Forces for and against the Libyan government continue to battle for al-Zawiya, 50 kilometers west of the capital Tripoli. In the opposition-held east, rebel forces claimed control of the oil town Ras Lanuf, and vowed to continue their march along the coast toward the capital.
Officials loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi dismiss evidence that Ras Lanuf is in rebel hands. But the opposition and witnesses say rebels have pushed beyond the town, more than halfway between rebel headquarters in Benghazi and the city of Sirte, and are now eying that Gadhafi stronghold.
Mustafa Gheraini is the media organizer at the Benghazi courthouse, the symbolic center of the rebellion.
"They have taken Ras Lanuf and moved on," said Gheraini. "The government is not in control of Tripoli. Control is really a funny word. Are you successfully managing to keep people at home and have a checkpoint at the end of each block, okay, and terrorizing people? Then yes he is in control. Does he have the people of Tripoli with him? Then the answer is no."
But Gadhafi loyalists put on a show of support in the capital's Green Square the day before, a seemingly less forced affair than previous rallies, even as pockets of resistance in Tripoli continue to rise up.
And there is a question, as yet unanswered, about the westward march of the opposition: why has Colonel Gadhafi, not known for his restraint, held back the full might of his remaining battle force? Small, hastily formed rebel groups take over town after town, as government forces retreat. Speculation is rampant that more bitter battles lie ahead, and serves to dampen some of the rebels' euphoria.
In Benghazi, the opposition National Council held its first formal meeting Saturday. As the makeshift group tries to consolidate control of governance in the east, it is also expected to renew the call for limited international military help against Colonel Gadhafi.
"As a Libyan, we are united not to have any foot soldiers on our land," added Gheraini. "However, we welcome a no-fly zone. We welcome precision, strategic bombings of his strongholds. This guy has already had defections within his own groups and I think something like that would speed up the process and just lessens the bloodshed that may take place."
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Outside the courthouse, crowds gathered to mourn those killed in an explosion at a rebel-held munitions camp on the outskirts of Benghazi Friday.
As coffins were carried aloft and placed before the building, mourners chanted defiantly.
The cause of the blast remains unclear. Gheraini says evidence suggests it was "sabotage" by pro-Gadhafi forces, but would not rule out that it was an accident.
To the men who wept openly, it did not seem to matter; those killed were martyrs and, the mourners said, would be blessed by God.
Related video of pro-Gadhafi forces outside al-Zawiya, Libya
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International relief organizations are expanding efforts to help foreigners who are trying to flee the unrest in Libya.
The International Organization on Migration said Saturday it is stepping up efforts to provide humanitarian assistance to about 5,000 foreigners stranded in Salum, a town on the Libyan-Egyptian border. The relief group says it is doubling food and water rations to help the foreigners, which include women and children, at the border post.
News organizations quote foreign workers who say Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's forces had detained them as they tried to reach the Libyan-Tunisian border.
On Friday, the United Nations refugee agency said the number of people crossing into Tunisia had dropped sharply because heavily armed troops were guarding the Libyan side of the border.
The International Committee of the Red Cross launched an appeal for nearly $26 million on Friday to assist thousands of people affected by the crisis.
Relief organizations say thousands of foreigners - many of them Bangladeshis with limited resources - await evacuation out of the region.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
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A leading Libyan human rights defender says it is doubtful the revolution in his country will succeed in toppling Libyan leader, Moammar Gadhafi if the West does not impose a no-fly zone. He says Mr. Gadhafi would not hesistate in bombing his own people.
Secretary-General of the Libyan League for Human Rights, Sliman Bouchuiguir, describes Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi as a very violent man. He says Gadhafi will use anything within his power to destroy the revolution.
"There is no limit in the use of force and the use of violence. So, I do not expect that Mr. Gadhafi will give up very easily his power. In fact, he threatened the Libyans that either you accept me as a ruler or I will destroy the country and… a civil war will be declared in Libya," he said.
Bouchuiguir says the Libyan capital, Tripoli, which is Gadhafi's power base, essentially has been transformed into a ghost town. When the popular uprising against the regime began in February, he says thousands of people protested on the city streets.
But, he says, since then Colonel Gadhafi has used his helicopters to bomb civilians in the city. And, most of the people are afraid for their lives and are remaining indoors.
He says the national council, a transitional government established in the East, worries that Gadhafi will unleash his air power against the civilian population.
"They are requesting, indeed, the Western world to declare a no-fly zone over Libya. Otherwise, I do not think there is any future for the government in the East and for the end of the revolution in general. Gadhafi can use the airplane, the helicopter, as he used them in Tripoli, to kill the whole movement," said Bouchuiguir.
Bouchuiguir says no one knows how many people have been killed or wounded over the past few weeks. But, he notes the Paris-based International Federation of Human Rights estimates between 3,000 and 6,000 people may have been killed in Libya.
A few days ago, the U.N. secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, estimated the number of dead at 1,000.
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Saudi Arabia has banned all protests following several small gatherings of demonstrators demanding change in the conservative kingdom.
The country's Interior Ministry announced Saturday on state television that security forces would use what it called "all measures" to prevent any attempt to disrupt public order.
The ban follows a series of protests by minority Shi'ite Muslims, calling for the release of prisoners they said were being held unjustly. Media reports say police made a number of arrests during these events.
Most of Saudi Arabia's Shi'ite minority lives in the country's oil-rich east. This region borders the kingdom of Bahrain, which has been the scene of protests by majority Shi'ites against their Sunni rulers. Saudi Shi'ites - like their Bahraini bretheran - complain that their Sunni-controlled government discriminates against them.
Opposition activists in Saudi Arabia have made public calls on Facebook for two organized rallies, one on March 11 as a "Day of Rage," and the other on March 20.
So-called "Day of Rage" rallies have spread across the region, contributing to the ouster of Tunisia's and Egypt's leaders.
Late last month, more than 100 Saudi academics, activists and businessmen called for major reforms in Saudi Arabia, including the establishment of a constitutional monarchy.
Their statement published online also called for members of the kingdom's advisory assembly (known as the Shura Council) to be elected rather than appointed. In addition, the statement included demands for economic and social reforms, in a country where women's freedoms are very restricted.
In February, Saudi King Abdullah announced a number of new economic incentives to his people, including pay raises and increased spending on social programs. The total package of reforms is worth an estimated $36 billion.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.
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A top African Union official has traveled to Ivory Coast to give the country's rival presidents a message from African leaders calling for an "immediate end" to the killings.
AU Commission chief Jean Ping met Saturday in Abidjan with Alassane Ouattara, the U.N.-certified winner of Ivory Coast's presidential election in November. Ping planned to meet separately with incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo, who refuses to yield power to Mr. Ouattara.
A panel of AU presidents tasked with finding a solution to the political standoff sent Ping to Abidjan.
The United Nations says at least 365 people had been killed in violence since the November election.
In other news, the United Nations is investigating suspected arms transfers from Zimbabwe to Mr. Gbagbo, a move that would violate U.N. sanctions.
A U.N. report says investigators are looking into the possible arrival of light weapons cargo from Zimbabwe, as well as 10 large crates that may contain trucks or tanks.
The report, which was obtained by Western news agencies, said the items have been in Abidjan for six months and are under constant surveillance.
Ivory Coast has been under an arms embargo since 2004.
A few days ago, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon accused Belarus of sending three attack helicopters to Ivory Coast to back Mr. Gbagbo. The U.N. peacekeeping chief, Alain Le Roy, later said that allegation was based on false information. He apologized to Belarus for the mistake.
The power struggle between Mr. Gbagbo and Mr. Ouattara has triggered violence throughout the country.
The medical aid group Doctors Without borders says fighting in the west is spreading. An official with the group told VOA that 70,000 people have fled to Liberia to escape the clashes between security forces loyal to Mr. Gbagbo and supporters of Mr. Ouattara.
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Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao says China's economy is on course for another five years of economic expansion. He also stressed the need to make the economic boom more inclusive by closing the gap between the wealthy and the poor. The Chinese leader laid out his government's economic plan in a state-of-the-union-style address at the opening of the annual National People's Congress.
Amid the pomp inside the cavernous Great Hall of the People in Central Beijing, Premier Wen Jiabao gave a sobering message about the social and economic challenges facing the nation.
Wen says China is on course for another five years of robust growth at around seven percent. But he says inflation and corruption threaten social stability and must be controlled.
Inflation has been a government concern for some time. Millions of ordinary Chinese spend half their income on food and prices are rising.
The nation's inflation rate is currently estimated at nearly five percent and some economists say it has yet to peak, despite three recent interest rate hikes to cool the economy.
The Chinese leader vowed to close the wealth gap and tackle what he described as uneven economic development. Wen said his government would try to stimulate domestic demand with increased subsidies to farmers and the urban poor.
Hundreds of millions Chinese have yet to reap the benefits of China's economic boom. Popular discontent has been simmering over perceived economic inequalities, as well as such issues as official corruption, land ownership and environmental pollution.
Wen addressed those concerns.
He says the government must make improving the people's lives a pivot linking reform, development and stability. He says the leadership must make sure people are content with their lives and jobs, that society is tranquil and orderly, and that the country enjoys long-term peace and stability.
Social stability has been a recent concern of the government amid the political upheaval spreading in the Middle East. Chinese state media warned Saturday against heeding calls to emulate the Mideast pro-democracy protests.
Chinese security forces have been deployed in large numbers at landmarks in major cities named as rallying points by pro-democracy advocates on Chinese Internet websites.
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The Philippines has filed an official protest with China, claiming Chinese patrol boats harassed a Philippine ship while it explored for oil this week near a chain of internationally disputed islands.
The Philippines Department of Foreign Affairs submitted the complaint to China on Thursday. DFA spokesman Ed Malaya says the oil explorer was well within Philippine national boundaries.
"The area is part of Philippine maritime territory. Specifically it happened in the Reed Bank, which is out of the Spratlys group of islands and its adjacent waters," said Malaya.
Reed Bank is about 150 kilometers east of the Spratly Islands on the South China Sea. China says the oil-rich Spratlys are part of its territory. But five other Southeast Asian countries, including the Philippines, also claim part or all of the islands.
The Philippine military says its western region office received an emergency call from a ship on an exploration assignment for the country's Department of Energy. Ship officers said two Chinese patrol vessels circled their craft "menacingly close" near the Reed Bank area.
The Philippines sent two war planes to fly over the oil exploration location. A lieutenant with the western region says the Chinese patrol boats departed before the aircraft arrived.
Malaya says the Philippines is seeking an explanation for the incident. "Our government is in a dialogue with the Chinese side and we're hopeful that we will be receiving that explanation soon," he said.
The Chinese Embassy in the Philippines issued a statement Friday saying the Nansha Islands, as China calls them, have been an "indisputable" part of the country's sovereignty since ancient times. The embassy says the remaining disputes over ownership should be resolved through peaceful negotiations.
The United States angered China last year when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said at an Association of Southeast Asian Nations meeting that the dispute should be settled through multilateral channels. China dismissed the statement.
Brunei, Taiwan, Malaysia and Vietnam also claim the islands as part of their territories.
President Barack Obama says with unemployment at a two year low and jobs being added to the economy, he is appealing Congress to help keep the economic momentum going.
During his weekly address Saturday, Mr. Obama stressed that the same bi-partisan teamwork that led to tax cuts needs to continue in order to reach an agreement on the federal budget.
The president says the only way his administration and Republicans can reach a common ground is if they sit at the same table and work out their differences.
Mr. Obama says both Republicans and Democrats must come work together in putting the country on a sustainable course that creates jobs, and prepares our citizens better than anyone else in the world.
In the Republican weekly address, Tennessee Congresswoman Diane Black said that while Mr. Obama talks about the country living within its means, his budget just represents more out of control government spending.
Representative Black say the country needs a new approach that removes barriers to job growth, which she identified as over-regulation, taxation, and debt.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
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Kenya's capital, Nairobi, is home to Kiriri Women's University of Science and Technology (KWUST), the only university in East Africa that caters specifically to women. Officials and students say having an all-famale environment better prepares the school's graduates to be successful leaders in the working world by developing their self-esteem and self-expression.
It's a unique sight in East Africa, a university comprised entirely of women students.
In a country where only about 12 percent of students pursuing math and science majors in 2007 were women, many see Kiriri Women's University of Science and Technology as a way of getting more women into a world traditionally run by men.
Fast Facts: Kiriri Women's University
Founded more than a decade ago
Offers degrees in mathematics, computer science, and business administration
First graduation in 2006
Currently has 108 students
Njeri Gikonyo is the university's deputy vice-chancellor. "We even give them special seminars on how women can manage in the workplace, how women can excel in the workplace, and all the barriers they have to go through to overcome that (discrimination). So, when they graduate, they end up being very special and in that way, they make a name for themselves in the market," she said.
Educators say in mixed university settings, women students commonly feel intimidated by their male counterparts and tend to be quiet in class.
But in an all-female setting, women are forced to develop leadership roles,
Business and marketing lecturer Judith Muriuki said, "There has to be people who come out to give their views, express themselves. In other situations where the two groups of people are mixed together, the ladies will tend to shy off and not really come out. They will leave all the answering, all the participation to the men."
Student Nancy Nekesa Wamacho says she is inspired by her fellow students. "If we go to schools where there are men, mostly in sciences and other things, men tend to perform much better than us. That one makes us think we cannot perform. But when you are here, and you see a girl performing, then we are in a position to say, 'she is doing it, it means I can also do that'," he said.
The intimidation many women students feel stretches back to childhood. In traditional Kenyan communities, young girls are taught to perform household chores and become wives and mothers at an early age.
Given a choice, financially-strapped families typically send their boys, rather than girls, to school.
But educators say girls' and women's access to education is improving in Kenya, with the government's 2030 economic plan and the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals. Last year, in fact, girls made up 45 percent of Kenya's secondary school enrollment.
Still, says deputy vice-chancellor Gikonyo, there is yet a long way to go, especially in the working world. "A lot of the organizations are male-dominated in the management level. There really does seem to be a glass ceiling for women at some point," she said.
A ceiling Kiriri Women's University of Science and Technology aims to shatter.
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Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, just celebrated his 80th birthday. In the second part of the series our correspondent looks at the fundamental changes he made in the foreign policy arena.
Mikhail Gorbachev was elected General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union on March 11, 1985. At 54, he was the youngest member of the ruling Politburo, which voted him into power. For the next six years, he instituted policies that would alter the course of history and ultimately lead to the demise of the Soviet Union.
On the domestic front, those policies were known as "glasnost" - or openness - and "perestroika" - or restructuring. In foreign affairs, Mr. Gorbachev's reforms were known as "new thinking."
Robert Legvold, with Columbia University, says it was not simply that Mr. Gorbachev changed Moscow's behavior.
"It was this new political thinking as the representation of a fundamental, new conceptual notion of what the Soviet Union was or could be in international politics, how it should play its role, what the fundamental mistakes had been in the past," said Levgold.
Legvold says Mr. Gorbachev understood that the Soviet Union could no longer increase its influence in the outside world by using its military force. And he says in order to create a new foreign policy that could be sustained economically, Mr. Gorbachev realized that Moscow would have to - in some areas - retrench.
One of those areas was Afghanistan, where Soviet troops had been fighting mujahedeen guerrilla forces since December 1979.
Archie Brown, Professor Emeritus at the University of Oxford (Britain), says Mr. Gorbachev had strong views about the Soviet presence in Afghanistan.
"At the time the invasion took place [December 24, 1979], Gorbachev met with [Eduard] Shevardnadze [Georgian Communist Party leader, future Soviet Foreign Minister under Gorbachev]," said Brown. "They were both members of the Politburo, but this decision was taken without their participation. It was taken by a very narrow group in the top leadership of the party, and they both thought it would be a disaster. And so from very early in his general secretaryship, Gorbachev wanted to get Soviet troops out of Afghanistan. But he had the same problems that other leaders have when troops are there and a lot of people have been killed - it's very difficult to say all these lives were wasted, the Afghan lives and the lives of Soviet soldiers. You want to get out with some dignity and some kind of agreement."
Brown says the process took longer than Mr. Gorbachev expected. The last Soviet soldier left Afghanistan on February 15, 1989.
But as Marshal Goldman from Harvard University says, not everyone welcomed that decision.
"There were others who said that this is Russia backing down - once you start backing down, you are just going to back up all the way and show that you're just a paper tiger," said Goldman. "But I think this was essential and Gorbachev understood that fighting this war was a drain for which there was really no end in sight. But it also led to statements in the sense that Russia really had lost it and lost its ability to intimidate - they suddenly fell from being a superpower to being no power whatsoever."
Mr. Gorbachev's "new thinking" on foreign policy spread to Eastern Europe, where people were clamoring for an end to Communist Party rule.
In July 1989, the so-called "Brezhnev Doctrine" was replaced by what one Gorbachev adviser described as the "Sinatra Doctrine", based on the singer's popular song "My Way." In other words, the adviser said East European countries were now able to go their own way - politically and economically - without fear of invasion by Soviet troops.
Once again, Archie Brown:
"Once it became clear that there would be no Soviet military intervention to put a stop to demands for national independence, then I think one could simply assume - I certainly assumed at the time - that this would follow quickly, because these countries would have become non-communist years earlier, even decades earlier, but for their perfectly realistic expectation that if they got rid of their own local communist leaders, this would lead to a Soviet intervention, as it did in Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968," he said.
Columbia University's Robert Legvold says historians will argue about why the Cold War ended or why the Soviet Union collapsed.
"My own view is that when you look at the story, especially when you try to explain the timing, that is why it occurred from 1985 to 1989 as opposed to 10 years later, 15 years later, when you try and explain the timing, I think it is very difficult to do that without giving a lot of credit to Gorbachev and what he did during that period," he said.
In October 1990, Mr. Gorbachev was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his many and decisive contributions to peace. Fourteen months later, he resigned as Soviet president, experts say a victim of forces he unleashed but ultimately could not control.
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Though he gained prominence as an actor in Hollywood and later as President of the United States, the people of Dixon, Illinois, remember Ronald Reagan as a hometown hero who saved the lives of 77 people while working as a lifeguard. The town is honoring Reagan's 100th birthday this year, with a year-long celebration. The 40th President's hometown was never very far from his heart.
Ninety-five-year-old Gertrude Childers almost didn't make it past the age of 15. She was swimming in the Rock River near Dixon, Illinois, one warm summer day in 1931, when she failed to notice another swimmer barreling down the water slide. ".. and our timing was so perfect as he came down, I pushed out, and this man landed right on my neck and shoulders and of course it knocked me out," Childers said.
She would have drowned right then and there, if it had not been for the lifeguard everyone called "Dutch," who pulled her limp body out of the water. "Everybody knew Dutch. He was just always there," Childers said.
Gertrude was number 70 on the list of 77 people the locals say "Dutch" saved in his career as a lifeguard.
When "Dutch", known to the rest of the world as Ronald Reagan, went on to star in movies, and to lead the state of California and later the United States, his next-door neighbor in Dixon, Helen Lawton, had a hard time calling him "Governor," or "Mr. President." "Well he was just "Dutch" Reagan to us!," she said.
Dixon, Illinois, population 16,000, is still in many ways the small Midwestern community where Ronald Reagan grew up. Only now, the town is known throughout the world.
"He's been a good public relations arm for the city of Dixon," said Jim Burke, Dixon's mayor, though on the opposite side of politics from Ronald Reagan. "I'm a Democrat... but a big Reagan supporter," he said.
Reagan's popularity has been of great benefit to Dixon, attracting tourists from around the world who want to explore the place that molded the character of a man who would become President. "He always kept his roots, and I think that is how he is celebrated here, as a guy who went on to great success but never lost his humility," Burke said.
That humility is on display in the modest home where Reagan spent much of his childhood. Completely renovated, it is an historic landmark, and the most popular tourist attraction in the region.
"We have ranged from 15,000 to about 30,000 in the years that it has been open. When Mr. Reagan passed away that year, it was bumped up considerably," said Ann Lewis, the chairwoman of the Dixon Reagan Centennial Commission. She is expecting a record number of visitors to the city this year as Dixon, and the state of Illinois, celebrate Ronald Reagan's 100th birthday.
That celebration began with much fanfare.
At the historic Dixon Theater, the place where Ronald Reagan watched the films that would inspire his career as an actor, musicians from around the country gathered to honor "Dutch."
"It's more of an anthem to his optimism - his moral character… all those things he really believed in," said music professor David Holsinger. He says it was only fitting that Dixon hosted the debut of his original composition, titled "Reagan of Illinois."
"It is something special when you walk into a place like this. 'Cause you can sense it in not only the people and the buildings and all the landmarks around, but you can… it's kind of in the air," Holsinger said.
While the attention in Dixon now focuses larger-than-life statues and memorials to the nation's 40th President, organizers say the Reagan Centennial is meant to honor the essence of the man. A man who many in Dixon remember less as an icon of the big screen, or the President of the United States, endeavoring to end the Cold War, than as a fair-haired lifeguard who saved the lives of Gertrude Childers and 76 others - back when everyone called him "Dutch."
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European aerospace manufacturer EADS says it will not appeal the decision that awarded a lucrative contract to its rival, Boeing.
EADS announced Friday at a press conference it was choosing instead to focus its attention on future opportunities. But EADS' North American chairman, Ralph Crosby, said his company was "ready to step in" if Boeing should fail to deliver the new air tankers on schedule.
EADS and Boeing both bid on a contract to build nearly 200 refueling planes for the U.S. Air Force. The new planes will replace the Boeing KC-135 to perform the complex task of refueling military aircraft in mid-air. In-flight refueling greatly extends the range of fighters, bombers and transport aircraft, giving some the ability to reach targets anywhere in the world.
The Air Force told EADS that Boeing priced the job significantly lower than EADS did - and according to the terms of the contract competition, that rendered any other factors moot.
Crosby suggested what he called Boeing's "extremely low-ball offer" was part of a strategy to block the European company from gaining a foothold in the United States. EADS had planned to build the tankers at a new plant in the southeastern U.S. state of Alabama.
EADS' announcement Friday finally puts to rest wrangling that has been underway for a decade. The hard-fought contest has already included a contracting scandal that saw a Boeing manager and a top Air Force official go to jail.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
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From the Brazil to the United States, Carnival celebrations are picking up, with the grand finale, Mardi Gras, just days away.
In Rio de Janeiro, the party kicked off Friday after the mayor handed the key to the city to the mythical figure, King Momo, who reigns over Carnival's five day marathon of dancing in the streets, parades and alcohol.
In the United States, the first of hundreds of thousands of expected revelers are in New Orleans, Louisiana for one of the largest Mardi Gras celebrations in the country.
From the famed Bourbon Street, masked revelers are dancing their way across the city, usually with the help of plenty of libations.
The around the clock party features several parades of floats that wraps up on March 8, Fat Tuesday , ahead of Wednesday's start of Lent.
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Top U.S. officials from President Barack Obama on down have made it clear Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi should go. The United States is considering a range of options to pressure Mr. Gadhafi. One of them might be a covert program to topple him.
In a time of international crisis, a U.S. president has an array of tools he can choose from to affect events, ranging from diplomacy to full-blown military action. But lying somewhere in between is covert action.
Simply defined, covert action is any U.S. government effort to change the economic, military, or political situation overseas in a hidden way. Intelligence professionals consider it to be different than clandestine operations, which cover more traditional espionage and counterintelligence activities. Covert action can encompass many things, including propaganda, covert funding, electoral manipulation, arming and training insurgents, and even encouraging a coup.
Is covert action under way in Libya? Those who know are not telling. The key to a successful covert action, after all, is secrecy. But the situation in Libya is chaotic. Jennifer Sims, visiting professor of security studies at Georgetown University and a specialist in intelligence affairs, says covert action should not be undertaken without a clear picture of what the outcome will - or at least should - be.
"I think of it as a gymnastics move," said Sims. "If you can't visualize it from the moment you start running down the mat until you stick the landing, you better not try to start running down the mat. And I don't know that things are at all clear on the ground in Libya at the moment. I don't know what our [intelligence] collection assets are, but it could be a very, very difficult thing to pull off. And we don't know what the end game would be at this moment, or we'd have to find out."
Covert actions traditionally have been carried out by the Central Intelligence Agency. Charles Allen, who served more than 40 years at the CIA, says proposals for covert action originate not from spies but policymakers. The CIA, he says, is merely an instrument.
The Central Intelligence Agency rarely suggests this," said Allen. "This usually comes, and almost invariably comes, from the president and his senior policymakers - secretary of state, secretary of defense, or the National Security Council. Under some presidents, they've been very limited. Under others, where the threat was viewed as higher, covert actions are more often used.
As Sims points out, covert actions are very tempting tools for a president to use.
"The upside is that you can get outcomes that are ripe for getting with a minimum use, ideally, of force," she said. "And by keeping the U.S. hand hidden, you can hopefully get it without getting blowback on the United States in terms of public outcry over the outcomes that might make others unhappy. The downside, of course, is exactly what the upside is - that you're hiding the U.S. hand, and if it gets exposed, you can get blowback worse than you were ever going to get on the overt side."
Some operations, such as the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961, were disasters. Others, such as backing the mujahedin in Afghanistan in the 1980s against Soviet occupation, have been more widely viewed as successful. In 1975, U.S. plots to assassinate foreign leaders came to light. The glare of public spotlight led to strict rules on covert action, including requiring presidential approval of covert actions and notification of eight key members of the Congress responsible for intelligence oversight.
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U.S. unemployment dipped below 9 percent last month, as private employers added the most jobs since April. The U.S. Labor Department released its monthly employment report Friday, showing the U.S. economy picked up a net total of 192,000 jobs in February. That brings the U.S. jobless rate to 8.9 percent - the lowest in nearly two years and another sign that the US recovery is picking up steam.
In the Midwestern state of Wisconsin - another sign of the improving economy. The Oshkosh Corporation is hiring 750 workers to service its military contracts. For the 2,500 applicants competing for those jobs, it's a welcome glimmer of hope.
One man in Wisconsin said, "Fourteen years in the paper industry and a little bit in between there, and now I've hopefully got a new start."
And the latest job numbers support his optimism. Private employers added 222,000 jobs last month, bringing the nation's unemployment rate to its lowest level since April 2009.
Wells Fargo chief economist John Silva said it shows that companies are more confident about a sustained U.S. recovery. "It was nice to see the unemployment rate down a little bit. It was good to see that most of the job growth was in fact in the private sector. I think those are all good signs telling us that we have sustained economic growth and a better labor market."
The fastest growth has been in the manufacturing and service sectors, which have benefited from higher consumer spending and an increase in U.S. exports abroad.
Still, the total number of unemployed remains high at 13.7 million, nearly double what it was before the recession. Factoring in those wishing to work more hours and those who have given up looking for work - the so-called underemployment rate is 15.9 percent.
Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said, "We need to be reminded that we've added jobs. One and a half million private sector jobs, and that, I think, it's right where we need to be, but we need to continue to not lose sight of where we need to go to increase opportunities for people to get employed in new jobs."
A larger threat to sustained job growth, though, is the rising price of oil - now above $100 a barrel. White House spokesman Jay Carney said, "The president is extremely aware of the impact that a spike in oil prices can have on gasoline prices and therefore on the wallets and pocketbooks of average Americans."
Unemployment has dropped nearly one percent since November. Average paychecks have remained flat, however, which means higher gas prices could put a serious dent in consumer spending.
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Rebel Libyan forces are reported to have beaten back Moammar Gadhafi's forces in two towns.
In western Libya, loyalist troops withdrew from Zawiayah, 50 kilometers from Tripoli, after battling with rebels Saturday.
The rebels were able to overcome the Libyan military despite the military's heavy artillery and tanks.
Rebels are also reported in control of the eastern oil port of Ras Lanuf, after battling Gadhafi loyalists Friday.
The number of casualties in the clashes in the towns was not immediately clear.
The International Committee of the Red Cross has launched an appeal of nearly $26 million to assist more than 200,000 people affected by the the crisis in Libya.
Meanwhile, Interpol has issued a global alert against Gadhafi and 15 other Libyan nationals, including some of his family members and close associates.
The alert comes after the International Criminal Court announced it has opened a probe against Gadhafi and some of his associates in possible crimes against humanity.
Libya's unrest follows waves of demonstrations in other Middle Eastern and North African countries in recent weeks. Anti-government demonstrations have forced the long-time leaders of Tunisia and Egypt to step down. But Gadhafi has refused to budge, and the conflict in Libya has escalated.
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