NTC forces assault Kadhafi hometown

Fighters for Libya's interim rulers entered Moamer Kadhafi's hometown Sirte in a surprise assault that NATO said it backed to halt brutal acts by followers of the ousted regime.
National Transitional Council (NTC) chief Mustafa Abdel Jalil said an interim government would be announced next week and that the new authorities had control over Kadhafi's internationally "banned weapons".
Misrata military council spokesman Abdel Ibrahim said seven NTC fighters were killed and 145 injured in what appeared to have been a pincer movement launched from the south and east.
Using tanks and pick-up trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns, the NTC forces cleared away roadblocks set up by Kadhafi forces and drove toward the city centre before putting up their own defences in advanced positions.
On a beach road surrounded by craters and pock-marked buildings, a 106mm anti-tank cannon repeatedly pounded Kadhafi positions, backed by a barrage of mortars and multiple rocket-launchers.
"We are pushing them back" after a "surprise" order to attack issued by the NTC's military top brass, commander Mohammed al-Aswawi said in a radio truck monitoring units on the front.
"First we get the families out, and then the order is to attack and free Sirte," he told AFP.
"There is also an advance from the south," he added, as the Misrata Military Council said that front was being reinforced by NTC fighters who had taken part in "the liberation of Al-Jafra."
Frontline fighters in Sirte are convinced that one of Kadhafi's sons, Mutassim, is holed up in the city's southern outskirts.
"Mutassim is in there. We hear him on the radio giving orders," NTC operations commander Osama Muttawa Swehly told AFP on Saturday.
As the battle raged into the evening, another commander, Hassan Tarhar Zaluk, said NTC forces would have to resume the fight for Sirte on Sunday.
"We're going to stop for the evening. There's no light in there. We'll start again tomorrow," he said.
NTC fighters also came under heavy fire as they advanced inside Sirte's eastern gates, another AFP correspondent reported.
"Our troops went seven kilometres inside through the eastern gate and there were sporadic to sometimes heavy clashes with Kadhafi's forces," said commander Mohammed al-Marimi of the Fakriddin Sallabi Brigade.
The assault was launched after reports of a rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation in the city of around 75,000 inhabitants.
NATO forces struck at Kadhafi forces after reports they had moved against civilians there, endangering "hundreds of families", a statement from the alliance said.
"Among the reports emerging from Sirte are executions, hostage-taking, and the calculated targeting of individuals, families, and communities within the city," it added.
Heavy fighting also raged in Bani Walid, the only other remaining pro-Kadhafi bastion. Medics reported a total of 30 NTC troops killed so far on that front.
A pro-Kadhafi radio station called for a gathering at one of Bani Walid's squares, after a similar call from Kadhafi's most prominent son, Seif al-Islam, for people to rise up for the town's "liberation".
On the political front, the NTC held talks on forming a new government amid doubts over whether disagreements that prevented a deal last week could be immediately overcome.
"Differences in views" between members of the NTC and the executive council had delayed a deal, Abdel Jalil told reporters, but the composition of the interim government would be announced in the coming week.
That had been due to be set up last Sunday, but was postponed indefinitely because of haggling over portfolios.
Abdel Jalil said the new authorities had control over internationally "banned weapons" from Kadhafi's regime, when asked about the presence of such weapons in the south.
The International Atomic Energy Agency on Friday confirmed the existence of raw uranium stored in drums at the southern city of Sabha.
"These weapons are between Waddan and Sabha," said Abdel Jalil, referring to the other central town.
"We will call for Libyan technicians and the international community to get rid of these weapons safely," he said.
While Libya's new authorities do not know where Kadhafi is, they are focusing on taking Sirte and Bani Walid, two places where some think he might be. Reports have also emerged that he may be in the south.
"General Belgasem al-Abaaj, who we captured on Monday, said that Kadhafi had contacted him by phone about 10 days ago, and that he was moving secretly between (the oases of) Sabha and Ghat," an NTC commander, Mohammed Barka Wardugu, told AFP.
Abaaj had said Kadhafi "is helped by Nigerian and Chadian mercenaries who know the desert routes," added Wardugu, spokesman for the Desert Shield Brigade.
Friday's statement from Kadhafi's daughter Aisha that said her father was well and fighting on the ground -- and denouncing the new administration in Libya as traitors -- got a sharp reaction from the Algerian authorities.
Algerian Foreign Minister Mourad Mdeleci described her comments as "unacceptable", the country's APS agency reported. Her telephone message was broadcast by Syria-based Arrai television.
Algeria received Aisha Kadhafi, her mother and other members of their family when they fled Libya in August.
Algeria, which after criticism from the NTC in Libya defended its decision to receive the Kadhafis on humanitarian grounds, on Friday said it was willing to work with the new administration.
In New York, NTC prime minister Mahmoud Jibril told the United Nations General Assembly that a new Libya was coming to life.
But he added: "The asset freeze on our funds must be lifted as urgently as possible."

Anti-Kadhafi forces seize key Libya airport

Anti-Kadhafi fighters said Tuesday they had captured the airport and a garrison in the defeated Libyan despot's southern redoubt Sabha, as fighting raged in two of his northern strongholds.
The battlefield victories came as the United States and its allies prepared to meet on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York to discuss the future of the new Libya.
Moamer Kadhafi, for decades an outlandish fixture at the UN gathering with his tent and rambling speeches, will be absent in New York as the National Transitional Council rebels who ousted him are ushered into the spotlight.
The capture of the airport and garrison at Sabha, a strategic desert city 800 kilometres (500 miles) south of Tripoli, was announced early Tuesday by Mohammed Wardugu, spokesman for the NTC's "Desert Shield Brigade."
Fighting still raged in some quarters of Sabha but the pro-NTC forces would take total control of the city "in some hours," said Wardugu, brother of brigade commander Barka Wardugu.
He said NTC forces had also seized one of Kadhafi's senior generals and forced more than 300 of his mercenaries to flee.
"Our fighters ambushed then and killed, wounded or captured many," Wardugu told AFP in the eastern city of Benghazi, without giving figures.
"General Belgacem Al-Abaaj, Kadhafi's intelligence chief in the Al-Khofra region, was captured" on Monday some 100 kilometres (60 miles) from Sabha, he said.
Abaaj, who had been sought by the NTC forces for committing "crimes ... and sabotage" was seized with members of his family who were travelling in five four-wheel drive vehicles.
NATO said on Tuesday it had the previous day targeted Sabha with air strikes, taking out two air missile systems, two military air radar defence facilities and three air missile facilities.
It also struck an armed vehicle and multiple rocket system in Sirte; six anti-aircraft guns and a command and control node around the nearby towns of Waddan and Hun; and another command and control node near Bani Walid.
The NATO strikes around Sirte came as dozens of new regime fighters stormed the nearby town of Sultana, braving rocket and artillery attacks as they marched towards Kadhafi's hometown.
Shouting "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest) and "Hold your heads high, you are Libyans," the fighters drove into Sultana -- the site of steady fighting in the past two days -- pushing Kadhafi's diehards back towards Sirte.
"They want a war, they are getting one. We will kick their butts," said one of the fighters, Saleh Drisi, as he jumped from his pick-up truck and barged into a house, searching for Kadhafi loyalists.
The column of fighters advancing on Sirte from the west were to join other NTC forces already at the gates of the city who have been fighting Kadhafi loyalists there since the weekend.
Fighting had also raged on Monday in Bani Walid when NTC fighters attacked the oasis town southeast of Tripoli where Kadhafi's son Seif al-Islam is believed holed up, possibly with his father.
Kadhafi, Seif al-Islam and intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi have been on the run since rebels overran Tripoli on August 23. They are wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity.
Tuesday's meeting in New York will follow the first talks between US President Barack Obama and Mustafa Abdel Jalil, the head of the NTC -- now recognised as Libya's legitimate leaders.
The talks will "confirm the start of a new phase which began with the Paris summit and the beginning of an increased role in the United Nations," said French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who was hailed as a hero when he visited Tripoli last week, would also join Tuesday's talks.
One of the aims of the meeting would be to replace the "contact group" with a "group of friends of Libya, whose make-up and function will be determined by the secretary general," he added.
"The new Libya will symbolically be fully integrated into the United Nations," Juppe said, as the green, red and black flag used by the old Libyan monarchy was raised Monday for the first time at the UN.
Created on March 29 in London, the political contact group on Libya gathers 30 countries and several international organisations including the United Nations, NATO and the Arab League.
It has worked to support the revolt against Kadhafi who ruled Libya for four decades, including unblocking the fallen regime's funds which had been frozen by governments around the world.
In Benghazi, the spokesman for the pro-NTC forces fighting in and around Sabha launched an urgent appeal for international aid on behalf of the residents in the region.
Wardugu appealed to "France, Britain, the United States, to all Western nations, to the Arab countries and to humanitarian organisations to bring in aid," as people were suffering from a lack of food, water, electricity and medicine.
"Women, children, the elderly are dying every day. Some of the injured are transported to Benghazi (2,500 kilometres away) to receive treatment," he said.

Merkel warns leaders to watch their words on Greek debt

In a tacit reprimand of her vice chancellor's blunt recognition of the possibility of Greek bankruptcy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday said leaders need to tread carefully when speaking publicly about the country's problems.
"The top priority is to avoid an uncontrolled insolvency, because that would not just affect Greece," Merkel told RBB radio. "Everyone should weigh their words very carefully. What we do not need is volatility on the financial markets. The uncertainties are already big enough."
German Economy Minister and Vice Chancellor Philip R?sler on Monday wrote in a newspaper commentary that "an orderly bankruptcy" for Greece could not be ruled out. European markets plummeted in response.
Merkel emphasized that even though it may be politically unpopular, it was also in Germany's interest to support Greece and keep it in the eurozone.
"I have made my position very clear that everything must be done to keep the eurozone together politically, because we would soon have a domino effect," she said.
Bailout a tough sell
Later Tuesday, Merkel was to meet her Finnish counterpart, Jyrki Katainen, for talks on Greece's second bailout package. Finland has demanded cash collateral in exchange for its parliament ratifying Greece's bailout - calls echoed by the Netherlands.
Leaders of the 17 countries that use the euro currency agreed in July to a second bailout for Greece, but must now convince their national parliaments to ratify the agreement before it can be put into action. Belgium's parliament was scheduled to vote on the bailout on Tuesday.
In a flurry of meetings on the eurozone debt crisis on Tuesday, EU President Herman Van Rompuy was meet with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, whose country has seen borrowing rates skyrocket on worries about its own mountain of debt.
Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos was also scheduled to speak with his German counterpart, Wolfgang Sch?uble, after having a lengthy phone conversation on Monday.
In a rare public expression of criticism aimed at his European allies, US President Barack Obama on Monday said Europe needed a "more effective set of coordinated policies" to deal with the continent's sovereign debt crisis.

EU parliamentarians fear debt crisis damage to Europe

The next act in the Greek debt tragedy, regarding the declining eurozone and its nascent rescue, is upon us: It now seems that Greece may not be able to fulfill the requisite conditions to qualify for further financial aid from Europe.
This has stirred much ire within the German government. Some, few lawmakers are calling for Greece to be ejected from the single currency zone.
Furthermore, Chancellor Angela Merkel could struggle to achieve a majority in parliament to push through further loans to Greece and other eurozone countries struggling to stay afloat under piles of debt. A straw poll carried out in the Bundestag this week showed as much.
Greece will have to explain how it intends to gets its financial house in order, before the official vote takes place in Germany's parliament at the end of the month. The figures on Athens' books appear to be even worse than previously thought.

Merkel's comments over the weekend underlined the severity of the situation: "Under no circumstances can we simply offer help," she said, "Rather, we must impose conditions that would see countries with high levels of debt do their homework and actually reduce their debt."
But in comments after meeting with European Council President Hermann Van Rompuy, Merkel did say that if Greece was unable to do its homework, it would not necessarily be chucked from the eurozone.
'More Europe'
Even so, a Greek bankruptcy would have incalculable risks for the common currency. Some say the answer to the debt crisis is "more Europe." Udo Bullman, a German Social Democrat in the European Parliament, is one of them.
"There can be no backtracking. Any path which leads to national self-interest will lead us astray," he says. "There can only be a European future - for Germany too - if more authority is given at the European level."
Bullman advocates the much-debated and rather polarizing introduction of joint eurozone debt in the form of eurobonds, as well as the installation of a truly European finance minister for the currency bloc. He also wants to see a strengthening of the ability of national and European Parliaments to monitor indebted states.
"I believe we need to accelerate our involvement. Where is the Marshall Plan for Greece?" Bullman asks.
Greece needs investment in its real economy to create growth, he says, adding that the newly-established European crisis fund and emergency chute only serve to buy the eurozone time and calm the creditors, that is, the banks.
Give and take
European parliamentarian Markus Ferber agrees that more solidarity is essential. But the Bavarian conservative rejects introducing eurobonds, adding that greater unity is a two-way street requiring more from indebted states.
"This must also mean that the Southern Europeans accept the competitive pressure to adapt and reform. Only then can there be solidarity," says Ferber. "Otherwise, we'll end up with something no one wants, the terrible outcome of a permanent transfer union in which money flows from north to south. That's no future for the German taxpayer."
Ferber added that it was essential that the economic performance of countries like Germany and others in Europe's northern reaches not be abused. Several EU members are already seeing populist parties feeding euro-skepticism and opposing bailouts for indebted eurozone countries. Ferber said such movements could not be allowed to take hold in Germany.
"We need to bring the people with us. Why does Germany assume such responsibilities?" he asked. "If we don't pay close attention, we'll have greater problems than just whether we can lead the euro through stormy waters. Much of what we have achieved in the past could be lost."
Credit conditions for Greece will be discussed in the coming weeks by European finance ministers at the end of the summer break. How the economic tragedy will end remains unclear. But one thing is certain: European banks do not have enough capital to survive bankruptcy in Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Spain or Italy.

Billing dispute reveals CIA rendition flights

A billing dispute in New York has revealed details of secret CIA rendition flights that transported terror suspects around the world following the September 11 attacks, newspapers reported.
The Washington Post, one of a handful of media outlets alerted to the public court documents by a London-based rights group, said they include flight logs and logs of phone calls to CIA headquarters and officials.
The Post said on its website late Wednesday dozens of rendition flights -- to locations including Bucharest, Baku, Cairo, Djibouti, Islamabad and Tripoli -- were organized by Sportsflight, a one-man aircraft business on Long Island, which secured a plane from Richmor Aviation, which is now suing Sportsflight for breach of contract.
Details including the costs and itineraries of numerous CIA flights have therefore become part of the court record in a proceeding held in an almost empty courtroom, the Post said.
Richmor billed at a rate of $4,900 an hour for the use of the plane and earned at least $6 million over three years, according to the invoices and other court records, the Post said.
It accounted for a small percentage of the total flights, the Post said, suggesting that the Central Intelligence Agency spent tens of millions of dollars to use private planes to transport suspects for interrogation.
Britain's Guardian newspaper, also tipped off to the case, cited court documents late Wednesday as saying that Sportsflight agreed to make the Gulfstream IV executive jet available to fly at 12 hours' notice.
"The client says we're going to be very, very busy," it quoted Sportsflight as telling Richmor, according to court documents.
The same documents quote Richmor President Mahlon Richards as saying "We were transporting government personnel and their invitees."
The Post said the papers were brought to its attention by the London-based group Reprieve, which advocates for prisoners' rights and focuses on Guantanamo Bay, where the United States has held high-profile terror suspects since 2001.
The Post described one such rendition flight that took place on August 12, 2003, when a Gulfstream IV aircraft carrying six passengers took off from Dulles International Airport near Washington and flew to Bangkok.
Before returning four days later, it touched down in Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, the United Arab Emirates and Ireland, and appears to have coincided with the capture of Indonesian Riduan Isamuddin, a suspected terrorist.
The entire journey cost $339,228.05, the Post said.
Isamuddin, the alleged planner of the 2002 terror attacks in Bali, Indonesia, was captured in Thailand and would spend the next three years being flown between secret prisons, the Post reported.
The Gulfstream IV was identified publicly in 2005 after it was used in the capture and rendition of a cleric in Milan who was flown to his native Egypt, where he says he was tortured.
It may have also been used in the rendition of senior Al-Qaeda militant Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks, who was later waterboarded 183 times in a single month, the Guardian said.

Libyan rebels hunt Gadhafi, try to secure capital

TRIPOLI, Libya — Libyans hunting Moammar Gadhafi offered a $2 million bounty on the fallen dictator's head and amnesty for anyone who kills or captures him as rebels battled Wednesday to clear the last pockets of resistance from the capital Tripoli.

While pockets of die-hard loyalists kept up the fight to defend Gadhafi, his support was crumbling by the hour, and even his foreign minister said his 42-year rule was over.

Asked by the British broadcaster Channel 4 if a negotiated settlement or safe passage for Gadhafi from Libya were still possible, Foreign Minister Abdul Ati al-Obeidi said: 'It looks like things have passed this kind of solution.'

Later, Col. Khalifa Mohammed, Gadhafi's deputy of intelligence chief, told Al-Arabiya television that he had defected to the rebels.

A defiant Gadhafi vowed from hiding to fight on 'until victory or martyrdom,' in an audio message early Wednesday.

Rebel leaders made first moves to extend their political control to the entire country and set up a new government in the capital. During Libya's six-month civil war, opposition leaders had established their interim administration, the National Transitional Council, in the eastern city of Benghazi, which fell under rebel control shortly after the outbreak of widespread anti-regime protests in February.

'Members of the council are now moving one by one from Benghazi to Tripoli,' said Mansour Seyf al-Nasr, the Libyan opposition's new ambassador to France.

Still Tripoli was far from pacified, with pro-regime snipers cutting off the road to the airport and other loyalist fighters launching repeated attacks on Gadhafi's captured private compound. Four Italian journalists were kidnapped on the highway to Tripoli around the city of Zawiya, 30 miles west of the capital.

The city's streets were largely empty of civilians. Rebels manned checkpoints every few hundred yards, but little else could be seen but the debris of days of fighting and weeks of accumulated garbage.

Intense clashes broke out in the Abu Salim neighborhood, a regime stronghold next to Gadhafi's vast Bab al-Aziziya compound, the symbolic center of his regime, which the rebels captured Tuesday after a fierce battle. Gadhafi loyalists inside Abu Salim were firing into the captured compound, rebels said.

Rebels found no sign of Gadhafi after the Tuesday battle for the compound, but rumors churned of his possible whereabouts. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said there was no evidence to indicate he had left Libya, but rebel officials acknowledged they could not find him.

'He might be in Sirte or any other place,' Jibril said in Paris. Sirte, a coastal city 250 miles from Tripoli, is Gadhafi's hometown and a bastion of regime support.

Mohammed al-Herizi, an opposition official, said a group of Tripoli businessmen had announced a $2 million reward for the arrest or killing of Gadhafi. But rebel spokesman Col. Ahmed Bani said the rebels themselves had only offered amnesty for anyone who kills him or hands him over.

'The biggest prize is to offer amnesty, not to give money,' he said.

Rebel fighters, who by Wednesday afternoon controlled most of the Bab al-Aziziya compound, were using it as staging area for operations, loading huge trucks with ammunition and discussing deployments. But they repeatedly faced loyalist attacks Wednesday, with pro-Gadhafi snipers firing on the fighters from tall buildings in Abu Salim, said Mohammed Amin, a rebel fighter.

He said the rebels had surrounded Abu Salim, home to the country's most notorious prison and scene of a 1996 massacre of protesting political prisoners, but had been unable to push into it.

Al-Sadeq al-Kabir, a rebel spokesman, said thousands of prisoners had been released, many of them political prisoners who had been held there for years.

He also denied media reports that Gadhafi had offered a cease-fire.

The rebels claim they control the Tripoli airport but are still clashing with Gadhafi forces in the streets around it. AP reporters said the road leading to the airport was closed because of heavy fire by pro-regime snipers. One rebel fighter, Khalil Mabrouk, said most of the airport was cleared of Gadhafi soldiers, but pro-Gadhafi's forces to the south were firing rockets and shelling rebel positions inside.

Dozens of foreign journalists were released after being held captive for days by pro-government gunmen at Tripoli's once-luxurious Rixos Hotel near Abu Salim and Bab al-Aziziya.

The hotel was where rotating tours of foreign journalists had lived for the past six months, closely watched by government minders and taken on approved tours. But it had become a de facto prison after the rebels swept into the city Sunday, with a team of gunmen refusing to let the journalists leave. As the days ticked by, power outages became near-constant, leaving reporters without air condition in sweltering summer heat. Hotel employees fled and the journalists had to scrounge the hotel for food and water in the final days.

Since Sunday, heavy gunbattles have raged all around the hotel, and journalists had to frequently take cover.

One guard expressed surprise when told most of the city was in rebel hands. Finally, as the rebels drew closer, most of the guards left, leaving just a pair of increasingly nervous gunmen. The journalists were suddenly freed Wednesday, as the International Committee of the Red Cross stepped in to negotiate their release.

Elsewhere in the city, streets were deserted except for the rebel checkpoints, where fighters looked for Gadhafi supporters and searched cars for weapons. At one checkpoint, one of the once-ubiquitous pictures of Gadhafi had been laid on the ground so cars had to drive over it.

Many buildings were covered in the pro-rebel graffiti that has appeared over the last few days.

Trash, already a problem in the waning months of Gadhafi's rule, now covers many streets and sidewalks. The shredded remains of Gadhafi's green flags were also scattered across the city.

Inside Gadhafi's compound, two young rebel fighters searched through a heap of pill packages in a building they said had served as a pharmacy. A broken TV, its screen shattered, lay on the ground in the courtyard. A dozen young fighters posed for pictures next to a gold-colored statue of a clenched fist squeezing a plane — a memorial to the 1986 U.S. airstrikes on the compound in retaliation for a bombing at a German disco frequented by U.S. servicemen.

'The blood of our martyrs will not be spilled in vain,' the fighters chanted, pumping their fists.

The rebels also targeted other symbols of the regime, including the homes of some of Gadhafi's children.

About 200 people ransacked the beachfront villa of Gadhafi's son al-Saadi, driving off with four of his cars — a Lamborghini, a BMW, an Audi and a Toyota station wagon, said Seif Allah, a rebel fighter who joined in the looting and took a bottle of gin and a pair of Diesel jeans.

After a five-hour gunbattle with guards, rebels also ransacked the mansion of Gadhafi's daughter Aisha.

Clothes and DVDs were strewn on the floor of the master bedroom, including a DVD about getting in shape after childbirth. In a sitting area, a gold-colored statue of a mermaid with Aisha's face framed a sofa.

In recent years, Gadhafi's six sons had become increasingly entangled in scandals. Hannibal was arrested in 2008 for beating a hotel employee in Switzerland and al-Saadi also had run-ins with police in Europe and a history of drug and alcohol abuse. The children's misbehavior further heightened resentment against the regime.

But even as his 42-year-old regime was crumbling around him, Gadhafi vowed not to surrender. In an audio message early Wednesday, he called on residents of the Libyan capital and loyal tribesmen to free Tripoli from the 'devils and traitors' who have overrun it.

Rebel officials are eager to prove they can bring a stable political future for Libya, and that their movement is more than an often-fractious collection of tribes, ethnicities and semiautonomous militias.

Mahmoud Jibril, the head of the opposition Cabinet, said after meeting French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris that rebel officials were forming a cabinet and that a national congress would also be created to represent the country's cities. That congress will form a committee to write a new constitution, and a council to oversee elections. Parliamentary elections will come first he said, with presidential elections will later follow.

A new national army will also be created out of the rebel movement, Jibril said.

'We will invite everyone carrying weapons to join the army or the police force,' he said. 'There are (also) the unemployed, and they will be invited to join the standing army.'

The rebels have taken control of much of Libya, sweeping through the country with the help of a relentless NATO air campaign that included including about 7,500 strike attacks against Gadhafi's forces.

Fighting also continued in areas outside of Tripoli. Jibril said pro-government forces were shelling a number of southern cities. Residents of the port town of Zwara, about 70 miles west of the capital, said they had suffered through four days of shelling.

All roads to the city had been cut off, said Sefask al-Azaabi, a 29-year-old rebel.

As government forces have been defeated elsewhere, Gadhafi's forces 'take their revenge by shelling our town,' he said by telephone, adding that rebel forces were running low on supplies.

'We are appealing to the (rebel) military council to send us reinforcements or this town will be finished in no time,' he said.

World leaders call on Assad to step down

US President Barack Obama has led a chorus of calls by world leaders for Syria's president to step down, as the United Nations warned his regime could be guilty of crimes against humanity.
Obama also slapped harsh new sanctions on Syria, freezing state assets and blacklisting the oil and gas sector, in an escalation of pressure aimed at halting a bloody protest crackdown that has claimed more than 2,000 lives.
The White House later expressed hope that the European Union would follow suit, conscious that the United States has only limited leverage over Damascus compared to the Europeans, whose oil purchases help to bolster the regime.
It was the first explicit US call for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to resign since the pro-democracy uprising -- inspired by the revolts that toppled leaders in Egypt and Tunisia -- erupted in mid-March.
"We have consistently said that President Assad must lead a democratic transition or get out of the way. He has not led. For the sake of the Syrian people, the time has come for President Assad to step aside," Obama said.
His call was quickly echoed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron.
"We call on him to face the reality of the complete rejection of his regime by the Syrian people and to step aside in the best interests of Syria and the unity of its people," the trio said in a joint statement.
The United Nations said a humanitarian mission would go to Syria this weekend as European powers launched a campaign for UN Security Council sanctions against Assad.
UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos announced the much-delayed mission after the Security Council was briefed on a shoot-to-kill policy against protesters, stadium executions and children feared killed in Syrian government custody.
The civilian death toll from the protests has now passed 2,000, UN under secretary general B. Lynn Pascoe told the 15-nation body.
Britain, France, Germany and Portugal said they were preparing a Security Council sanctions resolution. The United States strongly backed the move, but resistance was expected from veto-wielding permanent members China and Russia.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the new US sanctions banning investment and most other economic activities in Syria as well as imports of Syrian oil and gas would "strike at the heart of the Syrian regime."
White House spokesman Josh Earnest later told reporters on board Air Force One that the Obama administration expected the European Union to unveil fresh economic sanctions on Syria "soon."
European nations import most of the oil from Syria, which exported some 148,000 barrels a day in 2009, according to the US government's Energy Information Administration.
"America doesn't have the ability to do it alone. But they are acting as a choir-master and hoping that by setting an example, Europe will pull the plug," said Joshua Landis, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma.
UN human rights chief Navi Pillay meanwhile said Syria may have committed crimes against humanity and urged the Security Council meeting to refer the matter to the International Criminal Court.
A report by Pillay described "widespread or systematic attacks against the civilian population, which may amount to crimes against humanity."
It said Syrian security forces had targeted civilians with ground forces, rooftop snipers and aircraft "with an apparent shoot-to-kill policy."
The document also describes summary executions, including reports that "forces conducted regular raids in hospitals to search for and kill injured demonstrators," as well as allegations of torture and arbitrary arrests.
It has been difficult to independently confirm events on the ground as Syria has heavily restricted media access since the start of the unrest.
Syrian security forces deployed in force Thursday in several locations, including the suburbs of Damascus, where protests were reported and shots were heard, a rights group said.
The deployments came after Assad told UN chief Ban Ki-moon early Thursday that his security forces had ended operations in towns hit by a popular uprising which Damascus claims is being fomented by "armed terrorist gangs."

Germany marks Berlin Wall's 50th anniversary

German leaders are gathering in Berlin on Saturday to mark the 50th anniversary of the building of the Berlin Wall and pay homage to those who died trying to cross the old east-west divide.
On August 13, 1961, the East German communist regime closed its border and began building the Wall, dividing the city for more than 28 years. The Wall, in some cases, ran straight through streets, neighborhoods and public spaces.
The Wall, which was sold in the East as the "anti-fascist protection wall," became a symbol for the geographical, ideological and political divide between Europe's democratic West and the communist East controlled by the Soviet Union.
'Tragic day'
"It was the most tragic day in the history of Berlin after the end of World War II," said Berlin's current mayor, Klaus Wowereit. "The Wall was, and still is, a symbol of an inhumane and dictatorial political system."
The Wall finally fell on November 9, 1989, in a bloodless uprising which saw East Germans allowed to cross freely into the West for the first time in nearly three decades.
At midday, Berlin was to observe a minute's silence in memory of the victims, with buses and trains scheduled to stop as part of the tribute. At least 136 people are known to have died attempting to scale the wall, though historians say this number may have been as high at 700.
The anniversary will also see the inauguration of a new section of a memorial on Bernauer Strasse, where there is an original section of the Wall, a museum and photographs of people shot trying to escape.
The service will be attended by Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was raised in the East, and President Christian Wulff, as well as Wowereit.
Wulff, who will make the keynote speech, said the anniversary was an occasion for Germans to reflect on how far they have come since the darkest days of the Cold War.
"We have reason to be very pleased to live here and now," he told Saturday's issue of Die Welt newspaper. "We can look with pride to East Germans' irrepressible desire for freedom and West Germans' solidarity with them."

Forty-two arrested after London riots

Police in London arrested dozens of people on Sunday after 26 officers were injured in the city's worst riots in years.
Rioters in Tottenham, north London, torched vehicles and buildings and looted shops in response to the fatal shooting of a local man by police.
Scotland Yard said 42 people were arrested for the violence, which sparked condemnation from Prime Minister David Cameron's office.
"The rioting in Tottenham last night was utterly unacceptable," a Downing Street spokesman said in a statement.
"There is no justification for the aggression the police and the public faced, or for the damage to property. There is now a police investigation into the rioting and we should let that process happen."
Police said they were still having to deal with "isolated pockets of criminality in the Tottenham area involving a small number of people."
The mayhem, which broke out in Tottenham just before sunset on Saturday, followed a protest over the death of a 29-year-old man on Thursday during an apparent exchange of gunfire with police.
The demonstration had been a peaceful rally outside the police station on Tottenham High Road before two police cars were attacked with petrol bombs and set ablaze.
A public double-decker bus was then torched as the violence rapidly spread, with gangs of hooded youths descending on the area.
The situation raged out of control as hundreds ran amok, setting shops and other vehicles on fire.
There was concern that the unrest was fuelled by rapid posts on social media inciting others to join in.
Central London has seen student and trade union protests turn ugly in the last 12 months but this outbreak of rioting is the worst seen for years in the suburbs.
Under a hail of missiles and petrol bombs, riot officers and mounted police battled to regain control of the streets and escort fire crews safely through to tackle the series of blazes.
Rioters kicked in windows as shops were looted, with people pushing away shopping trolleys full of stolen goods.
One eye-witness said the scene resembled the Blitz, or when parts of London burned following German bombing in the Second World War.
"So many people have lost everything. It's just crazy. It looks like it's the the Second World War. It looks like the Blitz where we were living," Tottenham resident Stuart Radose told Sky News television.
"These are very distressing scenes for Londoners," police commander Stephen Watson said.
"It's important we emphasise that the safety of the public is of paramount importance to us ... Our absolute aim is to restore normality." Watson added that police had not anticipated the level of violence.
Tottenham is an ethnically-diverse urban area best known for its English Premier League football club Tottenham Hotspur.
The unrest followed a peaceful march in protest over the death of minicab passenger Mark Duggan, a father-of-four. He died at the scene.
The march began at Broadwater Farm, a 1960s public housing estate in Tottenham that is notorious across Britain.
In 1985, Police Constable Keith Blakelock was hacked to death on the estate in some of the worst urban rioting in Britain in the past 30 years.
David Lammy, the member of parliament for Tottenham, appealed for calm.
"Those who remember the destructive conflicts of the past will be determined not to go back to them," he said Sunday.
"We already have one grieving family in our community and further violence will not heal that pain. True justice can only follow a thorough investigation of the facts."

Kadhafi forces retake western village

Forces loyal to Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi were again in control on Monday of the village of Josh at the foot of the strategic western Nafusa mountains, AFP journalists at the scene said.
The rebels had on Sunday taken the village, but said they were forced to retreat to the east, half way along the road to the town of Shakshuka, after several hours of fighting.
The rebels said Josh had been emptied of residents and pro-Kadhafi forces were now in the village.
The Nafusa region has seen heavy fighting between rebels and forces loyal to Kadhafi since the insurgents launched a major offensive this month in a drive on the capital Tripoli.

N. Korea envoy to visit US for nuclear talks: Clinton

The United States said Sunday it has invited a top North Korean envoy to New York for "exploratory talks" on the possible resumption of the six-party negotiations on denuclearisation.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the North's vice foreign minister and former nuclear negotiator, Kim Kye-Gwan, would visit the US "later this week" for the talks -- the first such contacts for almost two years.
The invitation was announced after envoys from North and South Korea held unexpected talks in Indonesia on Friday, on the sidelines of an Asian security forum which Clinton attended alongside ministers from China and South Korea.
"Following the first round of denuclearisation talks between the nuclear negotiators of the Republic of Korea and North Korea, the United States has invited North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kae-gwan to New York later this week," Clinton said in a statement.
Kim's visit will mark the resumption of US-North Korean dialogue 19 months after Stephen Bosworth, the top US envoy on Korean peninsula affairs, visited Pyongyang in December 2009.
Robert King, the US special envoy for human rights in North Korea, visited the North in May as head of a team but his mission was mainly to assess its food needs following a request for aid.
In a statement released to reporters as she left Indonesia after three days of intense engagement with East Asian foreign ministers, Clinton said Kim would meet with an interagency team of US officials.
Their discussions would focus on the "next steps necessary to resume denuclearisation negotiations through the six-party talks", she said.
"This will be an exploratory meeting to determine if North Korea is prepared to affirm its obligations under international and six-party talk commitments, as well as take concrete and irreversible steps toward denuclearisation," Clinton said.
She said the United States had repeatedly affirmed its readiness to open talks with North Korea, but it was not prepared to offer any new concessions in order to re-start the stalled multilateral negotiations.
"We do not intend to reward the North just for returning to the table," Clinton said.
"We will not give them anything new for actions they have already agreed to take. And we have no appetite for pursuing protracted negotiations that will only lead us right back to where we have already been."
The US has not yet announced whether its will join the European Union in providing North Korea with food aid.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency, citing diplomatic sources in Seoul, earlier Sunday reported that Kim would visit New York around Thursday.
Kim will discuss the North's nuclear issues and possible resumption of US food aid with Stephen Bosworth, the US special envoy on North Korea, as well as other officials, it said.
South Korean nuclear envoy Wi Sung-Lac and his counterpart from the North, Ri Yong-Ho, met for more than two hours at a luxury hotel in Bali on Friday. Both emerged saying they hoped to re-start the six-party talks.
The South's foreign minister, Kim Sung-Hwan, then briefly met his North Korean counterpart, Pak Ui-Chun, on Saturday morning ahead of the regional security dialogue.
Clinton said the United States was "encouraged" by the surprise talks but remained cautious on resuming the disarmament forum.
North Korea had to improve North-South relations, she said, after recent incidents including the shelling of a South Korean island and alleged sinking of a South Korean warship.
In a joint statement released Saturday, the United States, South Korea and Japan also said Pyongyang must "address" its secretive uranium enrichment programme before the talks could re-start.
The six-party denuclearisation forum, grouping two Koreas, the US, Japan, China and Russia, has been deadlocked since the last meeting in December 2008.
The impoverished communist state, believed to have enough plutonium for six to eight atomic bombs, stormed out of the talks in April 2009 and a conducted its second nuclear test a month later.
The North also revealed an apparently operational uranium enrichment plant to visiting US experts last November, claiming it was for peaceful energy.

Foreign Hackers Stole 24,000 Military Files, Pentagon Says

Foreign hackers infiltrated the network of a defense contractor in March, stealing 24,000 military files in a single intrusion, Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn disclosed Thursday.
The disclosure revealed one of the most devastating data breaches suffered by the Defense Department to date and marked the latest instance of hackers successfully penetrating the Pentagon’s cyber armor to obtain sensitive information.
“It is a significant concern that, over the past decade, terabytes of data have been extracted by foreign intruders from corporate networks of defense companies,” Lynn said as he unveiled the Pentagon’s first formal cyber strategy.
While some of the military data stolen by hackers is “mundane,” Lynn said much of it is related to sensitive Pentagon systems, including aircraft, surveillance and satellite communications.
"Current countermeasures have not stopped this outflow of sensitive information,” he said. “We need to do more to guard our digital storehouses of design innovation.”
Back in 2008, a foreign intelligence agency placed malicious code on a flash drive that was inserted into a military laptop connected to a network run by the U.S. Central Command. “That code spread undetected on both classified and unclassified systems,” Lynn wrote in an article published last fall in Foreign Affairs magazine.
In May, military contractor Lockheed Martin revealed that its system was infiltrated by hackers. And on Monday, hackers breached the network of defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, releasing what the company reports to be 90,000 military email addresses and passwords.

“Their networks hold valuable information about our weapons systems and their capabilities," Lynn said, referring to government contractors. “The theft of design data and engineering information from within these networks undermines the technological edge we hold over potential adversaries.
Yet for every successful breach by hackers, thousands more are thwarted, officials said. More than 60,000 new malicious software programs or variations are identified every day, “threatening our security, our economy and our citizens,” Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said Thursday in a statement.
“I view this as an area in which we’re going to confront increasing threats in the future and think we have to be better prepared to deal with the growing cyber challenges that will face the nation,” said Panetta.
The Pentagon's first formal cyber strategy was short on specifics and focused more on defending the nation from cyber threats than on launching cyber attacks on other countries.
The report called for making cyberspace its own operational domain, which allows the Pentagon to organize, train and equip forces for the cyber battlefield just as it does for other military branches. It also called on the Pentagon to collaborate on cyber-security with other countries and the private sector, since many of the military’s operations rely on Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and global supply chains.
Concerns over cyber-security within the global supply chain were heightened last week when a Department of Homeland Security official told Congress that some imported electronic devices are arriving in the United States with malware already installed on them.
The new report also called for the Pentagon to work with the Department of Homeland Security to protect elements of the nation’s critical infrastructure such as the power grid from cyber attack, and warned the military needed to prepare for being disconnected from the Internet during missions in the event of a cyber attack launched by enemy forces.

France to open cooperation office in N. Korea

France will open a cooperation bureau in North Korea, Le Monde newspaper said Tuesday, but underscored that Paris was not launching diplomatic relations with the reclusive Stalinist state.
A senior French diplomat is currently in Pyongyang where he "will present to the North Koreans" the future French representative, the daily said, identifying him as Olivier Vaysset, a diplomat who has worked in Singapore.
"The opening of this office does not signify that France is opening as such diplomatic relations with this totalitarian country," it said but added that it could serve as a "diplomatic intermediary."
The proposed office will handle cultural cooperation, it said.
The French move comes as ties between North and South Korea are at their lowest ebb after Seoul accused Pyongyang of torpedoing a warship in March 2010, killing 46 sailors.
North Korea angrily denied the charge but went on to shell a border island last November, killing four South Koreans including two civilians.
Denuclearisation talks with Pyongyang, which has tested two nuclear bombs, have also been stalled since 2009.
The six-party talks, grouping the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States, are aimed at persuading Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons for energy aid and security and diplomatic benefits.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy had sent former minister Jack Lang to North Korea in 2009 for talks and Lang had on his return recommended that a cooperation office be set up, Le Monde reported.

Venezuela, ailing Chavez celebrate independence

Venezuela marked its independence bicentennial Tuesday with President Hugo Chavez's supporters buoyed by his return but sobered by his cancer battle ahead.
Sequestered for nearly four weeks in Cuba where he underwent treatment for a cancerous tumor, Chavez returned to Caracas a day earlier in a show of strength, rallying a crowd of thousands with his trademark gusto.
While he said his illness would prevent him from taking part in the full complement of celebrations, the anti-American firebrand has a gift for theatrics and lengthy public speeches, and his appearance at the heart of the commemorations -- including a lavish military parade -- could not be ruled out.
State broadcaster VTV showed Chavez on Tuesday greeting several foreign ministers and representatives from some 17 Latin American nations as the day's events got under way, while Uruguayan President Jose Mujica made a surprise visit to join the festivities.
Chavez sent out warm messages via Twitter, telling followers on the micro-blogging service: "Oh, Venezuela, happy birthday my dear homeland! Happiness today and forever, my brothers! Viva Venezuela!!!!"
The nation is among several in South and Central America to have shaken off the yoke of European colonialism in the early 19th Century, but while he commemorated his country's independence he warned of an intense personal health challenge on the horizon.
In his Monday speech the 56-year-old former paratrooper admitted he had been through some "very difficult hours" during treatment, cautioned that he had only gone through the "first stage" of the battle, and urged patience and strength on the march toward a "final victory."
"I am sure you completely understand the challenges of this battle. Don't let anyone believe that my presence here on this 4th of July means we have won the battle," he said.
It was almost four weeks ago, on June 8, that the Venezuelan leader arrived in Cuba on a routine official visit to his longtime leftist allies in Havana, who are heavily dependent on oil exports from Latin America's main producer.
Two days later he was rushed to hospital for emergency treatment on what Cuban and Venezuelan officials said was a pelvic abscess. Conflicting reports and mounting speculation about his condition followed.
As days ran into weeks, the absence of a man ordinary Venezuelans were used to seeing on television, hearing on radio, or reading on Twitter every day led to naval-gazing about political life without the omnipresent leader.
Last week eyebrows were raised further when Venezuela postponed the inaugural summit of a new Americas bloc -- Chavez had been due to host the regional gathering, a pet project that excludes Canada and the United States.
Then on Thursday, Chavez made a dramatic announcement on state television via video from Havana, telling his nation that doctors had found and removed a cancerous growth.
With the country reeling, officials have since confirmed the tumor was in his pelvic area but that all the president's organs are fine. They have not said what type of cancer it was or what the longer-term prognosis is.
Chavez, who has been elected three times since 1999 and survived an aborted coup in April 2002, has already announced his intention to run for another six-year term in 2012.
His populist anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist rhetoric, handouts to the poor, and image as a regional powerbroker have helped him retain strong support, which hovers around 50 percent in most surveys.
The Venezuelan military, which briefly overthrew Chavez in 2002, has pledged its full allegiance.

ICC judges to rule on Kadhafi arrest warrant

World crimes court judges are to decide Monday whether to issue an arrest warrant for Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi for crimes against humanity committed against opponents of his regime.
Judge Sanji Mmasenono Monageng is expected to read a three-judge bench's decision at 1:00pm (1100 GMT) on a request by The Hague-based International Criminal Court's prosecutor to have the Libyan strongman and two of his closest allies arrested.
The ICC's prosecution asked for warrants for Kadhafi, 69, his son Seif al-Islam, 39, and the head of Libyan intelligence, Abdullah al-Senussi, 62, for murder and persecution since mid-February, when the bloody uprising started.
ICC judges may now decide to issue the warrants, to decline the request or to ask for additional information before giving the nod.
Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo's investigation follows a referral by the United Nations Security Council on the Libyan conflict on 26 February. The prosecutor's office launched its investigation five days later.
On Sunday, Moreno-Ocampo said the war crimes in Libya will not stop until Kadhafi is arrested.
"Crimes continue today in Libya. To stop the crimes and protect civilians in Libya, Kadhafi must be arrested," he said in a statement.
It will be the second time the ICC's top accuser has a country's head of state in his sights, after an arrest warrant for Sudan's Omar al-Bashir was first issued in March 2009. The warrant is yet to be executed.
In his submission, Moreno-Ocampo said Kadhafi had a personal hand in planning and implementing "a policy of widespread and systematic attacks against civilians and demonstrators and dissidents in particular."
"Kadhafi's plan expressly included the use of lethal force against demonstrators and dissidents," the submission said.
The Libyan strongman also ordered sniping at civilians leaving mosques after evening prayers. His forces carried out a systematic campaign of arrest and detention of alleged dissidents, it said.
"Kadhafi's plans were carried out through his inner circle, which included Seif al-Islam, Kadhafi's de-facto prime minister and his brother-in-law Al-Senussi, considered to be his right-hand man," the submission said.
Established in 2002, the ICC is the world's first permanent, treaty-based court set up to try those accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide if the accused's own country cannot or will not do so.
African leaders Sunday welcomed Kadhafi's decision to stay out of talks to end Libya's conflict, entering its fifth month, as fighting raged between his troops and rebels near Tripoli.
Multiple rocket and heavy machine-gunfire was heard on the plains below the rebel enclave in the Nafusa Mountains, southwest of Tripoli.
Rebel commanders said the fighting centered on Bir al-Ghanam, a strategic point on the road to the Libyan capital.
Meanwhile, the African Union panel on Libya meeting in the South African capital Pretoria said Kadhafi would not participate in peace talks, in what appeared to be a concession.
The panel "welcomes Colonel Kadhafi's acceptance of not being part of the negotiations process," AU peace and security commissioner Ramtane Lamamra said, reading a prepared statement issued after four hours of talks.
A South African official who requested anonymity said after the panel meeting: "We wanted Kadhafi to make a public statement that he would not take part in the negotiations but he would not."
Asked about the significance of his refusal to make a statement, the official, part of the South African team that travelled to Tripoli last month in a failed bid to launch peace talks, said: "This means he is finished."
On Saturday, Abdel Hafiz Ghoga, vice chairman of the National Transitional Council (NTC), said that they had been in touch with loyalists over the possibility of Kadhafi submitting to internal exile.
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Sunday there had been contact between the two camps that specifically involved the fate of Kadhafi.
"I know that they covered, for example, the fate reserved for Kadhafi himself, which is one of the central questions today...," he told France's RTL radio.
But Kadhafi government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim said Sunday the leader had no intention of quitting power.
"Kadhafi is here. He is staying. He is leading the country. He will not leave. He will not step down because he does not have any official position," Ibrahim said.
"We will not give in to some criminal gangs who took our cities hostage. We will not give in to the criminal organisation of NATO. Everyone continues to fight. We are ready to fight street to street, house to house," he added.
The wording of the AU panel's statement was far softer than South African President Jacob Zuma's opening remarks. He had again warned NATO against overstepping the mandate of the UN resolution imposing a no-fly zone over Libya.
"The intention was not to authorise a campaign for regime change or political assassination," Zuma said behind closed doors, according to a text of the speech.
Zuma urged both Kadhafi and the rebel NTC to make compromises to reach a deal in the face of a conflict that was degenerating into a protracted and bloody deadlock.
"On the ground, there is a military stalemate which cannot and must not be allowed to drag on and on -- both because of its horrendous cost in civilian lives and the potential it has to destabilise the entire sub-region," he said.

NATO defends credibility of Libya air war

NATO defended the credibility of its air war in Libya after a bomb misfired killing civilians, as Libyan state media said the alliance had begun bombing highway traffic checkpoints.
"I would suggest that our reputation and credibility is unquestionable," said Wing Commander Mike Bracken, the mission's military spokesman.
"What is questionable is the Kadhafi regime's use of human shields, (and) firing missiles from mosques," Bracken told reporters from operation headquarters in Naples, Italy.
He stressed that NATO had taken pains to avoid civilian casualties in its three-month campaign in Libya .
The comments came after NATO admitted a bomb misfired in Tripoli at the weekend, killing nine people according to Moamer Kadhafi's regime.
Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini warned that NATO's credibility was "at risk" following the civilian casualties, and urged it to ensure it was not providing ammunition to Kadhafi's propaganda war.
"We cannot run the risk of killing civilians. This is not good at all," Frattini said at a meeting of European foreign ministers.
The blunder -- an embarrassment for a mission that prides itself on protecting Libya's people from the regime -- came on the heels of a friendly fire incident last week in which a column of rebel vehicles were hit by NATO warplanes.
Bracken rejected a regime claim of further civilian casualties, however, reiterating that an air strike in the western Tripoli suburb of Sorman on Monday hit a legitimate military target.
"If you look at our track record, we have taken utmost care to avoid civilian casualties and we will continue to do so," said NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu.
British Prime Minister David Cameron butted heads with his own brass over the campaign Tuesday after top officers warned that the military is overstretched.
After speaking with the heads of the army and navy, Cameron said: "They are absolutely clear that we are able to keep up this mission for as long as is necessary, and that time is on our side, not on Kadhafi's side."
In Brussels, NATO said it lost radar contact with a drone helicopter conducting a reconnaissance flight over Libya on Tuesday.
"This drone helicopter was performing intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance over Libya to monitor pro-Kadhafi forces threatening the civilian population," military spokesman Mike Bracken said in a statement.
In Washington, defence officials said the aircraft was a Fire Scout, but could not confirm whether it had been shot down or suffered mechanical or communications problems.
Libyan state television showed footage of a burnt-out helicopter it identified as an Apache, reportedly downed near Zliten, 160 kilometres (100 miles) east of the capital.
The caption on the television, which quoted military sources, read: "Images of the Apache helicopter shot down by the people's army."
The Pentagon had previously announced the deployment of two armed Predator drones for the NATO-led air campaign against Kadhafi's forces, but had not previously cited any role for an unmanned helicopter.
State television and official news agency JANA reported early Wednesday that NATO warplanes had carried out raids on the towns of Khoms and Nalut in western Libya.
NATO targeted two checkpoints in the Khoms region 120 kilometres (75 miles) east of Tripoli, the television report said. It added that the control points were "civilian" intended to "organise traffic movements."
If the strikes were confirmed, it would mean the Western alliance had moved into a new stage of operations in the west of Libya, aiming at checkpoints on the highways leading into the capital Tripoli.
Until now, NATO had limited itself to attacks on military installations and armour.
JANA reported raids on Al-Ghazaya in the Nalut region southwest of Tripoli. This region has for months been the scene of violent clashes between rebels and troops loyal to Kadhafi.
Advocacy group Human Rights Watch meanwhile accused Kadhafi's forces of laying land mines in the strategic Nafusa mountains near the border with Tunisia to counter rebel attacks there.

Clinton says 'no going back' in Syria

Syrians prepared on Saturday to bury at least 12 protesters shot dead by security forces as Washington warned the government's "continued brutality" may delay but will not reverse the process of change.
Rights activists said protests broke out after the main weekly Muslim prayers on Friday as the army pressed its campaign against northern towns and the number of refugees fleeing across the border into Turkey neared 10,000.
A senior US administration official put the toll at around 19 dead.
Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, said five people were killed in the flashpoint central city of Homs, two in the eastern city of Deir Ezzor and two in the Damascus suburb of Harasta.
Two more people were killed in Dael in the restive southern province of Daraa and a 12th person died in the Damascus suburb of Douma, other activists told AFP by telephone.
The United States is weighing whether war crimes charges can be brought against Damascus to pressure the government to end its bloody crackdown on dissent, the US administration official said.
Other measures, including sanctions targeting the country's oil and gas sector, are being considered as part of a broader diplomatic campaign to increase pressure on President Bashar al-Assad.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Saturday urged a transition to democracy in Syria, saying in a commentary in the Arabic-language Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper that the government's crackdown would not quell the momentum for change.
Clinton wrote under the headline "There Is No Going Back in Syria" that it was "increasingly clear" the crackdown was an irreversible shift in the country's push towards reform, in an English translation provided by the State Department.
The regime's "continued brutality may allow (Assad) to delay the change that is under way in Syria, it will not reverse it," Clinton wrote in the pan-Arab daily published in London.
"The most important question of all -- what does this mean for Syria’s future? -- is increasingly clear: There is no going back." Assad's actions have "shattered his claims to be a reformer," Clinton wrote.
A senior administration official said on Friday that the United States was studying whether war crimes charges could be brought against Syria.
Two administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, outlined the campaign in a teleconference with reporters, stressing efforts were being made at the United Nations and with regional partners to condemn and isolate the regime.
The official said other measures, including sanctions targeting Syria's oil and gas sector, were being considered as part of a broader diplomatic campaign to increase pressure on Assad.
In Friday's violence, according to Abdel Rahman, "there was intense firing to disperse the demonstrations in (the coastal city) Banias and there were casualties" but the head of the London-based Observatory was unable to give a breakdown.
About 5,000 protesters gathered in Homs, he said, adding demonstrations gripped several other cities and towns including Jableh in the west and in Suweida in the south, where club-wielding forces dispersed hundreds.
Protests also hit Latakia, Maaret al-Nooman and the countryside outside Damascus, activists said.
Witnesses told AFP that a gunman opened fire on a police station in Rikn al-Deen, in Damascus, during a protest, killing a policeman and wounding at least four.
State news agency SANA also reported casualties among the ranks of the security forces. "A member of the security forces was martyred and more than 30 were wounded by gunfire in Homs," the news agency said.
It added that two officers and four members of the security forces were wounded when gunmen attacked a recruitment centre in Deir Ezzor while three policemen were hit by gunfire in the Qabun neighbourhood of Damascus.
The military pressed ahead with its crackdown, sending tanks and troops into the northwestern town of Khan Sheikhun and surrounding villages, according to activists and witnesses.
Nearly 10,000 Syrians have crossed the border into Turkey fleeing the crackdown, an official Turkish source said on Friday.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Tuesday said the violence has claimed the lives of nearly 1,300 civilians and 340 security force members since it broke out in mid-March.

Spain threatens to sue Hamburg over cucumber slur

Spain threatened Wednesday to sue Hamburg for damages after the German city pointed to Spanish cucumbers as the source of a fatal outbreak of E.coli.
Hamburg health authorities admitted Tuesday that tests on two suspect Spanish cucumbers showed they did not carry the bacteria strain that has killed 15 people in Germany and one in Sweden.
"We do not rule out taking action against the authorities who called into question the quality of our products," Deputy Prime Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba told Spanish radio Cadena Ser.
"We may take action against the authorities, in this case Hamburg," the minister said.
Spain's vegetable exporters estimate damages of more than 200 million euros ($290 million) a week as 150,000 tonnes of produce go unsold in a Europe-wide reaction to the crisis.
Madrid has demanded European Union compensation for Spain and other producer countries hit by the crisis.
"The bacteria is not in Spain," Rubalcaba said.
"Once the truth is re-established, what we need to do is repair the damages, which are not small: we have lost a lot of money and a lot of our image," the minister said.
Authorities in the northern German city of Hamburg say they are still searching for the source of the outbreak.
In tests so far, two cucumbers from the southern Spanish region of Andalucia came up positive for enterohamorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) but not the strain responsible for the huge outbreak, they said.
Enterohaemorrhagic E. coli can result in full-blown haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS), a disease that causes bloody diarrhoea and serious liver damage and which can result in death.
Of 9.4 million tonnes of Spanish fruit and vegetables exported in 2010, the biggest share, 24 percent, went to Germany, according to the Spanish producers' federation FEPEX.
The Andalucian region says cucumber batches from the two suspect distributors in Almeria and Malaga have been withdrawn pending soil, water and produce tests.
Samples from suspect batches were sent to a laboratory in the northwest province of Galicia for testing. Results were expected some time this week but there is no set date for their release.
The Spanish government says there have been no infections in Spain and it argues that there is no evidence the bacteria come from the cucumbers' origin in Spain rather than in later handling elsewhere.
A 40-year-old man who recently returned from Germany was in intensive care in northern San Sebastian with a possible E.coli infection, the Donostia hospital said this week. Tests so far have been inconclusive.

Mobile phone use may cause cancer: WHO

Mobile phone users may be at increased risk from brain cancer and should use texting and hands-free devices to reduce exposure, the World Health Organisation's cancer experts said.
Radio-frequency electromagnetic fields generated by such devices are "possibly carcinogenic to humans," the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) announced at the end of an eight-day meeting in Lyon, France, on Tuesday.
Experts "reached this classification based on review of the human evidence coming from epidemiological studies" pointing to an increased incidence of glioma, a malignant type of brain cancer, said Jonathan Samet, president of the work group.
Two studies in particular, the largest conducted over the past decade, showed a higher risk "in those that had the most intensive use of such phones," he said in a telephone news conference.
Some individuals tracked in the studies had used their phones for an average of 30 minutes per day over a period of 10 years.
"We simply don't know what might happen as people use their phones over longer time periods, possibly over a lifetime," Samet said.
There are about five billion mobile phones registered in the world. The number of phones and the average time spent using them have both climbed steadily in recent years.
The IARC cautioned that current scientific evidence showed only a possible link, not a proven one, between wireless devices and cancers.
"There is some evidence of increased risk of glioma" and another form of non-malignant tumour called acoustic neuroma, said Kurt Straif, the scientist in charge of editing the IARC reports on potentially carcinogenic agents.
"But it is not at the moment clearly established that the use of mobile phones does in fact cause cancer in humans," he said.
The IARC does not issue formal recommendations, but experts pointed to a number of ways consumers can reduce risk.
"What probably entails some of the highest exposure is using your mobile for voice calls," Straif said.
"If you use it for texting, or as a hands-free set for voice calls, this is clearly lowering the exposure by at least an order of magnitude," or by tenfold, he said.
The new review, conducted by a panel of 31 scientists from 14 countries, was reached on the basis of a "full consensus," said Robert Baan, in charge of the written report, which is yet to be released.
"This is the first scientific evaluation of all the literature published on the topic with regard to increased risk of cancer," he said.
But the panel stressed the need for more research, pointing to incomplete data, evolving technology and changing consumer habits.
"There's an improvement in the technology in terms of lower emissions but at the same time we see increased use, so it is hard to know how the two balance out," Baan noted.
One major international study under way, known as MOBI-KIDS, is investigating potential links between communication devices and brain cancer in children.
"Children are most vulnerable due to the intensity of emissions compared to the mass of tissue exposed," said Dominique Gombert, head of risk evaluation at France's Agency for Food, Environment and Occupational Health and Safety, but not part of the IARC panel.
"We need to redouble our efforts to reduce exposure," he told AFP.
The IARC ranks potentially cancer-causing elements as carcinogenic, probably carcinogenic, possibly carcinogenic or "probably not carcinogenic". It can also determine that a material is "not classifiable".
Cigarettes, sunbeds and asbestos, for example, fall in "Group 1", the top threat category.
Cell phones now join lead, chloroform and gasoline exhaust in Group 2B as "possibly carcinogenic".