Evening Edition

The ultimatum came as activists planned fresh anti-government demonstrations following the deaths of dozens of people in weekend protests.

In a statement, the interior ministry told “citizens who have participated in or committed unlawful acts such as bearing arms, attacking security or spreading lies to surrender by May 15 and hand their weapons in to the competent authorities.”

AFP correspondents heard heavy shelling throughout the morning as loyalist tanks thrust into the western suburbs of Libya’s third largest city.

At least four people were killed and some 30 wounded in the fighting, medical sources said. Clashes overnight had killed another six and wounded dozens more.

Nasdaq and ICE said in a joint statement that each of their respective boards of directors had approved a cash-and-stock offer to buy all of the outstanding shares of NYSE Euronext for about $11 billion.

The two companies said they would take the offer directly to the shareholders of NYSE Euronext, after the New York Stock Exchange-led company turned down earlier offers at the level of the board of directors.

Laden with debts to the US and Canadian governments for saving it from collapse during the 2008-2009 recession, the number-three US automaker reported $116 million in net profit for the first quarter, compared with a net loss of $197 million in the year-ago period.

Revenue leaped 35 percent to $13.24 billion as global sales jumped 18 percent jump: 394,000 vehicles were sold, and at higher prices.

President Barack Obama on Monday hailed bin Laden’s death, saying the “world is safer, it is a better place”, a day after he announced the success of the operation in a dramatic televised address, noting “justice has been done.”

DNA tests confirmed the body was that of bin Laden a senior US official said after the daring raid on the Al-Qaeda leader’s compound in the garrison town of Abbottabad, less than two hours’ drive north of Islamabad.

The naming of 55-year-old Ioannis Diotis as head of the Greek fraud squad came as government ministers unveiled a raft of measures to combat a shadow economy that costs the state up to 15 billion euros ($22 billion) a year in lost revenue.

“There are studies by many organisations that give a shadow economy range from 25 to 35 percent of GDP. Based on that and with simple calculations, one can assume that 10 to 15 billion euros are lost to tax evasion every year,” Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou told a news conference.

The arrests came in the wake of the shelling of Deraa, cradle of the unrest, by a force led by President Bashar al-Assad’s feared brother Maher.

“I am Dana Jawabra from Deraa,” Jawabra shouted as she was forced into a white Kia secret police car outside her home in the Mezza West District of Damascus.

Gaddafi’s forces halted their bombardment of the port in the rebel-held city of Misrata after NATO air strikes but the port remained closed, a rebel spokesman said, thwarting efforts to bring supplies in by sea to the besieged city.

NATO planes also struck overnight on positions held by Libyan government forces near the rebel-held town of Zintan.

President Barack Obama hailed bin Laden’s death, saying: “The world is safer. It is a better place because of the death of Osama bin Laden.” But the euphoria that drew flag-waving crowds to “Ground Zero” of the New York attacks the Saudi-born militant masterminded a decade ago was tempered by calls for vigilance against retaliation by his followers.

Vows to avenge his death appeared quickly in Islamist militant forums, a key means of passing on information from al Qaeda leaders. “God’s revenge on you, you Roman dog, God’s revenge on you crusaders… this is a tragedy brothers, a tragedy,” one forum member wrote.

He offered those and dozens of other opinions in a wide-ranging news conference on Sunday that capped off the annual meeting weekend for Berkshire Hathaway, his ice-cream-to-insurance conglomerate.

Buffett also told Reuters Insider in an interview that none of the people on Berkshire’s secret CEO succession list know they are on the list — but the top candidate for the job will not need any convincing to take it.

Most world leaders welcomed President Barack Obama’s announcement of the helicopter raid on a compound in Pakistan, congratulating the U.S. for killing bin Laden or expressing satisfaction that the search for the world’s most wanted terrorist was over.

“This is the fate that evil killers deserve,” said outgoing Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, deploring the harm that bin Laden did to “the image of Islam and Arab causes.”

Engineers went on with their work, even though the agency did not plan to announce a final decision on the plan until later Monday.

But doubts persisted about whether breaking open the levee will provide the relief needed. How much water would the blast really divert from the Mississippi River? And will authorities have to do the same thing at other trouble spots downstream?

The 55-year-old officer, whose nearly two decades of command in the Army Corps of Engineers includes a stint in Iraq and helping oversee the restoration of the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina, is choosing now whether to blow a massive hole in the Birds Point levee in southeast Missouri. Doing so will drown 130,000 acres of rich farmland and destroy 100 homes. Opting not to risks that flooding will wipe away the entire town of Cairo, Ill.

While waters and emotions rise, the straight-talking Walsh has maintained a business-like demeanor. He’s met with people on both sides of the river, some of them angry or upset about the plan, which aims to relieve pressure on the flood wall at Cairo, a long-struggling community of 2,800 residents. In answering people’s questions, he’s often cited statistics or protocol. And he’s shown empathy, if not emotion.

Libya’s leader did not attend the tumultuous funeral of 29-year-old Seif al-Arab, but older brothers Seif al-Islam and Mohammed paid their respects, thronged by a crowd of several thousand. Jostling to get closer to the coffin, draped with a green Libyan flag, mourners flashed victory signs and chanted “Revenge, revenge for you, Libya.”

Three of Gadhafi’s grandchildren, an infant and two toddlers, also died in Saturday’s attack, which NATO says targeted one of the regime’s command and control centers. Gadhafi and his wife were in the compound at the time, but escaped unharmed, Libyan officials said, accusing the alliance of trying to assassinate the Libyan leader.

And by a few trillion more if President Barack Obama gets his way.

Call it the unpleasant truth behind a political struggle over raising the debt limit that is expected to intensify as lawmakers return Monday from a two-week break.

Exactly one month before the biggest day of his life, he was helping his mom address invitations for graduation when one of the most powerful tornadoes Mother Nature can summon plowed through his town, destroying his home, his father’s church and his school in a few ugly minutes last Wednesday.

“Graduation and college are still going to be there. But they have moved way down the priority list,” Knowles said.

A genealogist discovered Baumrind, one of 6 million Jews killed during the Holocaust, was in her family with one stray document buried in a database of historic papers and photos kept by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.

With over 500,000 names, and more than 1,000 photographs, the searchable collection documents the relief organization’s vast efforts during World War II and the postwar era in 24 countries, from China and Japan to the Dominican Republic and Bolivia. The records, being made available online for the first time on Monday, open a singular view into the lives of survivors that the JDC aided during that cataclysmic period.

The NFL filed a brief with the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis, arguing that the lockout should remain on hold permanently while the two sides hash their conflict out in court.

A three-judge panel of the appeals court put U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson’s order lifting the 45-day lockout on hold temporarily last week. The owners reinstated the lockout a few hours later, and they want Nelson’s order eventually overturned altogether.

As more budgetary battles lie ahead, mounting frustrations over the government’s response to the tsunami and the still-unfolding nuclear crisis at the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant are threatening to topple the country’s prime minister.

The 4 trillion yen budget supplement to the fiscal year that started in April was unanimously approved by parliament’s upper house budget committee Monday morning and was made into law at the chamber’s plenary session later in the day. The more powerful lower house had approved the plan Saturday.

Wisconsin demonstrators marched two miles through downtown Milwaukee, waving U.S. and Mexican flags and holding signs showing a raised fist in the shape of the state. Similar scenes played out across the nation and around the world, as millions of workers from Havana to Berlin and Istanbul took to the streets.

Milwaukee demonstrators pounded drums, blared through vuvuzelas and chanted, “Si se puede,” Spanish for “yes, it can be done.” They also held signs saying, “It’s about freedom,” and “Working hard is not a crime.”

The business of a bustling courtroom in Quincy District Court began streaming live over the Web for anyone to see. The courtroom, which usually does not allow reporters to use even computers, will now welcome laptops, iPads and smartphones, and will encourage live blogging, Tweeting and Facebooking.

It’s all part of an experiment court officials around the country hope will help establish suggested guidelines for courts as they grapple with how to use digital technology and how to accommodate citizen journalists and bloggers.

The Fairleigh Dickinson PublicMind poll puts the seaside casino resort behind Las Vegas and New Orleans when it comes to where gamblers would like to spend their time and money.

Not surprisingly, Las Vegas was the first choice of 47 percent of respondents who were asked which casino destination they’d most like to visit. New Orleans was second at 10 percent, followed by Atlantic City at 8 percent, Reno, Nev., at 5 percent, and St. Louis at 4 percent.

The former Alaska governor told more than 1,400 people at West Hills College in Lemoore that endangered species regulations protecting the Delta smelt and limiting pumping are “destroying” the lives of those in the Central Valley.

“A faceless government is taking away their lifeline, water, all because of a 3-inch fish,” Palin said. “Where I come from, a 3-inch fish, we call that bait. There is no need to destroy people’s lives over bait.”