TRIPOLI, Libya

Rebels claim advances against Gadhafi forces

Rebels in Libya’s western mountains said they have advanced and are battling Moammar Gadhafi’s forces in a strategic town southwest of the capital, ramping up pressure against government troops on a second front.

The rebels’ claim of an advance into the outskirts of the town of Bair al-Ghanam, some 50 miles from Tripoli, follows weeks of intense fighting in the Nafusa mountains in which opposition forces have slowly pushed Gadhafi troops back toward the capital.

Libya’s rebels control the eastern third of the country and pockets, including a number of Nafusa mountain towns, in the west.

CARACAS, Venezuela

Armed struggle possible in future, says Chavez’s brother

One of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s brothers said Sunday that backers of the hospitalized leftist leader should not rule out armed struggle in the future, though they prefer to maintain power at the ballot box.

Chavez’s older brother Adan said Venezuela’s ruling party wants to retain power by defeating foes in elections. But he told government supporters that they should be ready to take up arms if necessary.

Quoting Latin American revolutionary icon Ernesto “Che” Guevara, the president’s brother added: “It would be inexcusable to limit ourselves to only the electoral and not see other forms of struggle, including the armed struggle.”

BROWNVILLE, Neb.

Nuclear plant safe despite collapse of berm, NRC says

A berm holding the flooded Missouri River back from a Nebraska nuclear power station collapsed early Sunday, but federal regulators said they were monitoring the situation and there was no danger.

The Fort Calhoun Nuclear Station shut down in early April for refueling, and there is no water inside the plant, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said. Also, the river is not expected to rise higher than the level the plant was designed to handle. NRC spokesman Victor Dricks said the plant remains safe.

NEW YORK

Gay marriage celebrations include wedding plans

One of the world’s oldest and largest gay pride parades turned into a carnival-like celebration of same-sex marriage Sunday as hundreds of thousands of revelers rejoiced at New York’s new law giving gay couples the same marital rights as everyone else. This year, the revelry went beyond floats, music and dancing. It included wedding plans.

“We’ve been waiting to get married in Central Park for years, and now we got here just in time for history to be made,” said Bryce Croft of Kettering, Ohio, who attended the parade with her partner, Stephanie Croft.

The two women are not yet legally married although they share the same name, and they are planning to move to New York and get married. They were in a restaurant when they learned that the same-sex marriage bill had passed.

“We cried over dinner, right into the mozzarella sticks,” Stephanie Croft said.

MADISON, Wis.

Justice says colleague used chokehold during argument

A member of the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s liberal faction has accused a conservative justice of choking her during an argument in her office earlier this month — a charge he denied.

Supreme Court Justice Ann Walsh Bradley said Justice David Prosser put her in a chokehold during the dispute.

“The facts are that I was demanding that he get out of my office and he put his hands around my neck in anger in a chokehold,” Bradley told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel newspaper.