AFGHANISTAN

The following is a White House transcript of remarks by President Barack Obama on Friday on the situation in Libya delivered from the East Room on March 18, 2011.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Friday that Germany may take on additional tasks in the war in Afghanistan to make up for NATO members' involvement in possible attacks on Libya after a UN vote yesterday approved a possible no-fly zone.

Libya said it will free four employees from the New York Times who had been captured by soldiers allied with Moammar Gaddafi.

Besides aid from countries like China, US, Britain, relief pours in for Japan from big names of the tech and entertainment world including, Apple, Google, Lady Gaga and more.

Guantánamo Bay is a bay located in Guantánamo Province at the southeastern end of Cuba. It is the largest harbor on the south side of the island and is surrounded by steep hills creating an enclave cut off from its immediate hinterland.

A journalist working for the British newspaper Guardian is missing in Libya and has not been heard from since Sunday.

A suicide bombing on a funeral procession attended by anti-Taliban militiamen in Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar on Wednesday killed at least 31 people and injured over 50, hospitals and police officials said.

Even as calls for the intervention of the U.S. and the western forces in the Libyan crisis gained momentum, besieged Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has said there is a foreign plot to colonize his country.

General David Petraeus, commander of NATO troops in Afghanistan, was caught on microphone “joking” with Defense Secretary Robert Gates about taking military action against Moammar Gaddafi and bombing Libya.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates arrived in Afghanistan on Monday at a time of increased strain between Kabul and its Western backers and with important security transition milestones looming.

Rebels in eastern Libya have captured members of a British special forces team but the issue will be resolved shortly, rebel sources said on Sunday.

China said on Friday its military spending for 2011 would rise 12.7 percent, resuming double-digit hikes that have stoked regional disquiet about Beijing's expanding strength.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed concern on Thursday that the United States was losing the information war internationally, and especially in the Middle East, drawing a critical comparison between the U.S. media and broadcaster Al Jazeera.

Merger and acquisitions activity in the global mining sector is expected to accelerate in 2011, fueled by strong commodity prices and repaired balance sheets, advisory and accountancy firm Ernst & Young said on Wednesday.

U.S. drone strikes killed at least 11 people on Monday in tribal regions along Pakistan's western border, local officials said.

A suicide bomber killed at least 30 people in a government office in northern Afghanistan on Monday, officials said, with violence spiralling across the country even before an expected spring offensive.

Pakistan said on Monday it was taking steps to keep a U.S. consulate worker, imprisoned in a local jail for shooting two Pakistanis, safe from harm in a case that has unleashed a diplomatic storm.

Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) raised a cudgel against Anonymous, claiming that its website is under threat from the outfit known for taking down sites with Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks.

Iraqi authorities have arrested a high-ranking police official in connection with the purchase of a bomb detector that the British government says does not work, officials said on Thursday.

What is happening in the Middle East is a major historical critical juncture, said Dilshod A. Achilov, a professor of political science at East Tennessee State University.

Three items totaling about $2.4 trillion combine for nearly two thirds of President Barack Obama's proposed $3.7 trillion 2012 fiscal year budget.