Queen Elizabeth gives thanks to end rapturous jubilee party

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Queen Elizabeth waved from her Buckingham Palace balcony to the cheering masses on Tuesday and thanked millions of well-wishers at the end of four days of spectacular Diamond Jubilee celebrations marking her 60th year on the throne.

From the biggest flotilla seen on the River Thames for more than three centuries, a star-studded concert and a horse-drawn procession through the capital to street parties in towns, tiny villages and communities up and down the country, the queen said the show of public affection had been "a humbling experience".

"It has touched me deeply to see so many thousands of families, neighbors and friends celebrating together in such a happy atmosphere," the queen said in a rare televised address to the nation.

"I will continue to treasure and draw inspiration from the countless kindnesses shown to me in this country and throughout the Commonwealth. Thank you all," she said, standing in front of a framed photograph of grandson Prince William and wife Kate.

Hundreds of thousands of people cheered, sang patriotic songs and waved Union Jack flags outside Buckingham Palace at the finale of festivities for the Diamond Jubilee, only the second to be celebrated by a British monarch.

The 86-year-old beamed at the throng and waved from the balcony of the palace, accompanied by the senior members of her family with one notable absentee - Prince Philip, her husband of 64 years who was taken ill with a bladder infection on Monday.

It was one of the few grand state occasions in her life when he has not been present, taking some of the gloss off what has widely been seen as a triumphant diamond jubilee that has reinforced the popularity of the queen and the monarchy.

The grand Mall avenue leading to the queen's London residence was turned into a sea of red, white and blue as well-wishers flooded the road to hail the queen before a flypast led by the Spitfires which won the Battle of Britain and concluded with a display by a Royal Air Force aerobatics team.

Celebrations outside Buckingham Palace closed when soldiers fired a rifle salute, then thrust their bearskin hats in the air to lead the crowds beyond the gates in a rousing three cheers to Elizabeth II, the only British monarch other than Queen Victoria to have reigned for 60 years.

As the ecstatic crowd roared its approval, the queen flanked by son and heir Charles, his wife Camilla, Prince William and his new wife Kate as well as brother Harry, gave one final wave before heading inside.

WONDERFUL

"I don't think we'll see anything like this again in my generation. It was wonderful," said Joseph Afrane, 49, a photographer who was wearing a red, white and blue Union Jack flag waistcoat and hat.

Millions attended street parties, watched the queen glide past on a gilded barge as part of the River Thames pageant on Sunday, watched a concert in front of Buckingham Palace on Monday and spilled into the streets for Tuesday's carriage procession and balcony wave.

Not even typically British inclement weather dampened enthusiasm, with rain failing to deter the crowds, although Philip's illness overshadowed Tuesday's events.

After visiting him in hospital, the queen's youngest son Prince Edward said his father was getting better.

However, without Philip who has been at her side throughout her long reign, Elizabeth cut a slightly subdued figure as she attended a thanksgiving service at St Paul's Cathedral and a celebratory lunch.

"The remarkable thing is that she carried on (despite Philip's illness)," said Tim Fell, 32, a nursery school teacher from Edinburgh in Scotland who was carrying a homemade banner reading "Elizabeth the Great: she's a diamond".

"Words like duty, commitment, loyalty and country aren't just words in a dictionary for the queen, they are part of who she is," he added.

Unlike some of the previous days' celebrations, Tuesday's events were more typical of the formal displays of pageantry for which British royalty is known across the globe.

Courtiers in an array of dazzling ceremonial red and golden tunics and mounted soldiers wearing shining helmets and breastplates dating from centuries past when Britain was an imperial power were on show across London.

With Philip absent, the queen led a horse-drawn carriage procession to Buckingham Palace in an open-top 1902 State Landau with Prince Charles and Camilla, while military bands played and a 60-gun salute was fired.

Harry, William and Kate, in an Alexander McQueen dress, followed behind.

Earlier, Elizabeth - dressed in a fine silk tulle outfit, embroidered with tiny mint green star-shaped flowers embellished with silver thread - arrived at Paul's Cathedral to shouts of "God save the Queen" and a trumpet fanfare as she made her way past bowing and curtsying members of the congregation.

Commentators said the church service for Elizabeth, who came to the throne aged 25 in 1952, would hold particular poignancy for the queen who as titular head of the Church of England holds her religious role close to her heart.

"We are marking today the anniversary of one historic and very public act of dedication - a dedication that has endured faithfully, calmly and generously through most of the adult lives of most of us here," said Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury and spiritual leader of the Anglican church.

Afterwards the royals enjoyed a lavish lunch at Westminster Hall, the oldest part of the Houses of Parliament and the site for the lying-in-state of her mother, the Queen Mother, after her death in 2002.

SUCCESS AND POPULARITY

The long weekend dedicated to the diamond jubilee has been seen as a success story for the monarchy, their media team and Elizabeth personally.

Polls suggest the crown and the queen herself are more popular than they have been for decades, with one suggesting the hereditary monarch was more in touch with her people than Cameron and his ministers.

"While many presidents and prime ministers have come and gone, your majesty's reign has endured," said U.S. President Barack Obama in a glowing congratulatory message.

"May the light of your majesty's crown continue to reign supreme for many years to come."

The younger generation of royals, especially William, Harry and Kate, have become the darlings of the British press, once notoriously hostile to the monarchy as it threatened to implode in the 1990s following marital infidelities and the death of Charles's hugely popular first wife, Princess Diana.

Republicans have been vocal in their opposition during the jubilee but have drawn few obvious signs of public backing, although they hope that apathy to the royals felt by some could turn to hostility when the queen is gone and the less popular Charles becomes king.

If nothing else, commentators said the royals had once again provided Britons, suffering through financial hardships, deep public spending cuts and rising unemployment, an excuse to forget their woes and enjoy a party.

"With the economy and one thing or another, this has just been the most fantastic celebration," said designer Sheree Charalampous, 53, who had made her own crown, strung with pearls, pictures of corgis and a portrait of the queen.

"I really think the monarchy is now back in favor again, which is wonderful. Nobody does this sort of thing like us. It has been an amazing four days, just fantastic."

(Additional reporting by Peter Griffiths; Editing by Paul Casciato)

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Afghanistan: Aid workers saved after death threat

This undated family photo released by the family of British aid worker Helen Johnston Saturday June 2, 2012 shows British aid worker Helen Johnston in London. Two female foreign aid workers and their two Afghan colleagues were rescued in a pre-dawn raid Saturday June 2, 2012 after being held by militants for 11 days in a cave in northern Afghanistan, the U.S.-led military coalition said. The women, Helen Johnston and Moragwe Oirere, and the two Afghans were kidnapped on May 22 in Badakhshan province. The four work for Medair, a humanitarian non-governmental organization based near Lausanne, Switzerland. (AP Photo/Family Handout via Foreign Office) .

This undated family photo released by the family of British aid worker Helen Johnston Saturday June 2, 2012 shows British aid worker Helen Johnston in London. Two female foreign aid workers and their two Afghan colleagues were rescued in a pre-dawn raid Saturday June 2, 2012 after being held by militants for 11 days in a cave in northern Afghanistan, the U.S.-led military coalition said. The women, Helen Johnston and Moragwe Oirere, and the two Afghans were kidnapped on May 22 in Badakhshan province. The four work for Medair, a humanitarian non-governmental organization based near Lausanne, Switzerland. (AP Photo/Family Handout via Foreign Office) .

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) ? NATO and Afghan forces launched a daring operation to rescue two female foreign aid workers and their two Afghan colleagues after learning the Taliban planned to kill one of the hostages, an intelligence official said.

The troops carried out the successful mission before dawn Saturday, swooping in on helicopters to pluck the aid workers from a cave in a mountainous area of northern Badakhshan province. They killed the eight militants holding them captive as well, Afghan intelligence spokesman Shafiqullah Tahiri said Sunday.

The militants hoped killing one of the hostages would pressure negotiators to accept their demands of a $1 million ransom and the release of five of their colleagues imprisoned in Kabul, said Tahiri. The insurgents initially asked for at least $4 million before reducing their demand, he said.

Helen Johnston, 28, from Britain, and Moragwa Oirere, 26, from Kenya, and their two Afghan colleagues were kidnapped on May 22 while traveling on horseback in Badakhshan. The four work for Medair, a humanitarian non-governmental organization based near Lausanne, Switzerland.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said Saturday that he approved the operation after becoming increasingly concerned about the safety of the hostages. He said militants should know that Britain does not pay ransoms or trade prisoners, and anyone who kidnaps British citizens "can expect a swift and brutal end."

Troops were able to launch the rescue operation after receiving precise information from Afghan intelligence agents about the hostages' location in Shahri Buzurg district, said Tahiri. The kidnappers were planning to move the hostages to another remote, mountainous location in neighboring Tajikistan, he said.

The militants were armed with heavy machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47 assault rifles, but were overwhelmed by British troops operating alongside other NATO and Afghan forces. The hostages were safely rescued, and none of the NATO or Afghan forces were harmed, said the coalition.

Past rescue attempts in Afghanistan have not always gone so well.

In 2009, Sultan Munadi, an Afghan translator kidnapped alongside New York Times reporter Stephen Farrell, was killed in a hail of bullets during a rescue attempt by British commandos. In 2010, the U.S. Navy's SEAL Team 6 tried to rescue Linda Norgrove, a Scottish aid worker, from her Taliban captors in Afghanistan. She was killed by a grenade thrown in haste by one of the American commandos.

In southern Afghanistan on Sunday, a NATO service member was killed in an insurgent attack, the coalition said, without providing further details.

The death raised the number of coalition troops who have died in Afghanistan this year to 179.

___

Associated Press writer Sebastian Abbot contributed to this report.

Associated Press

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Richard (RJ) Eskow: Dammit, Chris Matthews! You Were Doing So Well 'Til You Said "Simpson Bowles"

Chris Matthews had something of a scoop on MSNBC's Morning Joe program today. He indicated that yet another Democratic leader in Congress has succumbed to the austerity-based political fever that's decimating that party on Capitol Hill.

He didn't put it quite that way, of course, but that's the gist of it. The headline could read something like this:

Yet another Democrat stricken with the dreaded "Simpson Bowles virus." The subhead could be, "Plague claims latest victim during private conversation with broadcaster. Number of cases may reach epidemic proportions, say experts."

Springtime in Washington: You can count on austerity fever to strike this town before the last cherry blossom sheds its petals.

That Matthews Magic

Now, I know that the progressive Internet likes to give Chris Matthews a hard time, and not altogether without reason. But I find the guy very likable, warts and all, so I'm not going to go all ad hominem on him. (Hopefully that's not our style anyway.)

Fact is, Chris was doing great for a while this morning, forecefully and eloquently laying down exactly the kind of advice that President Obama and his party leaders need. Sure, Matthews and the rest off the Joe Scarborough panel slung their fair share of cliches - "Friday was a game change," that sort of thing - but Matthews was nailing it.

"This election's going to be about the guy on the mound," he said, noting our lagging growth rate and terrible job numbers. "He's not performing out there," said Matthews, "not the way the voters score this thing. if he can't change the economic numbers, which he can't, he's got to talk about ... what he's up against ... how he's brought back the auto industry, and how he has to do a lot more in public sector investment."

Then Matthews really hit his stride, saying of the President:

I don't understand why he thinks small. Why doesn't he say "Look, we brought back the auto industry. Why don't we bring back the highways? Why don't we do what Eisenhower did - upgrade what he did in the fifties? Why is Europe ahead of us on fast rail, the chunnel, the bullet trains .... Why is everything falling apart? Why don't we invest in our public sector while interest rates are practically zero and there are all these unemployed people out there?"

Matthews added:

"This is a good time to do stuff. Instead he has this pusillanimous highway bill up there on the Hill, and this so-called jobs bill that I don't even know what's in it. If they're going to say no to spam, make 'em say no to steak. Have a big program, let Congress say no to it, alongside a good debt reduction program down the road."

Wow, Chris. We don't think you've been reading us, but you're playing our song.

"He doesn't seem to have anything on his plate right now," Matthews added, "and that's his main problem as pitcher. You don't think of him as out there pitching." He even inspired the Republican Scarborough to offer up a riff or two. Scarborough added:

You run straight into the fire, and everywhere you go you say, "You know what. Things aren't great right now. But if we didn't do what we did your ATMs would have stopped working. If we didn't do what we did Detroit would've stopped working"

The host concluded with the reasonable observations that "Democrats seem to be afraid to tell people what they believe and what they did." To which Matthews responded, "How about this? (The President) should say 'My way is the highway. We're gonna do it the way Eisenhower did it.'"

I never thought I'd say these words, especially in response to a suggestion that Democrats start kickin' it Eisenhower style, but: Amen, brother. Amen.

The Dream Is Over

Then Matthews pivoted to policy specifics. "You go over the steps," he said. "Why didn't he back Simpson/Bowles?"

Damn it, Chris Matthews! You were doing so well!

The President, said Matthews, could say that Simpson Bowles "does things I hate, but it goes somewhere. Matthews continued:

(The President could say) "It does stuff I don't like. I hate it, I hate it. But we gotta start somewhere. I got eleven votes (for the Simpson Bowles proposal, which failed to pass within the Deficit Commission). I wish I'd gotten fourteen, but damn it, I don't care how many votes you got. You got my vote."He coulda done that."

Then came the anonymous Congressional leader, of whom Matthews said:

I talked to a leader in Congress yesterday, a Democrat - a moderate Democrat - and he said "The number one thing we could do for the market, for confidence, for the consumer, for the investor, for the retiree, the about-to-be retiree, is a long-term debt reduction plan agreed to by this government. That means the Republicans in the House, the Democrats in the Senate, and the President agree to a deal that we're going to stick to to reduce the debt.

Finally we heard the closer on Matthews' Simpson Bowles pitch:

it seems to me that this would be ... the greatest gong out there, we'd all hear it and say, "Dammit, those guys can do their jobs." I know it's going to be hard before the election. But the President ought to be out there saying 'I'm first, put me down first, I'm John Hancock, I'm signing on." And (he should) lead the way on debt reduction, long term, and short-term job creation. Everybody knows what they want done. They want jobs now, and long-term debt reduction.

They do? Let's think about that for a moment.

By Popular Demand

As US News reported in March, "A Harris Poll found only 12 percent of the public want to see a cut in Social Security, 21 said they want to cut federal aid to education and 22 said they favor cuts federal healthcare programs."

Simpson Bowles would do all three.

An April poll showed that 79 percent of voters thought it was important to address the jobs crisis, as opposed to 73 percent who thought the deficits were important. And more importantly, when asked by Gallup in January what worried them most, only 16 percent said the deficit. 26 percent said jobs, 10 percent said our continuing economic decline, 6 percent said outsourcing, and 3 percent said Medicare and Medicaid.

When asked in March what they worry about "a great deal," 71 percent said the economy, 60 percent said the availability and affordability of healthcare, 55 percent said unemployment, and 48 percent said the Social Security system. 60 percent said "Federal spending and the government deficit."

When you stack up Simpson Bowles against the things it would hurry, that's 60 percent in favor and 234 against. "Everybody knows what they want done," all right, and Simpson Bowles ain't it.

Strange Medicine

The fact is, the Simpson Bowles plan does nothing to build jobs except delay its draconian cuts by ten months. There's no stimulus spending in it. And what kind of political naivet? would lead insiders like Matthews and his unnamed House leader (probably Steny Hoyer) to think that Republicans will back any kind of job creation plan?

In practical terms, a sentence like "jobs in the short-term, deficits cuts in the long term" is meaningless when applied to Simpson Bowles. That plan would briefly avoid any direct action to cost the country more jobs, but then would begin to trigger a wave of increased unemployment.

Saying "jobs now, then Simpson Bowles" is like saying "We'll fix your broken leg today and then amputate it tomorrow." It makes no sense.

Let Us Count the Ways

Matthews quoted his unnamed Congressional Democrat as saying "The number one thing we could do for the market, for confidence, for the consumer, for the investor, for the retiree, the about-to-be retiree, is a long-term debt reduction plan." How would that work out for the parties he listed?

The Market: In a little-noted (except by us) development, the stock market actually tanked the last time there was deficit reduction deal. Why? Because government cuts means a smaller GDP and therefore less consumer spending. And less consumer spending means less profits - unless you're a bank.

The Consumer: Conservative economists believe in a theory which says that government debt discourages spending, because people know that those debts will someday lead to higher taxes so they'd better save their money. But for some reason they don't believe that people will hold on to their money once they realize the government plans to cut their Social Security and Medicare, which is deeply embedded in the Simpson Bowles proposal.

And they don't think that consumers will be discouraged from spending, or have their confidence shaken, by the adoption of a plan which will cost the economy a projected 4 million jobs.

The Investor: People are seeing their 401k's get hammered because there's no consumer confidence. People aren't spending - either because they don't have jobs, or because they're in an underwater home, or because their wages have stagnated, or because they're fearful for the future. Often it's a case of "all of the above."

As we noted earlier, investors got the living daylights beaten out of them after the last deficit deal. They'd get hurt just as badly when this one was announced, too - and every time another jobs report came out after that.

Retirees and soon-to-be retirees: Simpson Bowles proposes radical cuts to Medicare, and insists on cutting Social Security rather than contemplate raising taxes on the wealthy. Think this'll turn 'em on? Talk about a Social Security deal, along with the Medicare reimbursement cuts, help the Democrats lose Congress in 2010.

If this plan becomes law, will people really say "Dammit, these guys can do their jobs"? Or with they say, "Dammit, I just lost mine"?

The Wrong Problem

"Long-term debt reduction" isn't our most urgent problem. Our government debt's been this high before (as a percentage of GDP) - specifically, it was higher during the World War II and postwar years. Those are the years that finally ended the Depression, and paved the way for those Eisenhower accomplishments that had Chris Matthews waxing so lyrical.

And you know what's even crazier? Right now they're paying the Federal government for the privilege of lending it money. That's right: The Federal government can borrow at negative interest rates, because the world's investors have so much confidence in the security of an investment in the US Treasury. So why aren't we borrowing the money we need to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure, educating our kids, and pull ourselves out of this economic quagmire?

We can pivot to debt concerns once our economy's moving again, and once they've stopped paying our government to borrow.

The Sting

When the Simpson Bowles proposal isn't serving the interests of the wealthy with crackpot logic, it stoops to outright fraud. Its much-vaunted "tax increases," for example, involve eliminating the kinds of tax breaks that are keeping many middle-class families afloat (like employer health and mortgage interest deductions).

The Simpson Bowles plan to "save Social Security" involves cutting benefits for recipients in 2080 as much as they'd be cut if Congress did nothing at all. Why? To deflect the idea of eliminating the payroll tax cap. (Simpson Bowles merely raises the cap slowly until it reaches 90 percent of all US income - a level it had reached twenty years ago, before income inequality put most of our economic growth above the cap's reach.)

The Simpson Bowles plan doesn't increase taxes for the wealthy - unless you believe that Congress will cut unnamed "loopholes" so much that it more than makes up for SB's most outrageous feature: It actually lowers the top tax rate for wealthy individuals and corporations.

Simpson Bowles offers only bogus "savings" measures for Medicare. It's only concrete proposal is to cap spending growth at GDP plus 1 percent - an artificial formula that would soon have seniors stripped of medical care under current health inflation rates. Why didn't they offer concrete cost-cutting proposals? Because those would require limiting the runaway corporate profits that are devastating our health economy.

Like we were saying: Fraud.

A Party Under the Influence

How did Chris Matthews and his unnamed friend get it so wrong? Self-perpetuating Clinton-era economic blunders are a big part of it. The half-billion dollars that Pete Peterson has spent promoting ideas like this in the last three years along can't have hurt either. That pays for a lot of ideologically-driven economists - many of them with Democratic pedigrees - peddling nonsense at a lot of seminars, "summits," and dinner parties.

That's how the world ends: Not with a bang, but with a whimper - and plenty of hors d'ouevres.

Whatever its source, the Fantasyland Democrats are inhabiting will soon collide with reality - just as it did in 2010, when Republicans ran to their left with a bogus "Seniors' Bill of Rights."

Chris Matthews had a scoop, all right: Democratic leaders on the Hill have come down with the same contagious self-deception that's sabotaged their party so many times before. Once again, the fever's running high along the Potomac. The folks on the Hill are dropping like flies.

And, frankly, Chris old friend, although we sorta love ya, you're looking a little peaked there yourself.

Richard (RJ) Eskow, a consultant and writer (and former insurance/finance executive), is a Senior Fellow with the Campaign for America's Future and the host of The Breakdown, broadcast Saturday nights from 7-9 pm on WeAct Radio, AM 1480 in Washington DC.

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Follow Richard (RJ) Eskow on Twitter: www.twitter.com/rjeskow

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Zimmerman back in jail, 2 days after bond revoked

This booking photo provided by the Seminole County Sheriff's Office shows George Zimmerman. Zimmerman returned on Sunday, June 3, 2012, to the John E. Polk Correctional Facility in Sanford, Fla. after his bail was revoked. Zimmerman, 28, is charged with second-degree murder in the February shooting death of Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman's attorney says he will seek a new bond hearing. (AP Photo/Seminole County Sheriff's Office)

This booking photo provided by the Seminole County Sheriff's Office shows George Zimmerman. Zimmerman returned on Sunday, June 3, 2012, to the John E. Polk Correctional Facility in Sanford, Fla. after his bail was revoked. Zimmerman, 28, is charged with second-degree murder in the February shooting death of Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman's attorney says he will seek a new bond hearing. (AP Photo/Seminole County Sheriff's Office)

This booking photo provided by the Seminole County Sheriff's Office shows George Zimmerman. Zimmerman returned on Sunday, June 3, 2012, to the John E. Polk Correctional Facility in Sanford, Fla. after his bail was revoked. Zimmerman, 28, is charged with second-degree murder in the February shooting death of Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman's attorney says he will seek a new bond hearing. (AP Photo/Seminole County Sheriff's Office)

After his bond was revoked, George Zimmerman, right, returns to the John E. Polk Correctional Facility in Sanford, Fla., Sunday, June 3, 2012. Zimmerman is charged with second-degree murder in the shooting of Trayvon Martin.(AP Photo/Orlando Sentinel, Joshua C. Cruey, Pool)

After his bond was revoked, George Zimmerman, right, returns to the John E. Polk Correctional Facility in Sanford, Fla., Sunday, June 3, 2012. Zimmerman is charged with second-degree murder in the shooting of Trayvon Martin. (AP Photo/Orlando Sentinel, Joshua C. Cruey, Pool)

Mark O'Mara, attorney for George Zimmerman, makes comments after Zimmerman returned to the John E. Polk Correctional Facility, Sunday, June 3, 2012, in Sanford, Fla. Zimmerman is charged with second-degree murder in the shooting of Trayvon Martin. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

MIAMI (AP) ? George Zimmerman, the former neighborhood watch volunteer charged with murder in the killing of Trayvon Martin, surrendered to police Sunday and was booked into a central Florida jail two days after his bond was revoked.

Zimmerman's legal team said in a tweet Sunday afternoon that he was in police custody. Circuit Judge Kenneth Lester revoked Zimmerman's bond on Friday, saying the defendant and his wife had lied to the court in April about their finances so he could obtain a lower bond.

About 40 minutes before the 2:30 p.m. Sunday deadline to surrender, the Seminole County jail website listed Zimmerman as an inmate. He was being held without bail and had $500 in his jail account, the website showed.

Seminole County Sheriff Donald Eslinger said Zimmerman turned himself in to two sheriff's office employees around 1:25 p.m. near the jail, and was then driven there. Zimmerman arrived in a white minivan and did not respond to questions from reporters as he walked inside, handcuffed and wearing blue jeans, sneakers and a button-down shirt.

"He is quiet and cooperative," Eslinger said at a news conference after Zimmerman's surrender.

The sheriff's office said the 28-year-old Zimmerman would be in a cell by himself, separated from the general population, because the case is so high-profile. The 67-square-foot cell is equipped with a toilet, two beds, a mattress, a pillow, a blanket and bed sheets. Zimmerman will not have access to a TV.

Prosecutors said last week that Zimmerman and his wife told the judge at a bond hearing in April that they had limited money, even though he had raised about $135,000 through a website set up for his legal defense. They suggested more has been collected since and deposited in a bank account. Defense attorneys say the matter is a misunderstanding.

The judge said Friday he would schedule a hearing after Zimmerman was back in custody so he could explain himself.

Defense attorney Mark O'Mara announced earlier Sunday on his website that Zimmerman had arrived in Florida late Saturday evening ahead of his surrender.

Zimmerman, who was charged in April with second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of the 17-year-old Martin in Sanford, was ordered by a judge Friday to return to jail. After his release, Zimmerman stayed at an undisclosed location for his safety.

Zimmerman's legal team said Sunday that they will ask for a new bond hearing to address the judge's concerns, and that they hope Zimmerman's voluntary surrender will show he is not a flight risk.

The money that Zimmerman has raised is in an independent trust and cannot be directly accessed by Zimmerman or his attorneys, according to the press release.

He has pleaded not guilty to the second-degree murder charge. He maintains that he shot Martin in self-defense under Florida's so-called "stand your ground" law because the teen, who was unarmed, was beating him up. Zimmerman claims the teenager had confronted the then-neighborhood watch volunteer about following Martin in a gated community in Sanford, about 25 miles northwest of Orlando.

Zimmerman had called 911 to complain about suspicious activity. Martin was walking from a convenience store to the home of his father's fianc?e in the same gated community where Zimmerman lived.

Legal experts say Zimmerman's credibility could become an issue at trial, noting that the case hinges on jurors believing Zimmerman's account of what happened the night in February when Martin was killed.

Police in Sanford did not immediately arrest Zimmerman, citing the Florida stand-your-ground law that gives wide latitude to the use of deadly force in an altercation if someone believes he or she is in danger of being killed or seriously injured.

Protests were held across the nation, and the case spurred an emotional debate about whether race was a factor in Zimmerman's actions and in the initial police handling of the case. Martin was black; Zimmerman's father is white and his mother is from Peru.

A special prosecutor eventually brought charges against Zimmerman, and he was arrested 44 days after the killing.

Zimmerman's wife, Shellie, was asked about the website at the bond hearing, but she said she didn't know how much money had been raised. The judge set bail at $150,000. George Zimmerman was freed a few days later after posting $15,000 in cash ? which is typical.

Prosecutor Bernie De la Rionda complained Friday, "This court was led to believe they didn't have a single penny. It was misleading and I don't know what words to use other than it was a blatant lie." The judge agreed and ordered Zimmerman returned to jail by Sunday afternoon.

The defense countered that Zimmerman and his wife never used the money for anything, which indicated "there was no deceit."

Benjamin Crump, an attorney for Trayvon Martin's parents ? Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton ? said his clients have always said Zimmerman should remain in jail until trial.

Associated Press

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Assad: Syria faces 'real war waged from the outside'

Thirteen men were shot dead at close range in Syria. Activists claim the killers were government militia. The government blames the rebels. NBC's John Ray reports. Some of the images in this report may be disturbing.

By Alastair Jamieson and msnbc.com news services

Syrian President Bashar Assad has said that his country is engaged in a "real war" with outside forces and denied any role in the Houla massacre, which he said was carried by ?monsters?.

In his first public address since January, he warned he would not be lenient on those he blamed for violence in the country, and promised that a 15-month-old crisis would end soon if Syrians pulled together.

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Dsk / AFP - Getty Images

An image grab taken from Syrian state TV shows Syrian President Bashar al-Assad addressing the parliament in Damascus on Sunday.

In a speech to parliament, he repeated many of his earlier pledges to maintain a crackdown on opponents he describes as terrorists implementing a foreign conspiracy, while offering dialogue with those opposition figures who have avoided armed conflict or outside backing.

He made his comments a day after international envoy Kofi Annan said the spectre of all-out civil war was growing daily in Syria and the world needed to see actions, not words, from Assad.

Jim Muir, the BBC correspondent in Beirut, said: ?Anybody hoping that President Assad's first public speech since January might open up some lines of advance towards a solution will have been disappointed.?

In his hour-long address, Assad offered no specific response to Annan's plea for bold steps to end the conflict.

Thousands of people have been killed in a crackdown on protests against Assad, which erupted in March last year and have become increasingly militarised, destabilising neighbouring Lebanon and raising fears of regional turmoil.

"This crisis is not an internal crisis. It is an outside war carried out by inside elements," Assad said, looking relaxed as he spoke to parliamentarians. "If we work together, I confirm that the end to this situation is near."

'True monstrosities'
Last month's massacre in Houla of 108 people, mostly women and children, triggered global outrage and warnings that Syria's relentless bloodshed - undimmed by Annan's April 12 ceasefire deal - could engulf the Middle East.

Sunni Muslim powers, particularly wealthy Gulf Arab states, have strongly supported the uprising against Assad, an Alawite closely allied with Shi'ite Iran and Hezbollah.

Western powers have accused Syrian armed forces and pro-Assad militia of responsibility for the May 25 Houla killing, a charge Damascus has denied.

Despite the discovery of another atrocity following the recent massacre in Huola, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad showed no sign of relinquishing his power. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.

"What happened in Houla...and what we described as ugly and abominable massacres, or true monstrosities - even monsters do not perpetrate what we have seen," Assad said.

He said his country was facing a war waged from outside and that terrorism was escalating despite political steps including last month's election for parliament, whose new members Assad was addressing.

"We are not facing a political problem because if we were this party would put forth a political programme. What we are facing is (an attempt) to sow sectarian strife and the tool of this is terrorism," Assad said.

"The issue is terrorism. We are facing a real war waged from the outside," Assad said.

Annan, the joint United Nations and Arab League envoy for Syria, told an Arab League meeting in Qatar on Saturday that Assad must make "bold and visible" steps immediately to change his military stance and honour his commitment to cease all violence.

Annan criticised Assad for failing to comply with a peace plan to end the conflict and said his forces were carrying out atrocities, arbitrary arrests and other abuses.

The United Nations says Syrian forces have killed more than 9,000 people in a crackdown on protests against Assad. Syria blames the violence on foreign-backed Islamist militants it says have killed more than 2,600 soldiers and security force members.

Jim MuirBBC News, Beirut

Anybody hoping that President Assad's first public speech since January might open up some lines of advance towards a solution will have been disappointed.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

More world news from msnbc.com and NBC News:

Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world

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Your Online Business -Question? Is Your Advertising Paying Off?

We all know that in order to make any money with our online business

that we need to have customers. And in order for us to have customers we need to advertise. Right?

There are actually only 2 ways to do this either you can pay for advertising or you earn it.

There are plenty of sites where you can pay for traffic and when I say you can earn traffic you are still actually paying for it, you are just paying for it with your time instead of money.

If you don't know what I am talking about when I say earn your advertising, let me just go over it for you here. You see when I got started marketing my online business I didn't really have a clue as what to do. Since I didn't have a whole lot of money to go out and start buying advertising my mentor suggested that I start with article marketing.

Here is what I did; every time I would read a book, attended a webinar or training call, I would write about what I learned.

I then went and placed this on ezine articles, then went on and published it on a few others. When you write an article you are allowed to put your link back to your site in the bottom of you article this is called the Bio box.

Then when I finally started making money, I had my website built for me, my blog. Of course you can put this together for yourself, but I really didn't want to deal with all of that technical stuff.

You see I now place these articles on these different ezines as well as my blog. This is one of the best ways to earn free traffic. Of course there are many sites that you can place free ads, I have done this plenty, but never really received any good leads let alone made any sales in my online business.

I was talking with another one of my mentors about a month ago and he asked me if I ever tried advertising in safelists? I actually have heard of them but never tried any. He stated someone on his team was getting great results.

I found myself a list of the top safe lists and started joining them, over a dozen for sure. Yes, you do get free advertising when you join, so I did place the banners, text ads, hot links and started running solo ads where ever I could. You do need to click on other solos ads in order to run your own.

I have been doing this religiously for 4 weeks and guess where it has gotten me? No Where! If you have seen any results, Please let me know I would love to chat with you, and see what you are doing that I am not. Maybe I am missing something here.

Yes there are people who do click through to get their ads seen, but in many cases people just upgrade, this way they don't have to deal with reading and clicking through. HUM??

I was taught if you are going to try a new method of marketing to take action for 90 days. But I am not sure I want to waste even another day on this. I feel as though this type of marketing is just a waste of time. Do you agree? Please leave me your comments below.
While you are at it go ahead and let me know what types of marketing are working for you, either paid or earned.

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