Dior fires "odious" Galliano over racist slurs

PARIS – French fashion house Christian Dior fired its star designer John Galliano on Tuesday after an online video clip spread around the world showing him hurling anti-Semitic abuse at people in a Paris bar.
Chief Executive Sidney Toledano said the "odious nature" of Galliano's behavior on the video led Dior to relieve him of his duties after 15 years as the label's chief designer and just three days before Dior's catwalk show at Paris Fashion Week.
"I very firmly condemn what was said by John Galliano, which totally contradicts the values which have always been defended by Christian Dior," Toledano said in a statement.
The sequence of events surrounding Galliano's departure included an almost Dior-free Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday and prompted Oscar-winning actress Natalie Portman -- who has a deal to promote Dior perfume -- to voice her disgust with the British designer.
Police were called to a bar in Paris's hip Marais district where they found an inebriated Galliano delivering a torrent of abuse to a couple. The couple complained that Galliano had hurled racist and anti-Semitic comments at them, an offence under French law.
A person close to Galliano, who spoke to him by telephone on Tuesday, said he had been struggling to cope for some time with the pressures of his life under the spotlight.
"He knows he's a dead man. It is horribly violent and tragic. I am very pessimistic about his future," she said.
SHOCKED AND DISGUSTED

Dior suspended Galliano on Friday after which a fresh complaint was filed over an incident in October. The video surfaced on Monday on the website of Britain's Sun tabloid.
Portman, who is Jewish, said she was "deeply shocked and disgusted" at the video clip and wanted nothing more to do with Galliano.
"In light of this video, and as an individual who is proud to be Jewish, I will not be associated with Mr Galliano in any way," the "Black Swan" actress said in a statement.
Galliano's lawyer Stephane Zerbib has denied the charges.
Donatella Versace said in Milan there was no justification for the insults but she doubted Galliano had meant to be racist.
Giorgio Armani told fashion reporters the episode must have been due to "a moment of weakness." "You can't expect exemplary behavior from an eccentric man like him," he added.
The person close to Galliano, a fashion expert who asked not to be named, said he has struggled with having to constantly outperform.
"The truth is that the lid has been removed. Dior had kept him inside this closed pressure cooker and he was trying to survive. Dior wanted people to believe that everything was fine but he was not alright," she said.
Paris prosecutors are to decide by the end of the week whether Galliano should face trial.
CONSEQUENCES
It was not clear whether Dior's show would go ahead, although a Sunday show of Galliano's own label will still run.
Dior is the leading fashion name at LVMH, the world's biggest luxury group led by billionaire Bernard Arnault.
Galliano, who worked at Givenchy before joining Dior in 1996, was named British designer of the year four times.
"It's sad. That's the only thing I can say. He's an artist and it's sad for me," said Portuguese designer Fatima Lopes.
Fashion critics said Dior may have had concerns about Galliano for some time. "He was all about excesses but such extremes no longer really corresponded to today's zeitgeist," said Anne-Sophie von Claer of French daily Le Figaro.
His boots may be hard to fill but names began to circulate such as Riccardo Tisci at Givenchy, a Dior sister brand at LVMH, and Haider Ackermann, who already has his own label.

Gadgets galore at world's top tech fair

HANOVER, Germany – A Shakespeare-reciting robot, the world's most merciless alarm clock and "intelligent" cocktail shakers were among the gadgets wowing visitors at the CeBIT high-tech fair on Wednesday.
Ranging from the futuristic to the ingenious to the downright pointless, the world's biggest IT expo this year showcased thousands of the latest gadgets to pull in the 350,000 visitors expected to travel to Hanover in northern Germany.
No one finds it easy to wake up in the morning. But even the heaviest sleeper has found his match in the "intelligent" alarm clock designed by students at the Technical University of Wildau in Germany.
At the appointed time, the clock communicates with the curtains in the user's bedroom, instructing them to open. Five minutes later, it turns on the bedside lamp. Five minutes after that, the radio is turned on, then an alarm.
The sleepy user can only stop this pitiless process by standing on a sensor pad beside the bed for five seconds. When the alarm clock is satisfied its master is awake, it stops the alarm and turns on the coffee machine as reward.
"It was conceived by my students who sometimes find it tricky to get out of bed for classes," explained Birgit Wilkes from the university.
"But it has a serious application. We are using similar sensor technology to monitor the homes of old people to detect if they have had a fall," she added.
Worried about hair loss? Itching to see if you have a bald patch on top of your head? Then Spec, a Hong-Kong based firm, has the product for you with its hairbrush-cum-camera with built-in magnifier.
The user simply runs the brush through his hair and a magnified image of the scalp is transmitted to a computer, which then analyses the hair density over time to judge whether the dreaded baldness is setting in.
For the dental-health conscious, the company has also pioneered a toothbrush with a built-in camera that shows up hard-to-reach tooth plaque and tracks how efficiently you are brushing your teeth.
And for the discerning geek, the German Centre for Artificial Intelligence has created the "intelligent" talking cocktail shaker to ensure that every White Russian or Singapore Sling is mixed and poured to perfection.
The user inputs his or her chosen cocktail and the shaker's "voice" cheerfully offers the correct recipe.
Linked wirelessly to tiny devices on bottles on the bar, it ensures no mistakes are made no matter how many drinks have been consumed and berates the budding cocktail waiter in no uncertain terms if the wrong booze is selected.
This done, it offers pointers on how best to shake the cocktail, again reacting angrily if it senses its tips are not being followed to the letter.
Other gadgets were less practical, from sunglasses with a built-in camcorder to record exactly what your eye sees, a miniature helicopter piloted by iPhone to an electronic smokeless cigarette that replicates the sensation of smoking.
But there was no doubt what stole the show: the Shakespeare-reciting, multilingual, all-singing, all-dancing sleek life-sized white robot called the "RoboThespian" who drew huge crowds with its cheeky tricks.
From delivering the soliloquy from "Hamlet", complete with over-the-top theatrical actions, to impersonating another famous robot -- C3PO from "Star Wars" -- the charming computer quickly became the fair's star attraction.
Yours for a snip at 55,000 pounds (65,000 euros, $90,000), the "RoboThespian" has already featured at NASA, as well as at robot museums and banks, where it acts as a tour guide-cum-greeter with a difference.
Just don't get too close. The amorous and ever-friendly robot is not afraid of trying to plant a kiss on the cheeks of anyone it senses standing nearby.
The CeBIT runs until March 5.

Google Pulls 21 Apps In Android Malware Scare

Google has just pulled 21 popular free apps from the Android Market. According to the company, the apps are malware aimed at getting root access to the user's device, gathering a wide range of available data, and downloading more code to it without the user's knowledge.
Although Google has swiftly removed the apps after being notified (by the ever-vigilant Android Police bloggers), the apps in question have already been downloaded by at least 50,000 Android users.
The apps are particularly insidious because they look just like knockoff versions of already popular apps. For example, there's an app called simply "Chess." The user would download what he'd assume to be a chess game, only to be presented with a very different sort of app.

GDC: Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY Makes US Debut

Sony Ericsson's Android-powered PlayStation gaming phone, the Xperia PLAY, made its US debut this evening at the Gaming Developer Conference in San Francisco.
Sony Ericsson also revealed that the PLAY will be the official mobile phone for Major League Gaming (MLG), North America's official pro video games league. MLG attracts about 40 million gamers and represents some of the top professional gamers in the world. The fact that a mobile phone is now counted as a medium for competitive gaming is a huge step for Android game developers.
Another exciting piece of news for gamers is that the Havok software development suite will be available to Android developers. This is the first time the cross-platform SDK, which is currently available to Xbox, Wii and Playstation develops, will be available for Android. Havok's technology is behind titles such as Halo's Reach, Asassin's Creed: Brotherhood, and Fallout: New Vegas.
We already got a chance to play with the Xperia Play at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last month. While the display is impressive and the controls seem solid, the phone's body feels a bit flimsy and plasticky. It is also unfortunate that it's not a 4G phone, as a 3G network isn't likely to produce the upload speed necessary to play multiplayer online games smoothly.
The PLAY will be coming to the US on Verizon and to Canada on Rogers, though pricing and availability have not yet been announced.

Sina says to experiment with Weibo monetization in H2: CEO

SHANGHAI  – Sina Corp, China's largest Internet portal, will start to experiment with monetization of its microblogging product Weibo in the second half of the year, its chief executive said on Wednesday.
The company has said Weibo will start generating revenue in the first half of 2011 via the sale of virtual items and advertising space.
But chief executive officer Charles Chao told reporters and analysts on a telephone conference that the priority will be on investing in infrastructure of the product rather than on its revenue. (Reporting by Kazunori Takada; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)

Android is virtually everywhere, from docks to clouds

Motorola docks get smarter

Our smartphones are now as powerful as many of our computers, reiterating the trend towards interoperable devices. Motorola (MMI) is taking a literal approach with the Atrix, a laptop dock you can plug your phone into. Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha reportedly had good news for investors yesterday, saying the company will be bringing its Webtop apps and their corresponding docks to its high-end smartphone lineup in the second half of this year.
It’s good news for the dock concept, which is yet another manifestation of mobile-PC interoperability. Google (GOOG) may not have made a device specific for this, but its recent availability of mobile app management via the web adds multiple points of access. Apple (AAPL) has applied a similar tactic for iOS, ensuring a more fluid experience amongst devices. While these integrated platform offerings are free, Motorola’s docking bundle will run you about $500 with a two-year contract.

The mobile cloud takeover

The cloud is facilitating several ways to make our smartphones more functional, and Verizon’s (VZ) unified communications plans will turn your Android into a business desktop phone. Through a platform called Verizon Mobile UC, the desktop phone also features a mobile phone dock, connecting to the enterprise LAN via Ethernet. It’s designed as an enterprise solution, giving employees the ability to make calls without using precious daytime minutes.
Cloud services are also helping the enterprise from a security standpoint, developing separate profiles for Android devices so personal and professional content don’t overlap. Entreproid launched its Divide service at DEMO this week, providing a platform for corporate workers to maintain secure, work-related interactions on their mobile devices. Divide is currently available for Android, in private beta.

Canada's telecoms fight over spectrum auction rules

TORONTO  – The next government auction of valuable wireless spectrum in Canada is still at least a year and a half away, but the fight among telecom companies over how the auction should be run is already in full swing.
The big issue is whether any of the prime 700 MHz airwaves need be set aside for new entrants to the market as was the case in the government auction of wireless spectrum in 2008.
At the time, Canada's Conservative government was pushing for more competition in wireless, long dominated by three companies: BCE Inc's Bell Canada unit, Rogers Communications and Telus Corp.
The "Big Three" -- which together hold 95 percent of the market -- say the new entrants need no more help.
Among the companies seeking a bigger piece of the Big Three's pie are Mobilicity and Globalive's foreign-funded Wind Mobile service, as well as established regional cable companies Shaw Communications and Quebecor's Videotron.
"Everybody needs it (700 MHz spectrum), everybody wants it, and the only way to sort that out is to have a wide open auction," said Ken Engelhart, senior vice-president for regulatory affairs at Rogers. That message was echoed by his counterparts at Bell and Telus, which share a national wireless network.
Engelhart said putting caps on how much spectrum any one buyer can grab in the auction, due by late 2012, would be a mistake and that fears of hoarding -- holding the spectrum without rolling out service -- could be allayed by making rollout a condition of purchase.
An open auction would almost certainly ensure that the three cash-rich incumbents get the lion's share of the spectrum.
Initial submissions to the federal government's industry department on how the auction should be handled were due on Monday, and responses will be accepted until March 30.
Bell said in its submission that with half as much spectrum on offer as in the 2008 auction, any airwaves set aside for new entrants would inflate the prices paid. "Industry Canada would in effect dictate that one major Canadian operator will likely not even have the chance to obtain the spectrum it needs," Bell said.
The 700 MHz airwaves are valuable as they cover long distances and more easily penetrate thick walls and buildings, making them useful for both expanding rural reach and deepening urban capacity.
The frequency is seen as aiding rural Canadian deployment of high-speed Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks, the path chosen by most telecoms carriers globally to upgrade 3G data networks. Each of the Big Three have announced plans for LTE deployment.
Globalive Chairman Anthony Lacavera said he wants all or most of the spectrum to be auctioned to be set aside for newcomers and says established operators own plenty of spectrum similar to that which is going on the block.
"The Canadian consumer experience in wireless has improved directly as a result of government policy, so our view is that the government should continue that policy," Lacavera said. "It's working."
Wind Mobile entered the market in 2009 after some 40 percent of the higher-frequency AWS spectrum was set aside for new entrants in the 2008 auction, which raised C$4.25 billion ($4.38 billion) for the government.
Wind Mobile, along with other new entrants Mobilicity and Public Mobile, offer unlimited talk and text and no-contract plans that attract budget-conscious customers and push down rates, particularly for voice.
Incumbent telecom carriers in Canada already hold far more spectrum than peers such as AT&T and Verizon in the United States and carry just a fraction of the subscribers per megahertz, according to a report from telecom consultancy Seaboard Group released on Monday.
That report concluded that new entrants remain at a significant disadvantage to the incumbents and called on Ottawa to make the new auction available to only those companies that do not already own spectrum below 1 GHz frequency.
"Resist the incumbent cajolery, ignore the veiled threats and protestations of doom, and move forward to allocate the 700 MHz resource to the feisty upstarts," Seaboard said.
Telus's head of regulatory affairs, Michael Hennessy, said Industry Canada should shape the auction on the assumption that at least some of the new entrants will have merged by the time the auction takes place. That's one point on which he agrees with Globalive, which expects to be the fourth and only new national carrier by 2014.
"Everyone knows it's going to look a lot different in a year and a half when the auction happens," Hennessy said.
A further issue is Canadian foreign ownership limits on telecom companies. Under Canadian law too much control and ownership of Globalive may rest with Cairo-based Orascom Telecom, and the matter is now being fought before the courts.
Industry Minister Tony Clement has said any lifting of foreign ownership restrictions would have to be decided before the auction proceeds, but it is unclear whether any changes would apply to both telecom companies and broadcasters, which are governed by different laws.

Sony unit apologizes for band's Nazi-like costumes

TOKYO – Executives from a Japanese Sony music unit apologized Wednesday for a rock band under its management that dressed up like Nazis on a national TV broadcast.
The apology from Sony Music Artists Inc. came after an international Jewish group complained about Japanese band "Kishidan" wearing the costumes during an appearance on an MTV Networks Japan show that aired a week earlier.
Images broadcast on the "Megavector" program show the six-member band in black uniforms resembling those of Nazi soldiers, with distinctive red arm bands and epaulets.
On Monday, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish rights organization based in Los Angeles, issued a statement expressing "shock and dismay" over the uniforms.
A statement posted early Wednesday morning on the websites of the band and Sony Music Artists, a music agency that is a unit of Sony's entertainment subsidiary, apologized for the costumes.
"Although it was not meant to carry any ideological meaning whatsoever, we deeply regret and apologize for the distress it has caused Simon Wiesenthal Center and all concerned," read the statement, which was signed by two executives from the subsidiary.
The band Kishidan often dresses up in dark uniforms, including those worn by Japan's motorcycle gangs called "bosozoku."
Asia is less sensitive to the use of Nazi themes than the West. In December, a complaint from the center caused a large Japanese retailer to stop sales of a Nazi costume, and it has previously protested Nazi themes in Korean advertising and bars. Thailand has had past instances where icons of the genocidal German regime have been used for advertising and entertainment, and in 2007 a Thai school apologized to the Simon Wiesenthal Center for a Nazi-themed parade at its sports day.

Apple set to unveil new iPad, with or without Jobs

SAN FRANCISCO  – More than a year after igniting the tablet computing craze, Apple Inc prepares to unveil the second version of its blockbuster iPad -- possibly minus lead showman Steve Jobs.
Plenty has changed over the course of the year. The iPad became a bona fide smash, essentially creating the tablet category and triggering a wave of me-too products that are just starting to hit the market.
Now, as rivals Motorola and Research in Motion race to catch up, Apple itself is going through a transformation.
There is as much speculation about whether iconic Chief Executive Jobs will take the stage at Wednesday's event in San Francisco as there is about the new device.
Jobs traditionally launches major products with a pizzazz and style that reflect his eye for detail and design. But he took indefinite medical leave last month and Apple has not given details of the cancer survivor's medical condition.
His absence is bound to spark a fresh round of speculation on his condition. And his presence will be scrutinized equally closely for any signals on his health.
Many in Silicon Valley and on Wall Street doubt he will return to the company he co-founded in 1976.
In his absence, it is a good bet that Tim Cook, the company's operations chief and Jobs' heir apparent, or marketing head Phil Schiller, will lead Wednesday's show.
If Cook does appear, investors will scrutinize his performance. While Wall Street has grown comfortable with Cook's leadership, Wednesday would provide the first major test of his showmanship skills -- a key asset for marketing maestro Apple.
Regardless, the company is in little danger of losing its massive lead in the tablet market in the near term. With a big first-mover advantage, the company is rolling out the second-generation iPad just as most its rivals are bringing their first offerings to consumers.

Man Gets 7 Years for Forcing Modems to Call Premium Numbers

A New Hampshire man who made US$8 million by installing unwanted dial-up software on computers and then forcing them to call expensive premium telephone numbers was handed down an 82-month sentence on Monday.
Prosecutors say that between 2003 and 2007, Asu Pala and others put together a lucrative business by setting up premium telephone numbers in Germany -- similar to the 1-900 numbers used in the U.S. -- and then infecting German PCs with software that would automatically dial the numbers for short periods of time.
"The victims were generally unaware that their computers' telephone modems were calling these numbers and charging them with expenses," the U.S. Department of Justice said in a press release.
These dialers were a major, but largely unreported, problem in Europe in the early part of the last decade. In 2006, two men were given stiff sentences by an Austrian court for running a scam that brought in €12 million ($16.5 million). And while dial-up modem usage has dwindled, shrinking the number of possible victims, this type of software is still in circulation in Europe.
Pala, a Turkish immigrant to the U.S., ran a small Massachusetts Internet service provider called Sakhmet when he was approached by others -- men he believed to be the brains of the operation -- and enticed into building the back-end infrastructure for dialer software that was then downloaded onto the German computers, his lawyer, Geoffrey Nathan, said in an interview Tuesday.
The money was good. Pala was caught after he was flagged by federal authorities after paying cash for his second Lamborghini sports car, Nathan said. By May 2009, Pala had begun cooperating with federal authorities and was training U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation agents across the country on how the Trojan downloader scam worked. He was also secretly working on a sting, trying to nail the two men who had introduced him to the scam. But they couldn't be enticed into a meeting, and the feds ultimately pulled the plug on the operation.
At his sentencing, Pala was given a break for his cooperation with the government, but had the sting worked, it would have cut years more off his sentence, Nathan said. "The case reflects the pitfalls and the success of a cooperation agreement," he said.
The people Pala had been trying to turn in, however, are still running the scam, Nathan said. "Most regrettably, it turns out that the big fish got away with the crime and they remain in operation."
Pala pleaded guilty to fraud and tax evasion charges in U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts in April 2010. In addition to the 82-month sentence, he must pay a $7.9 million fine, along with $2.2 million in back taxes to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.

NJ congressman tops 'Jeopardy' computer Watson

WASHINGTON – Turns out it really does take a rocket scientist to beat Watson, the "Jeopardy"-winning computer.
U.S. Rep. Rush Holt of New Jersey — a five-time champion during the trivia show's original run 35 years ago — topped the IBM computer Monday night in a "Jeopardy"-style match of congressmen vs. machine held at a Washington hotel.
Though Holt isn't the first human to beat Watson, the victory adds to the 62-year-old Democrat's already-impressive resume: a former State Department arms control expert and ex-leader of the federal Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.
"I wonder if Watson wasn't having a low-voltage night, because I certainly didn't expect to score higher than the computer," he told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday.
He built a lead in categories including "Presidential Rhyme Time," in which the correct response to "Herbert's military strategy" was "Hoover's maneuvers." The congressman also correctly identified hippophobia as the fear of horses.
Watson beat him to the buzzer with "love" when prompted on what Ambrose Bierce described as "a temporary insanity curable by marriage."
Holt played the first round along with Rep. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican. At the end of the round, Holt had earned $8,600 to Watson's $6,200.
But the computer ultimately triumphed in later rounds against the other representatives: Nan Hayworth, R-N.Y., Jim Himes, D-Conn., and Jared Polis, D-Colo. Watson amassed a combined $40,300 to the humans' $30,000.
Watson, designed specifically to excel at the type of answers-and-questions format used on "Jeopardy," took 25 IBM scientists four years to create.
Humans have beat Watson before, including sparring matches with various players held in the fall to prepare for a televised match with top human "Jeopardy" champs Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter; and during rehearsals, when Jennings won at least once.
Holt received a round of applause Tuesday at a hearing of the House Natural Resources Committee for besting the computer. He thanked the crowd and gave a shout-out to "neuron-based thinking, instead of semi-conductor thinking."
Holt said it was fun to beat the heralded computer. But he also said it's important that Americans realize how crucial math and science education is to the nation's future.
"I jumped at the chance to do this, not only because it would be fun, but as a way to highlight our national need to invest in research and science education," he told the AP. "It's something I've been talking about for decades."
The match shows "that so many people are interested not so much in Watson but what the possibilities here are," said IBM spokeswoman Lia P. Davis.
"That said, Watson still won the match," she said. "So I think we can all be proud of that. It demonstrates that humans are very smart and computers are very smart."
Holt has a doctorate in physics from New York University and was elected to Congress in 1998.

Next venture for Andreessen: Mobile social app

NEW YORK – The brains behind social-networking company Ning have launched a new venture, a smart-phone communication tool called Mogwee.
Mogwee is short for "more great weekends." That's what Ning CEO Jason Rosenthal and chairman Marc Andreessen, the Web pioneer, hope people will get from using the service.
Mogwee is a free application available on the iPhone. An Android version and others are coming soon. It combines into one package elements of chat, photo sharing and group-outing planning that people already do on their phones.
Rosenthal said Mogwee is different from social networks such as Twitter and Facebook because it was built for mobile devices from the start. And it works in real time, the way people communicate on their phones, as long as an Internet connection is available.
"Smart phones have changed the way people think about their phones, but no one has yet reinvented the way people communicate on their phones," Rosenthal said, adding that the main way to communicate remains text messaging.
Mogwee plans to make money by letting users buy virtual gifts such as a burger, a heart or a zombie sheep that they can send to their friends. Five of these cost 99 cents, though the first five are free to get you hooked.
The app also lets users access and share restaurant and movie listings, with other types of events coming later.
Rosenthal said the people behind Ning had the time to develop the app because Ning is in good shape and growing its revenue. Ning, which lets people create their own social networks, started charging all of its users for the service last year. Ning has about 90,000 paying subscribers.

Wis. governor proposes deep cuts for schools

MADISON, Wis. – After focusing for weeks on his proposal to strip public employees of collective bargaining rights, Gov. Scott Walker on Tuesday presented his full budget — a plan that cuts $1 billion in aid to public schools and local government but avoids any tax or fee increases, furloughs or widespread layoffs.
Walker said the cuts could be paid for in large part by forcing government employees to pay more for their pension and health care benefits. And the governor whose cost-cutting ideas have stirred a national debate over public-sector unions gave no indication he would soften his demand to reduce their power at the negotiating table.
Schools and local governments targeted for cuts would not be allowed to make it up with higher property taxes.
"This is a reform budget," Walker told lawmakers inside the Assembly chamber as protesters on the floor below screamed, banged on drums and blew horns. "It is about getting Wisconsin working again. And to make that happen, we need a balanced budget that works — and an environment where the private sector can create 250,000 jobs over the next four years."
Walker's legislation has drawn tens of thousands of demonstrators to the Capitol over the last three weeks, and tensions were still high as Walker outlined the budget during a joint session of the Legislature convened under heavy security. Assembly Democrats refused to stand as the governor arrived to speak.
"It feels like we're announcing a going-out-of-business sale," said state Rep. Cory Mason, a Democrat from Racine who criticized Walker's proposed cuts to education.

Gadhafi forces retake towns near Libyan capital

TRIPOLI, Libya – Moammar Gadhafi's forces battled poorly armed rebels Tuesday for control of towns near the capital trying to create a buffer zone around his seat of power. The increasingly violent clashes threatened to transform the 15-day popular rebellion in Libya into a drawn-out civil war.
Amid the intensified fighting, the international community stepped up moves to isolate the longtime Libyan leader.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he ordered two ships into the Mediterranean, including the amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge, and he is sending 400 Marines to the vessel to replace some troops that left recently for Afghanistan.
Military leaders weighing a no-fly zone over Libya said it would be a complex task that would require taking out Gadhafi's air defenses, and Russia's top diplomat dismissed the idea as "superfluous" and said world powers should focus on sanctions.
Gadhafi's son, Seif al-Islam, warned Western forces not to take military action against Libya and said the country is prepared to defend itself against foreign intervention.

Gov't shutdown averted as House votes $4B cuts

WASHINGTON – The House passed emergency short-term legislation Tuesday to cut federal spending by $4 billion and avert a government shutdown. Senate Democrats agreed to follow suit, handing Republicans an early victory in their drive to rein in government.
The bill that cleared the House on a bipartisan vote of 335-91 eliminates the threat of a shutdown on March 4, when existing funding authority expires. At the same time, it creates a compressed two-week timeframe for the White House and lawmakers to engage in what looms as a highly contentious negotiation on a follow-up bill to set spending levels through the Sept. 30 end of the fiscal year.
The Senate set a vote on the short-term measure for Wednesday morning, the final step before it goes to President Barack Obama for his signature. "We'll pass this and then look at funding the government on a long-term basis," said Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
The White House, which earlier in the day called publicly for an interim measure of up to five weeks, stopped short of saying the president would sign the legislation.
"The President is encouraged by the progress Congress is making towards a short-term agreement," the president's spokesman, Jay Carney, said. "Moving forward, the focus needs to be on both sides finding common ground in order to reach a long-term solution that removes the kind of uncertainty that can hurt the economy and job creation."
House Republicans were more eager to draw attention to the bill that was passing with the acquiescence of the White House and Democrats than to the challenge yet ahead.
"Now that congressional Democrats and the administration have expressed an openness for spending cuts, the momentum is there for a long-term measure that starts to finally get our fiscal house in order," said Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia.
"Changing the culture of borrowing and spending in Washington is no small feat, but I am heartened by today's action and it shows that Republicans have started to make the meaningful changes that voters called for in the last election."

Is NATO trying to silence reports on civilian casualties in Kunar?

KABUL, Afghanistan — A NATO airstrike in Kunar province that may have caused as many as 67 civilian casualties has led to renewed tensions between the Afghan government and the U.S. forces. The dispute has been further aggravated by what many saw as offensive remarks by military officials suggesting that Afghan parents may have harmed their own children to inflate the figures.
NATO has denied that civilians were injured in the Ghazi Abad district of Kunar, and insists that their operational footage indicates that only insurgents were in the area.
But GlobalPost has learned that U.S. military officials detained two Al Jazeera journalists who were covering the incident, temporarily confiscated their equipment and, according to the journalists, subjected them to humiliating treatment and lengthy interrogations.
“When I was coming back from Ghazi Abad ISAF stopped me,” said Abdullah Nizami, a stringer for Al Jazeera Arabic service. “They made me stay with them, they took my warm clothing, and then transported me in a helicopter to their base. After several hours of interrogation they let me sleep. They released me after 28 hours.”
None of the material on his camera was damaged, said Nizami, and the equipment was eventually returned.
Samer Alawi, the Al Jazeera bureau chief in Kabul, confirmed the incident, and added that Nizami had been detained along with Saeedullah Sahel, who works for Al Jazeera English service.

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“They were interrogated, and asked why only Al Jazeera got into these places,” said Alawi. “The U.S. forces saw their pictures and then confiscated their equipment. They took their warm clothes and made them stand outside in the snow. It was midnight. Then they took them by helicopter to their base.”
This version conflicts radically with what the U.S. forces say happened. The military does not deny that they stopped the journalists, but they absolutely refute the details. They also say that the journalists were in custody for less than 24 hours.
“They had no credentials,” said Lt. Col. Patrick Seiber, of Public Affairs Director of Regional Command East. “We were not sure they were journalists. They could have been insurgents. And they were not detained. They were held.”

Chile moves toward nuclear power But is nuclear power a good idea in one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries?

SANTIAGO, Chile — The news came from afar: A foreign company is considering building Chile’s first nuclear power plant. The Chilean people were the last to know.
The January announcement by the French energy company GDF Suez caused ripples of concern. For one, the country hasn’t decided yet whether it wants nuclear energy. And second, the idea of nuclear energy frightens many in a country that was hit hard by an 8.8-magntitude earthquake just one year ago.
But despite the public's fears, nuclear energy appears to be coming to Chile. In the words of Chilean President Sebastian Pinera: “Chile has to prepare itself for the world of nuclear energy.”
"We need to double our energy over the next 10 to12 years,” said Mining and Energy Minister Laurence Golborne. “We have to diversify our energy sources and Chile has to be open to consider the nuclear alternative."
For years, Chile has been trying to balance its energy sources, which in the early-1990s were dominated by hydroelectricity. Later, the country thought it found the solution with natural gas piped in from Argentina, but the plan faltered when Argentina suspended the flow to meet energy demands at home.
Over the past decade, climate instability and ever drier seasons shifted Chile’s energy sources away from hydroelectricity and toward more contaminating sources: coal and petroleum. And despite the promises of all past governments to further develop non-conventional renewable energy sources, they currently make up only 0.9 percent of the total.
This year’s drought throughout much of Chile, in addition to ruining crops and leaving thousands without drinking water, seriously diminished water levels at hydroelectric dams, raising the prospect of electricity. And oil prices recently hit a two-and-a-half-year high.

That all combines to make nuclear power a more appealing option. And Chile's isn't the only country moving toward nuclear power — it's part of a worldwide trend, said nuclear energy expert Julio Vergara, who is a member of the board of directors at the Chilean Commission on Nuclear Energy. Vergara said that five years ago there were 30 reactors under construction. Now there are 150 and plans for 350 new ones.
“Climate change is renewing interest in nuclear energy worldwide,” he said.
Chile has been toying with the idea of nuclear energy since 2007, when then-President Michelle Bachelet appointed a commission to carry out a preliminary study on the prospects for nuclear energy in Chile. Back then, Bachelet promised environmentalists her government would not make any decisions, but the commission's report concluded that Chile should not discard the option.
Insisting that a final decision is many years away, Pinera nevertheless had his eye on nuclear energy even before assuming the presidency. He visited power plants in France during his presidential campaign in 2009, and a month after taking office, attended the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington. The only other Latin American nations participating in the summit (Argentina, Brazil and Mexico) all operate nuclear power plants.
Now, Pinera has put the nuclear issue on a fast track, pushing for more studies, sending government officials and experts to learn from nuclear plants in France, seeking training for local experts and speeding up nuclear cooperation agreements with the United States, France and Argentina.
U.S. President Barack Obama will visit Chile in mid-March, and the two countries are to sign a memorandum of understanding on nuclear cooperation. Details of the accord have not been disclosed, but Golborne said it focuses on training professionals, technology studies and the development of a regulatory framework.
Unbeknown to most of the population, the nuclear energy commission — which was created in 1965 — has been operating two small-scale nuclear reactors for research, mainly for medicinal purposes, since the mid-1970s. And both, with their antiquated but still functional technology, survived major earthquakes in 1985 and 2010.
Because beyond the discussion over how clean and cheap nuclear energy actually is, Chileans have another overwhelming concern: How safe is it to have nuclear power plants in such an earthquake-prone country?
“Chile’s seismic activity is not an impediment,” Vergara said. “It can raise the costs of building the reactors, to make them more robust or design them to adapt to particular geological conditions, but doesn’t make them unviable.”
In 2007, a 6.8-magnitude earthquake in Japan damaged the world’s largest nuclear power plant, leaking radioactive liquid into the sea. But Vergara says that's not a concern for Chile because its fault lines are well documented. In Japan, he said, the active seismic fault at the reactor site was underestimated or unknown when the reactor was built.
But what guarantees the same thing won’t happen in Chile? “Geologists say that this is the country that most releases seismic energy in the planet, because it is sitting on the Nazca plate. Chile lacks technology to foresee the characteristics of future earthquakes, which are frequent and have different characteristics each time,” said Matias Asun, executive director of Greenpeace Chile.
Nonetheless things are moving fast. Last week, Chile and France signed a cooperation agreement that includes setting up a committee to further develop uranium extraction in Chile to cover France’s needs. The accord also creates a corporate working group on nuclear energy to be presided in France by the president of GDF Suez, Gerard Mestrallet, the man who dreams of installing Chile’s first nuclear power plant.

Apple to unveil new iPad on March 2

-- It's pretty much official: After months of anticipation, Apple on Wednesday sent out invitations to a March 2 press event where the company is expected to unveil the new version of its iPad tablet computer.
The invite, e-mailed to members of the news media at about 11 a.m. ET, features a picture of an iPad-shaped device with a giant "2" in the center, seemingly a sly reference to the date of the San Francisco event and also to the device's rumored name: "iPad 2."
"Come see what 2011 will be the year of," the invite says.
Apple, the world's highest valued tech company, became the first in the field to debut a modern, touch-screen tablet computer when it unveiled the iPad in January 2010. Since then, a host of competitors, many working with Google's Android operating system, have emerged to compete with the popular iPad.

No one knows exactly what the new tablet from Apple will look like, or what it will be called, but bloggers expect the second-generation device to feature a front-facing camera, for making video calls. That's something many iPad competitors, including the Motorola Xoom and Samsung Galaxy Tab, have going for them that the iPad currently doesn't.

Immigrants more inclined to use tablet computers, study shows

-- Are immigrants to the U.S. more likely than the general American population to adopt tablet computers? New research from Rebtel, a global mobile VOIP provider, indicates that this might be true.
There are about 37 million foreign-born people living in the U.S. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, these first-generation immigrants represent about 12% of the total U.S. population.
In November, Rebtel surveyed 1,340 immigrants residing in the U.S. about their technology habits. In all, 13% reported owning a tablet device, representing about 5 million people in the U.S. Two-thirds of these own iPads -- not surprising, since Apple's tablet has been around the longest and has the strongest global brand presence.
In contrast, a recent Pew study found that only 5% of U.S. adults own a tablet.
Why the disparity? Part of this might be explained by how Rebtel defined "tablet." In its study, this device category includes e-readers like Amazon's Kindle.
It's true that some e-readers have some functionality that's also seen in tablets (especially the Barnes & Noble Nook Color, which can be hacked into an inexpensive Android tablet). But frankly it's a major stretch to consider the Kindle to be in the same device class as the iPad.
In fact, Pew's study differentiated between tablets and e-readers and found that another 5% of Americans currently own an e-reader. So when you add Pew's tablet and e-reader percentages together, they're not very far under Rebtel's estimate.
Still, Rebtel's research begs the question: If immigrants are more likely than the U.S. population at large to buy tablets, why might that be?
Rebtel did not speculate on this. However, it occurs to me that many immigrants to the U.S. come from countries where mobile technology proliferated faster and more profoundly than it did here. This might make immigrants more willing to adopt new mobile technology sooner.
According to Rebtel, tablet ownership figures did vary by nation of origin: "French-Americans claim the highest percentage of tablet owners (17%), followed by Mexican-Americans (15%), Nigerian-Americans, and Ghana-Americans at 14% respectively -- rounded out by Ethiopian-Americans at eight percent and Cuban-Americans at seven percent."
Rebtel also noted nation-of-origin differences regarding whether immigrants would purchase a tablet in the near future. Immigrants from Ghana (62%) and India (58%) were most likely to buy a tablet, while only 34% of French Americans and 31% of Ethiopian-Americans indicated this intention.

Developers wrapping 'Gears of War' trilogy

San Francisco  -- Comparing the "Gears of War" video games, with their alien firefights and gory chain-saw scenes, to "The Lord of the Rings" might seem a bit far-fetched.
But that's the parallel Cliff Bleszinksi is going with for his third-person shooter game franchise.
As the design director for Epic Games, Bleszinksi is a creative force driving the "Gears" franchise to bow out gracefully. "Gears of War 3," which publisher Microsoft says will hit stores September 20, will be the last game in the hit series, executives say.
Hoping to achieve Hollywood's most coveted but often elusive goal -- ending a trilogy on a high note -- Bleszinksi evokes George Lucas and Peter Jackson in discussions of the game. But he'll have to channel his passions for Hollywood cinematics into the game for now because the long-in-development "Gears of War" movie won't be made anytime soon.
"Gears of War," about elite soldiers battling aliens on a fictional planet, has been a big seller since the first game debuted as an exclusive Xbox 360 title in 2006. A sequel followed in 2008, and developers at Epic Games have long wanted to cap the series with a third game.
"Let the game stand alone as its own sort of 'Lord of Rings' trilogy," Bleszinksi said in a recent interview.
To avoid disappointing, Bleszinksi and his cohorts convinced Microsoft Game Studios, the exclusive publisher of the "Gears of War" games, to delay the final installment past the planned April launch window, which the companies had announced a year in advance.
That bought Epic the time to polish the story-driven mode, which allows four people to play simultaneously, and flesh out what has become the longest plot of any game the developer has ever made, executives say.
In exchange for the extra development time, Epic is crafting a beta program that will be made available to Xbox subscribers in April, around the time of the original planned launch for the game. That sneak-peek version, designed for competitive online play, will include three distinct modes that can span four levels, said Rod Fergusson, Epic's executive producer for the "Gears of War" franchise.
"With that extra six months ... we were able to create this beta; we were able to put all that polish into the campaign," Fergusson said. "So it's going to be the best one ever. And that's really how we want to go out with this franchise."
Microsoft is no less enthusiastic. The two previous games combined have sold more than 12 million copies.
" 'Gears of War' is going to be the biggest game of 2011," said Kevin Unangst, a senior director for Microsoft's game publishing arm. "It's going to be a phenomenal release for us."
Though Epic is hanging up its Boomshot grenade launchers from the game, authors and comic book artists are keeping the "GoW" spirit alive. Executives say they plan to encourage these types of extensions of the storyline into other media.
One adaptation that's been a long time coming is a New Line Cinema movie based on the series. Time Warner owns New Line, along with CNN.
The project has gone through a number of revisions, recastings and, last year, a budget cut. "Underworld" director Len Wiseman has scaled back his involvement with the "Gears of War" movie and has been turning his attention to other films, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.
"The 'Gears' movie has been in development for quite some time, and I can tell you it's been a heck of a learning experience," Bleszinksi said. "Making a video game movie -- one that doesn't suck -- is a Herculean task, and it's something that could take years to come."
New Line originally had budgeted $100 million for the epic action film, but producers dialed that back to about $60 million, Bleszinksi said.
Studio executives are looking at "District 9," the relatively low-budget science-fiction flick directed by Neill Blomkamp and produced by Jackson, as a model for "Gears of War," Bleszinksi said. That 2009 movie cost about $30 million to make and has grossed $210 million.
"They kind of went through the bean-counting machine of Hollywood" to save money on the project, Bleszinksi said. "Then, if it does well, we can blow it out with a sequel."
New Line determined a "Gears" movie would need to be gory, which would earn it an R rating and put it out of reach of many young gamers eager to see the series on the big screen, Bleszinksi said.
"If we show up at Comic-Con, and there's not chain saws and blood, the fans will tear us limb to limb," he said. "We're not going to release a movie that sucks."
A seemingly less optimistic Fergusson said: "As long as it gets made, I'll be happy."
And don't count out future "Gears of War" games, either. Epic's leadership left the door open for bringing the series back someday.

"If we do another 'Gears' in the future, let's have some wiggle room. It's a big universe. There's lots of other things we could do. Maybe it'll be a prequel, who knows," Bleszinksi said. "In Hollywood, they say the last sequel is the one that fails to make money."

Google nukes thousands of Gmail accounts

NEW YORK  -- Imagine opening up your e-mail and finding years of correspondence gone.
As many as 150,000 Gmail users have been confronting that scary scenario throughout the past day. Around 3:00 pm ET Sunday, Google began "investigating reports of an issue" with its popular e-mail service. Over the next few hours, it confirmed that a small fraction of Gmail users were experiencing disruptions.
Google says on its status dashboard that less than "less than 0.08%" of its user base is affected. But for a service with an estimated 193 million users, that tiny sliver adds up fast. And those affected are spooked.
"I logged in and my account also looks like a brand-new Gmail account ! 10 years of emails (17000 of them) are gone," one user wrote on Google's help forum thread.
"This happened to me this a.m. Everything from 6 years gone. Contact list is fine, but all communications have been deleted," another wrote.
A Google employee said in the help forum that engineers are working to resurrect users' full access. Google's status dashboard, last updated Sunday night, carries a similar message.
"We are fixing the problem. We have restored 1/3 of users and are in the process of fixing the rest," a Google spokesman said Monday afternoon. "Everything should be back to normal in 12 hours. It is our expectation that everything will be fully restored."
He added that Google has reduced its estimate of the percentage of Gmail users affected to 0.02%. That translates to around 39,000 people.
Those users are stuck hoping that Google really can rescue all their data.
"What if the cloud fails?" one wondered in the help forum. "If, ultimately, Google does not make this right in a timely way and I lose the main record of the last 7 years of my life ... that will forever affect how I view trusting an anonymous server farm somewhere with my critical or even not-so-critical data."
The news comes just a few weeks after a Flickr staff member accidentally deleted a user's five-year old account, wiping out 4,000 photos. Although the account was restored, the moral of the story was clear: It's always good to back up information.
Google offers a set of directions to help users back up their e-mail. The five-step process helps users to configure another mail client that will download duplicate copies of Gmail messages.

102 tablets - but no real iPad rivals yet

Apple will unveil the second version of its hit iPad tablet on Wednesday.
NEW YORK  -- Before Apple released its iPad last April, skeptics loudly protested that consumers didn't want or need tablets.
"You might want to tell me the difference between a large phone and a tablet," Eric Schmidt, then-CEO of Google, smirked soon after Apple unveiled its invention.

What a difference a year makes. A whopping 102 tablets are on sale or in progress from 64 different manufacturers, according to a new study from consulting firm PRTM.
What's more, PRTM expects 200 million tablets will be sold annually by 2014, compared with 17 million in 2010. And yes, almost all of those sold last year -- 14.8 million to be exact -- were iPads.
"It's shocking how this market has exploded in just a year," says PRTM director Huw Andrews. "The smartphone market has taken six, seven years to evolve. Tablets are moving at absolutely unprecedented speed."
Here's the wild part: With almost a full year to catch up, no other manufacturer has yet come close to matching the iPad's technical specs and aesthetic allure. And on Wednesday, Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) is poised to take another leap forward when it unveils the second-generation iPad.
The marquee players: The iPad's success "created a halo around tablets in general," Forrester analyst Sarah Rotman Epps wrote in a recent report. "Consumers are interested in tablets, even if they're confused about what they actually are."
By 2015, Forrester predicts that one in three U.S. "online consumers" will own a tablet.
"Before the iPad's launch people were sucking their teeth, asking if Apple was being too experimental," PRTM's Andrews says. "The sales numbers show they've created a market."
And they're keeping a big chunk of it. IHS iSuppli analysts Rhoda Alexander says IHS iSuppli "doesn't see a single brand reaching iPad levels for years to come."
Of the zillions of iPad rivals under development, only two serious competitors are available for sale right now. The newest and most advanced, Motorola's (MMI) Xoom, hit Best Buy and Verizon stores late last week. And Samsung's Galaxy Tab is now available in 120 mobile carriers in 64 countries.
The Galaxy Tab is marketed as a pocket-friendly device -- its screen size and weight are both about half that of the iPad. It runs Android 2.2 and includes Adobe Flash, as well as front- and rear-facing cameras.
In December, Samsung said it would sell 1.5 million units by the end of 2010. By comparison, Apple sold 2 million iPads in the gadget's first two months on the market.
"The Tab's sales haven't quite rivaled the iPad, but it's done a lot for the market," Andrews says. "Once the market had been started by Apple and arguably confirmed by Samsung, other players had to jump in."
The battlefield: They've jumped in, but competitors haven't caught up.
Unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, the Xoom is the first device running Google's tablet-optimized Android 3.0 (codenamed Honeycomb). With a 10.1-inch display, it's the first to go head-to-head on screen size with the iPad, which boasts a 9.7-inch display.
But it can't yet match its rival's price tag. The Xoom costs $799 for a 32 GB 3G version ($599 with a two-year data contract with Verizon). That's $70 more than you'll spend for 32 GB 3G iPad, which sells for $729.
Want to save money? A Wi-Fi-only Xoom is due out later this year, but it doesn't yet have a release date. For $499, you can scoop up an entry-level 16 GB Wi-Fi iPad right now.

0:00 /2:27Motorola Xoom is better than iPad

The rest of the major players are still polishing their weapons.
Research in Motion's (RIMM) BlackBerry PlayBook, announced five months ago, is reportedly set for an April release date. Built around a new platform from QNX Software Systems, it will have two things the iPad lacks: Flash-capable video and a front and rear high-definition camera.
But it will also have two significant limitations: a 7-inch screen, and 3G service that requires a BlackBerry to tether it to.
Hewlett-Packard (HPQ, Fortune 500) plans to charge into the market this summer with the TouchPad tablet it previewed three weeks ago. The TouchPad will come with an iPad-like 9.7-inch screen and a front-facing camera. It can multitask and sync with other HP devices like smartphones, and it can display Web content encoded with Abobe Flash.
But will any of these new gizmos be enough to woo potential iPad buyers?
"The joke among analysts is if you put masking tape over the brand names of many of these tablets, you wouldn't know which was which," Alexander says.
She gives the Xoom the best odds among the 2011 offerings: "It's arguably the most beautifully presented product, and it's also a widescreen display. That could be an important delineation."
Dark horses: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer famously opened the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show with a keynote speech all about tablets. One year later, Microsoft still had nothing to show off in the space -- so for CES 2011, Ballmer took another crack at it.

Study: One in three mobile phone owners is a regular mobile gamer

-- A new survey from casual gaming company PopCap shows that an incredibly high percentage of adults in the UK and U.S. is into mobile gaming.
This stat may be due in part to the uptick in smartphone adoption. According to a separate Nielsen survey, 31% of U.S. mobile users now own smartphones, and a Pew survey shows nearly half of cellphone users download and use mobile apps, too.
In PopCap's research, more than half (52%) of 2,425 respondents said they had played a game on a mobile device, whether their own device or someone else's, at some time in the past. The percentage for UK respondents was significantly higher (73%) than the rate for U.S. respondents (44%).
Around one-third of all respondents had played a game on their own mobile phones within the past month, and one out of four respondents said they played games on a weekly basis. Still, some respondents admitted to only having played a mobile game once.
The biggest gaming group was smartphone users. A full 83% of smartphone-owning respondents said they had played at least one mobile game in the past week, putting them solidly in the "avid mobile gamer" category.
Interestingly, the male-to-female ratio in mobile gaming doesn't show the pronounced gender gap seen in console and PC gaming. Men play slightly more than women by a slim margin of 2-10%. This fits pretty well with the current picture we have of the social gaming scene as a predominantly female market.
And mobile gamers aren't just biding their time on mass transit; they're also contributing to the bottom line of game manufacturers across the major mobile platforms.
Around half of all mobile gamers in this survey said they had upgraded a free trial game to the full or paid version in the past year. And one out of four mobile gamers, or one out of three smartphone gamers, said they had bought "additional content" for a game within the past year.
Also, smartphone users are more likely to buy games than their feature phone-owning counterparts, for obvious reasons. The average smartphone-using mobile gamer bought 5.4 games in 2010, versus the 2.9 games bought by non-smartphone-owning gamers.

Also, the smartphone crowd said they spent more money on games -- $25.57 per user for the year, compared to $15.70 from feature phone owners.

Gadhafi clings to power amid growing support for protests

Tripoli, Libya  -- Embattled Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi flatly denied Monday the existence of the protests threatening to end his 41-year rule, as reports of fighting between government forces and rebels raged another day.
In a joint interview with ABC News' Christiane Amanpour and the BBC, Gadhafi also denied using force against his people, Amanpour reported. Excerpts of the interview were posted on the networks' websites.
"No demonstration at all in the streets," he said, speaking at a restaurant in Tripoli.
Told by the BBC's Jeremy Bowen that he had seen demonstrators in the streets that morning, Gadhafi asked, "Are they supporting us?"
"They love me, all my people with me, they love me all. They will die to protect me, my people," he said.
Government forces have repeatedly clashed with demonstrators over the past two weeks in Libya, fired on crowds and at times shot indiscriminately at people in the streets, numerous witnesses have told CNN. The death toll has topped 1,000, according to an estimate from U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Soon after Gadhafi's interview, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said the Libyan strongman sounded "delusional."
"And when he can laugh in talking to American and international journalists while he is slaughtering his own people, it only underscores how unfit he is to lead and how disconnected he is from reality," she said.
Gadhafi's regime has lost control of parts of the country to rebel forces, and with each passing day more Libyan officials around the world have defected, joining calls for his ouster.
The use of the term "rebel" to describe the anti-government forces is apt, said Kurt Volker, former U.S. ambassador to NATO and now a senior fellow at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Forces.
"In Egypt, you didn't have a force that was developed; you had protesters who were demonstrating against the government and the government relented," he told CNN in a telephone interview. "Here, you actually have a government that retains force at its disposal and you have demonstrators joined by elements of the military that have forces at their disposal. So it really has become an armed rebellion."
Even as Gadhafi sought to project confidence Monday, reports came in that a military jet bombed a military base in an area controlled by rebel forces.
The base is near Ajdabiya, 90 miles south of Benghazi, a stronghold of government opponents. Some bases in the area have fallen into the hands of protesters as more members of the military have abandoned Gadhafi's regime and joined demonstrations.
Several soldiers told CNN they switched their allegiance after refusing to use weapons against peaceful demonstrators.
CNN saw the military jet fly overhead and heard the sounds of explosions. Witnesses reported a bombing at the base.
But Libyan state television later denied any such bombing had occurred. The Temporary General Committee for Defense said reports that the Libyan air force conducted strikes on the ammunition depots in the cities of Ajdabiya and Rajima were false, state TV reported.
While CNN has staff in some cities, the network can not independently confirm reports for many areas in Libya. CNN has gathered information through telephone interviews with witnesses.
Pro-Gadhafi forces also tried to attack a radio station in Misrata, a city controlled by protesters, a witness said. A military chopper with soldiers on board has tried to land a couple of times over the past three days, but the opposition fired at the soldiers and kept them away, the witness said.
The international community, meanwhile, launched new efforts Monday to pressure Gadhafi to halt the violence.
"He has lost his legitimacy when he declared war on his people," Secretary-General Ban said about embattled Libyan leader, urging him to heed the call of his people.
Pentagon spokesman Col. David Lapan said the United States is "repositioning" naval and air forces in the region to be prepared for any option that it may need to exercise. He would not comment on whether any ground forces are being put on alert or having leaves cancelled because of Libya.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said at a meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, of the U.N. Human Rights Council that the United States is exploring "all possible options," and that "nothing is off the table so long as the Libyan government continues to threaten and kill Libyan citizens."
"Colonel Gadhafi and those around him must be held accountable for these acts, which violate international legal obligations and common decency. Through their actions, they have lost the legitimacy to govern. And the people of Libya have made themselves clear: It is time for Gadhafi to go, now, without further violence or delay," she said.
Asked at a news conference whether the U.S. planned an imminent military response, Clinton said, "No."
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Monday that "exile is certainly one option" for Gadhafi. Carney also said the U.S. government is considering the possibility of imposing a no-fly zone over Libya.
Also Monday, the United States became the latest country to announce it had frozen Gadhafi-related assets. The U.S. government froze at least $30 billion in Libyan government assets under U.S jurisdiction after enacting sanctions on Friday, a Treasury official said. It marked the largest amount ever blocked under a sanctions program, according to Acting Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David Cohen.
In Tripoli, protesters stayed off the streets, telling CNN they feared violence. Government officials spread word that thousands of people could die if the popular uprising continues. On the 14th day of protests, there appeared to be a stalemate. Some in Tripoli told CNN they feared their protest movement was losing momentum.
But around the world, support for the protests was growing.
Yet another prominent Libyan official, the country's ambassador to South Africa, added his voice to the calls for Gadhafi to end his nearly 42-year grip on power. Gadhafi "should take the ultimate decision to step down in the interest of Libya," Abdullah Alzubedi told reporters in Pretoria.
The European Union's high representative for foreign affairs, Catherine Ashton, said the U.N. Human Rights Council "has a grave responsibility to ensure that our often-stated intentions are translated into real actions and real progress." Speaking at the meeting in Geneva, Ashton said, "What matters in the end is not the number of resolutions passed but results in the real world."
In an interview with CNN, Ashton said stopping the violence means trying "to persuade the people concerned that they will be held to account, that there will be the International Criminal Court, that we will stop their assets being moved, that we will hold them to account for their actions. That's what we do as an international community. That's what we have to make clear. And there's no doubt in my mind that actually they do listen to what's being said."
The U.N. Security Council over the weekend voted for tough restrictions and possible war crimes charges against the Libyan regime. The Security Council measures -- which include an arms embargo, an asset freeze and travel bans for Gadhafi and members of his family and associates -- also referred the situation unfolding in Libya to the International Criminal Court.
On Sunday, Gadhafi criticized the Security Council resolution, telling private Serbian station Pink TV by phone that council members "took a decision based on media reports that are based abroad." He added, "If the Security Council wants to know about something, they should have sent a fact-finding committee."
The protests, which began February 15, have been fueled largely by people demanding freedom and decrying high unemployment.
As the 68-year-old Gadhafi has appeared increasingly cornered, some Libyan officials have begun to discuss openly what a post-Gadhafi Libyan government would look like.
Over the weekend, Libya's deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Ibrahim Dabbashi, indicated he and fellow diplomats support "in principle" a caretaker administration under the direction of former Justice Minister Mustafa Abdul Jalil.
Jalil quit February 21 to protest the "bloody situation" and "use of excessive force" against unarmed protesters, according to Libyan newspaper Quryna.
Dabbashi told CNN Monday that Gadhafi has asked for a change in Libya's U.N. representation, though the diplomat vowed to stay on to represent the people.
About 100,000 people have fled Libya to Tunisia or Egypt in roughly the past week, the U.N. high commissioner for refugees said Sunday, citing reports from the Tunisian and Egyptian governments. The evacuees include Tunisians, Egyptians, Libyans and many from Asian countries.
Tunisia and Egypt are the two countries that have seen their leaders overthrown in the wave of protests that has swept through the Arab world over the past several weeks.
Tunisians on the border with Libya waved pre-Gadhafi-era Libyan flags in support of the opposition.

The Tunisian army, charities and ordinary Tunisians were trying to help Libyans on the border. Refugees said Tunisians were offering them food, water and the use of phones.