Syrian Leader Shuns Reform - Wall Street Journal

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad offered no concrete concessions in a much-anticipated speech to Parliament on Wednesday, and blamed foreign plots for the antigovernment uprisings in the country.

Mr. Assad's televised speech—the first time he addressed the nation since the crisis erupted two weeks ago—set the stage for further confrontation with protesters.

A report on Syrian leader Beshar al-Assad addressing the public in an effort to calm protesters who have flooded the streets. The WSJ reporter interviewed requested anonymity to ensure the safety of himself and his family.

"I'm addressing you during extraordinary events; we are facing a test of our unity," Mr. Assad said at the start of his speech to a room of cheering parliamentarians. "But we will successfully overcome it."

To the surprise of some observers, Mr. Assad failed to offer details and a timetable for a reform plan. He labeled protesters, who are demanding more freedom, reforms and an end to corruption, as "marginalized" and "traitors."

Mr. Assad, a 45-year-old London-educated physician, had been viewed as more open to reform while others in his ruling circle, including his brother and his security chiefs, were seen as taking a harder line as the crisis in Syria deepened over the past two weeks. However, observers said Wednesday that Mr. Assad's speech showed the ruling class was united on staying firm, seeking to normalize the situation and introducing reforms when it sees fit—on the regime's clock, not the opposition's.

"It's clear that the regime doesn't sense any danger anymore," said a Beirut-based political analyst. "They think once they start giving concessions it's an endless path."

Mr. Assad's speech infuriated many Syrians, both opponents of his government and moderates who favor stability but would like to see some meaningful reform.

It remains to be seen whether the opposition, which is stifled inside Syria and whose leadership is in jail, can mobilize the masses. Mr. Assad made it clear in his speech that if there were a battle, he would fight to the end."I would give my blood and soul for Syria," he said.Syrian activist groups have called online for demonstrations across the country Friday in reaction to the speech.Protests in the Arab world typically take place on Fridays, after the noon prayer.

Track events day by day.

Incoastal the city of Latakia, several thousand people took to the streets Wednesday after the speech, and clashed with security forces, according to a witness reached by phone. The witness said shots were fired and there were casualties. In the city of Daraa, the center of the antigovernment uprising, people chanted "leave, leave," after the speech, according to a witness's account posted online.

Wissam Tarif, a human-rights activist in Damascus, sent a message on Twitter saying that Mr. Assad "did not address the nation. He addressed the machinery of oppression strengthening it."

Some Syrians said they were offended by Mr. Assad's cheerful demeanor during the speech. He smiled often, laughing and joking about events that have left at least 60 people dead and dozens injured, according to human-rights groups.

The Obama administration said Mr. Assad's speech "fell short" of offering any commitment to initiate real reforms. Some U.S. officials said they worried the Syrian leader was indicating that his government was willing to take increasingly violent steps to snuff out the opposition movement.

"It's clear to us that it didn't have much substance to it," State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters Wednesday, adding that he thought the Syrian people would be disappointed.

The Obama administration and Europe have taken a cautious approach to the unrest in Syria. The White House and European governments have condemned the violence, but also made clear they weren't contemplating an intervention like the campaigncurrently under way in Libya.

A number of officials said they were concerned about the type of government that might replace Mr. Assad's.

"What regime would follow?" said a senior European official. "It's not an easy situation."

Mr. Assad devoted a considerable amount of time during the hourlong speech to his theory that Syria is a victim of a sophisticated foreign plot disguised as pro-democracy demonstrations. He also attacked television news channels, saying they distorted facts to spread sectarian unrest. He criticized the U.S., saying it pressured Syria to reform in 2005, and that by invading Iraq it had hoped to spur a domino effect of change in the Middle East, but that the effect was the opposite.

Mr. Assad was interrupted several times during his speech by parliamentarians who stood up and dramatically sang his praise. "You represent not only Syria but the entire Arab world," said one legislator clad in traditional Arabic tribal attire.

Last Thursday, the government said it would lift the emergency law in place for nearly 50 years, increase wages for public workers and open up the media. Mr. Assad said the measures had already been put forth in draft bills and that the government would now debate them. He said the move wasn't a result of pressure, but was due to public awareness about reforms.

"This is very disappointing; worse than I imagined," said one young unemployed man in Damascus. "It reconfirms my suspicions that reforms will not—and cannot—be made by this regime."

—Jay Solomon and Nour Malas contributed to this article.

Israel, long critical of Assad, may prefer he stay after all - Washington Post

TEL AVIV — Israel has long complained about Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s alliance with Iran, his support for the Shiite militia Hezbollah and his sheltering of leaders from Palestinian militant groups, such as Hamas, in Damascus.

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But with Assad facing the most serious threat to his rule since he took power nearly 11 years ago, Israelis have been forced to confront the notion that they may well be better off with him than without him.

Assad, like his father before him, has ensured that the Israeli-Syrian border has remained Israel’s quietest front for decades, enabling that country’s northern residents to flourish in an atmosphere of relative peace even as the two nations remain technically in a state of war.

The possibility that the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood or radical groups could rise to power in place of Syria’s secular, stable leadership has prompted fear among some Israelis. Watching the Muslim Brotherhood gain a foothold in Egypt’s political system after the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak has only fed an Israeli squeamishness about the prospect of regime change in Damascus.

As one member of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s cabinet put it, “We know Assad. We knew his father. Of course, we’d love to have a democratic Syria as our neighbor. But do I think that’s going to happen? No.”

For now, there is little that Israel can do other than sit and monitor the demonstrations in Syria, which have drawn thousands to the streets over the past 10 days and led to clashes with security services, leaving at least 60 people dead. On Tuesday, the Syrian cabinet resigned in an effort to prop up Assad, who is expected to lift a repressive emergency law and ease other restrictions.

“We’ve had a dictator, but it’s been very quiet,” a senior Israeli military commander said.“On the other hand, it’s absolutely clear to us that the Syrians play a negative role” in the region.

Syria, whose leadership is Alawite, a minority that constitutes an offshoot of Shiite Islam, has long supported Iran and its Shiite ally in south Lebanon, Hezbollah. Although Israel sees Iran as Hezbollah’s chief patron, officials regard Syrian support as no less crucial.

Israeli military officials say the majority of weapons that Hezbollah has stashed in south Lebanon since a 2006 conflict with Israel were made or supplied by Syria, including short-range Scud missiles as well as 302mm rockets, which, when fired from southern Lebanon, could reach Tel Aviv.

Syrian officials have denied supplying weapons to Hezbollah. In April, after Israel first accused Syria of supplying the Scuds to Hezbollah, Hasan Nasrallah, the head of the group, refused to comment.

During a visit to Moscow this month, Israeli media reported, Netanyahu pleaded with Russia not to sell Syria anti-ship missiles for fear that they could be transferred to Hezbollah. But his request was rebuffed.

Israeli military officials said in interviews that most of Hezbollah’s weapons are covertly transferred by truck from arms depots near Damascus to storage facilities in southern Lebanon.

Israeli intelligence asserts that Hezbollah has built hundreds of bunkers and filled them with Syrian-made weapons, all since 2006, the last time Israel attacked the Shiite militia.

A map of alleged Hezbollah installations provided to The Washington Post this week by Israeli military officials identifies more than 550 underground bunkers, 300 surveillance sites and 100 other facilities.

In releasing the map, the Israeli military appeared to be trying to preempt international criticism of any future offensive against the alleged sites, many of which are located in residential villages alongside hospitals, schools and even civilian homes.

Military commanders say they want to avoid the kind of international rebuke Israel received after it launched an operation in late 2008 to try to stop Palestinian militants from firing rockets from the Gaza Strip into Israeli towns. About 1,300 Palestinians were killed in that offensive.

“Our interest is to show the world that the Hezbollah organization has turned these villages into fighting zones,” the senior Israeli commander said.

Israeli military officials and analysts said Assad’s departure could lead to a break in Syria’s support for Hezbollah.

“A different regime is not naturally an ally of Hezbollah and the Iranians,” said Ehud Ya’ari, a commentator on Arab affairs for Israel’s Channel 2 television station.

“People would very much like to see Assad gone and his whole regime replaced,” Ya’ari said in an interview. “That doesn’t mean they don’t have concerns about what’s coming next.”

Ivory Coast Fighters Loyal to Ouattara Capture Port; UN Imposes Sanctions - Bloomberg

 

Ivory Coast fighters loyal to President-elect Alassane Ouattara seized the key cocoa-exporting port of San Pedro as the United Nations imposed sanctions on incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo and urged him to give up power.

San Pedro, situated 310 kilometers (193 miles) west of the commercial capital, Abidjan, fell “without fighting,” said Meite Sindou, spokesman for Ouattara’s Prime Minister Guillaume Soro.

“Our troops moved forward without any difficulties,” Sindou said in a phone interview late yesterday. Ouattara’s Republican Forces only shot in the air as they advanced, he said.

The San Pedro Port is the second-biggest in Ivory Coast, the world’s largest cocoa producer. The facility handles 1 million metric tons of cargo annually, including cocoa, coffee and timber, according to Bloomberg data.

The Republican Forces also late yesterday seized Yamoussoukro, the political capital and the biggest of at least eight towns taken this week. The advance of the militia to the south has added military force to the diplomatic and economic pressure on Gbagbo to relinquish the presidency to Ouattara, who is internationally recognized as the winner of a Nov. 28 election. Gbagbo, whose forces have put up little resistance, refuses to cede power, alleging voter fraud.

The UN Security Council voted 15-0 yesterday to freeze the foreign assets and bar travel by Gbagbo, his wife Simone and top aides Desire Tagro, Alcide Djedje and Pascal Affi N’Guessan.

The resolution also asked Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to send the report of a UN-mandated investigation of alleged human rights abuses to the council and “other relevant international organizations” such as the International Criminal Court.

The rapid advance of the Republican Forces raised hopes the four-month political crisis will soon be over. The country’s defaulted dollar-denominated bond rallied 7 percent to 42.688 cents on the dollar yesterday, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Cocoa for May delivery slumped to a 10-week low on hopes the impasse may ease and pave the way for a renewal of exports of the chocolate ingredient. The price dropped $70, or 2.3 percent, to $2,987 per metric ton by 5:20 p.m. in New York.

The advance by Ouattara’s forces has been “much more rapid than expected,” said Young-jin Choi, the head of the UN mission in the country, in an interview with CNN. The troops are within “striking distance” of Abidjan, he said.

Gbagbo’s spokesman, Ahoua Don Mello, didn’t answer calls made to his mobile phone yesterday. The incumbent president has called for a cease-fire and talks at the African Union as the rival forces move south.

At the same time, the enrolment of new troops who responded to a recruitment call last week by Gbagbo’s Youth Minister Charles Ble Goude began yesterday, according to the website of state-owned Radio Television Ivoirienne.

Ouattara rejected the call for talks after meeting on March 29 with leaders of four other opposition parties.

Tension is mounting in Abidjan, with at least five people shot dead in Adjame, a neighborhood that supports Ouattara, according to Parfait Yao, a witness who saw their bodies.

The port of San Pedro was quiet after being captured by the Republic Forces, Alphonse Gouanou, a resident of the city, said in a phone interview.

“We were expecting Ouattara’s forces to take the town,” he said. “Everybody is at home. The city is lifeless.”

Sindou said the rebels also captured the Western town of Gagnoa, which was confirmed by resident Abdul Kone.

To contact the reporters on this story: Pauline Bax and Olivier Monnier in Abidjan via Accra at ebowers1@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at asguazzin@bloomberg.net.

For autistic kids' parents, trial hits home

 

When a Stafford County jury this month found an autistic teenager guilty of assaulting a law enforcement officer and recommended that he spend 101/2 years in prison, a woman in the second row sobbed.

It wasn't the defendant's mother. She wouldn't cry until she reached her car. It was Teresa Champion.

Champion had sat through the trial for days and couldn't help drawing parallels between the defendant, Reginald "Neli" Latson, 19, and her son James, a 17-year-old with autism.

James might have said this, she thought. James might have done that. She had fresh bruises on her body that showed that James, too, had lost his temper to the point of violence.

"This is what we live with," said Champion, of Springfield. "When they go over the edge, there is no pulling back. "

The cause of autism - a complex developmental disability that affects a person's ability to communicate and interact with others - remains the subject of heated debate. What's not in dispute is the soaring number of children found to have the disorder. In 1985, autism had been diagnosed in one out of 2,500 people in the United States; now the rate is one in 110.

Champion said parents are just beginning to acknowledge what she calls the "dark side of autism," their children's capacity for aggression when they are frustrated, angry or overstimulated. Her son recently hit his attendant and attacked his father in front of a movie theater. Other parents describe scary episodes of biting, kicking and hitting.

It's not easy to talk about children lashing out, Champion said. But it's necessary because many are getting older and bigger and yearn for more independence, which leads to private struggles becoming public.

During Latson's three-day trial, no one disputed that he assaulted a Stafford deputy one morning in May. The deputy was bleeding so profusely that responding officers thought he had been shot.

But why Latson - who has Asperger's syndrome, a relatively mild form of autism - did it and whether he could have stopped himself played a central role in his defense and has engaged the sympathy of parents in the Washington region and beyond.

"Everyone is like, 'Oh my God, that is my son,' " said Ann Gibbons of the advocacy group Autism Speaks. She said the case calls attention to two crucial issues: "How do we protect the community, and how do we protect the impaired individual?"

"And in this case, we didn't protect either," she said.

Concerns - in Congress and about rebels | Philadelphia Inquirer | 2011-03-31 - Philadelphia Inquirer

 WASHINGTON - As frustrated lawmakers sought more clarity on the Libya mission, the White House said Wednesday that it was still assessing options for "all types of assistance" to opposition forces battling Moammar Gadhafi's troops and that no decision had been made on arming the opposition.

Fresh battlefield setbacks are hardening a U.S. view that the poorly equipped opposition is probably incapable of prevailing without decisive Western intervention, a senior U.S. intelligence official told the Associated Press.

Gadhafi's land forces outmatch the opposition and remain capable of threatening the civilian resistance, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The director of national intelligence compared the rebel forces to a "pick-up basketball team."

Some members of Congress expressed frustration because administration officials could not say when the U.S. operation might end.

In an hour-long private meeting for House members, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, and the military and intelligence heads faced tough questions, including some about the rebels' durability.

"The administration answered as well as they could, given the ambiguity of the situation," Rep. Kevin Brady (R., Texas) said later.

During the meeting, the intelligence chief, James Clapper, compared the rebel forces to a "pick-up basketball team." He indicated that intelligence had identified a few questionable individuals within the rebel ranks, according to lawmakers.

The top NATO commander earlier had noted "flickers" of an al-Qaeda and Hezbollah presence among the rebels but no evidence of significant numbers within the opposition group's leadership.

Lawmakers, especially Republicans, are smarting from what they consider a lack of consultation and Obama's decision not to seek congressional authorization to use force.

The briefings - the Senate had a separate session later Wednesday - came 12 days after the no-fly zone began. Obama did speak to congressional leaders the day before the military action began.

"I understand how evil Gadhafi is," said Rep. Greg Walden (R., Ore.). "I don't understand the unwillingness to come to Congress first."

Republicans, however, don't speak with one voice.

Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.), Obama's 2008 presidential rival, said the president could not wait for Congress to take even a few days to debate the use of force. "There would have been nothing left to save in Benghazi," the rebels' de facto capital, he said.

Obama, in his address to the nation Monday, defended his decision to deploy forces to prevent a slaughter of Libyan civilians.

Freshman Rep. Justin Amash (R., Mich.) attracted a few cosponsors for his bill this week that would end the U.S. role in Libya unless Obama gets congressional authorization. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D., Ohio) is seeking support for his effort to cut off money.

The top NATO commander said the U.S. military role would be scaled back in the near term. "We today in NATO took over the mission and we are reducing the U.S. component of it measurably, and I think you'll see our allies increasingly engaged," U.S. Navy Adm. James Stavridis told the House Armed Services Committee.

Still, committee members expressed reservations.

"It is a mission that I'm concerned as to whether or not its goals are clear," said Rep. Michael Turner, (R., Ohio). "And also I'm a little concerned and believe it's unclear as to who we are supporting in this conflict."

An Associated Press-GfK poll, conducted in the days leading up to the president's speech, found the country split on U.S. involvement in military actions in Libya, with 48 percent approving and 50 percent disapproving.

The Pentagon put the cost so far at $550 million. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D., Ore.) said officials estimated the cost for the U.S. could be $40 million a month depending on the length of the operation.

Japanese nuclear plants' operator scrambles to avert meltdowns

TOKYO - Japanese authorities said Sunday that efforts to restart the cooling system at one of the reactors damaged by Friday's earthquake had failed, even as officials struggled to bring several other damaged reactors under control.

Workers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant have not found a way to stabilize overheated reactors and feared the possibility of partial nuclear meltdown, which could potentially cause a further release of radioactive material, Japan's top government spokesman said Sunday. Engineers were having trouble, in particular, with two units at the nuclear facility - one of which lost its outer containment wall Saturday in an explosion.

Meanwhile, officials declared a state of emergency at a nuclear power plant in Onagawa, where excessive radiation levels were reported.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said a similar explosion could soon occur at Fukushima Daiichi's unit 3, the result of hydrogen levels that are increasing within the unit's reactor vessel amid last-ditch efforts to keep fuel rods submerged in water. Already, trace amounts of radioactive material have leaked from the No. 3 reactor, Edano said.

"At the risk of raising further public concern, we cannot rule out the possibility of an explosion," Edano said.

But Edano also insisted that an explosion would have no impact on human health. Based on initial findings from the government and from Japan's nuclear agency, the Saturday explosion in unit 1 did not damage the reactor vessel, and the government said that the unit 3 reactor vessel would also withstand an explosion. The reactor vessels of No. 3 and No. 1 are being flooded with seawater and boron in an emergency attempt to keep the units cool after the plant lost its main power supply and a backup system failed.

Though the third unit is being filled with water, its gauge inside does not register the rising levels, Edano said. He did not have an explanation.

"If the cooling system is not maintained, there is a good chance the core could start melting down," said Masahi Gota, a former Toshiba engineer who was involved in the design of the containment vessel for these nuclear reactors.

Richard Lester, co-chair of the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering at MIT, said: "The most important task that the operators have - and have had for last 36 hours - is to keep the fuel in the reactor covered, submerged in water. If they succeed in doing that, keeping the fuel rods covered in water, the likelihood of significant damage to the fuel is low. If they cannot keep the fuel covered with water, then you have the possibility of melting."

Some 170,000 people have been evacuated around a 12-mile radius of the plant. They join more than 450,000 other evacuees from other quake- and tsunami-affected regions. A spokesman for Japan's nuclear agency said as many as 160 people may have been exposed to radiation and were being tested at a hospital to determine if levels were dangerous.

"Only the gravest danger would justify an evacuation at such a moment," said Peter Bradford, a former commissioner at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Edano said officials were acting on the assumption that a meltdown could be underway at Fukushima Daiichi's unit 3, and that it was "highly possible" a meltdown was underway at its unit 1 reactor, where an explosion destroyed a building a day earlier.

Libyan foreign minister Moussa Koussa defects to Britain - Telegraph.co.uk

However, there are fears that any move to provide arms could lead to "mission creep", dragging Western ground forces into the civil war. It also emerged that:

Five Libyan diplomats were expelled from Britain amid concern they could pose a threat to national security;

Senior defence sources disclosed that British and American forces had destroyed more than 40 Libyan arms dumps and "chopped the legs off" Gaddafi's supply route;

Uganda announced that it was prepared to offer the Libyan leader exile under an Italian plan to remove him;

The UN or EU may ultimately have to send a humanitarian force to help civilians in rebel–held areas.

The British and other governments are increasingly worried that rebel troops will not be able to advance on Tripoli or other Libyan cities without external help.

Arming them is thought to have been discussed by Britain's National Security Council and Mr Cameron, President Barack Obama and the French president Nicolas Sarkozy have begun openly considering the idea. Last night it was reported that Mr Obama had signed a secret order authorising covert US support for the rebels within the past two or three weeks and that CIA and MI6 operatives had been in the country for some time.

It is understood that Libyan opposition leaders have requested anti–tank weapons and other equipment, which could be provided by a Middle Eastern country, such as Qatar, in return for oil.

Yesterday, Mr Cameron said that Britain was not "ruling out" arming the rebels, despite having previously indicated that this may not be possible under the terms of sanctions imposed on Libya. The Prime Minister told MPs: "It is an extremely fluid situation but there is no doubt in anyone's mind the ceasefire is still being breached and it is absolutely right for us to keep up our pressure under UN Security Council 1973. As I've told the House, the legal position is clear that the arms embargo applies to the whole territory of Libya.

"But at the same time, UNSCR 1973 allows all necessary measures to protect civilians and civilian–populated areas. Our view is that this would not necessarily rule out the provision of assistance to those protecting civilians in certain circumstances. We do not rule it out but we have not taken the decision to do so."

Mr Cameron's statement echoed comments by Mr Obama in a television interview on Tuesday night.

Russia and other countries have strongly condemned any such provision. It would be highly controversial and may be blocked by MPs in Britain.

However, Mr Koussa's defection holds out hope that the regime might still crack from the inside, relieving the pressure for further military measures.

Mr Koussa flew from Tunisia, where he had been on a diplomatic mission, to Farnborough airport before being shuttled to London for immediate talks with high–ranking Foreign Office officials.

A close confidant of Gaddafi for 30 years, he was linked by intelligence sources to the Lockerbie bombing and played a lead role in securing the release of the bomber, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al–Megrahi.

Yesterday, senior defence officials said there was "more to do" to prevent further loss of civilian lives but reiterated that no British ground troops would be used. A chaotic picture emerged on the ground where the Gaddafi regime ambushed rebels outside the leader's home town of Sirte, precipitating a disorderly retreat as far as Ajdabiyah.

Profile Regime's chief fingernail puller'

Moussa Koussa, 61, took a sociology degree at Michigan State University. He was appointed ambassador to Britain in 1980 but expelled for threatening to kill opponents.

He was accused of organising terrorism on his return to Libya where he headed the Libyan spy agency from 1994 and was described by a senior figure in George W Bush's administration as "chief fingernail puller".

He has been named as the possible architect of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, but brokered Libya's promise to give up weapons of mass destruction in 2003 and was made foreign minister in 2009.

Kadhafi foreign minister defects in Britain - AFP

LONDON — Libya's Moamer Kadhafi suffered another blow when his foreign minister flew into Britain telling officials he no longer wanted to represent the Tripoli regime.

Mussa Kussa arrived at Farnborough Airfield, west of London, on Wednesday, a Foreign Office statement said.

"He travelled here under his own free will. He has told us that he is resigning his post," it added.

"Mussa Kussa is one of the most senior figures in Kadhafi's government and his role was to represent the regime internationally, something that he is no longer willing to do," the British statement continued.

"We encourage those around Kadhafi to abandon him and embrace a better future for Libya that allows political transition and real reform that meets the aspirations of the Libyan people," it concluded.

Kussa arrived after a two-day stay in Tunisia, having entered on Monday by the Ras Jdir border crossing.

Tripoli had officially described it as a "private visit." Then, when he was reported to be on his way to London, the Libyan authorities said he was on a "diplomatic mission".

His departure is just the latest blow to Kadafi's regime.

Several senior members of Kadhafi's entourage, including ministers and senior military officers, have defected since the uprising against his 42-year-rule began more than a month ago.

Washington quickly hailed Kussa's departure as a major blow to the Kadhafi regime.

"This is a very significant defection and an indication that people around Kadhafi think the writing's on the wall," a senior official in the US administration said.

Kussa is credited as having been a key figure in Libya's efforts to improve its international reputation before to the current crisis.

The 59-year-old was installed as Kadhafi's foreign minister in March 2009 after having served as the head of Libya's intelligence agency from 1994.

One of Kadhafi's trusted advisers, Kussa is believed to have convinced the leader to dismantle his nuclear weapons programme, opening the way for the lifting of US trade sanctions.

Earlier in his career, in 1980, Kussa served as ambassador to Britain, but was expelled after saying he wanted to eliminate the "enemies" of the Libyan regime in Britain.

Libya's opposition Transitional National Council (TNC) features a number of former senior figures in Kadhafi's regime.

Mustafa Abdel Jalil, who quit as justice minister in February in protest at the crackdown on protesters, heads up the body.

Abdulrahman Shalgham, Libya's envoy to the UN and a former foreign minister, has also joined the opposition.

Scores of Libyan diplomats across the world have also resigned.

News of Kussa's arrival came just hours after Foreign Secretary William Hague announced that London was expelling five Libyan diplomats, including the country's military attache.

They were being kicked out for having intimidated Libyan opposition groups in London, Hague told Parliament.

"The government also judged that were these individuals to remain in Britain they could pose a threat to our security," he added.

A Foreign Office spokesman said the expelled diplomats were thought to be strong supporters of Kadhafi.

Copyright ? 2011 AFP. All rights reserved. More ?

Japan considers scrapping stricken reactors - Xinhua

BEIJING,March 31 (Xinhuanet) -- The nuclear crisis rolls on in Japan as record high levels of radioactive iodine have been detected in seawater around the Fukushima nuclear plant. The Japanese government is now considering a move to decommission four of the stricken reactors.

Japan's government and Tokyo Electric Power admitted on Wednesday there is no end in sight to the ongoing disaster.

TEPCO says the company has so far failed to bring reactors Number 1 to 4 under control, and that they will eventually have to be shut down. The government says it's now discussing whether to bury the reactor buildings, by covering them with a special material.

The announcement comes as seawater near the facility has been found to contain much higher levels of radiation than previous reported. The new readings show radioactive iodine hitting 3355 times the legal limit.

Hidehiko Nishiyamja, Dep. Director of Japan Nuclear & Industrial Safety Agency, said, "We need to be vigilant and we have to take steps to prevent any further leakage into the sea. The area within 20 kilometers of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear reactor has been evacuated and there is no fishing going on there."

The agency suspects the containers and safety shells of Number ONE, TWO and THREE reactors have been damaged, following the detection of highly radioactive liquid inside the reactor buildings.

The latest bad news comes a day after small amounts of highly toxic plutonium were detected in soil around the plant.

Meanwhile, TEPCO has sought to explain the absence of its president since the crisis began, saying he has been hospitalized with hypertension.

And in a further development, smoke has been reported coming from a different nuclear plant in Fukushima. Officials at the Daini power plant say the fire appeared to be coming from an electrical distribution box, and has since dispersed.

Japan has ordered an immediate safety upgrade across all of its 55 nuclear power stations, in the wake of the ongoing crisis.

(Source: CNTV)

Nominally civilian government takes power in Myanmar - Denver Post

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Refugees head for Europe from Tunisia and Libya - Telegraph.co.uk

  Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi speaks upon his arrival in the Italian island of Lampedusa?Photo: AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Most of the 18,000 migrants who have landed on Lampedusa since the beginning of the year are Tunisian, but Italy fears a far bigger exodus if the situation in Libya deteriorates further.

An Italian assault ship and five ferries will remove the migrants from the island, a speck of land which lies closer to Tunisia than Italy, within the next two days.

They will be taken to tented camps and converted barracks on the Italian mainland but it is expected that most will escape and head for other countries, including France.

Migrants who were transferred to the camps in the past few days were filmed and photographed vaulting wire fences, evading security guards.

Italy faced a diplomatic confrontation with France after an estimated 3,500 Tunisians, most of whom had arrived in Europe via Lampedusa and then escaped from detention centres in recent weeks, massed at the Franco-Italian border yesterday, demanding to be allowed in.

Franco Frattini, Italy's foreign minister, accused Paris of showing "a grave lack of solidarity" in refusing to permit the Tunisians to enter French territory from the border town of Ventimiglia.

Just this week, a group of Eritreans, Somalis and Ethiopians who had been living and working in Libya reached the wind-swept island, which in summer is a popular holiday destination for Italians.

Ministers have warned of a "biblical exodus", saying Italy cannot handle the crisis alone and calling for urgent EU assistance.

"These are not just economic migrants and we continue to ask Europe to take action," Mr Frattini said, adding that promises for "very limited European funds" were not enough.

But the EU said it had already done a great deal to help. "We have made around 18 million euros (25 million dollars) available to Italy in 2010-2011 for repatriations, on top of 25 million euros allocated to all member states for emergency measures," a spokesman said.

Silvio Berlusconi, the prime minister, visited Lampedusa yesterday for the first time since the immigration crisis started in January, vowing that Italian ships would evacuate the migrants "within 48 to 60 hours".

He was cheered by islanders, who were initially welcoming and sympathetic but have grown increasingly hostile to the North African arrivals.

Mr Berlusconi joked that he would propose Lampedusa as a candidate for the Nobel Prize for Peace.

He also said he had bought on the internet a villa on Lampedusa in order to show solidarity with its 5,500 inhabitants and boost the island's flagging tourism sector.

"I asked myself how to assure the people of Lampedusa that all the promises that I've made will be kept. And I thought to myself, OK, I need to become an islander too. Last night I went on the internet and I found a villa, called Two Palms, and I bought it."

The immigrants are mainly young men, many of whom have been sleeping in the open air on the dock for days, cooped up in pens marked with ropes or dustbins.

"I left Tunisia because I didn't have any work. I don't know what will happen today and I'm afraid, very afraid. No one knows anything and they are not telling us anything," Bechir, a 21-year old Tunisian, said. "I just want to join my family in France." With only three chemical lavatories, little access to water for washing and growing tensions between locals and immigrants, aid organisations and charities have denounced the government for poor management of the crisis.

"It's not possible in the long term to leave 5,000 inhabitants living alongside 6,000 immigrants in such conditions," Laura Boldrini from the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR said.

Thai navy evacuates stranded tourists from storm-hit island - Monsters and Critics.com

Bangkok - Thailand's sole aircraft carrier delivered 618 foreign and Thai tourists safely to the Sattahip naval base Thursday after rescuing them from an island in the Gulf of Thailand.

 

The Chakri Naruebet evacuated the tourists off Tao Island, 412 kilometres south of Bangkok, in helicopters and small boats Wednesday afternoon, then shipped them overnight to Sattahip, 120 kilometres south-east of Bangkok on the mainland.

From the base, the navy arranged 18 buses to take the tourists to Bangkok.

The tourists had been stranded on the island all week due to a storm that has hit Thailand's southern provinces since the weekend.

Another 500 tourists who were reportedly stranded on Tarutao Island in the Andaman Sea were rescued by chartered speedboats, authorities said.

Thousands of foreign tourists were also stranded on Samui Island, 470 kilometres south of Bangkok, where authorities were forced to shut down the airport late Monday and halt ferry services to the mainland because of heavy rains and high seas.

Bangkok Airways and Thai Airways International resumed flights to the island Wednesday.

Floods caused by incessant downpours since the weekend have killed at least 15 people in Thailand's central southern provinces between the Gulf of Thailand in the east and the Andaman Sea in the west.

The floods have caused an estimated 7 billion baht (233 million dollars) in damage, according to the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce.

The storm-struck area includes some of Thailand's most popular beach and island resorts such as Krabi province and the islands of Phuket and Samui.

Meteorologists blamed the heavy rains on a high pressure front coming down from China and La Nina, a three-to-six-year climatic phenomenon characterized by heavy rains.

The phenomenon has lowered temperatures throughout Thailand, which is coming to the end of its high season for foreign tourists.

More cold weather, heavy rains and high winds were predicted for the rest of the week, the Thail Meteorological Department said, with the rain easing and temperatures rising next week.

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Japan begins grim relief mission with towns flooded, thousands reported missing

TOKYO - Rescue teams searched through matchstick rubble Saturday for thousands of people missing in flooded areas of northeastern Japan, beginning one of the most complex relief efforts in history.

A day after the 8.9-magnitude earthquake and massive tsunami, entire towns remained impossible to reach and some were feared to be wiped off the map. Most estimates put the death toll at 1,700, but news services quoted police in Miyagi Prefecture - one of the hardest-hit areas - as saying they expect the number to exceed 10,000 in that region alone.

About 200,000 people are living in temporary shelters. A strip of Japan's main Honshu island has almost no electricity, with scarce means to communicate. Many shelters do not have heat. Survivors at an elementary school in the devastated coastal town of Minamisanriku used chalk to write their message on a dirt playground: "SOS."

An explosion at a nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture and concerns about potential radiation leakage prompted evacuations within a 12.5-mile radius. As many as 160 people near Fukushima's nuclear plants have been exposed to radiation.

In other areas north of Tokyo, closest to the epicenter of Friday's earthquake, witnesses said the massive wave had swallowed and chewed up entire neighborhoods. Attempts to reach those stranded, trapped or short on supplies were complicated by damage to the roads and rail lines.

Roughly 9,500 people in Minamisanriku - a town of 17,000 in Miyagi Prefecture - remain unaccounted for, the Kyodo news agency reported, citing local government officials. Phone lines are dead at schools. Footage taken by helicopters allowed for a before-and-after comparison: Where there was once a fishing and tourist village, there is now a lake, with only a few buildings poking out from the murky black.

"Even the medical relief is going to be a longtime battle," said Toshikazu Yamamoto, a Japanese Red Cross official in charge of disaster relief. "This earthquake is much larger than the Kobe earthquake [in 1995]. And Kobe took 10, 15 years to recover, and it actually hasn't recovered completely even now. Recovery from this earthquake is going to take a long, long time."

Attempts to map out the damage were only beginning as Japan dispatched 50,000 troops to the disaster zone. The coastal town of Rikuzentakata, in Iwate Prefecture, was entirely submerged by water, according to local authorities. One TV reporter who arrived at Iwaki, in Fukushima Prefecture, said the town was gone.

A derailed train in Miyagi Prefecture, closest to the quake's epicenter, was seen waylaid against the side of a house. There were no reports on the whereabouts of passengers.

With roads pretzeled and fuel in high demand along the undamaged routes heading north, the government will depend on ships and aircraft for the rescue work. Japan is sending 195 aircraft and 25 vessels to the disaster area, according to Kyodo. U.S. ships will join them for search-and-rescue missions.

Japanese power companies warned of severe outages in the coming days, with energy sources in diminished supply.

On Saturday, Japan's northeastern coastline, viewed from above, had the look of a dark scar. The fiercest wave sent a wall of water upward of 20 feet high toward the shoreline, and it spread some six miles inland. At 6 a.m. local time, Prime Minister Naoto Kan surveyed the area by helicopter. Those on the ground told of screams from trapped survivors, houses turned to splinters and overtaxed hospitals and shelters.

Subterranean jail a sign of Gaddafi's grip

IN BENGHAZI, LIBYA Peering into a subterranean jail, Adil Gnaybor shuddered with fear. Rusted prison bars once covered with earth were now exposed, dug up by rebels who had discovered the secret labyrinth of cells. The space was too small for Gnaybor's 5-foot frame, and a white tube provided the only source of air.

"If I go inside there, perhaps I will die," Gnaybor said, staring into the hole.

Thousands of Libyans have been arriving here at a complex of palatial homes, known as the Katiba El Fadil bu Omar, where Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi stayed during visits to this port city. It is here that Gaddafi also had an underground prison.

The compound is perhaps the most vivid symbol in eastern Libya of triumph over the Gaddafi regime. His houses have been torched and looted. Graffiti denouncing his regime is spray-painted on nearly every wall. One declared, "Libya will be free."

But amid the faded opulence, Libyans expressed fear that their revolution was losing ground on two fronts and could be reversed.

For many visitors, the underground jails were not only a chilling reminder of the brutality of Gaddafi's government. They also foreshadowed the terror Gaddafi is capable of inflicting in the future if his forces retake the city, Libya's second largest.

"I feel nervous. Look what happened in Zawiyah and in Ras Lanuf," said Gnaybor, 50, referring to two cities - the first in the west, the second in the east - that Gaddafi's forces have retaken over the past two days. "Everywhere we are losing a lot of people."

Al-Badri, a 62-year-old who came with his three daughters, said: "I expect anything from Gaddafi. He could bomb Benghazi, even use chemical weapons." He declined to give his full name, for fear that he would be targeted if Gaddafi returned.

"What is America waiting for?" he continued. "Until Gaddafi manages to kill all the Libyan people?"

Worries in Benghazi

Of all the cities that have revolted against Gaddafi, it is Benghazi that most Libyans expect will bear the full brunt of his wrath if he retains his grip on power. Libya's three-week-old populist revolution was born here, and it managed to reach the threshold of Gaddafi's nexus of power in western Libya with its brief takeover of Zawiyah, 30 miles from the capital, Tripoli.

Benghazi is also the headquarters of the Libyan National Council, a 31-member body that seeks to replace Gaddafi's regime.

In 1996, an estimated 1,200 prisoners who had protested Gaddafi's rule were killed at Tripoli's Abu Salim prison. Many were from Benghazi. Such memories of savagery helped trigger the uprising.

Who will reach the Final Four?

Old Dominion and George Mason both have a great chance to earn single-digit seeds today. In today's story, I wrote that the only time Old Dominion received a single-digit seed was in 1980. ODU also received a single-digit seed (eighth) in 1986.

I've started to think about potential Final Four picks. First, let me point out which teams I predicted before the season would make the Final Four: Duke, Michigan State, Pittsburgh and San Diego State. Duke is not the same team without Kyrie Irving. Michigan is not the same team everyone thought it would be. Pittsburgh's been fine. San Diego State has exceeded even my very high expectations for the Aztecs.

So it will depend on matchups and bracketing, but here are the teams I am strongly considering to select as Final Four teams: