US: Sect bomb attacks possible in Nigeria capital (AP)

LAGOS, Nigeria – After a weekend of violence and fear, U.S. officials warned Sunday that luxury hotels frequented by foreigners and Nigeria's elite may be bombed by a radical Muslim sect as the death toll from attacks in the country's northeast rose to more than 100.

The warning by the U.S. Embassy shows how seriously diplomats take the threat posed by the outlawed Islamist group known locally as Boko Haram, which previously bombed the United Nations headquarters in the capital, Abuja, killing 24.

The unusually specific warning from the U.S. Embassy identified possible targets in Abuja as the Hilton, Nicon Luxury and Sheraton hotels. With popular restaurants and bars, the hotels draw diplomats, politicians and even reformed oil delta militants.

The embassy said an attack may come as Muslims in the oil-rich nation celebrate the Eid al-Adha holiday and that its diplomats and staff had been instructed to avoid those hotels.

Still, Nigerian officials continued to downplay the threat posed by the militants, hoping to reassure Africa's most populous nation that everything remains under control in a country often violently divided by religious and ethnic differences.

"We're all expected to live in peace, but as a nation, we have our own challenges," President Goodluck Jonathan said in a speech televised nationally.

"During this holy period, we still have incidents happening here and there," added Jonathan, a Christian, who appeared wearing a prayer cap and the traditional robes of the country's Muslim north.

U.S. officials offered no other details about how the embassy received the threat information. Deb MacLean, a U.S. Embassy spokeswoman in Abuja, declined to comment Sunday.

It wouldn't be the first time Abuja saw itself targeted by Boko Haram, which has waged an increasingly bloody sectarian fight against Nigeria's weak central government. A suicide bomber claimed by the group attacked the U.N. headquarters in August, while another bomber targeted the federal police headquarters in June.

Still, most attacks have targeted Nigeria's arid and impoverished northeast, so any strike against hotels in Abuja would be an escalation that shows the group's ability to strike at will — even against foreigners and its elite.

The warning came as a Nigerian Red Cross official said more than 100 people were killed in a series of attacks Friday in the northeast.

Ibrahim Bulama said he expected the death toll to rise in Damaturu, the capital of rural Yobe state. He said mourners quickly buried some bodies in line with Muslim tradition, making a precise count difficult.

While the hard-hit city remained calm as its Muslim inhabitants celebrated the religious holiday Sunday, army and police units manned roadblocks and streets remained largely empty, Bulama said. The state government announced a dusk-to-dawn curfew for the entire state.

Meanwhile, a police inspector was killed Sunday in Boko Haram's spiritual home of Maiduguri about 80 miles (130 kilometers) east of Damaturu. Sect gunmen stopped the officer's car at gunpoint as he neared a mosque to pray with his family, police commissioner Simeon Midenda said.

Gunmen ordered the family away, then shot the inspector, Midenda said.

World leaders from the United Nations to Pope Benedict XVI have called for an end to the violence, though Nigerian officials largely have downplayed the threat. Jonathan has repeatedly said that all countries in the world face terrorism, while others have urged local journalists to exercise restraint in their reporting in the name of patriotism.

Despite the bombings and gun battles in northeast Nigeria, Defense Minister Mohammed Bello told journalists Sunday that "a lot of progress" has been made there.

"I believe our security agencies are doing very well in containing the situation," Bello said.

Nigeria's history, however, shows the government often waits until crises escalate out of control before responding with harsh military crackdowns. In 1980, the government suppressed a radical Muslim sect called the Maitatsine only after its members rioted, with the violence and subsequent crackdown leaving 4,000 dead.

Rumors had persisted then that the Maitatsine received aid from Nigeria's elite, but became too much for politicians to control. Similar rumors now surround Boko Haram, which wants the strict implementation of Shariah law across Nigeria, a nation of more than 160 million split largely between a Christian south and Muslim north.

Other analysts suggest Jonathan, a Christian who took power after the 2010 death of an elected Muslim leader, remains unsure of his grip on the nation. The April election that saw Jonathan cement his hold on the presidency also sparked political and religious rioting across Nigeria's north that left 800 people dead.

Boko Haram's name means "Western education is sacrilege" in the local Hausa language. It rejects Western ideals like Nigeria's U.S.-styled democracy. Followers believe that democracy has destroyed the country with corrupt politicians.

The latest attacks occurred ahead of Sunday's celebration of the feast of sacrifice, when Muslims around the world slaughter sheep and cattle in remembrance of Abraham's near-sacrifice of his son.

An Associated Press count shows the group has killed at least 361 people this year alone.

___

Associated Press writer Njadvara Musa in Maiduguri, Nigeria contributed to this report.

___

Jon Gambrell can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP.

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New fighting breaks out in heart of Libyan capital (AP)

TRIPOLI, Libya – A gunbattle erupted Friday between hundreds of revolutionary forces and Moammar Gadhafi supporters in the capital for the first time in more than two months after loyalists tried to raise the green flag that symbolizes the ousted leader's regime.

The fighting began when dozens of loyalists carrying the green flag appeared on the streets of Tripoli's Abu Salim neighborhood, which houses the notorious prison of the same name.

Shouting "God is Great," anti-Gadhafi fighters converged on the area, which has long been a pro-Gadhafi stronghold, in pickups mounted with weapons, setting up checkpoints as heavy gunfire echoed through the streets.

Friday's outbreak of violence underscored the difficulty Libya's new rulers face in restoring order as Gadhafi remains on the run. The capital has been relatively calm since then-rebels swept into the city in late August, toppling the regime and sending Gadhafi, the ruler for nearly 42 years into hiding. But his loyalists have control of at least two cities around the country and have battled off revolutionary forces besieging them for weeks, while Gadhafi has issued several audio recordings from hiding trying to rally supporters against the North African nation's transitional leadership.

The crowd of men and women tried to raise Gadhafi's green flag at the end of a street in the Hay Nasr district, witnesses said.

"I looked out of my window and I saw men and women in a group of 50 to 80 people, carrying the green flag," said Abadi Omar, a resident in one of the buildings in the area. "They put one of these flags at the end of our street. This is when the rebels came out and these people disappeared."

Revolutionary forces started searching every building in the area and found weapons on some of the rooftops, many hidden under water tanks, Omar said. Then snipers opened fire and the gunbattle began as anti-Gadhafi fighters gave chase around the closely packed buildings.

Assem al-Bashir, a fighter with Tripoli's Eagle Brigade, also said revolutionary forces suspected there were snipers in the surrounding high rises after spotting a man trying to raise the green flag.

Another fighter, Ahmad al-Warsly, from the Zintan brigade, said several Gadhafi supporters apparently planned a protest but drew fire because they were armed. They then fled and were pursued by revolutionary forces, prompting fierce street battles.

Al-Warsly said one man carrying a gun was captured and identified as a suspect wanted for the killings of protesters in the nearby city of Zawiya.

"It seems like it was organized," he said. "They were planning to have a big demonstration, then the fight started."

Explosions also were reported elsewhere in the capital, but details could not immediately be confirmed.

While Tripoli has remained mostly calm in recent weeks, revolutionary forces are fighting remnants of the regime in Gadhafi's hometown of Sirte and the desert enclave of Bani Walid.

In Geneva, a senior U.N. human rights official expressed concern about a risk of serious abuses against suspected loyalists occurring when Gadhafi's last strongholds fall to revolutionary forces.

The head of the U.N. human right's office's rule of law section, Mona Rishmawi, said Libya's transitional government is trying to ensure the rights of captured Gadhafi fighters are protected but "the system that is currently in place is not adequate."

She said in Geneva Friday that "there is a lot of room for abuse" of the estimated 7,000 people detained in sometimes makeshift prisons throughout Libya.

Rishmawi recently visited Libya as part of a U.N. delegation.

Fighters in Sirte pounded loyalists holed up in two neighborhoods with rocket and machine-gun fire Friday, but also suffered heavy casualties themselves, with wounded men streaming into frontline medical units, then being evacuated to field hospitals on the city's outskirts.

Libya's new rulers have insisted Sirte's fall is imminent, and they expect to declare liberation this week. That could allow them to name a new interim government and set a timeline for holding elections within eight months.

But Gadhafi's forces have proven resilient, fighting back fiercely despite heavy shelling and NATO airstrikes.

Former rebels control much of the battered coastal city after launching a major push a week ago, but they were still under intense sniper fire Friday.

NATO was conducting "intensive overwatch missions" around both areas, according to the British Ministry of Defense.

British warplanes struck three armed trucks belonging to former regime forces hidden beneath trees east of Bani Walid on Thursday, the ministry said.

"The vehicles were successfully engaged by our aircraft, using Paveway guided bombs, and destroyed," Maj. Gen. Nick Pope said in a statement.

NATO has called the continued resistance by Gadhafi forces in Sirte "surprising," as they appear to be losing the battle since revolutionary forces have the area surrounded.

Tanks and weapons-mounted vehicles from the revolutionary forces have kept up a steady barrage of fire into the small enclave known as District 2, where commanders believe several hundred remaining loyalists, possibly including high-ranking figures from the former regime, are hiding.

AP Television footage on Friday showed smoke rising from a building in one part of the city, and a burning car presumably in another. Pick-up trucks with mounted machine guns are seen driving through a flooded street, and elsewhere, an injured revolutionary soldier is carried on a stretcher into an ambulance.

Thousands of civilians have fled the city to escape the violence.

One resident returned Friday to collect personal items from his home, which had been used as a firing position for pro-Gadhafi forces. Their uniforms and mattresses littered the front courtyard.

The owner, who would not give his name because of fear of reprisals, left carrying just a blanket, saying, "the pictures speak for themselves." He then left the city with several of his relatives.

___

Associated Press writers Kim Gamel in Tripoli and Christopher Gillette in Sirte contributed to this report.

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Low-lying Thai capital braces for weekend flooding (AP)

By CHRIS BLAKE and TODD PITMAN, Associated Press Chris Blake And Todd Pitman, Associated Press – 8?mins?ago

BANGKOK – Workers and volunteers piled sandbags outside buildings in central Bangkok and erected barriers in its subway to ward off possible weekend flooding as high water that devastated parts of central Thailand flowed toward the low-lying metropolis.

While the government sought to reassure Bangkok's 9 million people that the capital would be spared, it also sent sometimes confusing messages that raised anxieties and sent residents on shopping sprees to stockpile food, medicine and other essentials.

The worst floods in a half-century have submerged entire towns across Thailand's central plains, devastating rice crops and halting hundreds of factories. Some 8.2 million people in 61 of Thailand's 77 provinces have been affected by the flooding, which has killed 283 people since July.

Authorities have been warning that water rushing from the north could combine with rain and high tides to flood the capital. Some have said the flow would be so strong that authorities would be left with little choice but to watch the city drown.

The government said much of Bangkok lies behind a sturdy system of flood walls, dams and dikes that have been reinforced recently.

"I insist that the floods will only affect outer Bangkok and will not be widespread in other areas," Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said Friday.

Yingluck visited a key part of Bangkok's defenses just north of the city in Rangsit. There, military personnel and hundreds of volunteers stacked thousands of white sandbags along a canal gushing with runoff from the central plains to the north.

Volunteer Troy Pannavaj said authorities were trying to pump as much water as possible into the Chao Phraya River — which snakes through the capital and into the sea — before high tides or heavy rains over the weekend slow the outflow. "If these barriers break," Pannavaj said, "this water will rush through Bangkok very fast."

Resident Somjai Tpientong wondered whether the sandbag wall protecting Rangsit and Bangkok would hold.

"If the water comes, I'll have to let it happen. There's no way I can block it. For me, I'll move to an upper floor," she said. "I feel sorry for the people in lower-lying areas."

In a town north of Samkhok, in Pathum Thani province, floodwaters from the north breached a wall of white sandbags several dozen miles (kilometers) long, submerging Buddhist temples, homes and factories.

When soldiers were deployed to set up a new barrier in the middle of a main road in the town center, scuffles broke out between troops and angry residents who wanted to let the water run toward Bangkok, said Wasan Leekmeg, a local politician.

Some residents tried to remove the sandbags fortifying the wall. The barrier was eventually swamped, and "the soldiers gave up trying to protect it and started evacuating people," Wasan said.

"The problem is, the water keeps rising, and nobody knows how bad it's going to get," said Wasan, who spent the last few days ferrying supplies to desperate businesses and families on a wooden canoe — one of the only reliable ways to navigate the town.

Erroneous reports Thursday said high water had broken through a key flood gate in Pathum Thani, leading one government minister to order residents to evacuate. The government later apologized for the "misinformation," saying the evacuation order had been reversed and that damage to the gate had been overestimated.

The conflicting information left many Bangkok residents confused over whether their neighborhoods were at risk. Many have stocked up on bottled water, rice, instant noodles, medicine and other essentials, leading to shortages. Others have moved their cars to higher ground in parking garages in the city's malls.

Yingluck said her government would change how it informed the public and that official information would only be released by the director of the Flood Relief Center.

Buildings in many areas of the capital have stockpiled sandbags, while others have built protective walls from cement and cinderblocks. The city's subway system was rushing to install steel flood barriers.

"To be frank, I don't really know what's going to happen to Bangkok," said 26-year-old Kuealapat Atsawasiramanee, whose family home is about a half-mile (a kilometer) from the Chao Phraya River. "Is it going to be flooded or not? I'm not really sure. There are many pieces of information and news out there and I just don't know what to believe."

"If it's going to flood, the government simply needs to say so. Don't conceal the truth, because that will only lead to more panic."

A Japanese trade organization criticized the Thai government for allegedly failing to provide timely and accurate information about the situation in the central province of Ayutthaya, where hundreds of factories have been devastated.

Seiya Sukegawa of the Japan External Trade Organization Thailand said much of the information released by the government before floods hit the area was late, contradictory or difficult to understand because it was not in English.

"Japanese companies didn't know what was happening or which information was true or not," he said. "They received warnings but not enough information and not enough time to decide the next step."

He said more than 300 Japanese-owned factories — including electronics makers and automotive parts suppliers — were damaged or destroyed, adding that the Thai government was doing nothing to help companies reach sites to salvage undamaged property.

About 100 elephants in Ayutthaya were moved to higher ground and face food shortages as well as possible foot diseases because of the wet conditions, officials said.

Chusit Apirumanekul, a hydrologist at the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center, sympathized with the difficulties facing the government, saying the floods were unpredictable.

"I think this is quite normal in every country when you have this kind of warning, forecasting, you cannot say that it will happen or it will not happen 100 percent," he said.

___

Associated Press writers Thanyarat Doksone, Pamela Sampson, Grant Peck and Vee Intarakratug contributed to this report.

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Texas's record as death penalty capital: a help for Rick Perry? (The Christian Science Monitor)

Texas Gov. Rick Perry has presided over more executions than any governor in US history, at 235 ... and counting. With convicted murderer Duane Buck scheduled to die in Texas by lethal injection Thursday night, pending last-minute appeals to the governor and the US Supreme Court, a legitimate question is whether that record on capital punishment will help or hurt Mr. Perry in his quest for the GOP presidential nomination.

Among conservative Republicans, Perry's status as top executioner is something to be applauded. During Monday's GOP presidential debate, audience members cheered when Perry said he has "never struggled" with any of the executions he has presided over in his 11 years in office. "In the state of Texas," he said, "if you come into our state and you kill one of our children ... you will face the ultimate justice."

It's not the number of executions, per se, that is a potential liability for his candidacy, say some analysts, but rather whether Perry's faith in the state's justice system is justified. In the Buck case, for instance, the condemned man's lawyers say irregularities during sentencing, allegedly involving racially charged testimony, warrant a reconsideration of the death sentence.

MONITOR QUIZ: How well do you know Rick Perry?

Perry "tends to emphasize the fact of conviction and present the other questions as technicalities,” says James Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin. Such resolve plays well among Texans, who overwhelmingly support capital punishment. Moreover, voter concern about jobs and the economy vastly overshadows the matter of Perry’s death penalty record.

“There’s too much else going on right now,” Mr. Henson says. “In this environment, with the economy where it is, I’d be surprised if a lot of voters make a decision based on the death penalty.”

Capital punishment may matter more to moderate Republicans and independent voters in swing states. They may frame Perry’s record on executions as a character test, says Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville.

“Even people who favor capital punishment want to see each execution taken very seriously, and that includes libertarians who believe the ultimate violation of liberty is taking a life.… If someone is perceived as cavalier with human life, that will be a consideration,” says Mr. Sabato.

The Buck case is one of six that former Texas Attorney General John Cornyn, now a US senator, says need to be reopened because of racially charged statements made during sentencing hearings. Mr. Buck’s guilt is not in question – he was convicted in 1997 of killing two people – but his sentencing is under scrutiny because of a psychologist's testimony to jurors that black criminals are more likely to be repeatedly violent.

Bucka€?s attorneys are asking Perry to issue a 30-day reprieve so the matter can be further reviewed, and they are appealing to the US Supreme Court to intervene. At time of writing, neither the governora€?s office nor the high court had issued a response.

Because Perry is out of the state, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst is set to preside over Buck's execution. Buck would be the second death-row inmate to die this week in Texas and the 11th this year.

Perrya€?s critics cite the case of Cameron Todd Willingham, executed in 2004 by lethal injection after being convicted of an arson that killed his three daughters. A leading fire scientist discounted the arson finding and suggested the fire could have been an accident, but Perry was not moved by his report to halt the execution. The case attracted national attention after a Chicago Tribune investigation highlighted a panel of experts who all agreed that the arson finding was wrongly applied.

What Perry has on his side is public opinion. Sixty-four percent of American adults favor the death penalty in cases of murder, compared with 29 percent who oppose it, according to a Gallup poll in October 2010, the last time the organization polled on the issue.

Perry is not likely to adjust his views on capital punishment, says Henson. “So far, it’s been more about modulation than moderation. I don’t think he’s moving to the center. Their strategy is, as much as possible, to run Perry as Perry,” he says.

If Perry were to win the GOP nomination, his hardliner approach on capital punishment is likely to join “a family of issues,” including creationism and global warming, that may “be lumped together as a combined source of vulnerability” for his campaign, says Bruce Buchanan, a political scientist at the University of Texas, at Austin.

a€?The swagger is appealing for people on the Republican side, but off-putting for people in the middle,a€

Election 101: 11 questions about Rick Perry and his White House bid

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Somalis slowly return to ruined homes in capital (AP)

MOGADISHU, Somalia – Abdinur Isse stepped gingerly over the bat droppings, pushed aside the thorn bushes and walked into his roofless, burned-out home.

"We are starting from zero," the 51-year-old Isse said, staring at the smashed concrete, cinder blocks, corrugated iron and other rubble in the long-abandoned dwelling where his family once lived.

"This used to be my room. Now only bats live here," he said.

He's one of thousands of Somalis flooding into Mogadishu after Islamist rebels pulled out of the capital last month.

About 6,200 people arrived in Mogadishu in August, the U.N. refugee agency said, reversing a five-year-trend of families fleeing the fighting.

Some of those are families from the famine-stricken interior of the country, drawn to the international aid available in the capital.

But many are former residents, cautiously returning to see what they can rebuild from the ruins of their lives now that fighting in Mogadishu has mostly died down.

Two decades of war have gutted most of the city, including Isse's once-beautiful villa. Walls etched with starburst holes from exploding grenades are crumbling on streets overgrown with thorn bushes.

"My home used to be beautiful," Isse said sadly. "Now, it's a desert."

For months, Isse's Bondere neighborhood was bisected by a front line between the Islamic insurgents of the al-Shabab militia and troops from the African Union supporting the weak, U.N.-backed government. The al-Qaida linked rebels forbade anyone to cut the bushes, which offered perfect cover for launching hit and run attacks.

The ground is scarred with hastily dug trenches and tunnels to allow fighters to move unseen.

Now residents are washing off old bloodstains, sweeping out debris and rediscovering dust-covered toys.

Among those returning is Abdirahman Barre, whose two-room home made from corrugated iron sheets was demolished by a mortar. He is camping out next to the twisted wreckage in a dome of cloth scraps stretched over twigs.

"I have no money to rebuild it. We ask people to help us to rebuild our homes," he said as he greeted other returning neighbors, their donkey carts piled high with belongings.

Many have not been home for years, living in makeshift shelters by the side of the road in Afgoye or Elasha, two massive settlements for the displaced on the outskirts of Mogadishu. Around 409,000 people live in Afgoye alone.

"There's no water, electricity, or markets here. It gets extremely dark at night and people's movement stop," Barre said.

The U.N. and other international agencies have had a plan in place for more than two years to help Somalis returning to Mogadishu, but only if there are sufficient numbers. The plan calls for giving out building materials, iron sheeting and other aid if more than 200,000 people come back.

So far, the numbers are too low to implement the plan, the U.N. said, so Somalis are having to make do for themselves. Some get piecemeal help by camping among the families fleeing the drought, war and famine, said Andy Needham, a spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency.

"I want the district to return to normalcy again, and it truly will be if everyone works on his home," said Mohamed Shido, 39, who returned to his abandoned neighborhood of Sinay to help clean up. A neighbor said they need help to fill in potholes and clear large debris from the streets.

"It needs a lot of rebuilding and work that cannot be completed by residents alone," said Sabriye Muhummed, a retired former civil aviation officer. "You see everyone makes only his home, so who will construct and clear the streets, police stations and all other difficult tasks? Only a government's resources can fill the gaps."

A Somali government official did not return messages seeking comment on rebuilding plans. On Tuesday, the government signed a promise to improve governance and services in return for international funding. But for the past few years, very little has been done, even though the government received tens of millions of dollars in donations.

Even if they must clean up for themselves for now, residents say, they want soldiers to guard abandoned police posts to protect them from marauders by night and militants by day.

The Islamists withdrew from their bases in Mogadishu last month, with many leaving in convoys of vehicles. The retreat followed months of fighting in which the better-armed African Union forces steadily pushed them back from most of the city.

Some of the al-Shabab insurgents, however, just hid their weapons and melted back into the city. They have carried out a gruesome campaign of beheadings in recent weeks against civilians. The reason for the killings is unclear.

"Al-Shabab does not deserve to be in control of our village. We expect the government to live up to our expectations and provide security to prevent al-Shabab's return," said Fadumo Addow, a mother of two who returned to the capital's Wardhigley district this week.

A small snake crawled away as Addow lifted a rusted cooking pot. Cockroaches scuttled when she sat on a bed covered in cobwebs.

But she was not deterred — not by these unexpected guests in her home, not by the threat of future attacks, and not by the lack of help.

"My return to my village is a dream a long time coming," she said. "It finally came true today."

___

Associated Press writer Katharine Houreld in Nairobi, Kenya, contributed to this report.

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Back home: Strauss-Kahn arrives in French capital (AP)

PARIS – Dominique Strauss-Kahn returned home to a mixed welcome in France on Sunday, for the first time since attempted rape accusations by a New York hotel maid unleashed an international scandal that dashed his chances for the French presidency.

New York prosecutors later dropped their case against Strauss-Kahn, former head of the International Monetary Fund, because of questions about the maid's credibility.

But the affair cost Strauss-Kahn his job at the helm of the IMF and exposed his personal life to worldwide scrutiny that has stained his image and left the French divided over what he should do next. His high-profile return home Sunday reflects how large he looms here.

Smiling and waving silently, he stepped off an Air France flight Sunday at Paris' Charles de Gaulle Airport a different man from the one who, just four months ago, had been the pollsters' favorite to beat President Nicolas Sarkozy in next year's presidential elections.

Few expect Strauss-Kahn to return to French politics soon, but his supporters have been eagerly awaiting his return after three months of legal drama in the U.S. that they saw as unfairly hostile to him.

"I'm moved, I always believed in his innocence. I wanted very much for this to be over," Michele Sabban, a fellow Socialist Party member, said on i-Tele television.

Residents of Sarcelles, a working class Paris suburb where Strauss-Kahn is mayor, were largely enthusiastic and empathetic about his return.

"I'm happy for him. It's the end of an ordeal. Now ... we should leave him alone a little bit," resident Laurent Giaoui told The Associated Press.

A prominent member of Sarkozy's conservative UMP party, Xavier Bertrand, shrugged off Strauss-Kahn's appearance in Paris. "Like many French people, I have lots of others worries in my head," he said on Europe-1 radio. "I have a hard time imagining" Strauss-Kahn back in politics, he said.

Strauss-Kahn flew in to Paris from New York's JFK Airport early Sunday and gave a brief wave upon leaving the arrivals hall. Pushing a luggage cart, he did not speak to the large crowd.

His wife, respected former TV personality Anne Sinclair, was at his side, beaming widely. Riot police protected him and the area. The two then drove to one of their homes, on Paris' tony Place des Vosges. The crush of reporters was so thick that Strauss-Kahn had trouble reaching and opening his front door.

The last time he tried to take an Air France flight out of JFK, Strauss-Kahn was pulled out of first class minutes before takeoff by police. They were investigating the maid's claim that hours earlier, Strauss-Kahn had forced her to perform oral sex and tried to rape her.

He quit his job, spent almost a week in jail, then six weeks of house arrest and nearly two more months barred from leaving the country before Manhattan prosecutors dropped the case last month, saying they no longer trusted the maid, Guinean immigrant Nafissatou Diallo.

Diallo is continuing to press her claims in a lawsuit. Strauss-Kahn denies the allegations.

Strauss-Kahn faces another investigation in France based on accusations by French novelist Tristane Banon, who says he tried to rape her during an interview in 2003. He calls the claim "imaginary."

Banon's mother, Anne Mansouret, told the AP that Strauss-Kahn's return "is a good thing for my daughter's complaint because he will have to answer to police."

Banon says she didn't file a complaint after the incident because her mother, a regional Socialist official, urged her not to.

Mansouret, who now says she regrets that decision, called it "profoundly indecent" that Strauss-Kahn's homecoming Sunday was like that of a "star."

The AP does not name people who report being sexually assaulted unless they agree to be identified or come forward publicly, as Diallo and Banon have done.

Strauss-Kahn, known in France by his initials DSK, is also dubbed a "great seducer" by French commentators for his reputation for sexual adventures.

That reputation — and France's overall attitude toward keeping politicians' private lives private — came under scrutiny after Strauss-Kahn's arrest. Many called for more openness about questionable private behavior that might reflect on a politician's public life.

The Socialist Party is now in a fierce campaign for primaries next month to choose its candidate for April and May presidential elections. The front-runners, while relieved that the New York case was dropped, do not appear keen for Strauss-Kahn to make a comeback.

Strauss-Kahn, an eloquent economist and former finance minister, still has many fans in France, and there remains a small chance he could play a role in the presidential campaign. Strauss-Kahn himself has remained silent about his political plans.

In welcoming Strauss-Kahn back Sunday, many French people expressed concern for his wife — who was more famous in France than her husband before they married 20 years ago — and what she's been through in recent months.

One supporter belted out an ode to Strauss-Kahn in a performance at the Paris airport Sunday morning, accompanied by a Verdi opera played on a portable stereo, before police officers asked him to stop.

"Dominique! Dominique!," shouted Gregoire Vandevelde, who said he was a former student of Strauss-Kahn's at a prestigious economic institute. "He is extremely brilliant, full of humor and very competent, warm with his students," Vandevelde said.

___

Angela Charlton in Paris, Catherine Gaschka in Sarcelles, and Ted Shaffrey and Jennifer Peltz in New York contributed to this report.

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Libya rebels push towards capital to aid revolt (Reuters)

AL-MAYA, Libya (Reuters) – Libyan rebels battled their way closer to Tripoli on Sunday to help fighters inside the city who rose up overnight declaring a final showdown with Muammar Gaddafi.

The Libyan leader dismissed the rebels as "rats" and said he would not yield. But his grip on power looked more fragile than ever after rebels, fighting for the past six months to end his rule, advanced to within about 25 km (16 miles) of Tripoli's western edge.

"We're going to Tripoli now," said Moussa, a rebel fighter raised in the United States, near the front line in the village of Al-Maya.

As he spoke, rebel pick-up trucks and a tank trundled down the highway which traces the Mediterranean coast toward Tripoli. Anti-aircraft guns, adapted by the rebels to shoot targets on the ground, pounded away nearby.

In a coordinated revolt that rebel cells had been secretly preparing for months, shooting started on Saturday night across Tripoli, moments after Muslim clerics, using the loudspeakers on mosque minarets, called people on to the streets.

The fighting inside Tripoli, combined with rebel advances to the outskirts of the city, appeared to signal the decisive phase in a six month conflict that has become the bloodiest of the "Arab Spring" uprisings and embroiled NATO powers.

"Gaddafi's chances for a safe exit are diminishing by the hour," said Ashour Shamis, a Libyan opposition activist and editor based in Britain.

But Gaddafi's fall is far from certain. His security forces did not buckle, and the city is much bigger than anything the mostly amateur anti-Gaddafi fighters, with their scavenged weapons and mismatched uniforms, have ever tackled.

If the Libyan leader is forced from power, there are question marks over whether the opposition can restore stability in this oil exporting country. The rebels' own ranks have been wracked by disputes and rivalry.

REVOLT PREMATURE?

Rebels said after a night of heavy fighting, they controlled a handful of city neighborhoods. Whether they hold on could depend on the speed with which the other rebels reach Tripoli.

"The rebels may have risen too early in Tripoli and the result could be a lot of messy fighting," said Oliver Miles, a former British ambassador to Libya. "The regime may not have collapsed in the city to quite the extent they think it has."

But the rebel advance toward the city was rapid, and there was no sign of fierce resistance from Gaddafi's security forces. In the past 48 hours, the rebels west of Tripoli have advanced about 25 km, halving the distance between them and the capital.

Government forces put up a brief fight at the village of Al-Maya, leaving behind a burned-out tank, and some cars that had been torched. "I am very happy," said one resident.

The anti-Gaddafi fighters paused long enough to daub some graffiti on walls in the village. One read "We are here and we are fighting Gaddafi," another, "God is great." They then moved on toward Tripoli.

In Benghazi, the eastern Libyan city where the anti-Gaddafi revolt started and where the rebels have their main stronghold, a senior official said everything was going according to plan.

"Our revolutionaries are controlling several neighborhoods and others are coming in from outside the city to join their brothers at this time," Abdel Hafiz Ghoga, vice-chairman of the rebel National Transition Council, told Reuters.

MESSAGE OF DEFIANCE

In an audio recording broadcast late on Saturday, Gaddafi -- whose location has been kept a secret since NATO warplanes started bombing government buildings -- made clear he had no intention of giving in to the rebels.

"Those rats ... were attacked by the masses tonight and we eliminated them," Gaddafi said. "I know that there are air bombardments but the fireworks were louder than the sound of the bombs thrown by the aircraft."

A spokesman for Gaddafi, in a briefing for foreign reporters, underlined the message of defiance.

The armed units defending Tripoli from the rebels "wholeheartedly believe that if this city is captured the blood will run everywhere so they may as well fight to the end," said the spokesman, Moussa Ibrahim.

"We hold Mr Obama, Mr Cameron and Mr Sarkozy morally responsible for every single unnecessary death that takes place in this country," he said, referring to the leaders of the United States, Britain and France.

SNIPERS ON ROOFTOPS

A diplomatic source in Paris, where the government has closely backed the rebels, said underground rebel cells in the capital had been following detailed plans drawn up months ago and had been waiting for a signal to act.

That signal was "iftar" -- the moment when Muslims observing the holy months of Ramadan break their daily fast. It was at this moment that imams started broadcasting their message from the mosques, residents said.

But the overnight fighting inside the city, while fierce, was not decisive. Rebels said they controlled all or parts of the Tajourah, Fashloom and Souk al-Jumaa neighborhoods, yet there was no city-wide rebellion.

In Tripoli on Sunday, the two sides appeared to be jockeying for control of roof terraces to use as firing positions, possibly in preparation for a new burst of fighting after dark.

A rebel activist in the city said pro-Gaddafi forces had put snipers on the rooftops of buildings around Bab al-Aziziyah, Gaddafi's compound, and on the top of a nearby water tower.

As he spoke, single gunshots could be heard in the background, at intervals of a few seconds.

"Gaddafi's forces are getting reinforcements to comb the capital," said the activist, who spoke by telephone to a Reuters reporter outside Libya.

"Residents are crying, seeking help. One resident was martyred, many were wounded," he said. It was not immediately possible to verify his account independently.

State television flashed up a message on the screen urging residents not to allow rebel gunmen to hide on their rooftops.

"Agents and al Qaeda members are trying to destabilize and sabotage the city. You should prevent them from exploiting your houses and buildings, confront them and cooperate with counter-terrorism units, to capture them," it said.

(Additional reporting by Missy Ryan in Tripoli, Robert Birsel in Benghazi, Libya, William Maclean in London, Hamid Ould Ahmed in Algiers; Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Jon Hemming)

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Rockets push back rebels south of Libyan capital (Reuters)

BIR-AYYAD, Libya (Reuters) – Libyan rebels who had advanced to within 80 km (50 miles) of Muammar Gaddafi's stronghold in the capital were forced to retreat Friday after coming under a barrage of rocket fire from government forces.

The rebels' advance five days ago to the outskirts of the small town of Bir al-Ghanam had raised the possibility of a breakthrough in a four-month old conflict that has become the bloodiest of the "Arab Spring" uprisings.

Rebel fighters who had been massing on a ridge near Bir al-Ghanam and preparing for an attack were now pulling back under fire from Russian-made Grad rockets, said a Reuters photographer in Bir-Ayyad, 30 km to the south.

He said the rocket barrage was now reaching as far back as Bir-Ayyad, a road junction in the foothills of the Western Mountains range south-west of Tripoli from where the rebels had launched their advance last week.

The reversal underlines the resilience of Gaddafi's forces, who have withstood 15 weeks of bombardment by NATO missiles and warplanes, and attempts by rebels on three fronts to break through their lines.

Frustration at the slow progress is growing inside the military alliance, with some members worried about the cost, civilian casualties and the fact the campaign has now been going on much longer than its backers anticipated.

There are also differences about how proactive NATO members should be in aiding the rebels, who are hampered by a lack of organization and a shortage of equipment.

France this week became the first member of the anti-Gaddafi alliance to acknowledge that it had supplied weapons to the rebels, saying this was justified to protect civilians under threat from Gaddafi's forces.

It said it used parachutes to drop assault rifles and rocket launchers, along with humanitarian supplies, to rebels in the Western mountains.

That admission prompted Russia, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, to accuse France of a "gross violation" of a U.N. arms embargo.

Even France's NATO allies distanced themselves from the French operation, though Britain and the United States said they believed it was justified under U.N. rules.

NATO STRIKE

Libyan state television reported that NATO had bombed military and civilian sites in the government-controlled town of Garyan, on the eastern edge of the Western Mountains.

NATO said it had successfully destroyed a military target in the town Friday.

"It should be noted that the target was well outside the built-up area of the conurbation and no collateral damage was observed afterwards. At no time was any civilian area targeted," a NATO official said.

Gaddafi has said the NATO campaign is an act of colonial aggression aimed at stealing Libya's plentiful oil. His aides say arrest warrants issued Monday by the International Criminal Court for him, his son and his brother-in-law have no legitimacy because the court is a tool of the West.

Gaddafi's daughter, Aisha, said in a television interview broadcast late Thursday that her father's administration was prepared to cut a deal with the rebels if that was what it took to stop the bloodshed.

The offer marks a shift in tone. Until now Libyan officials have dismissed the rebels as criminals and no one in the Libyan leader's inner circle has publicly raised the possibility of making any accommodation with them.

"There are direct and indirect negotiations and we should stop letting Libyan blood," Gaddafi's daughter said in an interview with France 2 television.

"And for that we are ready to ally with the devil and that is the armed rebels," said Aisha Gaddafi, a lawyer who has no official government role but has often acted as a mediator on behalf of her family.

But she dismissed the prospect of her father going into exile. "This word departure, departure, departure ... what I find strange is where do you want him to go? This is his country, his land, his people," she said.

The London-based Asharq al-Awsat newspaper reported Gaddafi's representatives had been meeting officials from France and Britain on the Tunisian island of Djerba.

Citing unnamed sources from the Gaddafi and opposition camps, the newspaper said Gaddafi was willing to step down if he was spared prosecution and allowed to live in his hometown of Sirte, northern Libya, with guarantees for his security.

There was no confirmation of the report from Gaddafi's government, Britain or France.

OPTIONS NARROWING

Anti-Gaddafi rebels rejected talks with the Libyan leader's administration after the International Criminal Court issued its arrest warrants, saying there was no point talking to a war criminal.

Some Libya-watchers say Gaddafi has floated the possibility of a peace deal several times to stall for time and weaken the resolve of the Western alliance to push him out.

But others say he may be looking for a negotiated exit as his options narrow. International sanctions are causing a shortage of fuel in Gaddafi-controlled areas, and NATO strikes are eroding his ability to enforce his power.

The Libyan conflict has sent ripples far beyond the North African country of six million people.

The fighting has halted Libyan oil exports, helping push up world crude prices to about $111 a barrel.

It has also created a security vacuum which officials in the region say could be exploited by Islamist militants and al Qaeda's North African wing.

"If this civil war goes on, it would be a new Somalia, which I don't say lightly. In three months we could be dealing with extremists," Marouane Abassi, World Bank country manager for Libya, told Reuters in the Tunisian capital.

(Additional reporting by Tarek Amara and Andrew Hammond in Tunis, David Brunnstrom in Brussels, Sami Aboudi in Dubai and John Irish in Paris; Writing by Christian Lowe; editing by Ralph Boulton)

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Central bankers agree on bank capital surcharge plan (Reuters)

BASEL, Switzerland/LONDON (Reuters) – Global banking regulators have agreed on a proposal to slap an extra capital charge on the world's biggest banks to make them safer by 2019.

The surcharge is part of a series of regulatory reforms launched in response to the financial crisis, which forced countries worldwide into costly bailouts of their banking sectors to prevent systemic collapses.

The Group of Governors and Heads of Supervision (GHOS) said after a meeting in Basel on Saturday the proposal would be put out to public consultation next month.

"The additional loss absorbency requirements are to be met with progressive common equity tier 1 capital requirement ranging from 1 percent to 2.5 percent, depending on a bank's systemic importance," the group said in a statement.

An additional 1 percent surcharge would also be imposed if a bank becomes significantly bigger, pushing the total to 3.5 percent.

The plans, which need approval from world leaders (G20) in November, would be phased in between January 1 2016 and end of 2018.

The capital surcharge will come on top of the new 7 percent minimum core capital all banks across the world will have to hold under new Basel III rules being phased in over six years from 2013.

However, many of the world's biggest banks already hold core tier 1 capital ratios of 10 percent or more and therefore easily meet or exceed the top end of the surcharge band.

The central bankers have opted for a smaller surcharge than forseen but, in return, the surcharge will have to be in the form of top quality capital -- retained earnings or common equity.

This marks a victory for hardline countries such as Britain and the United States but will disappoint some banks that have been hoping to use hybrid debt such as contingent capital (CoCos) to pad out the surcharge band.

Dirk Jaeger, Managing Director for supervision matters at Germany's banks association BdB said the decision was not much of a surprise: "But we regret that bank levies and CoCo bonds do not count for the additional capital buffer."

COCOS REVIEWED

The proposal, which was due to be finalized by last November but faced opposition from banks and some countries, will apply initially to so-called globally systemically important banks (G-SIBs).

"These measures will strengthen the resilience of G-SIBs and create strong incentives for them to reduce their systemic importance over time," the statement said.

The consultation paper in July will indicate how many banks face a capital surcharge but it is not clear yet if their names will be published.

The number of banks affected is likely to change over time as lenders grow or shrink and the consultation will spell out how often a snapshot of the sector will be taken.

Banks will face a surcharge according to an indicator that draws on five elements -- size, interconnectedness, lack of substitutability, global (cross-jurisdictional) activity, and complexity.

The group of central bankers and the Basel Committee it oversees said they will continue to review the use of contingent capital.

The central bankers said they would support the use of contingent capital to meet higher national requirements than the global minimum surcharge.

However, even then, there would have to be a high-trigger for converting the debt into equity to help absorb losses on a going concern basis, the central bankers said.

(Additional reporting by Alexander Huebner in Germany; Editing by Toby Chopra)

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Kadhafi 'may leave' bombed capital, Obama rebuked (AFP)

TRIPOLI (AFP) – Moamer Kadhafi is reportedly mulling leaving Tripoli after blistering NATO air raids, as the rebels hinted they may let him stay in Libya if he quits and US lawmakers rebuked US President Barack Obama.

The Wall Street Journal quoted a senior US national security official as saying American intelligence shows Kadhafi "doesn't feel safe anymore" in the capital where he has ruled for more than four decades.

However, officials told the paper they did not see the move as imminent and did not believe Kadhafi would leave Libya, a key demand of rebels battling his forces.

Kadhafi is believed to have numerous safe houses and other facilities both within and outside Tripoli where he could go.

In Washington, the House of Representatives on Friday rejected a resolution authorising US military action in Libya, in a symbolic but scathing rebuke to Obama.

Lawmakers voted 123-295 to defeat the measure and moved to take up a companion resolution aimed at sharply reducing the US role in the NATO-led, UN-mandated operations against Kadhafi's forces.

"We are disappointed by that vote. We think that now is not the time to send the kind of mixed message that it sends," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters aboard Air Force One.

Rebel spokesman Mahmud Shamam told French daily Le Figaro the insurgents were in indirect contact with the Kadhafi regime and may be prepared to allow him to stay in the country, but that he and his family must agree to leave power.

"Our conditions remain the same. It is totally excluded that Kadhafi or members of his family take part in a future government. We are discussing with them the mechanism for Kadhafi's departure," he said.

In the rebel capital Benghazi, however, National Transitional Council deputy chairman Abdel Hafiz Ghoga told AFP: "There is no contact, direct or indirect, with the Kadhafi regime."

Another rebel leader, Colonel Ahmed Omar Bani, on Thursday pleaded for foreign allies to provide the equipment needed to defeat Kadhafi.

Bani said the rebels were up against vastly superior firepower. Much of their arsenal comprises Soviet-era tanks and artillery up to 50 years old.

The mostly volunteer force has, with the help of NATO air strikes, kept Kadhafi's forces at bay on several fronts, but has made limited progress toward Tripoli -- allowing loyalist forces to dig in.

Rights group Amnesty International said on Friday Kadhafi's forces were using rockets packed with ball bearings to bombard civilians in rebel-held Misrata in the west.

At least three civilians -- two women and a 14-year-old boy -- were killed recently when Grad rockets hit a residential neighbourhood of the port city, it said in a statement.

"These rockets are indiscriminate weapons which cannot be directed at a particular target and their use may amount to war crimes," Amnesty said.

A senior US commander, meanwhile, said that NATO and Libya's African allies had not adequately planned for the aftermath of Kadhafi's possible fall.

"We, the international community, could be in post-conflict Libya tomorrow and there isn't a plan, there is not a good plan," the senior US commander in Africa, General Carter Ham, told the Wall Street Journal.

He predicted that Kadhafi could fall quickly, and said there may be a need for substantial ground forces in Libya to preserve order.

Despite the intensive NATO bombing, stalemate on the battlefield and a wave of defections of regime officials and soldiers, Kadhafi remains defiant.

"We will resist and the battle will continue to the beyond, until you're wiped out. But we will not be finished," he said in an audio message on Wednesday.

Around 300 people, including 51 freed detainees, arrived in Benghazi on Friday aboard the Ionis, chartered by the International Committee of the Red Cross, after a 22-hour journey from Tripoli, an AFP correspondent said.

Families who had been separated for weeks were reunited.

The ICRC said the arrival of the group was part of a broader exchange negotiated between Libya's two warring factions.

The 28-member International Energy Agency said on Thursday that 60 million barrels of oil would be taken from reserves over the next month to cover lost Libyan output.

World oil prices sank on Friday, extending Thursday's plunge after the IEA decision.

New York's main contract, West Texas Intermediate for delivery in August, eased ten cents to $90.92 a barrel after plummeting $4.39 or 4.6 percent on Thursday.

In London afternoon trade on Friday, Brent North Sea crude for August fell $1.31 to $105.95, one day after plunging by $6.95, or 6.0 percent in value.

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