Libyans in Benghazi mass for another day of protests; Internet service cut again

CAIRO (AP) — Libyan protesters defied a fierce crackdown by Moammar Gadhafi’s regime, returning Sunday to a square outside a court building in the flashpoint city of Benghazi to demand the overthrow of longtime ruler Moammar Gadhafi.

Witnesses told The Associated Press hundreds of demonstrators gathered early Sunday morning at the court building after a day of bloodshed, during which Libyan forces opened fire on mourners leaving a funeral for protesters.

In the hours after that attack, a medical official said at least 15 people were killed.

But Mohammed Abdullah, a Dubai-based member of the Libyan Salvation Front, said Sunday that the toll could be much higher. He quoted hospital officials in Benghazi saying the death toll might have reached 300. Witness accounts said a mixture of special commandos, foreign mercenaries and Gadhafi loyalists armed with knives, Kalashnikovs and even anti-aircraft missiles went after the demonstrators.

Getting concrete details about the six days of protests in Libya is difficult because journalists cannot work freely inside the country, which Gadhafi has tightly controlled for 42 years. Information about the uprising has come through telephone interviews, along with videos and messages posted online, and through opposition activists in exile.

China acts to stamp out call for ‘Jasmine Revolution’ likely inspired by Egyptian protests

BEIJING (AP) — Jittery Chinese authorities staged a show of force Sunday to squelch a mysterious online call for a “Jasmine Revolution” apparently modeled after pro-democracy demonstrations sweeping the Middle East.

Authorities detained activists, increased the number of police on the streets and censored online calls to stage protests in Beijing, Shanghai and 11 other major cities. Citizens were urged to shout “We want food, we want work, we want housing, we want fairness.”  A slogan that highlights common complaints among ordinary Chinese.

Many activists said they didn’t know who was behind the campaign and weren’t sure what to make of the call to protest, which was first posted on the U.S.-based Chinese-language advocacy website Boxun.com.

China’s authoritarian government has appeared unnerved by recent protests in Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain, Yemen, Algeria and Libya. It has limited media reports about them, stressing the instability caused by protests in Egypt, and restricted Internet searches to keep people uninformed.

The call to protest in China did not seem to garner much traction among citizens. In Beijing, 25-year-old Liu Xiaobai was stopped by police after he placed a white jasmine flower on a planter in front of a McDonald’s restaurant that was the planned protest site and took some photos with his cell phone.

“I’m quite scared because they took away my phone. I just put down some white flowers, what’s wrong with that?” Liu said. “I’m just a normal citizen and I just want peace.”

Security agents tried to take Liu away, but he was swarmed by journalists and eventually was seen walking away with a friend.

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Space: A competitive and hotly contested warfighting frontier for the US military

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military needs to better protect its satellites and strengthen its ability to use them as weapons as the uncharted battlefield of space becomes increasingly crowded and dangerous, Pentagon leaders say.

A new military strategy for space calls for greater cooperation with other nations on space-based programs to improve America’s ability to deter enemies.

“It’s a domain, like air land and sea,” said Gen. Kevin Chilton, who headed U.S. Strategic Command until he retired recently.

The U.S., he said, needs to make sure that it protects and maintains the battlefield capabilities it gets from space-based assets, including global positioning data, missile warning system information, and communications with fighters or unmanned drones.

As the U.S. and other countries depend more on their satellites for critical data, those assets become greater targets for enemies.

While the new military strategy stresses the peaceful use of space, it also underscores the importance of orbiting satellites in both waging and deterring war.

“We need to ensure that we can continue to utilize space to navigate with accuracy, to communicate with certainty, to strike with precision and to see the battlefield with clarity,” said William Lynn, deputy defense secretary.

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Bahrain opposition plots strategy before talks as general strike called

MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) — Bahrain’s opposition leaders gathered Sunday to examine offers for talks by Bahrain’s rulers after nearly a week of protests and deadly clashes that have sharply divided the strategic Gulf nation.

The streets in the tiny island kingdom were calmer as efforts shifted toward possible political haggling over demands for the monarchy to give up its near-absolute control over key policies and positions.

But bitterness and tensions still run deep after seesaw battles that included riot police opening fire on protesters trying to reclaim a landmark square and then pulling back to allow them to occupy the site. At least seven people have been killed and hundreds injured since the Arab wave for change reached the Gulf on Feb. 14.

Bahrain’s rulers appear desperate to open a political dialogue after sharp criticism from Western allies and statements by overseers of next month’s Formula One race the unrest could force the cancellation of Bahrain’s premier international event.

Bahrain holds particular importance to Washington as the host of the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet, which is the main U.S. military counterweight to Iran’s efforts to expand its armed forces and reach into the Gulf. Bahrain’s ruling Sunni dynasty has strong backing from other Gulf Arab leaders, who fear that Shiite powerhouse Iran could gain further footholds through the uprising led by Bahrain’s Shiite majority.

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Banks reopen in Egypt after weeklong closure as officials struggle to revive stalled economy

CAIRO (AP) — Banks across Egypt have reopened after an almost weeklong closure triggered by massive strikes and protests in public sector financial institutions.

Egyptians lined up early Sunday morning, waiting for their first chance to conduct their business since the banks closed a week earlier on order from the Central Bank.

Labor unrest that surged exponentially in the days after the popular uprising that unseated Hosni Mubarak on Feb. 12 have battered an already bruised Egyptian economy.

The banks’ closure, however, added a new layer to the troubles, with bankers and economists concerned that it would further undercut investor confidence in the country.

The government estimates Egypt lost about $1.7 billion in revenue, over half of which was in the vital tourism sector.

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Many months later Gulf of Mexico bottom shows little sign of recovery, but many dead critters

WASHINGTON (AP) — Oil from the BP spill remains stuck on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, according to a top scientist’s video and slides that she says demonstrate the oil isn’t degrading as hoped and has decimated life on parts of the sea floor.

That report is at odds with a recent report by the BP spill compensation czar that said nearly all will be well by 2012.

At a science conference in Washington Saturday, marine scientist Samantha Joye of the University of Georgia, aired early results of her December submarine dives around the BP spill site. She went to places she had visited in the summer and expected the oil and residue from oil-munching microbes would be gone by then. It wasn’t.

“There’s some sort of a bottleneck we have yet to identify for why this stuff doesn’t seem to be degrading,” Joye told the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual conference in Washington. Her research and those of her colleagues contrasts with other studies that show a more optimistic outlook about the health of the gulf, saying microbes did great work munching the oil.

“Magic microbes consumed maybe 10 percent of the total discharge, the rest of it we don’t know,” Joye said, later adding: “there’s a lot of it out there.”

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Drums pound and chants echo, but protesters fail to sway Wis. lawmakers in union rights fight

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Sometimes they cursed each other, sometimes they shook hands, sometimes they walked away from each other in disgust.

None of it, not the ear-splitting chants, the pounding drums or the back-and-forth debate between 70,000 protesters, changed the minds of Wisconsin lawmakers dug into a stalemate over Republican efforts to scrap union rights for almost all public workers.

“The people who are not around the Capitol square are with us,” said Rep. Robin Vos, a Republican from Rochester and co-chair of the Legislature’s budget committee. “They may have a bunch around the square, but we’ve got the rest on our side.”

After nearly a week of political chaos in Madison, during which tens of thousands of pro-labor protesters turned the Capitol into a campsite that had started to smell like a locker room, supporters of Gov. Scott Walker came out in force Saturday.

They gathered on the muddy east lawn of the Capitol and were soon surrounded by a much larger group of union supporters who countered their chants of “Pass the bill! Pass the bill!” with chants of “Kill the bill! Kill the bill!”

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High winds hamper efforts to douse fire at 6-story NYC building; at least 20 firefighters hurt

NEW YORK (AP) — Strong winds have meant several hours of work for hundreds of New York City firefighters trying to extinguish a fire that ripped through a six-story apartment building.

A fire department spokesman says at least 20 firefighters have been injured while battling Saturday’s blaze in Brooklyn. None of the injuries are life-threatening. Four civilians also suffered minor injuries.

The spokesman says strong winds have complicated firefighters’ efforts at the building on East 29th Street, but they’re making progress toward getting it under control as of early Sunday morning.

The five-alarm fire was called in at about 6:40 p.m. Over 200 firefighters were called to the scene.

The building has about 70 apartments. The spokesman says a shelter for displaced residents has been set up at a nearby school.

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Check the mailbox: Prince William and Kate Middleton send out prized royal wedding invites

LONDON (AP) — Keep an eye on the mailbox, Britain’s Prince William and bride-to-be Kate Middleton have posted invites to their hotly anticipated royal wedding to around 1,900 guests, officials said Sunday.

St. James’s Palace said military personnel and charity workers will mingle with European royalty, diplomats and the family and friends of the couple at the Westminster Abbey ceremony on April 29.

Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh will lead a group of 50 members of the British royal family at the wedding, while around 40 representatives of foreign royal families, likely to include dignitaries from Spain, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Greece, will also attend.

It isn’t yet known whether celebrities including singer Elton John, a friend of William’s mother Diana, the Princess of Wale or Kanye West, a favorite of the prince who performed at a 2007 tribute concert for his mother, are among those who’ll receive a prized invite.

Britain’s Sunday Express newspaper reported that footballer David Beckham and his wife Victoria are on the royal guest list. William worked with Beckham on England’s failed bid to win the right to host the 2018 World Cup.