World/Nation briefs March 9, 2011

Freshman senator slams Obama on national deficit

WASHINGTON - A freshman Democratic senator accused President Barack Obama on Tuesday of failing to provide leadership on a worsening national deficit as top Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill spent more time pointing fingers than seeking common ground on a must-do measure to fund the government for the next six months.

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., called on Obama to lead "tough negotiations" on wrapping up last year's unfinished budget work and said that "right now, that is not happening."

"When it comes to an issue of significant national importance, the president must lead," Manchin said. The freshman senator faces re-election next year in a state where voters are generally hostile to Obama.

White House press secretary Jay Carney countered by saying that Obama's "leadership and seriousness about the need to live within our means, cut spending where . we can is quite clear."

Libya's rebels hit hard by Gadhafi forces Tuesday

TRIPOLI, Libya - After dramatic successes over the past weeks, Libya's rebel movement appears to have hit a wall of overwhelming power from loyalists of Moammar Gadhafi. Pro-regime forces halted their drive on Tripoli with a heavy barrage of rockets in the east and threatened Tuesday to recapture the closest rebel-held city to the capital in the west.

If Zawiya, on Tripoli's doorstep, is ultimately retaken, the contours of a stalemate would emerge - with Libya divided between a largely loyalist west and a rebel east as the world wrestles with the thorny question of how deeply to intervene.

President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron agreed to plan for the "full spectrum of possible responses" on Libya, including imposing a no-fly zone to prevent Gadhafi's warplanes from striking rebels. According to a White House statement, the two leaders spoke Tuesday and agreed that the objective must be an end to violence and the departure of Gadhafi "as quickly as possible."

Yemeni army fires at student protesters

SANAA, Yemen - The Yemeni government escalated its efforts to stop mass protests calling for the president's ouster on Tuesday, with soldiers firing rubber bullets and tear gas at students camped at a university in the capital in a raid that left at least 98 people wounded, officials said.

The army stormed the Sanaa University campus hours after thousands of inmates rioted at the central prison in the capital, taking a dozen guards hostage and calling for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down. At least one prisoner was killed and 80 people were wounded as the guards fought to control the situation, police said.

Yemen has been rocked by weeks of protests against Saleh, inspired by recent uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia that drove out those nations' leaders. Saleh, a key U.S. ally in the campaign against al-Qaida, has been in power 32 years. In a sign that the protests are gaining traction, graffiti calling for Saleh to step down surfaced Tuesday in his birthplace, village of Sanhan, for the first time since the protests began.

Gates wonders if Afghans can hold on to U.S. gains

KANDAHAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan - The Taliban are reeling. U.S. and Afghan troops are clicking. The war is going really well. That's what Pentagon chief Robert Gates heard in two days with troops and commanders. Much less clear: the hoped-for advances in the Afghan government's ability to provide basic services and extend its authority beyond Kabul, just months before the American troop drawdown begins.

Gates visited some of the most hotly contested parts of the country, where the effects of President Barack Obama's 30,000-troop surge have been most keenly felt, as the Obama administration considers where to begin withdrawing and thinning out U.S. forces. The defense secretary's very presence in some far-flung combat bases was meant to show the progress the U.S.-led international military force claims.

"The closer you are to the fight, the better it looks," he told reporters Tuesday at a U.S. combat outpost to the west of here, in Kandahar province.

Mass death of sardines fouls California marina

REDONDO BEACH, Calif. - An estimated 1 million fish turned up dead Tuesday in a Southern California marina, creating a floating feast for pelicans, gulls and other sea life and a stinky mess for harbor authorities.

Boaters awakened to find a carpet of small silvery fish surrounding their vessels, said Staci Gabrielli, marine coordinator for King Harbor Marina on the Los Angeles County coast. Authorities said there was also a 12- to 18-inch layer of dead fish on the bottom of the marina.

California Fish and Game officials said the fish were sardines that apparently depleted the water of oxygen and suffocated.

"All indications are it's a naturally occurring event," said Andrew Hughan, a Fish and Game spokesman. The die-off was unusual but not unprecedented, he said.

- The Associated Press