Gaddafi loyalists under fire as Libya celebrates (Reuters)

TRIPOLI/TAWARGA, Libya (Reuters) – Libyan forces backed by NATO bombers struck at loyalist troops dug in around Muammar Gaddafi's hometown on Wednesday, as refugees streamed out of the besieged bastion fearing a bloody showdown in the coming days.

As people in Tripoli and other cities marked the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan with special savor following the end of 42 years of one-man rule, anti-Gaddafi fighters at the front around the coastal city of Sirte kept up pressure on its defenders, whom they have given till Saturday to surrender.

NATO said its planes bombed Gaddafi forces near Sirte on Tuesday, targeting tanks and other armored vehicles as well as military facilities. They also hit targets in the area of Bani Walid, another Gaddafi stronghold 150 km (100 miles) southeast of Tripoli. Anti-Gaddafi fighters said on the same day that they had advanced to within 30 km (20 miles) of the desert town.

On Wednesday NTC fighters said they clashed with Gaddafi forces patrolling in the area west of Sirte.

At Tawarga, west of Sirte, civilians streamed in laden vehicles along the coastal highway, some flying white flags.

Passing through a checkpoint set up by the forces of the interim ruling council, the NTC, many of the refugees said they feared a major battle, since they did not expect those holding Gaddafi's tribal homeland to give up without a fight.

"I need to take my family where it is peaceful. Here there will be a big fight," said one man, who gave his name as Mohammed.

Ali Faraj, a fighter for the opposition forces which forced Gaddafi into hiding last week, said he doubted people in Sirte would willingly join the revolt: "There will be a big fight for Sirte. It's a dangerous city. It's unlikely to rise up. A lot of people there support Gaddafi. It's too close to Gaddafi and his family. It is still controlled by them."

There is no independent confirmation of conditions in Sirte, which was developed into a prosperous city of 100,000 during the 42 years Gaddafi ruled Libya. NTC officials say power and water are largely cut off and supplies are low.

In Tripoli, after dawn, worshippers packed Martyrs' Square, which was named Green Square in the Gaddafi era, chanting "Allahu Akbar (God is greatest), Libya is free."

Fighters on rooftops guarded against any attack by Gaddafi loyalists and sniffer dogs checked cars. Even the interim interior minister, Ahmed Darat, was searched.

"This is the most beautiful Eid and most beautiful day in 42 years," said Hatem Gureish, 31, a merchant from Tripoli.

"Gaddafi made us hate our lives ... We come here to express our joy at the end of 42 years of repression and deprivation."

Fatima Mustafa, 28, a pregnant woman wearing a black chador, said: "This is a day of freedom, a day I cannot describe to you. It's as if I own the world. I'm glad I haven't given birth yet so my daughter can be born into a free Libya."

But the war is not over yet, with Gaddafi on the run and his loyalists defying an ultimatum set by Libya's interim council.

SATURDAY ULTIMATUM

Libyans who revolted against Gaddafi in February needed NATO air power to help them win, but, given their country's unhappy colonial history, they remain wary of foreign meddling.

Their interim leaders, trying to heal a nation scarred by Gaddafi's cruelly eccentric ways, may want United Nations help in setting up a new police force, but see no role for international peacekeepers or observers, a U.N. official said.

"They are very seriously interested in assistance with policing to get the public security situation under control and gradually develop a democratically accountable public security force," Ian Martin, special U.N. envoy for post-conflict planning in Libya, said at the United Nations in New York.

"We don't now expect military observers to be requested," he said. "It's very clear that the Libyans want to avoid any kind of military deployment of the U.N. or others."

The National Transitional Council (NTC), keen to assert its grip and relieve hardship after six months of war, won a $1.55 billion cash injection when the U.N. sanctions committee released banknotes in Britain in frozen Gaddafi accounts.

France has asked the committee to unfreeze 1.5 billion euros

($2.16 billion) of Libyan assets in France, a French government source said on Wednesday, adding that Libya has 7.6 billion euros of assets parked in French banks.

"FRIENDS OF LIBYA"

The source also said that Russia and China, which have not formally recognized the NTC, would send representatives to a "Friends of Libya" conference in Paris on Thursday to discuss support for political and economic rebuilding.

The timing of the meeting, on September 1, strikes a chord for many Libyans, who for four decades have been obliged to celebrate the date as the anniversary of the military coup that brought Colonel Gaddafi to power in 1969.

Despite the killing and shortages of fuel, power and water that Tripoli has endured since Gaddafi's fall, worshippers in Martyrs' Square were mostly ebullient about the future.

But Nouri Hussein, 42, an engineer, said that while he was glad Gaddafi was gone, he feared the guns in the hands of unruly fighters: "There is apprehension about what next. The rebels should not be blinded with the ecstasy of victory."

NTC leaders have told their forces to treat prisoners with respect -- in contrast with the reported killing and torture of detainees by Gaddafi's forces -- but Amnesty International said its staff had seen anti-Gaddafi fighters threaten and detain wounded opponents, notably black Libyans and foreigners.

"The council must do more to ensure that their fighters do not abuse detainees, especially the most vulnerable ones such as black Libyans and sub-Saharan Africans," Amnesty's Claudio Cordone said in a statement after one incident in Tripoli.

"Many risk reprisals as a result of allegations that Gaddafi forces used 'African mercenaries' to commit widespread violations during the conflict," the lobby group added.

(Additional reporting by Mohammed Abbas in Tripoli, Emma Farge, Robert Birsel and Alex Dziadosz in Benghazi, John Irish in Paris, Justyna Pawlak in Brussels and Giles Elgood, Richard Valdmanis and Alastair Macdonald in Tunis; Writing by Alistair Lyon and Alastair Macdonald)

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Obama celebrates 50th birthday at White House (AP)

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama was counting on at least one birthday greeting when he turned 50 on Thursday.

"By the time I wake up, I'll have an email from AARP asking me to call President Obama and tell him to protect Medicare," Obama joked during a fundraiser in Chicago on the eve of his birthday.

Obama's big birthday comes just days after he reached a deal with Republicans to raise the nation's debt ceiling and avert a calamitous government default. While the mood around the White House hasn't exactly been festive since the deal was reached — Obama didn't get much of what he wanted — there will be plenty of celebration there Thursday for the president's 50th.

Senior members of Obama's staff will toast the president in the Blue Room of the White House Thursday afternoon. At night, he'll celebrate with family and friends, including some coming in from his hometown of Chicago, then cap the festivities with a weekend trip to Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland.

An administration official said the Obamas will pay for the president's birthday party at the White House.

First lady Michelle Obama used her husband's birthday as an opportunity to both poke fun at his graying hair and rally support for his re-election. In an email to supporters Thursday — subject line "Gray Hairs" — Mrs. Obama asked supporters to sign an electronic birthday card for the president. When they do so, the campaign gets valuable contact information for its databases.

"I see Barack make choices he knows will affect every American family. That's no small task for anyone — and more proof that he's earning every last one of those gray hairs," Mrs. Obama wrote.

The president also used his re-election campaign as an opportunity to start his birthday celebrations early. He headlined birthday-themed fundraisers in Chicago Wednesday night and spoke via video conference to supporters holding their own presidential birthday events around the country.

A group from North Carolina sang "Happy Birthday," while another in Ohio held up signs wishing the president a happy 50th.

With the cloud of uncertainty that surrounded the debt debate now lifted, Obama had a wide smile on his face for much of the night. He got another birthday serenade from musicians Jennifer Hudson, Herbie Hancock and the band OK Go, along with the crowd of about 2,400 gathered at Chicago's historic Aragon Ballroom.

At a small dinner for high-dollar donors later in the night, Obama said there would be one very important present waiting for him in back in Washington on Thursday. His oldest daughter, Malia, was coming home from camp to celebrate his father's birthday.

Obama was born Aug. 4, 1961, near the end of the baby boom years of 1946-64. He's the third U.S. president who belongs to the baby boom generation, a population of more than 76 million. Bill Clinton was the first, followed by George W. Bush.

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Julie Pace can be reached at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC

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Pride parade celebrates passage of gay marriage (AP)

NEW YORK – One of the world's oldest and largest gay pride parades turned into a carnival-like celebration of same-sex marriage Sunday as hundreds of thousands of revelers rejoiced at New York's new law giving gay couples the same marital rights as everyone else.

This year, the revelry went beyond floats, music and dancing. It included wedding plans.

"We've been waiting to get married in Central Park for years, and now we got here just in time for history to be made," said Bryce Croft of Kettering, Ohio, who attended the parade with her partner, Stephanie Croft.

The two women are not yet legally married although they share the same name, and they are planning to move to New York and get married. They were in a restaurant when they learned that the same-sex marriage bill had passed.

"We cried over dinner, right into the mozzarella sticks," Stephanie Croft said.

Throngs of cheering supporters greeted Gov. Andrew Cuomo as he led off the parade two days after signing the historic bill that made New York the sixth state to extend full marriage rights to gay couples.

"New York has sent a message to the nation," Cuomo said before the march down Fifth Avenue. "It is time for marriage equality."

Revelers hoisted signs that said "Thank you, Gov. Cuomo" and "Promise kept."

Parade organizers said a half-million people participated.

Cuomo marched with his girlfriend, Food Network personality Sandra Lee, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and openly gay elected officials including New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.

"You couldn't hear yourself think, it was so loud," Quinn said at the end of the parade route. "People were crying, jumping up and down and screaming. Everyone was smiling. It was unbelievable."

The crowd, standing a dozen people deep behind police barricades, whooped and screamed as hundreds of motorcycles roared down the avenue.

"I'm really, really proud of New York," said Hannah Thielmann, a student at Fordham University in the Bronx who attended with her girlfriend, Christine Careaga.

The couple, both 20, were dressed as brides.

Careaga said her mother called her crying tears of joy after the New York Senate voted on the measure Friday.

"Every mother wants her child to be happily married," Careaga said.

State Sen. Tom Duane, a Manhattan Democrat who is gay, said he and his partner had not decided when they would get married, "but now we get to decide, and it couldn't be better than that."

In Chicago, organizers of that city's parade scrambled to repair dozens of floats after someone slashed their tires overnight at a garage on the South Side.

Parade coordinator Richard Pfeiffer said as many as 50 of the approximately 75 floats had damaged tires. The parade was to go ahead as planned, though some of the 250 entries might be out of order.

"Whoever decided to do this is not going to affect the parade," Pfeiffer said. "We're all going to be out celebrating. We're still going to go on."

Police spokesman Mike Sullivan said it was too early to determine if the damage was a hate crime.

In New York, the parade stepped off just after noon at 36th Street and Fifth Avenue and headed downtown. It ends at Greenwich and Christopher streets, near the site where gays rebelled against authorities and repressive laws outside the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village on June 28, 1969 — an event that gave rise to the gay rights movement.

A year later, several hundred people marched through the neighborhood to commemorate the riots in what is commonly considered the world's first gay pride parade.

This year's grand marshals include author and sex columnist Dan Savage and his husband, Terry Miller, who married in Canada; the Rev. Pat Bumgardner, senior pastor of Metroplitan Community Church of New York and a proponent of gay rights; and the Imperial Court of New York, which raises money for gay health and social services.

The law signed by Cuomo takes effect in 30 days. It was passed amid opposition from influential religious groups in the state.

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Associated Press Writer Sophia Tareen in Chicago contributed to this report. AP Radio Correspondent Julie Walker contributed to this report.

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