President Barack Obama warned Libya's leaders that the U.S. and its NATO allies are still considering military options in response to what he called "unacceptable" violence perpetrated by supporters of Moammar Gadhafi.

"I want to send a very clear message to those who are around Colonel Gadhafi. It is their choice to make how they operate moving forward. And they will be held accountable for whatever violence continues to take place," Obama said during remarks in the Oval Office Monday.

Libyan warplanes launched multiple airstrikes on opposition fighters in the second day of a government crackdown to thwart rebels advancing on Gadhafi's stronghold in Tripoli.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said a military response was no more likely Monday than it was before the surge in violence. He said the U.S. and its partners are considering a wide variety of military actions, including a no-fly zone, but said deploying ground troops "is not top of the list at this point."

Carney said the U.S. is also considering providing weapons to rebel forces, though he cautioned that there were still many unanswered questions about what groups comprise those forces. He said the U.S. is using diplomatic channels, as well as contacts in the business community and non-governmental organizations, to gather information about the opposition.

North Korea is pleading for food aid even from some of the world's poorest nations such as Zimbabwe, a report has said, amid suspicion the aid may be used to boost the regime's political standing.

JoongAng Ilbo newspaper, citing a Seoul diplomatic source, said the communist North sought food not only from the United States and Europe but also from poor African countries.

"Now they are begging for food even from the world's poorest countries in Africa such as Zimbabwe where annual per-capita income is only around 200 dollars," said the source quoted by JoongAng.

Pyongyang officials stressed to visiting officials a "dire" and "urgent" need for aid, but diplomats based in the North were relatively upbeat about the recent food situation, it said.

"Western countries have started to suspect that the North was begging for food because of internal political campaigns... rather than a genuine need for food," the source was quoted as saying.

Obama asks Saudis to airlift weapons into Benghazi

Desperate to avoid US military involvement in Libya in the event of a prolonged struggle between the Gaddafi regime and its opponents, the Americans have asked Saudi Arabia if it can supply weapons to the rebels in Benghazi. The Saudi Kingdom, already facing a "day of rage" from its 10 per cent Shia Muslim community on Friday, with a ban on all demonstrations, has so far failed to respond to Washington's highly classified request, although King Abdullah personally loathes the Libyan leader, who tried to assassinate him just over a year ago.

Washington's request is in line with other US military co-operation with the Saudis. The royal family in Jeddah, which was deeply involved in the Contra scandal during the Reagan administration, gave immediate support to American efforts to arm guerrillas fighting the Soviet army in Afghanistan in 1980 and later - to America's chagrin - also funded and armed the Taliban.

Two weeks ago, as unrest grew in Libya, the Libyan government turned off the Internet, and began to kill off its rebellious citizens. Afterwards, the Internet slowly came back on, but now, according to Arbor Networks, Libya's Internet has been shut down as if a switch has been flipped.

Which, all things considered, might have been exactly what happened. You see Libya's Internet is owned and controlled by the government through a telecommunication company Libya Telecom & Technology. Even its site is down now.

The company's chairman is the dictator's Moammar Gadhafi's eldest son, Muhammad al-Gaddafi. He recently has been appearing as a leader in his father's name.

At the same time, the Internet went down, fighting in what is now the de facto civil war escalated.

39-year-old Vikas Mavhudzi has become Zimbabwe's first "Facebook arrest" after posting a comment on the social network on February 13, 2011 at about 2PM, according to New Zimbabwe. He is being charged with "subverting a constitutional government" for commenting on a Facebook page allegedly belonging to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai. Here's his message, according to SW Radio Africa:

I am overwhelmed, I don't want to say Mr. or PM what happened in Egypt is sending shockwaves to dictators around the world. No weapon but unity of purpose worth emulating, hey.

The post was referring to the revolt in Egypt which succeeded in toppling dictator Muhammad Hosni Sayyid Mubarak on February 11, 2011 after 18 days of protests. Discussing uprisings against dictators in North Africa is now apparently considered a crime in Zimbabwe.

As Buckingham Palace prepares to celebrate the wedding of Prince William, officials are rushing to contain a flurry of negative publicity from the side of the family that has long been a source of embarrassment.

Prince Andrew, the queen's second son, is friends with a convicted sex offender. He has also been accused of having close ties to Moammar Gadhafi's regime in Libya. And his hosting of the son of the Tunisian dictator, shortly before a popular uprising drove him from power, have all led to calls for the Duke of York to be stripped of his role as special U.K. trade ambassador.

British officials have rallied to the royal's defence, with the foreign secretary expressing his "confidence" in Andrew and a U.K. trade official voicing support for the prince to remain in the position, saying Sunday he does a "very valuable job."

But pressure and speculation over how long Andrew will remain in his post are mounting as his activities are generating unwanted scrutiny. Buckingham Palace is in damage limitation mode as it attempts to keep the public's focus on the April 29 wedding between William and Kate Middleton.

In the past, Andrew's name has been synonymous with a dark spot for the royal family. His much-publicized divorce from Sarah Ferguson, her subsequent missteps, tell-all book and videotaped attempt to sell a U.K. tabloid access to Andrew stand in stark contrast to the fairy tale glow surrounding William and Kate Middleton's courtship and upcoming nuptials.

• Team believed to be escorting diplomat to establish contact with rebel leaders
• Nine men being held in military base in Benghazi
• Gaddafi forces regain control of oil town Ras Lanuf after air strikes
• Photographs emerge of captured rebel soldiers in Zawiya and Misrata

An eight-man SAS team and a junior diplomat were being held by rebels in eastern Libya last night after a bungled mission to put the envoy in touch with them.

The elite unit has been escorting the diplomat through rebel-held territory when they were captured.

The diplomat had intended to pave the way for a more senior British official to establish diplomatic relations with rebel forces.

Defence secretary Liam Fox says 'small diplomatic team' is in Benghazi to talk to rebels

The defence secretary, Liam Fox, has confirmed that a "small diplomatic team" is in Benghazi to talk to Libyan rebels but refused to confirm reports that any British nationals had been detained.

According to Guardian sources, a suspected British intelligence and special forces unit, which arrived by helicopter about four days ago, was caught near the town of Khandra, about 20 miles west of Benghazi.

A senior member of Benghazi's revolutionary council said: "They were carrying espionage equipment, reconnaissance equipment, multiple passports and weapons. This is no way to conduct yourself during an uprising.

"Gaddafi is bringing in thousands of mercenaries to kill us, most are using foreign passports and how do we know who these people are?

(updated below)

New York Times, June 8, 2004:

In the weeks since photographs of naked detainees set off the abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib, military officials have portrayed the sexual humiliation captured in the images as the isolated acts of a rogue night shift. But forced nudity of prisoners was pervasive in the military intelligence unit of Abu Ghraib, so much so that soldiers later said they had not seen "the whole nudity thing," as one captain called it, as abusive or out of the ordinary.

Guantanamo Standard Operating Procedures, December, 2002:

In addition to degradation of the detainee, stripping can be used to demonstrate the omnipotence of the captor or to debilitate the detainee.

Jane Mayer, The Dark Side:

[T]he CIA interrogators also announced they planned to become [Abu] Zubaydah's "God." They reportedly took his clothing as punishment, and reduced his human interaction to a single daily visit in which they would say simply, "You know what I want," and then leave.

The New York Times, yesterday:

A lawyer for Pfc. Bradley Manning, the Army intelligence analyst accused of leaking secret government files to WikiLeaks, has complained that his client was stripped and left naked in his cell for seven hours on Wednesday. . . . The soldier's clothing was returned to him Thursday morning, after he was required to stand naked outside his cell during an inspection. . . . First Lt. Brian Villiard, a Marine spokesman, said a brig duty supervisor had ordered Private Manning's clothing taken from him.

What does Douglas Gowan know that everyone else wants to keep hidden? For 40 years the story of Brofiscin Quarry - now the most polluted place in the UK - has been suppressed...

For 40 years the story of Brofiscin Quarry - now the most polluted place in the UK - has been suppressed. Documents have been mysteriously lost, witnesses silenced, scientific data ignored. But like the periodic explosions that issue from the depth of the quarry, the truth has a way of blowing up in our faces. Jon Hughes and Pat Thomas report.

Witness protection schemes are normally the preserve of supergrasses or The Sopranos, not people who volunteer evidence in response to a public appeal from a government agency. But that is the position 64-year-old Douglas Gowan finds himself in, having spent the past six months living under police protection.