Evening Edition

AJDABIYAH, Libya (Reuters) – Libyan rebels fled in headlong retreat from the superior arms and tactics of Muammar Gaddafi’s troops on Wednesday, exposing the insurgents’ weakness without Western air strikes to tip the scales in their favor.

It had taken more than five days of allied bombardment to destroy government tanks and artillery in the strategic town of Ajdabiyah before rebels rushed in and chased Gaddafi’s troops 300 km (200 miles) west in a two-day dash along the coast.

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan called on the world not to impose “unjustifiable” import curbs on its goods as French President Nicolas Sarkozy was due to arrive on Thursday, the first leader to visit since an earthquake and tsunami damaged a nuclear plant, sparking the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl in 1986.

In a briefing to the World Trade Organization (WTO), Japan said it was monitoring radioactive contamination to prevent potential food safety risks and would provide the WTO with quick and precise information.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama has signed a secret order authorizing covert U.S. government support for rebel forces seeking to oust Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, government officials told Reuters on Wednesday.

Obama signed the order, known as a presidential “finding”, within the last two or three weeks, according to four U.S. government sources familiar with the matter.

VIENNA – Recent radiation readings outside the exclusion zone around Japan’s nuclear disaster show radiation substantially higher than levels at which the U.N. nuclear agency would recommend evacuations, agency officials said Wednesday.

The comments could add to the debate over how far people need to stay away from Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear complex, which was crippled in the country’s March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

DAMASCUS (Reuters) – President Bashar al-Assad defied calls on Wednesday to lift a decades-old emergency law and said Syria was the target of a foreign conspiracy to stir up protests in which more than 60 people have been killed.

Angry that their demands were not met, hundreds of protesters chanting “Freedom” marched in the port city of Latakia, where residents said security forces had fired in the air.

SANAA (Reuters) – Yemen’s president has made a new offer to protesters demanding his ouster, proposing he stays in office until elections are held but transferring his powers to a caretaker government, an opposition source said on Wednesday.

The opposition promptly rejected the offer, with a spokesman calling it “an attempt to prolong the survival of regime.”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama set an ambitious goal on Wednesday to cut U.S. oil imports by a third over 10 years, taking up a challenge that eluded previous U.S. leaders, as high gasoline prices threaten to undermine the country’s economic recovery.

Obama outlined his strategy in a speech after spending days explaining U.S.-led military action in Libya, where fighting, accompanied by unrest elsewhere in the Arab world, has helped push U.S. gasoline prices toward $4 a gallon.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The House of Representatives on Tuesday voted to kill President Barack Obama’s signature program to help struggling homeowners avoid foreclosure.

A bill to terminate the program was approved on a 252-170 vote. But the bill is unlikely to clear the Senate.

It was the last in series of four measures brought forward by newly empowered House Republicans to end government assistance for homeowners hurt by the housing crisis.

AJDABIYA, Libya – Moammar Gadhafi’s ground forces recaptured a strategic oil town Wednesday and were close to taking a second, making new inroads in beating back a rebel advance toward the capital Tripoli. Western powers kept up the pressure to force Gadhafi out with new airstrikes to weaken his military, hints that they may arm the opposition and intense negotiations behind the scenes to find a country to give haven to Libya’s leader of more than 40 years.

TOKYO – Fears about contaminated seafood spread Wednesday despite reassurances that radiation in the waters off Japan’s troubled atomic plant pose no health risk, as the country’s respected emperor consoled evacuees from the tsunami and nuclear emergency zone.

WASHINGTON – Seeking to show the public he understands the burden of rising gas prices, President Barack Obama set an ambitious goal of reducing U.S. oil imports by one-third by 2025, and vowed to break through the political gridlock that has stymied similar initiatives for decades.

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast – Fighters supporting Ivory Coast’s internationally recognized leader seized control of the country’s administrative capital on Wednesday, marking a symbolic victory after months of political chaos sparked when the incumbent refused to step down after the election.

WASHINGTON – Renewed House-Senate budget negotiations aimed at averting a government shutdown center on possibly cutting $33 billion from current spending levels, a senior congressional aide said Wednesday. Democrats pressed to ease GOP cuts to domestic agency budgets by slowing Pentagon growth and trimming so-called mandatory programs whose budgets run on autopilot.

YANGON (AFP) – Myanmar’s military made way for a nominally civilian government after almost half a century in power Wednesday, as the junta was disbanded and a new president talked of a “changing era”.

But the army hierarchy retains a firm grip on power in the resource-rich Southeast Asian country, and many analysts believe strongman Senior General Than Shwe will attempt to retain some sort of control behind the scenes.

SENDAI, Japan (AFP) – The UN atomic watchdog said Wednesday radiation in a village outside the evacuation zone around a stricken Japanese nuclear plant was above safe levels, urging that Japan reassess the situation.

In its first such call, the International Atomic Energy Agency added its voice to that of Greenpeace in warning over radioactivity in Iitate village, where the government has already told residents not to drink tap water.

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US President Barack Obama ordered his top military and foreign policy advisers to brief lawmakers on Libya Wednesday amid questions, doubts and even anger about his handling of the conflict.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and the top uniformed US officer, Admiral Mike Mullen, were to brief the Senate and House of Representatives.

WASHINGTON (AFP) – FBI director Robert Mueller said Wednesday that the best advice he can give his successor is to “be flexible and agile” when responding to threats of terrorism.

Mueller, who took the helm of the US Federal Bureau of Investigations one week before the September 11, 2001 attacks, is scheduled to leave his job after mid-year.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The threat of a government shutdown seemed to recede on Wednesday as budget talks between Republicans and Democrats resumed in Congress and aides from both parties said they were more optimistic that a compromise can be found.

Though lawmakers continued to trade jabs in public, aides said privately that they had a greater sense of optimism they could reach a deal before temporary government funding expires on April 8.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The influential chairman of the House of Representatives’ intelligence committee said on Wednesday he opposes supplying arms to the rebels fighting Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

“As we publicly debate next steps on Libya, I do not support arming the Libyan rebels at this time,” Representative Mike Rogers said in a statement. “We need to understand more about the opposition before I would support passing out guns and advanced weapons to them.”

WASHINGTON – AARP lobbied for the new health care law and now it stands to profit, Republican lawmakers charged Wednesday as they called for the IRS to investigate whether the powerful interest group representing millions of older Americans should be stripped of its federal tax exemption.

Three veteran GOP representatives released a report that estimates the seniors lobby could make an additional $1 billion over 10 years on health insurance plans whose sales are expected to pick up under the new law. They also questioned seven-figure compensation for some AARP executives.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (Reuters) – The Ohio House may vote on Wednesday on a bill that would restrict collective bargaining rights for about 350,000 public employees and ban them from striking.

A version of the bill was passed by the Ohio Senate earlier this month, and is expected to pass the Republican-dominated House.

If the bill is enacted, Ohio would become the biggest U.S. state so far this year to impose sweeping collective bargaining curbs on public sector unions.

MADISON, Wisconsin (Reuters) – Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker released on Wednesday bond restructuring and other plans to close a current year budget gap that were cut from a controversial law to curb the powers of public sector unions.

Walker had stripped the restructuring from legislation that reduced collective bargaining and other powers for many public sector unions so the Republican-majority state Senate could approve the measure without Democrats, who had fled the state to stall a vote.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. private employers added more than 200,000 jobs in March while planned layoffs fell, underscoring expectations that momentum in the labor market will help underpin the economic recovery.

The ADP Employer Services report on Wednesday showed that U.S. private employers added 201,000 jobs in March, largely in line with expectations for a gain of 203,000 jobs.

NEW YORK – Think the moon has many craters? New photos from the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury show the tiny inner planet has far more impressive battle scars from regular high-speed peltings by space rocks.

NASA’s Messenger spacecraft, which began orbiting the planet less than two weeks ago, reveals a pock-marked planet full of craters from pieces of asteroids and comets.

ATLANTA – Pregnant women will still be able to get a drastically cheaper version of a new expensive drug that prevents premature birth, federal health officials said Wednesday.

Since the drug was approved, it’s been unclear whether women would have to pay $1,500 per dose for the licensed version or could continue to have it made by specialty pharmacies for $10 to $20.

WASHINGTON – After a brief reprieve, immigration authorities are once again denying applications for immigration benefits for same sex couples following a legal review.

Chris Bentley, a spokesman for the U.S. Citizenship and Services agency, said Wednesday that a review by lawyers from the Department of Homeland Security, it was concluded that a law prohibiting the government from recognizing same sex marriages must be followed, despite the Obama administration’s decision to stop defending the constitutionality of the law in court.

WASHINGTON – Deadly bus crashes over the past decade have claimed dozens of lives, including college baseball players in Atlanta, Vietnamese Catholics in Texas, skiers in Utah and, this month, gamblers returning to New York’s Chinatown.

The New York accident, which killed 15 passengers and critically injured several others, as well as recent bus accidents in New Hampshire and New Jersey have rekindled interest in bipartisan legislation that would require regulators to act on longstanding bus safety recommendations.