NATO Asks U.S. Military to Extend Libya Mission As Qaddafi Holds On

NATO Asks U.S. Military to Extend Libya Mission As Qaddafi Holds On

NATO has asked the U.S. military to continue flying airstrike missions over Libya through Monday, extending the previously announced timeline for U.S. participation in that mission by two days, NATO and Pentagon officials tell Fox News. 

During testimony on Thursday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen announced the U.S. would hand off all strike missions to partner nations by the end of Saturday.

Two weeks after mostly U.S. missiles and bombs opened an international air assault on Libya's Muammar al-Qaddafi, America's naval and air forces were expected to withdraw from combat missions in the country, although its defiant leader still remains in power.

Before NATO's request, U.S. aircraft would have ceased to fly Libyan strike missions beginning Sunday, although NATO's on-scene commander can request them in the days ahead -- but they may have to be approved in Washington.

While the Libya mission remains incomplete, the U.S. is still fulfilling a pledge to shift the combat burden to other NATO allies, Britain and France.

According to Reuters, a rebel "crisis team" is being assembled in Benghazi to run parts of the country the movement controls. The former interior minister will reportedly serve as the armed forces chief of staff of the group. They have called for a NATO-led air assault on Qaddafi forces, despite a Friday NATO airstrike which rebels say killed 13 of their own.

A top Libyan rebel official said the opposition to longtime leader Qaddafi seeks to install a parliamentary democracy in the country.

Libyan rebels skirmished with government forces around the strategic oil town of Brega on Sunday, making incremental gains backed by international air strikes in the see-saw desert battle for the country.

"There have been skirmishes in Brega," confirmed Rabia al-Ahwat, 48, a rebel fighter, who was also a 30-year-veteran of the Libyan army. He said there were heavy airstrikes overnight as well against government forces.

There were also reports by Arab news channels of continued heavy shelling of Misrata, the lone rebel outpost in western Libya, where Qaddafi's forces still largely hold sway.

Medical officials said Saturday that government forces killed 37 civilians over the past two days in an unrelenting campaign of shelling and sniper fire and an attack that burned down the city's main stocks of flour and sugar.

A Turkish ship carrying 250 wounded from Misrata is expected to dock in Benghazi on Sunday as well, according to the state-run Anatolia news agency.

The boat, which is carrying medical supplies, is expected to pick up around 60 wounded people and 21 accompanying persons that are currently being treated in various hospitals in Benghazi as well as 30 Turks and 40 people from Greece, Ukraine, Britain, Uzbekistan, Germany and Finland.

Qaddafi is still standing, with a few uncertain signs that his inner circle could crack. The Obama administration is hoping that if Qaddafi's government doesn't implode soon, a relentless campaign of airstrikes on his tanks, air defenses and most trusted army units will at least weaken his ability to survive a renewed uprising by a disjointed opposition. The rebels initially rattled Qaddafi but in recent days have given up most of their gains.

The bottom line, according to Mullen: "He's still killing his people."

On Saturday, U.S. combat aircraft flew 24 strike missions in Libya, the Pentagon said.

Some in Congress, including Sen. John McCain, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, have criticized the decision to withdraw U.S. combat aircraft from the regular cycle of NATO strikes.

Also withdrawing from the combat mission on Sunday will be the initial workhorses of the military campaign: U.S. Navy destroyers and submarines that launched Tomahawk cruise missiles from their positions in the Mediterranean Sea. No Tomahawks were fired Saturday, the Pentagon said.

The U.S. planes and naval vessels will be on standby in case NATO commanders decide their forces cannot handle the mission on their own. Combat air missions will continue to be flown by Britain, France and other NATO member countries.

A larger group of participating air forces will patrol over Libya to ensure that Qaddafi's air force stays grounded. U.S. planes will support them with refueling aircraft and electronic jammers.

The Navy began the operation March 19 with 11 ships in the Mediterranean. As of Friday, nine remained: the submarines USS Florida and USS Scranton; destroyers USS Stout and USS Barry; amphibious warships USS Kearsarge and USS Ponce; the command ship USS Mount Whitney; and two supply ships, USNS Robert E. Peary and USNS Kanawha.

The subs and the destroyers are armed with Tomahawks. Marine Harrier attack planes launch from aboard the Kearsarge, and the Mount Whitney had served as a floating command post for the American admiral who was the on-scene commander until NATO took control Thursday.

The Mount Whitney remains assigned to the mission but the new operational commander, Canadian Lt. Gen. Charles Bouchard, is working ashore at his NATO headquarters in Naples, Italy. The U.S. Navy is likely to peel more ships away from the mission in coming days, including some of those with Tomahawks.

The international military mission has been limited from the start, with the stated objective of protecting Libyan civilians from attack. But until this weekend's U.S. stand down, Air Force and Marine attack planes have chased down Libyan tanks and other targets on a daily basis.

Marine Lt. Col. Shawn R. Hermley, a Harrier pilot who estimates he has flown about a dozen combat missions over Libya, said in an interview Friday that he's not personally bothered that he'll no longer be dropping 500-pound guided bombs on Qaddafi's tanks, armored personnel carriers and self-propelled artillery. He said his Harrier detachment has made a difference, while taking care not to risk civilian casualties.

"If we were to walk away today, I'd be very proud of that and realize that we've made a significant impact to protect the people of Libya," he said by telephone from aboard the Kearsarge.

Still to be decided is whether the White House will up the ante and provide arms to the rebels. That step, say some congressional supporters of the Libya mission, is crucial to ensuring that the strategic goal of ousting Qaddafi is achieved before he kills still more opponents.

"We are concerned that regional support will waver if Western forces are perceived as presiding over a military deadlock," McCain and Sen. Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, wrote Friday in the Wall Street Journal. "We cannot allow Qaddafi to consolidate his grip over part of the country and settle in for the long haul."

They called for a "more robust and coherent package of aid" to the rebels, who are armed mainly with light weapons. Mullen estimated in congressional testimony on Thursday that as few as 1,000 among the rebels are former members of Qaddafi's military.

The rest are simply "guys with guns," said James Dubik, a retired Army three-star general who says they need American or NATO advisers and trainers to be effective.

"They need help," Dubik wrote in an assessment for the Institute for the Study of War, a think tank.

On the political front, the U.S. and its allies are hoping that the defection to Britain on Wednesday by Libyan Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa is a sign of things to come.

"We believe that Moussa Koussa's departure is yet another sign of fracturing within the regime, and we would urge others within the regime to follow his example," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Friday. "We've been very explicit in saying that we believe they should read the writing on the wall that they should step down."

In a further indication that Qaddafi's resilience may be eroding, his government is trying to hold talks with the U.S., Britain and France in hopes of ending the air campaign, said Abdul-Ati al-Obeidi, a former Libyan prime minister who has served as a Qaddafi envoy during the crisis.

 

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Engineers Pin Hopes on New Tactic to Stop Japan's Nuclear Plant Leak

Engineers Pin Hopes on New Tactic to Stop Japan's Nuclear Plant Leak

TOKYO -- Engineers pinned their hopes on chemicals, sawdust and shredded newspaper to stop highly radioactive water pouring into the ocean from Japan's tsunami-ravaged nuclear plant Sunday as officials said it will take several months to bring the crisis under control, the first time they have provided a timetable.

Concrete already failed to stop the tainted water spewing from a crack in a maintenance pit, and the new mixture did not appear to be working either, but engineers said they were not abandoning it.

The Fukushima Da-ichi plant has been leaking radioactivity since the March 11 tsunami carved a path of destruction along Japan's northeastern coast, killing as many as 25,000 people and knocking out key cooling systems that kept it from overheating. People living within 12 miles of the plant have been forced to abandon their homes.

The government said Sunday it will be several months before the radiation stops and permanent cooling systems are restored. Even after that happens, there will be years of work ahead to clean up the area around the complex and figure out what to do with it.

"It would take a few months until we finally get things under control and have a better idea about the future," said Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency spokesman Hidehiko Nishiyama. "We'll face a crucial turning point within the next few months, but that is not the end."

His agency said the timetable is based on the first step, pumping radioactive water into tanks, being completed quickly and the second, restoring cooling systems, being done within a matter of weeks or months.

Every day brings some new problem at the plant, where workers have often been forced to retreat from repair efforts because of high radiation levels. On Sunday, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. announced it had found the bodies of two workers missing since the tsunami.

Radiation, debris and explosions kept workers from finding them until Wednesday, and then the announcement was delayed several days out of respect for their families.

TEPCO officials said they believed the workers ran down to a basement to check equipment after the magnitude-9.0 earthquake that preceded the tsunami. They were there when the massive wave swept over the plant.

"It pains us to have lost these two young workers who were trying to protect the power plant amid the earthquake and tsunami," TEPCO Chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata said in a statement.

On Saturday, workers discovered an 8-inch crack in a maintenance pit at the plant and said they believe water from it may be the source of some of the high levels of radioactive iodine that have been found in the ocean for more than a week.

This is the first time they have found radioactive water leaking directly into the sea. A picture released by TEPCO shows water shooting some distance away from a wall and splashing into the ocean, though the amount is not clear. No other cracks have been found.

The radioactive water dissipates quickly in the ocean but could be dangerous to workers at the plant.

Engineers tried to seal the crack with concrete Saturday, but that effort failed.

So on Sunday they went farther up the system and injected sawdust, three garbage bags of shredded newspaper and a polymer -- similar to one used to absorb liquid in diapers -- that can expand to 50 times its normal size when combined with water.

The polymer mix in the passageway leading to the pit had not stopped the leak by Sunday night, but it also had not leaked out of the crack along with the water, so engineers were stirring it in an attempt to get it to expand. They expected to know by Monday morning if it would work.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of people are still living in shelters, 200,000 households do not have water, and 170,000 do not have electricity.

Running water was just restored in the port city of Kesennuma on Saturday, and residents lined up Sunday to see a dentist who had flown in from the country's far north to offer his services. Many were elderly and complaining of problems with their dentures.

Overhead and throughout the coastal region, helicopters and planes roared by as U.S. and Japanese forces finished their all-out search for bodies.

The effort, which ended Sunday, is probably the final hope for retrieving the dead, though limited operations may continue. It has turned up nearly 50 bodies in the past two days.

In all, more than 12,000 deaths have been confirmed, and another 15,500 people are missing.

 

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Afghanistan Koran Burning Protests Rage On for Third Day

Afghanistan Koran Burning Protests Rage On for Third Day

A government spokesman said one had been killed and 16 were injured in a new Koran burning protest in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar Sunday, where hundreds took to the streets to demonstrate for a third consecutive day.

Hundreds also blocked off a highway for three hours in Jalalabad city, shouting for U.S. troops to leave and burned an effigy of President Obama.

A similar protest in eastern Parwan province blocked a main highway with burning tires for about an hour, with more than 1,000 people protesting against the desecration of the Koran, said provincial police chief Sher Ahmad Maladani. He said there was no violence.

Meanwhile, the Taliban called on people to rise up, blaming government forces for any violence that did occur.

The Taliban said in a statement emailed to media outlets that the U.S. and other Western countries have wrongly excused the burning a Koran by the pastor of a Florida church on March 20 as freedom of speech and that Afghans "cannot accept this un-Islamic act."

The desecration at a small U.S. church has outraged Muslims worldwide, and in Afghanistan many of the demonstrations have turned into deadly riots. Protests in the north and south in recent days have killed 20 people.

"We condemn, in particular, the action of an individual in the United States who recently burned the Holy Koran," said ISAF Commander General David Petraeus and NATO Senior Civilian Representative Ambassador Mark Sedwill in a statement Sunday. "We also offer condolences to the families of all those injured and killed in violence which occurred in the wake of the burning of the Holy Koran."

"We further hope the Afghan people understand that the actions of a small number of individuals, who have been extremely disrespectful to the Holy Koran, are not representative of any of the countries of the international community who are in Afghanistan to help the Afghan people," they added.

On Saturday, U.S. President Barack Obama extended his condolences to the families of those killed by the protesters and said desecration of the Quran "is an act of extreme intolerance and bigotry." But he said that does not justify attacking and killing innocent people, calling it "outrageous and an affront to human decency and dignity."

Eleven were killed Friday when demonstrators stormed a U.N. compound, including seven foreign U.N. employees. A riot Saturday in southern Kandahar city resulted in nine deaths and more than 80 injured.

The Taliban statement said that those killed during the protests were unarmed demonstrators.
"Afghan forces under the order of the foreign forces attacked unarmed people during the protests, killing them and arresting some, saying there were armed people among these protesters, which was not true," the statement said.

Sher Jan Durani, a spokesman for the government of northern Balkh province, where the first riots occurred, said there were multiple armed men among the more than 20 arrested. Afghan authorities suspect insurgents infiltrated the mob.

In Kandahar, officials said 17 people, including seven armed men, have been arrested.

The protests come at a critical juncture as the U.S.-led coalition gears up for an insurgent spring offensive and a summer withdrawal of some troops, and with Afghanistan's mercurial president increasingly questioning international motives and NATO's military strategy.

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Florida Police Recruit Missing, Boyfriend Won't Talk

Florida Police Recruit Missing, Boyfriend Won't Talk

INDIAN ROCKS BEACH, Fla. -- Kelly Rothwell liked to tell friends she had the best backyard: From the living room window in her second-floor condo, she could see the blue water of the Gulf of Mexico gently rolling onto the white, sandy beach. It was a soothing sight for Rothwell, a 35-year-old police recruit whose loved ones say her life was anything but tranquil.

Rothwell hasn't been seen in almost three weeks, and detectives, family and friends grimly concede there's a good chance she is dead.

On March 12, she told a close friend over lunch that she was going to break up with her live-in boyfriend David Perry, a former New York state prison guard. The normally sunny Rothwell was becoming increasingly disturbed at his possessive behavior, friend Donna Scharrett said, and had decided to move out of the condo, away from the stunning view but closer to her support system.

"She was excited and positive but at the same time, serene," said Scharrett, who befriended Rothwell at a group meditation on the beach. "She was telling me how she was looking forward to the change in her life. Leaving Dave and graduating from the police academy."

Rothwell drove away from that lunch, Scharrett said, determined to begin her new life.

No one has seen her since that day.

"She's an extremely regimented person," said Pinellas County Sheriff's detective Michael Bailey, noting that Rothwell would have never missed one police academy class, much less several weeks of lessons.

Rothwell's body hasn't been found, and detectives have scant evidence to prove any crime was committed at all. Perry has refused to take a DNA test or even talk to authorities beyond having his lawyer give them a loose, three-hour timeline of the night Rothwell disappeared. Perry's lawyer, Thomas Reilly, did not return messages from The Associated Press, and messages left at listings for David Perry in Elmira, N.Y., were not returned.

Neighbors there said Perry was friendly enough and has kept a tidy home there.

Bailey and Detective Amy Plourde have had to find out as much as they can about Rothwell's life by talking to her friends, family and neighbors.

Rothwell was born and raised in Maryland and went to college in southern Colorado. As a human resources employee for a hotel chain, she moved to Florida in 2006 and immediately rented the Gulf-front condo. Neighbor Ken Williamson described the young woman as "quiet and sweet."

"But when we got Dave in here, that was a different story," said Williamson, who is 76.
Perry, now 46, met Rothwell in line at Sweet Tomatoes, a salad bar chain. Rothwell's sister Lindsay said Perry wasn't living in Florida at the time but moved from New York "in a matter of two to three weeks."

Lindsay Rothwell didn't know much about the couple -- "Kelly was always private with her relationships" -- but said she visited them once and found herself wary of Perry because he had a bad temper.

"He kind of made her distant from her family," the sister said. "She always seemed like she couldn't talk. It's almost like he put her in a trance."

Perry was a corrections officer in Elmira, N.Y., and had at least two children from a prior relationship. According to New York Department of Corrections records, Perry was hired in 1986, went on sick leave in 2004 and never returned to duty. He retired in 2005.

Lindsay Rothwell and others who knew Rothwell said Perry monitored her online activity and texted her incessantly.

Neighbor Williamson said Perry's temper would change quickly and he would get angry at small incidents. Once, Williamson washed his deck, which was near Perry's parking space. Water had dripped on Perry's car.

"He went ballistic," Williamson said, adding that he called police because he felt so threatened. No arrests were made.

Kelly Rothwell's company downsized and she lost her job. In late 2010, she decided to switch careers and enrolled in police academy, a choice that came as no surprise to her friend Scharrett.

"She would typically come to my house and we would sit here for hours drinking herbal tea, talking about life," Scharrett said. "We both have this romantic notion that, yes, we can change the world one person at a time."

Rothwell would always visit Scharrett, never the other way around. In fact, Scharrett had never even met Perry.

Once in the academy, Rothwell took classes on various laws and procedures. She paid special attention to the domestic violence portion of the lessons.

"That did open her eyes a little bit to the fact that she didn't think it was a very healthy relationship and she might need to get out," said Plourde, the detective.

Rothwell told Scharrett: "I'm going to have to face a lot of my own fears."

On March 11, Rothwell spent the night at Scharrett's. The two drank wine and ate frozen pizza and stayed up talking until 3 in the morning. The next day, they went to a meditation-breathwork session -- Rothwell was interested in New Age beliefs -- and then to Chili's for lunch, where Rothwell said she had made up her mind to leave Perry. A friend at the police academy had a home she could stay in, and Scharrett promised to help her move the next day.

Scharrett also asked Rothwell if she wanted her to go along when she talked to Perry.

"It's going to be OK," Scharrett recalled Rothwell saying. "It's going to be a good conversation."
Sunday morning, another recruit from the police academy called Scharrett. Rothwell was supposed to meet a group of academy students but didn't show.

"I literally almost threw up," Scharrett said. "I instantly knew."

She called authorities, who immediately went to the condo. No one was there.

On Sunday, Rothwell's Subaru was found two miles away, parked near a hotel that had no record of her checking in.

Investigators say they consider Perry a witness.

"I don't understand why he's not cooperating and I don't understand why he's not out there trying to find her," Lindsay Rothwell said.

Scharrett has ordered orange bracelets that say "Help Bring Kelly Rothwell Home," and has blanketed Pinellas County with flyers. She's active in a Facebook page dedicated to Rothwell.

"I'm working really hard at trying to do things but there's really nothing I can do," she said. "Everyone has lost in this. Everyone."

 

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Southwest Airlines: Cracks Found in 2 More Planes

Southwest Airlines: Cracks Found in 2 More Planes

April 4.

Inspectors have found small, subsurface cracks in two more Southwest Airlines planes that are similar to the cracks that caused a jetliner to lose pressure and make a harrowing emergency landing in Arizona, the airline said Sunday.

The two planes will be evaluated further and more repairs will be undertaken before they are returned to service, Southwest said in a statement.

Friday's flight carrying 118 people rapidly lost cabin pressure after the Boeing 737-300's fuselage ruptured -- causing a 5-foot-long tear -- just after takeoff from Phoenix.

Passengers recalled tense minutes after the hole ruptured overhead with a blast and they fumbled frantically for oxygen masks. Pilots made a controlled descent from 34,400 feet into a southwestern Arizona military base. No one was seriously injured.

The tear along a riveted "lap joint" shows evidence of extensive cracking that hadn't been discovered during routine maintenance before Friday's flight -- and probably wouldn't have been unless mechanics had specifically looked for it, officials said.

National Transportation Safety Board investigators on Sunday were in Yuma to oversee the removal of the top section of the jetliner's roof around the tear. The structure will be sent to Washington, D.C., for analysis.

Southwest said it cancelled about 300 flights for the second day in a row Sunday as it inspected 79 planes in its fleet similar to the one in Friday's incident. By Sunday afternoon, 19 planes had undergone the intense inspection with no findings and had been returned to service, the airline said.

NTSB board member Robert Sumwalt said that the rip was a foot wide, and that it started along a joint where two sections of the 737's skin are riveted together. An examination showed extensive pre-existing damage along the entire tear.

But Sumwalt noted that the extensive cracking, known in the industry as "multi-site damage," could not have been spotted during routine maintenance.

The NTSB could issue urgent recommendations for inspections on other 737s if investigators decide there is a problem that has been overlooked. The type of riveted joint involved is not normally subjected to extensive checks for wear or fatigue.

Federal records show cracks were found and repaired a year ago in the frame of the same Southwest plane.

An Associated Press review of Federal Aviation Administration records of maintenance problems for the 15-year-old plane showed that a March 2010 inspection found 10 instances of cracking in the aircraft frame, which is part of the fuselage, and another 11 instances of cracked stringer clips, which help hold the plane's skin on.

The records show the cracking was either repaired or the damaged parts replaced. Cracking accounted for a majority of the 28 problem reports filed as a result of that inspection.

It's common for fuselage cracks to be found during inspections of aging planes, especially during scheduled heavy-maintenance checks in which planes are taken apart so that inspectors can see into areas not normally visible.

The jetliner had gone through about 39,000 cycles of pressurizing, generally done for takeoffs and landings. Cracks can develop from the constant cycle of pressurizing for flight, then releasing the pressure.

Southwest officials said the Arizona plane had undergone all inspections required by the FAA. 

They said the plane was given a routine inspection Tuesday and underwent its last so-called heavy check, a more costly and extensive overhaul, in March 2010.

The decompression happened about 18 1/2 minutes after takeoff from Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport after the pilots reached their cruising altitude. They immediately donned their oxygen masks, declared an emergency and briefly considered returning to Phoenix before the cabin crew told them of the extent of the damage, Sumwalt said.

"They discussed landing in Phoenix, but quickly upon getting the assessment decided to divert to Yuma because it was the closest suitable airport," he said.

The plane's voice and data recorders were being examined in Washington, and Sumwalt said they worked well and showed no sign of a problem before the incident.

Southwest operates about 170 of the 737-300s in its fleet of about 540 planes, but it replaced the aluminum skin on many of the 300s in recent years, a spokeswoman said. The planes that were grounded Saturday have not had their skin replaced.

A total of 288 Boeing 737-300s currently operate in the U.S. fleet, and 931 operate worldwide, according to the FAA. It declined to say Sunday if it was requiring other operators to check their aircraft for similar flaws.

A similar incident happened in July 2009 when a football-sized hole opened up in-flight in the fuselage of another of Southwest's Boeing 737s, depressurizing the cabin. Sumwalt said the two incidents appeared to be unrelated.

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