Obama urges Gaddafi forces to give up

NEW YORK/BANI WALID Libya (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama called on Tuesday for the last of Muammar Gaddafi's forces to lay down their arms as he announced the return of the U.S. ambassador to Tripoli and pledged to help Libya rebuild.Today, the Libyan people are writing a new chapter in the life of their nation," Obama said in prepared remarks for a high-level United Nations conference on Libya.
"We will stand with you in your struggle to realize the peace and prosperity that freedom can bring."
The African Union (AU) recognised the National Transitional Council (NTC) as Libya's de facto government, removing another prop of diplomatic support for the ousted Gaddafi.
But a spokesman for Gaddafi said the war may "take years" and that loyalist forces have enough arms and were willing to fight.
Spokesman Moussa Ibrahim also said 17 foreign mercenaries had been captured, including French and British personnel, and were being questioned in the Gaddafi stronghold of Bani Walid.
NTC military spokesman Ahmed Bani has denied the assertion, while French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said there were "no French mercenaries in Libya". The British foreign office said it had no information about whether the report was true.
Nearly a month after Gaddafi was driven from power with the help of a NATO-led bombing campaign, Obama urged his die-hard supporters to give up.
"Those still holding out must understand -- the old regime is over, and it is time to lay down your arms and join the new Libya," Obama said.
Seeking to bolster Libya's new leaders, he also said the U.S. ambassador was now on his way back to Tripoli and "this week, the American flag that was lowered before our embassy was attacked will be raised again."
FORCES HOLD OFF ATTACKING GADDAFI BASTIONS
Libyan provisional government forces held off from attacking Gaddafi's last bastions on Tuesday as civilians kept streaming out ahead of more assaults.
There were occasional skirmishes outside Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte, Reuters witnesses said, and doctors at a nearby field hospital said four NTC fighters had been killed by pro-Gaddafi shelling.
NTC fighters said they had captured a tank from pro-Gaddafi forces who may have been trying to flee in it from Sirte.
The tank, draped in sheepskins, stood on the main highway to the south of the Mediterranean coastal city. Fighters climbed on top of it chanting, "God is greatest", waving the NTC flag and firing rifles into the air in celebration.
The front line around the interior desert town of Bani Walid was quiet with no fighting, with NTC soldiers and commanders sitting around in small groups discussing battle plans.
More civilians poured out of both towns, fearing more onslaughts after heavy attacks by NTC forces last week failed on several occasions to dislodge pro-Gaddafi units in the towns.
Anti-Gaddafi commanders outside Sirte said they were giving locals a chance to leave before attacking again.
"Gaddafi and his soldiers do not let them move. They keep them like hostages in the house," NTC fighter Mustafa Abukees told Reuters as he manned a checkpoint outside Sirte checking departing cars for weapons.
"It's a really bad situation. We don't know how many families are inside and we don't know how many are coming out."

Humanitarian groups have voiced alarm at reported conditions in Sirte. "There's no electricity, no phone coverage. Nothing," resident Ibrahim Ramadan said, standing by a car packed with his family at a checkpoint.
GADDAFI DEFIANCE
Gaddafi reminded the NTC of his presence on Tuesday in a recorded message carried by Syrian-based Arrai television, in which he said NATO planes would not be able to continue operating in Libya for a prolonged period.
"The political system in Libya is a system based on the power of the people ... and it is impossible that this system be removed," he said. "The bombs of NATO planes will not last."
NATO has hit targets in both Bani Walid and Sirte and also in the more remote town of Sabha, deep in the Sahara desert, where the NTC said it had seized the airport and fort. It was not possible to get independent confirmation.
Sabha, 770 km (480 miles) south of Tripoli and overlooked by an old fort built by Libya's former Italian colonial rulers, straddles the main desert trail south to neighbouring Niger, an escape route already used by members of Gaddafi's entourage.
Any victory around Sabha would be an important boost for NTC forces who have struggled to contain disunity in their ranks and suffered stark reversals on other parts of the battlefield.
Nearly a month after Gaddafi was driven from power, his loyalists in the three towns are still beating back regular NTC assaults.
The first cargo of Libyan crude oil to be pumped since the conflict erupted more than seven months ago has failed to attract buyers because of confusion over quality, traders said on Tuesday.
Libya's Arabian Gulf Oil Company (Agoco) on Tuesday clarified
the oil was a mix of two different crude oils.
At least two traders said they were confused about the quality of the oil and one said weak margins in the European and Mediterranean market did not justify the offer level.

Cops kill four members of Dol Gang

IPOH: It was a bloody end for four members of the notorious “Dol Gang” who fired a gunshot and charged at police with parangs near Kampung Changkat Larang, Batu Gajah.
The four suspects, high on the police wanted list, were shot dead while trying to attack policemen with parangs and a hand-made pistol during a bid to escape in a stolen car on Monday night.
State police chief Deputy Comm Datuk Mohd Shukri Dahlan said police had to defend themselves.
One of the suspects had earlier fired a shot at the trailing police patrol car, hitting its side and narrowly missing a policeman inside.

“When they drove to a dead end, the driver resorted to reversing the car into the patrol car.Three of the suspects, each armed with a parang, then charged at the policemen,” said DCP Mohd Shukri.
He added that police were still trying to identify the suspects, aged between 30 and 40.
DCP Mohd Shukri said initial investigations showed the group had been responsible for at least 18 armed robberies and house break-ins in Ipoh, Batu Gajah, Sungai Siput, Manjung and Perak Tengah since early this year.
He said checks also showed that the getaway car a silver Proton Waja was reported stolen in Sungai Senam on March 30.
“At about 2.30am on Monday, the group broke into a house in Menglembu and tied up a family of five before escaping with cash, two laptops and an assortment of jewellery.
“A report was lodged, and police on crime prevention rounds spotted the suspects' car at about 9.30pm and gave chase,” he added.

Ancient treasure found and sold

MALACCA: Agents of scrap metal dealers have been selling old Portuguese coins, bullets and religious amulets that were unearthed during a recent landslip along the banks of the Malacca River to antique brokers from Singapore.
The artefacts, the most valuable of which found so far was a cannon ball that fetched RM500, were discovered after an ancient jetty at Stadhuys collapsed in May.
The artefacts are believed to be about 500 years old.

A scrap metal agent, Rafi, 38, said the find also comprised Chinese porcelain pieces and religious paraphernalia from the Malacca Sultanate as well as those from the Portuguese, Dutch and British colonial periods.
“Also unearthed were bullets and cannons. For the past few days, I have joined six others in combing the river sediment for treasure.
“We have hit the jackpot! There are piles of these artefacts for our picking,” he said, adding that he made about RM1,000 a day by selling the items. Apparently, the brokers are from Singapore.
At the peak of the Malacca Sultanate and when the port was colonised by the Portuguese and Dutch, the river would have seen trading vessels from various countries, some of which could have capsized with their treasures.
Rafi said he was only armed with a ladle and hoe for his search, adding that although the relevant authorities “were aware of the find, nobody had stopped them from digging”.
“I know we should not sell these items but the offer is too tempting,” he said.
“We found mostly items from the Portuguese era. Despite being 500 years old, the coins are well-preserved with their carvings still visible. We have also discovered coins used by the Dutch East India Company.”
Expressing his regret that no effort was made to preserve these historical items, Portuguese-Eurasian Association president Michael Singho said it was ready to buy the artefacts and conserve them at their settlement in Ujong Pasir here.
“I will embark on a fund-raising drive to obtain the items back,” he said.
State Tourism, Culture and Heritage Committee deputy chairman Chua Kheng Hwa said he would bring up the discovery to Chief Minister Datuk Mohd Ali Rustam.
“The items are supposed to be handed over to the museum authority but these people are only interested in making a fast buck.”

Rescuers race to reach survivors after Himalayan quake

GAUHATI, India — Thousands of homeless villagers in the Himalayas spent a miserable night outdoors in heavy rains after a powerful earthquake flattened houses and rescuers struggled to reach victims in the mountains of India, Nepal and Tibet.

Rescue workers with helicopters and earth movers ferried supplies and dug through mudslides trying to reach villages cut off by the quake that killed 53 people and damaged more than 100,000 homes.
The weather slowed the relief effort, and many homeless villagers spent Monday night outside.
Three emergency workers were killed in the frantic rescue effort, Indian Home Secretary R.K. Singh said. More than 6,000 army and paramilitary troops were working to clear concrete slabs, bricks and mud to rescue scores of people trapped under houses that collapsed when the 6.9-magnitude quake struck the Himalayan region Sunday evening.
"The situation doesn't look good," an official from the U.N.'s disaster management team in New Delhi told Reuters. "My feeling is the death toll and number of injured are going to increase."
Nine helicopters dropped food to villages, airlifted a medical team, evacuated the injured and conducted damage assessments, Singh said. Heavy construction equipment was used to clear some of the blocked roads, he said.
"The rescue and relief operations are in full swing though they were hampered ... by poor weather," Singh said.
By midday Monday, workers had managed to clear mudslides from one lane of the main highway leading to the Indian state of Sikkim, where the quake was centered near the Nepal border, Singh said. An initial convoy of 75 paramilitary soldiers started moving toward Mangan, the village closest to the epicenter, but still had not arrived by evening.
At least 32 people died and 100 others were injured in Sikkim, Singh said. At least 10 of them worked for the same hydroelectric project, but it was not immediately clear how they died.
Seven other people were killed in the neighboring Indian states of Bihar and West Bengal, Singh said.
People in Sikkim's main city, Gangtok, sat on roadsides under umbrellas in the heavy rain and prepared for another chilly night -- reluctant to go home for fear of aftershocks.
"We are scared of another earthquake like last night, we have no place to stay, our house is damaged, and we can only pray to God now," Sushma Sharma, mother of three children in Gangtok, told Reuters.
China's official Xinhua News Agency reported seven deaths and 24 injuries in Tibet. It said the quake triggered hundreds of landslides that disrupted power and water supplies.
Nepal's government said seven people died there, including two men and a child who were killed when a brick wall toppled outside the British Embassy in the capital, Katmandu. Nearly 70 people were injured, some of them seriously, and were in hospitals across Nepal.
Most of the deaths in India occurred when houses, already weakened from recent monsoon rains, collapsed due to the force of the quake. More than 100,000 homes were damaged in Sikkim state alone, state officials said.
Singh said it was still unclear what the final toll might be.
"There may still be villages where people are trapped under collapsed houses that we have not been able to reach," he said.
TV broadcasters showed footage of buildings buckled, sidewalks cracked and two major roads collapsed in Gangtok, Sikkim's capital, 42 miles (68 kilometers) southeast of the quake's epicenter. Police cordoned off the office of the state's top elected official after the building was severely damaged, police Chief Jasbir Singh said.
In West Bengal state, utility workers toiled to restore power to a large swathe of the state which plunged into darkness after power lines were snapped by the quake.
The region has been hit by major earthquakes in the past, including in 1950 and 1897.-MSNBC

Exercise Helps Young Smokers Quit

Quitting smoking is one of the healthiest things a person can do, but it's also among the hardest, especially for teenage smokers who battle not only addiction but also the social pressure to keep lighting up.
Now new evidence that suggests a way to make their efforts easier: exercise. In a study involving 233 teens aged 14 to 19 in West Virginia (which has one of the highest smoking rates in the country, at more than 22%), teens who participated in a smoking cessation program combined with exercise were on average up to three times more likely to quit smoking than those who were provided only minimal stop-smoking counseling.
Students were randomly assigned to one of three groups: one group got a single smoking cessation session; a second group got a more intensive, 10-week stop-smoking program known as Not On Tobacco (NOT); and a third received a combination of NOT and fitness education. After three months, nearly 14% of the teens in the combination group had quit, compared with only 5% in the single-session group and 11% of those enrolled in NOT.
The exercise component of the combination intervention consisted only of five minutes of additional advice about exercise given at each weekly session (it wasn't as though the anti-smoking counselors became students' personal trainers). Rather, they counseled them on how physical activity can maintain good health and possibly help in giving up cigarettes. The students didn't exercise during the NOT sessions, but scheduled and participated in physical activity on their own, outside of the program.
The additional information on exercise improved quit rates, compared with the other two groups, but the effect was most striking among boys. Nearly 24% of the boys who participated in the NOT plus exercise program had quit smoking after three months, for example, compared with only 8% of those who participated in NOT alone.
The effect didn't hold for the girls, however. More girls in the NOT alone program quit smoking after three months than those getting smoking and exercise counseling.
Kimberly Horn, a professor of community medicine at West Virginia University and lead author of the paper, published in Pediatrics, can't explain the gender difference — yet. But she has some ideas, suggesting that it may have something to do with the fact that teen girls don't typically engage in as much vigorous physical activity or organized sports as boys do. "We're wondering if perhaps girls have more barriers to overcome in getting more physically active," she says.
Still the results suggest that exercise might help motivate at least some teens, including girls, who want to kick the habit. "Even a small amount of time spent by facilitators, teachers and counselors in motivating kids toward increased physical activity may have pretty significant impacts on health and health economics," says Horn.
She says the extra benefit is important since traditionally, anti-smoking programs have only about a 25% success rate among teens. And the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that smoking rates among teens, which have recently declined dramatically, are starting to plateau. Between 1997 and 2003, the percentage of adolescents who smoked dropped from 36% to 22%; by 2009, the rate had dropped to 19.5 % but has leveled off since. Anything that can help push that percentage lower would be welcome, say health experts.
In the study, Horn's group recorded both the students' self-reports about whether they had quit, as well as more objective measures of nicotine in their system via a carbon monoxide reader. At the start of the study, all of the students were smoking at least half a pack a day during the week and more over the weekends, and wanted to quit.
It's not clear why exactly exercise may help teens quit, but Horn says she is reviewing her data to learn more about the types of exercise the students used, and how long they were active every day. She hopes it will lead to better advice for teens who might be having a hard time kicking cigarettes.

"We're very hopeful that it may not require a big dose of extra time to get these kids thinking about changing their physical activity behaviors and their smoking behavior at the same time," she says. "In these times of tight funding and limited resources, if we can target two health behaviors with a single intervention, then we can make a great impact on health and health economics." -TIMES