LIBYA

Gold prices pared losses in choppy trade on Friday but were still on track for their biggest weekly loss since June as some investors cashed in gains after losing confidence in the metal's ability to build on this week's record highs.

Gold prices tumbled by 2 percent on Friday, reversing earlier gains, with traders blaming heavy fund liquidation of the metal on the New York futures market, and the downward move picking up momentum as sell stops were triggered

Libya's interim government is drafting a proposal that would shrink the responsibilities of the National Oil Corp (NOC) to make it a purely commercial organisation, a member of the interim government has told Reuters.

The voice of Muammar Gaddafi boomed out from his hiding place on Thursday, denying he had fled Libya and cursing as rats and stray dogs those whose efforts to start governing in his place are being frustrated by his diehard followers.

In 1987, Paul temporarily resigned from the Republican Party.

The energy-thirsty United States is on the hunt for a game-changing energy source or energy usage technology -- and batteries and fuel cells are strong candidates. But their mass use could be 20 years away. Meanwhile, a conventional source may bridge that gap, or provide even more upside: natural gas.

The approaching tenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks is casting a long shadow for U.S. Muslims, many of whom are dreading the approaching anniversary because they fear a resurgence of prejudice and hate, said author Mona Eltahawy.

In another audio address delivered to Syria's Al-Rai TV, Gadhafi verbally attacked the rebels who are now in control of most of Libya and vowed never to leave the land of his ancestors.

Gadhafi and Mubarak appear to be surrounded, one by troops and the other by iron bars. In Iran, six people were executed, while in Syria, seven were shot for protesting against the government.

Moammar Gadhafi was last tracked heading for Libya's southern border, the man leading the hunt for the deposed dictator told Reuters, and French and Niger military sources said scores of vehicles carrying his forces had crossed into Niger.

As a Libyan convoy of almost 200 vehicles rolls through Niger, speculation swirls that Moammar Gadhafi might be on an escape route to Burkina Faso. What would life be like in the West African country?

Scores of Libyan army vehicles crossed the desert frontier into Niger in what may be a bid by Muammar Gaddafi to seek refuge in a friendly African state, military sources from France and Niger told Reuters on Tuesday.

One of Moammar Gadhafi's Ukrainian nurses still supports her former-employer, who she still views as a gentle, giving man.

Before the United States denounced Muammar Gaddafi's repressive reign and helped to topple him, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was enlisting Gaddafi's notoriously brutal security forces to question terrorism suspects, according to documents discovered in Qaddafi's compound.

After reports that the deposed Libyan leader had escaped and crossed his nation's southwestern border surfaced Monday, Niger's Foreign Minister Mohamed Bazoum quickly denied the story.

This vast landlocked country just north of Nigeria and east of Mali, is one of the poorest nations on Earth

Loyalists of ousted Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi crossed into Niger late on Monday in a convoy of vehicles, carrying gold and cash, officials from Libya's interim ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) said on Tuesday.

A convoy of vehicles carrying forces loyal to Libya's Moammar Gadhafi has crossed into neighboring Niger, as anti-Gadhafi fighters continue to amass outside one of the ousted leader's last strongholds.

Hundreds of Libyan army vehicles have crossed the desert frontier into Niger in what may be a dramatic, secretly negotiated bid by Moammar Gadhafi to seek refuge in a friendly African state, military sources from France and Niger told Reuters Tuesday morning.

Libyan forces made ready to storm a desert town held by loyalists of Muammar Gaddafi on Monday but held off in the hope of a surrender that would avoid bloodshed.

An independent inquiry will investigate allegations that British security services were involved in illegally sending terror suspects to Libya where they risked being tortured by Muammar Gaddafi's government, officials said on Monday.