Libya says NATO air forces bombed a site near the national broadcast offices early Saturday while Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi was inside delivering an address to the nation.
The government says the bombing shows allied forces are specifically targeting Gadhafi.
In an hour-and-a-half long televised speech, the Libyan leader vowed he would not step down from power.
He also addressed NATO countries involved in airstrikes in Libya, calling on them to negotiate an end to the conflict and to stop the bombings.
Libya's conflict spilled beyond its borders Friday, as forces loyal to Gadhafi clashed with Tunisian soldiers after chasing rebel fighters across the frontier.
The incursion drew a sharp reaction from Tunisian authorities, who summoned Libya's ambassador to protest.
Libyan pro-government forces have been trying to reclaim the border crossing, in the western Wazin region, which was seized by rebels last week.
Meanwhile, NATO says its warships intercepted pro-Gadhafi forces laying anti-ship mines in the harbor of the western, rebel-held city Misrata. NATO warned Misrata port authorities, who closed the facility, forcing the cancellation of the arrival of two aid ships.
The port is the only lifeline for the city of 300,000, which has been under siege for two months.
NATO operations commander Brigadier Rob Weighill said the alliance intercepted several small boats Friday. He said the incident shows what he called Gadhafi's complete disregard for international law by trying to keep humanitarian aid from being delivered to civilians.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
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The United States imposed sanctions Friday on Syria's intelligence agency and two relatives of President Bashar al-Assad over the Damascus government's bloody crackdown on democracy protestors. Officials say the penalties may be later be expanded to include the Syrian leader himself.
Obama administration officials acknowledge the sanctions, freezing any American assets and barring U.S. business dealings by the named individuals and entities, may have little immediate impact.
But they say they hope the action triggers similar steps by European allies, and puts world attention on those held responsible for the deaths of protestors in Syria, including the town of Daraa where scores of civilians have been killed by security forces.
The executive order, signed Friday by President Barack Obama, names Mahir al-Assad, the brother of the Syrian President and the commander of the Syrian Army's 4th Division, which has played a lead role in operations in Daraa.
It also cites a cousin of President Assad, Atif Najib, who until recently was security chief in Daraa province, the Syrian General Intelligence Directorate and its chief, Ali Mamluk, as well as the elite Quds Force of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps which is said to be providing "material support" for the Syrian crackdown.
Briefing reporters, State Department Policy Planning Director Jake Sullivan said those targeted are only "the first people on the list" who should face U.S. sanctions, and said the roster could be expanded to include President Assad himself if Syrian behavior does not change.
"The signal we're trying to send with this order is that a series of individuals and organizations who have played a key role in perpetrating this violence should bear costs for doing so, and that the choice is imposed on others about what they do in the future," said Sullivan. "And if they continue this violence, and if they engage in this violence, we have the flexibility to add additional designations."
The sanctions were authorized under the 2004 Syria Accountability Act by the U.S. Congress, which already sharply limits U.S. trade with that country.
The Iranian Quds force also has been previously sanctioned by the United States. Sullivan, while declining details, said U.S. officials are sure this Tehran-based organization has had a role in the Syrian crackdown.
"I'm not in a position to get into specifics about the information we have on Iran's involvement in supporting Syria's effort to repress its own citizens. But we feel we can state with confidence, as the President has, and as [U.N.] Ambassador [Susan] Rice has, that that involvement is ongoing and is unacceptable."
While describing President Assad as a potential sanctions target, Sullivan declined under questioning to say that he has lost his legitimacy and said Assad's political future is for the Syrian people to decide.
At the same time, he said the recent actions of Damascus authorities "are neither those of a responsible government, nor those of a responsible member of the international community."
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Israel is watching events in neighboring Syria carefully. Relations between the two have remained hostile since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war in which Israel seized the Golan Heights from Syria, but the area has been mostly quiet. Now, there is concern among Israelis that Syria's uprising could further destabilize relations.
The area along the fence marking the demilitarized zone is dotted with signs warning of land mines that were planted decades ago.
In the Druze town of Majdal Shams, human rights activist Salman Fakhr El Deen keeps up with news of the uprising through the Internet. He, like other Druze in Majdal Shams, considers himself a Syrian living under Israeli occupation. "We are concerned, we are anxious about what is going to be and what is taking place now. It's our state, our people," said El Deen.
Concerns
Some of that concern and anxiety are shared by Israel.
Israeli leaders are watching carefully, and cautiously avoiding stating a position. They do not want to shatter the fragile quiet that has existed for the past four decades.
"We have made no public comment," said Mark Regev, a spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "The turmoil in the region - and we are talking about a change that is really historic, affecting all the countries of the region - has nothing to do with us. It's about people wanting empowerment - political empowerment, economic empowerment. There's no reason whatsoever why we should insert ourselves into what ultimately is an Arab event."
Privately, officials have said they are concerned that the turmoil in Syria could further destabilize relations, and they wonder what kind of enemy Syria will be in the future.
No one is casting predictions on whether Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad will stay or go. Israel's former intelligence chief Ephraim Halevy tells VOA the uncertainty is reason for Israeli leaders to sit back and wait.
"We are concerned that in the event that Assad would ultimately have to leave the presidency in one form or another, we are faced with a host of imponderables," he said. "We have no idea who will take over. We have no idea what the relative influence will be of the Muslim Brothers, which are there, [and] what will happen to Iranian influence in Syria. We have to have to watch this very carefully."
Despite the tense relations with the Assad government, the demilitarized zone separating Israeli and Syrian forces has been quiet for decades. Syria demands the return of the Golan Heights, but has refrained from taking direct military action.
At the same time, Halevy notes that Assad has not been a partner for peace. "The devil you know is better than the devil you don't know, but the devil we do know is a devil which tried a few years ago to initiate a nuclear military capability," he said. "When you come to the question of the devil you know and the devil you don't know, the devil we do know was intent on trying to craft for himself a military nuclear capability on our northern border."
Secret nuclear reactor
The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency confirmed for the first time this week that a Syrian facility bombed in a 2007 Israeli air strike was a secret nuclear reactor.
The government of Assad is a close ally of Israel's top enemies, Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Uri Saguy is a retired major general in the Israel Defense Forces who served as chief of military intelligence and once advocated peace talks with Syria. "The way they are doing business with Hezbollah in Lebanon and with the Iranians on the other [side of Syria], Israel does not like it," he said.
Israeli analysts say that is not enough to make many Israelis want the Assad government to fall. They say there is nothing to indicate that Iran would gain strategically if Assad goes.
Since the Syrian uprisings began, the Golan Heights has been the scene of rallies by Druze. Some have been in favor of President Assad, some against.
Demonstrators say they want Israel to withdraw from the Golan Heights, but the rallies themselves have avoided mentioning Israel as a target, and they have been peaceful.
For now, Israel does not consider the rallies in the Golan or the uprisings within Syria as direct threats - as long as the area along the fence stays as quiet as it has been for the last few decades.
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President Barack Obama walked through the wreckage Friday of a deadly tornado in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Obama pledged to help families in the storm-ravaged Southern United States recover.
Wednesday's tornadoes and thunderstorms killed at least 339 people across the South, more than 200 of them in Alabama and 36 of those in Tuscaloosa, home of the University of Alabama.
President Obama stopped briefly in Tuscaloosa on Friday, to see the destruction for himself. Whole neighborhoods were flattened, leaving piles of debris around the city and about one million people in the state without electricity. Rescue workers are still searching for survivors.
The president said he had never seen such devastation.
He met with Alabama Governor Robert Bentley and other officials, as well as private citizens. Obama said a conversation with the city's mayor reminded him what elected officials' priorities should be.
"Politics, differences of religion or race, all that fades away when we are confronted with the awesome power of nature and we are reminded that all we have is each other," said President Obama. "And so, hopefully, that spirit continues and grows. If nothing else comes out of this tragedy, let's hope that that is one of the things that comes out of it."
The president has called the loss of life from the storms "heartbreaking," and promised that his administration will do everything it can to help people throughout the region recover.
Obama signed a disaster declaration for Alabama Thursday, making federal money available to help residents, businesses and local governments recover from the tragedy.
While visiting Friday, the president said the property damage is extensive, but he is struck by the resilience of the community. He said Tuscaloosa would rebuild in a way that would give him a story of pride he would tell all over the nation.
More than 160 tornadoes were reported throughout the South Wednesday night. The storms caused deaths in Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia, Arkansas, Virginia, Louisiana and Kentucky.
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For those not lucky enough to get an invitation to the royal wedding itself, there were thousands of street parties across Britain on Friday. With the day declared a public holiday, many people dressed up for the occasion and joined the celebrations.
In parks and streets across London, people turned out in the hundreds of thousands to celebrate the royal wedding.
Here in Clapham Common - just a few miles from Westminster Abbey - the service played on a big screen to 2,000 flag-waving fans.
For a country normally reserved about overt shows of patriotism, Britain became a sea of Union Jack flags.
As Prince William and Catherine Middleton read their vows, cheers rippled across the crowd. Partygoers we spoke to had nothing but praise for the newly-wed couple.
"Lovely! She looked brilliant!"
"She looked absolutely stunning. Not over the top at all."
"It's been really, really good. And everyone here, too, sitting silently and listening to the vows. It feels very British."
"I didn't think I'd feel so moved by it. Neither of us did. But it was actually quite emotional."
From fish and chips served from a traditional London bus, to strawberries and cream, every facet of British culture seemed to be on show.
Thousands of street parties have taken place across Britain. Battersea in London is one of the most diverse communities in the capital. Here neighbors and businesses came together to celebrate - and in some cases, make a bit of money.
Party organizer Valeria Ruzzon said people have turned out whether they're interested in the wedding or not. "This is not about having an opinion about the monarchy, this is about having a party on a day that we should all enjoy because we live in this country. So it's really about embracing the culture we live in. I'm Italian, I've been here for 20 years but I couldn't beat it, so I decided to join it!"
This also was a chance to show off some fancy outfits - from the patriotic to the hopeful. VOA found one young woman wandering around in a wedding dress looking for her own Prince William.
"And I am actually called Kate," she said. "No, I really am called Kate! It's the only time in my life that I've had to argue, 'No, I really am called Kate!'"
Many of the street celebrations were local, low-key affairs, a chance for neighbors to get together and chat in a city that's often accused of lacking community spirit.
For the younger crowd, the party went on into the night. Many said they planned to keep going all weekend. These young women from the Netherlands told VOA they have another idea.
"We're going to find Harry, that's our plan actually," said one.
"Harry, if you're available, we're single!" exclaimed another.
It seems many people are already making plans for the next royal wedding.
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Thousands of demonstrators are gathering in Yemen, some in support of a plan for government transition and others saying it is not enough.
Crowds are rallying in the capital Sana'a for a government-sponsored "Friday of Constitutional Legitimacy," while the opposition planned what it called a "Friday of Honoring Martyrs."
The Associated Press reported that security officers opened fire at protesters gathering in the port city of Hodeida, wounding three.
The turnouts came as doubts grew over an agreement between an opposition coalition and the government that calls for the president to hand over power.
The agreement was brokered by the Gulf Cooperation Council. It calls for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to hand over power to a deputy and resign within 30 days of signing the initiative. It would establish a unity government that would include opposition members.
Officials had said the agreement could be signed as early as Sunday in Saudi Arabia. But both sides have been wavering in recent days.
The opposition coalition says it fears the accord could be used by the president to crush the protests. The French news agency says that, for his part, Saleh expressed reservations about some Gulf Arab mediators, specifically Qatar.
On Wednesday, at least 13 people were killed in clashes between security forces and protesters at anti-government rallies demanding Saleh's immediate departure from office.
Some opposition groups say they oppose the agreement because it gives the president a month-long window to resign and because Saleh and his family would be granted immunity from prosecution.
However, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton has welcomed the deal. She says the plan represents Yemen's "best chance" for addressing its economic, social and security challenges.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
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Riots have broken out in Kampala after the fourth arrest of opposition leader Kizza Besigye. According to reports, there have been confrontations between rioters and Ugandan police and the armed forces that have left at least two people dead and hundreds wounded.
Police and armed forces have reportedly used live ammunition to quell riots across Kampala following opposition leader Kizza Besigye's fourth arrest on Thursday. The Ugandan army has played an increasing role in the state response to the opposition-led "Walk to Work" protests which began on April 12.
According to reports, rioters have set up roadblocks in Kampala's city center using flaming tires and causing more confrontations.
The Deputy Spokesman of Besigye's Forum for Democratic Change, Totelebuka Bamwemda, described the scene for VOA. "Kampala, there is a lot of chaos. People were demonstrating around Kiseka Market. The soldiers responded with teargas, beating and excessive forces and it has spread to the other parts of Kampala - suburbs," he said.
The riots are centered on the arrest of politician Kizza Besigye, a three time presidential candidate and runner-up in February's presidential vote. Besigye and opposition allies have organized the "Walk to Work" protests in response to rising food and fuel prices in the east African nation. President Yoweri Museveni has declared the demonstrations illegal and Ugandan security forces have met each of the walks with increasing force.
On Thursday, Besigye was arrested for the fourth time under charges of inciting violence and unlawful assembly. Video of the incident shows Ugandan police smashing the politicians car, spraying it with teargas and forcefully removing Besigye.
This morning, a visibly injured Besigye appeared in court and was released. Representatives said he was receiving medical treatment at his home on the outskirts of Kampala.
The Walk to Work protests are scheduled for every Monday and Thursday. Bamwenda said protests would continue, and Besigye would take part if able.
"Depending on his health. Secondly he has to appear in court - in Kasangati court. That is the other problem. Maybe he can walk from his home to court," said Bamwenda.
The international community has roundly condemned President Museveni's response to the demonstrations. United States Assistant Secretary of State Johnnie Carson told reporters Thursday he spoke with the Ugandan government about the arrests and urged the authorities to act in a "responsible and civil fashion."
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Nigerian opposition parties have increased their share of the country's powerful state governors in a vote that the Obama administration says reverses a downward slide of democracy.
Nigeria's ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) held on to the presidency with the election of Goodluck Jonathan, but it will control fewer of the country's powerful state governors following a vote marred by violence and allegations of ballot theft.
The ruling party now holds none of the six state houses in the southwest region where the opposition Action Congress of Nigeria picked up the states of Ogun and Oyo while holding on to control of the commercial capital Lagos.
Lagos Governor Babatunde Fashola says the electoral commission defied those who feared the worst.
"Everything pointed to a disaster, and pointed to very difficult times ahead," said Fashola. "But I think with these elections as a people we have risen and said that we will not accept certain things anymore. There is still a lot of work to do about our elections, but this is progress that we must build on."
The U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Johnnie Carson, says the vote marks a new direction for Africa's most populous country.
"This reverses a downward democratic trajectory and provides the country a solid foundation for strengthening its electoral procedures and democratic institutions in the years to come," said Carson. "The Nigerian people have shown to the world their resilience and will to have their voices heard. These elections were a real opportunity to choose their leaders."
There were problems. Supporters of opposition candidate Muhammadu Buhari fought with riot police after Buhari said President Jonathan's election was rigged. Buhari supporters attacked churches, homes and police stations in the north, sparking reprisal attacks by Christians in violence that a local human rights group says killed at least 500 people.
Buhari's party is challenging results from the gubernatorial elections in Niger and Katsina states. The Action Congress of Nigeria is contesting the outcome of voting in Akwa Ibom.
Despite what he called "some technical imperfections," Carson says these elections are a substantial improvement over Nigeria's seriously flawed 2007 vote.
"Following the deplorable post-election violence of the previous week, we are heartened that many Nigerian voters went to the polls to vote in an environment largely free of violence," added Carson. "We remain concerned about allegations of fraud and ballot box snatching in various jurisdictions, and we strongly urge Nigerian authorities to investigate and take corrective actions on all of these allegations."
President Jonathan says a judicial commission of inquiry will investigate post-electoral violence and all perpetrators of what he calls "these dastardly acts of violence" will face the full weight of the law.
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The last flight of the Space Shuttle Endeavour has been delayed by technical problems with the new launch target being Monday at the earliest. President Obama was to have attended the Friday launch along with Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, wife of Endeavour commander Mark Kelly. She is recuperating from a gunshot wound to the head suffered during a shooting rampage in her home district in Arizona more than three months ago. The delay was caused by a problem with the power units that allow the orbiter to maneuver as it enters space and as it returns to earth.
About three and a half hours before its scheduled liftoff, NASA managers called off the Endeavour launch because of a malfunction in one of the spacecraft's auxiliary power units, called APUs for short. Endeavour has three power units and needs all three functioning in order to launch. Initially engineers thought they might be able to fix the problem in a couple of days. Speaking to VOA by telephone from the Kennedy Space Center, NASA spokesperson Mike Curie explained the engineers' decision to add one more day.
"They typically look at things as a one or two day slip and, in this case, as they looked at it further they determined that it was going to take longer to resolve so they went ahead and decided it was going to take at least 72 hours," said Curie.
Curie says two faulty heaters in the APU caused the problem. The NASA spokesperson says the heaters are needed to keep the fluid, hydrazine, from freezing when the orbiter is in space.
"When in space, the shuttle is controlled by the thrusters, the jets that maneuver it around, so the APUs are turned off," he said. "However the hydrazine is still in the lines and the shuttle is subject to temperatures that drop as low as 250 degrees below zero when it is on the dark side of the earth. The hydrazine would freeze without these heaters and if the hydrazine freezes, the APUs would not work correctly for landing."
If technical problems or weather should delay the launch Monday, Curie says there are a few other opportunities to launch before May 4. At that time, the shuttle would have to make way for a previously scheduled Atlas rocket launch from the same area, and managers would not be able to prepare it for launch again before May eighth.
The delay is a big disappointment to the more than 700,000 people who have gathered along the central Florida Atlantic coastline near the Kennedy Space Center to witness what would be the next-to-last launch of a US space shuttle and the last flight of Endeavour, which has flown 24 previous missions in its 19 years of service.
On this mission Endeavour is to carry six crew members on a two-week visit to the International Space Station to deliver a $2-million astrophysics experimental device called the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer-2. It will be used to study cosmic rays and dark matter, which scientists hope will provide new information on the workings of the universe. The mission also includes four space walks, this will be the last time astronauts will step out of a space shuttle as no space walks are programmed for the final shuttle mission now set for late June.
Congresswoman Giffords has witnessed two previous launches in which her husband flew, but this occasion was particularly important since she is still recovering from a gunshot wound to the head. Doctors who have been working with her at a rehabilitation facility here in Houston approved her trip to Florida. She has doctors and therapists with her in Florida and plans to stay there at least until Monday's scheduled launch date.
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May 3, 2011, the United Nations will mark World Press Freedom Day. This year's event comes at a time when social media, mobile phones and the Internet are playing an increasing role in giving a voice to the oppressed. As recent events in the Middle East and North Africa have shown, so-called "citizen journalists" are playing a major role.
Syria
Street Protesters in Syria enraged over the deaths of pro-democracy activists are finding their way onto the Internet, even as the government continues a brutal crackdown. In one recent video, scores marched through the streets and then scatter, as the sound of gunfire fills the air.
Although amateur videos cannot be independently verified, social media and citizen journalists are helping rally protesters.
Adel Iskandar, a new media specialist at Georgetown University here in Washington, says they are also documenting protests against the injustices that individuals across the region say they have suffered for decades.
"They do have a journalistic responsibility, a huge journalistic responsibility in the case of Syria, where there are no journalists on the ground," said Iskandar. "This task is actually colossal because they are literally the world's eyes and ears." North Africa
Uprisings already have toppled governments in Egypt and Tunisia, and the outcome of mass protests elsewhere in the Mideast and North Africa remains to be seen.
Courtney Radsch of Freedom House, a U.S.-based human rights monitoring group, says mobile phones in the Arab world have become a powerful multimedia tool because most people have them.
"Simply by snapping a photo or recording a chant or taking a video of police brutality or opposition protests and then in many cases they are on the 3G networks, these more advanced networks, so they can upload video and photos directly, without having to go back to a computer, without risking their phone being confiscated," said Radsch.
Georgetown University's Adel Iskandar notes that much of the video and photos coming out of Syria and other countries in the region can be found on the social networking site Facebook, which has become a clearing house for information for online postings.
"So now Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya and other [television] networks are relying exclusively on content produced by citizen journalists in Syria, and have done the same in Bahrain and Egypt and elsewhere," he said. Limitations
Although citizen journalists are playing a major role in dissemination information about events in these troubled countries, Courtney Radsch says it is unlikely that they will eventually replace traditional journalists.
"It's not sustainable to rely on anonymous random citizens for coverage of mainstream politics, mainstream economic issues," she said. "They tend to focus on the fringes, on the issues that are not being covered by the mainstream media or holding the mainstream media to account."
Despite its power, there are limits to what social media and the Internet can do. During the uprisings in Egypt, for example, the government shut down the Internet.
In Tunisia, authorities reportedly hacked into the Facebook accounts of people believe to be behind the unrest. In Syria, authorities are believed to be clogging Twitter feeds with spam, such as postings with messages unrelated to the unrest.
Empowerment
Courtney Radsch of Freedom House says that although social networks can empower citizens by connecting activist networks and the international media, there is a downside.
"At the same time, because they are public, they are also susceptible to surveillance and to manipulation by governments," she said.
Although the Egyptian government's shut down of the Internet was successful initially, it eventually was overpowered by protests in the streets.
"It is a serious decision to take and one [that governments] need to think about it in advance," said Adel Iskandar. "And in some cases, it backfires because the human will to express oneself once the ball is rolling, if you will, is so insatiable that there is really nothing you can do."
Analysts say that in addition to failing to stop the uprisings in Egypt, the government's shutdown of the Internet also cost Egypt an estimated $90 billion in international trade.
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Laos goes to the polls Saturday to elect representatives to its legislative branch, known as the National Assembly. The small, Southeast Asian nation is a one-party communist state and the candidates are determined by the party.
On paper it is a body of lawmakers chosen by and for the people. But analysts say in reality, the ruling Lao People's Revolutionary Party, a communist party, selects the candidates, who serve at its convenience.
Professor Martin Stuart-Fox is a specialist on Laos at the University of Queensland in Australia. He says the communist party controls all elections in Laos.
"Overwhelmingly, the people who stand for the National Assembly elections are members of the party," he says. "A few independents are allowed to stand, but they have been checked out by the party."
Stuart-Fox says the role of the National Assembly is to lend the party a pretense of democratic legitimacy. He says its duties are supposed to include passing laws and choosing government leaders.
"But the names and who will serve have already been determined by the party. So, all the assembly does is simply to rubber stamp the decisions that the party has already made."
Nonetheless, Stuart-Fox says the party has allowed a slight improvement in the body's internal discussions. He says while in the past there was no real debate on issues, the National Assembly now, on occasion, addresses problems such as corruption, a growing concern.
"And, this has been debated within the assembly without naming names, and, of course, nothing comes out of it in terms of prosecutions," he says. "But, it does signal the government's disquiet over the level of corruption."
Compared to its neighbors in Southeast Asia, Laos is small, poor, and landlocked, except for the Mekong River, which flows past its capital, Vientiane.
But the economy is growing rapidly, mainly from selling natural mineral and hydropower resources.
The influx of cash, and centralized power, has created opportunities for graft.
But, ordinary people in Laos are also seeing benefits from increased investment and business, leading few to question the communist party's legitimacy.
Stuart-Fox says as long as the economy continues to grow the party will take credit for it.
"The problem has been that there has been increasing mal-distribution of wealth. So that most of the wealth that is generated by the improved economy ends up in the Mekong cities and so on. So there is still considerable poverty in the countryside," he says.
Laos is a former French colony of about seven million people and has been ruled by the communist party since 1975.
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Forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi clashed with Tunisian soldiers Friday, after crossing the border while pursuing rebel fighters.
Witnesses say Tunisian forces fought back, pushing the pro-Gadhafi soldiers back into Libya.
Libyan forces have been trying to reclaim the border crossing, in the western Wazin region, which was seized by rebels last week.
Tunisian officials say thousands of Libyans have fled to Tunisia during the past few days to escape the fighting.
Heavy fighting was also reported around the airport in the city of Misrata Friday, one of the few areas of the Mediterranean port town still controlled by pro-government forces.
In an earlier development, the U.S. envoy to the United Nations said Thursday that some pro-government fighters have been issued the anti-impotency drug Viagra, encouraging them to rape civilians.
Diplomats say U.S. ambassador Susan Rice brought up the shocking allegation during a closed-door meeting of the U.N. Security Council. They say Rice did not give any sources for the claim, and that it was brought up to highlight the brutality of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's government.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
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The wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton also found an appreciative audience in the United States. In New York, revelers dressed up royally and reveled as the sun rose in Times Square. In suburban Washington, the Union Jack pub opened its doors at 5:00 a.m. for early risers to witness the pomp and ceremony.
Royal wedding watchers in New York came to Times Square in the early morning hours, some dressed in special attire.
"I'm wearing a hat because I'm attending the royal wedding at Times Square in New York City. Thirty years ago, I was a college student and I got up at 3 o'clock in the morning to watch Lady Diana marry Prince Charles," says Christine Pajor. "It was a wonderful event so I wanted to attend this event as well."
The wedding of Prince William's parents was also on the mind of Washingtonians who came to Union Jack's British Pub to watch the event.
"I was always jealous of my parents and older friends who would say, 'I remember when Diana was married,'" says wedding watcher Lindsay Weldon. "So I was like, I'm going to do the same thing."
The vast majority of the customers were women, but Kyle Reedy came with a group of friends.
"I thought it would be fun to do something we had never done before and probably never would again," he says.
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Wedding watcher Shana Hattis agrees. "It's one of those things kind of like the presidential inauguration. You want to be a part of it, and it's fun to be with a bunch of other people."
It's also important to wear a hat. Hattis wore one. "It's all part of getting into the spirit. It's a hat or a tiara, and I definitely don't have a tiara."
Liz Vigil and her friend, Sian Fisher, wore hats, too. They could have worn them at home in front of the television, but it wouldn't have been the same.
"I think you can get into the feel of it and other people who are excited for it, versus watching it at home, where you're kind of alone," says Fisher. "So it was worth taking the day off and coming down."
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Injection drug use has long been a driving factor in the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. But now, there are signs it's a growing problem in sub-Saharan Africa, as well.
The Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, CSIS, sent a team to Kenya and Tanzania to study the relationship between injection drugs and HIV / AIDS.
"Globally, we know that it is quite a serious problem. And we know that one in every three new infections is attributable to injecting drug use. We know that in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the former Soviet Union, it continues to be the major driver of the epidemic there. What we're seeing happen on a parallel track is that in many countries, where the new HIV incidence is starting to stabilize and level off, that the proportion of IDU-related infections is continuing to increase," said CSIS team member Lisa Carty, who co-wrote a report on the problem. Carty is deputy director at the Global Health Policy Center at CSIS.
"I think the whole question of injecting drug use and HIV prevention has been one that's really been under resourced and not really paid adequate attention to, either from a policy or a programmatic point of view," she said.
White heroin
The report said, "While it's clear the number of people injecting drugs is large and growing, the kind of epidemiological data needed for planning and implementing effective prevention and treatment programs remain uncertain." Epidemiology is the who, what, when, where, why and how of the matter.
"White" heroin became readily available in East Africa starting in the late 1990s, resulting in an increase in HIV infections through drug use.
Carty said, "It relates to drug trafficking routes coming out of South Asia and the fact that those routes have actually expanded and, you know, a lot of the sort of coastal cities of East Africa – Mombasa and Zanzibar and Dar es Salaam – have become more and more an entry point for drug trafficking out of the South Asia region in through Africa and then very often up through Europe and on to the United States."
Getting high, getting infected
Dr. Phil Nieberg, senior associate with the Global Health Policy Center, is co-author of the CSIS report. He said the sharing of syringes by drug addicts is a very easy way to transmit HIV. Far easier than sexual transmission.
"The reason is that usually with needle sharing there's blood left in the syringe or in the needle. So, basically, the second person to use the needle is getting an injection of someone else's blood that has a lot of virus in it," he said.
Women bear the brunt
And, as is the case in many sectors of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, women have it worse than men.
"Women who are drug users have a much higher HIV risk than men who are drug users. So that one reason for that is that many women, who inject drugs, turn to sex as a way of raising money to buy drugs. So there's an overlap between sex work and drug use," he said.
Women then face the triple stigma and discrimination threat of being HIV positive, a sex worker and a drug addict.
"Even men who inject drugs stigmatize women who inject drugs, saying you shouldn't be doing this. I shouldn't do it either, but I'm a man, but you have responsibilities and family support," he said.
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In an effort to avoid law enforcement, injection drug users go underground or hide. But that only takes them further from care and treatment. It's a similar situation for sexworkers and men having sex with men.
Both Nieberg and Carty said there are no easy answers for dealing with HIV positive drug users. But they said treating addiction as a disease instead of a crime could allow more addicts to seek help.
Counseling, needle exchange programs, the use of the heroin substitute methadone could all be part of the plan. Changes in U.S. policy made last year now allow more flexibility in foreign aid programs to deal with such issues
Some of the biggest names in Britain and around the world gathered in London Friday to witness the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton.
Football (soccer) star David Beckham and his wife Victoria, British Prime Minister David Cameron, the king of Norway and singer Elton John were among the nearly 2,000 guests inside Westminster Abbey for the ceremony.
Other invitees included Australian Olympic swimmer Ian Thorpe, British filmmaker Guy Ritchie and actor Rowan Atkinson, known for his "Mr. Bean" character.
Maid of Honor, Best Man
Middleton's sister, Philippa, was her maid of honor, while Prince William's brother Harry was his best man.
Prince Harry's on-again, off-again girlfriend Chelsy Davy also attended the ceremony, feeding the ever-present speculation in the media about the status of their relationship.
Members of the military were also invited to the service, as well as the heads of several charities.
Who was left out?
Bahrain's crown prince declined his invitation to the wedding because of unrest in his Gulf nation. And Britain withdrew the Syrian ambassador's invite ahead of the ceremony, saying Syrian security forces' crackdown on protesters made it "unacceptable" for him to attend.
Other prominent world leaders were left off the guest list, including U.S. President Barack Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy. The Associated Press quoted palace officials as saying only crowned heads of state are traditionally invited to royal weddings, and that political leaders not from the 54-member Commonwealth of nations, such as Obama and Sarkozy, did not receive invites.
U.S. President Barack Obama will travel to the southeastern U.S. Friday to get a personal look at the devastation left behind by violent tornadoes and thunderstorms Wednesday that killed at least 305 people.
Obama will meet with local officials and residents in the town of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where entire neighborhoods were destroyed and at least 36 people were killed, including two students at the University of Alabama.
Alabama sustained the brunt of the devastation from Wednesday's storms. About 2,000 National Guard soldiers have been deployed in the state to assist local emergency crews in the cleanup efforts. Obama signed a declaration late Thursday declaring a disaster in the state, making federal funds available to help residents, businesses and local governments in the recovery.
Earlier Thursday, Obama called the loss of life "heartbreaking," and described the aftermath as "nothing short of catastrophic." He promised the federal government will do everything it can to help the region recover.
The death toll across the region includes 204 in Alabama alone, plus 34 people in Tennessee, 33 in Mississippi, 14 in Georgia and 12 in Arkansas. The other fatalities were spread across Virginia, Louisiana and Kentucky. It was the deadliest tornado outbreak in the United States since 310 people were killed on April 3, 1974.
In some southern U.S. communities, the tornadoes flattened entire neighborhoods, left streets filled with debris, flipped over cars and knocked down trees and power lines, leaving an estimated 1 million people without power.
Emergency crews were searching through ruined homes and toppled trees for survivors. Some residents said they barely escaped the destructive winds by sheltering in bathtubs, closets and basements.
Forecasters received reports of at least 160 tornadoes hitting the region by Wednesday night, some of them thought to be as wide as 1.6 kilometers.
The tornadoes were the second in a wave of severe weather to affect the southern United States this month. A series of storms in early April killed at least 45 people in the region.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
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Large crowds are expected Friday for the second-to-last launch of the United States' space shuttle program.
Officials are anticipating as many as 750,000 spectators near the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the afternoon launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour. The crowd will include U.S. President Barack Obama, his wife Michelle and their two daughters.
The mission will be the 25th and final one for Endeavour, which will be decommissioned and put on permanent display at the California Science Center in Los Angeles upon its return to Earth.
During its two weeks in space, Endeavour and its six-man crew will deliver a $2 billion scientific instrument to the International Space Station (ISS). The instrument is designed to search for cosmic rays throughout the universe.
The mission has also attracted attention because of the shuttle's commander. Mark Kelly's wife is U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords, who is recovering from a near-fatal shooting in January during a political meeting in her Arizona congressional district. Giffords is expected to watch her husband's launch in a secluded area at the Kennedy Space Center.
Watch NASA TV's Coverage Live Right Here
The crew also includes Italy's Roberto Vitorri, who is flying as a member of the European Space Agency.
Endeavour is expected to return to Earth on May 13. NASA's 30-year space shuttle program will end in June after Atlantis' final mission to the ISS.
NASA has started working with four private companies on vehicles to replace the space shuttles. Those vehicles could be ready in 2013, depending on the availability of government funding.
In attending Endeavor's launch Friday, President Obama will become just the second president to attend a shuttle launch. President Bill Clinton was on hand for the 1998 launch of space shuttle Discovery, which carried pioneering astronaut John Glenn back into space 36 years after he became the first American to orbit the Earth.
Endeavour is the sixth vehicle in the U.S. space shuttle fleet, built to replace its sister shuttle Challenger, which exploded shortly after liftoff in January 1986, killing all seven crew members. It was named after the historic British naval vessel that explored the South Pacific in the 18th century. Endeavour's first flight was on May 7, 1992.
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