Letter: Letter to Our Readers: Times Begins Digital Subscriptions

 

As I have said previously, the introduction of digital subscriptions is an investment in our future. It will allow us to develop new sources of revenue to strengthen our ability to continue our journalistic mission as well as undertake digital innovations that will enable us to provide you with high-quality journalism on whatever device you choose.

As you may know, on March 17, we introduced digital subscriptions in Canada. The Canadian launching allowed us to test our systems and fine-tune the user interface and customer experience. On Monday, we launched globally.

If you are a home delivery subscriber of The Times, you will continue to have full and free access to our news, information, opinion and other features on your computer, smartphone and tablet. International Herald Tribune subscribers will also receive free access to NYTimes.com.

If you are not a home delivery subscriber, you will have free access to 20 articles (including slide shows, videos and other features) each month. If you exceed that limit, you will be asked to become a digital subscriber. On our smartphone and tablet apps, the Top News section will remain free of charge. For access to the other sections within the apps, we will ask you to become a digital subscriber.?

Here is how it will work:

? The Times is offering three digital subscription packages, including an all-access option, so you can choose a plan that is right for you based on the devices you own (computer, smartphone, tablet). ?For more information or to purchase one of these plans, go to www.nytimes.com/access.

? Again, all New York Times home delivery subscribers will continue to have free access to NYTimes.com and to all content on our apps.? If you are a home delivery subscriber, go to http://homedelivery.nytimes.com to sign up for free access.

? Readers who come to Times articles through links from search engines, blogs and social media will be able to read those articles, even if they have reached their monthly reading limit.? This allows new and casual readers to continue to discover our content on the open Web. On all major search engines, users will have a daily limit on free links to Times articles.?

? The home page at NYTimes.com and all section fronts will remain free to browse for all users at all times.?

For more information, go to www.nytimes.com/digitalfaq.

As you have seen during this recent period of extraordinary global news, The Times is uniquely positioned to keep you informed. The launching of our digital subscription model will help ensure that we can continue to provide you with the high-quality journalism and substantive analysis that you have come to expect from The Times.

Thank you for reading The New York Times, in all its forms.

Sincerely,

ARTHUR SULZBERGER Jr.

Publisher, The New York Times

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Political Memo: An Arizona Senate Race Waits to See if Giffords Emerges to Run

These supporters say they do not want to get too far ahead of themselves, and make clear that Ms. Giffords, who was shot in the head, is still relearning basic tasks and might emerge from the hospital with neither the same political abilities nor aspirations that she had before. And publicly, her closest aides say the only thing they care about is her health.

“Our focus is on her recovery and what comes after that comes after that,” said Pia Carusone, Ms. Giffords’s chief of staff.

Despite such protestations, several of Ms. Giffords’s longtime aides are whispering behind the scenes that she just might recover in time to run for the seat that Senator Jon Kyl, a Republican, is vacating next year.

While it might be wishful thinking, Ms. Giffords’s noncampaign is already having a major effect on Arizona politics; other prospective Democratic candidates say they feel compelled not to jump in unless she bows out, allowing Republicans to get a head start organizing their campaigns.

“I’m in but only if she’s not,” said one prospective Democratic candidate, who spoke of his deliberations but insisted that he not be named given the fluid nature of the race. “A Democrat running against her would be doomed.”

Ever so quietly, Ms. Giffords’s political allies are laying the groundwork just in case. Friends and allies held a fund-raiser for her on March 15 in Washington — trying to supplement her Congressional campaign war chest, which totaled about $285,000 at year’s end and could be tapped for a Senate bid. Her former campaign manager, Rodd McLeod, has been brought on staff, to fill in for an aide who is also recovering from the Jan. 8 shooting that left 6 people dead and 13 injured.

While these efforts might be normal for a member of Congress in a competitive district like hers, other Democrats see them as signs that those around her want to keep her political options open.

Ms. Giffords herself is not available to raise her own profile, so her Congressional staff does it for her, responding to constituents, issuing news releases and appearing at public events in her stead. Ms. Carusone said she expected Ms. Giffords to appear in Houston next month when her husband, Capt. Mark E. Kelly, lifted off for a two-week space shuttle mission.

A Democrat in her third term, Ms. Giffords had expressed interest in running for the Senate before a gunman opened fire at one of her signature “Congress on Your Corner” events here. Ms. Carusone said she informed her boss after Mr. Kyl announced his retirement and told her that her name had come up as a potential replacement. The response, Ms. Carusone said, was a smile.

With a question mark beside her name in the Senate race, other Democratic hopefuls are working behind the scenes as carefully as they can, lining up support in case Ms. Giffords decides to stay out while taking care not to appear disrespectful to the candidate that the Democratic establishment here believes would have the best chance of winning.

“We are all rooting for Gabby to recover and run,” said Don Bivens, a former party chairman who himself is interested in the Senate seat. “She would be a great senator for Arizona. But we also need a Plan B.”

Ms. Giffords’s intentions also have an impact on the Democrats who are considering her House seat. They are engaged in an especially delicate process, quietly calling key Democratic donors to gauge support while trying to remain invisible.

“Whether she’ll be ready to run or interested in running nobody can say,” said Andrei Cherny, chairman of the state Democratic Party who is trying to coordinate all the behind-the-scenes machinations. “But there is a sense that she should make that decision and that she should have options once she’s ready to make it.”

Fred DuVal, a member of the state Board of Regents, is one who is considering a Senate run if Ms. Giffords, a friend of his, opts out. He visited her in Houston last week but refused to discuss whether he left more or less convinced that she would enter the race. “If anybody can recover from this, Gabby Giffords can,” Mr. DuVal said.

There is no looming deadline for the Senate race, which is more than a year and a half away, but running as a Democrat is no easy task in Arizona, so time is an asset. Mr. Kyl announced his decision to retire on Feb. 10, and Representative Jeff Flake, a Republican, jumped into the race four days later. As Mr. Flake piles up endorsements, raises money and awaits Republican primary challengers, including the expected entrance of Representative Trent Franks, Democrats are in a holding pattern.

Among the Democratic names being floated are Representative Ed Pastor, who is in his 11th term representing the Phoenix area, as well as a handful of lesser-known hopefuls.

Ford Burkhart contributed reporting.

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Signs of Strain as Taliban Gird for More Fighting

The killings, coming just as the insurgents are mobilizing for the new fighting season in Afghanistan, have unnerved many in the Taliban and have spread a climate of paranoia and distrust within the insurgent movement, the Afghans said.

Three powerful Taliban commanders were killed in February in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta, well known to be the command center of the Taliban leadership, according to an Afghan businessman and a mujahedeen commander from the region with links to the Taliban. A fourth commander, a former Taliban minister, was wounded in the border town of Chaman in March, in a widely reported shooting.

There have also been several arrests in Pakistan of senior Taliban commanders, including those from Zabul and Kabul Provinces, and the shadow governor of Herat, Afghan officials said. Mullah Agha Muhammad, a brother of Mullah Baradar, the former second in command of the Taliban who was arrested by Pakistan security forces over a year ago to stop him negotiating with the Afghan government, was also detained briefly to send out the same warning, said the chief of the Afghan border police in Kandahar, Col. Abdul Razziq.

While the arrests have been conducted by Pakistan security forces, no one seems to know for sure who is behind the killings. Members of the Taliban attribute them to American spies, running Pakistani and Afghan agents, in an extension of the American campaigns that have used night raids to track down and kill scores of midlevel Taliban commanders in Afghanistan and drone strikes to kill militants with links to Al Qaeda in Pakistan’s tribal areas.

Others, including Pakistani and Afghan Parliament members from the region, say that the Pakistani intelligence agencies have long used threats, arrests and killings to control the Taliban and that they could be doing so again to maintain their influence over the insurgents.

Afghan officials in Kabul denied any involvement in attacks on the Taliban inside Pakistan, as did American and NATO military officials. “We’ve heard of infighting that reportedly has led to internal violence at several points in recent months,” one senior American military official said of the Taliban, asking not to be named because of the sensitivity of discussing events in Pakistan. Military forces were not involved, he added.

Whatever the case, Taliban commanders and fighters, who used to be a common sight in parts of Quetta, have now gone underground and are not moving around openly as before. Two members of the Taliban, including a senior official, declined to talk about the issue of killings on the telephone, saying it was too dangerous. Many will not answer their phones at all.

The Taliban have been under stress since American forces doubled their presence in southern Afghanistan last year and greatly increased the number of special forces raids targeting Taliban commanders. Yet they still control a number of remote districts and in those areas the insurgents can still muster forces to storm government positions, as demonstrated by their capture of a district in Afghanistan’s eastern Nuristan Province this week.

While there is still some debate over the insurgents’ overall strength, Pakistanis with deep knowledge of the Afghan Taliban say that they have suffered heavy losses in the last year and that they are struggling in some areas to continue the fight.

“The Afghan Taliban have, I think, run into problems,” said Rustam Shah Mohmand, a former Pakistani interior minister who served as ambassador in Afghanistan after 2001 and as a peace negotiator with the Taliban.

“So many of them have been killed in the last one to one and a half years as a consequence of targeted assassinations,” he said in an interview. “That has depleted the strength, capacity and ability of the Taliban.” Commanders were without communications and resources and were struggling to find recruits to replace those killed, he said.

One Taliban commander from Kunar Province said losses had been so high that he was considering going over to the side of the Afghan government in order to get assistance for his beleaguered community. “This does not mean the Taliban will stop fighting, but maybe it will be at a reduced level,” Mr. Mohmand said.

Carlotta Gall reported from Kabul, and Islamabad, Pakistan. Employees of The New York Times contributed reporting from Kabul, and from southern Afghanistan.

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Workers Give Glimpse of Japan’s Nuclear Crisis

That was the scene at J-Village, 12 miles south of the plant, on the night of March 15. Hundreds of firefighters, Self-Defense Forces and workers from Tokyo Electric Power convened at the sports training center, arguing long and loudly about how best to restore cooling systems and prevent nuclear fuel from overheating. Complicating matters, a lack of phone service meant that they had little input from upper management.

“There were so many ideas, the meeting turned into a panic,” said one longtime Tokyo Electric veteran present that day. He made the comments in an interview with The New York Times, one of several interviews that provided a rare glimpse of the crisis as the company’s workers experienced it. “There were serious arguments between the various sections about whether to go, how to use electrical lines, which facilities to use and so on.”

The quarreling echoed the alarm bells ringing throughout Tokyo Electric, which has been grappling with an unprecedented set of challenges since March 11, when the severe earthquake and massive tsunami upended northeastern Japan. It is also an insight, through interviews, e-mails and blog posts, into the problems faced by the thousands of often anxious but eager Tokyo Electric Power employees working to re-establish order.

Many of them — especially the small number charged with approaching damaged reactors and exposing themselves to unusually high doses of radiation — are viewed as heroes, preventing the world’s second-worst nuclear calamity from becoming even more dire.

But unlike their bosses, who appear daily in blue work coats to apologize to the public and explain why the company has not yet succeeded in taming the reactors, the front-line workers have remained almost entirely anonymous.

In the interviews and in some e-mail and published blog items, several line workers expressed frustration at the slow pace of the recovery efforts, sometimes conflicting orders from their bosses and unavoidable hurdles like damaged roads. In many cases, the line workers want the public to know that they feel remorse for the nuclear crisis, but also that they are trying their best to fix it.

“My town is gone,” wrote a worker named Emiko Ueno, in an email obtained by The Times. “My parents are still missing. I still cannot get in the area because of the evacuation order. I still have to work in such a mental state. This is my limit.”

At the top, a manager who circulated her note urged his workers to “please think about what you can do for Fukushima after reading this e-mail.”

Tokyo Electric keeps a tight lid on its workers under normal circumstances, and workers say they risk censure for speaking out. Some, however, have become lightning rods. Soon after the crisis began, Michiko Otsuki, who worked at the Daiichi plant after the earthquake, wrote on a social media site called Mixi that Tokyo Electric workers were trying hard and risking their lives to repair the plant.

She apologized for the confusion and the insecurity that people felt as a result of the nuclear accident. But Ms. Otsuki soon removed the post from her site because, she said, people had misinterpreted what she meant to say. It was too early, she added, to ask people to stop being critical of Tokyo Electric.

In the early days after the earthquake and tsunami, many Tokyo Electric workers had little time to speak out. An explosion had blown the roof off one of the reactor buildings in Fukushima, heightening fears of large-scale radiation exposure. To stabilize the reactors and restart cooling systems, the company rushed to reconnect the power plant to the electric grid.

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Syria 'to study' reforming laws - BBC News

Emergency laws grant Syria's notorious security services wide-ranging powers Syria's President Bashar al-Assad has directed a legal committee to look into lifting unpopular emergency laws, in place for nearly half a century.

It will finish work by 25 April, reported the state news agency Sana.

The announcement comes a day after President Assad vowed to defeat a "plot" against his country, but failed to announce the lifting of emergency legislation as some had predicted.

It was his first speech since protests erupted in Syria two weeks ago.

Following Mr Assad's address on Wednesday, protests and gunfire broke out in the flashpoint port city of Latakia, though reports of casualties are unconfirmed.

Threat

Protesters have called on Facebook for more protests following Friday prayers, reported news agency AFP.

But backing for Mr Assad's regime has also been in evidence, with huge crowds joining officially encouraged shows of support for the regime in Damascus on Tuesday.

"Under a directive by President Bashar al-Assad, a committee of legal experts has been formed to study new laws on national security and counter-terrorism, in order to pave the way for ending the state of emergency," Sana reported.

The laws, which permit arrest without charge and restrict gatherings and movement, have been in place since 1963.

Mr Assad admits reforms are needed but insists he will introduce such reforms at his own pace and not because of pressure.

The unrest has become the biggest threat to the rule of President Assad, 45, who succeeded his father Hafez on his death in 2000.

Syria's security forces have responded harshly, with activists and rights groups estimating between 60 and 130 people have died in clashes.

But officials say the death toll is closer to 30.

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President Replaces Junta in Myanmar Shadow Play - New York Times

Thein Sein, 65, a retired military officer who leads the military-backed majority party in a newly elected Parliament, was sworn in as president. He formally replaced the military junta that has been headed by Senior Gen. Than Shwe for the past two decades.

But under the new structure the general will remain the power behind the scenes and have the right to override civilian rule by decree.

Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, has been under military rule since 1962 and ruled by the current junta since 1988, when the army crushed a pro-democracy uprising, killing an estimated 3,000 people. A military-backed party was routed in an election in 1990 but the army refused to give up power.

The leader of the opposition, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, was freed last November after spending nearly 15 of the past 21 years under house arrest. Her party, the National League for Democracy, chose not to take part in the parliamentary election held just before her release and is not represented in the new Parliament.

The transition culminates a “roadmap to democracy” that included a constitutional referendum in 2008 and the election last year, both widely seen as fraudulent.

Many Western analysts dismiss the change as a Potemkin facade but some have voiced hopes that it might open the door a crack to incremental change.

“Anyone trying to identify potential reformers in this system will go stir-crazy from speculation,” David Mathieson, an expert on Myanmar with Human Rights Watch, said. “Most of the new government have praetorian repression in their DNA, and the best we can hope for is that there are some civilians in ministries that matter, like health and education, that can attempt to turn back the slide into social atrophy that decades of military mismanagement have wrought.”

Under the new Constitution, 25 percent of the seats in Parliament are reserved for serving military officers. Together, the military and the military-backed party control about 84 percent of the seats, said Aung Din, executive director of the United States Campaign for Burma, a lobbying group.

General Than Shwe has appointed all government ministers and senior judges, controlled the budget, and initiated the major laws that have been announced, said Win Min, a professor at Payap University in Thailand who is on leave in the United States. He said the moment to look for possible change might not be the current restructuring of government but the eventual decline of the senior general, who is 77.

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NATO Takes Over Libya Air Operations - Voice of America

A French pilot gives a thumbs-up before taking off in a French Mirage 2000 fighter jet from the Greek air base at Souda on the island of Crete, March 30, 2011

NATO has assumed full command of all air operations over Libya, taking over from the U.S., which had played a leading role since international forces began enforcing a no-fly zone on March 19.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the transition was completed early Thursday. The NATO operation, called "Unified Protector", includes enforcing the U.N. Security Council resolution that mandates the no-fly zone along with an arms embargo and airstrikes to protect civilians.

Meanwhile, U.S. media reports say the CIA has sent teams of operatives into Libya to gather intelligence and make contact with anti-Gadhafi forces. The reports cite officials as saying intelligence agents are looking into the identities and abilities of rebel forces before foreign allies consider providing them with direct military aid.

British sources told The New York Times that British special forces and intelligence officers also are in the North African nation.

In Washington, the White House repeated that the U.S. has not made a decision on whether to provide arms to rebel forces in Libya. Wednesday's statement was issued amid reports that President Barack Obama has approved a secret authorization for covert efforts to support anti-government rebels.

Earlier Wednesday, troops loyal to Gadhafi drove anti-government rebels from key coastal cities they had seized days before, reversing opposition gains made since international airstrikes began.

Libyan rebels retreated amid intense fighting around the strategic oil towns of Ras Lanuf and Brega. Many opposition fighters fell back to the city of Ajdabiya, from where residents were seen fleeing along the road toward the opposition stronghold of Benghazi.

Pro-Gadhafi forces were shelling Brega and a rebel military spokesman said he expected the loyalists to enter the city by Wednesday night.

The spokesman Colonel Ahmad Bani also said as many as 3,600 heavily armed members of the Chadian Republican Guard are now fighting alongside Gadhafi loyalists. He dismissed concerns that members of al-Qaida are fighting with the Libyan rebels.

Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.

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Thailand floods: stranded tourists criticise lack of information - Telegraph.co.uk

The pictures caught on their camera phones were not what they had been expecting to show off after a holiday in Koh Samui, one of Thailand’s most popular tourist destinations. Instead of golden beaches and romantic sunsets, stranded visitors were sharing photographs of flooded hotel lobbies and landslides.

Stephen Chun and Justin Smith, from the United States, showed me video footage of a taxi ride from their flooded hotel to local shops. “People were walking their mopeds and bikes through a metre of water,” Smith said. “You needed a pick-up truck more than a taxi.”

With confirmed seats on a flight to Bangkok, the pair were two of the lucky ones. On Thursday morning the standby queue at Koh Samui’s airport was snaking around the terminal. A week of torrential rain and strong winds has left at least 21 dead in the country’s southern region, and thousands of tourists are stranded after flights and ferry services were cancelled or disrupted. On Koh Samui there were power blackouts, fuel shortages, and increasing concerns about depleting food and water supplies.

Without mains electricity the Banyan Tree hotel had been operating on a generator for days and rationing supplies to guest rooms. “I have never seen conditions like this,” said Fredrick Arul, the hotel’s general manager. “Nor have my staff, some of whom have been unable to get to work.”

Andy and Catherine Browne, from the village of Crookham in Hampshire, had come to the hotel to celebrate Catherine’s birthday. “We had planned a banquet on the beach but it’s been cancelled nine nights in a row,“ Andy said. “I’ve been in a typhoon in Hong Kong and a hurricane in the US but I’ve never seen rain like this.”

Although there was severe flooding in Koh Samui as recently as November last year, wet weather in March and April is highly unseasonal.

“It is not what you expect when you come in the dry season,” said Lauren Allington, 23, on holiday with her boyfriend, James Marshall. “And we haven’t even had a phone call from our tour operator to tell us what’s going on,” he added.

A lack of information was the overwhelming complaint among stranded tourists. Michael Hancock, Bangkok’s British Embassy Consul who arrived on the island on Wednesday night, said they were trying to improve communication between the airport and passengers.

“The (display) screens are not working and airline staff are only holding up signs written in Biro,” he said. “They need a thick marker pen for a start.”

The British Embassy had set up a colourful stand inside the airport strewn in Union Jack flags and manned by six staff from Bangkok. Most people stopping by were only seeking advice or reassurances but Hancock said they had managed to find seats for a few desperate passengers, one with septic mosquito bites who needed hospital treatment and one family with a severely-handicapped son running out of medication.

As he explained the situation to me, a cheer went up in the terminal at the rumbling sound of an aircraft taking off. “I’ve not seen any signs of anger,” Hancock said cheerfully. “People are being very patient and understanding – and are resigned to wait.”

Latest Foreign Office (FCO) advice

The FCO is advising against all but essential travel to Koh Phangan and Koh Tao. Electricity and communication are disrupted in the provinces of Krabi, Nakhon Sri Thammarat, Surat Thani (including the islands of Koh Samui, Koh Phangan and Koh Tao), Phattalung, Chumphon, Trang and Satun. There is a continued risk of mudslides and flash flooding in these areas. Check with your airline or tour operator before you travel.

There are power cuts and food and water shortages in some parts of Koh Samui. Transport around the island is disrupted, and ferry services between the Koh Samui, Koh Phangan, Koh Tao and the mainland are not operating. Nakhon Sri Thammarat is currently closed.

See www.fco.gov.uk for more information

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Qaddafi forces adapt as rebels grow more ragged - CBS News

Libya's rebel forces continued to struggle against Muammar Qaddafi's superior firepower on the ground, as the United States and other allies consider whether to supply them with weapons.

The rebels have given up nearly all the ground they have gained after allied airstrikes took out some of Qaddafi's heavy weapons. Now government forces are changing tactics, leaving behind the armed military vehicles and moving in armed pickup trucks like the opposition does, reports CBS News correspondent Mandy Clark. That makes it difficult for coalition forces overhead to distinguish who's who on the ground.

Faced with a series of setbacks after recent gains, the rebels now are starting to show their combat fatigue, reports Clark Outgunned and often outflanked in the field, they lack any sort of military strategy or leadership. They are eager to take ground, but are quick to flee when they face any real fighting. The reality is that a rebel military victory seems increasingly unlikely.

On Thursday, the rebels came under heavy shelling by Qaddafi's forces in the strategic oil town of Brega on the coastal road that leads to Tripoli. Black smoke billowed in the air over Brega as mortars exploded.

"Qaddafi's forces advanced to about 30 kilometers east of Brega," said rebel fighter Fathi Muktar, 41. Overnight, he said the rebels had temporarily pushed them back, but by morning they were at the gates of Brega. "There were loads of wounded at the front lines this morning," he said of rebel casualties.

The rebel struggles are hardening the U.S. view that the poorly equipped forces are probably incapable of prevailing without decisive Western intervention, a senior U.S. intelligence official told The Associated Press. On Wednesday, officials revealed that the U.S. has authorized covert assistance for the rebels, but it's not clear in what form that help will come.

"I think they have two missions. One is the continued assessment of what the rebel force looks like, who their leaders are, what's their makeup," retired Major Gen. James Marks, who served as the senior intelligence officer for U.S. ground forces at the beginning of the war in Iraq, told "The Early Show" Thursday. " And the second mission, I am absolutely convinced, that they are placing targets and helping rebel forces identify friend from foe on the ground and then illuminating targets for the overhead NATO forces."

Rebels say that what they really need are arms. The U.S. and Britain believe that existing U.N. Security Council resolutions on Libya could allow for foreign governments to arm the rebels, despite an arms embargo being in place.

However, NATO Secretary-General Fogh Rasmussen doesn't support that stance, saying that he had "taken note of the ongoing discussions in a number of countries but as far as NATO is concerned ... we will focus on the enforcement of the arms embargo."

NATO took complete control of the air operations in Libya Thursday.

Even though the U.S. believes in the legality of arming the rebels, the White House still has made no decision on whether to pursue that course of action.

There is also the question of who they would be arming. Although Secretary of State Clinton has met the rebel leaders, U.S. intelligence is still trying to determine what lurks behind the public face, reports Martin. Just this week, Admiral James Stavridis, NATO supreme commander for Europe, told Congress that "we have seen flickers in the intelligence of potential al Qaeda, Hezbollah."

Even with the uncertainty surrounding the rebel movement's prospect for success, the Qaddafi regime has also suffered key setbacks. Britain's government said Wednesday that Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa had arrived in Britain and was resigning from his post, though the Libyan government denied it. British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the resignation showed the regime is "fragmented, under pressure and crumbling."

Koussa is not the first high-ranking member of the regime to quit -- the justice and interior ministers resigned early in the conflict and joined the rebellion based in the east. However Koussa is a close confidant of Qaddafi's privy to all the inner workings of the regime. His departure could open the door for some hard intelligence on the regime.

Koussa, before assuming the post of foreign minister, served for over a decade as Libya's foreign intelligence chief and is seen as one of Qaddafi's inner cadre.

Britain refused to offer him immunity from prosecution.

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Ivorian army chief 'seeks refuge' - BBC News

Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo's army chief has sought refuge at the home of South Africa's ambassador in Abidjan, South Africa's foreign ministry says.

Phillippe Mangou was accompanied by his wife and children, a statement said.

The news came as forces loyal to the UN-recognised president, Alassane Ouattara, were reported to be on the outskirts of the main city of Abidjan.

Mr Gbagbo continues to cling to power in Abidjan, despite the UN saying he lost November's poll.

The UN has voted to impose sanctions on Mr Gbagbo's circle.

The BBC's John James in the capital, Yamoussoukro, says almost the only area President Gbagbo still controls is Abidjan.

On Wednesday, pro-Ouattara forces captured Yamoussoukro, 240km (150 miles) north of Abidjan, and Mr Gbagbo's home town of Gagnoa has also fallen.

One million people have fled the violence - mostly from Abidjan - and at least 473 people have been killed since December, according to the UN.

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Libya foreign minister Moussa Koussa must face atrocities trial, rebels declare - The Guardian

Libya's rebel leadership has called for Moussa Koussa, the former Libyan foreign minister who has defected to the UK, to be returned for trial for murder and crimes against humanity after Muammar Gaddafi is toppled.

Mustafa Gheriani, a spokesman for the revolutionary council in its de facto capital, Benghazi, said the rebels were not bent on revenge against the regime's officials but some of Gaddafi's closest associates "have a lot of blood on their hands" and must stand trial.

The British foreign secretary, William Hague, has said Britain is not offering Koussa immunity from prosecution. Hague called for other regime figures to abandon Gaddafi.

Gheriani alleged Koussa had been partly responsible for assassinating opposition figures in exile, murderous internal repression and the Lockerbie plane bombing.

"We want to bring him to court. This guy has so much blood on his hands. There are documented killings, torturing. There's documentation of what Moussa Koussa has done," Gheriani said."We want him tried by Libyan people. I believe once we have our government 100% in control in Libya, things are normalised, we want him tried here. I think international law gives us that right."

Gheriani said it was up to Britain to decide whether to arrest Koussa in the meantime. Koussa's arrival in London was evidence that Gaddafi's regime "is starting to crumble". He expected other senior officials to follow.

"He is a very very major person to defect. Gaddafi trusted him more than some of his sons. Now Gaddafi doesn't even trust his own people any more," Gheriani said.

Gheriani said a senior military official in Cofra, Colonel Saleh al-Zaroug, had defected to the rebels. He had served in an army division commanded by one of Gaddafi's sons. The defection was impossible to confirm.

Hague said Koussa was not being offered any immunity from British or international justice. He had come to the UK on a private plane from Tunisia having left Libya of his own free will. "Gaddafi must be thinking to himself: 'Who will be the next to walk away?'"

It would not be "helpful to advertise" whether or not other senior members of the regime planned to quit but he believed many likely privately opposed Gaddafi's actions, Hague said. Koussa was in a secure place in the UK and talking voluntarily to British officials, including staff at Britain's Tripoli embassy now based in London.

Koussa's defection provides Britain with an unparalleled source of intelligence on state of the Libyan ruler's inner circle.

But his arrival in the UK has also led to expectations that he will be questioned about his possible involvement in or knowledge of atrocities including the Lockerbie bombing and the murder of PC Yvonne Fletcher.

Koussa was expelled from the UK in 1980 and became the head of Libyan foreign intelligence for 15 years, including the period of the Lockerbie bombing, which happened in 1988. He has always denied Libya was involved.

Jack Straw, a former foreign secretary, has described Koussa as a key player with a "fundamentally important" role in negotiations to bring Libya back into the international fold. "Moussa Koussa's apparent defection, certainly his unscheduled visit here, will be a very important factor in just adding to the weight against the Gaddafi regime and tipping the balance against him," Straw told the BBC. "From a distance what's clear is that there is unlikely to be any military victory for either side. So it does depend on which side psychologically collapses."

Alongside Koussa's defection, it has emerged that Barack Obama signed a secret government order authorising covert US help to the Libyan rebels.

Opposition fighters are trying to recover some of the territory retaken by a government counterattack that has brought Gaddafi's forces once again within striking distance of Benghazi.

The revolutionary leadership has called for more of the air strikes that allowed it to surge forward towards Gaddafi's home town of Sirte. But after their tanks and artillery were destroyed by the coalition, government troops switched tactics, using armoured pickup trucks to outflank and ambush the ragtag opposition forces.

Rebels trying to recapture the town of Brega came under rocket and mortar fire early on Thursday.

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In France, Japanese Disaster Prompts a Nuclear Safety Audit - New York Times

PARIS — The Fukushima nuclear crisis has prompted anti-nuclear marches across the world, persuaded the Chinese authorities to delay the construction of new reactors and even lost the German government an important state election.

In France, a country that obtains nearly 80 percent of its electricity from nuclear energy, compared with 24 percent in Japan and 19 percent in the United States, there has been conspicuously little reaction. So when the president of the French nuclear safety watchdog stated the obvious on Wednesday — “Nobody can guarantee that there will never be a nuclear accident in France” — it came as something of a shock.

In an open hearing before members of Parliament, André-Claude Lacoste, head of the Nuclear Safety Authority, said France would draw the necessary lessons from the Japanese disaster and upgrade safety procedures across the country. The most urgent task — and one so far neglected, he admitted — is a re-evaluation of the potential impact of natural disasters on nuclear safety, Mr. Lacoste said.

The fact that several natural disasters can occur at the same time, as happened in Japan with the earthquake and the tsunami, “is a subject that until now we didn’t really take into account,” he said, promising a fresh look at the risk that tectonic activity could produce on French territory, particularly along the coast.

Over the last millennium, France has been the site of some 1,700 noticeable earthquakes, geologists estimate. Its nuclear reactors were built to withstand five times the impact of the worst earthquake ever registered here. But with severe flooding incidents and bad weather having intensified in recent years, Mr. Lacoste said the past was not necessarily a good predictor of the future.

“Climate change is changing the situation,” he said, “Extreme events that so far happened every thousand years along the coast now happen every hundred years.”

Prime Minister Fran?ois Fillon ordered a safety audit of the country’s 58 nuclear power plants this month. Nuclear experts will also review their decision to keep a number of plants older than 30 years running and will update accident management procedures, particularly in heavily populated areas around reactor clusters like those near Dunkerque in northern France. Finally, Mr. Lacoste said, cooling mechanisms will be studied in more detail, not least because their failure at Fukushima has been one of the main ways radioactivity has escaped there so far.

Whatever lessons may be drawn from the current crisis, France is unlikely to turn its back on nuclear energy, a legacy of Charles de Gaulle, the revered former president, that has been broadly embraced by politicians across the political mainstream for decades.

The nuclear industry in France is highly advanced and provides a major source of export revenue. Three French companies — Areva, GDF Suez and électricité de France — are among the most important players in the sector globally. The state retains large stakes in all three.

In France, E.D.F. operates its 58 nuclear reactors at 19 sites, which is the largest pool of plants globally. It designs, maintains, operates and decommissions plants. It has made significant recent investments in nuclear projects in Britain, the United States and China.

In 2008, France produced 439 terawatt hours of nuclear power, representing 16 percent of global production.

Matthew Saltmarsh contributed reporting.

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NASA to check shuttle after storm

 Shuttle crew arrives for dress rehearsalThe storm blew in at about 5:20 p.m. WednesdaySpace shuttle Endeavour is scheduled to launch on April 19 for its final flight

(CNN) -- NASA crews will perform a full survey of the space shuttle Endeavour on Thursday, a day after high winds and hail battered the launch pad, according to the space agency.

"No one was injured and initially no obvious damage was observed. The storm moved through the area quickly," a NASA press release said.

Endeavour is scheduled to blast off to the International Space Station on April 19th. The space shuttle's six astronauts are at the Kennedy Space Center for their launch dress rehearsal.

NASA says the storm blew in at about 5:20 p.m. Wednesday.

Teams will head to the launch pad on Thursday to confirm there was no damage to the orbiter, which is being prepared for its final flight, before heading into retirement.

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Official: Disasters may cost Japan $300B

 A destroyed building following the massive earthquake and tsunami in Onagawa, Miyagi prefecture on March 30, 2011.Japan's deputy finance minister says cost of March 11 disaster may exceed 25 trillion yenThe supplemental budget alone will likely be about 10 trillion yen, the official says11,438 have been confirmed dead and 16,541 are missing due to the quake and tsunami

(CNN) -- This month's catastrophic quake and tsunami could cost Japan's government in excess of 25 trillion yen ($300 billion), an official said Thursday.

Deputy Finance Minister Mitsuru Sakurai told reporters that authorities are currently planning a supplemental budget, in an effort to immediately inject money and resources into the hardest hit areas outside of the standard annual budget process. He said that the cost of that bill alone could top 10 trillion yen.

Meanwhile, officials are also trying to grasp the overall economic impact of the disaster -- as well as how much money the national government will put toward reconstruction efforts. Right now, Sakurai said the estimates range from 16 trillion to 25 trillion yen.

"(But) we might have to consider to put more money in," he said.

This is all in response to a devastating March 11 disaster that rocked northeastern Japan, at a steep financial and human cost.

As of Thursday afternoon, 11,438 were confirmed dead from the March 11 earthquake and subsequent tsunami, according to Japan's National Police Agency. There are 16,541 missing and 2,873 injured.

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NATO takes control of air operations in Libya

 CIA working the ground in Libya?An opposition member in Misrata reports intense fighting and "day-to-day" casualtiesA former CIA operative says eliminating Gadhafi is the "quickest solution"Moussa Koussa is the first significant member of Gadhafi's inner circle to defectRebel forces retreat eastward after losing several cities they had gained Tune in to "AC360?" at 10 ET Thursday night for an exclusive interview with The New York Times journalists who were captured, then released by the Libyan regime.

Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- NATO took sole command of air operations in Libya on Thursday as CIA operatives worked the field to connect with rebel fighters who have seen their surge toward Tripoli impeded.

The NATO mission -- called Operation Unified Protector-- includes an arms embargo, a no-fly zone and "actions to protect civilians and civilian centers," the alliance said Thursday.

It follows a U.N. Security Council resolution allowing member states to take all necessary measures -- with the exception of foreign occupation -- to protect civilians under the threat of attack in Libya.

Over the weekend, CNN reported that rebels had taken al-Brega, Ras Lanuf and Bin Jawad and reached a town just east of Sirte. But in the last three days, opposition fighters have been pushed back eastward.

Rebel forces -- hampered by a lack of organization, training and military know-how when compared to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's troops -- have been demanding an end to Gadhafi's almost 42-year rule in Libya.

But they have been facing sustained attacks and have called for the international community to supply them with better and more powerful equipment.

Saddoun El-Misurati, a spokesman for the Libyan opposition in Misrata, described intense fighting and casualties in the city.

"We managed to get two shipments so far of badly needed medical supplies to the hospitals. But obviously we still need more supplies in dealing with the day-to-day casualties and the situation on the ground," he said.

"Our greatest hope will rely mainly on the support of the international coalition forces in the form of change of tactic from the air to (not only) target tanks and heavy artillery of Gadhafi's forces but also take out groups of snipers positioned on buildings and in the city."

Rebel forces have lost Bin Jawad and the key oil town of Ras Lanuf and are backed up to the al-Brega area, opposition member Col. Ahmed Bani said Wednesday.

Ajdabiya, which is east of al-Brega, will be prepared as a "defense point" if the withdrawal continues farther east, he said.

Weather conditions prevented a NATO-led coalition from launching more airstrikes in an attempt to weaken Gadhafi's ability to attack civilians, a U.S. representative said Wednesday.

While U.S. and British officials say no decision has been made about whether to arm the opposition, a U.S. intelligence source said the CIA is in the country to increase the "military and political understanding" of the situation.

"Yes, we are gathering intel firsthand, and we are in contact with some opposition entities," the source told CNN.

But Robert Baer, a former CIA operative, said on CNN's "AC360" Wednesday night the agency's effectiveness might be limited.

"I would rather see the Defense Department on the ground, if you have to be there, training," Baer said. "The CIA hates covert action. It rarely works. It worked in Afghanistan, but other times it's almost impossible to do."

Paul Wolfowitz, a former U.S. deputy secretary of defense, said he thinks "we should be doing everything we possibly can to support the opposition," and a prolonged stalemate would be bad for both Libyans who continue to suffer and for the United States.

"It's true we don't know what the opposition would be like when they do take over, but there are actually some promising signs," Wolfowitz said. "But the important thing is we should be in there, we should be working with them."

Amid the setbacks faced by rebels Wednesday, a significant crack in Gadhafi's armor surfaced when Libyan Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa fled to London and told the government there that he has resigned, the U.K. Foreign Office said.

Koussa -- a former head of Libyan intelligence -- was a stalwart defender of the government as recently as a month ago. But in recent weeks, his demeanor visibly changed. At one recent media briefing, he kept his head down as he read a statement and left early.

The Foreign Office called on other members of the regime to follow Koussa's example and "embrace a better future for Libya."

As the battles in Libya continue unfolding, the end game in the North African nation -- and whether a negotiated exit for Gadhafi would be possible or desirable -- remains uncertain.

The International Criminal Court, at the request of the United Nations Security Council, is investigating alleged "crimes against humanity" by Gadhafi.

Last week, the Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said he was certain his investigation would lead to charges against Gadhafi and members of his inner circle. That could complicate any efforts to reach a negotiated exit for the Libyan leader.

Baer said a more drastic approach could be the most effective course.

"I hate to say it, but right now our best chance of ending this conflict is eliminating Gadhafi," he said. "I'm not advocating -- I'm just saying this is the quickest solution. He is the problem. We're doing these stop-gap measures like bombing. It's stopping a massacre, but on the other hand ... we're getting pulled into a quagmire."

CNN's Nic Robertson, Ben Wedeman, Reza Sayah, Dana Bash, Pam Benson, Anderson Cooper, Tim Lister and Zain Verjee contributed to this report

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Toxic levels in seawater hit record

 NEW: A village official is irked with Japan's government after high radiation readingLevels of iodine-131 in the sea off the nuclear plant are 4,385 times the normal limitCesium-137, with a half-life of 30 years, is measured at 527 times above the standardAuthorities do not know what's caused this radiation spike or exactly how to stop it

Tokyo (CNN) -- The levels of radiation in ocean waters off Japan's embattled Fukushima Daiichi plant continue to skyrocket, the nation's nuclear safety agency said Thursday, with no clear sense of what's causing the spike or how to stop it.

The amount of radioactive iodine-131 isotope in the samples, taken Wednesday some 330 meters (361 yards) into the Pacific Ocean, has surged to 4,385 times above the regulatory limit. This tops the previous day's reading of 3,355 times above the standard -- and an exponential spike over the 104-times increase measured just last Friday.

Officials have downplayed the potential perils posed by this isotope, since it loses half of its radiation every eight days.

Yet amounts of the cesium-137 isotope -- which, by comparison, has a 30-year "half life" -- have also soared, with a Wednesday afternoon sample showing levels 527 times the standard.

"That's the one I am worried about," said Michael Friedlander, a U.S.-based nuclear engineer, explaining cesium might linger much longer in the ecosystem. "Plankton absorbs the cesium, the fish eat the plankton, the bigger fish eat smaller fish -- so every step you go up the food chain, the concentration of cesium gets higher."

On Thursday, Hidehiko Nishiyama, a Japanese nuclear safety official, reiterated that seawater radiation doesn't yet pose a health risk to humans eating seafood.

Fishing is not allowed within 20 kilometers (12 miles) of the plant, and he claimed that waterborne radiation should dilute over time.

Still, authorities don't know where the highly radioactive water is coming from.

Nishiyama said it may be flowing continuously into the sea. Another explanation is that water, which authorities have pumped and sprayed in by the tons in recent weeks to stave off a meltdown, became contaminated by overheating nuclear fuel in the process and ended up in the ocean without having any room to settle in the nuclear plant.

"They have a problem where the more they try to cool it down, the greater the radiation hazard as that water leaks out from the plant," said Jim Walsh, an international security expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Persistent rain and wind forced the plant's owner, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, to postpone Thursday a new fix to contain the spread of radiation: a water and synthetic resin mix to envelop radioactive particles. The plan is to spend at least three weeks spraying the solution on the grounds and sides of reactors at the Daiichi facility.

The nuclear plant has been in a state of perpetual crisis since being rocked by the March 11 earthquake and subsequent tsunami, and there's no clear end in sight.

This has all left the plant's owner reeling, with the ordeal taking a significant toll on both its reputation and bottom line.

On Wednesday -- the same day the company announced that its president, Masataka Shimizu, had been hospitalized due to "fatigue and stress" -- Tokyo Electric's chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata said it had no choice but to decommission four of the plant's six reactors.

He acknowledged reports Japan's government is mulling nationalizing the company after the disaster, saying, "We want to make every effort to stay a private company."

Beyond the recovery and clean-up expenses, Toyko Electric will likely be asked to pay those who suffered because of the nuclear crisis.

A report from Bank of America Merrill Lynch estimates the utility firm will face 1 trillion Japanese yen ($12.13 billion) in compensation claims if the recovery effort lasts two months, rising to 10 trillion yen if it goes on for two years, said Takayuki Inoue, a spokesman with the financial giant.

That might include farmers, their livelihoods shattered after the detection of high radiation in several vegetables prompting the government to ban sales. Contaminated tap water also has prompted officials to tell residents in some locales to only offer bottled water to infants. Businesses have been hit hard, too, by rolling blackouts tied to the strained power grid.

But those most affected have been the thousands, living within 20 kilometers (12 miles) of the stricken plant, who have been ordered to evacuate.

The International Atomic Energy Agency on Thursday urged Japanese authorities to "carefully assess the situation" -- and consider expanding the evacuation zone further -- after high radiation levels were found in Iitate, a town of 7,000 residents 40 kilometers northwest of the nuclear facility.

The U.N. agency did not say how much radiation it had detected, though the environmental group Greenpeace said Sunday it found levels more than 50 times above normal.

Koboyashi Takashi, Iitate's manager for general affairs, said radiation levels in soil and water were decreasing. Residents had temporarily evacuated, but later returned to take care of livestock, he said.

Another village official, who declined to be named, was irked Thursday after the earlier radiation readings surpassed the IAEA's evacuation criteria but not those of the Japanese government. He said local officials have urged tests on soil from 70 locations around the village.

"We (have to) believe what the government tells us," said the Iitate village official in apparent frustration. "There is no other way."

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters Thursday the "IAEA results will be taken into consideration," but said "there is no plan" to expand the evacuation zone to 30 kilometers or beyond.

"There is no immediate health hazard," Edano said. "If the exposure continues for a long period of time, (a negative) impact can occur. We will continue to survey the situation."

CNN's Kyung Lah, Yoko Wakatsuki and Ram Ramgopal contributed to this report.

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Odd Alliance: Business Lobby and Tea Party

 

But a Tea Party group in the United States, the Institute for Liberty, has vigorously defended the freedom of a giant Indonesian paper company to sell its wares to Americans without paying tariffs. The institute set up Web sites, published reports and organized a petition drive attacking American businesses, unions and environmentalists critical of the company, Asia Pulp & Paper.

Last fall, the institute’s president, Andrew Langer, had himself videotaped on Long Wharf in Boston holding a copy of the Declaration of Independence as he compared Washington’s proposed tariff on paper from Indonesia and China to Britain’s colonial trade policies in 1776.

Tariff-free Asian paper may seem an unlikely cause for a nonprofit Tea Party group. But it is in keeping with a succession of pro-business campaigns — promoting commercial space flight, palm oil imports and genetically modified alfalfa — that have occupied the Institute for Liberty’s recent agenda.

The Tea Party movement is as deeply skeptical of big business as it is of big government. Yet an examination of the Institute for Liberty shows how Washington’s influence industry has adapted itself to the Tea Party era. In a quietly arranged marriage of seemingly disparate interests, the institute and kindred groups are increasingly the bearers of corporate messages wrapped in populist Tea Party themes.

In a few instances, their corporate partners are known — as with the billionaire Koch brothers’ support of Americans for Prosperity, one of the most visible advocacy groups. More often, though, their nonprofit tax status means they do not have to reveal who pays the bills.

Mr. Langer would not say who financed his Indonesian paper initiative. But his sudden interest in the issue coincided with a public relations push by Asia Pulp & Paper. And the institute’s work is remarkably similar to that produced by one of the company’s consultants, a former Australian diplomat named Alan Oxley who works closely with a Washington public affairs firm known for creating corporate campaigns presented as grass-roots efforts.

For the institute, the embrace of a foreign conglomerate’s agenda is a venture into new territory — and distinguishes it among Tea Party advocacy groups. The issue, Mr. Langer asserted, is important to working Americans who might have to pay more for everything from children’s books to fried-chicken buckets made of coated paper from Asia. He said the institute had not accepted money directly from Asia Pulp & Paper, though it was possible the company had paid others who then contributed to the institute.

“I suppose it could be,” he said, but added, “I don’t know about anybody else who may have gotten money from Asia Pulp & Paper who’s given money to us.”

Those on the receiving end of the institute’s attacks — strange bedfellows like Greenpeace, Staples and Asia Pulp & Paper’s American competitors — are unified in their skepticism of its motives.

“If you can spend as much money as you want and remain anonymous, then it doesn’t matter if you’re an overseas company or the Koch brothers, you pay the same network of anti-regulatory front groups,” said Scott Paul, director of Greenpeace’s forest campaign.

Seeing Tea Party Potential

Like many other nonprofit organizations on the Tea Party bandwagon, the Institute of Liberty predates the movement. It was created in 2005 by Jason Wright, an author of best-selling inspirational novels who had worked for Frontiers of Freedom, a conservative policy group.

In his three years at the institute, Mr. Wright said in an interview, he was often approached by public relations consultants pitching projects for clients. Typical, he said, were overtures from two consultants who wanted him to advocate for opposing positions on the regulation of “payday” loans, widely criticized for usurious terms that hurt low-income borrowers.

“A P.R. firm in D.C. offered me a ton of money to take the wrong side of that issue,” he said. “I did end up taking some corporate donations from the side of the issue I believed in — that the industry had completely lost control and had to be reined in.”

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Libyan foreign minister Moussa Koussa defects to Britain - Telegraph.co.uk

 

However, there are fears that any move to provide arms could lead to "mission creep", dragging Western ground forces into the civil war. It also emerged that:

Five Libyan diplomats were expelled from Britain amid concern they could pose a threat to national security;

Senior defence sources disclosed that British and American forces had destroyed more than 40 Libyan arms dumps and "chopped the legs off" Gaddafi's supply route;

Uganda announced that it was prepared to offer the Libyan leader exile under an Italian plan to remove him;

The UN or EU may ultimately have to send a humanitarian force to help civilians in rebel–held areas.

The British and other governments are increasingly worried that rebel troops will not be able to advance on Tripoli or other Libyan cities without external help.

Arming them is thought to have been discussed by Britain's National Security Council and Mr Cameron, President Barack Obama and the French president Nicolas Sarkozy have begun openly considering the idea. Last night it was reported that Mr Obama had signed a secret order authorising covert US support for the rebels within the past two or three weeks and that CIA and MI6 operatives had been in the country for some time.

It is understood that Libyan opposition leaders have requested anti–tank weapons and other equipment, which could be provided by a Middle Eastern country, such as Qatar, in return for oil.

Yesterday, Mr Cameron said that Britain was not "ruling out" arming the rebels, despite having previously indicated that this may not be possible under the terms of sanctions imposed on Libya. The Prime Minister told MPs: "It is an extremely fluid situation but there is no doubt in anyone's mind the ceasefire is still being breached and it is absolutely right for us to keep up our pressure under UN Security Council 1973. As I've told the House, the legal position is clear that the arms embargo applies to the whole territory of Libya.

"But at the same time, UNSCR 1973 allows all necessary measures to protect civilians and civilian–populated areas. Our view is that this would not necessarily rule out the provision of assistance to those protecting civilians in certain circumstances. We do not rule it out but we have not taken the decision to do so."

Mr Cameron's statement echoed comments by Mr Obama in a television interview on Tuesday night.

Russia and other countries have strongly condemned any such provision. It would be highly controversial and may be blocked by MPs in Britain.

However, Mr Koussa's defection holds out hope that the regime might still crack from the inside, relieving the pressure for further military measures.

Mr Koussa flew from Tunisia, where he had been on a diplomatic mission, to Farnborough airport before being shuttled to London for immediate talks with high–ranking Foreign Office officials.

A close confidant of Gaddafi for 30 years, he was linked by intelligence sources to the Lockerbie bombing and played a lead role in securing the release of the bomber, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al–Megrahi.

Yesterday, senior defence officials said there was "more to do" to prevent further loss of civilian lives but reiterated that no British ground troops would be used. A chaotic picture emerged on the ground where the Gaddafi regime ambushed rebels outside the leader's home town of Sirte, precipitating a disorderly retreat as far as Ajdabiyah.

Profile Regime's chief fingernail puller'

Moussa Koussa, 61, took a sociology degree at Michigan State University. He was appointed ambassador to Britain in 1980 but expelled for threatening to kill opponents.

He was accused of organising terrorism on his return to Libya where he headed the Libyan spy agency from 1994 and was described by a senior figure in George W Bush's administration as "chief fingernail puller".

He has been named as the possible architect of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, but brokered Libya's promise to give up weapons of mass destruction in 2003 and was made foreign minister in 2009.

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Concerns - in Congress and about rebels | Philadelphia Inquirer | 2011-03-31 - Philadelphia Inquirer

 WASHINGTON - As frustrated lawmakers sought more clarity on the Libya mission, the White House said Wednesday that it was still assessing options for "all types of assistance" to opposition forces battling Moammar Gadhafi's troops and that no decision had been made on arming the opposition.

Fresh battlefield setbacks are hardening a U.S. view that the poorly equipped opposition is probably incapable of prevailing without decisive Western intervention, a senior U.S. intelligence official told the Associated Press.

Gadhafi's land forces outmatch the opposition and remain capable of threatening the civilian resistance, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The director of national intelligence compared the rebel forces to a "pick-up basketball team."

Some members of Congress expressed frustration because administration officials could not say when the U.S. operation might end.

In an hour-long private meeting for House members, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, and the military and intelligence heads faced tough questions, including some about the rebels' durability.

"The administration answered as well as they could, given the ambiguity of the situation," Rep. Kevin Brady (R., Texas) said later.

During the meeting, the intelligence chief, James Clapper, compared the rebel forces to a "pick-up basketball team." He indicated that intelligence had identified a few questionable individuals within the rebel ranks, according to lawmakers.

The top NATO commander earlier had noted "flickers" of an al-Qaeda and Hezbollah presence among the rebels but no evidence of significant numbers within the opposition group's leadership.

Lawmakers, especially Republicans, are smarting from what they consider a lack of consultation and Obama's decision not to seek congressional authorization to use force.

The briefings - the Senate had a separate session later Wednesday - came 12 days after the no-fly zone began. Obama did speak to congressional leaders the day before the military action began.

"I understand how evil Gadhafi is," said Rep. Greg Walden (R., Ore.). "I don't understand the unwillingness to come to Congress first."

Republicans, however, don't speak with one voice.

Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.), Obama's 2008 presidential rival, said the president could not wait for Congress to take even a few days to debate the use of force. "There would have been nothing left to save in Benghazi," the rebels' de facto capital, he said.

Obama, in his address to the nation Monday, defended his decision to deploy forces to prevent a slaughter of Libyan civilians.

Freshman Rep. Justin Amash (R., Mich.) attracted a few cosponsors for his bill this week that would end the U.S. role in Libya unless Obama gets congressional authorization. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D., Ohio) is seeking support for his effort to cut off money.

The top NATO commander said the U.S. military role would be scaled back in the near term. "We today in NATO took over the mission and we are reducing the U.S. component of it measurably, and I think you'll see our allies increasingly engaged," U.S. Navy Adm. James Stavridis told the House Armed Services Committee.

Still, committee members expressed reservations.

"It is a mission that I'm concerned as to whether or not its goals are clear," said Rep. Michael Turner, (R., Ohio). "And also I'm a little concerned and believe it's unclear as to who we are supporting in this conflict."

An Associated Press-GfK poll, conducted in the days leading up to the president's speech, found the country split on U.S. involvement in military actions in Libya, with 48 percent approving and 50 percent disapproving.

The Pentagon put the cost so far at $550 million. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D., Ore.) said officials estimated the cost for the U.S. could be $40 million a month depending on the length of the operation.

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Indian, Pakistani students watch homelands vie in cricket | Philadelphia ... - Philadelphia Inquirer

 

Many University of Pennsylvania students went to their Wednesday afternoon classes sleepy and less alert than normal. That's because they got up at 5 a.m. - not to write term papers but to watch the semifinal match between India and Pakistan in the World Cup cricket tournament, a battle in which India ultimately prevailed.

In parts of the world such as South Asia, where cricket is immensely popular, the prospect of a penultimate contest between two nations with chilly political relations and a record of fierce athletic rivalry on the cricket pitch was as exciting as the Super Bowl and World Series rolled into one.

"This is a once-in-a-generation thing," exclaimed Umer Ali, 21, a senior of Pakistani heritage who is majoring in politics, philosophy, and economics. "It happens every four years, like the World Cup of soccer, but when India and Pakistan meet, for us it's the biggest cricket event there is."

The last time the two teams vied in a World Cup one-day cricket match at such an advanced stage in the competition was in the 1996 quarterfinals. India has now triumphed over Pakistan in all five World Cup encounters and will meet Sri Lanka in the final Saturday.

"It's dominating my life right now," confessed Karina Sengupta, 19, a sophomore majoring in business and political science who pronounced herself "ecstatic" after India's triumph. "I rearranged my classes so I could watch."

Sengupta attended a screening at Rodin College House that drew a standing-room-only crowd of cricket fans, about evenly split between students of Indian and Pakistani descent. Fans also gathered to view the match at Houston and Williams Halls as well as online in numerous apartments and dormitory rooms.

Hadi Khan, 24, a graduate student in the Fels School of Government, organized the screening at Rodin with the Penn Pakistan Society. The idea was to invite both Indian and Pakistani students so they could experience the up-and-down thrills together while rooting for their teams.

About 60 students showed up during the match, which ended shortly after 1 p.m. Some diehard fans stayed throughout. Others stepped out to attend classes and returned. Though India built an early lead, Pakistan, with a habit of upsets, had a shot until its challenge began to unravel after noon. Even when the situation looked bleak, indeed mathematically impossible, Pakistan's rooting section at Penn remained loyal and vocal.

"The spirit never died," Khan marveled. "There was no food, and people still stuck around."

Students showed up in team jerseys - green for Pakistan, with crescent and star; blue for India, adorned with the ashoka chakra, a 24-spoked wheel. Some wore face paint and waved flags. They chanted slogans and cheered heartily - Indians in Hindi, Pakistanis in Urdu. They jumped to their feet to salute brilliant play and admired the athletic derring-do of such stars as ace Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar, named player of the match, or MVP.

It was eminently clear which side students were pulling for, but there were no fisticuffs or tossed chairs, and the cheers ("Our team is the best!") remained polite and positive, in accordance with a sport that prizes sportsmanship and courtesy.

"This is an academic environment," Khan explained, "and we all know each other well. We are all friends, and we have respect for each other."

"We got along well," said Razeen Khan, 20, a Wharton School junior majoring in marketing. "It was the first time the Pakistani and Indian students were together, and I really enjoyed it. I'm disappointed by the outcome, but it was a great experience to watch the match together."

The match was played at Punjab Cricket Association Stadium in Mohali, India, and the prime minister of India invited the prime minister of Pakistan to be his guest. When the camera panned the crowd and showed rival fans holding a banner that proclaimed "Pakistan-India Unity," the students at Penn applauded.

"This kind of thing brings people closer together more efficiently than politicians ever do," said Basil Khan, 21, a Wharton junior.

"It's a great example of how sports can break down boundaries," Ali said.

Elsewhere on campus, Anurakt Jain, 28, who is pursuing a Wharton MBA, watched the match on a large television at a friend's apartment with 15 or so other Wharton students, one of three cricket-watching gatherings organized by the Wharton India Club.

Jain was there from 5 a.m. "till the last ball was bowled - absolutely!"

"Everyone stayed in and had breakfast and lunch. You could say we were all glued to the television set. It was an exciting match, and the outcome was definitely to our liking, but Pakistan gave a good fight, and there were certain nail-biting moments when everyone was unsure how it would swing."

Though the gathering did not include Pakistani students, Jain and his friends were constantly e-mailing and tweeting Pakistani friends at the university to tease, taunt, and gloat.

"There's a great sense of camaraderie," Jain said. "Had India lost, I'm sure we would have acknowledged that the better side won."

Contact staff writer Art Carey

at 215-854-5606 or acarey@phillynews.com.

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Source: CIA operating in Libya, consulting with rebels

 Weather prevents new coalition airstrikesCIA operating in Libya, in contact with opposition, source saysLibyan foreign minister quits, U.K. saysOpposition says it is carrying out "tactical withdrawal"

Benghazi, Libya (CNN) -- CIA operatives are providing intelligence from Libya, where opposition forces are on the run and the defiant government suffered the embarrassing defection of its foreign minister Wednesday.

The NATO-led coalition, which is enforcing a no-fly zone and protecting civilians from the intense fighting, got no help from the weather in its ongoing efforts to protect the fragile opposition movement.

"The weather conditions did not allow close combat support by aircraft in the last couple of days," said Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

Moammar Gadhafi's government, for its part, kept up the war of words.

State-run Libyan TV late Wednesday quoted a military source as saying a "civilian location was shelled tonight in the city of Tripoli by the colonizing crusader aggression."

Amid debate on whether the allies will arm the retreating and undertrained rebels, a U.S. intelligence source told CNN the CIA is in the country to increase the "military and political understanding" of the situation.

"Yes, we are gathering intel firsthand and we are in contact with some opposition entities," said the source.

The White House refused to comment on a Reuters report that President Barack Obama has signed a secret order authorizing covert U.S. government support for rebel troops.

"I will reiterate what the president said yesterday -- no decision has been made about providing arms to the opposition or to any group in Libya," said White House press secretary Jay Carney in a statement. "We're not ruling it out or ruling it in. We're assessing and reviewing options for all types of assistance that we could provide to the Libyan people, and have consulted directly with the opposition and our international partners about these matters."

According to the Reuters report, Obama signed the covert aid order, or "finding," within the past few weeks. Such findings are required for the CIA to conduct secret operations, the report said.

A U.S. official not authorized to speak publicly could not confirm the finding, but noted when there are crises like this, "you look at all instruments of national power."

In early March, a U.S. official told CNN "the intelligence community is aggressively pursuing information on the ground" in Libya.

British Prime Minister David Cameron told the House of Commons that he has not ruled out arming the Libyan opposition, but added that Britain has not made the decision to do so.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton provided classified briefings to House and Senate members who asked whether the United States intended to arm the rebels, participants told CNN.

Clinton and Gates made clear that no decision had been made, and Congress members from both parties said they believed it would be a bad idea, according to participants.

Regarding the committing of U.S. forces to the U.N.-backed operation, the White House has said Obama acted within his authority under the War Powers Act. It notes that the president and other officials consulted congressional leaders several times in the run-up to the March 19 deployment of U.S. forces to the U.N.-authorized Libya mission.

Clinton told members of Congress the administration acted within the requirements of the War Powers Act and needed no authorization for further decisions on the mission, lawmakers said.

The opposition got a boost Wednesday with news that Libyan Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa willingly traveled to London and told the government there that he has resigned, the United Kingdom Foreign Office said.

CNN's Ben Wedeman, who has been reporting from Libya for several weeks, said that Koussa's departure is a significant blow, but not a critical loss to the regime.

A Foreign Office spokesperson said Koussa was one of the most senior figures in Gadhafi's government "and his role was to represent the regime internationally -- something that he is no longer willing to do."

The department provided no other details on the surprise move.

CNN's Nic Robertson, who previously met with Koussa, said the former head of intelligence once was a stalwart defender of the government.

The Senate's Rogers called Moussa's defection "huge news."

Libya's opposition said its fighters are executing a "tactical withdrawal" from a swath of territory they once controlled, a move that comes as Gadhafi's forces relentlessly pound them.

Col. Ahmed Bani, speaking at a news conference in the opposition capital of Benghazi on Wednesday, said his forces are being outgunned by the superior military power of loyalists, spared the wrath of coalition airstrikes.

They have been pushed eastward over the last two days after CNN reported on Sunday that rebels took Brega, Ras Lanuf and Bin Jawad and reached a town just east of Sirte.

Rebel forces have now lost Bin Jawad and the key oil town of Ras Lanuf and are backed up to the Brega area, Bani said. Ajdabiya, which is east of Brega, will be prepared as a "defense point" if the withdrawal continues farther east, he said.

CNN's Wedeman said the rebels continue to have no effective command and control.

Bani called on the international community to supply opposition fighters with better and more powerful weapons to hold off the Gadhafi forces. He said the opposition was open to foreign troops training rebel fighters. Bani asked for tanks, heavy artillery and communications and logistics equipment.

The rebels have been demanding an end to Gadhafi's almost 42-year rule in Libya, but they have been facing "sustained attacks in the face of the coalition bombing" in Misrata, Ras Lanuf, and Bin Jawad, Robertson reported.

In an address to the House of Commons in London on Wednesday, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said that "regime forces have intensified their attacks, driving back opposition forces from ground they had taken in recent days." He cited the violence in the western town of Misrata.

"Misrata also came under heavy attack yesterday, with further loss of civilian life, including children, from mortars, sniper fire and attacks on all sides from regime tanks and personnel carriers," Hague said.

In the outskirts of Ajdabiya -- which was recently taken over by opposition forces -- Gadhafi's regime planted several dozen land mines, Human Rights Watch said in a statement Wednesday.

"Given the pedestrian and vehicular traffic in the area, the mines were clearly laid while government forces were in Ajdabiya," the group said.

Human Rights Watch also said 370 people are missing in the eastern part of the country, with some suspected to be in government custody. That list includes rebel fighters and civilians, including doctors, the group said.

CNN's Reza Sayah, Dana Bash, Pam Benson and Nic Robertson contributed to this report

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Ivory Coast Fighters Loyal to Ouattara Capture Port; UN Imposes Sanctions - Bloomberg

 

Ivory Coast fighters loyal to President-elect Alassane Ouattara seized the key cocoa-exporting port of San Pedro as the United Nations imposed sanctions on incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo and urged him to give up power.

San Pedro, situated 310 kilometers (193 miles) west of the commercial capital, Abidjan, fell “without fighting,” said Meite Sindou, spokesman for Ouattara’s Prime Minister Guillaume Soro.

“Our troops moved forward without any difficulties,” Sindou said in a phone interview late yesterday. Ouattara’s Republican Forces only shot in the air as they advanced, he said.

The San Pedro Port is the second-biggest in Ivory Coast, the world’s largest cocoa producer. The facility handles 1 million metric tons of cargo annually, including cocoa, coffee and timber, according to Bloomberg data.

The Republican Forces also late yesterday seized Yamoussoukro, the political capital and the biggest of at least eight towns taken this week. The advance of the militia to the south has added military force to the diplomatic and economic pressure on Gbagbo to relinquish the presidency to Ouattara, who is internationally recognized as the winner of a Nov. 28 election. Gbagbo, whose forces have put up little resistance, refuses to cede power, alleging voter fraud.

The UN Security Council voted 15-0 yesterday to freeze the foreign assets and bar travel by Gbagbo, his wife Simone and top aides Desire Tagro, Alcide Djedje and Pascal Affi N’Guessan.

The resolution also asked Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to send the report of a UN-mandated investigation of alleged human rights abuses to the council and “other relevant international organizations” such as the International Criminal Court.

The rapid advance of the Republican Forces raised hopes the four-month political crisis will soon be over. The country’s defaulted dollar-denominated bond rallied 7 percent to 42.688 cents on the dollar yesterday, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Cocoa for May delivery slumped to a 10-week low on hopes the impasse may ease and pave the way for a renewal of exports of the chocolate ingredient. The price dropped $70, or 2.3 percent, to $2,987 per metric ton by 5:20 p.m. in New York.

The advance by Ouattara’s forces has been “much more rapid than expected,” said Young-jin Choi, the head of the UN mission in the country, in an interview with CNN. The troops are within “striking distance” of Abidjan, he said.

Gbagbo’s spokesman, Ahoua Don Mello, didn’t answer calls made to his mobile phone yesterday. The incumbent president has called for a cease-fire and talks at the African Union as the rival forces move south.

At the same time, the enrolment of new troops who responded to a recruitment call last week by Gbagbo’s Youth Minister Charles Ble Goude began yesterday, according to the website of state-owned Radio Television Ivoirienne.

Ouattara rejected the call for talks after meeting on March 29 with leaders of four other opposition parties.

Tension is mounting in Abidjan, with at least five people shot dead in Adjame, a neighborhood that supports Ouattara, according to Parfait Yao, a witness who saw their bodies.

The port of San Pedro was quiet after being captured by the Republic Forces, Alphonse Gouanou, a resident of the city, said in a phone interview.

“We were expecting Ouattara’s forces to take the town,” he said. “Everybody is at home. The city is lifeless.”

Sindou said the rebels also captured the Western town of Gagnoa, which was confirmed by resident Abdul Kone.

To contact the reporters on this story: Pauline Bax and Olivier Monnier in Abidjan via Accra at ebowers1@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at asguazzin@bloomberg.net.

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Priests put on leave in abuse inquiry

 The two priests, who were not identified, are retiredDozens of current and former priests have been placed on leaveWednesday's action is part of an ongoing investigationThree civil suits have also been filed against priests and the archdiocese

(CNN) -- Two more priests have been placed on administrative leave by the Philadelphia Archdiocese as part of an ongoing investigation into the sexual abuse of children by clergy.

Cardinal Justin Rigali, the archbishop of Philadelphia, announced that the two unnamed priests, who are currently retired, have been placed on administrative leave, effective immediately, pending a more thorough independent investigation.

That investigation is being conducted by Gina Maisto Smith, a former child abuse prosecutor in Philadelphia, and a team of experts.

"These steps are interim measures and are not in any way final determinations or judgments," Rigali said in a written statement.

Earlier this month, 21 other priests were also placed on administrative leave following a review of sexual abuse allegations in the Catholic Church in Philadelphia.

The archdiocese says that Wednesday's actions are a part of an ongoing investigation with the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office.

According to the archdiocese, one of the priests retired in 2005 due to health reasons and is no longer involved in the ministry. The other priest retired in 2006, and has assisted at parishes in another diocese.

Earlier this month, Rigali said that he wished "to express again my sorrow for the sexual abuse of minors committed by any members of the church, especially clergy."

"I am truly sorry for the harm done to the victims of sexual abuse, as well as to the members of our community who suffer as a result of this great evil and crime," he said.

In February, three Philadelphia priests and a parochial school teacher were charged with raping and assaulting boys in their care, while a former official with the Philadelphia Archdiocese was accused of allowing the priests to have access to children, the city's district attorney's office said.

CNN Senior Vatican Analyst John Allen said the charges against the former church official appeared to be unprecedented and could have national implications.

"This is apparently the first time that a Catholic leader has been charged criminally for the cover-up as opposed to the abuse itself," he said.

"It sends a shot across the bow for bishops and other diocesan officials in other parts of the country, who have to wonder now if they've got criminal exposure, too."

Edward Avery, 68, and Charles Engelhardt, 64, were charged with allegedly assaulting a 10-year-old boy at St. Jerome Parish from 1998 to 1999.

Bernard Shero, 48, a teacher in the school, is charged with allegedly assaulting the same boy there in 2000, Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams said at a press conference in February.

James Brennan, another priest, is accused of assaulting a different boy, a 14-year-old, in 1996.

Monsignor William Lynn, who served as the secretary for clergy for the then-Philadelphia Archbishop Anthony Bevilacqua, was charged with two counts of endangering the welfare of a child in connection with the alleged assaults, Williams said.

From 1992 until 2004, Lynn was responsible for investigating reports that priests had sexually abused children, the district attorney's office said.

The grand jury found that Lynn, 60, endangered children, including the alleged victims of those charged last week, by knowingly allowing the priests to continue in the ministry in roles in which they had access to kids.

Avery, Engelhardt and Shero were charged with rape, indecent sexual assault and other criminal counts following the results of a grand jury investigation of clergy sexual abuse, Williams said. The names of the alleged victims, who are now in their 20s, have not been publicly released.

The grand jury believed that more than 30 priests remained in ministry in Pennsylvania despite solid, credible allegations of abuse, according to Williams.

Williams on Tuesday said Rigali's actions "are as commendable as they are unprecedented."

"Going forward, in cases involving allegations of abuse by clergy, my office and the Philadelphia police will investigate, and where appropriate we will charge and prosecute. I intend to use the resources of this office to the greatest extent possible to protect the children of Philadelphia," Williams said in a statement.

Three civil suits against the priests and the archdiocese have been filed.

CNN's Sarah Hoye and Rich Phillips contributed to this report.

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Nominally civilian government takes power in Myanmar - Denver Post

 

BANGKOK — A nominally civilian government took office in Myanmar on Wednesday, but the change was mostly one of political structure.

Thein Sein, 65, a retired military officer who leads the military-backed majority party in a newly elected parliament, was sworn in as president. He formally replaced the military junta that had been headed by Senior Gen. Than Shwe for the past two decades.

But under the new structure, the generals will remain the power behind the scenes and have the right to override civilian rule by decree.

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