Evening Edition

In what was the first request by any insurgents for boots on the ground, a senior member of Misrata’s governing council, Nuri Abdullah Abdullati, said they were asking for the troops on the basis of “humanitarian” principles.

Previously, he told journalists, “we did not accept any foreign soldiers in our country, but now, as we face these crimes of Kadhafi, we are asking on the basis of humanitarian and Islamic principles for someone to come and stop the killing.”

The UN said it wanted to assess the humanitarian situation on the ground in Misrata, which loyalist troops have being trying to overrun for the past six weeks in heavy fighting which a doctor said had killed more than 1,000 people, mostly civilians.

With thousands clamouring to escape the port city, about 215 kilometres (130 miles) east of Tripoli, Britain said it will charter ships to pick up 5,000 migrant workers after a ferry rescued nearly 1,000 on Monday.

The safe passage was part of an accord on humanitarian access to the capital and other Libyan cities secured in Tripoli on Sunday by UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos, said deputy UN spokesman Farhan Haq.

The Kadhafi government also agreed to let a UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs mission into Misrata, said UN humanitarian spokeswoman Stephanie Bunker.

The cabinet also approved a bill regulating demonstrations, the state news agency SANA reported, only hours after the interior minister imposed a total ban on political gatherings and after security forces fired on protesters in the city of Homs, killing four.

More than 2,000 people defied the authorities and protested against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad in the northern coastal city of Banias, witnesses said.

“The sit-in was dispersed with force. There was heavy gunfire,” an activist reached by telephone in Damascus told AFP, without being able to give details of possible casualties.

He said the security forces very early Tuesday swarmed into Al-Saa Square, where some 20,000 people were staging a mass sit-in, scattering protesters who had vowed not to leave until President Bashar al-Assad stepped down.

The interior ministry issued the warning as thousands of protesters dug in at a main square in the central city of Homs, vowing to stay put until their demands are met.

“The latest incidents have shown that… armed Salafist groups, particularly in the cities of Homs and Banias, have openly called for armed revolt,” said a ministry statement carried by the official SANA news agency.

Authorities have not given a death toll for the rioting that began sporadically over the weekend over allegations of vote rigging and quickly spread to some 14 states on Monday.

An estimated 15,000 have been displaced and more than 360 wounded, according to the Red Cross. Police said dozens of people had been arrested.

Jonathan, the incumbent and first president from the southern oil-producing Niger Delta region, won 57 percent of the vote in Africa’s most populous nation, easily beating his northern rival, ex-military ruler Muhammadu Buhari.

Final results declared Monday evening, which the opposition rejected, gave Jonathan 22.5 million votes, while Buhari scored 12.2 million votes for 31 percent.

Officials from Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam met in Vientiane to discuss the planned $3.8 billion Xayaburi dam in northern Laos, an impoverished Communist nation which sees hydropower as vital to its future.

Laos’s neighbours raised worries about insufficient environmental studies of the dam’s likely impact, according to a statement released after the meeting, while Laos said there was no need for further consultation.

World premieres at the show include Volkswagen’s new retro-styled Beetle, General Motors’ new Chevrolet Malibu, Buick Envision and its China-only Baojun 630, and France’s PSA Group introducing its Citroen DS5.

As the first auto show since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami disaster in Japan, source of a large number of auto components, Shanghai will allow industry analysts to gauge the impact of the catastrophe on the sector.

The attack, which the militants said was aimed at France’s visiting defence minister Gerard Longuet, was the third major assault on Afghan security targets in four days and one of the worst security breaches in years.

“A person in Afghan army uniform opened fire on his comrades, killed two soldiers, injured seven others, then was targeted himself and was brought down,” Afghan army spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi told AFP.

One month after NATO allies dropped their first bombs on Moamer Kadhafi’s forces, there appeared no end in sight to what experts are now warning will be a prolonged military stalemate in which civilians casualties will mount.

And with thousands clamouring to escape the besieged rebel city of Misrata, Britain said it will charter ships to pick up 5,000 migrant workers after a ferry rescued nearly 1,000 on Monday.

“We’re never going to be able to prevent an event from happening out there,” said retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, who has worked on oil spills since the 1980s and led the government response to the disaster that began on April 20 last year, when an oil rig moored off the coast of Louisiana exploded.

Eleven men died and several others were injured as fire ripped through the platform, which two days later sank 5,000 feet (1,500 meters) to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, causing BP’s Macondo well to rupture and start spewing oil into the sea.

“The catastrophe at Chernobyl power station left a deep wound that Ukraine will need to live with for many years ahead,” Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych said in his opening speech.

“We thank the international community for not leaving Ukraine alone with this problem.”

Writing in the Avvenire daily, Vatican expert Salvatore Izzo said Italian director Nanni Moretti’s film “Habemus Papam” was not respectful towards the head of the world’s Roman Catholics and would be “boring” for non-believers.

“We shouldn’t touch the pope — the rock on which Jesus founded his Church,” said Izzo, adding that “even priests” had absolved the film after its release on Friday “with the curious justification that Moretti could have been meaner.”

Soldiers and paramilitary police poured into the streets of the northern town of Kaya, firing shots into the air, torching the home of an army regiment chief and ransacking that of a regional officer, residents told AFP by telephone.

It was the first time police had taken part in the uprising that began in the capital Ouagadougou on Thursday. An official said they were demanding their wages and were to be paid Monday.

Nasdaq and ICE also said they had committed financing from banks to back their $11.3 billion bid for NYSE, and expected U.S. antitrust regulators to start a review of their bid soon. A merged Nasdaq and NYSE would have a virtual stranglehold on U.S. stock listings.

The announcement was designed to address two key concerns raised by NYSE’s board: antitrust risk and strategic fit. NYSE had unanimously rejected Nasdaq and ICE’s bid in favor of a $10.2 billion deal with Germany’s Deutsche Boerse AG.

The results were stronger than many analysts had expected, but with Goldman discussing risks to future earnings, the bank’s shares fell 1.4 percent to $151.61.

Goldman has long been viewed as an earnings machine, consistently posting some of the highest returns on Wall Street. Investors now wonder if U.S. financial reform will cut into trading revenue and force the bank to focus on investment banking businesses that have historically been less profitable, like stock underwriting and merger advisory.

Asian nations have amassed trillions of dollars in U.S. government bonds through recycled export earnings, and have a vital interest in maintaining their value. So it was no surprise that officials were keen to play down the danger.

“The United States is tackling fiscal issues in various ways, so I still think U.S. Treasuries are basically an attractive product for us,” Japanese Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda told reporters after a cabinet meeting.

Libya’s third city, where hundreds are believed to have been killed by shelling and sniper fire by Muammar Gaddafi’s forces, is the main focus of efforts to protect civilians caught up in the Libyan leader’s bid to put down an armed rebellion.

At the same time Western powers are looking for ways to support the rebels’ efforts to topple Gaddafi, though NATO said there were limits to what air power could do to end the city’s siege.

Libya’s third city, where hundreds are believed to have been killed by shelling and sniper fire by Muammar Gaddafi’s forces, is the main focus of efforts to protect civilians caught up in the Libyan leader’s bid to put down an armed rebellion.

At the same time Western powers are looking for ways to support the rebels’ efforts to topple Gaddafi, though NATO said there were limits to what air power could do to end the city’s siege.

London said it would send about a dozen officers to Libya to help insurgents improve their organization and communications, but would not arm the rebels or train them to fight.

With the Libyan conflict risking getting bogged down in a long stalemate, Western powers are searching for ways to bolster the rebels, whose fighting efforts have been disorganized.

The comments underline the uncertainty created by United Nations sanctions, which were intended to constrain Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi but have also prevented rebels from selling oil to raise funds themselves.

Speaking after talks with Mustafa Abdel Jalil, head of the main Libyan rebel council, Frattini said the Libya “Contact Group” of European and Middle Eastern countries, the United Nations, the African Union and the Arab League would meet in Rome in early May.

“We have been watching the situation in Misrata, and over the past 10 days fighting has been intense,” Brigadier-General Mark Van Uhm, a member of NATO’s military staff, said.

“Our forces have conducted numerous strikes in and around Misrata, and we have destroyed over 40 tanks and several armored fighting vehicles there,” he told a news conference.

Libya’s third-largest city, the insurgents’ last major stronghold in the west of the country — has been under siege by government troops for more than seven weeks.

Rebels and residents say pro-Gaddafi forces have pounded Misrata heavily in recent days, firing rockets and mortars at insurgent positions and also hitting residential areas.

Without definitive guidance on the legal status of Libyan oil from the politically divided U.N. sanctions committee, U.N. diplomats and traders say the oil could remain virtually untouchable as major trading players take care to avoid running afoul of the U.N. sanctions.

U.N. diplomats told Reuters that Security Council members eager to escalate the diplomatic pressure on Gaddafi’s government — above all France and Britain — rushed through the two packages of sanctions and may not have foreseen how difficult the U.N. measures would make it to aid the rebels.

But Jyrki Katainen, leader of the National Coalition party that won Sunday’s election, also acknowledged that talks to form a new government would take a long time because his party disagrees with anti-euro True Finns party over the bailout plan.

Finland’s parliament, unlike others in the euro zone, has the right to vote on the European Union’s requests for funds.

It would be the first increase since 1997, though a sales tax hike had been the subject of fierce political debate before the earthquake struck as one way for Japan to dig itself out of its massive debt.

The government is considering raising the tax by 3 percentage points to 8 percent when the new fiscal year starts next April, the Yomiuri newspaper reported.

Apple is one participant in a web of litigation among phone makers and software firms over who owns the patents used in smartphones, as rivals aggressively rush into the smartphone and tablet market which the U.S. firm jumpstarted with iPhone and iPad.

Nokia and Apple have sued each other in numerous courts and as recently as last month Nokia filed a complaint with the U.S. trade panel alleging that Apple infringes its patents in iPhones, iPads and other products.

Ukraine had hoped for 740 million euros from governments and international organisations at a conference in Kiev, marking 25 years since the world’s worst nuclear accident.

Officials at the conference were optimistic more funds would still be found to make the Chernobyl site safe.

The results highlighted how the third-largest U.S. bank, which teetered on the brink of collapse in the financial crisis, has stabilized but is still struggling to generate real growth.

The results were better than expected, which supported Citigroup’s stock on a day when the U.S. equity market was falling. But like other big banks, the company’s profit came mainly from dipping into money previously set aside to cover bad loans.

S&P, which assigns ratings to guide investors on the risks involved in buying debt instruments, slapped a negative outlook on the country’s top-notch credit rating and said there’s at least a one-in-three chance that it could eventually cut it.

A downgrade, which would leave Germany and France with a higher rating, would erode the status of the United States as the world’s most powerful economy and the dollar’s role as the dominant global currency.

German government sources told Reuters in Berlin that they did not believe Greece, which sealed a 110 billion euro ($158 billion) bailout from the EU and IMF a year ago, would make it through the summer without a restructuring.

Market confidence was also hit by a new threat to Portugal’s pending bailout from the rise of an anti-euro party in Finnish elections.

Gadhafi’s troops have been pounding Misrata indiscriminately with mortars and rockets, a NATO general said Tuesday, and residents reported more explosions and firefights in Libya’s third-largest city. Hospitals are overflowing and 120 patients need to be evacuated from the city that has been under siege for nearly two months, the World Health Organization said.

The plight of Misrata’s civilians and the battlefield deadlock are raising new questions about the international community’s strategy in Libya. The leaders of the U.S., Britain and France have said Gadhafi must go, but seem unwilling to commit to a more forceful military campaign. NATO’s mandate is restricted to protecting civilians.

Gadhafi’s troops have been pounding Misrata indiscriminately with mortars and rockets, a NATO general said Tuesday, and residents reported more explosions and firefights in Libya’s third-largest city. Hospitals are overflowing and 120 patients need to be evacuated from the city that has been under siege for nearly two months, the World Health Organization said.

The plight of Misrata’s civilians and the battlefield deadlock are raising new questions about the international community’s strategy in Libya. The leaders of the U.S., Britain and France have said Gadhafi must go, but seem unwilling to commit to a more forceful military campaign. NATO’s mandate is restricted to protecting civilians.

The United Nations Security Council met late Tuesday to discuss the deteriorating situation in Yemen, where rights groups say two months of protests calling for the president to step down have claimed 120 lives.

A Yemeni government delegation also headed to nearby Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, for talks with the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council over a proposal for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to transfer power to his deputy to end the crisis. The opposition held similar talks in Saudi Arabia Sunday.

Repealing the state of emergency, which gives authorities almost boundless powers of surveillance and arrest, was once the key demand of the monthlong uprising. But the protest movement has crossed a significant threshold, with increasing numbers now seeking nothing less than the downfall of the regime.

“They don’t want to admit there’s a Syrian revolution,” said one protester in the city of Banias, among thousands who took to the streets in several cities and towns across Syria. “The people are not interested in small changes here and there anymore,” he said, asking that his name not be published out fear for his personal safety.

Removing the 25,000 metric tons (about 6.6 million gallons) of contaminated water that has collected in the basement of a turbine building at Unit 2 of the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant will help allow access for workers trying to restore vital cooling systems that were knocked out in the March 11 tsunami.

It is but one of many steps in a lengthy process to resolve the crisis. Tokyo Electric Power Co. projected in a road map released over the weekend that it would take up to nine months to reach a cold shutdown of the plant. But government officials acknowledge that setbacks could slow the timeline.

Approval by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement was required before construction of the proposed 130-turbine wind farm in Nantucket Sound could get under way.

The secretary said the Cape Wind project, which has already received other state and federal permits, could create 600 to 1,000 jobs and that nationwide the wind power industry had the potential for tens of thousands of jobs.

Obama spoke hopefully of compromise with GOP lawmakers, yet still used a campaign-style town hall event to accuse the Republicans of offering a bleak future for the poor, young and elderly with their proposals.

The president seemed intent on assuring financial markets and the watching world that U.S. leaders will get their act together to address a suffocating debt – while at the same time trying to convince voters that only his plan would share the pain fairly.

The federal government on Tuesday announced its first-ever comprehensive strategy to combat the abuse of oxycodone and other opioids, aiming to cut misuse by 15 percent in five years. That goal may sound modest, but it would represent a dramatic turnaround: Emergency room visits from prescription drug overdoses doubled from 2004 to 2009, when they topped 1.2 million, according to federal health officials.

“To say we are going to do away with the problem in five years, we cannot do that,” said Dr. Roland Gray, medical director of the Nashville-based Tennessee Medical Foundation and a Food and Drug Administration adviser on addiction issues. “I think they are headed in the right direction.”

In a policy shift critics see as political, the Health and Human Services department has decided to award quality bonuses to hundreds of Medicare Advantage plans rated merely average.

The $6.7 billion infusion could head off service cuts that would have been a headache for Obama and Democrats in next year’s elections for the White House and Congress. More than half the roughly 11 million Medicare Advantage enrollees are in plans rated average.

Approval by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement was required before construction of the proposed 130-turbine wind farm in Nantucket Sound could get under way.

The secretary said the Cape Wind project, which has already received other state and federal permits, could create 600 to 1,000 jobs and that nationwide the wind power industry had the potential for tens of thousands of jobs.

“We both have big appetites for sex,” they purr. “Pinch us and poke us. Spank us and tease us. We love it all. … Enter your credit card number now.”

Those naughty misdials, and countless others like them, appear to be no accident.

In their report, the panel of judges described police forces shooting protesters in the head and chest with live ammunition and presented a death toll more than twice that of previous official estimates.

“The fatal shots were due to firing bullets at the head and the chest,” the report read, adding that “a huge number of eye injures,” filled hospitals, and hundreds lost their sight.

Muslim rioters burned homes, churches and police stations in Kaduna after results showed Nigeria’s Christian leader beat his closest Muslim opponent in Saturday’s vote. Reprisal attacks by Christians began almost immediately, with one mob allegedly tearing a home apart to look for a Quran to prove the occupants were Muslims before setting the building ablaze.

The rioting in Kaduna and elsewhere across Nigeria’s north left charred bodies in the streets and showed the deep divisions in Africa’s most populous nation, as politics mesh with religious and ethnic identity in the country of 150 million people.

Pledges from nations and organizations at the conference totaled about euro550 million ($785 million), along with euro29 million ($41 million) from Ukraine.

The money is being sought to complete the construction of a gargantuan long-term shelter to cover the nuclear reactor that exploded April 26, 1986, and to build a facility to store waste from the plant’s three other decommissioned reactors.

One year after the nation’s worst offshore oil spill began, solemn ceremonies will mark the disaster Wednesday and underscore the delicate healing that is only now taking shape. Oil still occasionally rolls up on beaches in the form of tar balls, and fishermen face an uncertain future.

But traffic jams on the narrow coastal roads of Alabama, crowded seafood restaurants in Florida and families vacationing along the Louisiana coast attest to the fact that familiar routines are returning, albeit slowly.

“I feel it’s a necessity to be here,” Cooper said Tuesday as he strapped a colorful bouquet of spring flowers to the chair bearing his son’s name on the 16th anniversary of the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, the worst domestic terror attack in U.S. history and the deadliest on U.S. soil before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The boy’s grandmother, Wanda McNeely, wept softly as she placed a beige stuffed bear on the metal chair that stands on the federal building’s former site. McNeely said the death of her grandson still evokes strong emotions and observing the anniversary of the April 19, 1995, attack doesn’t get easier with the passing years.

Sporting dreadlocks and picking up dead animals on city streets in the CBS reality show “Undercover Boss,” appearing with Justin Bieber on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live” and going on national TV to join in the fun over his remarkably bad ceremonial first pitch at a Cincinnati Reds opener, Mallory has gotten plenty of air time.

All that, he says, has allowed him to promote Cincinnati and help draw in new business and events – such as an NAACP convention – that showcased the city’s progress in the decade since racial riots brought an unwelcome spotlight and led to a national boycott called by local civil rights activists to exert pressure on police and encourage economic improvements.