BBC News, March 17, 2011, 10:53 ET Forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi have launched their first bombing raids on the main rebel-held city of Benghazi.
By Gail Russell Chaddock, Christian Science Monitor, March 15, 2011
Republican freshmen revolt, saying the three-week spending bill cuts too little – $6 billion – from the 2011 budget. House Democrats who backed the measure say the GOP rift gives them an edge.
Chancellor Angela Merkel announced Tuesday that her government is taking the seven oldest German nuclear power plants off the grid, at least temporarily, following a meeting with five state premiers....Merkel's move is a U-turn in her energy policy...The decision was made as a direct result of the nuclear disaster currently unfolding at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan.....
By Anthony Shadid, New York Times, March 15, 2011, 10:17pm
Lede: Forces loyal to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi routed insurgents in Ajdabiya, their last defensive line before the rebel capital of Benghazi.
AJDABIYA, Libya......As the shelling intensified Tuesday, hundreds of cars packed with children, mattresses, suitcases — anything that could be grabbed and packed in — careened through the streets as residents fled. Long lines of cars could be seen on the highway heading north to Benghazi, about 100 miles away.....
By Jennifer Steinhauser and Raymond Hernandez, New York Times, March 15, 2011, 2:24pm
Home page lede: Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York is responsible for honing the Democrats’ message and reconciling it with party policies.
Excerpt:....Mr. Schumer must weigh the hopes and dreams of his most liberal members, who crave open ideological battle with Republicans, while watching the backs of moderates, who are pushing for their own deficit-reduction narrative.
CAIRO —Troops from Saudi Arabia and police officers from the United Arab Emirates crossed into Bahrain on Monday under the aegis of the Gulf Cooperation Council to help quell unrest there, a move Bahraini opposition groups denounced in a statement as an “occupation.”
The deployments were confirmed by the state-run Bahrain News Agency and the foreign minister of the Emirates, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahayan....
By Mary Williams Walsh, New York Times Business, March 10/11, 2011
For public workers in Wisconsin, there’s more bad news. Having lost the battle on collective bargaining, they may soon be asked to make more financial sacrifices.....
By Stephen Castle and Matthew Saltmarsh, New York Times Business, March 11/12, 2011
BRUSSELS — European leaders agreed early Saturday to new measures intended to end the euro zone debt crisis, offering the debt-laden Greece a cut in its interest rate and injecting more flexibility into the way a bolstered bailout fund for the euro can be used.
By Ethan Bronner and Kareen Fahim, New York Times, March 12, 2011
CAIRO — The Arab League endorsed a no-flight zone over Libya on Saturday in an effort to end the bloody three-week conflict there. The foreign minister of Oman, Youssef bin Alawi bin Abdullah, said that Arab leaders meeting in Cairo had voted unanimously to ask the United Nations Security Council to impose a no-flight zone over Libya.
By Jim Miklaszewski, Chief Pentagon correspondent, NBC, March 10, 2011
Army Secretary John McHugh has ordered disciplinary action against nine officers for allegedly failing to flag any potential warning signs related to Maj. Nidal Hasan, accused of killing 13 soldiers at Fort Hood in November 2009, NBC News has learned.....
While the Army's investigation found "no single event" that led to the Fort Hood shootings, "certain officers" in Hasan's chain of command "failed to meet the high standards expected of them," McHugh found.
The leaders of the Senate Budget Committee sternly warned the Pentagon on Thursday that it faces a future of budget cuts. Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) warned that the Pentagon will have to live with cuts, just like every other agency in Washington....
.....The clash with protesters in the heavily Shiite region underscored long-standing tensions in Saudi society: A sense among its Shiite minority that it is discriminated against by a government practicing a zealous form of Sunni orthodoxy.
By Ewen MacAskill in Washington and Ian Traynor in Brussels,
Guardian.co.uk, March 10, 2011 20.33 GMT
Victory for US as agreement to move warships closer to Libya falls far short of measures called for by Britain and France
Nato has agreed at a meeting of defence ministers in Brussels to move warships in the Mediterranean closer to Libya to increase surveillance and monitor the arms embargo against the country.
