Strong earthquake strikes off Japan

(CNN) -- A major earthquake struck off Japan's northeastern coast Sunday, prompting tsunami advisories that were later canceled, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said.

Small tsunamis were observed along the coast, measuring between 10 and 20 centimeters, said the JMA.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage, according to the Japanese news agency Kyodo.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake struck at 10:57 a.m. at the epicenter, about 130 miles east of Sendai.

The earthquake was more than 20 miles deep and had a magnitude of 7.0, the USGS said.

The JMA measured the magnitude of the quake at 7.1.

Tsunami advisories were issued -- and then canceled --for the coastal regions of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima. The areas were among the hardest hit by this year's devastating earthquake and tsunami.

Officials in Ofunato, a city in Iwate, advised residents to evacuate.

The JMA, immediately after the quake, forecast the height of the tsunami could reach half a meter (about 20 inches).

No immediate abnormalities were reported at nearby nuclear facilities, according to Kyodo.

Three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant suffered meltdowns after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that devastated northern Japan. The tsunami swamped the plant and knocked out cooling systems that kept the three operating reactors from overheating, leading to the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl.

Tremors from Sunday's quake were felt as far away as Tokyo.

"It's just a continuing of the aftershocks of that devastating 9.0," said Dale Grant, a geophysicist with the USGS, referring to the March quake. "These kinds of aftershocks are likely to occur for some time."

CNN's Yoko Wakatsuki contributed to this report.

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Commons passes bill to end postal strikes (Reuters)

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canadian mail should start moving again on Tuesday, with postal workers expected to be forced back to work by hotly debated legislation that passed the House of Commons on Saturday night.

The leftist New Democratic Party had held up the bill with 58 grueling hours of day-and-night debate but it finally made it through the House and now heads to a special Sunday sitting of the Senate, where its passage is assured because of the ruling Conservatives' domination of the upper chamber.

"After a completely unnecessary delay, I'm nevertheless pleased that very soon Canadians will again have access to their postal service," Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper, whose party crafted the bill, said outside the House.

Most members of Parliament -- including Harper at times -- had to sleep in their offices to avoid missing a crucial vote during the 2-1/2 days. Some played board games or strummed guitars in lounges when they were not speaking or sleeping.

The government expects the bill to become law on Sunday afternoon and postal employees would be back at work 24 hours later, said Harper press secretary Andrew MacDougall. The first full day of resumed mail service would then be on Tuesday.

Postal workers had begun rotating strikes on June 3 in a contract dispute with the government-owned Canada Post, the country's primary postal operator. That led to a lockout on June 15 that shut the mail service down completely.

The bill provides for an arbitrator to pick either the union's best final offer or Canada Post's. The most controversial feature of the legislation sets pay increases that are smaller than Canada Post had offered, though they match raises reached with another public sector union.

If its offer were accepted by the arbitrator, Canada Post would be able to offer new hires less generous salaries, pensions and vacations, providing big savings. Experienced employees currently get seven weeks of holidays and substantial sick leave.

In an age of e-mail and electronic bill payments, Canada Post says it needs to cut its costs in order to be competitive, particularly with courier companies.

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers, which represents the 48,000 urban postal workers, says that the company is still profitable and that management demanded unfair concessions in wages, staffing and safety.

"The government is clearly willing to side with employers to grind down wages and working conditions," Denis Lemelin, the union's president, said in a statement.

"The Conservatives have shown themselves to be very anti-worker after only two months of majority government."

A poll this month showed that 70 percent of Canadians supported the legislation to force an end to the work stoppage.

(Editing by Paul Simao)

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New round of NATO strikes hits Tripoli outskirts (AP)

TRIPOLI, Libya – NATO airstrikes rattled the Libyan capital Thursday with clusters of bombing runs believed to have targeted the outskirts of Tripoli.

At first, the intensity of the attacks suggested a return to the heavy NATO bombardment that hit military installations across the capital on Tuesday and flattened major buildings in leader Moammar Gadhafi's sprawling compound in the center of the city.

By nightfall Thursday, a total of 14 air attacks had been carried out, considerably fewer than Tuesday. There were eight explosions in a first series of strikes on Thursday and hours later, the sound of six more airstrikes boomed in the distance. Government officials did not say what had been targeted in the Thursday bombing runs.

The strikes are in support of a four-month-old rebel uprising that seeks to push Gadhafi from power after four decades. Rebels have taken control of swaths of eastern Libya, although fighting has since become a stalemate even with NATO support.

Gadhafi shows no signs of ceding power under the building pressure of the NATO strikes, despite repeated attacks on his compound, government buildings, military radar emplacements and other army installations.

But the chief of the U.S. CIA, Leon Panetta, said in testimony before the Senate Thursday the NATO military operation, strong economic sanctions, and enforcement of the no-fly zone are putting tremendous pressure on Gadhafi. U.S. President Barack Obama has named Panetta to take over as Defense Secretary this summer.

Among other signs of building pressure, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday that there are "numerous and continuing" overtures by people close to Gadhafi to negotiate his departure from power.

Speaking to reporters after an international conference on Libya in the United Arab Emirates, Clinton said proposals from "people close to Gadhafi" presented to unspecified countries included the "potential for a transition." But she said she could not predict if they would be accepted.

Fighting on the ground between Libyan government forces and the rebels had largely died down after the NATO strikes began. The Western alliance took to the skies over Libya under a U.N. resolution that allowed NATO flights to protect civilians. What began as a no-fly zone quickly evolved into strong attacks on the regime.

On Wednesday, however, Gadhafi forces renewed their shelling near the western city of Misrata, killing 10 rebel fighters. Misrata is one of the few footholds rebels have in western Libya. NATO reported it had destroyed a "electronic warfare vehicle" and military training camp in the vicinity of the city as government forces had renewed their assault on the port city.

In Brussels on Thursday, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the shelling near Misrata underscored the continued need to protect civilians.

"It is an example that the Gadhafi regime still constitutes a threat to the civilian population," he said. "We will stay committed as long as necessary," Fogh Rasmussen added.

Media in neighboring Tunisia, meanwhile, reported more defections Thursday from Gadhafi's military, including a general and 10 ranking officers who they said crossed into the country this week.

Despite the inability of NATO and the rebels so far to oust Gadhafi, preparations are being made for a post-Gadhafi era in the country.

At Thursday's meeting in the United Arab Emirates, donors pledged more than $1.3 billion to help support Libya's main opposition group. Italy and France offered a combined $1.02 billion to Libya's Transitional National Council, while Kuwait and Qatar promised a combined $280 million to a fund set up to provide transparent assistance to the opposition.

The pledges came as council members appealed for urgent infusions of cash to keep from going broke. The council is trying to establish an alternative government to take over after Gadhafi.

Libya's former U.N. ambassador, Abdurraham Mohamed Shalgham, attended the gathering as a senior official of the rebels' National Council. He said NATO should focus more strikes on Gadhafi forces around Misrata to help "the youth freedom fighters to move toward the capital Tripoli." Shalgham said he believed Gadhafi was in the final days of his rule.

"I think our youth will be in Tripoli in some weeks," Shalgham said.

Portuguese Foreign Minister Luis Amado said on Thursday that Lisbon soon would recognize the rebel administration.

Also on Thursday, Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade visited Benghazi to meet with the Council's leaders. He urged Gadhafi to stop fighting and called for NATO to end airstrikes.

"I am someone who can help you (Gadhafi) to relieve yourself from political power," Wade told reporters in a message to the Libyan leader, stopping short of offering Senegal as a country of refuge.

NATO rejected any post-Gadhafi role for the alliance, saying it was imperative that the international community, the United Nations in particular, start preparations for helping the country's transition to a democratic government.

___

Hadeel Al-Shalchi in Benghazi, Libya, and Matthew Lee in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.

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Gadhafi strikes Libya rebels, NATO pounds Tripoli (AP)

By DIAA HADID and MIKE CORDER, Associated Press Diaa Hadid And Mike Corder, Associated Press – 6 mins ago

TRIPOLI, Libya – Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, increasingly cornered under a stunning upturn in NATO airstrikes, lashed back with renewed shelling of the western city of Misrata Wednesday, killing 10 rebel fighters.

The international alliance said it remained determined to keep pounding Gadhafi forces from the air, but would play no military role in the transition to democratic rule in oil-rich North African country once the erratic leader's 42-year rule was ended.

In Brussels, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Gadhafi's days in power were clearly numbered, making it imperative for the international community, the United Nations in particular, to gear up to help Libyans establish a new form of government.

"For Gadhafi, it is no longer a question of if he goes but when he goes," Fogh Rasmussen said at a meeting of the defense ministers from the 28 members of the North Atlantic military alliance.

"We do not see a lead role for NATO in Libya once this crisis is over," he said. "We see the United Nations playing a lead role in the post-Gadhafi, post-conflict scenario."

The alliance said it was acting in the skies over Libya purely in accordance with the U.N. mandate to protect the Libyan people from Gadhafi. The resolution did not include any involvement in post-conflict peacekeeping.

French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet said: "NATO has a military vocation and rebuilding Libya is a civilian issue. So really simply, in order to rebuild Libya, if the Libyan people ask for it, because it is first of all an issue for the Libyan people, it is the job for civilian international institutions — and not military — to bring a response"

The Libyan rebels, too, have made it clear they have no appetite to see alliance ground forces in the country once the conflict is finished.

But they remain grateful for NATO intervention and applaud the stepped-up alliance bombing campaign, a record 66 strike sorties over Tripoli and environs on Tuesday.

"We've always felt that relentless, continuous strikes would hasten the departure of (Gadhafi) or at least the circle around him, said rebel spokesman Jalal el-Gallal in Benghazi, the de facto rebel capital. "We're very glad that (NATO) is carrying out the actions, and it is a matter of time."

The cracks in the alliance also showed again Wednesday.

U.S. officials said Defense Secretary Robert Gates pointedly prodded five allied nations to share more of the burden of the NATO-led air campaign against Libya. None committed to do more.

The officials said Gates used his final NATO meeting before retirement to press Germany and Poland to join the military intervention, and Spain, Turkey and the Netherlands to contribute to strike missions against ground targets.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private meeting of the alliance's defense ministers.

Wednesday's shelling on the outskirts of Misrata represented escalation in the more than 4-month-old uprising, which has spiraled into a civil war that has divided Libyan into zones controlled by Moammar Gadhafi and others by rebels.

Dr. Khalid Abufalgha of Misrata's central Hikma hospital said government forces tried to enter the city from three sides — the east, south and west — but rebel fighters kept them out. Gadhafi's forces then shelled the city from afar, killing 10 and injuring 24, he said.

All the dead were fighters manning rebel checkpoints outside the city, he said. Most were killed in the village of Tawargha, southeast of Misrata.

The daily death toll is the highest in Libya's third largest city since rebel fighters pushed government forces to the outskirts weeks ago. Misrata remains under siege, able to get food and other supplies only through its seaport.

Misrata is the only large rebel-held city in western Libya. The rebels also control a swath of eastern Libya around Benghazi and other towns in the western Nafusa mountain range.

NATO airstrikes thundered down on the Libyan capital on Wednesday, at least four during the day after five before dawn. Another strike hit Tripoli late in the evening.

It was not immediately clear what was targeted. However, NATO strikes appear to be repeatedly pounding the same set of targets: the sprawling Gadhafi compound in central Tripoli, a series of government buildings and radar installations and military bases on the outskirts of the capital.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said NATO remained determined to see the end of Gadhafi's rule. During a visit to Cairo, he reminded reporters of NATO's decision over the weekend to extend the Libyan mission for 90 days, into late September.

"I think it's very clear that NATO is very committed to this mission and committed to providing the kind of protection for the Libyan people that it has when it took the mission on and to focusing on a way to see Gadhafi out the door," he said.

He added that President Barack Obama "has been very clear and remains very clear that this will not involve boots on the ground from the United States perspective."

The pummeling NATO strikes of Tuesday and Wednesday made good on alliance warnings in recent days that attacks would be increasing the scope and intensity. British and French attack helicopters struck for the first time inside Libya over the weekend.

Wing Commander Mike Bracken at NATO's Libya operations headquarters in Naples told The Associated Press there has been "increased tempo over recent days over Tripoli" as the alliance seeks to further weaken Gadhafi's military.

But he stressed that "Gadhafi as an individual has not been a target and won't be a target."

Some 6,850 people, nearly all of them Libyans, have streamed across the border from Libya to Tunisia since Monday to flee the NATO raids as well as fighting between the rebels and government forces, according to the Tunisian Defense Ministry.

In Benghazi, Spanish Foreign Minister Trinidad Jimenez became the latest European official to visit and bolster the opposition forces.

___

Corder contributed from Brussels. Associated Press Writers Hadeel Al-Shalchi in Benghazi, Libya, and Ben Hubbard and Steven R. Hurst in Cairo contributed reporting.

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Gaddafi defiant as NATO intensifies Tripoli strikes (Reuters)

TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Loud explosions rocked Tripoli early on Wednesday as NATO kept up its heaviest bombing of the Libyan capital since air strikes began in March, but Muammar Gaddafi vowed to fight to the end.

Attacks continued through Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning with warplanes hitting the city several times an hour. The Libyan leader's government said bombs had killed 31 people.

Saying planes were overhead and bombs were falling around him, Gaddafi spoke defiantly after strikes on his Bab al-Aziziya compound.

"We only have one choice: we will stay in our land dead or alive," he said in a fiery audio address on state television.

It later showed images of what it said was a meeting between Gaddafi and tribal leaders on Tuesday.

President Barack Obama said in Washington there was significant progress in the operation and it was "just a matter of time before Gaddafi goes".

At least 31 people were killed in 60 strikes on Tripoli, government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim told reporters. His account could not be independently verified.

"How could the world sleep tonight knowing that armies of such evil are willingly and knowingly attacking a peaceful capital with 60 rockets and killing people ... while there is a way out of this. To sit down, talk and negotiate," Ibrahim said.

A British defense official said several operations carried out by fighter aircraft had targeted Gaddafi's secret police headquarters and a military installation on Tripoli's southwestern outskirts.

Gaddafi's troops and the rebels have been deadlocked for weeks, with neither side able to hold territory on a road between Ajdabiyah in the east, which Gaddafi's forces shelled on Monday, and the Gaddafi-held oil town of Brega further west.

DIPLOMATIC MOVES

Rebels control the east of Libya, the western city of Misrata and the range of mountains near the border with Tunisia. They have been unable to advance on the capital against Gaddafi's better-equipped fighters.

Gaddafi's forces pulled back to high ground in the Western Mountains outside Yafran, 130 km (80 miles) southwest of Tripoli. The rebels broke a long government siege of the town on Monday.

But a rebel commander in Zintan, in the same region, said Gaddafi's forces were massing on Tuesday in their biggest numbers in the area since the start of the conflict.

Diplomatic overtures were being made to the rebels by world powers, including Russia and China, despite their misgivings about interference in Libya's affairs.

A Russian special envoy for Africa said in the rebel capital of Benghazi on Tuesday that Gaddafi could no longer represent Libya and that Russia was ready to help in any way possible.

In Beijing, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said an Egypt-based Chinese diplomat had visited Benghazi for talks with the rebel-led National Transitional Council.

The Libya contact group of Western and Arab countries agreed in May to provide millions of dollars in non-military aid to help the rebels keep services and the economy running.

They meet on Thursday in the United Arab Emirates to discuss rebel plans and financing for them.

Al-Saedi Gaddafi, one of Gaddafi's sons, said in comments broadcast on state television that the fighting in Libya was an attempt by Islamists to seize power.

"(Muslim) Brotherhood members, Jihadists and Takfiris (other Islamist fundamentalists) should not dream to return to Libya to take charge of it," he said.

"This is a battle of principles. The leader (Muammar Gaddafi) and the Libyan people have nothing to do with it," he said in remarks by telephone to Jamahiriya television.

(Writing by John Irish; editing by Michael Roddy)

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NATO to push for more involvement in Libya strikes (AP)

BRUSSELS – With NATO war planes pounding Tripoli in daylight raids, the alliance's secretary-general was pressuring allies Wednesday to step up their participation in what appears to have become an escalating mission to oust Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.

British and French attack helicopters struck for the first time inside Libya over the weekend, significantly ramping up NATO's operations. Ten explosions shook the capital early Wednesday, a day after the alliance's most intense wave of air strikes of the two-month campaign.

The intensified air strikes raise the question of whether NATO is sticking rigidly to its U.N. mandate to protect civilians from attack by Gadhafi's forces.

NATO said it flew 66 "strike sorties" Tuesday and hit five command and control facilities in Tripoli, among other targets.

Wing Commander Mike Bracken at NATO's Libya operations headquarters in Naples told The Associated Press there has been "increased tempo over recent days over Tripoli" as the alliance seeks to further weaken Gadhafi's military.

But he stressed that "Gadhafi as an individual has not been a target and won't be a target."

An alliance official insisted that striking at Libyan military and intelligence command and control centers like those targeted in Tripoli has "a direct correlation" with protecting civilians because it means Gadhafi's forces can no longer receive orders from commanders.

The strikes "cut off and confuse" forces on the ground, the official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the mission.

Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said he will use a two-day meeting of alliance defense ministers, which starts Wednesday at NATO's Brussels headquarters, to push for broader participation by allies. He wants more countries from the 28-nation alliance to share the costs and risks involved in the campaign.

"Obviously some of those allies and partners carrying the heavy burden start to ask whether it would be possible to broaden the participation a bit," Fogh Rasmussen said earlier this week. "That is also the essence of our alliance: that allies that actually have the necessary assets at their disposal, also contribute those assets, based the principle of solidarity."

NATO is not publicly releasing figures on how many nations are involved in the strikes, but it is thought to be around 17.

One of the alliance's most powerful members, Germany, is refusing to take part in the mission and that stance looked unlikely to shift Wednesday, whatever pressure is put on Berlin.

"We will not change our position concerning the military action. We will not participate," said German Secretary of State Christian Schmidt.

Sweden's government announced Wednesday it has reached a deal with opposition parties to extend the mission of Swedish jets taking part in Libya reconnaissance missions by three months when it expires June 22.

Under the plan, five of the eight Swedish jets currently taking part in the operation will continue to carry out reconnaissance missions over Libya.

A defiant Gadhafi, meanwhile, vowed Tuesday to fight to the death.

"We will not surrender: we only have one choice — to the end! Death, victory, it does not matter, we are not surrendering!" Gadhafi said on state television.

British Defense Secretary Liam Fox said he wanted to see "increased urgency in some quarters" for the Libya campaign.

"The United Kingdom has been very forward-leading, very clear that we want to see the Libyan people safe from the excesses of the Gadhafi regime," Fox said. "We will want to push that point today."

Last week, NATO extended its mission, named Unified Protector, for a further three months.

The United States handed control of the mission to NATO in late March but continues to provide intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets. U.S. planes also are providing about 70 percent of airborne refueling for the mission.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates did not speak to reporters as he entered the meeting, the last NATO gathering he will attend before retiring at the end of the month.

Gates arrived in Brussels after a farewell visit to American troops in Afghanistan. The 10-year war with Taliban insurgents is expected to dominate NATO discussions Thursday.

____

Associated Press reporter Don Melvin in Brussels contributed to this report.

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Blasts in Tripoli as NATO strikes go on

Libya's deputy foreign minister Khaled Kaim shows the damage to the General People's Congress -- Libya's parliament.NEW: At least 10 loud blasts are heard in TripoliNATO spokesman says report is "bogus"Libyan officials say NATO airstrikes have damaged facilities and killed hundreds of civiliansNATO says it is making "significant progress" in protecting Libyan civilians

Misrata, Libya (CNN) -- A series of loud bomb blasts rang out in Tripoli Tuesday morning -- some seeming to come from near Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's compound as NATO's air campaign continued.

At least 10 blasts were heard in Tripoli and dark smoke hung in the air in the area near the compound. It was unclear, however, what exactly the bombs had struck.

Earlier Tuesday morning, Libyan state television showed images of destroyed buildings, damaged studios and satellite vehicles -- saying it was the aftermath of a different NATO airstrike that allegedly hit its facilities in Tripoli.

NATO disputed the account.

"We did not target or hit the Libyan broadcast facilities. What we did target was the military intelligence headquarters in downtown Tripoli," the alliance said. "The story coming from Libyan officials that we targeted and hit the state broadcaster's building is bogus."

The back and forth between Libyan officials and NATO continues a public relations war between the two sides.

Libyan officials have continually charged that NATO airstrikes have damaged civilian facilities and killed hundreds of civilians.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said recently that his forces have made ""significant progress" in its U.N. Security Council mandate to protect Libyan civilians.

This week, the Libyan government said it had evidence that alliance airstrikes were harming civilians.

Officials took journalists to Tajura, a city east of Tripoli, to show them a small crater which held what appeared to be the remains of a rocket.

The reporters were also taken to some nearby homes that thMe government said was damaged by airstrikes.

NATO, reached later by phone, said it had been active in the area hitting military sites but it could not confirm the attacks caused the damage in the residential area.

The group was then taken to a nearby hospital to see Nasib, a comatose baby -- a victim of the airstrikes, the government claimed.

A woman, whom the government said was Nasib's mother, cried over the child's listless body.

Journalists were not allowed to talk to the grieving woman or doctors. But a doctor quietly slipped a note to one of the journalists.

The girl was injured in a car accident, the note said, and not a bomb attack.

CNN's Dan Rivers and Jonathan Wald contributed to this report.

CNN

Fresh series of NATO strikes target Tripoli (AP)

TRIPOLI, Libya – A series of at least 10 NATO strikes hit in and around the Libyan capital early on Friday, targeting military barracks close to Gadhafi's sprawling compound in central Tripoli, a police station and a military base, a government official said. It was not immediately clear if there were any casualties.

The strikes appeared to be the heaviest in Tripoli since South African President Jacob Zuma visited Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi in the capital earlier this week in an apparently unsuccessful effort to find a peaceful resolution to the country's crisis.

Meanwhile, a Libyan woman who claimed she was gang-raped by Gadhafi's troops was deported from Qatar where she had sought refuge, and was now in Benghazi, a U.N. official said Thursday.

Imad al-Obeidi's sudden expulsion cast light again on one of the most widely covered incidents of alleged abuses by Gadhafi's forces as NATO continues its relentless nightly bombing raids on Libyan military and security bases, backing rebels who are trying to unseat the Libyan strongman after a four-decade dictatorship.

In March, al-Obeidi rushed into Tripoli's Rixos Hotel where all foreign correspondents are forced to stay while covering the part of Libya under Gadhafi's control, and shouted out her story of being stopped at a a checkpoint, dragged away and gang-raped by soldiers. As she spoke emotionally and as photographers and reporters recorded her words, government minders, whose job is to escort reporters around the area, jumped her and dragged her away.

She disappeared for several days, then turned up in Tunisia and later Qatar. She was heard from little until Thursday, when she was suddenly expelled from Qatar and ended up in Benghazi, the Libyan rebels' de facto capital. No explanation was forthcoming from Qatar.

Rebel spokesman Jalal el-Gallal said al-Obeidi arrived in Benghazi by plane. "She's welcome to stay, this is her country," el-Gallal told The Associated Press.

The U.N. refugee agency's Sybella Wilkes said al-Obeidi should have been allowed to stay in Qatar, and her deportation runs contrary to international law. Al-Obeidi "is a recognized refugee, and we don't consider there is any good reason for her deportation," Wilkes told the AP.

U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the U.S. was "monitoring the situation" and working to ensure al-Obeidi's safety.

"We're concerned for her safety, given all that's happened to her. And we're going to work to make sure that she's kept safe, first and foremost, and that she finds appropriate asylum," Toner told reporters in Washington on Thursday.

Libyan authorities have alternately labeled al-Obeidi a drunk, a prostitute and a thief.

Al-Obeidi has maintained that she was targeted by Gadhafi's troops because she is from Benghazi, the rebel stronghold. Her rape claim could not be independently verified. The Associated Press identifies only rape victims who volunteer their names.

Human rights violations are one aspect of the rebels' complaints against the Gadhafi regime. This week a report by a U.N. body said it found evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity by Gadhafi's government, and also charged that the rebels have committed abuses.

Four of the early morning blasts Friday shook central Tripoli, targeting an area where military barracks are located, said a government official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with government policy. Those barracks, which had been hit in the past, are close to Gadhafi's sprawling compound.

Six earlier strikes targeted a police station and a military base outside the capital in the areas of Hera and Aziziya, said the official.

The conflict in Libya is nearly four months along, but the situation on the ground appears mostly stalemated. NATO airstrikes have kept the outgunned rebels from being overrun, but the rebels have been unable to mount an effective offensive against Gadhafi's better equipped armed forces.

Gadhafi's regime has been slowly crumbling from within. A significant number of army officers and several Cabinet ministers have defected, and most have expressed support for the opposition, but Gadhafi's hold on power shows little sign of loosening.

NATO warplanes bomb targets in Tripoli, including Gadhafi's sprawling Bab al-Aziziya residential and command compound, on a nightly basis.

Gadhafi has been seen in public rarely and heard even less frequently since a NATO airstrike on his compound killed one of his sons on April 30. Questions are arising about the physical and mental state of the 69-year-old dictator, who has ruled Libya since 1969.

Rebels have turned down initiatives calling for cease-fires, insisting that Gadhafi and his sons must relinquish power and leave the country.

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Additional reporting by Associated Press writer Hadeel al-Shalchi.

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U.S.: al Qaeda has interest in strikes on energy infrastructure

Washington (CNN) -- The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI have warned police across the United States that al Qaeda has a "continuing interest" in attacking oil and natural gas targets, a department spokesman said Friday.

The warning issued Thursday came as a result of information seized during the May 2 raid that killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, a U.S. official said.

"We are not aware of indications of any specific or imminent terrorist attack plotting against the oil and natural gas sector overseas or in the United States," Homeland Security spokesman Matthew Chandler said.

"However, in 2010 there was continuing interest by members of al Qaeda in targeting oil tankers and commercial oil infrastructure at sea."

It is "unclear if any further planning has been conducted" since the middle of last year, Chandler said.

CNN obtained a copy of a DHS/FBI intelligence bulletin that says al Qaeda has been interested in "targeting unspecified oil tankers abroad" as a means to "draw the West into an extreme economic crisis" by disrupting a significant portion of the oil supply for several years.

The advisory says al Qaeda wanted to target oil tankers in the Indian and Atlantic oceans, as well as the Arabian Sea, but the terrorist group "was opposed to targeting tankers in coastal areas with large Muslim populations."

The warning says al Qaeda "believed an effective method for sinking oil tankers was to hijack them and then detonate explosives from the inside." The group thought it would be more difficult to stage an attack from outside a ship, as it could "require several explosive charges since tankers are divided internally into multiple watertight sections."

The bulletin says in 2010 al Qaeda tried to get information about the size, layout and construction of oil tankers to help with attack planning. The document says al Qaeda also recognized the importance of pre-attack surveillance of a possible target and recommended conducting trial runs.

The U.S. official said there's "not a lot of detail" concerning the information, and strikes against the oil infrastructure have "long been part of the al Qaeda playbook."

"No specific attack method was identified in 2010 and there was no reference to a specific date or time of the threatened attack. The global marine industry operates under an international convention intended to prevent terrorist incidents from occurring on commercial ships and in port facilities," the official said.

"If actionable intelligence is received and additional security measures are necessary, requirements or guidance is conveyed through a U.S. Coast Guard-issued Maritime Security Directive and/or Port Security Advisory -- neither have been issued at this time."

The U.S. operation to kill bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan, collected a trove of material from the compound, including 10 hard drives, five computers and more than 100 storage devices such as disks and thumb drives, a senior U.S. official said.

Investigators are poring over the items for intelligence. Not long after the raid, investigators said materials taken from bin Laden's compound revealed details about a possible attack on the 10th anniversary of 9/11.

The material suggests that al Qaeda was particularly interested in striking Washington, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

U.S. authorities have found that al Qaeda appeared especially interested in striking on significant dates such as July Fourth, Christmas and the opening day of the United Nations.

As early as February 2010, al Qaeda members discussed a plan to derail trains in the United States by placing obstructions on tracks over bridges and valleys, an alert said, according to one law enforcement official.

The U.S. official said Friday that "if we discover information that points to an imminent threat, the United States government will, of course, swiftly take appropriate measures."

"As for the oil tanker information that is out there, just like the train information from earlier this month, we encourage our partners and the press not to be surprised that we found ideas for terrorist plotting in the home of the world's most wanted -- and most dangerous -- terrorist."

CNN

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U.S. drone strikes pick up in Pakistan

Drone strikes in the last 11 days have averaged one each two daysThat's up from an average of one every six days before the bin Laden raidThe increase doesn't suggest new intelligence from bin Laden raid, an analyst says

(CNN) -- The United States has sent drones to strike at suspected militants in Pakistan five times in the last 11 days, nearly triple the pace prior to the successful May 1 raid to kill Osama bin Laden.

The latest strike occurred Monday, when a suspected U.S. drone strike in Pakistan's tribal region killed 10 suspected militants, Pakistani intelligence officials told CNN.

Two intelligence officials who asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak to the media said the suspected drone fired two missiles on a militant's hideout in the area of Mir Ali of North Waziristan, one of the seven districts of Pakistan's volatile tribal region bordering Afghanistan.

The Monday strike was the 25th suspected U.S. drone strike this year, according to a CNN count.

Between January 1 and May 5, the United States carried out 20 strikes, an average of about one every six days. From May 6 to Monday, the U.S. carried out five strikes, or an average of one about every two days.

There were 111 such strikes in 2010, according to the count.

The sudden increase is not likely due to new intelligence gained from the bin Laden raid, said Bill Roggio, a military affairs analyst and editor of the Long War Journal.

The United States has gone through periods of high-tempo drone strikes, Roggio said, as well as lulls such as the one the last few months. Roggio said the recent lull was likely caused by tension over the arrest of CIA contractor Raymond Davis and other disputes between the countries' intelligence services.

With the Davis issue resolved and the bin Laden raid behind the U.S., the country's leaders don't feel as constrained to tamp down attacks inside Pakistan as they did the last two months, he said.

"This uptick is not unusual from a recent historical perspective, he said. "What has happened, since the bin Laden raid, is that the U.S. has not felt pressured to dial back the attacks due to Pakistani sensibilities."

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Gadhafi offers truce as NATO strikes in Tripoli

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi called for a cease-fire and negotiations with NATO powers in a live speech on state TV early Saturday, just as NATO bombs struck a government complex in the Libyan capital.

In this photo made on a government-organized tour, an official building is damaged after an airstrike early Saturday in Tripoli, Libya.

By Darko Bandic, AP

In this photo made on a government-organized tour, an official building is damaged after an airstrike early Saturday in Tripoli, Libya.

In Brussels, a NATO official said the alliance needed "to see not words but actions," and that NATO would keep up the pressure until the U.N. Security Council mandate on Libya is fulfilled.

The targeted compound included the state television building and the Libyans alleged the strikes were meant to kill Gadhafi. However, the TV building was not damaged and Gadhafi spoke from an undisclosed location.

In his rambling pre-dawn speech which lasted for more than an hour, Gadhafi appeared both subdued and defiant, repeatedly pausing as he flipped through handwritten notes.

"The door to peace is open," Gadhafi said, sitting behind a desk. "You are the aggressors. We will negotiate with you. Come, France, Italy, U.K., America, come, we will negotiate with you. Why are you attacking us?"

He said Libyans have the right to choose their own political system, but not under the threat of NATO bombings.

Rebel leaders have said they will only lay down their arms and begin talks on Libya's future after Gadhafi and his sons, some of whom hold powerful positions in the country, step aside. Gadhafi has repeatedly refused to resign.

"Why are you killing our children? Why are you destroying our infrastructure," Gadhafi said, while denying that his forces had killed Libyan civilians. Even as he called for a cease-fire, he appeared to dismiss the possibility of one, saying his enemies were al-Qaida operatives who did not understand what a truce meant.

He promised the young rebels fighting his regime that if they gave up their guns, he would give them cars and money, saying they were children "tricked" by NATO promises.

The U.N. official however noted that just hours before Gadhafi's talk of a truce, he had shelled Misrata and tried to mine the port. The city of 300,000 is the main rebel stronghold in western Libya and has been under siege for two months.

"The regime has announced cease-fires several times before and continued attacking cities and civilians," said the official who could not be named under standing regulations. "All this has to stop, and it has to stop now," the official said, adding that a ceasefire had to be "credible and verifiable."

Earlier this month, NATO's foreign ministers said the alliance will continue operations until all attacks and threats against civilians have ceased, until all of Gadhafi's forces have returned to bases, and until there is full humanitarian access.

The port is Misrata's only lifeline. On Friday, NATO intercepted boats laying anti-ship mines in the nearby waters.

The regime signaled Friday that it is trying to block access to Misrata by sea.

Moussa Ibrahim, the Libyan government spokesman, said he was unaware of the attempted mine-laying. However, he said the government is trying to prevent weapons shipments from reaching the rebels by sea. Asked whether aid vessels would also be blocked, he said any aid shipments must be coordinated with the authorities and should preferably come overland.

Gadhafi's forces have repeatedly shelled the port area and his ground troops are deployed on the outskirts of Misrata, after having been driven out of the downtown area by the rebels last week.

On Saturday, heavy fighting continued in the southern part of the city near the airport and frequent large booms could be heard in downtown from that part of town.

Hassan al-Bari, 21, who lay in the hospital screaming from pain from a three inch gash on his cheeks, said Gadhafi's forces were just outside the airport. He was wounded in a mortar strike there.

The hospital contained two dead and four injured from fighting.

With the rebels holding much of eastern Libya, Gadhafi needs to consolidate his hold over the western half, including Misrata and a mountainous region on the border with Tunisia.

On Friday, fighting between rebels and regime loyalists over a key border crossing spilled over into Tunisia, drawing a sharp rebuke by Tunisian authorities. The Foreign Ministry summoned Libya's ambassador to convey its "most vigorous protests" for the "serious violations" at the Dhuheiba border area Thursday and Friday, a ministry statement said.

The crossing is a strategic lifeline for Libya's western Nafusa mountain area where members of the ethnic Berber minority ? who have complained of systematic discrimination by the regime ? have been fighting the Gadhafi's forces for several weeks.

The Tunisian news agency, citing military officials, said dozens of Libyan troops and rebel fighters were killed in the two-day battle over the Dhuheiba crossing which ended with rebels regaining control Friday, after Libyan forces held it for a day.

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Congress Strikes a Budget Deal to Avert Shutdown, Cutting $38.5B

April 8: The U.S. Capitol was seen at dusk as a government shutdown loomed Friday night in Washington. (AP)

Congressional leaders, with barely an hour to go before a federal government, announced late Friday night they had reached a deal to fund the government through the end of the fiscal year.

The deal includes $38.5 billion in spending cuts while leaving the more contention policy matters, such as blocking funding for Planned Parenthood, for a later debate.

The Senate passed a short-term spending measure Friday night to buy lawmakers the time needed to prepare and pass the final budget bill next week. The House passed the measure early Saturday, which will be signed by President Obama when he receives it, according to senior administration officials.

"This agreement between Democrats and Republicans on behalf of all Americas is a budget that invests in our future while making the largest spending cut in our history," Obama said in a short speech to the nation after the deal had been announced."Today Americans of different beliefs came together again."

Shortly after midnight, White House budget director Jacob Lew issued a memo instructing the government's departments and agencies to continue their normal operations.

Of the $38.5 billion in spending cuts to Obama's original 2011 budget proposal, the short-term stopgap measure contains the first $2 billion and the final budget bill will cut the other $36.5 billion.

Boehner said the agreement came after "a lot of discussion and a long fight," and he won an ovation from his rank and file.

"We fought to keep government spending down because it really will be a jobs creator for our country," Boehner said.

On Friday, senior administration officials said Obama made it clear to his staff that he wanted them to stay out of the limelight and let the legislative process work. He urged them to avoid making comments that would hamper a potential deal.

It was a remarkable end to a roller-coaster week of negotiations, in which the government several times seemed headed for a shutdown because the two sides couldn't agree on a full-year budget.

Obama has already signed two temporary spending bills, which included a total of $10 billion in spending cuts, but he said this week he wasn't interested in any more short-term fixes.

As late as hours before the agreement, a government shutdown seemed quite possible -- if not inevitable -- as both sides couldn't even agree, at least in public, on what was holding up a deal.

Democrats said Republicans were pushing for social policy measure, while Republicans said the Democrats hadn't agreed to enough spending cuts.

But in the end, neither side wanted a shutdown that would risk the economic recovery and their political future.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called the agreement "historic."

"Both sides have made tough choices, but tough choices is what this job is all about," Reid said.

Obama called Boehner and Reid after the announcement of the budget resolution to thank them for their work.

The government's current fiscal year began back in October, but Democrats last year, facing stiff opposition from Republicans, put off a vote on a full-year budget as both parties geared up for the midterm elections. The standoff began in earnest several weeks ago, when the new

Republican majority in the House passed legislation that would fund the government for the rest of the year, but with $61 billion in cuts and numerous curbs on the government that Democrats objected to.

In the weeks since, the two sides have alternately negotiated on a budget for the rest of the year and taken time out to pass interim measures to buy themselves more time.

Republicans originally wanted to ban federal funds for Planned Parenthood, a health care services provider that is also the nation's largest provider of abortions.

Federal funds may not be used to pay for abortions except in strictly regulated cases, but supporters of the ban said cutting off government funds for the organization -- currently about $330 million a year -- would make it harder for it to use its own money for the same purpose.

Democrats rejected the proposal in private talks. Officials in both parties said Republicans returned earlier in the week with a proposal to distribute federal funds for family planning and related health services to the states, rather than directly to Planned Parenthood and other organizations.

Democrats said they rejected that proposal as well, and Obama had vowed to veto a bill that the House passed Tuesday to fund then refused to agree to allow a separate Senate vote on the issue as part of debate over any compromise bill.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Qaddafi Sends Letter to Obama Urging End to Air Strikes

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WASHINGTON -- Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi appealed directly to President Barack Obama on Wednesday to end what Qaddafi called "an unjust war." He also wished Obama good luck in his bid for re-election next year.

"You are a man who has enough courage to annul a wrong and mistaken action," Qaddafi wrote in a rambling, three-page letter to Obama obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday. "I am sure that you are able to shoulder the responsibility for that."

The White House confirmed the letter, but top officials shrugged it off.

"I don't think there is any mystery about what is expected from Mr. Qaddafi at this time," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said, repeating U.S. and NATO demands that Qaddafi's forces pull back and cease attacks. She also renewed a demand that Qaddafi give up his power and leave the country.

"There needs to be a cease-fire, his forces need to withdraw from the cities that they have forcibly taken at great violence and human cost," she said. "There needs to be a decision made about his departure from power and ... his departure from Libya."

Rebels and pro-government forces waged nearly stalemated battles in Libya, while a former U.S. lawmaker made an unendorsed private trip to Tripoli to try to persuade Qaddafi to step down. An Obama administration envoy continued meeting with Libyan opposition figures in the rebel-held city of Benghazi, with no decision whether to increase U.S. help for the rebels seeking Qaddafi's removal from power.

The rebels, aided by U.N.-auth frame."

Qaddafi said his country had already been unfairly subjected to "a direct military armed aggression" ordered in 1986 by then-President Ronald Reagan, who famously called the leader the "Mad Dog of the Middle East." He also wrote of earlier rounds of U.S. and international sanctions.

Although he listed a litany of complaints, Qaddafi said he bears no ill will toward Obama in the letter, which was dated April 5, 2011 in Tripoli and is signed by "Mu'aumer Qaddaffi, Leader of the Revolution."

"We have been hurt more morally (than) physically because of what had happened against us in both deeds and words by you," he wrote. "Despite all this, you will always remain our son whatever happened. We still pray that you continue to be president of the U.S.A. We Endeavour and hope that you will gain victory in the new election campaigne."

Meanwhile, former congressman Curt Weldon, a Pennsylvania Republican who has visited Libya twice before, arrived in Tripoli on Wednesday at Qaddafi's invitation. Weldon said he is on a private mission to urge the Libyan leader to step down.

The State Department dismissed the significance of Weldon's visit, saying he had been warned of the dangers of traveling to Libya, was not traveling on behalf of the administration and not carrying any message to Qaddafi from Washington.

------

Associated Press writers Sebastian Abbot in Ajbadiya, Libya; Ben Hubbard in Benghazi, Libya; Jenny Barchfield in Paris and Slobodan Lekic in Brussels contributed to this report.

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Gadhafi, in letter, asks Obama to end air strikes

By Sergei Grits, AP

"You are a man who has enough courage to annul a wrong and mistaken action," Moammar Gadhafi says in a letter to President Obama.

EnlargeCloseBy Sergei Grits, AP

"You are a man who has enough courage to annul a wrong and mistaken action," Moammar Gadhafi says in a letter to President Obama.

In a rambling, three-page letter to Obama obtained by The Associated Press, Gadhafi implored Obama to stop the NATO-led air campaign, which he called an "unjust war against a small people of a developing country."

"You are a man who has enough courage to annul a wrong and mistaken action," Gadhafi wrote in the letter that was sent to the State Department and forwarded immediately to the White House, according to a U.S. official who had seen the letter. "I am sure that you are able to shoulder the responsibility for that."

"To serving world peace ... Friendship between our peoples ... and for the sake of economic, and security cooperation against terror, you are in a position to keep NATO off the Libyan affair for good," Gadhafi wrote.

White House press secretary Jay Carney confirmed that the White House received a letter from Gadhafi.

As for Gadhafi's appeal for a cease-fire, Carney appeared to dismiss it for now.

"The conditions the president laid out are clear," Carney told reporters traveling with Obama to New York.

In the letter, sent Wednesday, Gadhafi says his country had been hurt more morally than physically by the NATO campaign and that a democratic society could not be built through missiles and aircraft. He also repeated his claim that his foes are members of al-Qaeda.

Addressing Obama as "our son" and "excellency," Gadhafi said his country had been hurt more "morally" than "physically" by the NATO campaign and that a democratic society could not be built through missiles and aircraft.

He also repeated his claim that his foes, particularly those now in control of the city of Benghazi, are members of al-Qaeda.

The letter, in stilted and formal English, includes numerous spelling and grammatical errors.

"Our dear son, Excellency, Baraka Hussein Abu oumama, your intervention is the name of the U.S.A. is a must, so that Nato would withdraw finally from the Libyan affair," Gadhafi wrote. "Libya should be left to Libyans within the African union frame."

Gadhafi said his country had already been unfairly subjected in 1986 to "a direct military armed aggression" ordered by then-President Ronald Reagan, who famously called the leader the "Mad Dog of the Middle East," as well as earlier rounds of U.S. and international sanctions.

Although he listed a litany of complaints, Gadhafi said he bears no ill will toward Obama.

"We have been hurt more morally (than) physically because of what had happened against us in both deeds and words by you," he wrote. "Despite all this you will always remain our son whatever happened. We still pray that you continue to be president of the U.S.A. We Endeavour and hope that you will gain victory in the new election campaigne."

The letter, dated April 5, 2011 in Tripoli is signed by "Mu'aumer Qaddaffi, Leader of the Revolution."

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