NPR– NATO warplanes bombarded targets in Tripoli with more than 20 airstrikes early Tuesday, striking around Moammar Gadhafi’s residential compound in what appeared to be the heaviest night of bombing of the Libyan capital since the Western alliance launched its air campaign against his forces.

The rapid string of strikes, all within less than half an hour, set off thunderous booms that rattled windows and sent heavy plumes of smoke over the city, including from an area close to Gadhafi’s sprawling Bab al-Aziziya compound.

Government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said at least three people were killed and dozens wounded in NATO strikes that targeted what he described as buildings used by volunteer units of the Libyan army.

NATO said in a statement that a number of the strikes hit a vehicle storage facility adjacent to Bab al-Aziziya that has been used in supplying regime forces “conducting attacks on civilians.” It was not immediately clear if the facility was the only target hit in the barrage. Bab al-Azizya, which includes a number of military facilities, has been pounded repeatedly by NATO strikes.

As jets whooshed low over the city during the night, anti-aircraft fire crackled in response. People could be heard screaming and shouting outside a hotel where journalists are staying. Pro-Gadhafi loyalists beeped their car horns and fired guns, shouting their support for the Libyan leader.

Observers described the bombing as the heaviest attack on the Libyan capital since NATO began its air campaign on March 19 after the passage of a U.N. Security Council resolution to protect civilians after Gadhafi responded to the public uprising against his rule by unleashing his military and his militias.

NATO has been escalating and widening the scope of its strikes over the past weeks, hiking the pressure on Gadhafi, while the alliance’s members have built closer ties with the rebel movement that has control of the eastern half of Libya. On Monday, the highest-ranking U.S. diplomat in the Middle East, Jeffrey Feltman, was in the de facto rebel capital of Benghazi in a show of support.

Despite NATO bombing runs, the rebels have not been able to break Gadhafi’s grip on the west of the country, including the capital, Tripoli.

In a significant new deployment of firepower, France and Britain are bringing attack helicopters to use in the strikes in Libya as soon as possible, French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet said Monday.

The use of attack helicopters would appear to mark a new strategy for NATO, which has relied on strikes by fighter planes and seen that result in a stalemate on the ground as Gadhafi forces adapted, often turning to urban fighting to make such strikes more difficult.

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© 2011 NPR

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RIA NOVOSTI– Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi on Saturday called for war with Italy, citing Italy’s ‘colonization’ attempts.

In a speech delivered at the Libyan state TV, Gaddafi said that he could not prevent war with Italy since Libyans wanted it.

“We are already in a war with Italy since Italians kill our children in 2011 as they did in 1911, that is why I cannot forbid Libyans to defend their lives and carry the military actions on the enemy’s territory,” Gaddafi said.

Libya was Italian colony from 1911 to 1941. In 2008 Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi signed a so-called Friendship Treaty with Gaddafi. Under this pact Italy paid 5 billion euro reparations to Libya for its colonial rule.

In late February Italy suspended the Friendship Treaty.

“Italy insists on repeating the crimes of 1911, in keeping with the same colonialist policy. This is the violent face of Italy. My friend Berlusconi and the Italian parliament are committing a crime,” Gaddafi said.

Italy is one of the 14 NATO countries, taking part in the operation Unified Protector in Libya, which includes airstrikes, a no-fly zone and naval enforcement of an arms embargo.

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© 2011 RIA Novosti

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TELEGRAPH– The fuel in reactors No 2 and 3 is suspected to have melted amid reports that the operators Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) failed to cool the plant in the aftermath of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

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© 2011 Telegraph

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RAW STORY– Governments approved on Monday a U.N. report projecting that renewable energies such as solar, wind or hydropower could leap to supply almost 80 percent of the world’s demand by 2050, with the right policies.

The study broadly matched a draft written by scientists before the meeting, but environmental group Greenpeace said some findings were watered down due to opposition by OPEC heavyweight Saudi Arabia and also by Brazil.

The report by the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) also said that a shift to cleaner energies would help cut greenhouse gas emissions, which it blamed for climate change including floods, droughts, heat waves and rising sea levels.

“Close to 80 percent of the world energy supply could be met by renewables by mid-century if backed by the right enabling public policies,” it said in a statement after government delegates approved a special report at talks in Abu Dhabi.

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© 2011 RAW STORY

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EXAMINER– In the two years since Barack Obama took office and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives ramped up its Project Gunrunner and Operation Fast and Furious gun trafficking sting operations, drug war homicides in Mexico nearly tripled, according to an article published over the weekend by Global Research.

This revelation comes coincidentally to the publication of the transcript of an interview on Univision, made available today by independent blogger Mike Vanderboegh, one of two men responsible for uncovering the Project Gunrunner controversy.

Figures quoted by the Global Research article come from the Trans-Border Institute at the University of San Diego. They appear in a report titled Drug Violence in Mexico: Data and Analysis Through 2010, and show that the body count has risen sharply at the same time that the Obama State Department has allowed private arms sales to Mexico exceed those to Iraq, Afghanistan and Israel.

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© 2011 Examiner

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