Gadhafi regime claims three cities retaken
TRIPOLI, Libya, March 6 (UPI) -- Moammar Gadhafi's forces' claims of having retaken key cities Sunday was refuted by rebels as warfare raged on several fronts in Libya.
The BBC reported rebels said they had turned the tide during heavy fighting and had pushed government troops out of Zawiyah. Gadhafi's forces, backed by tanks and artillery, had fought into Misurata only to be repelled, the British news network said.
Mohamed Benrasali told the BBC one government tank had been blown up, 16 Gadhafi soldiers killed and other soldiers captured.
In Bin Jawad, rebel fighters retreated after being attacked by helicopter gunships Saturday. Military aircraft also have been reported over Ras Lanuf where state TV had reported Gadhafi's troops had regained the upper hand but insurgents still held sway, the BBC said.
A large rally in Tripoli celebrated the regime's claimed capture of Misurata and Zawiyah, CNN reported.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who talked by phone Sunday with Libya's foreign minister, said he has appointed the former foreign minister of Jordan, Abdelilah al-Khatib, as his special envoy to Libya to begin talks with authorities in Tripoli and in the region on the humanitarian situation and wider issues of the crisis.
In his conversation with Libyan Foreign Minister Musa Kusa, Ban also called on the authorities "to uphold their responsibility to protect the country's citizens and to heed the Libyan people's legitimate aspirations to live in dignity and peace."
U.N. relief official Valerie Amos Sunday requested humanitarian access to Misurata.
"Humanitarian organizations need urgent access now," she said in a release. "People are injured and dying and need help immediately. I call on the authorities to provide access without delay to allow aid workers to help save lives."
Various rights groups have estimated at least 1,000 people have been killed since the uprising began last month.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees agency says hundreds of thousands of people have fled Libya to neighboring Tunisia and Egypt, both of which are also in political upheaval.
Pirate attack foiled on tanker off Oman
MANAMA, Bahrain, March 6 (UPI) -- The multinational anti-piracy fleet said Sunday it thwarted a takeover of an oil tanker in the Arabian Sea.
The MV Guanabara, a Japanese-owned and the Bahamian-flagged vessel, was 328 nautical miles southeast of Duqm, Oman, when it reported the attack Saturday afternoon, the Combined Maritime Forces said.
The American destroyer USS Bulkeley responded, supported by the Turkish warship TCG Giresun.
When the Guanabara's master confirmed that his crew of 24 had taken refuge inside the ship, a squad from the Bulkeley, backed up by a helicopter, stormed the deck and captured four pirates without a shot being fired, the maritime force said.
It has not been decided what to do with the pirates.
The task force's counter-piracy commander, Commodore Abdul Alheem, hailed "a real and immediate victory."
N. Korea accused of jamming GPS in Seoul
SEOUL, March 6 (UPI) -- North Korea jammed GPS signals in South Korea to interfere with military exercises, a Seoul official said Sunday.
Government sources told Yonhap that GPS signals in Seoul and nearby cities were disrupted Friday, knocking out some mobile phones and military equipment.
The jamming signals are believed to have come from vehicle-mounted devices north of the Demilitarized Zone. An intelligence official said the signals came "every five to 10 minutes," and the North was probably testing devices acquired from Russia.
Military officials believe the jamming was intended to disrupt the annual Key Resolve drills between South Korean and U.S. forces, which started last week.
North Korean officials at the border village of Panmunjom recently warned their armed forces would launch "an all-out war of unprecedented scale" and turn Seoul into "a sea of fire" if provoked by the drills.
Afghan women's rights fade as U.S. goal
WASHINGTON, March 6 (UPI) -- The United States is backing off on women's rights as a priority in Afghan aid, officials say.
"If you're targeting an issue, you need to target it in a way you can achieve those objectives," J. Alexander Thier, director of the U.S. Agency for International Development's Afghan section, told The Washington Post. "The women's issue is one where we need hard-headed realism."
When USAID advertised bids a year ago for a land reform initiative, it stipulated that deeds for women had to increase by half, media would cover women's land rights and teaching materials would include material on the issue.
But before the bid was awarded, the agency decided the contractor only had to produce "a written evaluation of Afghan inheritance laws," assemble "summaries of input from women's groups" and draft amendments to the civil code.
Specific women's rights goals also were removed from a municipal government program awarded last year.
A senior U.S. official said ending the Afghan war has become the overriding goal, and other concerns are being downplayed, the newspaper reported Sunday.
Rights advocates increasingly fear the few gains Afghan women made since the fall of the Taliban in 2001 are being reversed.
