LIBYA

A Red Cross convoy carrying aid to relieve a humanitarian crisis in Libya's besieged city of Sirte had to turn back on Monday because Libyan interim government forces unleashed a barrage of fire.

What's the lowdown on gasoline prices for U.S. motorists? By and large the story remains encouraging -- a 7-cent drop in prices in a week, and a roughly 21-cent plunge from a month ago, in early September.

Ali Ramadan's family were on the move for 10 days, dodging artillery fire and sleeping in the open, before they were finally able to get out of the besieged Libyan city of Sirte.

His whereabouts had been a mystery for weeks.

New Zambian President Michael Sata launched a probe on Friday into last year's sale of telecoms operator Zamtel and vowed to keep a close eye on copper exports, while finance minister Alexander Chikwanda told banks to cut interest rates.

Civilians fled Sirte on Friday as interim government forces pounded the coastal city in an effort to dislodge fighters loyal to ousted leader Muammar Gaddafi.

In Syria, anti-government protesters continue undeterred as President Bashar al-Assad intensifies his forceful crackdown against demonstrations. Over the last five days, at least 76 people have been killed in the northern cities of Homs and Hama and in the southern Daraa region, according to activist reports.

Moammar Gadhafi is believed to be hiding near the southwestern town of Ghadamis near the Algerian border under the protection of Tuareg tribesmen, a senior Libyan military official said.

National Transitional Council troops are currently fighting for control of Sirte, Gadhafi's birthplace, where loyalist fighters are putting up a fierce resistance. Meanwhile, U.N. officials claim that uranium yellowcake was found in the south of the country.

A Libyan commander leading the attack on Muammar Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte said on Tuesday he was in talks with elders inside the city about a truce, but the head of another anti-Gaddafi unit rejected negotiations.

On Sunday, France's Socialist Party took control of the upper house of parliament, taking the senate majority from the hand's of President Nicolas Sarkozy's center-right Union for a Popular Movement.

Libya's stock market will be ready to resume trading in about one month and hopes to attract more foreign investors, the head of the exchange's Benghazi branch told Reuters on Sunday.

Libya's interim rulers said Sunday they had found a mass grave containing the bodies of 1,270 inmates killed by Muammar Gaddafi's security forces in a 1996 massacre at a Tripoli prison.

In August, as rebels fought forces loyal to President Muammar Gaddafi, two representatives of a British business consortium took a rather long and arduous ferry journey from Malta to the North African country.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's United Nations speech on Thursday angered a number of world leaders, especially the delegates from the United States, who walked out of the General Assembly while Ahmadinejad soliloquized.

Insisting that the United Kingdom is still a top-tier military power, West decried the aforementioned European countries as “second rate.”

Libya's interim rulers said on Thursday they had further consolidated their control over Sahara desert towns that had been among Muammar Gaddafi's last strongholds, and said Gaddafi himself was running out of places to hide.

Libya will likely name a new government within 10 days, interim Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril said, raising hopes of political progress in the fractured country weeks after the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi.

The head of Arab TV channel Al Jazeera said on Tuesday he was leaving the network, but gave no reason for his departure at a time when the station's coverage has played an important role in unprecedented protest movements rocking the Arab world.

The African Union officially recognized the National Transitional Council as the legitimate government of Libya. South African President Jacob Zuma made the announcement on Tuesday.

Seventeen foreign mercenaries which Muammar Gaddafi's spokesman said had been captured, including French and British personnel, were being questioned in the Gaddafi stronghold of Bani Walid in Libya and will be shown publicly soon.