Libyan rebels battle to close in Gaddafi (Reuters)

DAFNIYAH, Libya (Reuters) – Libya's rebels have traded heavy artillery fire with Muammar Gaddafi's forces near the western city of Zlitan as they tried to take government-held territory east of the capital Tripoli.

The city, 160 km (100 miles) from Tripoli, is the next major town on the Mediterranean coastal road to the capital from the rebel stronghold of Misrata. Capturing it would greatly advance the rebels' strategy of cutting off the capital from all sides.

A Reuters team in Dafniya, on the outskirts of Misrata, said rebels fired artillery and rocket launchers. Rebels said they aimed to hit Libyan tanks and munitions in Naimah, near Zlitan, but inexperience and indiscipline has plagued their campaign.

"We had a strategy to finish everything today, but some of the fighters think it's a game. They shot when they weren't supposed to shoot," a rebel unit commander called Mohammed Ali told Reuters, after taking cover from a mortar barrage.

NATO planes resumed bombardments of Tripoli on Friday with six explosions sending columns of black smoke into the sky.

Rebel advances toward Tripoli have been slow, and weeks of NATO strikes pounding Gaddafi's compound and other targets have failed to bring an end to his 41-year-old rule.

Rebels are fighting on two other fronts: in the east around the oil town of Brega and in the Western Mountains southwest of Tripoli. They have made important gains in the past few weeks, but remain far from seizing their ultimate prize.

NATO SEES "POSITIVE SIGNS"

Gaddafi vowed to defeat NATO.

"This is the first time they are facing an armed nation of millions. The alliance will be defeated," he said in an audio speech on Libyan TV on Friday. "We are in our country and we are determined to stay and defend it."

In Misrata, rebel spokesman Ahmed Hassan said 10 civilians had been killed and another 40 wounded when Gaddafi's forces shelled the city on Friday, a claim which could not be verified.

The rebels have said they will not attack Zlitan because of tribal sensitivities, but are recruiting fighters from the town and waiting for the residents to rise up against Gaddafi.

NATO military spokesman Wing Commander Mike Bracken said in a briefing that west of Misrata there were "some positive signs that civilians are unifying against the Gaddafi regime" and that "for the time being pro-Gaddafi forces appear unable to strongly counter the anti-Gaddafi forces' incremental advances."

Another NATO bombardment struck in the region of Gzayha, on the Tunisian border, resident Mohamed Nagez said.

APPEAL TO U.N.

Libyan Prime Minister Al-Baghdadi Ali Al-Mahmoudi told a late night news conference Libya would appeal to the U.N. security council to stop the NATO bombing.

He said one airstrike had hit the Al Fateh University.

"It has become clear to us that NATO has moved on to deliberately target civilian buildings. Who is killing civilians now? It is indeed NATO," he said.

He planned to call U.N. secretary general Ban ki-Moon early on Saturday to call for an extraordinary session to investigate.

The rebellion erupted four months ago in the eastern city of Benghazi. NATO intervention has been going on for nearly 13 weeks, and strains are beginning to show within the alliance.

Juma Ibrahim, a rebel spokesman in the Western Mountains town of Zintan, said Gaddafi loyalists were massing in Gharyan, about 120 km (90 miles) southwest of Tripoli -- and besieging the world heritage-listed old city of Ghadames, some 600 km southwest of the capital on the Tunisia and Algerian borders.

"(They) ... have destroyed some Islamic historic ruins ... palaces and forts located in the city's old quarter," he said.

Accounts from Ghadames could not be independently verified.

(Additional Reporting by Nick Carey in Tripoli, Nick Vincour in Paris, David Brunnstrom in Brussels, Maria Golovnina in Benghazi, Joseph Nasr in Berlin; Writing by Tim Cocks; Editing by Jon Hemming)

Yahoo! News

Arizona wildfire close to historic milestone

(CNN) -- As firefighters continued battling a massive wildfire in eastern Arizona Sunday, authorities said the threat of spreading flames had decreased enough to allow thousands of residents in some of the hardest-hit areas to return home.

"After consulting with fire officials, it has been determined that the fire risk has diminished enough that it will no longer be a threat to the citizens of the towns," said Cmdr. Webb Hogle of the Apache County Sheriff's Office.

But he said smoke from the wildfire "still poses serious health hazards" in Springerville, Eagar and South Fork, where authorities expect thousands to return home after evacuating.

"If they return, they do so at their own risk," he added.

The 15-day-old blaze in eastern Arizona inched closer Sunday to becoming the worst fire in the state's history.

The second-largest blaze had scorched 430,171 acres, firefighters said late Saturday, an area bigger than most of the largest cities in the United States.

The so-called Wallow fire is 38,467 acres shy of matching the Rodeo/Chediski wildfire of 2002, Arizona's biggest.

Firefighters said they are making progress as they dig trenches, set their own fires to take away natural fuels from the advancing blaze and dump retardants from the air on the flames.

It "has been chasing us around, but after today we're feeling very optimistic," Jerome MacDonald told reporters late Saturday.

The fire, which broke out May 29 in the Apache National Forest, is 6% contained, said MacDonald, the operations chief for the Southwest Interagency Incident Management team fighting the fire.

Air quality for much of New Mexico and eastern Arizona was expected to worsen over the weekend because of wildfires, the New Mexico health and environment officials said.

Heavy smoke could affect those in sensitive groups, including children, pregnant woman, asthma sufferers and people with lung and heart diseases, the New Mexico Environment Department said.

The National Weather Service said smoke plumes from Arizona wildfires will continue moving toward Santa Fe and Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Heavy smoke has permeated communities around the Arizona blaze.

"We have not seen the sun clearly for several days," said Rita Baysinger, a spokeswoman for the Southwest Interagency Incident Management team.

MacDonald said changing winds are likely to start clearing out the smoke.

"All the smoke from the fire has basically been funneling through Eagar in the valley and it settles there in the morning," MacDonald said. "I don't expect the same kind of smoky conditions over the next couple of days."

At least 9,114 people were evacuated from Springerville, Eagar, Nutrioso, Alpine, Greer and surrounding areas.

The wildfire has consumed 29 homes, 22 of them in the evacuated city of Greer.

CNN's Phil Gast and journalist Craig Johnson contributed to this report.

CNN

Officials: Plane carrying first lady got too close to military C-17

Mrs. Obama's flight aborted at EdwardsSTORY HIGHLIGHTSThe FAA says the aircraft were never in any dangerThe incident happened Monday at Andrews AFBObama's plane had to circle again before landing Washington (CNN) -- A plane carrying Michelle Obama had to abort its landing on Monday after it came too close to a military C-17 cargo plane, according to a senior administration official and the Federal Aviation Administration.

The planes were three miles apart, when they are supposed to be five miles apart, the official told CNN. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating what went wrong, as it is believed to be an air traffic controller mistake, the official said.

The White House does not believe the first lady's life was ever in danger, the senior official said.

The FAA said in a statement controllers at Andrews Air Force Base instructed an incoming Boeing 737 to perform a "go around" "because the plane did not have the required amount of separation" behind the military plane. The FAA is investigating. "The aircraft were never in any danger," the agency said.

Air traffic controller caught watching movie on duty

The landing was briefly aborted and Obama's plane had to circle, the official said.

Obama was actually on a C-40, a military version of the 737 that was part of the Air National Guard -- not the regular air force fleet used by VIPs at Andrews, said Maj. Michelle Lai of the 89th Airlift Wing at Andrews Air Force Base.

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Key Wisconsin race for supreme court judge too close to call

The Wisconsin supreme court election that has turned into a proxy battle over the union-curbing policies of Republican Gov. Scott Walker is too close to call, with the conservative-leaning incumbent only a few hundred votes ahead of a little-known challenger backed by unions.

With 99% of the vote in, Justice David Prosser has only a few hundred vote lead over JoAnne Kloppenburg, a state attorney general.

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