France calls for G20 nuclear regulators meeting: Sarkozy

TOKYO, March 31, 2011 (AFP) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy called Thursday for G20 nations' nuclear regulators to meet to discuss international safety standards, in the first visit to quake-hit Japan by a foreign leader.

"We call on the independent authorities of G20 members to meet, if possible in Paris, to define an international nuclear safety standard" for power plants, he said in a speech at the French Embassy in Tokyo.

"It is absolutely abnormal that these international safety standards do not exist," he said, suggesting the Paris meeting could take place as early as May.

France, the world's number two nuclear power, has sent experts to Japan to try to help cool overheating reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant that have been leaking dangerous radioactive material into the environment.

The March 11 earthquake and tsunami knocked out the plant's cooling systems, prompting the reactors to overheat, triggering explosions and fires.

Workers have injected and hosed the reactors with water, but efforts have largely failed to lead to a cold shutdown, instead being followed by radiation leaks and fuelling fears of run-offs into the ocean and soil.

Sarkozy arrived in Japan on Thursday in a show of "solidarity" with a nation coming to terms with the impact of a devastating earthquake, a tsunami and a nuclear crisis.

Pledging solidarity with victims of the calamity, Sarkozy said his visit was aimed at offering Japan aid to "help confront this situation" as well as the "calm and transparency to address this crisis."

He was due to meet Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan and members of the French community in Tokyo later Thursday before returning to Paris.

French nuclear group Areva, whose president is also in Tokyo, announced on Thursday it was planning to give extra help to the operator of the stricken plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO).

Before his Tokyo visit, Sarkozy left Nanjing in China where he opened a G20 seminar on economic and monetary reform.

Sarkozy is the first foreign leader to visit Japan since the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and an ensuing tsunami which devastated swathes of the country's northeast, with around 28,000 people killed or missing.

Two hurt in parcel bomb at Swiss nuclear lobby

(Reuters) - Two people were injured when a parcel bomb exploded in the offices of the Swiss nuclear lobby, police said on Thursday.

The two female employees of Swissnuclear were taken to hospital with superficial burns and hearing damage, a police spokesman said, adding the mail had exploded on Thursday morning but police did not yet know who sent it.

Police cordoned off the office of Swissnuclear in the northern Swiss town of Olten and the spokesman said they had forensic specialists on the ground.

Earlier this month, Switzerland suspended the approvals process for three new nuclear power stations so safety standards could be reviewed, afterJapan's earthquake and tsunami sparked a disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

Switzerland derived about 10 percent of its energy from nuclear generation in 2009, according to the Swiss Federal Office of Energy.

(Reporting by Christian Hartmann and Sven Egenter; Editing by Jon Boyle)

Gaddafi forces push rebels back

Rebels in Libya are struggling to hold their front line after Col Muammar Gaddafi's forces recaptured several towns in the east of the country.

The rebels have now lost the key oil port of Ras Lanuf and the nearby town of Bin Jawad. However, reports say the fighting is continuing in the area.

In the west, the rebel-held town of Misrata is still coming under attack from pro-Gaddafi troops, reports say.

US President Barack Obama earlier said he did not rule out arming the rebels.

France and the US say they are sending envoys to the rebel-held city of Benghazi in the east to liaise with the interim administration there.

And British Foreign Secretary William Hague said a UK diplomat met Libyan rebel leaders in Benghazi earlier this week.

The UK has also made moves to expel five Libyan diplomats based in London, Mr Hague told MPs on Wednesday.

Allied friction

Mr Obama told reporters on Tuesday that Col Gaddafi had been greatly weakened by the coalition air strikes and would ultimately step down.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron told MPs at Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday that the RAF had flown 24 sorties over Libya on Tuesday night.

These had destroyed artillery and an armoured vehicle near the strategic city of Sirte, which is Col Gaddafi's birthplace.

It lies on Libya's northern coast roughly half way between the capital Tripoli and Benghazi.

As fighting intensified on Wednesday, the BBC's Ben Brown in Ajdabiya said he had seen the rebels sending reinforcements to the front line, including four Katyusha rocket systems.

On Tuesday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Mr Hague both suggested the UN resolution authorising international action in Libya could also permit the supply of weapons.

This message was reinforced by Mr Cameron in his comments to MPs on Wednesday, in which he said that as the UN ceasefire was clearly being breached it was right to keep up pressure from the air, while not ruling out the option of arming the rebels.

"UN [Security Council Resolution] 1973 allows all necessary measures to protect civilians and civilian-populated areas, and our view is this would not necessarily rule out the provision of assistance to those protecting civilians in certain circumstances," he said.

"We do not rule it out, but we have not taken the decision to do so."

But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov denied UN Security Resolution 1973 gave a mandate to arm the rebels.

"The Nato Secretary General Fogh Rasmussen declared that the operation in Libya was being staged to protect the population and not to arm it - and here, we completely agree with the Nato secretary general," he said.

In a separate development, an international conference on Libya in London has agreed to set up a contact group involving Arab governments to co-ordinate help for a post-Gaddafi Libya.

Several thousand people have been killed and thousands wounded since the uprising against Col Gaddafi's rule began more than six weeks ago.

Jackie Chan's stunt director trained Darsheel

Child star Darsheel Safary is said to have performed some daring action sequences in his upcoming film "Zokkomon" under the guidance ofHollywood actor Jackie Chan's stunt director William Ong.The 

15-year-old, who made his Bollywood debut with Aamir Khan's " Taare Zameen Par", is playing a superhero in the film. 

He has performed all the stunts himself, and he will be seen in a never-seen-before avatar, says a source. 

"Darsheel trained for months to perfect his moves with international stunt director William Ong, who has worked with the legendary Jackie Chan," said the source. 

Darsheel says he had an enjoyable time training and shooting for the movie, 

"I loved doing the action sequences. I am thrilled to see myself as Zokkomon, all the special effects and action sequences are something I haven't done before," said Darsheel. 

"Zokkomon", directed by Satyajit Bhatkal, is an action adventure film about an ordinary boy who meets extraordinary challenges. The movie, releasing April 22, also features veteran actor Anupam Kher and actress Manjari Fadnis. 

Maharashtra to ban controversial book on Gandhi

Mumbai: Maharashtra government will initiate steps to ban sale of a controversial book on Mahatma Gandhi by Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Joseph Lelyveld.

"Gandhiji was a respected leader and is known as the father of nation. He led the freedom movement of India. The government will initiate steps to ensure that the book is not published in the state," Industries Minister Narayan Rane told the Legislative Council today.

The minister also informed that the state government would write to the Centre for not publishing the controversial book.

Congress MLC and Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) president Manikrao Thakre said in the upper house that the book 'Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle with India' has maligned the character of the Father of Nation.

"This is very serious that the author of the book has raised questions about the character of Gandhiji who initiated non-violence movement. I condemn the book and this should not be made available," Thakre said.

The MPCC president also appealed to members of the House to join hands on the issue. Thakre said he would request the central government on behalf of the Council members to take strict "action" on the issue.

The book written by Joseph Lelyveld reportedly carries controversial references about the Mahatma.

Supporting the demand by Thakre, Chairman of the House Shivajirao Deshmukh said that the government should enquire the matter in detail and take appropriate action.

Maharashtra government to ban sale of a controversial book on Mahatma Gandhi by Joseph Lelyveld.

Libyan woman claims she was raped, abused by Gaddafi soldiers

In a bizarre event in the ongoing crisis in Libya, a distraught and disturbed Libyan woman sought out western reporters in a Tripoli hotel to claim she had been gang-raped for two days by fifteen members of a paramilitary force loyal to Moammar Gaddafi.

However, before she could tell the whole story, Iman al-Obeidi was dragged out of the Rixos hotel by Libyan officials and hotel employees.

She alleged that she had been detained at a checkpoint, tied her up, sexually abused her and then led her away to be gang-raped.

"They tied me up ... they even defecated and urinated on me," she said. "The Gaddafi militiamen violated my honor."

She said she was victimized because she is from the eastern city of Benghazi, the rebel stronghold.

She yelled: "Easterners - we're all Libyan brothers, we are supposed to be treated the same, but this is what the Gaddafi militiamen did to me, they violated my honor."

Her allegations could not be independently verified.

At a press conference following the incident, Moussa Ibrahim, a government spokesman, said investigators informed him the woman was drunk and possibly mentally ill.

“She seems, this is initial reports, to be suffering mentally. They are dealing with her. They are investigating, checking where her family is, who she is. She is refusing to tell them who she is, who her family are, her father, sister, brothers…as for physically handling her to take her out, this would be done anywhere in the world, if someone storms a place,” he said.

Anita McNaught, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Tripoli, said: "The government initially suggested that she was drunk ... but when they [officials] came back to the journalists later to reassure them that she was being well cared for ... they did describe this as a case of rape."

The woman clearly had scratches on her face and bruises on her body. She claimed she was able to escape her captors with help from neighbors in the area where she was detained.

The Associated Press reported that during the melee hotel waiters called her a traitor and told her to shut up.

As she was being led away, she screamed: "Look at what happens - Gaddafi's militiamen kidnap women at gunpoint, and rape them ... they rape them.”

She was bundled into a car outside the hotel and driven to an undisclosed location.

During the hotel disturbance several foreign journalists were manhandled and some had their cameras broken.

Mega Millions $312M Winner in Albany, New York

Winning Tickets Were Bought In at Convenience Store in Upstate New York

The winning jackpot ticket for Friday's drawing was sold at Coulson's News Center in Albany, N.Y. According to the Mega Millions website, the jackpot is the sixth-highest in the game's history. The largest jackpot was $390 million in March 2007.

The jackpot has increased every Tuesday and Friday since Feb. 1, when the previous winners, the Bolke family of Illinois and a group postal workers in Michigan, split a $93 million jackpot.

And despite the astronomically small chances of winning the growing jackpot, Mega Millions will still draw plenty of early retirement dreamers.

But given the long odds of winning tonight's $312 million Mega Millions jackpot, the lottery's website welcome page message to use your payout to "Save For Retirement" is a curious one -- and possibly a dangerous one, gambling experts say.

Those three words are etched above the image of a piggy bank against a clear blue sky on the Mega Millions website. It's one of a series of serving suggestions for your lottery "dreams" along with exotic trips and gifts. Click here to see the homepage image.

But, you'll have better luck getting struck by lightning. And, given your life span you might have better odds of getting struck by lightning more than 5,000 times before winning the big prize Friday.

Asked about the homepage message, a spokeswoman for the 12-state lottery was quick to defend its 176 million-to-1 odds retirement plan.

"Whether you're dreaming about retirement or buying a home, the idea is to place your dream in that photo," said Carolyn Hapeman, Mega Millions spokesperson for New York state. "Playing the Mega Millions is not the way someone should try to better their financial situation but it's a nice way to save for your retirement should you win. It's a very bad idea to think you're going to better your situation with a wager on any lottery game."

The penny-saving piggy bank retirement graphic as a part of the "Your Dream Here" advertisement for the lottery game is a cause for concern to gambling experts.

"Given the odds of winning the lottery that's a terrible strategy," says Keith Whyte, executive director of the National Council on Problem Gambling.

"I think it's a disappointing ad because the lottery is not a good way to save for retirement," says Whyte. "We believe lottery advertisements should encourage people to play recreationally and responsibly. We're concerned about ads that imply lottery playing or gambling in general is a good way to make money -- especially over a long period of time," says Whyte.

In fact, with the very low chances of winning a substantial prize -- and the lottery's payback of just 50 percent of proceeds in winnings -- lotteries are a sure-fire way to lose money.

Since its inception in May 2002, Mega Millions has sold more than 21.88 billion tickets and 110 people have won the jackpot. Let's do the math: The cost of playing the Mega Millions is $1. Imagine you have a $25 a week lottery habit and the cost each year is $1,300. If you take that same $25 a week from the age of 21 to 65 years old and invest in a Roth IRA with a 7 percent return rate, you'll accumulate $346,000.

watch video here

Malaysian auto group sees record sales in 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA

Malaysia's auto sales are on track to grow 2 percent to a record 618,000 vehicles this year, although production could be disrupted by parts shortages following Japan's earthquake and tsunami.

Last year, sales in Southeast Asia's largest passenger car market rose 12.7 percent to a record high of 605,156 vehicles. Malaysian Automotive Association president Aishah Ahmad said Friday that sales were up 4 percent in the first two months of this year with demand still going strong.

Japanese models account for about a third of vehicles sold in Malaysia, led by Toyota, Honda and Nissan. The three carmakers say their Malaysian factories are operating normally with sufficient stockpiles for about 3 months but prospects are clouded after that.

Tens of thousands gather in Yemen week after bloodshed

Tens of thousands of people have gathered in Yemen's capital Sanaa for rival mass rallies, a week after 50 people were shot dead at a protest.

Anti-government protesters want President
Saleh to step down immediately

Anti-government protesters predict their biggest rally yet to demand the resignation of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, in power since 1978.

Addressing a rally of his supporters, he reportedly said he was ready to hand over power but only to "safe hands".

He also urged his supporters to "stand firm", reports say.

Mr Saleh earlier denied that government forces had played any part in the shooting of demonstrators last week.

Both the government and opposition have set up checkpoints in Sanaa and the streets are full of armed men.

There is real fear of a new confrontation, a BBC correspondent reports from the city.

According to an AFP news agency report, Friday's crowds number hundreds of thousands.

Defections

On Wednesday, Yemen's parliament passed sweeping emergency laws giving security forces far-reaching powers to detain suspects and prevent demonstrations.

Mr Saleh has said the unrest risks taking Yemen into civil war.

On Monday a senior general, Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, defected to the protesters and sent troops loyal to him to guard demonstrators encamped in a square in Sanaa.

There are fears there could be clashes between units loyal to the president and those who support the protesters.

Other senior officials have also left Mr Saleh's side to go to the opposition.

There are reports that Gen Mohsen has met with Mr Saleh to discuss his options for leaving.

Yemen is one of a number of countries in the region that have seen unrest since the presidents of Egypt and Tunisia were ousted in popular revolts.

The president also faces a separatist movement in the south, a branch of al-Qaeda and a periodic conflict with Shia tribes in the north.

Middle East unrest: Yemen

• President Ali Abdullah Saleh in power since 1978
• Population 24.3m; land area 536,869 sq km
• The population has a median age of 17.9, and a literacy rate of 61%
• Youth unemployment is 15%
• Gross national income per head is $1,060 (£655) (World Bank 2009)

• Protests: Country by country

Unclaimed Money: 'GMA' Shares Ways to Claim Your Cash

Billions of dollars. That's the amount of unclaimed money in the United States waiting to be given back to the rightful owners. The money includes forgotten apartment security deposits, uncashed overtime checks and lost insurance refunds, and it's sitting there, waiting for you.

Banks and other businesses are required to turn unclaimed money over to the states for safekeeping. The 50 states plus the District of Columbia have set up a free website you can use to see whether there are any forgotten funds in your name.

Click HERE to see extra tips for how to search for missing money.

"GMA" decided to try it out.

At the crossroads of America, in Times Square, we set up our "GMA" unclaimed money headquarters.

Soon, we are in business and I am either a hero or a zero.

At first, we are sweating -- actually freezing -- as we come up with nothing. Nada.

But then along comes a lucky lady.

Motorola owes her money and the state of New York is sending a check.

It's important to check every state where you have lived.

And every name you've ever lived under.

Thirty-two minutes into our experiment, we hit a streak.

We found modest amounts of money for several people in a row.

Not all state websites tell you how much money you have coming.

Then a woman approached us who suspected there was unclaimed money in her husband's name. Sure enough, there were funds waiting for him from sort of unused cashier's check. And we suspected the dollar amount was high because the state of New York wasn't willing to blindly send a check. Instead, the state wanted the couple to submit a notarized affidavit to claim their funds.

We conducted 25 searches found missing money in seven of the cases.

We found money for those happy people by using the free website set up by the states. But there are some new ways to find unclaimed money by checking with the feds as well.


The Treasury Department

The Treasury Department has billions of dollars worth of savings bonds that have matured and aren't earning interest anymore but haven't been cashed in by the owners. The treasury has set up a website where you can search by social security number.

Banks

Bank deposits are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., and if you didn't collect your money when the bank went under, the FDIC holds that money for you. For failed credit unions, the National Credit Union Association does the same thing.



Tax Refunds

The IRS lets you search by social security number and the amount you are owed. If your refund was returned by the post office, you'll be able to update your address and claim it.


Web-Extra Tips

There are billions of dollars waiting to be claimed. Fortunately, searching to see if some of that money belongs to you is easy, thanks to the Internet. Most unclaimed money is held by the states but some is housed with federal agencies. In both instances, the government is earning interest on yourmoney. Here's how you can search to claim what's rightfully yours:


Miscellaneous Money

If you are searching for things such as forgotten apartment security deposits, uncashed overtime checks, lost insurance refunds or abandoned safe deposit boxes, your first stop is the states. The National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators has set up a free website, www.unclaimed.org that will link you to the appropriate department in your state that holds the funds. NAUPA also endorses a free but commercially run site called www.missingmoney.com. Be sure to search every state where you've lived and every name you have had.


Unclaimed Savings Bonds

It's easy for savings bonds to go unclaimed because they take 30 to 40 years to mature. That's why the Treasury Department has set up a simple search website, click HERE, where you can find forgotten bonds by typing in your social security number. Certain bonds are not listed online and require a hand search. You can read about them at the same Treasury link.


Federal Tax RefundsEverybody looks forward to getting an income tax refund check, but if yours didn't arrive, what do you do? The IRS now provides a "Where's my Refund?" feature on its website. You can look up your missing check by entering the amount you are owed plus your social security number. Click HERE.







Lost Life Insurance Policies

The proceeds of lost life insurance policies may turn up in your state search. If not, and you suspect you are the beneficiary of a loved one's lost life insurance policy, you can hire a company called MIB Solutions to search for you.

MIB is a private company that houses life insurance application information for much of the industry. It costs $75 to search. Go to www.mibsolutions.com.


Failed Bank Accounts

If you didn't collect your money when your bank went under, chances are your account was insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the FDIC is holding your money. Find out here.

If your money was in a credit union as it failed, the National Credit Union Association can help you. Click HERE.


Misplaced Pensions

If you are owed a pension from a company that went under, simple, there is a Federal agency that safeguards private pensions. Click HERE to go to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporations website. If your company still exists, or has been bought out, you need to approach the company directly.

If you need help, another Federal agency, the Employee Benefits Security Administration, is charged with making sure retirement money is reunited with its rightful owners. EBRI even sues to seize the money sometimes. Click HERE.

Lost 401(k)s

Sometimes when people leave a job, they leave behind a 401(k) as well. If the company goes out of business, that only compounds the confusion. Fortunately, companies that administer 401(k) plans have teamed up to create a search engine you can try. Click HERE.

Click here to return to the "Good Morning America" website.

Mega Millions Winning Numbers: Rises To $304 Million For Friday

On Tuesday night, the mega millions drawings produced NO winner. The Mega Millions Winning Numbers were 01, 14, 35, 50, 53 with a Mega number 43. No one won the $244 million jackpot thus meaning that the Mega Millions jackpot for Friday’s drawing will rise to at least $304 million.

However, 26 lucky participants won the $250,000 prize for matching all five numbers but NOT the mega number. Five of these twenty-six players are from California (CA). They will each get $297, 525 for their “hard work”. This difference is due to the lottery system that is currently being used in CA. It’s mainly based on the numbers of participants in the drawing.

Just only for the 10th time in history, this Friday’s drawing (March 25, 2011) will crack the +$300 million mark. If the projected $304 million jackpot still holds true (which may increase due to demand), the lump sum cash payout will be around $194 million. This will make the current drawing the sixth biggest jackpot in MegaMillions lottery history. If no one wins Friday’s drawing, I expect the jackpot to grow to at least $365 million (lump sum cash value of $200 to $230 million)!

Libya's Rebels: Taking the Fight to Gaddafi, with Help

Libyan rebels celebrate on the road between Benghazi 

and Ajdabiyah on March 21, 2011

Suhaib Salem / Reuters

East Libya's rebels are fighters, but they're not an army. As forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi continue to rain Grad missiles and tank shells on rebel positions about 10 km north of Ajdabiyah, most of the rebel fighters seem less than willing to charge forward, despite the frantic urging of some of their peers. "Move! Move, everyone!" shouts a volunteer fighter standing on the roof of a car several kilometers from the battle zone, where crowds of men have gathered on Monday morning. He speaks through an old bullhorn in an effort to mobilize the boisterous group of mostly unarmed men and boys who shout excitedly back at him. "I know that many of you are civilians, but you have the courage to go and protect," he says.

A few groups of fighters heed the call, packing into trucks bearing mounted machine guns and carrying rocket-propelled grenades as they speed forward into the danger zone amid cheers and gunfire. But most continue to mill around on the desert road, waiting — it seems — for the party that follows the action.

Many of the men who have flocked to the stalemated front line that now hovers between 10 km and 20 km from Ajdabiyah's north gate are little more than war tourists. Some have gone to survey the twisted wreckage of Gaddafi's tanks strewn along the route after allied air strikes tore them apart on Saturday night. Others have been brought by the momentum of false hopes and information — in some cases speeding unwittingly into a bombardment of tank shells because they heard Ajdabiyah had been liberated. Among them are teenagers, and even a few boys. They wear sandals, skinny jeans and hooded sweatshirts. A few wear the rebel flag as a cape.

"I am here to defend Benghazi," says Muatasim Billah Mohamed, waiting with a crowd of young men on the roadside some 5 km from where the shells are falling. He has gone all the way from Tobruk and has a flag tied around his head like a bandanna, but carries no weapon. God will protect him, he says, pointing to the sky.

Others point to the sky to signify salvation from allied warplanes, expecting to see more wreckage of Gaddafi's armor. "People now are waiting for the planes to hit Gaddafi's forces," explains Ahmed al-Faytoori, a former government bureaucrat, waiting beside his truck on the road. "The revolutionaries cannot proceed without the air strikes because we have very light weapons."

He has approached the front with a vague intention of fighting Gaddafi, but makes no indication that he plans to move forward into the fray. "There are people here who are prepared to do suicide missions against Gaddafi's forces, to shake them if the airplanes don't come," he says. "But it's necessary for the planes to come so the rebels can move into Ajdabiyah, and after Ajdabiyah, Ras Lanuf."

The roar of fighter jets had inspired fear in many of the volunteer fighters and local townspeople along this road less than a week ago. Now it generates excitement. "Air strikes," a group of young men cheered from a sand dune on Sunday, as explosions to the south sent white clouds of smoke into the air. They turned out to be incoming tank shells, and an older fighter urged them to go down from the dune where he said they were vulnerable.

On Monday, the roar of the warplanes has filled many of those gathered with hope and expectation, but the strikes on Gaddafi's forces defending the approach to Ajdabiyah never seem to arrive. And as the braver ones press forward into shelling despite their inferior weapons, the war tourists who stay behind get a glimpse of the real horror as well.

At mid-morning, one group of men in a pickup roars back up to the checkpoint, attracting a crowd of hysterical men and boys as they unload a blood-soaked mattress piled with bits of human flesh. It belongs to a man who had just been torn apart by an exploding shell. The crowd chants, "There is no God but God," as they rush to bury the body parts in the sand. Others — injured and dead — are hauled toward Benghazi throughout the day, past the onlookers. And more often than not, the spectacle seems to convince most of those gathered there that waiting is a better option than charging at tanks with infantry weapons.

"They are hitting people with Grad missiles," says one man gesturing in the direction of Ajdabiyah and taking a bite out of a muffin. He'll wait for allied air strikes before courting death down the road, he says. Then: "God willing, we will march on Sirte and Bab al-Aziziya, because we can't go back to living under Gaddafi."

Back in Benghazi, the leaders of the so-called Free East Libyan army are frustrated, admitting that they exercise little control over the army of volunteers and the war tourists who gather to watch. "The youth advanced today, and it was spontaneous, as always. They don't take orders from anyone," says Khaled al-Sayeh, the military council's spokesman. "If it was up to the regular military, the advance by the youth today would not have happened." But where the "regular military" is, no one seems able or willing to say.

For weeks, defecting officers and members of the rebel National Transitional Council trumpeted the growing military prowess of the opposition, consolidated by professional officers and soldiers who had joined its ranks. But many seem to have melted away during the government assault that shook Benghazi over the weekend. The tanks supposedly captured from Gaddafi's forces have failed to make an appearance on the rebels' front line. And al-Sayeh says that rebel special forces exist — you just can't see them.

While Benghazi is eerily quiet by day, it is wracked by odd explosions and gunfire at night. (At least one rebel activist admits that some of the violence could be playing out between confused groups of rebels hunting government cells. "It has happened a couple of times, but thankfully nobody was injured," says Shamsiddin Abdulmolah.)

Most shops in the city remain shuttered and few pedestrians move through the streets. Checkpoints are few and manned by civilians. And the headquarters of the rebels' transitional government has nearly emptied of its usual swarm of activists and revolutionary officials. Fears of pro-Gaddafi cells working inside the city have kept many indoors, some say. Other members of the rebels' national council appear to have gone into hiding after one prominent activist, Mohamed Nabous, was assassinated in his car on Saturday night, shot in the head at close range.

"The very active people who have been here since the beginning are afraid" because their faces are now known, says Najla Elmangoush, a criminal-law professor and activist at the council. Her friends urged her to remove the rebel flag from her car to avoid being targeted, she adds. "That is the big concern in Benghazi — more than the [government's] military outside because they can't reach us," she says. "The ones on the inside are the dangerous ones."

Later on Monday, a trickle of activists and rebel officials return to their headquarters at the high court on Benghazi's Mediterranean coastal road. But they have little information on what has transpired at the front line, or where the more experienced ranks of the rebel military have gone. In separate interviews, they contradict each other on matters of the front line's actual location, where their leaders are working from, whether or not there is communication with allied forces over air strikes, and whether there have been more air strikes.

"Our formal army is probably better organized now than it was before," says Essam Giriyani, one of the council members. But where is the formal army? He turns to his colleagues to ask them in Arabic. "It's a battle without any organization," mumbles another.

Missile destroys Gaddafi building

A missile strike has destroyed a building in Libya's capital, Tripoli, which Western officials say was one of Col Muammar Gaddafi's command centres.

Journalists were shown the wrecked building but it was not clear if there were any casualties.

Countries including the US, UK and France are continuing strikes after the UN authorised action to protect Libyan civilians from government forces.

Col Gaddafi has been fighting a rebellion that broke out last month.

US officials have said Col Gaddafi himself is not a target of the air strikes, which they say are aimed at his armed forces and air defence systems.

A Libyan official said 64 people had been killed in strikes at the weekend, but the figure could not be verified.'Very effective'

On Sunday night anti-aircraft fire rose over Tripoli and several explosions were heard. A BBC reporter saw a column of smoke rising from the direction of Bab al-Aziziya, where Col Gaddafi has his military base and compound.

Western journalists taken by Libyan officials to the compound were shown a ruined three or four-storey building. It is not clear whether Col Gaddafi was there at the time of the bombing.

An official from one of the coalition countries, who asked not to be named, told journalists the strike destroyed Col Gaddafi's "command and control capability".

Earlier at the Pentagon, US Navy Vice Adm William Gortney said the coalition had control of the air space between Tripoli and the main rebel stronghold, Benghazi. "The no-fly zone is effectively in place," he said.

He added that ground forces moving on rebel positions were also open to attack.

In Misrata, a city west of Benghazi that has been under siege by government troops, residents say bombardments by pro-Gaddafi forces are continuing. A nearby air base was targeted in the first night of coalition strikes.

The BBC's Kevin Connolly in the rebel-held city of Tobruk says it is not clear if the allies can attack Col Gaddafi's troops operating in the centre of Misrata without harming the very civilians they have come to save.

And heavy gunfire and sporadic explosions were heard in Benghazi on Sunday night, a witness told Reuters news agency.

"Benghazi is not completely safe from attack but it is certainly under less threat than it was yesterday," he said.

The US says a Libyan government claim that armed forces were observing a ceasefire "isn't true or has been immediately violated".

Qatar planes

The action against Col Gaddafi's military began on Saturday afternoon with French air strikes in the east. A barrage of cruise missiles, launched from US and UK ships and submarines followed.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has said that while the US will continue to play a part in operations against Col Gaddafi's forces, it "will not have the pre-eminent role".

Meanwhile, the build-up of forces to enforce the no-fly zone continues.

Qatar is to send four planes to join the coalition enforcing the UN-mandated no-fly zone, the US and France have said.

The move would make Qatar the first Arab country to play an active part in the campaign against Col Gaddafi, who has been battling a month-long revolt.

Other Arab countries are also preparing to join the campaign against Col Gaddafi, Vice Adm Gortney said.

The French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle has left the Mediterranean port of Toulon for Libya, while Denmark and Norway are each sending six planes. Spain has sent at least three planes, while Italy also has jets ready to deploy. Canada has deployed six jets to Sicily and is preparing them for action.

Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa, who supported the UN resolution, on Sunday criticised the severity of the bombardment.

"What is happening in Libya differs from the aim of imposing a no-fly zone, and what we want is the protection of civilians and not the bombardment of more civilians," he said.

But on Monday, in a joint news conference with visiting UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in Cairo, Mr Moussa played down any differences within the coalition. "We are all united on the issue of protecting civilians," he said.

Both he and Mr Ban stressed that Arab League support was a key factor in securing Security Council backing for the UN resolution.

Col Gaddafi has ruled Libya for more than 40 years. An uprising against him began last month after the long-time leaders of neighbouring Tunisia and Egypt were toppled.

Western warplanes, missiles hit Libyan targets

(Reuters) - Western forces hit targets along the Libyan coast on Saturday, using strikes from air and sea to force Muammar Gaddafi's troops to cease fire and end attacks on civilians.

Libyan state television said 48 people had been killed and 150 wounded in the allied air strikes. It also said there had been a fresh wave of strikes on Tripoli early on Sunday.

There was no way to independently verify the claims.

CBS News on its website said on Sunday that three U.S. B-2 stealth bombers had dropped 40 bombs on a "major Libyan airfield" that was not further identified. A Pentagon spokesman said he had no information about such an attack.

French planes fired the first shots in what is the biggest international military intervention in the Arab world since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, destroying tanks and armored vehicles in the region of the rebels' eastern stronghold, Benghazi.

Hours later, U.S. and British warships and submarines launched 110 Tomahawk missiles against air defenses around the capital Tripoli and the western city of Misrata, which has been besieged by Gaddafi's forces, U.S. military officials said.

They said U.S. forces and planes were working with Britain, France, Canada and Italy in operation "Odyssey Dawn."

Gaddafi called it "colonial, crusader" aggression.

"It is now necessary to open the stores and arm all the masses with all types of weapons to defend the independence, unity and honor of Libya," he said in an audio message broadcast on state television hours after the strikes began.

China and Russia, which abstained in the U.N. Security Council vote last week endorsing intervention, expressed regret at the military action. China's Foreign Ministry said it hoped the conflict would not lead to a greater loss of civilian life.

Explosions and heavy anti-aircraft fire rattled Tripoli in the early hours of Sunday. The shooting was followed by defiant shouts of "Allahu Akbar" that echoed around the city center.

Libyan state television showed footage from an unidentified hospital of what it called victims of the "colonial enemy." Ten bodies were wrapped up in white and blue bed sheets, and several people were wounded, one of them badly, the television said.

Tripoli residents said they had heard an explosion near the eastern Tajoura district, while in Misrata they said strikes had targeted an airbase used by Gaddafi's forces.

A Reuters witness in the eastern rebel stronghold of Benghazi reported loud explosions and anti-aircraft fire, but it was unclear which side was shooting.

The intervention, after weeks of diplomatic wrangling, was welcomed in Benghazi with a mix of apprehension and relief.

"We think this will end Gaddafi's rule. Libyans will never forget France's stand with them. If it weren't for them, then Benghazi would have been overrun tonight," said Iyad Ali, 37.

"We salute France, Britain, the United States and the Arab countries for standing with Libya. But we think Gaddafi will take out his anger on civilians. So the West has to hit him hard," said civil servant Khalid al-Ghurfaly, 38.

GADDAFI SEEN LOSING GRIP ON LIBYA

The strikes, launched from some 25 ships, including three U.S. submarines, in the Mediterranean, followed a meeting in Paris of Western and Arab leaders backing the intervention.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said participants had agreed to use "all necessary means, especially military" to enforce the Security Council resolution calling for an end to attacks on civilians.

"Colonel Gaddafi has made this happen," British Prime Minister David Cameron told reporters after the meeting. "We cannot allow the slaughter of civilians to continue."

Some analysts have questioned the strategy for the military intervention, fearing Western forces might be sucked into a long civil war despite a U.S. insistence -- repeated on Saturday -- that it has no plans to send ground troops into Libya.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper suggested that outside powers hoped their intervention would be enough to turn the tide against Gaddafi and allow Libyans to force him out.

"It is our belief that if Mr. Gaddafi loses the capacity to enforce his will through vastly superior armed forces, he simply will not be able to sustain his grip on the country."

But analysts have questioned what Western powers will do if the Libyan leader digs in, especially since they do not believe they would be satisfied with a de facto partition which left rebels in the east and Gaddafi running a rump state in the west.

One participant at the Paris meeting said Clinton and others had stressed Libya should not be split in two. And on Friday, Obama specifically called on Gaddafi's forces to pull back from the western cities of Zawiyah and Misrata as well from the east.

"It's going to be far less straightforward if Gaddafi starts to move troops into the cities which is what he has been trying to do for the past 24 hours," said Marko Papic at the STRATFOR global intelligence group.

"Once he does that it becomes a little bit more of an urban combat environment and at that point it's going to be difficult to use air power from 15,000 feet to neutralize that."

The Libyan government has blamed rebels, who it says belong to al Qaeda, for breaking a ceasefire it announced on Friday.

In Tripoli, several thousand people gathered at the Bab al-Aziziyah palace, Gaddafi's compound bombed by U.S. warplanes in 1986, to show their support.

"There are 5,000 tribesmen that are preparing to come here to fight with our leader. They better not try to attack our country," said farmer Mahmoud el-Mansouri.

"We will open up Libya's deserts and allow Africans to flood to Europe to blow themselves up as suicide bombers."

U.S. SAYS NOT LEADING INTERVENTION

France and Britain have taken a lead role in pushing for international intervention in Libya and the United States -- after embarking on wars in Afghanistan and Iraq -- has been at pains to stress it is supporting, not leading, the operation.

In announcing the missile strikes, which came eight years to the day after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Obama said the effort was intended to protect the Libyan people.

"Today I authorized the armed forces of the United States to begin a limited action in Libya in support of an international effort to protect Libyan civilians," Obama told reporters in Brasilia, where he had begun a five-day tour of Latin America.

He said U.S. troops were acting in support of allies, who would lead the enforcement of a no-fly zone to stop Gaddafi's attacks on rebels. "As I said yesterday, we will not, I repeat, we will not deploy any U.S. troops on the ground," Obama said.

But despite Washington's determination to stress its limited role, Vice Admiral Bill Gortney, director of the U.S. military's Joint Staff, said the strikes were only a first phase.

Earlier, hundreds of cars with refugees fled Benghazi toward the Egyptian border after the city came under a bombardment from Gaddafi's forces the previous night. One family of 13 women from a grandmother to small children, rested at a roadside hotel.

"I'm here because when the bombing started last night my children were vomiting from fear," said one of them, a doctor. "All I want to do is get my family to a safe place and then get back to Benghazi to help. My husband is still there."

(Reporting by Mohammed Abbas and Angus MacSwan in Benghazi, Tom Perry in Cairo, Maria Golovnina and Michael Georgy in Tripoli, Hamid Ould Ahmed and Christian Lowe in Algiers; John Irish and Elizabeth Pineau in Paris, Missy Ryan in Washington, Writing by Michael Roddy; Editing by Ron Popeski)

Courtesy of Reuters.