Kutcher pleads for media honesty in new video

Ashton Kutcher still hasn't directly addressed tabloid reports that he cheated on wife Demi Moore ? but he's certainly perfecting his ability to tease the public via social media.

The new "Two and a Half Men" star ? who's been plagued by tabloid stories saying that he cheated with a woman named Sarah Leal in San Diego last month ? seemed to allude to the scuttlebutt about his marriage Wednesday in a rambling video monologue. The video, posted to social media site chime.in, called for more honesty from the digital-age media.

He says the lower cost of publishing has led to a cheapening of values, and that truth is suffering.

"I just wanted to open up a little dialogue in the state of honesty, the status of truth as it pertains to literature and media," Kutcher begins.

The actor goes on to note that, in the Internet age, anyone can be a budding media mogul. He says that's not necessarily a good thing.

"The threshold to have literature printed and distributed ? the cost structure went down to zero dollars," Kutcher reflects. "Thereby, there is no gatekeeper of the truth. We are our own editors, and we are our own publishers. We are our own printers. Thereby people can bastardize the truth in any way, shape or form they want and spread that around the world ... There's that old saying that a lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth can leave someone's lips."

Kutcher ? who's almost as well-known for his investment in developing technologies as he is for his acting ? wraps up his video by calling for a sense of responsibility.

Though neither Kutcher nor Moore has spoken about the divorce reports, both appear to have alluded to them on Twitter. In late September, Kutcher cryptically tweeted, "When you ASSUMME [sic] to know that which you know nothing of you make an ASS out of U and ME." Moore, meanwhile, offered her own vague-but-titillating missive, tweeting a picture of herself with her eyes closed and the caption, "I see through you."

Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/44992917/ns/today-entertainment/

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Strong earthquake hits Turkey, up to 1,000 feared killed (Reuters)

VAN, Turkey (Reuters) ? As many as 1,000 people were feared killed on Sunday when a powerful earthquake hit southeast Turkey, destroying dozens of buildings and trapping some victims alive under rubble.

As night fell, survivors and emergency workers battled to pull people out of the debris in the city of Van and town of Ercis, where a student dormitory collapsed.

Residents in Van joined in a frantic search, using hands and shovels and working under floodlights and flashlights, hearing voices of survivors crying for help under mounds of shattered concrete in pitch darkness and bitter cold.

"We heard cries and groaning from underneath the debris, we are waiting for the rescue teams to arrive," Halil Celik told Reuters as he stood beside the ruins of building that had collapsed before his eyes.

"All of a sudden, a quake tore down the building in front of me. All the bystanders, we all ran to the building and rescued two injured people from the ruins."

At another site, three teenagers were believed trapped under a collapsed building. People clambered over the masonry, shouting: "Is there anyone there?"

An elderly rescue worker sat sobbing, his exhausted face covered in dust. Police tried to keep onlookers back. Ambulance crews sat waiting to help anyone dragged out of the debris.

Turkey's Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute said the magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck at 1041 GMT and was five km (three miles) deep. It was among the strongest in Turkish history, and the worst since 1999.

Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay said a dozen buildings collapsed in Van, an ancient city with a population of 1 million. Turkish media said 80 buildings, including a student dormitory, came down in Ercis, a city of 100,000 people near the Iranian border.

"Ambulances, soldiers, emergency teams are everywhere now, working on getting people out of collapsed buildings. I have seen many dead bodies being taken out, the teams are trying to find people alive," said a Reuters photographer in Ercis, some 100 km (60 miles) north of Van.

Kandilli Observatory general manager Mustafa Erdik told a news conference he estimated hundreds of lives had been lost. "It could be 500 or 1,000," he added. He said he based his estimate on the magnitude of the earthquake and quality of construction.

A nurse at a public hospital in Ercis said hospital workers were attending the wounded in the hospital garden because the building was badly damaged.

"We can't count dead or injured because we're not inside the hospital. There should be more than 100 dead bodies left next to the hospital. We left them there because it's dark and we didnt want to step on bodies," Eda Ekizoglu told CNN Turk television.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan was traveling to Van and the cabinet was expected to discuss the quake on Monday morning.

"A lot of buildings collapsed, many people were killed, but we don't know the number. We are waiting for emergency help, it's very urgent," Zulfukar Arapoglu, the mayor of Ercis, told news broadcaster NTV.

"We need tents urgently and rescue teams. We don't have any ambulances, and we only have one hospital. We have many killed and injured," Arapoglu said.

Turkey's Red Crescent said one of its local teams was helping to rescue people from a student residence in Ercis. It sent had sent 1,200 tents, more than 4,000 blankets, stoves and food supplies, along with two mobile bakeries.

More than 70 aftershocks shook the area, further unsettling residents who ran into the streets when the initial quake struck. Television pictures showed rooms shaking and furniture toppling as people ran from one building.

DAZED

Dozens of emergency workers and residents scrambled over a multi-storey building in Van as they searched for anyone trapped inside.

Elsewhere, dazed survivors wandered past vehicles crushed by falling masonry.

Some 50 injured people were taken to hospital in Van, state-run Anatolian news agency reported.

Turkish media said phone lines and electricity had been cut off. The quake's epicentre was at the village of Tabanli, 20 km north of Van city, Kandilli said.

International offers of aid poured in from NATO, China, Japan, the United States, Azerbaijan, European countries and Israel, whose ties with Ankara have soured since Israeli commandoes killed nine Turks during a raid on an aid flotilla bound for the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip in 2010.

Serzh Sarksyan, the president of Turkey's longtime regional rival Armenia, phoned Turkey's President Abdullah Gul to offer his condolences.

Major geological fault lines cross Turkey and there are small earthquakes almost daily. Two large quakes in 1999 killed more than 20,000 people in northwest Turkey.

An earthquake struck Van province in November 1976, with 5,291 confirmed dead. Two people were killed and 79 injured in May when an earthquake shook Simav in northwest Turkey.

(Additional reporting by Seda Sezer, Ece Toksabay and Seyhmus Cakan, writing by Ibon Villelabeitia and Daren Butler; editing by Andrew Roche)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111023/wl_nm/us_turkey_quake

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In Quake-Hit Christchurch, All Eyes Are on the All Blacks (Time.com)

One more win. That's all it would take to get New Zealand smiling again.

This weekend, New Zealand meets France in the final of the Rugby World Cup. Over 60,000 fans will be at Auckland's Eden Park to watch the gladiatorial bout between the northern and southern hemispheres, and millions of people around the globe will watch the match on television. The stakes are high: it's been 24 years since New Zealand's All Blacks won the title. A win would also be a much needed morale boost for the residents of Christchurch, a city rocked by not one but two earthquakes in little over a year.

The first quake hit Christchurch on Sept. 4, 2010, toppling buildings in the central business district and cutting power to the city. The second quake struck on Feb. 22, leveling already damaged structures and killing 180 people. "I could hear shouts and screams," remembers the city's mayor, Bob Parker. "It was a shocking scene," he added. "It will be something I will never forget." (See photos of the history of the Rugby World Cup.)

Almost eight months later, the city is still getting back on its feet. In August, Christchurch still felt like a war zone ? eerily quiet bar the buzz of bulldozers in the distance. High fences cordoned off the rectangular perimeter of the city center, keeping the public at a distance. Those fences will soon disappear, allowing locals to enter their partially reconfigured city. Mayor Parker says he hopes to have the demolition work finished by April 2012 and that construction should start soon after.

Large swathes of the suburbs, meanwhile, have been left untouched pending decisions by inspectors and insurers. Avonside, a quaint suburb not far from the central business district, was one of the hardest hit; houses there still sit empty. Part of it will be demolished, and it is understood that 90% of houses in nearby Bexley alone are on the demolition list.

Residents have spent the year trying to cope with the sudden loss of their homes. The city of Christchurch was split into four residential zones, with the red zone classed as a demolition zone. An estimated combination of 114,000 houses were damaged, 5,000 of which are set for demolition. The Earthquake Commission has received in excess of 345,000 claims, one of the highest numbers ever handled by a single insurer in the world. (Read about what the Rugby World Cup means to New Zealand.)

Evan Smith, a business-support analyst who resided in Richmond, has relocated to a small hotel room known as a sleep-out. He now pays about $160 a week for accommodation. Insurance covered part of his new living arrangements, but he never expected to be out so long. "I thought that I would have been at the sleep-out for a few weeks but have been there for months now," he said. Like many, he considered leaving the city altogether, but ultimately decided to stay. "The kids didn't want to leave their friends," he said. And, he added, "At the end of the day, though, we love Christchurch."

A Royal Commission inquiry into the quakes will dissect the cause of building collapses and the loss of lives. Insurance costs are expected to balloon to $12 million, making it one of the most expensive natural disasters in history. British-owned Ansvar Insurance was the first company to pull out of the country. With losses of close to $560 million, Ansvar was the largest insurer of churches and heritage buildings in New Zealand.

Clearly, a World Cup title won't solve Chirstchurch's woes. But it sure would mean a lot to its weary, rugby-mad residents. Former All Black Frank Bunce is confident that this is the year. "We have good players who are in form and a nice depth," he said. "There is also the home-ground advantage with so much pressure, but it will be a positive pressure."

"It will be nice if we win it," he added. "We can then take a deep breath, exhale and then party." And, after a year of hardship and uncertainty, that may be just what Christchurch needs.

See photos of Christchurch's earthquakes.

Read about what to do when you're in Christchurch.

View this article on Time.com

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Arson suspected in Israel fires

JERUSALEM, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- A series of fires in Galilee in northern Israel are believed to have been set deliberately, officials said Saturday.

More than 60 acres of forest have burned, Ynetnews reported.

Yigal Ben-Abu, spokesman for the Western Galilee Fire Department, told Ynet the fires were likely to be arson and almost certainly the result of human activity.

"The human factor in such fires is very significant," he said. "The only question is whether these were accidental fires or was there malice involved."

Police were also suspicious because there were no high winds to spread fire, the Jerusalem Post reported.

Residents of Kibbutz Yasur and of a retirement home were evacuated, the newspaper said.

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Saudi crown prince dies abroad after illness

File - In this Sunday, Nov. 16, 2008 file photo, Saudi Arabia's Crow Prince Sultan bin Abdel Aziz arrives at the awards ceremony of the Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud International Prize at King Fahd Cultural center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Saudi TV said Saturday morning Oct. 22, 2011 the kingdom's heir to the throne has died abroad after an illness. He was 85 years old. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar, File)

File - In this Sunday, Nov. 16, 2008 file photo, Saudi Arabia's Crow Prince Sultan bin Abdel Aziz arrives at the awards ceremony of the Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud International Prize at King Fahd Cultural center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Saudi TV said Saturday morning Oct. 22, 2011 the kingdom's heir to the throne has died abroad after an illness. He was 85 years old. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar, File)

FILE - Saudi Crown prince Sultan Bin Abdel Aziz attends the signing of the final border demarcation agreement between Yemen and Saudi Arabia in the southern Yemeni port city of al-Mukalla, about 560 kilometers (350 miles) southeast of the capital San'a in this June 2, 2006 file photo. Saudi TV said Saturday morning Oct. 22, 2011 the kingdom's heir to the throne died abroad after an illness. He was 85 years old. (AP Photo/Mohammed al-Qadhi, File)

(AP) ? The heir to the Saudi throne, Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdel Aziz Al Saud, died abroad Saturday after an illness, state TV said. The death of the 85-year-old prince opens questions about the succession in the critical, oil-rich U.S. ally.

Sultan was the half-brother of Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, who is two years older than him and has also been ailing and underwent back surgery last week.

The most likely candidate to replace Sultan as Abdullah's successor is Prince Nayef, the powerful interior minister in charge of internal security forces. After Sultan fell ill, the king gave Nayef ? also his half-brother ? an implicit nod in 2009 by naming him second deputy prime minister, traditionally the post of the second in line to the throne.

The announcement did not say where outside the kingdom he died or elaborate on Sultan's illness but Saudi official circles in Riyadh said he passed away at a hospital in New York. Saudi royal family members typically received medical treatment in New York.

Sultan, who was the kingdom's deputy prime minister and the minister of defense and aviation, has had a string of health issues. He underwent surgery in New York in February 2009 for an undisclosed illness and spent nearly a year abroad recuperating in the United States and at a palace in Agadir, Morocco.

"With grief, King Abdullah bin Abdel Aziz mourns the death of Sultan bin Abdel Aziz Al Saud, crown prince and his brother," the palace said. The statement, which was carried on the official Saudi Press Agency, added that Sultan's funeral will be held on Tuesday afternoon in Riyadh at the Imam Turki bin Abdullah mosque.

For the first time, however, the mechanism of picking the next crown prince is not entirely clear.

It is possible the king will for the first time put the decision of his heir to the Allegiance Council, a body Abdullah created a decade ago as one of his reforms, made up of his brothers and nephews with a mandate to determine the succession.

That would open the choice up to a degree of debate with the top echelons of the royal family. Nayef, however, will still be the front-runner.

Traditionally the king names his successor. But Abdullah formed the council in order to modernize the process and give a wider voice to the choice. When it was created, it was decided that the council would act when Sultan rose to the throne and his crown prince had to be named; however, it was not specified whether it would be used if Sultan died before the king. The choice of whether to evoke the council now will likely be made by Abdullah.

Saudi Arabia has been ruled since 1953 by the sons of its founder, King Abdul-Aziz, who had over 40 sons by multiple wives.

Anyone who rises to the throne is likely to maintain the kingdom's close alliance with the United States. But it would have an internal impact. Abdullah has been seen as a reformer, making cautious changes to improve the position of women ? such as granting them to right to vote in elections scheduled for 2015 ? and seeking modernize the kingdom despite some backlash from the ultraconservative Wahhabi clerics who give the royal family the religious legitimacy needed to rule. Nayef, however, is often seen as closer to the clerics.

Sultan's death comes amid questions about the health of the king. Last week, King Abdullah underwent back surgery in Riyadh. The SPA news agency said the operation was to treat a loose vertebra in his back. Abdullah had two back surgeries late last year, also in New York City.

Sultan was part of the aging second generation of the King Abdul-Aziz's sons.

Sultan was long seen as a powerful aspirant for the throne. When Fahd became king in 1982, Sultan had hoped to be named crown prince. But instead Fahd appointed their half-brother, Abdullah, a decision that Sultan challenged. The sons of Abdul-Aziz closed ranks when the issue was decided, aware that a direct confrontation with Abdullah could tear the family apart. Sultan was named second deputy prime minister, a position that guaranteed him the move to crown prince.

When Fahd died and Abdullah ascended to the throne, Sultan was named crown prince and heir.

Sultan was the kingdom's defense minister in 1990 when U.S. forces deployed in Saudi Arabia to defend it against Iraqi forces that had overrun Kuwait. His son, Prince Khaled, served as the top Arab commander in operation Desert Storm, in which U.S., Saudi and other Arab forces drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait.

In May 2004, the royal court announced that Sultan was discharged from a Jiddah hospital after an operation to remove a cyst from his intestines.

In a rare move, Saudi television showed footage of the prince, dressed in a traditional white robe and sitting in an armchair, receiving greetings from a number of Saudi dignitaries. A few days before that, state-guided media showed photos of the prince in his hospital bed, apparently to counter rumors about his health.

Sultan was born in Riyadh in 1928, according to the defense ministry's web site. In 1947, he was appointed governor of Riyadh. At the same time, he was assisting his father in the setting up of a national administrative system based on the implementation of Islamic Sharia law. In 1953, he became the kingdom's first minister of agriculture.

Two years later, Sultan became minister of transportation, supervising the development of the kingdom's roads and telecommunications network and the construction of the railway system connecting the eastern city of Dammam with Riyadh, the capital.

As defense minister, Sultan closed multibillion deals to establish the modern Saudi armed forces, including land, air, naval and air defense forces.

On more than one occasion, the deals implicated several of his sons in corruption scandals ? charges they have denied.

Sultan is survived by 32 children from multiple wives. They include Bandar, the former ambassador to the United States who now heads the National Security Council, and Khaled, Sultan's assistant in the Defense Ministry.

___

Associated Press Writers Maggie Michael in Cairo and Brian Murphy in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-10-22-ML-Saudi-Obit-Sultan/id-531795c5087f4a59be97e2919d6af809

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Mary Blair: Why she was 'Walt Disney's favorite artist'

Mary Blair, who received her own Google Doodle on Friday, greatly influenced early Disney animation. She's remembered today as one of Walt's favorites.

Mary Blair played a big role in the early days of Disney. The painter and concept designer drove the style of "Cinderella," "Alice in Wonderland," and "Peter Pan." Many other artists worked on those films. But she had a special place in Walt Disney's heart.

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Friday marks what would have been her 100th birthday. Google celebrated with a Google Doodle in the colorful and playful style that made her so essential to Disney.

When Ms. Blair received her own exhibit at the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco a year ago, the curators introduced the show with some high praise: "The case is filled with treasures from Mary Blair who, according to some historians, was Walt Disney?s favorite artist!"

What was it that Mr. Disney appreciated so much? Well, when he set out to create an animation studio, his inspiration came from realists. He liked Norman Rockwell, Thomas Hart Benton and Gustaf Tenneggren, explains historian John Canemaker in his book "The Art and Flair of Mary Blair."

Blair was definitely not a realist. She embraced bold colors, abstracted shapes, and embellished characters. She was Disney's modernist ? the company's flair of eccentricity.

"Her vibrant colors and stylized designs pervade Disney animated films from 1943 to 1953," writes Mr. Canemaker. "Beneath her deceptively simple style, lies enormous visual sophistication and craftsmanship in everything from color choices to composition."

Disney had a stable of amazing artists, "but where Mary Blair was unique was that the work that she did here at the studio was not only beautiful work, what she did went beyond the project into a pure art form," says Michael Giaimo, art director on Disney's "Pocahontas," in an interview with the L.A. Times last week. "It became art. It became a statement unto itself."

"Her most distinctive factor is that she is kind of showing us her soul," Mr. Giaimo added. "It is not just slick commercial art, it is the combination of commercial and the personal in the artistic sense. She puts herself into her art work and it transcends the greatest of the Disney movies."

In fact, you can still see Blair's style shining through modern animated movies. Pixar producer Jonas Rivera says that Blair deeply influenced the design for 2009's "Up."

"We had a movie about a house that floats in the air with thousands of balloons on it," Rivera told the Memphis paper The Commercial Appeal. "So we decided we needed a certain amount of whimsy and caricature to support that. So Carl is three heads high, and he's very much a square, with square glasses. He sort of looks like a house, in a way. The caricatured look of this world -- we really want to push shape language, we really wanted to push the color palette, to be bolder. We were more inspired by the graphic design paintings of Mary Blair than by any photo references."

The team behind Disney's "Tangled" also named her as a key influence.

Like many of Google's past Doodles, this one honors someone whose work is remembered well, even if her name has slipped away. Past examples include E.C. Segar, Roger Hargreaves, and Albert Szent-Gyorgyi. (Can't remember what they did? Click on their names for a peek.)

For more on how technology intersects daily life, follow Chris on Twitter @venturenaut.

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2 more teens under protection in Pa. basement case

This undated photo provided by the Philadelphia Police Department shows Jean McIntosh, 32. McIntosh is a fourth person charged following the discovery of four malnourished mentally disabled adults chained to a boiler in a locked northeast Philadelphia basement room that was too small for an adult to stand up straight and also reeked of waste from the buckets they used to relieve themselves, police said Sunday, Oct. 16, 2011. (AP Photo/Philadelphia Police Department)

This undated photo provided by the Philadelphia Police Department shows Jean McIntosh, 32. McIntosh is a fourth person charged following the discovery of four malnourished mentally disabled adults chained to a boiler in a locked northeast Philadelphia basement room that was too small for an adult to stand up straight and also reeked of waste from the buckets they used to relieve themselves, police said Sunday, Oct. 16, 2011. (AP Photo/Philadelphia Police Department)

This undated photo provided by the Philadelphia Police Department shows Linda Ann Weston. Weston is one of three people charged following the discovery of four malnourished mentally disabled adults chained to a boiler in a locked northeast Philadelphia basement room that was too small for an adult to stand up straight and also reeked of waste from the buckets they used to relieve themselves, police said Sunday, Oct. 16, 2011. (AP Photo/Philadelphia Police Department)

Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey waits to address the media on Monday, Oct. 17, 2011 in front of the Philadelphia apartment building where four weak and malnourished mentally disabled adults, one chained to the boiler, were found locked inside a sub-basement room on Saturday. Police arrested three adults staying in an apartment upstairs, including the person accused of being the ringleader, Linda Ann Weston, in what authorities say is a scheme to steal the Social Security disability checks of defenseless and vulnerable people. (AP Photo/Ron Cortes, Pool)

The dank sub-basement room in Philadelphia where four weak and malnourished mentally disabled adults, one chained to the boiler, were found locked inside on Saturday is shown Monday, Oct. 17, 2011. Police arrested three adults staying in an apartment upstairs, including the person accused of being the ringleader, Linda Ann Weston, in what authorities say is a scheme to steal the Social Security disability checks of defenseless and vulnerable people. (AP Photo/Ron Cortes, Pool)

The dank sub-basement room in Philadelphia where four weak and malnourished mentally disabled adults, one chained to the boiler, were found locked inside on Saturday is shown Monday, Oct. 17, 2011. Police arrested three adults staying in an apartment upstairs, including the person accused of being the ringleader, Linda Ann Weston, in what authorities say is a scheme to steal the Social Security disability checks of defenseless and vulnerable people. (AP Photo/Ron Cortes, Pool)

(AP) ? Philadelphia police took two more children into protective custody Wednesday, the latest step in an intense investigation of four people accused of locking disabled adults in a dank basement as part of a Social Security fraud scheme.

Meanwhile, police in Virginia confirmed they investigated the 2008 death of a woman living with the alleged ringleader, Linda Ann Weston, who cleared out of the Norfolk home hours after calling police about the death.

A Virginia death certificate said 39-year-old Maxine Lee died of meningitis but also suffered from a wasting disease.

In Philadelphia, police told reporters that a malnourished niece living with Weston had burn marks suggesting the 19-year-old was burned with a hot spoon and had pellet gun wounds.

"I've never seen anything like this before in a living person. It is just remarkable that she is alive," Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey said of Beatrice Weston.

"There is no penalty, and I repeat, no penalty that is too harsh for the people who did this," he said.

In all, eight juveniles and four young adults between the ages 2 to 19 linked to the case have been taken into protective custody.

Police spokesman Lt. Raymond Evers said they are conducting DNA tests and obtaining birth certificates to try to determine the nature of the various relationships.

Earlier Wednesday a fourth suspect, Jean McIntosh, 32, the daughter of alleged ringleader Linda Weston, was arrested by police.

She, along with Weston, Gregory Thomas, 47 ? whom Weston described as her boyfriend ? and Eddie "the Rev. Ed" Wright, 50, have been charged with kidnapping, false imprisonment and other charges.

None of the four could be reached for comment, and efforts to contact Weston's lawyer were not successful.

The case could be among the first of its kind prosecuted as a federal hate crime, an FBI official who was not authorized to discuss the case publicly told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Landlord Turgut Gozleveli discovered the victims after he heard dogs barking in the basement. The door to the basement room was chained shut, but Gozleveli got inside and lifted a pile of blankets to find several sets of eyes staring back at him. One man was chained to the boiler.

Police identified the victims as Derwin McLemire, 41, of North Carolina; Herbert Knowles, 40, of Virginia; and Tamara Breeden, 29, and Edwin Sanabria, 31, both of Philadelphia.

Ramsey said the case has multiple threads in multiple jurisdictions.

"This is unfolding," he said. "These are folks who have gone through an awful lot."

___

Associated Press writers Zinie Chen Sampson in Richmond, Va., and Matt Sedensky in West Palm Beach, Fla., contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-10-19-US-Locked-In-Basement/id-d344013335f340a983136a251c98b7a9

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So Gadhafi is dead ? what does Libya do now?

The council that has ruled Libya since the ouster of Col. Moammar Gadhafi is deeply fractured and faces a difficult task reuniting and rebuilding the country now that it is in complete control following Gadhafi's death, Libyan officials and international affairs experts said Thursday.

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The U.S. and other Western powers recognized the National Transitional Council as Libya's official government earlier this year as it became increasingly clear that anti-Gadhafi rebels were likely to succeed in driving the eccentric colonel from power after 42 years of dictatorial rule.

Video: Libyan ambassador welcomes news (on this page)

The head of the council, Mahmoud Jibril ? in effect, Libya's prime minister ? has said free elections would be held eight months after the last vestiges of Gadhafi's regime had been defeated. That clock started ticking Thursday when Gadhafi was killed in his hometown, Sirte, the last major city to fall to the rebels.

Elections on a rushed timetable
The timeline would put the elections in April ? a potentially oppressive deadline in a country that "starts really from zero," said Richard Haass, director of policy planning for the State Department during the administration of President George W. Bush.

Story: Who killed Gadhafi? Conflicting stories emerge

"There are no international institutions," said Haass, now the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, the nonpartisan policy institute in New York that publishes the influential journal Foreign Affairs. "There's not really a functioning political system or an economy."

When the elections are held, they will bring in an entirely new slate of leaders, because Jibril and the rest of the NTC are barred from serving in the next government under its interim constitution. Jibril ? a U.S.-trained economist and former professor at the University of Pittsburgh ? reinforced that message Tuesday during a news conference with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton when he said, "I will not be part of the upcoming government."

That lack of continuity will further hamper efforts to "transform this anti-Gadhafi movement into pro-Libya progress," said Marc Ginsberg, a senior foreign policy adviser during the Carter and Clinton administrations.

Video: Clinton says 'wow' as Gadhafi news comes in (on this page)

"There are 41 tribal leaders, all of whom probably want to get their hands" on the country's wealth ? billions of dollars in overseas bank accounts and untold riches in oil still in the ground ? Ginsberg said.

Kamran Bokhari, director of Middle East analysis for? Strategic Forecasting, a widely followed international affairs and intelligence company in Austin, Texas, identified the factions as coalescing around two primary forces: the NTC and the Tripoli Military Council, a coalition of rebel forces led by Abdelhakim Belhadj.

Belhadj is the former head of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, which was listed as a terrorist organization after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. He was detained at a secret prison by the CIA in 2004 before he was returned to Libya.

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"We have a very complex landscape that will somehow need to come together," Bokhari said in an analysis issued by Stratfor.

Haass said that until now, the factions had been held together by just one thread: their opposition to Gadhafi.

"Can they agree on what kind of Libya they want to bring about?" he asked. "That will be a real test."

Libyan ambassador asks for U.S. help
Ali Aujuli, the Libyan ambassador to the U.S., acknowledged the difficulties ahead, saying, "We need to work hard for reconcilation."

That will require continued assistance from the U.S. and other foreign governments, Aujuli said, because "we still need help (to) establish our democratic institutions; we need help (for) our injuries to be treated. We need them to help us to help the Libyans to be trained to take care of their country."

Vali Nasr, who until earlier this year was the Obama administration's senior adviser on Afghanistan and Pakistan, strongly agreed, saying he feared that "the killing of Gadhafi could be some form of closure for the NATO countries, and they could wash their hands of Libya very quickly."

"The NTC that overthrew Gadhafi is highly fractured," said Nasr, who now teaches international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy of Tufts University. "It doesn't have very strong central leadership.

"This is a country that literally has to build its political and economic systems from scratch, and that requires a lot of outside support and ongoing support," he said.

In fact, Nasr said, the death of Gadhafi could be irrelevant in the long run, saying, "It remains to be seen whether Libya will actually disintegrate into the same kind of chaos we saw in Iraq or if it is able to claw its way back to stability."

Haass concurred, saying it was far too early to project whether Libya would be able to make the transition to democracy.

Gadhafi's death will be seen as a victory only "if, several years from now, Libya is a viable state in which people enjoy freedom and economic opportunity," he said.

Video: Leiter: Libya faces many challenges ahead (on this page)

But Michael Leiter, former director of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, told NBC News' Brian Williams that while the death of Gadhafi wasn't the expressed goal of U.S. policy, it was still a welcome development.

"Without Gadhafi gone, there really wasn't going to be progress in Libya, and this was a critical step in that regard," Leiter said.

It's still "going to be hard for Libya," he cautioned, saying that in addition to political and economic challenges, "they've got potentially, still, problems with terrorist organizations in the south of their country."

Aujuli, the NTC's ambassador in Washington, said skepticism greeted the rebels when they started the civil war in February, and "I am very happy to tell the world that Libya did not disappoint you."

"We've been waiting for this moment a very long time, more than 40 years," he said. "We are proud of ourselves. We are proud of our people.

"They open a new chapter with greater dreams for a democratic country, a democratic regime, and (will) enjoy for the first time in 42 years to elect their own leader."

By Alex Johnson of msnbc.com with Andrea Mitchell of NBC News and Martin Bashir and Tamron Hall of MSNBC-TV.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44980950/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/

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After Gaddafi, can U.S. keep Libya at arm's length? (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? The death of Muammar Gaddafi after months of U.S. and NATO airstrikes may provide the Obama administration a needed foreign policy coup, but it is unlikely to alter the U.S. quest to keep Libya at arm's length.

Leaders of European nations that rallied support for a NATO campaign launched in March hailed the news Gaddafi had been killed in his hometown of Sirte on Thursday, capping months of bloody conflict between Gaddafi loyalists and Western-backed rebels.

That contrasted with the circumspect tone in Washington, where military leaders from the start voiced skepticism about a third war in a Muslim country and where budget woes fueled ambivalence toward involvement in a nation with scant U.S. interests.

President Barack Obama congratulated Libyans on the end to over 40 years of autocracy, but appeared to distance the United States as he placed the responsibility for Libya's future squarely on its people's shoulders.

"The American people wish the people of Libya the very best in what will be a challenging, but hopeful days, weeks, months and years ahead," Obama told reporters.

Yet after months of seeking a supporting role, Washington may be forced into the foreground if European nations do not provide robust support for what is likely to be a shaky political transition or if Libya descends into civil war.

"Ideally for the Obama administration, the Europeans should take the lead in developing a new regime, just as they did in bringing down the old one," said Kamran Bokhari, a security expert with the STRATFOR global intelligence firm.

"But there is a difference between what one wants and what one can actually get," he said. "Again, everyone's going to be looking at Washington."

Looming large in U.S. officials' minds is the violence that spiraled out of control in Iraq following Saddam Hussein's capture, trial and execution, which kept the United States in Iraq for years at great financial and human cost.

The Gaddafi government's downfall in August and now his death will go some way to validating what became known as the "Obama doctrine," in which Washington, unlike in Iraq and Afghanistan, played a more modest role rather than acting as de facto leader of an anemic coalition.

Following initial criticism for failing to act quickly in Libya, U.S. officials went to great lengths after the early weeks of the air campaign to make NATO the face of international military assistance for the ragtag rebel force.

Despite the Pentagon's heavy lifting on refueling, logistics and surveillance, nations like France and Britain embraced more forward-leaning military and diplomatic roles.

Still, given its military might, Washington may find itself playing an important role even after the NATO mission ends in providing training and other assistance to the new Libyan military or making use of its unique air assets.

MOTLEY LEADERSHIP

Perhaps the biggest question mark in determining the future U.S. role in Libya is the ability of its new leadership to stave off prolonged civil strife in an ethnically and tribally fractured country reeling after months of bloody conflict.

After Gaddafi's death, it remains unclear whether Libya's motley array of new leaders, with their diverse ideologies, can forge a unified path in a country new to democracy or whether remaining Gaddafi supporters will keep putting up a fight.

"Now more than ever, the risk of them not succeeding has increased as the one thing that hung everyone together is gone," Bokhari said.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton articulated during a visit to Libya this week the widespread U.S. concerns about how well a host of militias can be streamlined into a single national army and about quickly establishing law and order.

Another obstacle for Libya, where Gaddafi commanded almost absolute power for decades, is its lack of strong government institutions that could smooth the path ahead.

"The success achieved thus far is very, very limited compared to the challenges that lie ahead," Les Gelb, an expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, told reporters.

Equally unclear is the precise nature of future U.S. nonmilitary involvement in the new Libya.

Since the conflict began, the United States has spent at least $135 million on humanitarian and other aid to Libya, a paltry sum next to the billions of dollars it has poured into rebuilding Iraq and Afghanistan.

The administration will likely aim to keep its financial support modest to an oil-rich country that already has billions of dollars in assets from the Gaddafi government at its disposal.

While Clinton promised to expand support for a nascent democracy, she vowed to find public-private funding for other initiatives like treating war victims in the United States.

As the Obama administration scrambles to stave off a budget crisis, the State Department also announced this week it had not sought new congressional funding for aid to Libya.

That could change if robust aid fails to materialize from Europe -- where political leaders are staring down their own fiscal crisis -- and if Washington feels aid could fend off a risky destabilization for a region already gripped by change.

There could be also be big U.S. commercial interest in a country where recent years of expanded foreign investment halted in February with the start of the uprising.

U.S. companies with operations in Libya include ConocoPhillips, Occidental and other firms involved in construction and oil field services.

"What U.S. business needs in any market is security and transparency and stability," said Chuck Dittrich, executive director of the U.S.-Libya Business Association. "I think this enables Libya to close the book on 40 years of a nightmare."

(Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed, David Alexander, Doug Palmer, Glenn Somerville and Laura MacInnis in Washington and Andrew Quinn in Islamabad; Writing by Missy Ryan; Editing by Warren Strobel and Peter Cooney)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/africa/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111020/pl_nm/us_usa_libya_future

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