Fareed blog

UK: Diplomats did not discuss arming Libya rebels

World powers agreed Tuesday that Moammar Gadhafi should step down after 42 years as Libya's ruler but did not discuss arming the rebels who are seeking to oust him.

Top diplomats from up to 40 countries met for crisis talks Tuesday in London on the future of the North African nation, but British Foreign Secretary William Hague told reporters the subject of arming rebels simply did not come up.

"That was not one of the subjects for discussion," Hague said. "That was not raised at the conference and it was not on the agenda for discussion."

He added that Libya was under a U.N.-mandated arms embargo and that the restrictions "in our view apply to the whole of Libya."

Hague's comments suggest that the U.N.-backed coalition cobbled together to defend civilians from Gadhafi's onslaught is still hanging back from throwing its entire weight behind the ill-organized rebels, whose exact makeup and motives remain unclear.

But Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad Bin Jabr al-Thani seemed to leave the door open to arms sales when he suggested that the issue might be revisited if the aerial campaign fell short of its stated goal of protecting Libyan civilians.

"We have to evaluate the airstrike after a while to see if it's effective," he said. "We are not inviting any military ground (troops) ... but we have to evaluate the situation because we cannot let the people suffer for so long, you know, we have to find a way to stop this bloodshed."

Qatar, which has recognized the rebels as Libya's legitimate representatives, also plans to help them sell crude on the international market. Yet while there has been talk of using Qatar to market Libya's oil for days, details have remained thin on the ground.

Libya's production relies on joint ventures with foreign companies, like Italy's Eni SpA, that have evacuated employees from the country, and it's unclear how or when Qatar could help restart the country's now-paralyzed energy industry.

Still even the possibility of renewed oil sales from Libya would affect the markets.

While diplomats repeated their appeals for Gadhafi to leave Libya, there were few signs that the international community planned to apply any additional pressure on the Libyan ruler. Diplomats are considering more sanctions on Gadhafi associates to send a clear message to Gadhafi that he cannot attack civilians with impunity, Hague said.

He says the possible sanctions will be pursued in the United Nations and regional organizations, but did not elaborate further.

Britain, Germany, the U.S. and Switzerland have already moved to freeze assets belonging to Gadhafi and the Libyan government.

Hague said he believed the Libyan rebels were genuinely committed to democracy, but still sounded a note of caution.

"I'm sure they are sincere," Hague said, "but we can never be complacent about how events like this could turn out."

In his speech opening the conference, Prime Minister David Cameron said Britain had received reports that Gadhafi was pounding Misrata, the main rebel holdout in the west, with attacks from land and sea, and relentlessly targeting civilians.

"The reason for being here is because the Libyan people cannot reach that future on their own," Cameron said. "We are all here in one united purpose, that is to help the Libyan people in their hour of need."

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the international community must support calls for democracy sweeping Libya and its neighbors, but warned that change would not be easily won.

"Under different governments, under different circumstances, people are expressing the same basic aspirations: A voice in their government, an end to corruption, freedom from violence and fear, the chance to live in dignity and to make the most of their God-given talents," Clinton said. "These goals are not easily achieved. But they are, without question, worth working for together."

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Japan: post-tsunami, town wonders if to rebuild

The only thing left of Minamisanriku City Hall is its two front steps.

Nearby, a pink octopus lies dead in a pool of sea water, its tentacles wrapped around a crumpled sheet of corrugated aluminum that may have been a roof, a gate, a wall. Beside it, a broken tarmac road runs as far as the eye can see through fields of demolished houses and debris.

As post-tsunami Japan turns to the enormous task of putting towns like this back together again, the sheer extent of the devastation wrought March 11 raises existential questions: Should the dozens of shattered communities along these shores be rebuilt at all? Can they be, when up to half their inhabitants are gone and survivors know it could happen again?

"The future is not bright," Jin Sato, the 56-year-old mayor of Minamisanriku, says matter-of-factly.

The statistics for this town alone are grim. Of the 17,666 people who once lived here, at least 322 have been confirmed dead and thousands more have disappeared — still buried in the ruins or sucked out to sea. Another 9,325 lost their homes and live in 45 shelters, mostly schools, spread on hills along the bay.

The tsunami swept away nearly every business, every job. There is no electricity or running water, and very little fuel. Some 70 percent of Minamisanriku's 5,574 houses were destroyed.

Inside a hilltop sports arena that serves as shelter, morgue and makeshift office, Sato sits red-eyed behind a small desk. "Whatever happens," he says, "we're going to need a lot of help."

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Minamisanriku has long been a small blue-collar fishing town, a place where hardy residents in rubber boots fished the chilly sea, farmed seaweed and sold octopus and oysters.

A collection of villages lining coves along a C-shaped bay, it was scenic and peaceful. The website for the Hotel Kanyo — damaged but still standing — shows visitors dipping in hot springs and snapping pictures of seagulls from balconies overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

On March 11, two days after an earthquake shook buildings from here to Tokyo but caused no major damage, Sato was talking to staff at City Hall about the need to boost disaster preparedness. As he spoke, one of the strongest quakes ever recorded rocked the Japanese archipelago at 2:46 p.m., triggering tsunami sirens that began howling across town.

People hurried to designated hilltop refuges, and Sato scrambled atop a government disaster readiness center next door. Half an hour later, he watched in awe as the thunderous wave surged over a sea wall in the harbor, kicking up plumes of mist and dust.

Horrified onlookers screamed in terror as the churning water swallowed Minamisanriku's main district, Shizugawa. Entire houses made of wood swirled atop the dark, debris-filled wave — a vast, deadly froth filled with shorn power pylons, boats and even trains.

Sato clung precariously to a steel railing on the disaster center's rooftop as ice cold waves washed repeatedly over it. About 30 people had fled to the roof with him; some 20 were swept away.

Sato and the other survivors spent a shivering night atop the three-story building, which had been reduced to a skeleton of itself, its walls torn completely off. The next day, he climbed down to the ground on a chaotic tangle of fishing nets that the tsunami had deposited over the building.

Most of the town was simply gone.

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Two weeks later, Reiko Inaba was walking through ruins when she stumbled on two yellow crates filled with muddy photo albums, placed at the edge of a mountain of rubble by Japanese soldiers separating valuables from debris.

There were pictures of newborn babies, of school classes and laughing children. There were wedding photos covered in dirt and grime. Were they alive? Dead?

She didn't know.

Halfway through the crate, one photo caught Inaba's eyes.

The 35-year-old retirement home worker brushed away the dirt covering it with a white mitten and was astounded by what she saw: a picture of her now 13-year-old son, Rukya, staring back at her.

Here, a mile from the spot on which her home once stood, by pure chance or persistence, she had come across four snapshots taken 10 years earlier. Two showed Rukya standing over a white birthday cake when he was three. The boy survived with the rest of the family.

"I had given up finding any of this," Inaba said, clutching the water-ruined photos close to her breast. "We have nothing else left."

Nothing, she said, equals this: one white kitten piggy bank with 500 yen ($6) inside it, a few bank statements, and the clothes on her back.

Other lives will never be put back together again.

At the entrance of the sports arena where the mayor is struggling to run the town, 60-year-old Sachiko Sato studied a list of names posted on a glass wall inside the door.

No. 104 was unknown, identified by his height, his weight and a black mole on his right shoulder.

No. 49 was identified but unclaimed: Kazuo Izawa.

Of her husband, Sakae, there was no sign.

Sato last saw him the day the tsunami struck. He had left home in a brown suit headed for the town council, where he worked. It was the final meeting of a session, and "he told me, 'After it's over, let's meet for a drink,'" Sato recalled. "I told him, OK. I'll see you later."

Her husband was the pillar of the family and made all the decisions, she said. "Without him," she added quietly, staring at the list, "I have no idea what we'll do."

On a hilltop across town, Reiko Sato stood in her doorway, looking down over Minamisanriku. She is one of the lucky ones: She lost no family, and her home was untouched. But just a few feet (meters) from her doorstep, the tsunami's legacy begins.

Every day, she wakes up to the sound of military bulldozers reorganizing debris into separate mounds: piles of wood to be burned, piles of scrap metal to be hauled away. The four-story hospital where she worked as a nurse is one of the few buildings left standing, but she wonders if it will ever reopen.

With no stores stocked, she must line up at a nearby school-turned-shelter to get rations of miso soup and rice balls. She gathers water for her family in plastic jugs.

"You cannot look at this and feel lucky," she said. Her daughter pointed a tiny index finger repeatedly toward something rarely seen here before: a military helicopter circling the sky.

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For decades, Japan's youth have abandoned towns like this in favor of the urban bustle of glittering cities like Tokyo. In Minamisanriku, the population has remained more or less the same for the last half century.

Many younger people moved away long ago, said Toshiko Suda, 63, who ran a business selling seaweed. "Now their parents may follow."

Suda's children live in the nearest big city, Sendai, parts of which were also heavily damaged. She put her life into the business she started with her husband, 64-year-old Michio.

Now, the fishermen who brought them seaweed are missing, and the boats that once lined the harbor are gone. So is their house, their business and the fish shops across the street.

"We don't want to leave," Suda said. "But if nobody else comes back, we can't stay. You cannot build a life by yourself."

Elsewhere in the ruins, construction worker Kazuhiro Watanabe stood over the foundation of his home, trying to figure out where the things in it may have been swept to. Nobody will live in any part of Minamisanriku touched by the tsunami, he said.

"Maybe everyone will just move to the hills — if they stay here at all," he added. But the town is still in shock, still mourning: "This is not the time to think about rebuilding."

And first, some crucial questions must be answered: Should the entire town shift inland, high on the hills, safe from the waves? Is it humanly possible to protect against such a mighty force of nature?

Many here still remember the last tsunami that wrecked the town in 1960. Propelled across the ocean by a massive quake off Chile, that wave arrived at a height of nearly 8 feet (2.4 meters) and killed more than 40 people. The disaster prompted the town to stage annual tsunami drills and build a thick, one-story-high concrete sea wall, which Sato says contributed to a false sense of security.

This month's tsunami was four or five times higher, Sato said. It easily toppled the breaker across the harbor, destroying about half of it.

"We understand now that our disaster plan was meaningless," he said. "We must rethink everything."

The town, Sato added, "will have to undergo a drastic change."

For now, he has more immediate problems.

The homeless live just a few yards from his feet, sleeping in cardboard cubicles in the corridors. With no money and few belongings, they will need to be fed for months. Outside the shelter, they line up eagerly to sift through boxes of used clothes donated from private companies in Tokyo.

In Sato's makeshift office, electricity company officials are studying maps, trying to figure out how and where to install mobile transformers. Firefighters are coordinating operations to recover bodies. Outside, American helicopters are landing on the lawn with boxes of food.

The prefectural government plans to erect thousands of prefabricated homes, the mayor says, but that is only a temporary solution.

"My concern is not whether we can rebuild," Sato says. "We can rebuild everything in time. The question is whether people will do it here. I cannot decide whether they stay or go."

Irish Rep Reading of 'Can't Complain' Will Feature Mary Beth Peil

Christine Evans' play Can't Complain will get a free public reading 3 PM Feb. 18 in the Irish Repertory Theatre's New Works Reading Series, which celebrates emerging playwrights.

In Can't Complain, according to Irish Rep, "Rita hates being confined in a hospital, where her daughter Maureen has placed her for assessment after a small stroke. She plots her escape with the help of her elderly Irish roommate Iris, her granddaughter Jansis, and her cat's new best friend — the Devil. Rita battles her present situation, until a riotous party night with Iris and the Devil collapses her escape plan and brings her face to face with the remains of her past."

The cast includes Orlagh Cassidy (Aristocrats, The Field), Kelley Greene (Winter's Take, Skin of Our Teeth), Andy Paris (A World Apart) and Mary Beth Peil ("The Good Wife," Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown).

Playwright Evans has penned the plays The Underpass, Trojan Barbie, Weightless, Mothergun and The Ballad of the Lost Dogs. Her play Slow Falling Bird was presented as part of the New Works Series in 2009. Published by Samuel French, Smith & Kraus and in Theater Forum, her work has received multiple productions and awards in her native Australia, the U.K. and the U.S.

The reading is at Irish Repertory Theatre's home at 132 W. 22nd Street in Manhattan.

Seating is limited. A reservation is suggested. Call The Irish Repertory Theatre Box Office at (212) 727-2737. For more information visit www.irishrep.org.

AP News in Brief

GOP mocks Obama's 2012 budget for ignoring deficit as House debates even deeper cuts for 2011

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans on Tuesday disparaged President Barack Obama's proposed $3.7 trillion budget for next year for taking a pass on tackling long-term deficits by not calling for structural changes in big-ticket entitlement programs for the elderly.

"In our nation's most pressing fiscal challenges, the president has abdicated his leadership role," said House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis. "When his own commission put forward a set of fundamental entitlement and tax reforms ... he ignored them."

Obama told a news conference that the budget he sent Congress will help meet his goal of cutting the deficit in half by the end of his first term. He said he looked forward to negotiations with Republicans in coming months on how to fix Social Security and Medicare.

"This is not a matter of, `you go first, I go first,' " he said. "It's a matter of everybody having a serious conversation about where we want to go and then ultimately getting in that boat at the same time so it doesn't tip over."

House Republicans, meanwhile were eager to launch a weeklong debate on their own package of deep cuts in domestic spending for the current fiscal year.

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Bahrain protesters occupy square in Egyptian-style bid for change in the Gulf

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Thousands of protesters took over a main square in Bahrain's capital Tuesday — carting in tents and raising banners — in a bold attempt to copy Egypt's uprising and force high-level changes in one of Washington's key allies in the Gulf.

The move by demonstrators capped two days of clashes across the tiny island kingdom that left at least two people dead, parliament in limbo by an opposition boycott and the king making a rare address on national television to offer condolences for the bloodshed.

Security forces — apparently under orders to hold back — watched from the sidelines as protesters chanted slogans mocking the nation's ruling sheiks and called for sweeping political reforms and an end to monarchy's grip on key decisions and government posts.

The unrest in Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, adds another layer to Washington's worries in the region. In Yemen, police and government supporters battled nearly 3,000 marchers calling for the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh in a fifth straight day of violence.

Yemen is seen as a critical partner in the U.S. fight against a network inspired by al-Qaida. The Pentagon plans to boost its training of Yemen's counterterrorism forces to expand the push against the al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula faction, which has been linked to attacks including the attempted airliner bombing in December 2009 and the failed mail bomb plot involving cargo planes last summer.

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AP IMPACT: In Ivory Coast, mass killings are hidden in plain sight — in refrigerated morgues

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) — The entrance to the morgue is like a mouth through which comes an awful smell. It hits you as far back as the parking lot and makes your eyes water. From a dozen yards away, it's strong enough to make you throw up.

What lies inside is proof of mass killings in this once-tranquil country of 21 million, where the sitting president is refusing to give way to his successor. Nearly every day since Laurent Gbagbo was declared the loser of the Nov. 28 election, the bodies of people who voted for his opponent have been showing up on the sides of highways.

Their distraught families have gone from police station to police station looking for them, but the bodies are hidden in plain sight in morgues turned into mass graves. Records obtained by The Associated Press from four of the city's nine morgues show that at least 113 bullet-ridden bodies have been brought in since the election. The number is likely much higher because the AP was refused access to the five other morgues, including one where the United Nations believes as many as 80 bodies were taken.

The bodies are being held hostage and not released to families. Morgue workers say government minders are stationed outside to monitor what goes in or out.

A list of the dead that the AP was allowed to see on the laptop of a company that manages three downtown morgues shows the bodies began arriving Dec. 1, the night the country's electoral commission was due to announce that opposition leader Alassane Ouattara had won. The AP also saw legal documents from authorities instructing funeral homes to pick up bodies found on public roads, and the paperwork handed to families.

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German company will acquire Big Board, but exchange is already mostly symbolic

NEW YORK (AP) — Why would anyone want to sell a centerpiece of capitalism like the New York Stock Exchange? Because despite its fame and its fabled floor, it's a lousy way to make money.

A German company will acquire the Big Board in a deal that creates the world's largest exchange operator but does not stop the decades-long evolution of stock trading from shouting floor brokers to the cold, quiet hum of computers.

The deal announced Tuesday values the New York exchange's old parent company, NYSE Euronext, at $10 billion. The NYSE and Euronext, which owns exchanges in several European capitals, merged in 2007.

There was no immediate word on what changes might come to the corner of Wall and Broad streets, the Corinthian-columned building synonymous with global finance, including what the new company would be named.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., called for NYSE to be first in the exchange's new name. The German company, Deutsche Boerse, will control 60 percent of the new company's board of directors.

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US to back cyber dissent in repressive states, warns Internet curbs can't last

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States stands with cyber dissidents and democracy activists from the Middle East to China and beyond, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday.

She pledged to expand the Obama administration's efforts to foil Internet repression in autocratic states.

In an impassioned speech on Internet freedom, Clinton said the administration would spend $25 million this year on initiatives designed to protect bloggers and help them get around curbs like the Great Firewall of China, the gagging of social media sites in Iran, Cuba, Syria, Vietnam and Myanmar as well as Egypt's recent unsuccessful attempt to thwart anti-government protests by simply pulling the plug on online communication.

She also said the State Department, which last week launched Twitter feeds in Arabic and Farsi to connect with populations throughout the Arab world and Iran, would broaden the reach of its online mini-appeals for human rights and democracy by creating accounts cater to audiences in China, Russia and India in their native languages.

Clinton challenged authoritarian leaders and regimes to embrace online freedom and the demands of cyber dissidents or risk being toppled by tides of unrest, similar to what has happened in Egypt and Tunisia to longtime presidents Hosni Mubarak and Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

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APNewsBreak: Vets seek changes in military's handling of rape, sexual assault cases

WASHINGTON (AP) — A group of U.S. veterans who say they were raped and abused by their comrades want to force the Pentagon to change how it handles such cases.

More than a dozen female and two male current or former service members say servicemen get away with rape and other sexual abuse and victims are too often ordered to continue to serve alongside those they say attacked them.

In a federal class-action lawsuit filed Tuesday that names Defense Secretary Robert Gates and his predecessor, Donald Rumsfeld, they want an objective third party to handle such complaints because individual commanders have too much say in how allegations are handled.

The alleged attackers in the lawsuit include an Army criminal investigator and an Army National Guard commander. The abuse alleged ranges from obscene verbal abuse to gang rape.

In one incident, an Army Reservist says two male colleagues raped her in Iraq and videotaped the attack. She complained to authorities after the men circulated the video to colleagues. Despite being bruised from her shoulders to elbows from being held down, she says charges weren't filed because the commander determined she "did not act like a rape victim" and "did not struggle enough" and authorities said they didn't want to delay the scheduled return of the alleged attackers to the United States.

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Campaigns lag in Iowa; Could some GOP candidates skip the 2012 caucuses here?

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A run for the White House has long meant enduring icy days campaigning in Iowa for the contest that starts the presidential election calendar. But this winter fewer candidates have braved the Midwestern chill. And that has left some wondering if the Iowa Republican party's shift to the right is scaring off some hopefuls and making the Iowa caucuses less competitive -- and less important.

In the last few months, a handful of prospective candidates for the GOP nomination in 2012 have visited the state -- including former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, former vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. But the visits have been less frequent than in the past, and other traditional campaign-building efforts have lagged.

Notably absent has been former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who has led the field of GOP prospects in early polling. Also unseen has been Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, who hasn't announced his intentions but who spoke last week at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C.

Some strategists wonder whether the more moderate of the approximately dozen contenders may now be adopting the lesson of John McCain, who largely skipped the Iowa caucuses in 2008 and still was able to lock up the Republican Party's nomination in other states.

"Other people may be making that decision," said Mark Salter, a top aide in McCain's campaign. Iowa's dominant Republicans are now "very socially conservative," he said. Although McCain had a national following, many Iowa Republicans questioned his earlier support for immigration reform and his willingness to work with Democrats.

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CBS News' Lara Logan recovering after 'brutal' attack while reporting from Cairo last Friday

NEW YORK (AP) — CBS News correspondent Lara Logan was recovering in a U.S. hospital Tuesday from a sexual attack and beating she sustained while reporting on the tumultuous events in Cairo.

Logan was in the city's Tahrir Square on Friday after Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak stepped down when she, her team and their security "were surrounded by a dangerous element amidst the celebration," CBS said in a statement Tuesday.

The network described a mob of more than 200 people "whipped into a frenzy."

Separated from her crew in the crush of the violent pack, she suffered what CBS called "a brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating." She was saved by a group of women and an estimated 20 Egyptian soldiers, the network said. The Associated Press does not name victims of a sexual assault unless the victim agrees to it.

She reconnected with the CBS team and returned to the U.S. on Saturday.

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Nephew of Dalai Lama killed along Fla. highway at start of walk for Tibetan independence

PALM COAST, Fla. (AP) — The Dalai Lama's nephew was smiling, radiating energy as he tackled the first leg of a 300-mile walk to promote Tibet's independence from China. He insisted on finishing the last two miles on his own, even as darkness fell.

"For the cause," Jigme K. Norbu said, as he had on so many similar journeys before.

Norbu was alone on a dark coastal highway Monday when was struck and killed by an SUV. He was headed south in the same direction as traffic, following a white line along the side of the road, according to the Highway Patrol. The impact crumpled the vehicle's hood and shattered the front windshield.

Authorities said it appeared to be an accident and the driver, 31-year-old Keith R. O'Dell of Palm Coast, swerved but couldn't avoid Norbu. The Highway Patrol was still investigating, but didn't expect any charges. O'Dell and his 5-year-old son were not hurt.

Norbu, 45, had completed at least 21 walks and bike rides, logging more than 7,800 miles in the U.S. and overseas to support freedom for Tibet and highlight the suffering of its people. He completed his most recent 300-mile trek in December in Taiwan.

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Teaching an old dog show new tech tricks: Different sorts of bytes at Westminster Kennel Club

NEW YORK (AP) — Sitting high up in section 118, Linda Melvin kept her eyes fixed on the Gordon setters competing on the floor at Madison Square Garden. A seat away, her daughter fixated on her cell phone.

Krista Piller was busy posting on Facebook: "Wants a big dog to win the WKC dog show this year."

"I'll being putting up more, too," Piller said.

From the stands, to the green-carpeted rings to backstage, people were a-twitter Tuesday — iPads, Blackberries, Droids and then some at an event that started in 1877. Signs of social media were everywhere at the Westminster Kennel Club show.

Proving, in fact, that it is indeed possible to teach an old dog show new tech tricks.

Owner of dead kitten offered air fare plus $50

The owner of a hairless kitten that died after being shipped in the cargo hold of a Delta flight says the airline is only offering to refund her air fare plus $50.

Snickers froze after flying to Connecticut from Utah last month. A door latch malfunctioned in 10-degree weather and it took nearly an hour to unload her.

Heather Lombardi says Delta Air Lines initially told her she would get $2,900 for the cat and $290 for airfare, plus reimbursement for vet bills and even a freezer where she's keeping Snickers until the ground thaws.

Lombardi said Tuesday that Delta changed its offer to air fare plus 50 cents a pound, although there's a $50 minimum.

Delta spokesman Anthony L. Black describes the offer as a standard cargo reimbursement and says talks are ongoing.