social media, people
posted pictures of drifts taller than their garage doors and of whole
houses all but invisible under thick, white blankets of snow.
Authorities responded to 911 calls as they could, but ambulances
couldn't get down side streets in some places.
The
towns south of Buffalo were believed to be the hardest hit. The
National Weather Service said some places could approach the record for a
single-day snowfall in the U.S., 6 feet 4 inches.
Outside, the temperature hovered in the high teens, with a wind chill below zero.
The totals that came in
from cities and towns in western New York were daunting: 5 feet 5
inches in Cheektowaga, 5 feet 3 inches in Lancaster, 5 feet in
Gardenville.
There was 4 feet of
snow in Orchard Park, where the Buffalo Bills are set to host an NFL
game Sunday, against the New York Jets. The team put out a call for
volunteers to help shovel the stadium clear of snow — an estimated
220,000 tons of it — and offered $10 an hour, plus tickets to the game.
Temperatures
are expected to climb above freezing by Saturday — raising the
possibility of flooding as massive banks of snow begin to melt.
"When we say stay home, really, stay home," Cuomo said.
Elsewhere, the last of
40 people who'd been stranded at a highway toll booth were rescued
Wednesday morning, said Mark Poloncarz, the Erie County executive.
Cuomo declared a state
of emergency for 10 counties, and the National Guard was activated to
help clean up. The state deployed 526 snowplows and 17 large
snowblowers.
The snow pattern was
part of a punishing blast of cold air so broad that temperatures in all
50 states fell to freezing or below. In all, 22 deaths have been
reported across the country since Saturday.
By Richie Duchon, Alexander Smith and Jason Cumming
A
gunman was fatally shot by police after opening fire in a library at
Florida State University early Thursday, sending hundreds of students
who'd been studying for final exams running for their lives and cowering
behind bookshelves. Three students were found suffering gunshot wounds
at the scene.
Police received a call
about an "armed subject" at the Strozier Library on the school's main
campus in Tallahassee at 12.30 a.m. ET. Officers confronted the gunman
and ordered him to drop his weapon, according to Tallahassee Police
spokesman Dave Northway. "The suspect did not comply with the commands
and shot at the officers," he added. "They returned fire and the suspect
was killed.”
During a press
conference at 6 a.m. ET, Police Chief Michael DeLeo described the
shooting as an “isolated incident with one person acting alone.” It was
unclear whether the gunman was a student.
One of the shooting
victims was listed in critical condition early Thursday, Tallahassee
Memorial Healthcare spokeswoman Stephanie Derzypolski said. Another was
in stable condition. Police said a third victim had received a "grazing
injury" and was treated at the scene.
"I called my mom and just told her I loved her ... My heart was going so fast"
Some shots were fired in the library while others occurred outside the building, according to police.
Chad Huling, a
21-year-old business student, told NBC News he witnessed the
confrontation between the gunman and police outside the library from a
second-floor window. “The gunman was stood right under us,” said Huling,
who attends Tallahassee Community College. “There were about four or
five cops there, with more arriving, and they all aimed their weapons at
him and shouted, ‘Get down!’ about six times. But he did not do
anything so they opened fire, I would say at least a dozen times. It was
very loud. The whole thing was over in about 10 seconds.”
Tallahassee Police Describe First Response to FSU Shooting
Huling added: "I was
just thinking, ‘Is this for real?' I called my mom and just told her I
loved her. We thought there were two shooters at that point, that’s what
everyone was saying, so my heart was going so fast."
Student Blair Stokes
tweeted that she had spotted "cops with big guns running around
outside" the library. "I thought I was gonna die tonight," she added.
Steven
Dawson, 19, a freshman biology major told NBC News he was studying on
the third floor of the library around 12:30 a.m. ET when someone started
shouting about a gunman in the building. "Everyone just dropped
everything and started running," Dawson said.
After fleeing down a
fire escape, Dawson said he and several others made outside. About 20
seconds later he said he heard nine to 10 gunshots from about 100 feet
away near Strozier's entrance. "Everyone took off running," Dawson said.
"I’ve never seen more people screaming and running."
FSU Police Department
Chief David Perry said the library was “packed with students studying
for final exams” and estimated that there were 300 to 400 people in the
building. One group of students sought refuge behind rows of
bookshelves. “Everyone started running to one side of the library, then
to the back,” one 20-year-old communications student who asked not to be
identified told NBC News. “People were saying, ‘Gun! There’s a shooter!
Go! Go! Go!’" She said her group hid among bookcases for what she said
felt like 20 minutes. Once given the all-clear, the group was escorted
to a campus building next door where they stayed until 4 a.m.
Gunman Shot Dead After Opening Fire on FSU Campus
International affairs
student Devon Ford told NBC News that he was on the second floor of the
library that he and three other people barricaded a stairwell with
tables and chairs after hearing that the shooter was downstairs. Police
later announced that the gunman was "in custody and no longer a threat,"
Ford added.
Earlier, students had
been warned to "seek shelter immediately, away from doors and windows"
as police responded to what they described as a "dangerous situation."
In
a statement, FSU president John Thrasher confirmed that the three
wounded victims were all students. He said that counseling services were
being made available to staff and students trying to “make sense of
what is a senseless incident" and praised police for an “extraordinary
job taking quick and decisive action to prevent further tragedy.”
Thrasher added: “Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and loves ones of all those who have been affected.”
DeLeo said five officers
from two forces were involved in the shooting and have been placed on
administrative leave pending an investigation into the incident. He said
it was too early to confirm whether all five officers fired their
weapons.
Shamar Walters, Tricia Culligan, Christopher Nelson and Cassandra Vinograd of NBC News contributed to this report.
A
second wave of lake-effect snow began falling on parts of western and
upstate New York on Wednesday night, on its way to adding as much as
three more feet to the five-foot-plus blanket that's already paralyzed
much of the region.
Five to eight new
inches of snow were forecast overnight for Erie, Genesee and Wyoming
counties, including metro Buffalo, the National Weather Service said.
Two added feet are expected Thursday, topping off with anther five to
eight inches Thursday night. Because wet air blowing in from Lake Erie
is so much warmer than the prevailing air in the region, the result will
again be thunderstorms that drop snow, not rain — the oddity called
thundersnow.
The new snow began
falling as troopers in all-terrain vehicles and rescue crews working
without sleep were still trying to reach drivers trapped in the first
wave of the ferocious storm.
About
140 miles of Interstate 90, the main artery running east and west
across New York state, remained closed, from Rochester to the New
York-Pennsylvania state line. There was no word when it would reopen.
"Mother Nature is
showing us who's boss once again," Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. "This
snowfall may break all sorts of records, and that's saying something in
western New York and in Buffalo."
A Greyhound bus was
stranded for a day and a half on I-90. People stared out the windows at a
highway littered with abandoned cars. The bus was running on a
generator, and passengers could charge their phones, but they were
hungry, said Endjie Ulysses, a college student who was on board.
After 34 hours, the people on board were finally rescued by a state trooper.
"I'm feeling OK. I'm just tired," Ulysses told NBC News by phone from the bus. "I've only slept for about two or three hours."
Authorities around
Buffalo reported the fifth, sixth and seventh deaths from the snowstorm:
a 46-year-old man found in a car, someone who had a heart attack while
operating a snowblower and an elderly man who needed care for what
doctors called an "urgent cardiac condition" who died because rewscue
crews couldn't get him to a hospital. Four deaths were reported Tuesday,
one in a car crash and three from heart attacks, including two people
who were shoveling snow.
The snow paralyzed
cities and towns. On social media, people posted pictures of drifts
taller than their garage doors and of whole houses all but invisible
under thick, white blankets of snow. Authorities responded to 911 calls
as they could, but ambulances couldn't get down side streets in some
places.
The
towns south of Buffalo were believed to be the hardest hit. Snow totals
were incomplete. The National Weather Service said some places could
approach the record for a single-day snowfall in the U.S., 6 feet 4
inches.
Outside, the temperature hovered in the high teens, with a wind chill below zero.
"Please do not be
fooled by the beautiful sunshine," Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown said.
"There is still tremendous amounts of snow on the ground."
The totals that did
come in from cities and towns in western New York were daunting: 5 feet 5
inches in Cheektowaga, 5 feet 3 inches in Lancaster, 5 feet in
Gardenville.
There was 4 feet of
snow in Orchard Park, where the Buffalo Bills are set to host an NFL
game Sunday , against the New York Jets. The team put out a call for
volunteers to help shovel the stadium clear of snow — an estimated
220,000 tons of it — and offered $10 an hour, plus tickets to the game.
The
weather service warned that 3 to 8 more inches of snow could fall
Wednesday and up to 2 feet more by Thursday night outside Buffalo.
Temperatures are expected to climb above freezing by Saturday — raising
the possibility of flooding as massive banks of snow begin to melt.
"When we say stay home, really, stay home," Cuomo said.
But Wednesday, the
focus was on the trapped. Before dawn, a college basketball team had to
be rescued after its bus got stuck in heavy snow for 26 hours about 50
miles from its home campus in Buffalo.
A crew of five people
using two heavy-duty snowplows finally cleared a path to free the
Niagara University Purple Eagles women's team, including players,
coaches and relatives.
"It was an amazing
feeling," Rene Polka, the director of women's basketball, told NBC News
by phone after the rescue. "It was dark when we first became trapped
early Tuesday, but when the sun came up, we saw how bad it was. Then it
literally did not stop snowing all day, so we thought we might have been
trapped for a lot longer."
Elsewhere, the last of
40 people who'd been stranded at a highway toll booth were rescued
Wednesday morning, said Mark Poloncarz, the Erie County executive.
Cuomo declared a state
of emergency for 10 counties, and the National Guard was activated to
help clean up. The state deployed 526 snowplows and 17 large
snowblowers.
What Is Lake-Effect Snow?
It was a lake-effect
snowstorm, building up as it swept across Lake Erie, thrashing some
places but sparing others. Lancaster recorded more than 5 feet of snow.
Six miles away, the Buffalo airport got less than 4 inches.
The snow pattern was
part of a punishing blast of cold air so broad that temperatures in all
50 states fell to freezing or below. In all, 22 deaths have been
reported across the country since Saturday.
WASHINGTON — With terrorists
beheading Americans, President Barack Obama has ordered a review of how
the United States responds when citizens are taken hostage overseas. The
review comes as some family members of those killed have complained
that the United States did not take enough action in an attempt to save
their loved ones. White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Obama
ordered the review of recovery efforts over the summer given “the
extraordinary nature of some of the hostage takings that we’ve seen this
year.” Earnest said the review will not include the United States’
longstanding policy of refusing to pay ransom, which stands in contrast
to many other governments.
“The president continues
to believe as previous presidents have concluded that it’s not in the
best interest of American citizens to pay ransoms to any organization,
let alone a terrorist organization,” Earnest said. “And the reason for
that is simple — we don’t want to put other American citizens at even
greater risk when they’re around the world.” On Sunday, ISIS released a
video showing they had decapitated American aid worker Peter Kassig following the beheading deaths of American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff earlier
this year. State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke said Tuesday that a
“small number” of U.S. citizens are still being held by ISIS, but
refused to provide a specific number.
Foley’s mother, Diane
Foley, told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell on Wednesday that she hopes families
of hostages will be part of the White House’s review. “I think it’s
very hard for people outside to this to understand the problems we’ve
encountered,” Diane Foley said. While she didn’t say whether or not she
agrees with paying a ransom, she acknowledged that it's a tricky
position and there remains no substantive data saying that paying
terrorists for hostages actually decreases kidnappings. “That’s one of
the things I hope Jim’s foundation can do is actually research this issue and see if there’s any data that shows this is the case,” she added.
MIR
ALI, Pakistan — A television studio for suicide bombers, a market
offering car bombs in a variety of colors and a secret tunnel filled
with rotting corpses under the local mosque. These were aspects of daily
life in the militant-controlled mountain area of North Waziristan,
according to Pakistan's military.
A lawless region near
the Afghan border, North Waziristan has long been a haven for some of
the world's most-feared terror groups. It was a hotbed for the Pakistani
Taliban and the Haqqani network — which held Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl for five years.
After years of pressure from the U.S.
and increasing terrorism within Pakistan, the Pakistani military
launched a huge offensive in June to dislodge the fighters. Dubbed
Operation Zarb-e-Azb — or "Strike of the Prophet’s Sword" — it has
forced at least 700,000 civilians to flee their homes and left entire towns rubble-strewn and virtually deserted.
Pakistan's military
claims to have killed 1,200 militants and says it has recovered 200 tons
of improvised explosive devices [IEDs] and ordnance. This is "enough
for the militants to keep on conducting five IED attacks [per day] ...
for 14 and half years," Maj. Gen. Zafar Khattak told NBC News at a
brigade headquarters near Mir Ali.
Faisal Tariq / NBC News
More than 200 tons of IEDs and ordnance have been found in North Waziristan, according to Pakistan's military.
During a drive through the
bombed-out and deserted town, the general points out an "IED bazaar."
Here, he said, a customer could buy "anything from a suicide-bomb jacket
with 50 kilos [110 pounds] of explosives" to a car bomb. "You could,
from a good dealer, even pick the type of color you wanted for the
vehicle that was to be your 2,000-pound car bomb," he said.
According to the
military, the town also had its own IED factory, fronted by an old
medical clinic featuring posters warning about malaria. Inside the
bullet-holed building were bomb-making materials, test tubes, and a
white-board with a formula in Arabic and Cyrillic scripts. Among other
remnants, including maps of Pakistan and the world, were wigs the
soldiers said were used as disguises.
The seized IEDs, weapon
caches and jihadi literature are compelling — "enough to arm an entire
infantry brigade," Khattak said — but the military's claims are
impossible to corroborate. Free movement in and out of North Waziristan
has been blocked for years and independent reporting in the region is
difficult. During a day-long visit, NBC News was embedded with
Pakistan’s 7th Infantry Division, which provided protection but also
controlled movement. The military refused to share details of the 1,800
militants they claim to have apprehended or killed — or which groups
they were linked to.
Back outside the brigade
headquarters, Brigadier Azhar Abbasi sips tea while looking across the
bombed-out town at a distant mountain peak.
"We still take rockets
and sniper fire from there," he said. "They're not civilized, the Tangos
[army speak for the Taliban], but they are bloody good shooters. I've
lost three men from shots that came from over 1,100 yards. All head
shots, two of them in the nose. Dragunovs [Russian sniper rifles] are
their weapon of choice ... Excellent weapons, but terrible men."
Додајте натпис
Faisal Tariq / NBC News
Bombed-out houses, buildings pocked with bullet holes and mortar craters line the streets of Mir Ali, Pakistan.
For all its bold claims and
triumphant proclamations during NBC News' embed, the Pakistani army has
come under fire from the U.S. and others who say it has not done enough
to take on the militants. Many of the extremists flooded over the
border after the war in Afghanistan, and a Pentagon report released last month said that Taliban attacks launched from "sanctuaries in Pakistan remain a serious problem."
The Pakistani Taliban
has been blamed for the deaths of at least 40,000 civilians and 5,000
troops during its decade battling against the country's government. The
Haqqani network waged war on NATO forces in Afghanistan and have been
blamed for many of the more than 2,000 U.S. military deaths there. Due
to their wealth and deep links to local tribes and, one Western diplomat
dubbed the Haqqanis "the Kennedys of the Taliban movement."
Most of the soldiers
told NBC News they were angry about the Pentagon report. "If this is not
enough, what it is?" Khattak asked. "I would even suggest that the
Americans put together a team of forensic experts and come over here to
see what we've done, to the infrastructure of terror and even the
Haqqanis. Lets stop writing reports from Washington and do some real
fact finding, shall we?"
Khattak claimed 42 of
his men have been killed in the operation. The day of NBC News' embed
last weekend, the 7th Division reported to have lost another two men and
an officer in nearby Dattakhel to a Taliban ambush.
"Almost every household here was infected by the economy of terror"
Khattak
said his men have been fighting not only the militants, but a culture
in which many of the citizens were "entrenched in a decades long economy
of terror" that made them "invested in the anarchy."
The soldiers travel to a
house that they call a "militant hangout," where footprints of the
fighters are evident. A set of chains hang from the wall on one side of
the main room, their purpose to tie up prisoners, according to an
intelligence officer. They are accompanied by a collection of whips,
knives and surgical tools.
Wajahat S. Khan / NBC News
According to Pakistan's military,
personal photographs of Taliban militants based were found alongside
jihadi literature and IED-manufacturing material in a torture cell in
Mir Ali, North Waziristan.
Also in the building is a
cache of weapons, a collection of jihadi literature in Russian,
Turkish, Uzbek and Arabic, and a booklet with what resembles ISIS
markings. Somewhat out of place are a stash of Bollywood audio
cassettes, mismatched with tapes of Quranic recitations, along with
photographs of jihadis posing with their weapons and superimposed upon
images of lush gardens and pastures, to represent heaven or home.
"Almost every household
here was infected by the economy of terror," Abbasi said. "A hostage
from Karachi or Lahore [Pakistan's main cities] would end up in the
basement of a shopkeeper here, tucked away from the grip of the law.
Almost every family depended on the abduction, crime, narcotics,
gun-running, smuggling or terror economy, directly or indirectly."
Khattak, who is a
Pashtun, cited a "big gun culture in this region." He added: "Every
Pashtun man is allowed a weapon in his own domain, even minus a license.
It's a tradition. But to bury 25 SMGs [sub-machine guns] in your
backyard? That's not tradition. That's terrorism."
In the town of
Miranshah, about 15 miles from Mir Ali, the military showed off the
Taliban's "media center," an old school house full of cameras and
computers where the group's films were allegedly made. The grandest room
is what one soldier referred to as the "suicide studio," where
soon-to-be suicide-bombers would record their last words. The room has a
lush carpet and velvet cushions, with a backdrop of the Taliban's flag.
Wajahat S. Khan / NBC News
The room referred to by a
Pakistani soldier as the "suicide studio," where soon-to-be
suicide-bombers would record their last words.
Like Mir Ali, a drive
through the central bazaar of Miranshah is a tour of destruction, after
months of being hit by fighter-bombers, helicopter gunships, artillery,
and small arms. But the Taliban's underground headquarters beneath the
town's central mosque was "drone-proof, fool-proof and weather-proof,"
according to Khattak.
A subterranean labyrinth
with more than 40 rooms connected by zigzagging tunnels, "Tango HQ" was
a secretariat, a command and control center, a communication hub and a
guest house. It even included tiny rooms with printed-out pictures of
"heaven," which served as solitary chambers for conditioning
suicide-bombers.
Upstairs, the regular
business of prayer was conducted, with worshippers of all ages coming
and going; downstairs, senior Taliban commanders would enjoy television,
Internet, air-conditioning, the equivalent of a cafeteria, and
underground access to various sections of the city.
But the worst horror was
what one intelligence officer called the "Adam Khor [Man Eating]
Bazaar," a hidden tunnel behind one of the kitchen cupboards in the
underground base.
"It's where the unwanted
and the unwelcome were beheaded, and left to rot, decapitated for
days," the intelligence officer said. "Their bodies were not allowed to
be buried, and they used to stink up the bazaar, as a lesson for all.
The smell still hasn't gone away, even though we cleared the bodies
weeks ago."
Alexander Smith of NBC News contributed to this report.
(CNN) -- Spray from Victoria Falls hits the faces of
tourists and locals as they look down at Africa's most famous
waterfall. The water acts as a wake-up call, but this spectacular sight
is no dream.
Located on the border of
Zimbabwe and Zambia, tourists from all over the world arrive to witness
the natural wonder. In 2013 alone, over 1.8 million people came to
Zimbabwe on holiday according to the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority.
That number may sound
impressive, but tourism authorities say 2014 will be an even stronger
year for the industry. "Zimbabwe is pumping when it comes to tourism,"
says Barbara Murasiranwa from Zimbabwe's Tourism Council. "We've picked
up, gotten back to... where we were in 1999, and we are even surpassing
the figures for 1999."
And recent figures
also show hotels at Victoria Falls are enjoying solid business --
occupancy rates in the area reached 77.6% in August, up from 62.6% in
the same period in 2013.
Troubled past
But the tourism industry has been through tough times after its heyday in the 1990s.
"It was the land
invasions and the violence and the bad publicity that the country
received," says Trevor Lane of the organization Friends of Victoria Falls,
explaining the industry's slump. "[Zimbabwe] was perceived as a high
risk country after that and tourism virtually stopped overnight."
Since then, members of the international community -- including the U.S. Treasury -- has imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe's president Robert Mugabe and his inner circle.
The chronic economic mismanagement that followed saw a period of hyper-inflation, and citizens at some point had to pay 300 billion Zimbabwean dollars for a loaf of bread.
According to the World Bank, "Zimbabwe is in debt distress as total external debt at the end of 2012 remains high at 70% of GDP."
And these economic
hardships hit the tourism sector hard. While over 2.2 million tourists
arrived in 1999, by 2005 that number was 1.5 million. The industry has
seen a shaky recovery since then, but the hard times are still fresh in
the minds of hotel owners and tour operators.
"Tourism shrank
massively," says Lane. "A lot of people obviously folded, left
town...the rest of us just managed to survive....until [the] revival
started again a couple of years ago."
Improving infrastructure
In a move to ensure the troubled days don't return, Zimbabwean Minister of Tourism and Hospitality Industry, Walter Mzembi, has announced a $150 million plan to expand the airport at Victoria Falls.
The project, which will be financed with a loan from China EXIM Bank, is boosting confidence amongst local business owners.
We don't want to make it into another Niagara Falls where it's over
commercialized. But I do think that the future here is very bright Trevor Lane, Friends of Victoria Falls
"Currently, the...short
runway limits us as to the number of people that can come in on a
flight," explains Jonathan Hudson, the manager of Safari Lodge
-- one of the biggest hotels in Victoria Falls. "The new 4 km (2.5
miles) runway, the new terminal, which will be able to hold up to five
wide bodied aircraft, new carousels, increased immigration offices, is
going to make a huge difference to us...With this we can increase the
number of seats coming into Zimbabwe on a daily basis."
Looking ahead
But, as U.N. data shows
tourist numbers worldwide grew by 5% in the first eight months of 2014,
renewed confidence in the Victoria Falls region is palpable.
"I think Vic Falls is on
a goldmine," says Karen Dewhurst from the cruise company Zambezi
Explorer. "It's a beautiful location, and people are beginning to hear
about it, and with Zimbabwe being much safer...it'll definitely pick
up."
Trevor Lane from Friends
of Victoria Falls, is also optimistic. "I think the future looks good. I
think what we got to be careful of is that we don't sort of over
capitalize...We don't want to make it into another Niagara Falls where
it's over commercialized. But I do think that the future here is very
bright."
Wajahat S. Khan / NBC News
Wajahat S. Khan / NBC News
