Citizen Cartwright

What will happen if Gadhafi is ousted?

The Libyan leader seems increasingly cornered after security forces defected to the opposition in a town near the capital and the U.N. Security Council voted for restrictions and possible war crimes charges against his regime, CNN says.

But without him, experts see a power vacuum. He spent the last 40 years hollowing out every single institution that might challenge his authority, The New York Times says.

Some experts wonder if Libya may become the first experiment in the use of the “responsibility to protect,” the Times says. That's the idea that a U.N. force would be deployed to prevent civilian deaths if there were widespread violence.

China is using sticks, carrots to fend off Mideast-inspired protests

For the second Sunday in a row, police and security officials came down hard against people responding to an online call for a "Jasmine Revolution." 

At the same time, Premier Wen Jiabao pledged to address some of the most common public grievances such as corrupt officials, inflation and increasing home prices.

'Retail regulator' Wal-Mart is banning flame retardant

The world's biggest retailer is moving against polybrominated diphenyl ethers, or PBDEs.

"This really shows the market being able to move more decisively than the government," says Andy Igrejas of Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families, a coalition of environmental and public health groups pushing for stricter federal chemical laws.

The country's chemical laws, enacted 35 years ago, make it difficult for the federal government to ban or restrict a chemical's use. Regulators have to prove that a chemical poses a clear health risk. But EPA has sufficient health and safety data for only about 200 of the 84,000 chemicals in commerce in the United States, according to The Washington Post.

So, for example, EPA has been unable to ban asbestos, widely acknowledged as a likely carcinogen and banned in more than 30 nations.

Product safety database may be stopped before it gets started

It would be the first-ever government database of product safety complaints, and it's scheduled to launch on March 11 — but an amendment to the House spending bill by freshman Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., would withhold its funding.

The database would enable the public to see complaints received by the Consumer Product Safety Commission and is supported by consumer advocates.

Pompeo and industry groups say people could post inaccurate claims and damage a manufacturer's reputation.

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Gadhafi blaming al Qaeda, passing out money

The Libyan leader said on Thursday that the protesters are young people manipulated by Osama bin Laden.

And state TV announced that every family in Libya would receive $400, while wages for some public sector workers would be increased 150 percent.

Iraqis are protesting corruption, lack of services

The nationwide "Day of Rage" protests Friday are inspired by the uprisings throughout the Arab world, Reuters says.

The pressure's increasing to resume deep-water drilling

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar says he'll meet on Friday with oil industry executives in Houston to examine the latest developments in sealing caps, a week after a federal judge told the agency to decide within 30 days whether to grant deep-water drilling permits in the Gulf.

And the rise in world oil prices and U.S. gasoline prices following unrest in Libya are increasing calls from many congressional Republicans and Gulf Coast Democrats to allow more domestic production.

Meanwhile, three Democratic lawmakers already are calling on the Obama administration to consider releasing oil from the government's strategic petroleum reserve to push down gasoline prices.

Harvard and Princeton are resuming early admission

When they dropped early admission a few years ago, the two universities had hoped to start a trend that would level the playing field between wealthy applicants and students who needed to compare financial aid offers from different colleges.

But only the University of Virginia followed along, and it changed its mind last year.

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U.S. pulls back in Afghan valley it called vital to war

WikiLeaks' Assange to be extradited to Sweden

Saudi charged in bomb plot possibly targeting Bush, nuclear plants

U.S. scientists cleared of climate data manipulation

Plan to curb unions passes Wis. Assembly, heads to Senate