Americans worried by soaring tuition fees

AFP/Getty Images/File – Students are seen going about their business at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). The spectacular …

by Virginie Montet – 2 hrs 15 mins ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The spectacular rise in US college tuition fees is becoming a serious problem for students and many American families as they grapple with the worst economic crisis since the 1930s.

In the past week Michigan State University announced a 7% tuition hike, Oklahoma State University raised its tuition by 4.8% and the University of Nebraska increased its prices by 5% for incoming undergraduates.

"College prices have been going up faster than any others costs in the American economy, faster even than healthcare and certainly faster than inflation and family income," said Patrick Callan, Founder of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education.

"What we see in this economic downturn is an acceleration of a trend that's been going on for three decades and it shifts more and more cost on students and families."

Anger at federal budget cuts to education spilled over into nationwide protests in March and April and students are clearly struggling to cope with the added financial burden.

Natalie Papini will be a junior this year at Middle Tennessee State University, where officials have proposed a 9.8% increase in fees and tuition, according to online publication Inside Higher Ed.

"I just think it's this never-ending cycle. I just see it keep going up and not going down," said Papini, who receives multiple scholarships but still rents her text books rather than buying them.

"We wouldn't turn on the heat in the winter to save money and we don't drive anywhere if we don't have to," she told AFP.

Of the more than 2,000 universities offering undergraduate courses in the United States, there is a wide range of pricing, a senior economist at Pew Research Center, Richard Fry, told AFP.

A good portion of those universities, mostly state and regional schools, cost between $3,000 and $9,000 each year (not including food and lodging), while another spectrum of prices at private universities costs students an average of between $21,000 and $42,000 each year. Less than 2% of universities cost more than $42,000 a year.

According to CollegeBoard, which monitors trends in higher education, only one third of full-time students attend college without some form of financial aid, and more and more students are resorting to loans to make ends meet.

"The way the middle-income families have been paying for this big run-up in price is by borrowing. So student loans have been going up dramatically and every graduate class has borrowed more money," Callan said.

Total education borrowing increased by 10% between 2009 and 2010, according to CollegeBoard and according to the most recent data from 2008, 61% of dependant students from families with incomes between $60,000 and $90,000 had a median education debt of $17,000.

That number goes up for those at private nonprofit institutions where 75% of students have a median debt of $21,100 dollars and at for-profit colleges 99% finished with an average debt load of $34,600.

"Most people are going to start asking: is the benefit really worth it to go to a more expensive place or can you get a good education at these other places," Callan said.

According to a study published in May by Pew Research, 57% of Americans think that "the higher education system in the US fails to provide students with good value for the money they and their families spend."

"Nevertheless it's much better to go to college than not go to college, even in a bad economy the unemployment rate among college graduates is lower than it is for non-college graduates," said Callan.

Fry said college enrollment was still at an all-time high, partly because people are prepared to fork out more because ultimately it pays career-wise to get into the more expensive schools.

But the soaring tuition fees are putting up obstacles to America's much-vaunted upward mobility. "The system as a whole has become more stratified by income," said Callan.

Community colleges with lower prices ($2,700 on average) -- typically offering two-year vocational courses on simpler no-frills campuses -- are filling up with double-digit application growth over the past two years.

"This recession has been so deep and so much more prolonged that it has really driven this very record enrollment in our colleges," said Norma Kent, spokeswoman for the American Association of Community Colleges.

In NY, gay marriage law brings wedding plans

AP – Paola Perez, left, and her partner Linda Collazo, march in the annual Gay Pride parade in Greenwich Village, …

By VERENA DOBNIK, Associated Press – 2 hrs 37 mins ago

NEW YORK – It was a weekend of wedding proposals, wedding plans and earnest thanks. The hard-won right to same-sex marriage in New York state gave way to joyous thoughts of trips down the aisle becoming a reality, not just a dream, for many thousands of gay couples.

"New York has sent a message to the nation," Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Sunday before the colorful extravaganza that is New York City's annual gay pride parade. "It is time for marriage equality."

When Cuomo signed the gay marriage bill just before midnight Friday, New York became the sixth and largest state in the country to legalize gay marriage, reinvigorating the national gay rights movement that had stalled over a nearly identical bill in New York two years ago. The 33-29 vote by the state Senate followed days of contentious negotiations, the courting of undecided Republicans and opposition from influential religious groups. Pending any court challenges, the law takes effect in 30 days.

"We've been waiting to get married in Central Park for years, and now we got here just in time for history to be made," said Bryce Croft of Kettering, Ohio, who attended the parade festivities with her partner, Stephanie Croft.

The two women are not yet legally married although they share the same name, and they are in the process of moving to New York and getting married. They were in a Manhattan restaurant late Friday when they learned that the bill had passed.

"We cried over dinner, right into the mozzarella sticks," Stephanie Croft said, adding that they had already selected a spot in Central Park — the boulder she had marked with Bryce's name two years ago.

As he joined the parade procession, John Haracopos wore a T-shirt that declared, "Some dudes marry other dudes. Get over it." He and his partner regard the new law as a legal rubber-stamping of what they did years ago.

"We got married in the oldest church in Paris. And it was just us and God," said Haracopos, a 46-year-old hair stylist. Still, the pair plans to hold another ceremony in New York to ensure their relationship is fully recognized by the law.

His partner, Peter Marinos, a 59-year-old Broadway actor, wore a T-shirt of his own that said, "Marriage is so gay."

"Thank you, Governor Cuomo" and "Promise kept" read signs lining both sides of Manhattan's Fifth Avenue.

"I'm really, really proud of New York," said Hannah Thielmann, a student at Fordham University in the Bronx who attended with her girlfriend, Christine Careaga.

The couple, both 20, were dressed as brides, with Careaga in a white veil and Thielmann wearing a black top hat and a sash that said, "Bride to Be."

Careaga said her mother called her crying tears of joy after the New York Senate voted on the marriage bill.

"Every mother wants her child to be happily married," Careaga said.

Same-sex marriage licenses also are granted by Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont, plus Washington, D.C., and the Coquille Indian Tribe in Oregon.

"This year's gay parade is different — it's electric!" said Mayor Michael Bloomberg's longtime companion, Diana Taylor. "You can really feel it, it's so exciting."

Cuomo marched with his girlfriend, Food Network personality Sandra Lee, Bloomberg and openly gay elected officials, including New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and state Assemblyman Daniel O'Donnell — Rosie O'Donnell's gay brother — who introduced the bill last month.

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly marched at the head of a group of gay NYPD officers, right behind the official police band. At the end of the parade, a female officer proposed publicly to her fiancee, also an officer, who accepted. They quickly vanished into the crowd.

New York's parade ended near the site where gays rebelled against authorities and repressive laws outside the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village on June 28, 1969 — an event that gave rise to the gay rights movement.

"If New York can do it, it's all right for everyone else in the country to do it," Cuomo said before the parade.

A Host of Views on How Post-Tsunami Japan Can Move Forward

– Fri Jun 24, 3:45 pm ET

March 11 - Japan's Zero Hour

Yoichi Funabashi

FORMER EDITOR IN CHIEF OF THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

The earthquake of March 11, 2011, changed the geography of Japan - literally. Digital maps and GPS devices are likely to deviate by more than 5 m as a result. Beyond this geological shift, aftershocks from the earthquake are reverberating across many dimensions of Japanese life, creating upheaval in our politics, economy, social institutions and foreign relations. In ways many Japanese never before experienced, our national spirit has been shaken.

Throughout Japanese history, seismic disasters have often seemed to mark the dramatic end of an era. The momentous question now is what sort of change the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake will delineate. Japan can no longer afford the delusions of "graceful decline" or "small is beautiful" - notions that appealed to many prior to March 11. Our choice is rebirth or ruin.

Unfathomable losses are the most immediate consequence of the earthquake and tsunami. Some are at least measurable, or will be in the foreseeable future - in particular, the toll in lost lives, vanished communities and destroyed property. But the losses are intangible as well. The compound crisis of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear emergency has shattered Japan's image as a land of safety and security. Instead of viewing Japan as a haven of immunity from danger and inconvenience, many around the world now perceive the country as fraught with peril and discomfort. This perception is certain to have an effect on foreign investment and the nation's appeal as a destination for tourists.

Another consequence of the disaster is a crisis of trust. The government has performed inadequately in sharing information with the Japanese public as well as the rest of the world. Unfortunately, Japan's ineptness in communication and global literacy is a long-standing problem. More fundamental in this regard is the exposure of the too cozy relationship between an elite cadre at Tokyo Electric Power Company and officials at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. The lack of transparency and accountability has undermined faith in Japan's ability to manage risks properly and effectively.

Well before March 11, Japan's vulnerabilities included its fault-ridden land, a heavy reliance on oil and nuclear power, a rapidly aging population, isolated local communities and bloated national debt. But these vulnerabilities have become more pronounced since the last comparable event, the 1995 earthquake in Kobe. Within this same time frame, the number of people ages 65 and over has increased to 29 million, or 22.7% of the population, from 18.3 million, or 14.5%.

The events of March 11 could make Japan more fragile. The three hardest-hit prefectures - Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima - are struggling with the destruction of entire municipalities, the departure of tens of thousands of people, the abandonment of agriculture by many elderly farmers and the uninhabitability of vast expanses of land because of radiation fears. Companies will move their factories to other regions, perhaps overseas, because of power shortages and damaged infrastructure.

At the same time, the March 11 disaster highlighted the national strengths that provide the most promising grounds for hope. The Japanese people gained a newfound sense of unity and solidarity as they witnessed the patience, courtesy and fortitude of those who lost homes and loved ones. The victims' ability to maintain social order even as civilization seemed to crumble about them was not only heartwarming but confidence-inspiring. Japan has also reaped rewards in the form of sympathy and support from abroad for the role it has played as a global civilian power, including its involvement in developmental assistance, environmental protection and disarmament. But the task ahead will require a sustained and intense focus on recovery and rebirth.

First, Japan needs to strengthen public policies aimed at protecting the lives and assets of its people from threats such as natural disasters and major technological malfunctions. Next, the switch from an energy structure that relies on oil and nuclear power to one based on renewable energy is a must. We should set our long-term sights on becoming a green society, with energy needs met by solar power and other renewable sources. Third, Japan faces challenges in its nation-rebuilding exercise that relate to the type of country it wants to be. One consideration is the concentration of population, government and industry in Tokyo. The clustering of so much power, wealth and knowledge looks more than ever like a massive risk. At the time of the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923, the government considered, and then rejected, the idea of relocating the capital. Perhaps this time, the decision should be different. From the perspective of risk management, decentralizing government operations to other parts of the country would be desirable.

On March 16, Emperor Akihito spoke to the nation, expressing his sympathy for the victims and gratitude to emergency responders and other relief workers. Before his statement, the Emperor declared voluntary power cuts in the Imperial Palace and residences, displaying solidarity with the disaster victims and the Japanese people.

Many people took the Emperor's message to be the most weighty of its kind since the Aug. 15, 1945, radio broadcast by his father, Emperor Hirohito, announcing the country's surrender in World War II. Then the Japanese people heard the Emperor acknowledge that they were "enduring the unendurable and suffering the unsufferable." For Japanese of a certain age, where they were and what they were doing during that broadcast has long been considered a turning point in their lives. In the same way, 2:46 p.m., March 11, 2011 - the moment the earth cracked in Tohoku - will mark "zero hour" for the Japanese people for years to come.

Shortly after the earthquake, several friends remarked on the phenomenon that Mount Fuji had gleamed as brilliantly as they had ever seen it in the week following March 11. Those words imbued me with a fervent desire for Japan again to rise, with all the majesty of that snow-covered summit. At the same time, a feeling of melancholy overcame me as I reflected on the pulsating spirit of noble purity that welled up among the people immediately after the earthquake and tsunami.

The images of victims "enduring the unendurable" were both wrenching and uplifting. However, somewhere in those images I sensed resignation and fatalism. Does "enduring the unendurable" not resemble our resignation over the political leaders who have repeatedly betrayed us? This resignation is what I fear most.

Political leadership and a constructive contribution by the media will be critical factors. Whether these factors will be sufficient remains to be seen, but this much is certain: in the past 20 years, never have I been more sanguine about prospects for Japan's rebirth. There is an overflow of will and hope among the Japanese people as they begin rebuilding their country.

All of the above explains my cautiousness - and my optimism. I believe that Japan will be reborn.

How to Drive Change
Carlos Ghosn
CHAIRMAN AND CEO OF RENAULT-NISSAN ALLIANCE

Japan's resilience in the aftermath of the Tohoku earthquake has reminded the world of this nation's extraordinary capacity to face adversity and pull together. So much was lost. And yet, as I watch Japan come to grips with this enormous tragedy, I am filled with admiration, respect and hope. The social and cultural values demonstrated by Japan's people with such dignity, calm and resolve amid the catastrophe reaffirm my faith in the country's ability to rally in the face of almost any challenge. My regard for those values underlies my faith that the Japanese people can not only recover from the damage inflicted by the earthquake but also address their nation's long-term challenges.

Three particular values come to mind. First, there is the quality of service. No other country has the same kind of reliable and predictable consumer relations, underpinned by modesty and humbleness. Second, the Japanese value simplicity. Finally, the Japanese excel in process. No one executes like the Japanese; they embody focus, discipline, relentless effort and quality combined with a respect for hierarchy.

Many people believe Japan is resistant to change, that transforming Japanese companies is impossible. That's not true. You can make any change you want in Japan, with a few conditions: you need to simplify the change, explain it and connect the change with people. If you can do those things, you can do anything. In my experience, change is much easier here than in any other country. Japanese people take time to understand change and the reasons for it. And when they get it, they move - fast.

I know Japanese companies can change, but successful globalization, particularly in emerging markets, will put them to the test. Japanese companies will find it increasingly difficult to compete globally without understanding and embracing diversity. At the most basic level, diversity in Japan means having more women in the workforce. The country needs more active people, and the most obvious resource is women. I don't think Japan has a choice here. Women will have to play a much bigger role and take much more responsibility in business and society than they currently do.

People who say they do not have much hope for Japan don't really understand Japan. The country clings to the status quo not because people don't want to change but because sometimes their leaders don't have a clear sense of direction. How can people follow leaders who are lost? If there is one recommendation I would make to Japan's corporate leaders, it is to take the time to form a vision, simplify it, explain it and make it meaningful to people. If you can do those things in Japan, the people will make change happen.

Poised for Prosperity
Jesper Koll
MANAGING DIRECTOR, HEAD OF JAPANESE EQUITY RESEARCH AT JPMORGAN SECURITIES JAPAN

I have one of the most difficult jobs in the world. I'm a professional Japan optimist. I've been singing Japan's praises since arriving in Tokyo in 1986. Unfortunately of late, I have found it harder and harder to maintain credibility.

To be a Japan optimist, it is essential to consider both the demand and supply sides of the national economy and to remember that on both sides obstacles to renewed dynamism are surmountable. On the supply side, Japan's economy is constrained by excessive rules and regulations. On the demand side, it suffers from popular anxiety about underfunded pensions and the possible bankruptcy of public services. Wise leaders can fix both problems with relative ease. The government sends mixed messages on national goals. Privatization of the postal savings system? Yes! Then ... no. Fiscal consolidation? Yes, then no, then maybe. Such unpredictability has had a predictable result. Japan's bewildered firms have slowly but surely curtailed investment at home. What's killing the Japanese economy is not the strong yen or high tax rates. It is the lack of clear focus in public policy.

What should that focus be? First, Japanese economic policy must come to the rescue of the nation's producers and entrepreneurs. Business investment and private risk taking are what create jobs and incomes. Examples abound of highly successful new entrepreneurs in Japan. The problem is that the successes have been largely restricted to retail, a sector that was the focus of deregulation during the 1990s, and "new economy" sectors involving the Internet and digital media that escaped entanglement in the regulatory dragnet.

Deregulation and market-oriented policies could unlock private risk capital and entrepreneurship in Japan. In key sectors of the Japanese economy, regulations strangle growth. Specifically, policy should promote producers in sectors where Japan has natural strengths. I see at least four areas in which Japan has the potential to leverage inherent social and cultural attributes to realize substantial economic returns:

• Rojin power. No country is better suited to create a network of health care facilities, retirement communities, hospices and the like that would set new global standards for how societies provide for their rojin, or seniors.

• Soft power. Given the global admiration for Japanese fashion, design, new media and architecture, the country can become a magnet for firms in those fields from all over the world.

• Agripower. With a shift in focus to eco-food, safe food and innovative food, even Japan's famously inefficient farmers could become world beaters.

• Destination power. Since neighboring countries are generating millions of newly prosperous citizens who want to tour the world, Japan should make itself much more inviting to these travelers.

None of these activities involve significant manufacturing. Each is labor-intensive, offering reasonable pay for jobs requiring relatively high levels of education and creativity.

Poll after poll finds that Japan's citizens are anxious about the future. Among their biggest fears: uncertainty about whether the state's promises to cover graceful retirement can be honored. This uncertainty drives workers to save much of their paychecks, depresses demand and worsens the vicious deflationary cycles.

Magic bullets are rare in public policy, but in this case, one is available: Japan should pass a law that automatically raises the consumption tax from its current 5% level by an additional percentage point every year. And this law must leave unspecified how many consecutive years this step-up is supposed to happen.

Not all optimists are starry-eyed; my confidence in Japan is rooted in reality. Empowering people and entrepreneurs and enacting sensible tax increases can put Japan back on a track toward prosperity.

The More Things Change

Pico Iyer

JAPAN-BASED AUTHOR AND ESSAYIST

One Japanese individual commits suicide every 15 minutes. Perhaps a million Japanese are hikikomori, meaning that they almost never leave their houses. Even as the country is suffering through one recession after another - shuttered stores seem to be as common as departing Prime Ministers - the social fabric of my adopted home, sustained and refined over centuries, is beginning to crack. Some older couples are hiring young actresses to visit them on Sundays to say, "Hi, Mom! Hi, Pop!" because their own daughters no longer do. (See pictures of a world of deep despair among young Japanese women.)

Yet even as all the external registers suggest a society in decline, and even after the horrifying earthquake and tsunami of March 2011 literally reduced parts of the country to rubble, the Japan I see around me seems much stronger and more durable than statistics suggest. It remains the pop-cultural model that countries from Taiwan to Singapore are keen to follow in its street fashions, its gizmos, its convenience stores. Japan is still a byword for quality and efficiency. Its people, in moments of stress (as after the tsunami), summon a fortitude and a community spirit at which the rest of the world rightly marvels. And when Richard Florida at the Rotman School of Management in Toronto conducted a survey of 45 countries a few years ago, Japan ranked first in the values index - a register of how much the country holds to the traditional. For Florida, this ranking was not an advantage, but for those who worry that Japan has left its past behind without ever quite arriving at an international future, the result could be both a surprise and a consolation.

As I look around the city I've made my home - at the deer grazing just outside the glass-and-concrete city hall - it's hard not to wonder if the country's strength lies not in its future but in its past, at least in the traditional sense that time moves around rather than always pressing forward. Fashions change in Japan, famously, more furiously than anywhere else, and there are few places more full of surging crowds, flashing images and all the apparatus of tomorrow. But the ideas underlying all these spinning surfaces often suggest that progress is cyclical, not linear, that moments keep returning as the seasons do and that change itself can be a constant. Every year, the details shift - but the pattern looks very much the same.

The recent power and popularity of Japan, such as it is, has come not from its trying to diminish its distance from the world so much as from trying to turn that distance to advantage. The brilliant miniaturism of its TVs and smart phones arises from a land that has long liked to work in small spaces - think haiku and bonsai. The manga and anime that have swept the pop-cultural globe come from a culture that has long thought in images more readily than in words. The planetary phenomenon that Yorkshiremen call "carry-oke" derives from a country whose people are at once publicly shy and yet strikingly confident when it comes to playing a part.

Japan has long been less like anywhere else than anywhere else I know, and when the country sees that as a strength, it finds its place on the international stage. Who would have thought, for example, that people from Bombay to Rio would be devouring raw fish? In an era of globalization, the local has a new and particular force.

Their economy is stalled, their political system looks bankrupt, their land was hit by an apocalyptic series of traumas, and their kids are acting out. But when Japan looks toward the future - and this was not the case in the England I grew up in or in California when I lived there - it sees something that looks as familiar as the falling leaves and brilliant skies of November. The things that don't change give a meaning and a perspective to the many things that do. Autumn turns to winter, and then to spring again.

Excerpted from Reimagining Japan: The Quest for a Future That Works, edited by McKinsey & Co., Clay Chandler, Heang Chhor and Brian Salsberg (VIZ Media, 2011). © McKinsey & Co.

Chavez's odd silence raises questions in Venezuela

AP – In this photo downloaded from the state media Cubadebate web site, Cuba's Fidel Castro, left, pays a …

By CHRISTOPHER TOOTHAKER, Associated Press – 2 mins ago

CARACAS, Venezuela – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is one of the world's most talkative leaders and his prolonged silence and seclusion in Cuba following surgery there two weeks ago is fueling speculation about his health.

Government officials have offered repeated assurances that Chavez is recovering well in Havana, but many Venezuelans are wondering if they are getting the true story.

Venezuelans are accustomed to near daily speeches and television appearances by Chavez that can last several hours, even when he's traveling abroad.

Yet nobody has heard him speak since he talked by telephone with Venezuelan state television on June 12, saying he was quickly recovering from surgery two days earlier for a pelvic abscess. Chavez, who turns 57 next month, said medical tests showed no sign of any "malignant" illness.

The only glimpse of Chavez came when the Cuban government released photos of the Venezuelan leader at the hospital with Fidel Castro and Cuban President Raul Castro on June 17. In one, Chavez has his hand on 80-year-old Raul Castro's shoulder.

Venezuelan officials have limited their comments on Chavez's health to saying that he's recuperating and have provided few details. It is not even clear exactly when he will return to Venezuela.

Chavez's Twitter site carried a message on Friday saluting Venezuela's military on a national holiday, though he did not provide any information about his health.

"A big hug to my soldiers and to my beloved people," the message read. "From here, I am with you in the hard work every day."

Before his pelvic surgery, a knee injury forced Chavez to postpone a trip to Brazil, Ecuador and Cuba.

Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro urged Venezuelans on Friday to wish for Chavez's complete recovery and express their "most authentic love so that his health is re-established."

"We've maintained constant communication with him and he's informed of all country's events," Maduro told state television.

Maduro offered no details on Chavez's health.

The paucity of information has fed a stream of speculation about the socialist president's condition as well as outlandish gossip on both sides of Venezuela's deep political divide.

Some people suspect Chavez has been diagnosed with a life-threatening illness such as prostate or colon cancer while others claim doctors botched liposuction surgery and he suffered an infection.

Authorities have sought to quash such talk.

"In response to all the rumors, I can testify that the president is recovering in a satisfactory manner," Adan Chavez, one of the leader's brothers who is a state governor, told state television Wednesday. "The president is a strong man."

He added that "it's not clear" when his younger brother would return home, but said the president is expected to leave Cuba within 10 to 12 days.

Those comments did little to calm the consternation of Chavez supporters or appease government critics who accuse officials of trying to dupe Venezuelans.

"I fear his condition could be worse than they want to tell us, but I trust in God the president isn't in danger," said Magalis Gonzalez, a street vendor who was among about 100 Chavez supporters who attended a prayer meeting in downtown Caracas on Thursday to wish the president a speedy recovery.

The president's opponents have criticized government officials for providing few details on Chavez's health and raised concerns he may not be fit to continue his duties as president. The latter idea was rejected by Vice President Elias Jaua, who said Chavez is attending to his day-to-day government duties while recuperating.

In an editorial published Thursday, the opposition-siding newspaper El Nacional complained that "incompetent Cabinet ministers are turning this into a complete mystery or a state secret that creates uncertainty and anxiety within the population."

"Nobody understands why the state of the president's health is being hidden," it said.

Officials say Chavez underwent surgery June 10 for a pelvic abscess, which is an accumulation of pus that can have various causes, including infection or surgical complications. Neither Chavez nor doctors treating him have disclosed what caused the abscess.

Dr. Demetrios Braddock, an associate professor of pathology at Yale University's School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, said surgery for a pelvic abscess is not usually difficult, although complications can arise if doctors discover a digestive disease such as diverticulitis.

Diverticulitis, which is most commonly found in the large intestine, involves the formation of pouches on the outside of the colon. Braddock said the disease can be potentially life-threatening if a perforation of the colonic wall occurs, allowing feces to pass into the pelvic cavity and causing infections.

"Any number of things could be happening," Braddock said in a telephone interview. "It's impossible to know for sure without being familiar with this particular case."

Syrian forces kill 15 protesters, activists say

Reuters – Newly arrived Syrian refugees walk to their tents in the Turkish border town of Reyhanli in Hatay province …

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis – 1 hr 19 mins ago

AMMAN (Reuters) – Syrian security forces shot dead at least 15 people on Friday after tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets demanding the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad, witnesses and activists said.

"Tell the world Bashar is without legitimacy," shouted several thousand protesters in the Damascus suburb of Irbin, the chants audible in a phone call to a witness at the protest.

The Local Coordination Committees, a main activists' group, said it had the names of 14 civilians killed in the merchant city of Homs, the impoverished town of Kiswa south of Damascus and in the residential district of Barzeh in the capital.

Another protester was shot dead in the town of Qusair, a rights group said.

Syrian state television blamed the killings in Barzeh on armed men who authorities say are behind the violence in the three-month uprising, and said members of security forces were wounded. Syria has expelled most foreign journalists making it hard to verify witness accounts or official statements.

The state news agency Sana said tens of thousands rallied in Damascus governorate in support of the "comprehensive reform process" led by Assad. It also reported a pro-Assad event in the eastern governorate of Deir al-Zor. The agency carried pictures of crowds carrying Syrian flags and pictures of Assad.

In Barzeh, a resident who gave his name only as Hussam, told Reuters by telephone: "The security police first used teargas then they started shooting from rooftops when shouting against Assad continued. Three youths were killed and I saw two bodies shot in the head and the chest."

In the central cities of Homs and Hama, protesters shouted "the people want the downfall of the regime," while in Deraa, cradle of the uprising, people waved banners rejecting Assad's promise in a speech this week to launch a national dialogue.

Deraa protesters chanted slogans urging people in Damascus, which has seen fewer demonstrations than rural protest centres, to follow their lead. "People of Damascus, here in Deraa we toppled the regime," they chanted.

Protests also erupted in western coastal cities and eastern provinces near Iraq. Syrian troops swept to the northern border with Turkey on Thursday, prompting another 1,500 refugees to flee across the frontier into camps which Turkish officials say now host more than 11,000 refugees.

Syrian television said on Friday army units were "completing their deployment" in border villages. It said there had been no casualties during the operation and that soldiers were greeted with traditional welcomes of flowers and rice by residents.

Assad's repression of the protests, in which Syrian rights groups say more than 1,300 civilians have been killed, has triggered Western condemnation and a gradual escalation of U.S. and European Union economic sanctions against Syrian leaders.

Syrian authorities blame Islamist militants and armed gangs for killing more than 200 police and security personnel.

On Friday the European Union announced extended sanctions against Syria, including against three commanders of Iran's Revolutionary Guard accused of helping Damascus curb dissent. Syria denies Iran has played any role in tackling the unrest.

Four Syrian officials were also targeted, bringing to 34 the number of individuals and entities on the list which already includes Assad and his top officials.

Despite strong rhetoric among against Assad from Western leaders, there has been no suggestion they plan to go beyond economic sanctions to tougher action such as the military intervention launched against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

WASHINGTON WORRIED

The United States, which has also imposed targeted sanctions on Syrian officials, said a reported Syrian army move to surround and target the town of Khirbat al-Joz just 500 metres (yards) from the Turkish border was a worrying development.

"Unless the Syrian forces immediately end their attacks and their provocations that are not only now affecting their own citizens but (raising) the potential of border clashes, then we're going to see an escalation of conflict in the area," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.

The crackdown has caused a crisis in Assad's once-warm relations with Turkey, which has become strongly critical.

Clinton said she had discussed the situation with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, and President Barack Obama had discussed it with Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.

Davutoglu, who said Erdogan would speak to Assad on Friday, talked to Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem on Thursday and Ankara summoned the Syrian ambassador.

In an apparent easing of Ankara's criticism, Davutoglu said Assad's speech contained "positive elements in it as signals of reform," but said it was important that action followed.

At the border, only a few Syrian troops were visible on Friday, some occupying a building on a hill overlooking the border, directly across from the Turkish village of Guvecci.

Three Syrian soldiers were manning a sand-bagged machinegun post on top of a house in the Syrian border village of Khirbat al-Joz. Camps on the Syrian side of the border fence appeared deserted and no more refugees were crossing.

The United States has steadily sharpened its rhetoric toward Assad, saying he is losing credibility and must either implement promised reforms or get out of the way.

Protests have grown in northern areas following military assaults on towns and villages in the Jisr al-Shughour region of Idlib province, west of Aleppo, that sent more than 10,000 people fleeing across the 840-km (520-mile) border with Turkey.

Syrian television said hundreds of people were heading back to Jisr al-Shughour. A refugee who said he was at Yayladagi camp said on Thursday a delegation of notables from the city told people it was safe to go back, but that refugees told them there would be "no return until the fall of the (Assad) regime."

Syria, a mostly Sunni nation of 20 million with Kurdish, Alawite and Christian minorities, is vulnerable to sectarian tensions. Assad belongs to the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, and his opponents say he increasingly relies on loyalist Alawite troops and irregulars known as 'shabbiha'.

(Additional reporting by Omer Berberoglu and Umit Bektas in Guvecci, Turkey, Simon Cameron-Moore and Ibon Villelabeitia in Ankara, Suleiman al-Khalidi in Amman, Andrew Quinn in Washington; Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by Alistair Lyon)

Cries of support at pro-Gadhafi rally in Tripoli

AP – In this photo taken on a government-organized tour Libyan women chant and hold Moammar Gadhafi's portraits …

By ADAM SCHRECK, Associated Press – 5 mins ago

TRIPOLI, Libya – Supporters of Moammar Gadhafi rallied Thursday in Tripoli after the Libyan leader lashed out at NATO over civilian casualties, calling the alliance "murderers" following an airstrike on the family home of a close associate.

A few hundred supporters, most of them women, gathered in the capital's Green Square hours after the late-night speech, vowing to defend the Libyan leader against rebels seeking to oust him and NATO forces giving them air support.

Gadhafi also warned the alliance that its more than three-month mission in Libya is a "crusader's campaign" that could come back to haunt the West.

"What you are doing will rebound against you and against the world with destruction, desolation and terrorism. You are launching a second crusader war that might extend to Africa, Europe and America," he said in an audio address first aired on Libyan state television late Wednesday.

"Go on and attack us for two years, three years or even 10 years. But in the end, the aggressor is the one who will lose. One day we will be able to retaliate in the same way, and your houses will be legitimate targets for us," Gadhafi added.

The defiant address was the first from the Libyan leader since NATO targeted a compound Monday owned by Khoweildi al-Hamidi, a longtime regime insider whose daughter is married to one of Gadhafi's sons.

Gadhafi blasted the alliance for that strike, calling NATO "criminals" and "savages" and asking rhetorically: "Is this house a military target?"

Libya says 19 people, including at least three children and other civilians, were killed in that strike near the town of Surman, some 40 miles (60 kilometers) west of Tripoli. NATO has called the compound a "command and control" center and says it regrets any civilian deaths.

That bombing came a day after NATO acknowledged that one of its airstrikes may have slammed into a civilian neighborhood in Tripoli. Libyan officials said nine civilians were killed in that strike, though a family member told The Associated Press at the scene that five people died.

NATO is investigating what happened in the Tripoli neighborhood strike and insists it goes to great lengths not to harm civilians.

A coalition including France, Britain and the United States began striking Gadhafi's forces under a United Nations resolution to protect civilians on March 19. NATO assumed control of the air campaign over Libya on March 31. It's joined by a number of Arab allies.

Meanwhile, judges at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, said they will rule Monday on whether to order the arrest of Gadhafi for allegedly orchestrating deadly attacks on civilians.

A warrant would turn Gadhafi into an internationally wanted war crimes suspect at risk of detention if he ever ventured outside Libya.

A judicial panel will also announce whether it will issue arrest warrants for Gadhafi's son Seif al-Islam and intelligence chief Abdullah al-Sanoussi.

Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo alleges Gadhafi's forces attacked civilians in their homes, shot at demonstrators, shelled funeral processions and deployed snipers to kill people leaving mosques during the violent crackdown on rebels.

The International Committee of the Red Cross on Thursday began sea transfer of Libyans separated from their families by the fighting. The humanitarian organization, aided by the Libyan Red Crescent, said it plans to take three boatloads of people from Tripoli to the de facto rebel capital of Benghazi. Others will be taken in the opposite direction.

Rebels control the eastern third of the country and pockets in the west. Libyans living in rebel-held areas are largely cut off from their countrymen in areas under Gadhafi's control.

Italy, which is participating in the NATO campaign, expressed concern Wednesday about the accidental killing of civilians in alliance airstrikes and called for a suspension in hostilities to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid.

But NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in a video message on the NATO website the alliance would press on with its mission in Libya because stopping would mean more civilians could lose their lives.

"Remember, the Gadhafi regime began this conflict by attacking its own people with sustained and systematic violence — not NATO," Rasmussen said.

In the Czech capital, Prague, British Prime Minister David Cameron told reporters the coalition needs to be patient and persistent in the Libya mission, countering growing skepticism in the West over the military campaign.

"Time is on our side. Time is not on the side of Col. Gadhafi, who is losing his leading military commanders, who has lost his foreign minister, who has lost his oil minister, who's lost most of his country, who is losing in the west of the country where the rebellion is growing," Cameron said.

Reports of civilian deaths in NATO strikes have provoked intense anger among Gadhafi supporters.

Pro-Gadhafi demonstrators rallying in Tripoli on Thursday railed against NATO for striking civilians. Some women at the demonstration came armed, vowing to fight to defend their country and its leader.

"Everyone is training (to fight) since high school for a day like today," said dentist Hanin Khalil, 30, an aging Beretta submachine gun slung over her shoulder. "Not only (I) have a weapon. All people have their weapons to protect themselves from NATO."

Despite the heavy security presence, not everyone in the iconic central square was behind the longtime Libyan leader.

One young man in a white compact car driving around the square spotted two Western journalists and yelled in English from the passenger seat.

"Gadhafi, he go down," he said while pointing his thumb toward the ground as the car sped away.

___

Associated Press writers Maamoun Youssef in Cairo and Don Melvin in Brussels contributed to this report.

Canada says documents clear troops of wrongdoing

– Wed Jun 22, 6:13 pm ET

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada released thousands of pages of declassified documents on Wednesday, which it said supported its claims that its soldiers played no role in the mistreatment of prisoners in Afghanistan.

The Conservative government has been dogged for years by allegations that military and political officials ignored evidence that Afghan authorities were torturing detainees handed over by Canadian troops stationed there.

The more than 4,000 pages of documents showed that Canada had met its international obligations on the treatment of prisoners, Foreign Minister John Baird told reporters in Ottawa.

"(The documents show) that the allegations are unfounded and critics' accusations of Canadian complicity with torture or even war crimes are simply not true," said Baird, who spoke to reporters before the documents were made public.

But an opposition lawmaker who had access to documents before they were released said the material showed Canadian officials knew there was a huge risk the prisoners they were handing over to Afghan authorities might be mistreated.

"It is impossible to reconcile (the government's) statements with the documents," Liberal Stephane Dion told CBC, saying the documents raised new questions about Canada's conduct.

Reports of abuse prompted Ottawa to sign a deal with the Afghan government in May 2007 allowing officials unfettered access to any prisoners handed over by Canadian troops to investigate allegations of mistreatment.

International law would have prohibited Canadian forces from turning the prisoners over to Afghan authorities if they knew they were likely to be tortured.

The government, which had initially balked at releasing the documents, again rejected calls for a public inquiry, saying the process had already cost C$12 million ($12.4 million) without finding any credible allegations of wrongdoing.

The documents were reviewed by a parliamentary committee and a panel of judges, who screened them for national security and diplomatic concerns before their public release. Baird did not say how many documents were kept secret on those grounds.

Defense Minister Peter MacKay accused opposition parties of attempting "sensationalize" the issue for political gain.

The main opposition New Democratic Party questioned the timing of the document release, saying it came in a way that meant lawmakers would not be allowed to debate any concerns raised in the material

"It's a very cynical approach," NDP leader Jack Layton said.

The document release comes as Canada has begun withdrawing its nearly 2,800 troops from the Kandahar region of southern Afghanistan. Its forces have suffered more than 150 casualties.

($1=$0.97 Canadian)

(Writing by Allan Dowd in Vancouver; editing by Rob Wilson)

Lisicki sends Li crashing out of Wimbledon

AFP – Chinese player Li Na returns the ball to German player Sabine Lisicki during the women's single at …

by Dave James – 33 mins ago

LONDON (AFP) – China's French Open champion Li Na crashed out of Wimbledon on Thursday, losing 3-6, 6-4, 8-6 to German wildcard Sabine Lisicki in the second round.

Third seeded Li, who made the quarter-finals in 2006, was made to regret squandering two match points when she led 5-3 in the decider as the big-hitting German hit back to claim a famous victory.

Lisicki collapsed to her knees in tears on the covered Centre Court when she clinched the gripping tie with victory secured on her third match point in the 14th game of the deciding set.

It was the German's booming serve which proved crucial as she fired 17 aces and powered down 21 winners in the 2hr 11min encounter.

"From the first point until the end of the match, every serve was like 117mph. It's impossible for women," said Li, whose two match points were swept away by two blistering serves which smashed the 120mph barrier.

"I wasn't tired. We both played a great match. Nothing went wrong, I was just a little unlucky. I had two match points but I couldn't do anything about them.

"But I had a great time in Europe. I'll go back to my family in China, spend some time with my family and get ready for the next tournament."

The 21-year-old Lisicki, whose career suffered a huge setback in 2010 when a serious left ankle injury sidelined her for four months, will tackle Japanese qualifier Misaki Doi for a place in the last 16.

"The crowd really helped me when I was facing two match points. They cheered so loudly, I have never heard such a noise," said the winner, a quarter-finalist in 2009.

"I have always had a powerful serve. I think it's one of the best on women's tennis," added Lisicki of her most powerful weapon.

"But you have to use it smartly. My game suits grass and a good serve is important."

Li, who had defeated the German in their only previous meeting in straight sets on the Stuttgart clay this year, had eased through the first set with a break in the eighth game.

But Lisicki, who won the Wimbledon warm-up tournament in Birmingham, hit back in the second with a break to lead 3-1 before handing back the advantage in the ninth.

She wasn't to be denied, however, and levelled the match in the 10th game.

Li was again in charge with a break to lead 3-2 in the final set before a thrilling finale.

At 3-5 down, Lisicki unleashed two serves at 122mph and 123mph to save match points followed by her 14th and 15th aces to take the game and cut the deficit to 4-5.

Lisicki then broke for 5-5, handed back the break for Li to lead 6-5 before the gallant blonde German refused to buckle and retrieved the break for 6-6.

She confidently held for 7-6 and then carved out three match points in the 14th game.

Li saved two but cracked on the third when she sent a crosscourt drive wide.

Manitoba to fight changes to Canadian Wheat Board

Rod Nickel – 1 hr 33 mins ago

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) – The province of Manitoba will lead an advertising campaign to stop the federal government from stripping the Canadian Wheat Board of its monopoly on the Western Canadian grain trade, the provincial government said on Monday.

Canada's Conservative government plans to introduce legislation this autumn to end the Wheat Board's marketing monopoly on wheat, durum and barley by August 2012.

Manitoba has no direct say in the future of the Wheat Board, which is governed by federal law and controlled by government appointees and farmer-elected directors.

But Premier Greg Selinger said the province is joining the CWB and some farm groups in demanding that Ottawa hold a vote by farmers to decide the CWB's future, as required by the current legislation.

"With a farmer-controlled organization, it's fundamental that they have the say and the plebiscite."

Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz has refused to call a farmer plebiscite.

Selinger, who faces an election in autumn, said he would consider a lawsuit to stop the change only once the House of Commons has debated the new legislation.

The monopoly requires Western farmers to sell wheat, durum and barley only to the Wheat Board, unlike the open-market system for other crops. The board is the world's last major agricultural monopoly and has been in place since the Second World War.

Manitoba is one of the three major grain-producing provinces on the Western Prairies and its capital, Winnipeg, is where the Wheat Board's head office is located.

The province's left-leaning New Democratic Party government is concerned about a potential loss of 400 jobs at the Wheat Board under the new marketing system as well as reduced shipping through Manitoba's seldom-used Port of Churchill on Hudson Bay.

Canada is the world's biggest shipper of spring wheat, durum and malting barley, mostly through the Wheat Board.

The Conservative federal government has said that the Wheat Board can survive as a buyer of farmers' grain on a voluntary basis, but the board says it cannot compete with private grain handlers without its own capital and grain storage.

While the board is campaigning against the change, it is also privately talking with the Canadian government about a potential new role for it, said Wheat Board Chairman Allen Oberg.

"A strong and viable organization is possible, but the minister needs to have a business plan communicated to me and communicated to farmers," he said. "Our role is to identify what would be required for a new organization on the Prairies, which is what you would be creating."

The country's biggest grain handler, Viterra Inc, said last week it supports ending the monopoly, which it said would lead to greater returns for farmers, the industry and its own shareholders.

(Reporting by Rod Nickel; editing by Peter Galloway)

Syrian forces round up hundreds near northwest town

– Bloody Crackdown In Syria

AP – In this citizen journalism image acquired by the AP, Syrian refugees are seen inside Syria, near the …

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis – 2 hrs 10 mins ago

AMMAN (Reuters) – Syrian troops rounded up hundreds of people in a sweep through villages near Jisr al-Shughour on Monday, fleeing residents said, after President Bashar al-Assad's army retook the rebellious northwestern town.

Nearly 7,000 Syrians have fled the region around Jisr al-Shughour, seeking sanctuary in neighboring Turkey, while thousands more are sheltering in rural areas just inside Syria, activists say.

Monday's wave of arrests followed an assault by troops, tanks and helicopters to regain control of the town, one week after authorities said 120 security personnel were killed there in fighting they blamed on "armed groups."

Some residents said those killed were soldiers who had mutinied, refusing to shoot protesters and joining demonstrators calling for an end to Assad's rule.

The town of 50,000, just 20 km (12 miles) south of the Turkish border, is the latest focus of a military crackdown on the protests which have swept Syria for nearly three months and continue despite the deaths of hundreds of civilians.

Refugees from Jisr al-Shughour said the military was combing villages to the east of the town and arresting hundreds of men between the ages of 18 and 40, in a pattern seen in other military crackdowns since the unrest started in March.

Residents said the army unit that took the town was commanded by Assad's brother Maher.

Ahmad Yassin, 27, said he left his 7,000 sq meter plot of land east of Jisr al-Shughour early on Monday when a force of 200 soldiers and men wearing black came in armored personnel carriers and cars and poured petrol on the wheat crops.

"I tried to save my three cows but there was no time. I put my wife and two children in the car and drove straight to the border," he said.

His account of troops setting fire to crops echoed reports from other refugees, but the official state news agency has accused "armed terrorist groups" of burning land as sabotage.

Syrian rights groups say 1,300 civilians have been killed since the start of the uprising. One group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, says more than 300 soldiers and police have also been killed.

Syria has banned most foreign correspondents, making it difficult to verify accounts of events.

ARMY TAKES CONTROL

The government says the protests are part of a violent conspiracy backed by foreign powers to sow sectarian strife.

Army units "have taken total control of Jisr al-Shughour and are chasing remnants of the armed terrorist gangs in the woods and mountains," the Syrian news agency said on Sunday.

It said a soldier and two armed men were killed in clashes around the town. The army defused explosives planted on bridges and roads and uncovered mass graves holding mostly mutilated bodies of 12 security men killed by armed groups, it said.

Thousands of people from Jisr al-Shughour, located on a vital road junction, had already fled to Turkey before Sunday's assault. Turkey has grown increasingly critical of Assad and has now set up four camps to accommodate refugees.

In a sign of tension between Syria and Turkey, which had close trade and political ties before the crisis, supporters of Assad protested outside Turkey's embassy in Damascus on Sunday.

Turkey's Anatolian news agency said some people climbed the embassy walls and hung a Syrian flag, and Syrian security forces prevented some protesters from trying to lower the Turkish flag.

A resident said the crowd then tore down tourist posters on the outside wall of the embassy.

France, with British support, has led efforts for the United Nations Security Council to condemn Assad's repression of the protests but Russia and China have suggested they may use their veto power to kill the resolution.

A spokesman for British Prime Minister David Cameron said newly re-elected Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan welcomed British efforts to put pressure on Assad at the United Nations.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe has said Assad had lost the legitimacy to rule Syria.

The White House condemned the Syrian forces' latest violence in the "strongest possible terms" and said Assad should step aside if he will not lead a democratic transition.

Assad, who inherited power when his father died in 2000, has offered some moves aimed at appeasing protesters, lifting a 48-year state of emergency and promising a national dialogue -- steps which have been dismissed by many activists.

The privately owned Syrian newspaper Al-Watan said a committee formed to investigate the unrest had imposed a travel ban on the former governor of Deraa, where protests broke out on March 18, and its head of security. It said there would be "no immunity for people who committed crimes."

(Additional reporting by Alexandra Hudson in Guvecci, Turkey; Writing by Dominic Evans; editing by Tim Pearce)

Libyan rebels breakout towards Tripoli

AP – In this image taken from TV, showing rebel forces on the front line as they repel government troops......

By HADEEL AL-SHALCHI and MAGGIE MICHAEL, Associated Press – 50 mins ago

MISRATA, Libya – Government artillery rained down on rebel forces Monday but failed to stop their advance into key ground west of their stronghold at Libya's major port. As fighting raged for a fourth day, Germany's foreign minister paid a surprise visit to the rebel's de facto capital.

Guido Westerwelle met with officials of the Transitional National Council, telling members of the nascent rebel government that Germany recognized the council as "the legitimate representative of the Libyan people"

That position is similar to that of the United States, which has stopped short of outright diplomatic recognition of the council. The move was, nevertheless, another big diplomatic boost for the rebels and their four-month uprising to end Moammar Gadhafi's 40-year rule in the oil-rich North African country. Germany refused to participate in the NATO air mission over Libya and withheld support for the no-fly zone.

The rebels control roughly the eastern one-third of Libya as well as Misrata, the country's major port. The also claim to have taken parts of coastal oil center of Zawiya in the far west. That port city is 18 miles (30 kilometers) west of Tripoli and a prize that would put them in striking distance of the capital. Control of the city also would cut one of Moammar Gadhafi's last supply routes from Tunisia.

Despite rebel claims, government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said late Sunday that Gadhafi forces had driven off the attackers, and reporters taken to Zawiya saw secure streets and the green national flag flying over a central square. The insurgents, for their part, claimed a high-ranking Gadhafi commander was badly wounded in the fighting.

"The wishful reporting of some journalists that the rebels are gaining more power and more control of some areas is not correct," he said.

In the major fighting near Misrata on Monday, an Associated Press photographer at the rebel front lines said they had pushed along the Mediterranean Sea to within 6 miles (10 kilometers) of Zlitan, the next city to the west of Misrata. A rebel commander said his forces, using arms seized from government weapons depots and fresh armaments being shipped in from Benghazi, planned to have moved into Zlitan, by Tuesday.

Ali Terbelo, the rebel commander, said other opposition forces already were in Zlitan, trying to encircle Gadhafi troops. If the rebels take the city they would be within 85 miles (135 kilometers) of the eastern outskirts of Gadhafi's capital, Tripoli.

An AP reporter with rebel forces said shelling was intense Monday morning with rockets and artillery and mortar shells slamming into rebel lines west of Dafniya at a rate of about 7 each minute. Dafniya is about 20 miles (30 kilometers) west of Misrata

Officials at Hikma Hospital in Misrata said government shelling killed seven and wounded 49 on Sunday. New casualty figures were not available but ambulances were rushing from the Dafniya line back into Misrata.

The rebel thrust at Zawiya and movements farther east — near Misrata and Brega — suggested the stalemated uprising had been reinvigorated, and that Gadhafi's defenders may become stretched thin.

"Over the past three days, we set fire under the feet of Gadhafi forces everywhere," Col. Hamid al-Hasi, a rebel battalion commander, told AP. He said the rebels attacked "in very good coordination with NATO" to avoid friendly-fire incidents. "We don't move unless we have very clear instructions from NATO."

Rebels encountered a major setback, however, near the eastern oil town of Brega on Monday. Suleiman Rafathi, a doctor at the hospital in the town of Ajdabiya where the casualties were taken, said 23 rebels were killed and 26 wounded in a government ambush about 22 miles (35 kilometers) east of Brega.

The front lines between Brega and Ajdabiya have been relatively quiet in recent weeks, while fighting has raged in western Libya.

Rebel fighters appear to be rebounding with help from the NATO blockade of ports still under government control and alliance control of Libyan airspace. Both have severely crimped the North African dictator's ability to resupply his forces. And his control has been hard hit by defections from his military and government inner circle.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke again against the Libyan regime, telling the nations of Africa on Monday to sever links Gadhafi despite his long support and patronage for many African leaders.

In a speech on Monday to diplomats at the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, Clinton said Africa should join most of the rest of the world in abandoning Gadhafi. She said the Libyan leader has lost all legitimacy to rule because of attacks on his own citizens.

She's urged all African leaders to demand that Gadhafi accept a ceasefire and then leave Libya. She also said they should expel pro-Gadhafi Libyan diplomats from their countries, suspend the operations of Libyan embassies and work with the Libyan opposition.

The rebel council also won recognition from the United Arab Emirates, adding a wealthy, influential Arab state to the handful of nations thus far accepting the insurgents as Libyans' sole legitimate representatives.

In a lighter moment, the Libyan leader was shown playing chess with the visiting Russian head of the World Chess Federation. The federation is headed by the eccentric Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, who until last year was the leader of Russia's predominantly Buddhist republic of Kalmykia. He once claimed to have visited an alien spaceship.

Libyan state television showed Gadhafi, dressed all in black and wearing dark sunglasses, playing chess Sunday evening with his Russian guest.

Russia's Interfax news agency quoted Ilyumzhinov as saying Gadhafi told him he has no intention of leaving Libya despite international pressure.

It was unclear where the chess game took place. Gadhafi's compound in the center of Tripoli has been under NATO bombardment and was hit again Sunday.

Gadhafi had not been seen in public since mid-May, and Ilyumzhinov told him how pleased he was to find him healthy and well.

Clinton warns Africa of China's economic embrace

Andrew Quinn – Fri Jun 10, 4:15 pm ET

LUSAKA (Reuters) – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday warned Africa that China does not always have its interests at heart as economic ties expand, and offered the United States as an alternative.

Clinton arrived in Zambia to begin a five-day Africa trip that will also take her to Tanzania and Ethiopia to highlight the Obama administration's drive to help African countries meet challenges ranging from HIV/AIDS to food security and accelerate often impressive economic growth.

She quickly zeroed in on the fast expanding clout of China, which pumped almost $10 billion dollars in investment into Africa in 2009 and has also seen trade soar as Beijing buys oil and other raw materials to fuel its booming economy.

"The United States does not see these Chinese interests as inherently incompatible with our own," Clinton told reporters in Lusaka, adding that Washington believed everyone benefited as Beijing assumes "a greater and more responsible role" in world affairs.

"We are however concerned that China's foreign assistance and investment practices in Africa have not always been consistent with generally accepted international norms of transparency and good governance, and that it has not always utilized the talents of the African people in pursuing its business interests," she said.

Clinton's comments echo Washington's concern that China's quick economic push into Africa -- including billions of dollars in development aid unfettered by political or economic requirements -- risk scuttling efforts to help the continent develop a more mature and transparent economy.

Zambian President Rupiah Banda, whose country has attracted Chinese investment in mining and in May received a $180 million dollar loan to upgrade a major road, said Africa's ties with Beijing were healthy and long-standing.

"Our country has been in a close relationship with China since before independence (in 1964)," Banda said, adding that Beijing had helped many African countries weather the recent financial crisis.

NO INTEREST IN WORLD BANK JOB

Clinton's trip has been overshadowed by news that she has been in discussions with the White House about moving on next year to become the first female head of the World Bank.

Reuters on Thursday quoted three sources familiar with the matter as saying these discussions were under way, but the White House and State Department denied it and Clinton herself on Friday said it was incorrect.

"I have had no discussions with anyone. I have evidenced no interest to anyone. I do not have any interest, and am not pursuing that position," Clinton said.

Revelations about Clinton as a potential Bank nominee are sensitive because they come during a period of significant foreign policy challenges for the Obama administration.

In Lusaka, Clinton grooved with an ululating chorus of African businesswomen who have benefited from U.S. help at a meeting on AGOA, the U.S. program signed into law by her husband, former President Bill Clinton, in 2000 to give trade preferences for some 37 eligible African countries.

"The most successful development program is one that will someday make itself unnecessary," Clinton said, describing a range of U.S. programs aimed at strengthening governance and accountability and supporting grassroots economic growth.

To get there, she said Africa's leaders still needed to deliver on promises to cut local trade barriers, streamline regulation and expand opportunities, particularly for women.

U.S. officials want Congress to extend AGOA when it expires in 2015, but say it is time to take a hard look at ways to address nagging bureaucratic and infrastructure problems, widespread corruption and often lopsided trade.

More than 10 years into AGOA, U.S. trade with sub-Saharan Africa remains small, accounting for just over 1 percent of total U.S. exports and about only 3 percent of U.S. imports.

Oil from countries such as Nigeria and Angola accounted for 91 percent of the $44 billion in U.S. imports from AGOA countries in 2010, raising questions about how U.S. trade benefits can be used to encourage more diversification.

(Editing by Alison Williams)