Libya

International inspectors said in a confidential report Friday that they had discovered traces of uranium suitable for nuclear weapons in Libya that were similar to contamination found last year in Iran. The International Atomic Energy Agency said in the report that small particles of weapons-grade uranium were found on components for centrifuges, which are used to enrich uranium for nuclear reactors or bombs.

Today in Tripoli, the leader of Libya, Col. Moammar Al-Kadafi, publicly confirmed his commitment to disclose and dismantle all weapons-of-mass-destruction programs in his country. He has agreed immediately and unconditionally to allow inspectors from international organizations to enter Libya. These inspectors will render an accounting of all nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs and will help oversee their elimination. Col.

Occidental Petroleum Corp. said Monday that it would join with Austria's OMV to expand development projects in Libya. But the two oil companies agreed to reduce their share of production from the North African venture in Libya to reflect record prices. Westwood-based Occidental and Vienna-based OMV, which are jointly developing fields in the central region of Sirte, agreed to take a smaller share and increase production from the project, Libya's state-run National Oil Corp. said on its website.

At first glance, it looks as if the Obama administration has executed a sudden turnabout in its attitude toward military intervention in Libya. Two weeks ago, U.S. officials were talking about all the reasons a no-fly zone was a bad idea; now, they're all for it. In fact, the administration was closely divided all along ? torn between a desire to help Libya's rebels overthrow Moammar Kadafi and a fear of getting the United States enmeshed in another messy war in the Muslim world.

WASHINGTON - President Obama said Wednesday that Republican rival Mitt Romney has a “tendency to shoot first and aim later.” There's a “broader lesson” in Romney's criticism of the Obama administration for the way it has handled the violence in Egypt and Libya this week, Obama told “60 Minutes” correspondent Steve Kroft. “Gov. Romney seems to have a tendency to shoot first and aim later,” Obama said, “and one of the things I've learned is you can't do that.

Susan SPANO's "Libya, Within Reach" [May 23] rekindled memories of my 18-month stay in that country as a member of the United States Air Force stationed at Wheelus Air Base in 1963. The facility, a few miles east of Tripoli, was a slice of America anchored firmly along the Barbary Coast. With its base exchange (the U.S. government's version of Wal-Mart), numerous clubs, restaurants, two movie theaters and a radio and television station, Wheelus served as a pied-a-terre for 1,000 or so American airmen whose mission was to facilitate target practice for our jet fighter squadrons stationed in Europe.

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is refusing to join the criticism of the Obama administration for its response to the attack that killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans last month, saying Americans should reserve judgment until official investigations have time to piece together the truth. Rice, who has been campaigning for former Gov. Mitt Romney, echoed Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's comment that the “fog of war” made it hard to grasp what happened when dozens of armed militants stormed the U.S. diplomatic mission and a nearby annex in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept.

Italy will return to Libya an ancient Roman statue taken from its former North African colony, a gesture Rome hopes will help its own campaign to retrieve allegedly looted antiquities from museums worldwide. The 2nd century statue of the goddess Venus was found in 1913 by Italian troops near the ruins of the Greek and Roman settlement of Cyrene, on the Libyan coast, the Culture Ministry said Tuesday. It is now housed in Rome's National Roman Museum.

A skirmish over the handling of a terrorist attack in Libya that claimed the lives of an ambassador and three other Americans drew the opening salvos in Thursday night's vice presidential debate. When asked whether the attack was a massive intelligence failure, Vice President Joe Biden defended the administration's response to the attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, saying that administration officials acted on the intelligence they had at the time, and vowed that a full investigation would occur to determine the lapses that allowed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens to be killed along with three other Americans.