U.S. President Barack Obama says the United States and France are joined in resolve to "finish the job" in Libya, as NATO presses for Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to step down.
President Obama spoke Friday after meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy at the Group of Eight industrialized countries' summit in Deauville, France.
President Sarkozy, who is hosting the summit, on Thursday called on Gadhafi to resign immediately.
Later , the leaders of Egypt and Tunisia will join G8 members for a special session on aid for development that is linked to economic and political reform.
The G8 members are expected to introduce an aid package meant to support recent steps toward democracy in both those countries, and to encourage political reform in other countries in the region.
On Thursday, Obama met with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev to discuss U.S. missile defense in Europe.
Afterward, Obama said the two sides are committed to reach an agreement that is "consistent with the security needs of both countries."
But Medvedev said it may take many years to reach the agreement.
Obama is due to discuss the missile plan with central European leaders when he moves on to Poland later Friday.
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Top Serbian fugitive, General Ratko Mladic, has appeared before Serbia's war crimes court in Belgrade after being arrested early Thursday after more than a decade on the run.
Mladic, taken into custody in a northern Serbian village, is wanted by the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague for war crimes, including genocide, committed against non-Serbs during the Bosnian conflict of the early 1990s.
The Serbian court will determine if all conditions for Mladic's extradition to The Hague are fulfilled. Serbian officials say the process will take about seven days.
His lawyer, Milos Saljic, told the judges that Mladic does not recognize the international tribunal and that he is physically and mentally unable to undergo the investigation.
Earlier in the day, Serbian President Boris Tadic announced that Mladic was arrested on Serbian soil. He congratulated special forces that captured Mladic after 16 years in hiding and said Mladic's capture has closed a hard period in Serbia's history. Delivering Mladic and another fugitive, Croatian Serb Goran Hadzic, is a key condition in Belgrade's bid to become a candidate for European Union membership.
Congratulations began pouring into Serbia from around the world, including neighboring Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia. Video report by Selah Hennessy
But Mladic's supporters staged protests in several places. Two people were reported injured in the northern Serbian city of Novi Sad during a clash between police and protesters. Police in the capital, Belgrade, have stepped up security.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the arrest marks a "historic day for international justice."
The U.N. high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, welcomed the action as "tremendous news."
French President Nicolas Sarkozy hailed the arrest of Mladic as "very good news" and called it a step toward Serbia joining the EU.
U.S. President Barack Obama also praised the development, saying Mladic will now have to answer to his victims and the world in court. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Mladic's arrest serves as a statement to those around the world who would break the law and target innocent civilians that they will not escape judgment. Both expressed hope that Mladic will soon be delivered to the international war crimes tribunal.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton called the capture an "important step forward for Serbia and for international justice," while NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the arrest "finally offers a chance for justice to be done."
Croatian President Ivo Josipovic said the capture of Mladic is crucial for the international reputation of Serbia.
Bosnia's organization of families of war victims expressed "relief" after 16 years of waiting.
The U.N. tribunal on war crimes in the former Yugoslavia indicted Mladic in 1995 for atrocities he allegedly carried out or ordered during the 43-month siege of the Bosnian city of Sarajevo, and for the killing of 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys near the city of Srebrenica.
The capture comes a week after the chief prosecutor for the U.N. war crimes tribunal, Serge Brammertz, criticized Serbia for not doing enough to capture Mladic or Hadzic.
Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic, who was captured in 2008 in Belgrade and delivered to The Hague, has expressed sorrow at Mladic's loss of freedom. From his prison cell, Karadzic conveyed through his lawyer that he is looking forward to working with Mladic to reveal the truth about what happened in Bosnia.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in the Pakistani capital for talks with top officials aimed at repairing ties that have been strained since U.S. commandos killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.
Clinton is meeting with President Asif Ali Zadari and other officials, including the nation's army and spy chiefs during the unnannouced visit to Islamabad Friday. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen is accompanying Clinton in the talks.
Ahead of her arrival, U.S. officials announced that Pakistan had agreed to allow the CIA to examine the compound where bin Laden lived before his death.
U.S. commandos quickly searched the compound in Abbottabad immediately following the May 2 raid that led to bin Laden's death, but U.S. intelligence officials have wanted to do a more thorough search.
Clinton told reporters during a recent meeting in Paris that Pakistan has not always acted decisively in the war on terrorism and that it is time for Islamabad to meet Washington's "expectations." She did not say what those expectations are.
Despite recent tensions with Pakistan, Clinton has said the U.S. needs to maintain a strategic, long-term relationship with Islamabad. She has also praised Pakistan for engaging in its "own bitter fight with these terrorists."
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said Wednesday his country is entering a "defining phase" in the fight against terrorism.
Pakistan received $2.7 billion in security-related assistance from the United States in the fiscal year that ended last September. It is the third-largest recipient of U.S. security aid and reimbursements, after Afghanistan and Israel.
Some U.S. lawmakers have threatened to cut off funding following the recent tensions between the two governments.
Syrian opposition activists have urged the army to support protests planned for Friday while three people were reported killed in an overnight rally.
Activists are calling their planned demonstrations "Friday of the guardians of the homeland," a reference to the army.
Meanwhile, rights activists and an opposition group say at least three people were killed in a late night protest in the southern village of Dael after security forces opened fire on demonstrators. Anti-government protesters recently had begun holding rallies at night, in an apparent bid to elude security forces.
Reuters news agency says security forces also fired live rounds at hundreds of demonstrators who staged a Thursday night protest in the southern city of Daraa.
Opponents of President Bashar al-Assad have continued to urge demonstrators to take to the streets after Friday prayers in spite of a deadly government crackdown on protests. Rights groups estimate that 1,000 people have died in the crackdown.
World powers are reacting to the violence. A group of European nations have put forth a draft U.N. Security Council resolution that would condemn Syria for its crackdown on peaceful protesters.
The measure - backed by Britain, France, Germany and Portugal - also condemns what the sponsors call a "systematic violation of human rights" that includes killings, arbitrary detentions, disappearances and the torture of peaceful demonstrators.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and AFP.
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Yemeni opposition leaders are calling for anti-government protests on Friday, as the death toll mounts from this week's fighting between security forces and tribal loyalists.
Witnesses and activists say nearly 100 people have been killed in clashes between government forces and loyalists to Sheikh Sadiq al-Ahmar, the leader of the Hashid tribe. The battles have become the most serious threat to President Ali Abdullah Saleh's grasp on power after three months of opposition protests.
On Thursday, Yemen's defense ministry announced an arrest order for al-Ahmar. However, the tribal leader dismissed the warrant and warned President Saleh that he had the option of stepping down or being held accountable for "dragging Yemen into a civil war."
New tribal fighters loyal to Sheikh Abdul Majid al-Zindani - who is allied with the Al-Ahmar family and faces U.S. sanctions as a terrorist financier - have also been fighting pro-government forces.
In a separate development, India announced Friday that it is advising all of its nationals in Yemen to leave. The foreign ministry cited the escalating violence. About 11,000 people from India live in Yemen.
Saleh has refused to leave power after nearly 33 years of authoritarian rule.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP.
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Former Bosnian Serb military leader General Ratko Mladic is in custody after years of evading arrest on war crimes charges.
As commander of Bosnian-Serb forces during the three-year Bosnian civil war, Mladic was responsible for what is considered to be the worst atrocity in Europe since the Second World War, the massacre of thousands of Muslim civilians in the U.N.-protected enclave of Srebrenica.
He was also responsible for the 43-month shelling, between the years of 1992 through 1996, of Bosnia's capital, Sarajevo - the longest siege in the history of modern warfare.
Day in and day out, Sarajevo's citizens were the targets of Bosnian-Serb forces under the command of General Mladic. News reports broadcast around the world showed the devastation perpetrated on the local population.
His origins
Ratko Mladic was born in Bosnia on March 12, 1942 in the village of Kalinovik.
He was brought up in Tito's Yugoslavia and trained at the military academy of the Yugoslav People's Army in Belgrade. He rose to the rank of colonel.
Daniel Serwer, with the U.S. Institute of Peace, says Mladic perverted the military title.
"It is with difficulty that I pronounce any soldierly title in front of his name, since his behavior was not only unprofessional, but absolutely murderous," Serwer says.
As Yugoslavia began to disintegrate in 1991, Mladic was posted to the town of Knin, the site of a Croatian-Serb rebellion against Croatia's declaration of independence from Yugoslavia.
A year later, Mladic was promoted to the rank of General Colonel and took overall command of Bosnian-Serb military forces, who began fighting for a separate Serb state after Bosnia-Herzegovina declared independence from Yugoslavia. Srebrenica Massacre
Analysts say General Mladic will be most remembered for the 1995 Bosnian Serb attack on the Muslim enclave of Srebrenica.
Balkan expert Edward Joseph says Bosnian Serb forces first laid siege to Srebrenica, in eastern Bosnia, where tens-of-thousands of civilians had taken refuge from Bosnian Serb offensives elsewhere.
"In Srebrenica, in July 1995, they were finally overtaken by the Serb forces, in spite of the fact that they were a U.N. safe area, there were Dutch troops there, and there was the possibility to call on NATO air strikes," says Joseph. "But instead, there were only token air strikes, and the Dutch troops there did not effectively protect the safe area or the citizens. The women were mostly bussed out - the women and children mostly bussed out - and the men, including some boys, were rounded up and slaughtered over a period of days there. And the numbers are at least, at least 7,000, according to ICRC [International Committee of the Red Cross] missing numbers - and that is at the low end of the estimated slaughter in Srebrenica," Joseph says.
Journalist Dusko Doder was outside Srebrenica at that time, and remembers first hearing about the massacre from an elderly woman who came from the town.
"I was driving her, and she was describing to us that they were killing people in the thousands and that they were [herding them] at the stadium," says Doder. "I couldn't believe it. I thought the old lady must have exaggerated a bit. The first stories I wrote I said in the hundreds, because I just could not believe that something like that could happen."
In 1995, The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia - located in The Hague - indicted General Mladic and Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic on counts of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. During the three-year (1992-95) Bosnian civil war, an estimated 100,000 people were killed and more than one million left homeless. Into hiding
After the war ended, General Mladic returned to Belgrade where some experts believe he was supported and protected by Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic. But after Milosevic was arrested and transferred to the tribunal in The Hague, Mladic went into hiding.
Balkan expert Edward Joseph says General Mladic must have had support among the Serb military and secret services to avoid arrest for so many years.
"Clearly, you do not get to stay at large, if you are that prominent and visible without some help," he says. "And secondly, we should point out, that as a military commander in particular, General Mladic has a range of allies and a very, very strong and deep, wide support in the population, much wider and deeper than Radovan Karadzic."
Experts such as Charles Kupchan, with the Council on Foreign Relations, say the capture of indicted war criminals is the first step in the process of reconciliation and healing among the various ethnic groups in the region.
"If you take a somewhat longer time horizon, and you say what kind of events are important to communal healing, to collective healing, these apprehensions, these trials, these prosecutions do play an important role even on a personal basis," says Kupchan. "Because there is a sense that justice is being served, there is a sense that those responsible for crimes against humanity are being held accountable,"
Kupchan and others say with General Mladic in custody, following the arrest of Karadzic, a major hurdle has been removed in Serbia's quest to become a full member of the European Union.
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The United States joined European allies and human rights groups in welcoming the arrest in Serbia on Thursday of Balkans war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic. Balkan experts say they hope the arrest will be followed by reform of the Serbian security services, elements of which may have sheltered Mladic.
U.S. reaction was led by President Barack Obama, who in a written statement applauded the Serbian government of President Boris Tadic for what he called its "determined efforts" to ensure that Mladic was found and faces justice.
Obama called it an important day for the families of Mladic's victims, for Serbia, Bosnia, the United States and for international justice.
Mladic, the Bosnian-Serb military chief, led Serb forces at the 1995 massacre of some 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica, the most notorious incident of the Balkans war.
State Department Acting Deputy Spokesman Mark Toner said the arrest, albeit delayed, shows that international justice works.
"This is a warning to all those around the globe who would target innocent civilians that there's no place to hide," he said. "I don't know if there's ever closure. But for those who have suffered from his terrible crimes, including the genocide at Srebrenica, this hopefully provides them with some level of closure. And again, it's important that Serbia has dealt with this individual, and it shows the seriousness about European integration."
The arrest of Mladic, indicted for genocide and war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, the ICTY, was welcomed as "a major step towards justice" by Amnesty International.
Human Rights Watch said the arrest shows that no one is beyond the reach of the law.
The director of New York-based rights group's international justice program, Richard Dicker, called Mladic the "personification of brutality" in the Balkans war.
Dicker said Mladic "undoubtedly" had support networks in Serbia, and paid tribute to the late Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, assassinated in 2003, for beginning a drive against war crimes figures and their supporters.
He told VOA that radical Serb nationalists now have "lost the upper hand" in Belgrade and said he hopes in the wake of the Mladic arrest that the Tadic government can lead Serbia back to the European mainstream.
"It's an extremely significant step helping Serbia make the transition from the horrors of the Milosevic era to fully integrating into Europe and becoming a state where the rule of law and human rights are respected," said Dicker. "So it's a significant step in that direction."
Daniel Serwer was a State Department envoy in Bosnia at the time of the Srebrenica massacre and is now senior fellow at Washington's Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
He called the arrest very welcome but also "very convenient" for the Serbian government of President Tadic - coinciding with a Belgrade visit by European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, and coming a few days before a report by the war crimes tribunal on Serbian cooperation.
Serwer said the arrest boosts the political position of Tadic and said he hopes Tadic takes advantage of the gains to reform the country's security services.
"It strengthens Tadic's hand inside Serbia," he said. "And I very much hope that he'll use this strength, as he indicated he would, to look for those who helped Mladic, and to clean up the security services of Serbia, which remain largely unreformed since the fall of [former Yugoslav President Slobodan] Milosevic."
Dicker said the book on Balkans war crimes is still not closed, with Croatian Serb Goran Hadzic remaining at large, and other ICTY trials still not completed.
Hadzic is charged with war crimes for his alleged role in persecuting Croat and other non-Serb civilians in the early 1990's in a Croatian region controlled by Serb rebels.
Serbia announced the arrest of Europe's most-wanted war crimes suspect Thursday, on the same day that the European Union's foreign policy chief was in Belgrade to discuss the country's application to the regional group. Observers say the arrest of Bosnian Serb military General Ratko Mladic will help clear up international concerns about Serbia and support its reconciliation process. But while the legal process moves ahead the country may have more difficulty letting go of the past.
Reporters at the press conference where Serbian President Boris Tadic broke the news questioned the timing of the announcement, suggesting it may not have been a coincidence the arrest happened during a visit by EU Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton. Tadic dismissed the suggestion that the government could have acted sooner.
"We are not making calculations when and how to deliver," said President Tadic. "We are doing that because we truly believe this is in accordance with our law. This is because of our people, Serbs. This is because of moral dignity of our country and our people. But this is crucially important in terms of reconciliation between people that are living in the region of southeast Europe's former Yugoslavia."
Serbia has been under intense pressure to arrest Mladic. Last week, the top prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia warned that a much more rigorous approach was needed to find Mladic. And the EU has tied Serbia's membership to the detention of the military leader accused of orchestrating the genocide of nearly 8,000 Muslims men and boys in Srebrenica, a small Bosnian town on the border of Serbia. The 1995 massacre was Europe's worst since the Nazi slaughter of Jews during World War II.
Refik Hodzic of the International Center for Transitional Justice in New York says the pressure appears to have worked.
"I don't think we that we would see the arrest of Ratko Mladic had it not been for this," said Hodzic.
The international tribunal at The Hague, Netherlands indicted Mladic in 1995 for the Srebrenica massacre and for atrocities committed during the three-year siege of the Bosnian city of Sarajevo.
Hodzic says prosecutors not only will be looking for evidence linking Mladic to those crimes, but for information on how the general evaded arrest for so long.
"There were various allegations both from the tribunal in The Hague and the media in the region that he was protected throughout the years by the Serbian military, by the state institutions," he said. "And a telling fact is that men from the community where he lived, where he was arrested, said, 'Well, we never noticed anything strange but an increased presence of the police in the last months and years.'"
The Serbian president said there will be an investigation into how Mladic was living freely for 15 years. The issue touches on deep divisions within Serbia about whether Mladic should be prosecuted.
A poll conducted for the government's National Council for Cooperation with The Hague Tribunal this month said 78 percent of those surveyed would not report Mladic to the authorities.
"Many Serbs, yes, do regard Ratko Mladic as some sort of hero," said James Ker-Lindsay. James Ker-Lindsay is an expert with the European Institute at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
"They look to the events that took place in Bosnia and rather than seeing him as a military leader of an act of aggression rather view him as being the defender of the Bosnian Serb people," he said. "So in that sense, there is a certain degree of latent support for him." But he says Serbians are conflicted because they understand their country's future has to be a part of Europe.
"It's not about forgetting what took place in Bosnia or, indeed, the entire Western Balkans in the 1990s," said Ker-Lindsay. "But it's about recognizing that Serbia's got to atone for this, pay its price and move on. And people understand that Mladic is absolutely central to that process."
Relatives of Srebrenica's victims welcomed news of Mladic's arrest but expressed some reservations.
Kada Hotic is a member of the Mothers of Srebrenica Association.
She accuses Serbia of knowingly hiding Mladic, who she calls a "monster." Hotic says even though the general is being handed over to justice, she is afraid his trial will end without a verdict, as happened in the case of Slobodan Milosevic. The former Yugoslav president died in his prison cell in 2006 before his war crimes trial concluded.
Radovan Karadzic, the Bosnian Serb political leader during wartime, is currently on trial at The Hague.
Mladic's extradition to the international court could take up to a week. Even after he is there, Hodzic says the Serbian government must tell the people it sent Mladic to prison because he committed genocide, not just because it is good for the country's image.
"And until that happens, I think this sort of instability that exists will not go away because the nationalist narrative," he said. "The anger is there. The victims don't see satisfaction through these trials because they are not followed by acknowledgment in the local community by the government."
While Serbia's internal process of healing is uncertain, the country's external relations are unclear, as well. One last Serbian fugitive is wanted in The Hague. The EU has yet to say whether Belgrade must also arrest political leader Goran Hadizc to join the group, or whether three out of four suspected war criminals is good enough.
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U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev have agreed to continue working toward an agreement on U.S. missile defense plans, but it is clear that they have more issues to resolve. The two leaders met Thursday at the Group of Eight summit in Deauville, France.
Despite what is described as a warm personal relationship, President Obama and President Medvedev still have some lingering mistrust over the issue of U.S. missile defense.
The two presidents met as soon as Obama arrived in the French resort town, and differences emerged almost immediately.
The United States plans to put missile interceptors in Eastern and Central Europe in stages through 2020 as part of a proposed missile defense shield for Europe. Russia is concerned that the missile defense system could pose a risk to Russian strategic nuclear forces in the future.
Obama's top Russia adviser, Mike McFaul, said the U.S. is not interested in rekindling the arms race.
"We have no intention of doing that," said McFaul. "We said that clearly. In our view, the science also supports that. We do not have that capability."
But Medvedev, speaking through an interpreter, said Russia and the U.S. may always disagree about some issues.
"It does not mean that we have common views and coinciding views on all the issues," said Medvedev. "It is impossible, and I believe that it is not worth trying."
Medvedev said the missile defense issue would be solved by future politicians, but that he and Obama could lay the foundation now.
Meanwhile, Obama said he and his Russian counterpart did agree to continue talking about the issue.
"And we committed to working together so that we can find an approach and configuration that is consistent with the security needs of both countries that maintains the strategic balance, and deals with potential threats that we both share," Obama explained.
Another priority for Obama is to work with the other industrialized countries here to provide economic help for Egypt, Tunisia and any Middle Eastern countries that may embrace democracy.
The president also was expected to talk with the other leaders about the NATO miitary operation in Libya, intended to protect civilians from Moammar Gadhafi's troops.
Obama also met with Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan about aiding his country's efforts to recover and rebuild after the recent earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis.
Also at the G8, a White House spokesman congratulated the Serbian government on the arrest of longtime war crimes fugitive, former Bosnian Serb military leader Ratko Mladic.
President Obama concludes his six-day, four-nation tour of Europe in Poland on Saturday.
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U.S. President Barack Obama is preparing to visit Poland, the last stop on his European trip. Polish leaders are hoping the visit Friday will lead to progress on some of the thornier issues affecting U.S./Polish relations in recent years, namely missile defense and visa waivers.
It will be U.S. President Barack Obama's first visit to Poland, and one anxiously awaited in the Polish capital, where recent changes in U.S. defense policy have led to suspicions of diminishing American interest in the region.
Agenda
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Obama will be meeting with Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk. The U.S, leader is expected to dine Friday with a number of other Central European leaders, including the presidents of Germany, Hungary and the Baltic states.
High on the agenda will likely be economic cooperation and promoting democracy in neighboring Belarus and in the Middle East.
US military presence
But for the Polish side, the American military presence in the country will be one of the most pressing questions. Michal Baranowski, of the Warsaw office of the German Marshall Fund, explains why.
"The presence would signal continuous American engagement in Europe, and in Poland in particular, which provides a strengthened guarantee of security for Poland. So making sure that the U.S. still looks to this part of Europe is something key for the Polish public and the Polish politicians," said Baranowski.
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Until 2009, Poland and the Czech Republic had been slated to host an American anti-ballistic missile shield. But these plans were scrapped. Instead, more mobile SM-3 interceptors will be deployed in Poland, as well as a possible rotation of F-16 warplanes.
Disappointment
Former Polish Defense Minister Janusz Onyszkiewicz, now at the Warsaw-based Center for International Relations, says that for the Polish government, this was a disappointment.
"There was disappointment because we were very eager to have American military presence in Poland. I think that the Polish government, unfortunately, treated the whole issue much more in the area of symbolism and national prestige than in terms of down-to-earth politics," said Onyszkiewicz.
He adds that missile defense in Poland is also being closely watched by Russia, uneasy at the prospect of American military hardware deployed so close to the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad.
"Russians, unfortunately, still think in terms of balance of power, not in terms of building their security on the basis of cooperation, on the basis of trust, on the basis of transparency. They would be quite ready to accept a system which would be ready to cope with medium to intermediate-range missiles," said Onyszkiewicz. "Everything else, which goes above this range, they would consider as diminishing their striking capability." One-sided?
Scrapping the Bush-era missile shield was widely seen in Poland as an American attempt to appease Russia at Poland's expense. This, along with Poland's unpopular involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, made many Poles feel that their alliance with the United States was becoming increasingly one-sided. The feeling has not entirely subsided, says one woman.
"I think Russia is a more important partner for the United States when it comes to defense," said the woman. "Even though they promised that it all will happen here in Poland, that we are very important for them, it turns out when Russia said, 'No,' they changed their mind without taking Poland into consideration. We all have the feeling that we are giving so much, and all we get in return are promises."
But as another woman explains, the most important issue for many Poles is something much more concrete: visa waivers. Unlike some of their neighbors, including Czechs and Hungarians, Poles still need visas to travel to the United States.
"I think that we are even treated as intruders, not having visas assigned and being always questioned when wanting to enter the country," another woman said. "To see a very sincere and binding answer to what will happen in terms of our visas and Polish people entering the U.S. - I think that this is the most important,"
Changing ties
The relationship between Poland and the United States has changed in the past few years, but as the German Marshall Fund's Michal Baranowski explains, this may be for the best.
"The relationship needs to change from a country that is looking up to the United States, very unequal, and it has been changing. It is more mature, it is more based on interests rather than emotions, and goes beyond bilateral aspects," said Baranowski.
White House officials say President Obama's visit is intended to help reaffirm American commitment to Europe and to European security. Although they might be less eager than they once were, many in Poland are hoping for the same thing.
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Five explosions rocked the Libyan capital, Tripoli, near Moammar Gadhafi's residential compound late Thursday after the United States said a cease-fire offer from the embattled leader's government was not credible.
The specific targets from the suspected NATO airstrikes were not immediately identified. In other fighting, pro-Gadhafi forces launched the heaviest bombardment in days on the rebel-held western city of Misrata.
Earlier Thursday, Libyan Prime Minister Al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi offered a truce with rebels but ruled out Mr. Gadhafi's departure - a key demand of the opposition and NATO. White House Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said Washington believes Mr. Gadhafi's repeated cease-fire offers are "not credible" unless accompanied by actions.
Spain said it received the proposal from Mr. al-Mahmoudi and favors a cease-fire, but only under strict conditions. Western media reported that Libya sent the offer to several governments.
Also Thursday, Libya's ambassador to the European Union said he is defecting following a period of discussion with EU officials. In a statement sent to the French news agency, Hadeiba Hadi said he and his staff are placing themselves "at the service of the Libyan people in its struggle for democracy."
EU diplomats confirmed the defection.
Meanwhile, Russia - a critic of NATO's military campaign in Libya - said several of its Western partners in the Group of Eight have asked Moscow to assume a mediation role in resolving the crisis.
Russia's presidential spokeswoman said the requests were made Thursday during bilateral talks at the G8's annual summit in France. President Dmitry Medvedev held bilateral meetings with U.S. President Barack Obama, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister David Cameron at the summit.
The French news agency quoted U.S. and British officials as playing down the assertions.
Russia also said it had been contacted by Libya's prime minister who asked for assistance in reaching a cease-fire agreement and starting negotiations.
Britain said Thursday it will deploy Apache helicopter gunships against Mr. Gadhafi's forces in Libya as part of NATO's operation there. France has already indicated it will send attack helicopters to the North African country.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
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Egyptian protesters plan to return to the streets Friday for what they're billing as a "Second Revolution." The activists fear the long-term change and lasting reform they've been seeking is being sidetracked.
Using the tools of their January 25 uprising, Egyptian youth are calling on Facebook and Twitter for a massive turnout in Cairo's Tahrir Square and elsewhere across the country after noon prayers Friday.
Motivation
Ahmed Salah, a long time activist and organizer of the earlier revolt, says the current leadership of the Supreme Military Council, which took power after President Hosni Mubarak left office, has not made a clean break with the past.
"There has been a lot of regression in the current path of the revolution due to constant attempts to diffuse it or sabotage it by probably people in the military council, the staff, or others from, of course, the central state security and from the former NDP and those still in power," Salah said. "And we are just trying to get things back to their original path."
Frustration has been simmering for weeks, and boiled over during a "National Dialogue Conference" Monday. Youth activists walked out of the government-called meeting, furious over the participation of what they said was too many members of the old elite, including officials from the former ruling National Democratic Party.
Social media warning
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The military council, turning to social media as well, says it welcomes the free expression of ideas, but is against Friday's demonstrations. It warns that elements from abroad will use thugs, posing as patriots, to infiltrate the rallies.
Their alleged aim is to provoke confrontations to split the people and the army, which the council calls the linchpin of the nation's safety and security.
While the reference to elements abroad usually means Israel and the United States - the latter still unpopular for its closeness to the Mubarak government - some Egyptians are also believed to be among those being accused.
Loyalties
Former police colonel turned activist Omar Afifi, in exile in the U.S, says he has no animosity toward defacto Egyptian leader Field Marshall Mohamed Tantawi, but is concerned about his loyalties.
The policeman notes that Tantawi spent 20 years as defense minister in the old government and profited handsomely. The revolution, he argues, is against the Field Marchall's personal interests.
Afifi, who gained popularity among activists with his book on evading police brutality "So You Don't Want to Get Beaten on the Back of the Neck" was one of the early organizers of the January 25 revolt. He sees in the months since then what he believes is a time-honored manipulation of the public.
He says leaders are putting pressure on people in terms of difficulty in making a living, shortages in diesel fuel and lax security leading to increased crime. The old government, he argues, is still in session. Moving forward
Activist Saleh outlines the steps he thinks are needed to move forward.
"We would like to have a civilian presidential council to replace the Supreme Armed Forces and to have a new constitution to ensure the rights of everyone, to ensure the free and fair elections when the time comes, to make sure that they're going to be just trials for everyone that had been involved, the corruption and to bring back all out looted assets," said Salah.
The military council has already overseen a referendum on changes to the constitution, and is planning for parliamentary elections in the coming months. Most political observers believe the military has no interest in the responsibility of running of the country and would be content to return to its powerful behind-the-scenes role.
But activists, most of whom rejected the constitutional changes wanting a completely new document instead, fear the council would be happy if the old guard still had a prominent role. Even the military's concessions to popular demands are viewed with suspicion.
This week's announcements that it will open the border to Gaza and that Mubarak and his sons will face trial are called "tranquilizers" by former Colonel Afifi.
Afifi says what is needed is medicine, a curing remedy for the nation's underlying problems. He says until the goals of the uprising are met, activists are ready to go back to Tahrir Square a hundred times over.
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French President Nicolas Sarkozy said it is critical that Group of Eight leaders deliver firm commitments to help Tunisia and Egypt during their two-day summit in France.
Speaking at a press conference, G8 summit host - French President Nicolas Sarkozy - said it is critical that the popular revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt succeed. He said mobilizing "considerable aid" is among the central goals of the G8 meeting here in Deauville.
Sarkozy also saluted as courageous U.S. President Barack Obama's recent keynote speech on the Middle East, singling out Mr. Obama's call for an Israel-Palestinian peace treaty based on the borders that existed before the 1967 Six Day War. Sarkozy said the remarks responded to world expectations of an engaged America.
G8 leaders are expected to discuss the Middle East and Africa later on Thursday and Friday. Tunisia and Egypt have requested billions of dollars in assistance to get back on their feet. John Kirton, director of the G8 Research Group at the University of Toronto predicts the heads of state here would deliver - as a way to promote democracy.
"The Arab awakening, the reconstruction of Egypt and Tunisia, speak directly to the core mission of the G8 in the world," said Kirton.
Sarkozy also said he had received support from individual G8 leaders for French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde's candidacy as the next leader of the International Monetary Fund.
Sarkozy said having a European as the next IMF chief makes sense, given the economic problems currently facing the 17-member eurozone. But he said it is important that emerging countries have a shot at the job in the future.
The leaders meeting in Deauville also discussed nuclear safety and global warming. And they also examined Internet's powerful role - and whether to impose certain regulations - with top members of the industry.
Google's chairman, Eric Schmidt, says industry leaders want targeted government responses to problems like cyberterrorism and child pornography on the Web, rather than blanket regulation.
"The industry as a whole is concerned that premature regulation ahead of innovation - that is regulation that prohibits something - is of great concern," said Schmidt. "Becuase it shuts off whole new industries, whole new opportunities, whole new innovation."
Schmidt also said it is critical the new generation of Arab leaders embrace the Internet - as did the Arab population who used the Web to drive the popular revolts.
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As the campaign to oust Islamist insurgent group al Shabab intensifies, the U.N. Security Council is warning Somalia's Transitional Federal Government to resolve its internal differences or lose backing from the international community.
With the internationally approved mandate of Somalia's Transitional Federal Government set to expire in August, the political future of the country is unclear. Neither a new constitution nor national elections have been delivered in the seven years since the TFG was created, as was initially hoped.
Operational failure
In February, the Transitional Federal Parliament moved to unilaterally extend its mandate by an additional three years, much to the dismay of the international community. Now, a rift between the parliamentary speaker and the president has ground government business to a near standstill, making progress toward the fulfillment of its mandate impossible.
Against a backdrop of uncertainty, a delegation from the U.N. Security Council was in Nairobi to discuss Somalia's future. The delegation held talks Wednesday with the Somali prime minister, president and speaker of parliament.
Late Wednesday, British Representative Mark Lyall Grant said the Security Council's patience for Somalia's leadership is wearing thin.
"We set out as the Security Council, a strong and united set of messages," said Grant. "Firstly, they should stop the infighting and unilateral extensions of their respective mandates. Secondly, they should focus on the key transitional tasks to which they had previously been committed."
Missed benchmarks
Grant highlighted the constitution, outreach and reconciliation, good governance, and corruption as key benchmarks the government has failed to meet.
Much of Somalia's governmental paralysis stems from an open power-struggle between President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and Speaker of Parliament Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden. In late March the Transitional Federal Institutions, which include the presidency, voted to extend their mandate for one year, a move that Aden blasted as unconstitutional.
Bickering within the Somali government has been a mainstay of Somali parliament during the term of the transitional government, but it appears as if major backers, such as the United States and United Kingdom, as well as the Security Council, are increasingly frustrated by the situation.
Governmental paralysis
Shortly after the meetings, American Representative Susan E. Rice tweeted "Get your act together, resolve your differences or lose [international] support."
It appears the future of that support rests in the outcome of a meeting to discuss the end of the transitional mandate that is being convened by U.N. Special Representative on Somalia Augustine Mahiga next month in Mogadishu.
"The international community expects that at that meeting there should be agreement on the timing of elections, road map, benchmarks for the way forward in the political process in Somalia," said Grant. "SRSG Mahiga will be reporting back to the security council following that meeting."
Lack of consequences
Mahiga is somewhat unpopular with Somali leadership, and it is currently unclear how the announced meeting will be received by Somali lawmakers. A similar meeting was convened last month in Nairobi, but was boycotted by most of the Transitional Federal Government. Grant said no specific consequences for failing to reach an agreement had been discussed, but assured the media that certain "tools" could be employed. The European Union pays the salaries of the Somali members of parliament, and Grant suggested other sources of funding could be leveraged.
Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991. The embattled TFG is facing al-Qaida linked insurgent group al Shabab, and controls very little of southern Somalia. With the help of African Union peacekeepers, the government has made recent gains in the capital, Mogadishu, but still controls only part of the city.
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The International Committee of the Red Cross says it is forced to cut its budget this year, despite mounting crises and increased humanitarian needs. The ICRC reports donors are giving less because of economic pressures, so it will have to slash more than $90 million from its humanitarian activities, bringing the budget down to less than $1.1 billion.
Last year, the International Committee of the Red Cross spent an all-time high of more than $1 billion providing humanitarian assistance to 80 countries around the world.
It tackled outsized emergencies, such as the earthquake in Haiti, floods of unprecedented scale in Pakistan and prolonged drought in northern Mali and Niger.
This year, the agency has been responding swiftly to sudden emergencies as the conflict in Ivory Coast and the explosive events in Libya and in various Middle Eastern countries.
ICRC President Jakob Kellenberger said his was the first humanitarian agency to arrive in rebel-held Benghazi in Eastern Libya. He said the agency also is providing assistance in opposition-controlled areas of the besieged city of Misrata.
But, he noted it was more difficult to get the green light from the government in Tripoli to open an office there. He said it was a struggle to get the government to allow Red Cross workers to visit people detained in armed conflict and those detained during protests that preceded the fighting.
"We did get a few days ago the written confirmation that we can visit detainees under the control of the Ministry of Justice and the Interior," said Kellenberger. "And, this Sunday we could make our first detention visit in the area under the control of the government in Tripoli. Our main concern at present is that we would still like to know a little bit better and we must know better the humanitarian situation in some parts of the south and of the west of Tripoli."
The Red Cross also expects its material aid and protection activities increasingly will be needed in other hot spots in the Middle East. Kellenberger said, so far, it only has limited access to areas of conflict in Syria. He said he is concerned Red Cross delegates have not been able to visit detainees in Syrian prisons.
The ICRC president said he is extremely worried about the growing humanitarian crisis in Yemen. He said he expects the situation there to be one of the agency's main challenges.
Turning to Ivory Coast, Kellenberger said the situation in the commercial capital, Abidjan, has improved since the duly elected president, Allasane Outtara, has taken control of the country. But he said huge needs continue in the western part of the country.
"And, if I say huge needs, I mean needs in terms of economic assistance to IDPs [internally displaced people] and residents and, mainly also IDPs who came back home," he said. "So, huge needs in terms of economic assistance and also support of the medical structures and water. So, water is a big issue."
Last year, more than half of the ICRC's overall budget went for assistance programs in Africa. Its biggest operations in 2010 were in Pakistan, followed by Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Israel and the Occupied territories.
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African leaders are holding a two-day security summit focused on shaping more timely and coordinated responses to crises on the continent. The opening day's discussions at African Union headquarters revealed deep divisions about how to move to a post-Gadhafi Libya.
Moammar Gadhafi's government asked for the continental summit after initial AU moves to intervene in Libya were sidelined by the more muscular United Nations Security Council response. But, as closed-door meetings dragged on into the early hours Thursday, the discussion appeared to be bogged down in arguments about strategy.
Diplomats attending the session say, for the first time, the debate included suggestions the AU should state clearly that Gadhafi must leave power as part of any negotiated solution. That position is likely to be rejected, given Gadhafi's stature and support within the organization. Indeed, it would have been unthinkable, months ago, before Libya's popular uprising broke out.
A small minority of African countries has broken diplomatic relations with Tripoli. Only this week, former Gadhafi ally Senegal recognized the rebel Transitional National Council.
A brief opening session also revealed deep resentment among African leaders at being pushed aside as world powers, through the United Nations, set the agenda on Libya. Ambassadors say last week's joint meeting between the AU and U.N. Security Councils was marred by harsh exchanges on the subject.
With U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon attending Wednesday's opening, African Union Commission Chairman Jean Ping was scathing in his criticism. He spoke in French, with an interpreter.
"Certain international players seem to have denied Africa any control in this search for a peaceful solution of the situation in Libya. Africa should not be a spectator in what is happening to it," Ping said.
He is calling on other international actors to defer to AU leadership in seeking an immediate ceasefire and negotiations led by a panel of African heads of state. Ping says the current approach, including NATO air strikes, is not working.
"Despite the effort made to date, there seems to be no solution in the offing," Ping said. "On the ground, the situation is desperate and marked by the continued fighting between the various sides and also operations of NATO that seem to be increasing in intensity."
However, U.N. Secretary-General Ban argues the world body has prevented a catastrophe in Libya by moving quickly to protect civilians caught in the conflict. He says the entire U.N. organization is committed to achieving the goals set out by African leaders.
"Last night, I spoke at length with the Libyan prime minister to listen to his concerns over the recent intensified bombing campaign," Ban said. "I reiterated the urgent need for a real ceasefire and serious negotiations on a transition to a government that fully meets the aspirations of the Libyan people."
Libya's delegation at the meeting is being led by Foreign Minister Abdelati Obeidi. Representatives of the rebel Transitional National Council are also on hand, but are not participating in the discussions.
In the past, the TNC has flatly rejected the AU plan because it does not explicitly call for Gadhafi's removal. Still, TNC officials say they would welcome a more prominent African Union role in seeking a negotiated settlement.
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan says he is taking charge of the country's economic planning.
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan says he will lead Nigeria's economic team in his new Cabinet, replacing the finance minister as the country's chief financial planner.
Jonathan says he will push to raise import tariffs on rice and sugar to better protect domestic producers, with the goal of ending all rice imports within four years. The president says Nigeria will never be a leading economy if it continues to import basic commodities such as oil and food, and does not increasing the local value added to agriculture, solid minerals, and oil and gas.
In a meeting with business leaders, Jonathan recommitted himself to improving the supply of electricity.
Former military leader Yakubu Gowon says more reliable energy will help both Nigerian consumers and producers.
"I think Nigerians will feel they have been offered a better deal when the energy situation improves and security of lives and property is guaranteed across the federation," he said.
Gowon says the new Nigerian government must also attack what he calls the "canker worm" of corruption.
Delta State University Political Science Lecturer Benjamin Agah says there are plenty of investigations into official corruption, but not yet sufficient prosecution.
"Once somebody has been established to have been guilty of an offense, he should be tried. And when he is found guilty, he should be dealt with. Corruption, without fighting it to the barest minimum, there is no way we can develop," said Agah.
Public affairs analyst Kole Shettima says the biggest problem for President Jonathan is the disconnect between nine percent economic growth and the living conditions of the poor.
"The president has to intervene decisively in terms of either public work activities or in terms of redistribution policies that will aim at improving the quality of the life of ordinary people," he said. "Otherwise we have a situation whereby the gap between the rich and poor is increasing."
That gap is especially prominent between northern Nigerians, most of who voted for President Jonathan's opponent, and southern Nigerians, who guaranteed his election. With per-capita GDP in the north, half that of the south, Shettima says greater economic equality would go a long way to resolving this often-violent division.
"This phenomenon of a country which is so widely divided is going to be one of the major challenges that is going to be facing the country, as well as the income differential among the rich and the poor are certainly issues that the president has to address," said Shettima.
Agriculture accounts for more than 40 percent of Nigeria's gross-domestic product, but output remains low. So Shettima says greater federal investment in the north, including timely access to fertilizers and more stable prices for farmers would help diversify a largely oil-dependent economy.
Higher crude prices are helping fund public infrastructure. But President Jonathan says Nigeria must be careful not to overspend. He is cutting this year's federal budget from $31 billion to $28 billion.
Financial analysts believe the new Jonathan administration should get off to a strong start with the stability of a sovereign wealth fund, solid returns from the banking sector, and progress on long-delayed legislation to restructure the national petroleum corporation.
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A US-based organization for survivors of the Khmer Rouge condemned the UN-backed war crimes tribunal on Thursday for preventing overseas Cambodians from taking part in the court's controversial third case.
Tribunal observers fear the court is trying to dismiss those cases in the face of stringent government opposition.
The U.S.-based survivors group ASRIC says the war crimes tribunal in Phnom Penh will fail to deliver justice if it ditches its third and fourth cases that are opposed by the Cambodian government.
The judges closed the investigation into case three about one month ago. But the international prosecutor, Andrew Cayley, later said the investigation into case three was deficient and said more work should be done. Since then, Cayley has been ordered by the court to retract the criticism but he says he will appeal the order.
ASRIC says the tribunal cannot decide on the merits of its third case without a proper investigation.
Leakhena Nou is the founder of ASRIC, which is the only Khmer Rouge survivors' organization in the United States.
"Cambodian survivors and Cambodian society deserve better than this because they've suffered for 35 years and they have not had their day in court," she said. "So just prosecuting the five senior-most defendants is not enough if there is evidence that leads to other potential perpetrators, then the court officials need to do the right thing."
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She says that in the past week more than 750 people have signed a petition calling on the UN-backed tribunal to investigate case three properly. She says the court, which has been largely silent on what is going on, needs to do better.
"Well we want more transparency coming from the court. We want more up-to-date information," she said. "And we need the court to settle their differences both on the Cambodian side and the UN. So people just have to put their egos aside and focus on what's best for the survivors as opposed to their own individual interests."
The UN-backed tribunal in Phnom Penh was set up to hear cases involving crimes committed by the Khmer Rouge during the movement's rule of Cambodia between 1975 and 1979.
Around two million people died during that four-year period.
A total of 10 people were expected to be investigated in four cases.
The court concluded the first case last year and convicted the former security chief of the Khmer Rouge of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The four elderly defendants in case two will go on trial next month.
But the Cambodian government has expressed outright opposition to cases three and four. Prime Minister Hun Sen has said that additional prosecutions could destabilize the country's security.
Critics say that because of the hybrid nature of the tribunal - with Cambodian and international staff in parallel positions throughout its structure - the government opposition has significantly hampered the chances of a proper investigation.
During the investigation into case three, the investigating judges decided not to release any information to the public. The secrecy meant victims of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia had no way of knowing whether the crimes being investigated affected them.
International prosecutor Cayley has called on the court to extend the May 18 deadline for applications by six weeks. ASRIC, which registered dozens of civil parties for case two, supports that stance.
The investigating judges who have authority over that decision have not commented on the request for an extension.
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Former Bosnian-Serb military leader Ratko Mladic has been arrested on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes for his role in the Srebrenica massacre and the siege of Sarajevo during the Bosnian civil war in the early 1990s.
Ratko Mladic was one of Europe's most wanted war crimes fugitives. He has been on the run for more than 15 years, since he was indicted by the United Nations war crimes tribunal at The Hague in 1995.
Now the long wait for his arrest is over.
Arrest details
Serbia's President Boris Tadic would not say how or where Mladic was arrested. But he did say the capture had taken place on Serbian soil. He said a stain had been removed from Serbia.
"Today we closed one chapter of our recent history that will bring us one step closer to full reconciliation in the region," Tadic said.
Mladic is a former Bosnian-Serb general. During the Bosnian war in the early 1990s he oversaw the siege of Bosnia's capital, Sarajevo, which lasted more than three years and is the longest in the history of modern warfare.
Listen to analysis by Refik Hodzic, the director of communications for the International Center for Transnational Justice
He's also accused of having played a key role in the bloody attack in 1995 of Srebrenica, where thousands of Muslim men and boys were killed in Europe's worst massacre of civilians since the Second World War.
War crimes
Mladic is the last of three top Serbian leaders wanted for war crimes. At The Hague, where Mladic is due to be extradited, he will join Bosnian-Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic, who was captured in 2008. Former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic died in custody before his trial ended.
But Amnesty International justice expert Marek Marczynsky says the trial of Mladic may finally bring some closure.
"The victims of those terrible crimes have tried to access justice, truth, and reparation, and Ratko Mladic is a symbol of those crimes," Marczynksy said. "He is of course not the only one. There are thousands of perpetrators still waiting to be prosecuted."
Life in hiding
The capture of Mladic has taken a long time because, Marczynksy says, he was protected by some of those who still hold power in Serbia. It was because of international pressure, he says, that the arrest was finally made.
"When the European Union started pushing for those arrests, for investigations and for prosecutions, finally after some time we could see some results," Marczynksy said.
Mladic's arrest was welcomed by international leaders. NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Mladic had played a "key role" in some of the "darkest episodes of Balkan and European history".
Mladic's arrest was a precondition of Serbia joining the European Union. Now with him heading to The Hague, the country may be one step closer to that aim.
The economic recession hit California hard in 2008 and 2009, and parts of its economy remain dismal. The state's unemployment rate, at almost 12 percent, is nearly three points higher than the national average, and California's real estate market is one of the nation's worst. But there are areas of improvement in the nation's most populous state.
California's economy is still huge, even though recession has slowed growth. If California were a country, it would have the world's eighth largest economy, with farming, high technology, manufacturing, entertainment and tourism.
International trade is rebounding. It increased dramatically last year. Economist Nancy Sidhu of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation says the state's high tech sector is also doing well.
"[That success is due in part to] new Internet applications, new applications for mobile phones, and of course, social media," noted Sidhu. "And those companies, Apple and Google, and you name them - all of the others that follow. They're hiring. They're looking for the best and the brightest."
Retail sales have partially made up the losses of the recession, and some consumers are buying again. But wholesale merchant Liang Liang is caught between high costs and low demand. He says his imported home decorations and tourist souvenirs are not yet selling well, and his cost for cotton T-shirts has risen 25 percent since January.
"Yes, still very bad, I think. For me, it's still very bad," said Liang.
Temporary workers are finding jobs and those who provide professional services, including lawyers and accountants, are doing better. Film production is up, and some in the movie industry are getting work now.
But California's problems include crowded highways and aging rail lines, air and port facilities. The state ranks near the bottom of the U.S. states in its infrastructure, says economist Susanne Trimbath, who is working on a national study with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
She says farm products - whether fruit from the West Coast or corn from Nebraska - sometimes travel a round-about route because of infrastructure failings.
"That has to move from the field on a truck to a train depot, where it then moves to the ports, and in some cases, it's traveling from 500 to 1,000 miles south because before they're able to move it north because we don't have the inter-modal connectivity in transportation infrastructure that we need in the United States to remain globally competitive," Trimbath explained.
Analysts say California's biggest problem is its bleak real estate market, which is dragging down the economy and has led to lower tax revenues, hurting local governments and schools.
Some investors in Silicon Valley are doing well, however, and more than $6 billion in unexpected tax income will help address the state's huge budget deficit. California still needs nearly $10 billion to close its budget shortfall, and many teachers and government workers are facing layoffs.
Business analysts say that beyond short-term fixes, California must deal with its long-term problems to stay competitive, securing stable funds for schools and other services and upgrading its infrastructure.
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Sam Houston stands among the towering figures of American history. He governed two states, made his mark on the national stage and yet his name is forever tied to Texas, the state he helped to create. This year, historians are recalling his connection to two anniversaries: Texas's independence, 175 years ago, and the U.S. Civil War, which began in 186.
Big Sam still towers over the land he loved; more than 20 meters tall, a concrete and fiberglass depiction of Houston in Huntsville is considered the largest statue of any American hero.
'Big Sam'
A few kilometers away, the Sam Houston Memorial Museum holds many of his belongings and promotes his legacy.
Director Patrick Nolan says Houston's accomplishments were impressive.
"He is really the only man in our history who was president of an independent country, also governor of two states, the only man to have that distinction, Tennessee and Texas, United States senator from Texas, commanding general in a very successful war," explains Nolan.
Houston had suffered personal and political setbacks by 1832 when he joined American settlers in what was then the northeast Mexican territory of Texas.
Nolan says this gave him a new start.
"The idea of re-making yourself, of re-constituting your career if you will, was there and Texas was an opportunity to do that," he notes.
Houston led Texas rebels to victory over a larger Mexican army at the battle of San Jacinto in April 1836.
At a recent re-enactment of the battle, just east of the city that bears his name, Houston was again the hero of the day.
Forced to resign
Yet, in 1861, Houston was forced to leave the governor's mansion in Austin and retire to his farm in Huntsville.
The man who fought to bring Texas into the United States refused to sign an oath to the Confederacy of rebellious southern states, says Nolan.
"He would not take that oath to support the Confederacy. He would resign -- no he did not resign, he would be dismissed, he would be fired before he would do it," states Nolan.
The Civil War was still raging when Houston died at his home in Huntsville in July 1863.
In the city of Conroe, down the road, Houston biographer James Haley visited a new park featuring 13 flags associated with Texas history.
Compassionate slave owner
Haley says Houston annoyed many southerners because, even though he and his wife owned slaves, he paid them for extra work and he opposed the expansion of slavery.
"Every year he had a speaking tour up the Ohio valley, through Pennsylvania, New York and up into New England. That was really the center of his political strength, because he was unpopular in the South because of his stance against slavery," Haley explains.
Houston saw the Civil War coming as early as 1854 and made accurate predictions.
"The South will go down, I think he said, in a sea of smoke and ruin and that will be the end of the South as we know it and then the North will think it has won this big victory, but he said the North will have its own price to pay. They will reap a harvest of assassination," says Haley.
Source of inspiration
A week after the surrender of the main Confederate army, on April 14, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated.
Haley says Houston freed all his slaves before he died and the money he gave them helped some become educated and establish successful businesses. He also defended the rights of Hispanics and American Indians, with whom he lived for a time.
Sam Houston continues to inspire people and his legacy in Texas remains strong.
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Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani says his country is entering a "defining phase" in the fight against terrorism.
Gilani met Wednesday with military and intelligence leaders to discuss security measures after a string of Taliban attacks against Pakistani security forces.
In a statement after the meeting, Gilani said security, defense and law-enforcement agencies will be authorized to use "all means necessary" to eliminate terrorists. He also said the government will ensure terrorist hideouts will be destroyed.
The meeting Wednesday followed a suicide bombing at a police building in the northwestern city of Peshawar that killed at least eight people. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility, saying it was the latest attack in retaliation for the U.S. killing of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan
Taliban militants also laid siege to a naval base in the southern port city of Karachi on Monday, killing 10 security personnel and destroying two U.S.-supplied surveillance aircraft.
Earlier this month, Taliban militants killed two policeman in an attack on a security checkpoint near Peshawar, and claimed responsibility for a pair of suicide bombings that killed at least 80 people in Khyber-Pakhtunkwha province.
The Pakistani military has launched offensives in several areas of the country's northwest in an effort to dismantle and disrupt militant groups. The military efforts have mainly targeted domestic Taliban elements, which have killed thousands of Pakistanis in terror attacks across the country.
The United States has said that Islamabad needs to expand its fight to defeating Afghan Taliban and al-Qaida-linked militants in the area.
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