Lionel Messi celebrates after scoring in Real Madrid

Barcelona's Argentinian forward Lionel Messi (top) celebrates after scoring next to Real Madrid's defender Sergio Ramos (C) and Real Madrid's goalkeeper and captain Iker Casillas (down) during the Champions League semi-final first leg football match between Real Madrid and Barcelona at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid on April 27, 2011.

FC Barcelona's Lionel Messi

FC Barcelona's Lionel Messi, from Argentina, top, reacts after scoring against Real Madrid during their semifinal, first leg Champions League soccer match at the Bernabeu stadium in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, April 27, 2011.

NATO Aims to Rattle Qaddafi With Increased Airstrikes, Attacks on Compound

NATO is increasing airstrikes against Muammar Qaddafi’s forces and select targets closer to the Libyan leader in an effort to break a military stalemate between loyalists and rebels, military officials said.

U.K. Defense Secretary Liam Fox said this week’s North Atlantic Treaty Organization strike that compressed part of Qaddafi’s main complex in Tripoli was meant to “increase the psychological heaviness” on the Libyan dictator. Fox met U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates yesterday in Washington.

The attacks on the multifaceted will make Qaddafi “realize that this is a little that he is involved in -- and I think that’s very significant in terms of the force we can bring on the regime itself,” Fox said on PBS’s “NewsHour.”

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Syria opposition demands reform, vows protests

Syrian resistance figures said Wednesday their "massive waged people revolution" will break the regime unless President Bashar Assad leads a change to democratic state, even as authorities intensify their onslaught on the country's rebellion.

The announcement from an umbrella group of opposition activists in Syria and overseas called the National Initiative for Change said a elected conversion will "safeguard the nation from falling into a period of violent behavior, chaos and civil war."

"If the Syrian president does not wish to be evidenced in history as a leader of this transition period, there is no alternative left for Syrians apart from to move onward along the same path as did the Tunisians, Egyptians and Libyans before them," the declaration said.

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Afghan officer fires on NATO troops, kills several

A veteran Afghan military officer opened fire on foreign forces Wednesday after a dispute at the Kabul airport, killing several NATO troops, Afghan and coalition officials said.

It was the newest in a spate of deadly occurrences that have happened inside government or military installations, a preferred target of Taliban rebellious.

The Taliban claimed blame for the attack, other than Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi said the gunman was an Afghan military pilot who "open fire on foreigners after a disagreement."

The pilot was killed in the shooting, which happened inside a flair used by the Afghan Air Force, Azimi said. NATO did not make known the number or nationalities of the casualties pending announcement of their families. The airport is home to the NATO Air Training Command.

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Libyan Rebels Under Siege Despite Successes

The Libyan city of Misratah is still being tattered by weaponry fire despite rebels claiming they have pressed Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's forces out of the centre.

Regardless of the celebrations of "victory" after government troops pulled back from key areas in Libya's third city, it remainder beleaguered.

"There may be some soldiers beating in the city, afraid of being killed, except there are no groups of soldiers left," one insurgent fighter told AFP.

A radical spokesman told Reuters that Gaddafi's armed forces were trying to re-enter the Nakl Thaqeel Road, which leads to Misratah's port late on Monday.

Judge's gay partner raised in Proposition 8 case

Proponents of California same-sex marriage ban filed a movement Monday seeking to check out of the historic ruling that upturned Proposition 8 since the federal judge who wrote it is in a long-term association with an additional man.

Lawyers for the ban's backers said that Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker should have uninvolved himself from the case, or at least disclose his relationship status, to avoid a real or supposed conflict of interest.

"Only if Chief Judge Walker had unambiguously disavowed any attention in marrying his partner could the parties and the public be certain that he did not have a direct personal concentration in the outcome of the case," attorneys for the coalition of sacred and conservative groups that put proposal 8 on the November 2008 ballot wrote.

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Thousands of Syrian troops raid rebellious city

Thousands of soldiers backed by tanks and snipers moved in previous to dawn to the city where Syria's anti-government rebellion began, reasoning panic in the streets when they opened fire haphazardly on civilians and went house-to-house rounding up supposed protesters. At least 11 people were killed and 14 others lay in the streets — either dead or grimly wounded, witnesses said.

The military raids on the southern city of Daraa and at least two other areas optional Syria is trying to impose military control on the centers of protest in opposition to President Bashar Assad, whose family has ruled Syria for four decades. Residents and human rights activists said the command wants to terrify opponents and frighten them from staging any more exhibitions.

The disgusting was painstakingly planned: Electricity, water and mobile phone services were cut. Security agents armed with guns and knives conduct house-to-house sweeps, neighborhoods were sectioned off and checkpoints were erect previous to the sun rose.

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This Kandahar break-out is a real blow for the allies in Afghanistan

The real meaning of the audacious break-out of prisoners from a Kandahar jail lies in the fact those more than 100 Taliban commanders are supposed to be in the middle of the escapees. These are not the top-ranking members of the leadership who run overall plan – most of whom remain safe in Pakistan – but the crucial mid-level militant who lead groups of between 50 and a few hundred fighters.

One of the most significant lessons learned by US forces in Ira>Iraqq was the utility of target such men. Thinning their ranks not only eliminate enemies who cause casualties on a daily basis and disrupts units on the ground but has imperative consequences for insurgent movements as a whole. If adequate numbers of them are killed, a gap begins to come into view between the calculated leadership and the foot soldiers.

Two problems that the Taliban upper authority has always wrestled with is the course and the discipline of its fragmented and often discrete fighting force.

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5 killed in new Syria clashes, witnesses say

Syria sharply raise its already lethal campaign to crush a five-week uprising near the beginning Monday, sending troops backed by tanks, snipers and knife-wielding security forces into the southern city where the revolt began. At least five people were killed and dozens arrested, witnesses and activist said.

The offensive into Daraa was the most intense in a sequence of actions to put down dissent and come into view part of new plan for pre-emptive strikes against the antagonism to President Bashar Assad's regime rather than react to marches and protests.

More than 300 people have been killed transversely the country since the uprising began. But the harsh crackdowns have only served to bolster protesters, who started with calls for reserved reforms but are now gradually more demanding Assad's downfall.

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Taliban break more than 450 out of Afghan prison

Taliban militants dug a drawn out tunnel subversive and into the main jail in Kandahar city and whisked out more than 450 prisoners, the majority of whom were Taliban fighters, officials and rebellious said Monday.

The immense overnight jailbreak in Afghanistan's second-largest city underscores the Afghan government's lifelong weak point in the south despite an influx of international troops, funding and advisers. Kandahar city, in particular, has been a focus of the worldwide shot to establish a strong Afghan government existence in former Taliban strongholds.

The 1,200-inmate Sarposa Prison has been part of that plan. The ability has undergone security upgrades and makes tighter procedures following a brazen 2008 Taliban assault that freed 900 prisoners. Afghan government officials and their NATO backers have frequently said that the prison has vastly enhanced security since that attack.

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Real Madrid Cup run over

 

ريال مدريد مش مصدقين حالهم كسبوا الكاس. مساكين صارلهم زمان ما كسبوا إشي, لسه عم بيرجفوا من الفرحة لدرجة انه وقعوا الكاس وهما عم بيحتفلوا واندعس تحت عجال الباص ... خخخ

 

شوفوا الصور

U.S. sends drones to Libya as battle rages for Misrata

Rebels welcomed the operation of U.S. unmanned aircraft and said they hoped the move would defend civilians. Doctors at the hospital in Misrata, the rebels' last major throttlehold in the West of the country, said nine insurgent were killed in hostility on Thursday.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates told a Washington news discussion President Barack Obama had sanctioned the use of Predator drones and they were already in operation. General James Cartwright, vice chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the first two Predators were sent to Libya on Thursday but had to turn back because of bad withstand.

The United States premeditated to sustain two patrols of armed Predators above Libya at any given time, Cartwright said. The drones have verified a compelling weapon in Pakistan and other areas where U.S. army have no troops on the ground. They can stay aloft almost eternally without being noticed from the ground and hit targets with missiles, with no risk to crew.

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McCain lauds anti-Gadhafi force during Libya visit

U.S. Sen. John McCain, one of the strongest proponents in Congress of the American military interference in Libya, said Friday that Libyan insurgent’s hostility Moammar Gadhafi's troops are his heroes.

The top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee made the comment after incoming in Benghazi, a city that has been the resistance capital in the rebel-held eastern Libya.

McCain said he was in Benghazi "to get an on the ground estimation of the situation" and planned to meet with the rebel National Transition Council, the de-facto government in the eastern half of the country, and members of the dissenter military.

"They are my heroes," McCain said of the rebels as he walked out of a local hotel in Benghazi. He was peripatetic in a toughened Mercedes jeep and had a security detail. A few Libyans waved American flags as his vehicle herd past.

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Obama's deficit plans run into economic reality

President Barack Obama came to the West Coast looking to sell a long-term plan for dipping the nation's deficit. But he couldn't flee the reality that a lot of Americans are still waiting for short-term solutions to their financial problems, from persistent being without a job to the crippled housing market.

Voters in California and Nevada did express both an attention and an understanding about the need for deficit lessening. Yet they made clear that the economic upturn that's given Washington lawmakers the space to start talk about longer-term fiscal matters still hasn't fully taken hold in ways that are meaningful to them.

Obama long has said he knows the economic recovery hasn't come to many parts of the country. But as he shifts into re-election mode, his confront will be to show the public that he's still paying attention on issues like job creation, even as the chat in Washington change to how to bring down the nation's huge arrears.

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Bomb, propane tanks found at Colorado mall

Investigators want to question a person of interest concerning a pipe bomb and propane tanks found after a fire at a Littleton mall, a discovery that raised the option of an association to the Columbine butchery anniversary.

Firefighters set up two propane tanks and the bomb near the Southwest Plaza Mall's food court after a small fire broke out Wednesday that was swiftly squelched. The mall was evacuated around noon. No one was wounded and the bombs didn't explode.

Wednesday was the 12th centenary of the shooting rampage at nearby Columbine High School and official’s spoken concern that the mall incident could be someway linked.

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Japan declares no-go zone around nuclear plant

Residents hurried back into the 12-mile (20-kilometer) evacuation zone about Japan's radiation-spewing nuclear power plant Thursday, grab whatever possessions they could before an arrange went into effect legally proscription admission to the area.

A stream of evacuees ventured into abandoned towns near the plant, some in white caring suits and others in face masks and rain gear they hoped would protect against radiation. Most raced from beginning to end the zone with car windows closed, their vehicles overcrowded with clothing and valuables.

"This is our last ability, but we aren't going to stay long. We are just receiving what we need and receiving out," said Kiyoshi Kitajima, an X-ray technician, who dash to his hospital in Futaba, a town next-door to the plant, to pull together utensils before the order went into end product at midnight.

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Obama to supporters: I understand your frustration

Reduction into his 2012 movement, President Barack Obama is telling his group he understands their frustration over the collaboration he's made with Republicans, while get ready them for more to come.

It's a appropriate warning given the future vote on raising the arrears ceiling and the continuing debate over long-term deficit drop, both issues Obama says can only be solved if Republicans and Democrats work in concert. But further compromises could demonstrate a tough pill to gulp for many of Obama's liberal backers, who have grown tired of watching the president let go ground to the GOP on spending cuts and tax breaks for the wealthy.

During a raucous fundraiser paying attention on young people in San Francisco Wednesday night, Obama said his group is not alone in their aggravation.

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UK plans military team for Libya

Libya's foreign minister has warned Britain in opposition to deploying military specialist to help anti-Gaddafi forces, saying such a move would only delay the combating.

The UK government proclaimed overnight that it intends to send a group of military advisers to the rebel-controlled city of Benghazi to provide astuteness support and logistics guidance.

It comes as NATO express increasing frustration that its air strikes are failing to secure any noteworthy gains for the rebel forces that are hardly hanging on to the areas they manage.

But the Gaddafi regime is advising its own solution.

The foreign minister is calling for a armistice with a view to universal elections being held, and he's left open the likelihood that Libyans themselves can decide who governs them.

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Japan mulls limited access to zone near nuke plant

Establishment were bearing in mind restricting access to the mass going away zone approximately Japan's crippled nuclear plant Wednesday to limit release exposure to residents who may want to come back to their homes.

"We are allowing for setting up 'caution areas' as an option for successfully limiting entry" to the district, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said.

It was unclear when the ban might be compulsory.

Concerning 70,000-80,000 people were living in the 10 towns and villages within 12 miles (20 kilometers) of the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, which has been leaking emission after a March 11 earthquake and tsunami ruined its power and cooling systems.

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Obama rips GOP plan, yet sees hope for a debt deal

With America's worldwide praise standing suddenly in query, President Barack Obama insist Tuesday that Washington has the following will to slash the massive U.S. money owing in spite of fierce, fundamental difference with Republicans regarding how to do it.

Obama spoke optimistically of conciliation with GOP lawmakers, yet still used a campaign-style town hall event to charge the Republicans of donation a bleak future for the poor, young and aged with their proposal.

The president seemed intention on assuring monetary markets and the watching world that U.S. leaders will get their act jointly to address a suffocating debt — while at the same time trying to encourage voters that only his plan would share the pain quite.

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Japan's Kashima Antlers vs. South Korea's Suwon Samsung Bluewings 1-1

Yuzo Tashiro (C) of Japan's Kashima Antlers is congratulated by teammates after scoring a goal against South Korea's Suwon Samsung Bluewings during the AFC Champions League Group H match in Tokyo on April 19, 2011. The match ended in a 1-1 draw.

Obama's tax return: Income down — to $1.7 million

President Barack Obama is creation less money than he used to, although it's still a lot: He and wife Michelle accounted income of $1.73 million last year, mostly from the books he's written, according to his just-filed tax return. That was down from the $5.5 million of a year previous.

The president, who has been agitation to raise taxes on the rich, paid the government $453,770 in federal taxes, regarding a quarter of the income. Just last week, he renewed his push to end Bush-era tax cuts for household with annual incomes above $250,000 — note that that would contain him.

The White House unconfined tax profits for the Obamas and for Vice President Joe Biden and his wife on Monday, the time limit for Americans to file.

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S&P warning: Fix deficit or risk credit rating

A key praise agency issued an unparalleled warning to the United States government Monday, urging Washington to get a grip on its money or risk losing the nation's sterling recognition rating.

For the first time, Standard & Poor's lower its long-term outlook for the federal government's economic health from "stable" to "unhelpful," and warned of serious consequences if lawmakers fail to reach a deal to organize the enormous federal shortage.

A standoff could prompt the agency to strip the government of its top venture rating in the next two years, S&P said. A loss of the triple-A rating would undulate during the American economy, making loans more luxurious and credit trickier to obtain.

The demote was interpreted as a rebuke to President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans, admonish them to put government aside and come up with a long-term fiscal plan as soon as possible.

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Vienna city marathon

Thousands of athletes pass a bridge over the Danube river shortly after the start of the Vienna city marathon, in Vienna, Austria, on Sunday, April 17, 2011.

FA Cup semi-final football match between Manchester United and Manchester City

Manchester City's Italian manager Roberto Mancini (4th L) attempts to separate his player, Mario Balotelli (L) from Manchester United's Rio Ferdinand (3rd R) following a dispute after the final whistle in the FA Cup semi-final football match between Manchester United and Manchester City at Wembley Stadium, north London, England on April 16, 2011.

Aston Villa's English striker Gabriel Agbonlahor

West Ham's English goalkeeper Robert Green (L) is unable to stop Aston Villa's English striker Gabriel Agbonlahor (R) from scoring the winning goal of the English Premier League football match between West Ham United and Aston Villa at the Boleyn Ground, Upton Park, in East London, England, on April 16, 2011.

Messi during " El Clasico"

Real Madrid's goalkeeper and captain Iker Casillas fails to stop a penalty shot by Barcelona's Argentinian forward Lionel Messi during " El Clasico" Spanish League football match Real Madrid against Barcelona at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid, on April 16, 2011.

Tottenham Hotspur's goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes scrambles to stop the ball as Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo

Tottenham Hotspur's goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes scrambles to stop the ball as Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo, unseen, scores during the UEFA Champions League, quarterfinal, second leg soccer match at White Hart Lane, London.

Obama: Congress will compromise, raise debt limit

President Barack Obama, be adamant a politically alienated government will not risk tanking the world economy, says Congress will once again raise the amount of debt the country can pile up to make certain it has money to pay its bills. For the first time, though, he signaled that he will have to go down with more expenditure cuts to make sure a deal with Republicans.

In an interview Friday with The Associated Press, the president also spoke in his most confident terms yet that voters will reward him with an additional four years in the White House for his work to turn around the country. Speaking from his hometown and the site of his recently launched re-election bid, Obama said he thinks voters will resolve he is the best geared up person "to finish the job."

On America's wars, he said that an important number of troops would begin coming home from Afghanistan in July in spite of many prospect that the withdrawal would be modest. He said the U.S.would not make bigger its military role to end a bloody stalemate in Libya but insist that Moammar Gadhafi would, in time, be compulsory from power.

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Fires sweeping across Texas; firefighter killed

A day after behind one of their own, firefighters return to the front lines Saturday to battle wildfires inclusive across hundreds of thousands of acres in Texas that have destroyed dozens of homes.

Strong winds and drought-stricken grasses and shrubs are fueling the fires that forced hundreds of evacuations, including an entire town, and cracked at least 60 homes on Friday. Firefighters worked suddenly as the blazes burned across in relation to 655 sq. miles, according to the Texas Forest Service.

A number of of the fires have been burning for a week or more, counting three in West Texas that have charred a mutual 400,000 acres.

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Japan nuke plants ordered to beef up readiness

Reverberations jolted Japan on Saturday hours after the country's nuclear security agency prepared plant operators to beef up their earthquake-preparedness systems to put off a reappearance of the nuclear crisis roiling the county north of Tokyo.

There were no preliminary reports of damage from the magnitude-5.9 reverberations, and there was no risk of a tsunami similar to the one last month that crippled the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant, causing Japan's worst-ever nuclear plant blow. Japan has been hit by a string of slighter quake since the scale 9.0 earthquake hit the country on March 11.

In the meantime, the newspaper Asahi Shimbun, citing no sources, reported that a top secret plan to take to pieces Tokyo Electric Power Co., which runs the radiation-leaking Fukushima plant, was circulate within the government.

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Iran helping crackdown in Syria: US

The United States today blamed Iran of secretly helping Syria in its labors to onslaught on demonstrator.

"We consider that there is credible information that Iran is supplementary Syria. I'm not going to get into particulars about that material help, but it's of real concern to us," State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters.

Iran Toner, though, said he said no details about what support Iran is only if to the Syrian government.

"I don't have particulars about what material backing they're providing the Syrian Government," he said.

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Congress OKs big budget cuts — bigger fights await

Congress sent President Barack Obama hard-fought legislation cutting a record $38 billion from central spending on Thursday, bestowing bipartisan hold up on the first major compromise stuck between the White House and lately empowered Republicans in Congress.

"Welcome to alienated government," said House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, Republican point man in tough talks with the president and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., that shaped a bill no one claimed to like in its total.

Leader of a rambunctious new greater part, Boehner said the cuts in domestic program were first-time. Yet he also called the measure a less-than-perfect first step in a long campaign against federal red ink, and dozens of rank-and-file conservative voted in opposition to it.

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Obama visits his hometown to restart money chase

President Barack Obama restarted his alarming fundraising operation Thursday with a confront to supporters that the 2012 presidential crusade will be concerning how to fix the country's money problems with no doing harm to "the America we think in."

"We are going to be gifted to present a very clear option to the American people," the president told Chicago hometown supporters in his first fundraisers since formally proclaiming his re-election last week. "We can get our economic house in order, but we can do it in a way that is dependable with our values and who we are as a people. Or we can make a decision to shrink our vision of what America is. And I don't consider in shrinking America."

Bracing for a fight next to re-energized Republicans determined to deny him a second term, the president required Thursday to reanimate supporters who sweep him into the White House in 2008 on promises of change — counting liberals let down at his compromises with the GOP.

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