Gadhafi forces 'in control' of oil hub

A Libyan mourner fires shots in the air at a cemetery on August 12 during the funeral of five rebels killed in the battle for the control of the oil-rich town of Brega.Fighting was reported in coastal city of al-ZawiyaRebels say they captured the town of al-Qawalish to the southA government spokesman calls the rebel efforts "weak""Tripoli is safe," spokesman says

Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- Rebels claimed Saturday that they were gaining traction in a series of offensives in several parts of Libya controlled by ruler Moammar Gadhafi.

Heavy gunfire was heard in al-Zawiya, located about 33 miles west of Tripoli, where rebels had arrived. Rebels had entered the center of the city and managed to cut off the road to Tripoli, they said. More than 20 injured and several casualties were reported.

While the Gadhafi forces tried to defend the capital from the west, rebels announced that they had cut off an important military supply route to the south.

Sixty miles to Tripoli's south, rebels said they captured the town of al-Qawalish and pushed the Gadhafi forces to the south, toward nearby Garyan, cutting them off from the road to Tripoli. The soldiers left behind heavy artillery and ammunition, rebel field commander Adel al-Zintani told CNN.

"We captured many anti-aircraft artillery vehicles, two full fuel tankers and 106 anti-tank piercing artillery and shells," he said. Seven people were injured in the clashes, he said.

Finally, in the opposition-held port of Misrata, missile attacks by Gadhafi forces ended after rebels captured the nearby town of Tawargha, National Transitional Council spokesman Guma El-Gamaty told CNN. That city was being used by Gadhafi forces to launch missiles indiscriminately into Misrata, he said.

Rebels also took a crucial bridge that links Tawargha to Sirte, Gadhafi's hometown and loyal stronghold, he said.

A government spokesman on Saturday downplayed the rebel claims.

"Small groups of armed gangs, 50 here, 50 there, some attacked south of al-Zawiya, some attacked north of Garyan, and Tawargha, but they have very weak influence on the ground," government spokesman Musa Ibrahim told reporters. "The people's armed forces are dealing with them, they do not represent a real threat. Tripoli is safe."

Earlier, the country's deputy foreign minister Khaled Kaim said government fighters had pushed the rebels away from Tawargha and back to Misrata.

Five months into the Libyan war, the rebels have won international support in their effort to oust Gadhafi.

They have been aided by NATO airstrikes that began in March after the U.N. Security Council approved a resolution that ordered civilians be protected.

This week, the government accused NATO of killing 85 civilians, including 33 children, in airstrikes Monday near the embattled city of Zlitan.

NATO has said there is no evidence that the strikes killed civilians, though journalists, including CNN reporters, taken by Gadhafi's government to the site of the strikes, reported seeing bodies of women and children.

It was impossible for CNN to confirm the extent of the casualties and if they were all civilian.

Kaim on Friday criticized the United Nations for what he claimed was an organizational silence over claims that NATO has violated the mandate of the Security Council by killing civilians and conducting a naval blockade.

The comments follow a statement a day earlier by a spokesperson for Ban Ki-moon, who said the U.N. secretary-general "is deeply concerned by reports of the unacceptably large number of civilian casualties as a result of the conflict in Libya."

Ban urged "all Libyan parties" to engage with his special envoy, Abdel-Elah Al-Khatib, "and respond concretely and positively to the ideas presented to them, in order to end the bloodshed in the country," the spokesperson said.

Kaim said Ban's statement fell short without a mention of NATO.

The changing nature of who controls what was underscored Thursday by events in Washington, where the Libyan Embassy officially reopened under the control of the Transitional National Council.

"This is a message that Gadhafi can no more rule Libya," said Ali Aujali, who was accredited Thursday as head of the Libyan mission.

The State Department had ordered the embassy closed in March and expelled diplomats loyal to Gadhafi. Aujali had resigned his post as the regime's ambassador to the United States in February, and has since represented the opposition in Washington.

The United States on July 15 recognized the rebel movement based in Benghazi as Libya's rightful government.

CNN's Salma Abdelaziz, Jomana Karadsheh, Yasmin Amer and Kareem Khadder contributed to this report.

CNN

U.S. Army battles to control Mississippi

New Orleans (CNN) -- Waging war against flooding of historic proportions that has already affected thousands of people in eight Midwestern and Southern states, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers opened a spillway Monday north of New Orleans in an effort to calm the rising Mississippi River.

A crowd gathered near the entrance to the Bonnet Carre spillway to watch workers using cranes slide open the gates to the flood control system, which was built beginning in 1929 after a devastating flood two years before. The spillway, like another that could be opened next week, is designed to divert floodwater away from New Orleans and slow the raging river to protect the low-lying city.

While the river's highest levels may still be days away, a decision to open the second flood control structure -- the Morganza Spillway -- may not be, Gov. Bobby Jindal said. People with property that would flood if the spillway is opened should not dally, Jindal warned.

"My advice to our people is not to wait, to get prepared now," Jindal said.

Time magazine photos: Floodwaters rise along Mississippi

Upstream in Memphis, Tennessee, residents and authorities had prepared all they could Monday as they anxiously waited for the Mississippi to crest Tuesday morning at a near-record 14 feet above flood stage.

"It's sort of torturous, we've been waiting so long. It's hard keeping peoples' attention. It's warning fatigue, if you will," Memphis Mayor A.C. Wharton Jr. said. "But we're ready for it."

Water levels on the Mississippi

The river is the highest it's been at Memphis since 1937, when it crested at 48.7 feet -- 14.7 feet above flood stage. That flood killed 500 people and inundated 20 million acres of land, said Col. Vernie Reichling, the Corps' Memphis District commander.

The river Monday covered the lowest parts of the city's historic Beale Street and had forced about 400 people from their homes, Wharton said. Another 1,300 remained in low-lying areas, he said.

While Corps' officials said it appeared levees protecting the area were holding up well, with only minor amounts of water seeping in from beneath or lapping over from above, local officials were taking no chances.

"It's a very powerful river. It looks like it's running very slowly, but it has a very strong current," said Bob Nations, director of preparedness in Shelby County, Tennessee, which includes Memphis. "We still don't know (exactly what) the river might do."

CNN iReport: Share your stories, videos and photos

Nicholas Pegues, an East Memphis resident who lives near the Wolf River, said he's seen extensive flooding and homes left uninhabitable by the water as he's traveled through the region.

"It's affecting daily life tremendously," said Pegues, a Shelby County elections' division employee who submitted photos of the flooding to CNN iReport. "It is pretty severe downtown. ... I know a lot of ... people have lost their homes."

iReport: Flooding in downtown Memphis

The flooding also hit sections of southwest Memphis, along the Nonconnah Creek.

"It's just bad," James Black told CNN affiliate WREG-TV in Memphis. "Like I say, it's an act of God. What can you do in an act of God?"

Wharton, the city's mayor, said the flooding had not yet caused major disruptions in the city, and he did not expect it to, even though National Weather Service meteorologist Bill Borghoff said it is possible the river won't fall below flood stage at Memphis until June.

Memphis businesses prepare for flooding

That's the problem in Missouri and southern Illinois, where flooding continues even though the Mississippi and Ohio river crests have moved south.

In Murphysboro, Illinois, CNN iReporter Robert Icenogle said a swollen creek is inundating a church and band shell, while threatening to wash out telephone poles.

"We cannot get to the park, which is underwater, or to other towns," he said. "Most of the roads are closed, plus the water sewage plant is getting sandbagged."

"(If) the sewage plant shuts down, we won't have tap water to bathe in or drink," he added.

Final levee breach completed in plan to stem flooding

Last week, the Corps intentionally breached a levee in Missouri as part of its effort to reduce the pressure on other levees, flooding 130,000 acres of agricultural land over the objection of state officials and some farmers.

"I'm very sad. I look at that and I don't have a home," Marilynn Nally said, pointing to her flooded family farm. "I feel like we're having to suffer for somebody else."

About 25 miles away in Metropolis, Illinois, Eloise Burton mourned the loss of her home.

"It's sad to think about all these years, we've lost everything," she told CNN affiliate WPSD-TV in Paducah, Kentucky, on Sunday.

As the floodwaters worked their way south, the operator of the nuclear plant in Port Gibson, Mississippi, expressed concerns that rising water could cut off an access road to the facility.

However, there was no plan to shut down the Grand Gulf Nuclear Power Station and no immediate cause for concern, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Agency said Monday.

In Louisiana, where the river's crest is not expected to begin arriving until next week, Jindal added bears to the list of things residents need to think about. He said flooding could force some of the state's ursine residents from their homes and into populated areas.

So far, 21 parishes have issued emergency declarations ahead of expected flooding, Jindal said.

He said 400 National Guard troops would be active by the end of the day Monday helping prepare for the flood.

The Corps' decision to open the Bonnet Carre spillway was part of its overall plan to reduce pressure on the levee system and lower river levels to lessen the threat to low-lying New Orleans and other southern Louisiana communities.

The spillway opened on Monday diverts water from the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico by way of Lake Pontchartrain.

But the Corps was also considering opening the Morganza Spillway, a move that would flood populated areas and could put Morgan City, Louisiana, and other communities at risk. Fleming said he had formally requested authority to open the spillway, and Jindal said that approval could come as soon as Monday afternoon.

Jindal said the Louisiana National Guard had asked for at least three days, but preferably five days, to evacuate those areas before the Corps opens the gates.

Even with opening the spillways, forecasters have predicted widespread flooding along the system designed to keep the high waters outside the New Orleans.

But even with a forecast for record or near-record crests into next week and weeks of high water to follow, Corps officials say they expect nothing like the widespread and devastating flooding that occurred along the southernmost stretch of the Mississippi River in 1927.

That flood began near Memphis in the fall of 1926 and did not end until the following August, according to a National Weather Service report on the disaster. It devastated the levee system and flooded 165 million acres of land, sweeping 600,000 people from their homes. It came at a cost of 246 lives and the equivalent of nearly $624 million in 2011 dollars.

As a result of that flood, the report says, Congress passed the Flood Control Act of 1928. That prompted a massive public works programs to build a system of levees and other structures designed to hold back the river more effectively.

The latest flooding in the Mississippi and Ohio river valleys is largely the byproduct of torrential rains throughout the region. Over one two-week stretch, there was about 600% more precipitation than usual, Reichling said.

The weather now appears to be working in the flood fighters' favor.

Only minimal rain is expected over the coming days, with daytime temperatures forecast to be in the upper 80s and 90s through Thursday, at which point the water levels should begin to creep back down.

But the Corps isn't going to back down anytime soon in watching over its powerful and sometimes unruly charge.

"It's a historic time we're in all along the Mississippi River," Fleming said.

CNN's Greg Botelho, Marlena Baldacci, Phil Gast and Ben Smith contributed to this report.

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Movie-watching the latest distraction in air traffic control saga

By Jim Barnett, CNN Senior Producer STORY HIGHLIGHTSA controller in Ohio was watching "Cleaner," a Samuel L. Jackson thriller, early SundayAudio went out on a radio frequency, was reported to air traffic control by military pilotSupervisor was aware of the situation and did nothing, transportation secretary saysController and front-line manager are suspended pending investigation Washington (CNN) -- An air traffic controller in Ohio is the latest to get caught not doing his job, but this one wasn't sleeping in front of a radar position. He was watching a movie.

It happened early Sunday morning. For more than three minutes, the audio from the Samuel L. Jackson thriller "Cleaner" was transmitted over a radio frequency by an air traffic controller at the Cleveland Air Route Traffic Control Center in Oberlin, Ohio.

"The problem was brought to air traffic control's attention by the pilot of a military aircraft using an alternate frequency," according to a statement from the Federal Aviation Administration.

Officials say the controller was watching the movie on a portable electronic device while he was working.

Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood said the controller's supervisor was aware that the employee was watching a movie and didn't stop him. LaHood said it was "ridiculous... outrageous... and intolerable."

The controller and the front-line manager have been suspended from operational duties pending an investigation. FAA policy prohibits the use of portable DVD players and other devices from being used in radar rooms.

This latest incident took place as the head of the FAA and the leader of the controllers' union started a cross country tour to spread the gospel of professionalism to the rank and file. In the meantime, stories of derelict controllers keep piling up.

There have now been incidents in Washington; Knoxville, Tennessee; Reno, Nevada; Seattle; Lubbock, Texas; and Miami in just the past couple of months.

Scheduling rules have been adjusted and staffing beefed up to mitigate fatigue among controllers.

One passenger at Reagan National Airport in Washington told CNN, "They're there to control the air traffic and keep us all from running into one another, and it sounds to me like they are relaxing and having recreation."

The Cleveland center used to be the busiest regional control center in the United States, but was ranked sixth according to the most recent FAA statistics from 2010.

CNN Jeanne Meserve, Mike Ahlers and Carol Cratty contributed to this report

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FAA holds meetings on air traffic control safety

New rules for air traffic controllersSTORY HIGHLIGHTSNEW: FAA officials, union representatives begin a cross-country tour in AtlantaNEW: FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt says mistakes "will not be tolerated" The FAA reported a seventh case of a controller asleep on the job this yearControllers now must have a minimum of nine hours off between shifts Atlanta (CNN) -- Top officials from the Federal Aviation Administration and the air traffic controllers' union kicked off a cross-country tour of air traffic control facilities on Monday, two days after a seventh reported case this year of a controller falling asleep on the job.

FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt and Paul Rinaldi, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, are expected to hold a series of meetings about safety and professionalism. Their first stop was at a radar facility in the Atlanta area.

"None of us in this business can tolerate any of this," Babbitt said of the sleeping controllers. "It absolutely has to stop. ... One mistake is one too many."

This "will not be tolerated," he insisted. "We run the safest system in the world," but these incidents have "cast a cloud."

Inside the life of an air traffic controller

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Obama: Deficit Control Plan 'Can't Exempt Anyone'

Associated Press

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WASHINGTON -- President Obama says the nation's effort to curb ballooning deficits "can't exempt anyone." 

Obama spoke Thursday as he met with the co-chairmen of his deficit reduction commission, a day after laying out his blueprint for erasing some $4 trillion in red ink over 12 years. 

The commission was led by former Republican Sen. Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles, former White House chief of staff to Bill Clinton. It produced a plan for a similar amount of deficit reduction over 10 years. 

Obama tells reporters the country needs to ask everyone to participate in the effort to get its fiscal house in order.

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Virginia Tech survivor Colin Goddard lobbies for gun control

Jack Gruber, USA TODAY

Since surviving four gunshot wounds at Virginia Tech's April 16, 2007, massacre, Colin Goddard has remade himself into an advocate for gun control legislation.

EnlargeCloseJack Gruber, USA TODAY

Since surviving four gunshot wounds at Virginia Tech's April 16, 2007, massacre, Colin Goddard has remade himself into an advocate for gun control legislation.

Waiters carry trays of hors d'oeuvres through the crowd while Goddard, a 25-year-old who could model for a J.Crew catalog, chats amiably. He doesn't have to move much because people flutter around him. The lights flicker, and the crowd moves to a screening room to watch Gun Fight, a documentary on the nation's firearms debate. The film prominently features Goddard, a survivor of the April 16, 2007, shooting at Virginia Tech.

Scenes like this are typical of Goddard's life since he became assistant director for federal legislation at the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, a Washington-based group pushing for more gun control. When Goddard visits lawmakers on Capitol Hill or speaks to groups, listeners latch onto his words. Some say they respect how he has turned the trauma of being shot four times into something productive. Before Gun Fight, filmmaker Kevin Breslin made a documentary featuring Goddard called Living for 32, so named for the number of people shot dead by Virginia Tech gunman Seung Hui Cho before he fatally shot himself. That documentary was screened at the Sundance Film Festival in January.

MORE: Virginia Tech fined $55K in shootings"He looks good, he speaks directly and honestly, he's not programmed, he's not scripted," said Paul Helmke, president and CEO of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. "Sometimes, it's not quite what I think he should say," Helmke added , "but, hey, that's him."

Barbara Kopple, director of Gun Fight, said there was little footage shot of Goddard for the documentary that she didn't use. "He's approached all this with an amazing levelheadedness and a sense of purpose."

"He's just very unique for a young guy," Kevin Breslin said. "He could have collected the insurance policy and taken a walk. A lot of people would have."

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