Rebels inch toward Gadhafi’s hometown

Rebels inch toward Gadhafi’s hometown

SIRTE, Libya

Revolutionary fighters struggled to make gains in an assault into Gadhafi’s hometown Saturday with bloody street-by-street battles against loyalist forces fiercely defending the most symbolic of the shattered regime’s remaining strongholds.

The fresh attack into the Mediterranean coastal city of Sirte contrasted with a stalemate in the mountain enclave of Bani Walid where demoralized anti-Gadhafi forces tried to regroup after being beaten back by loyalist snipers and gunners holding strategic high ground.

Obama to seek new tax rate for wealthy

WASHINGTON

President Barack Obama is expected to seek a new base tax rate for the wealthy to ensure that millionaires pay at least at the same percentage as middle-income taxpayers.

A White House official said the proposal would be included in the president’s proposal for long-term deficit reduction that he will announce Monday. The official spoke anonymously because the plan has not been officially announced.

Obama is going to call it the “Buffett Rule” for Warren Buffett, the billionaire investor who has complained that rich people such as him pay a smaller share of their income in federal taxes than middle-class taxpayers.

Ex-Sen. Percy dies

CHICAGO

Former Sen. Charles H. Percy, a former Foreign Relations Committee chairman whose moderate Republican views put him at odds with conservatives including former President Richard Nixon, died Saturday in Washington. He was 91.

Percy’s daughter, Sharon Rockefeller, announced in March 2009 that he had Alzheimer’s disease. His death was announced by the office of his son-in-law, West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller.

UN agenda packed

UNITED NATIONS

The spotlight will be shining on the Palestinian bid for U.N. membership when world leaders gather at the United Nations starting Monday, but the U.N. is hoping the glow will spread to other pressing global issues, including killer diseases, nuclear safety, terrorism and the aftershocks of the Arab Spring.

More than 120 presidents, prime ministers and monarchs will be meeting under heavy security at the General Assembly and in sideline events, just a week after the 10th anniversary of the terrorist bombings that shook the United States.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the high-level meetings are taking place “at a moment of uncommon turbulence and high anxiety,” with famine in Somalia, turmoil in the Mideast, and the global economic crisis continuing to shake banks, businesses, governments and families. This year’s agenda is jam-packed and “the pace even faster than usual,” he said.

Farmers warn of pumpkin shortage

NEW YORK

Northeastern states are facing a jack-o’-lantern shortage this Halloween after Hurricane Irene destroyed hundreds of pumpkin patches across the region, farmers say.

Wholesale prices have doubled as farmers nurse their surviving pumpkin plants toward a late harvest. Some farmers are trying to buy pumpkins from other regions to cover orders.

Associated Press