In brief: Revolutionary forces advance in Sirte

Bani Walid, Libya – Revolutionary forces celebrated the capture of one Moammar Gadhafi stronghold and closed in Tuesday on the last holdouts in the fugitive leader’s hometown of Sirte, putting total victory in their eight-month uprising just a few city blocks away.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton offered millions of dollars in new aid to Libya, encouraging the country’s unsteady new leadership to commit to a democratic future free of retribution.

“I am proud to stand here on the soil of a free Libya,” Clinton said on a visit to the capital, Tripoli.

Although two months have passed since Gadhafi fled the capital, Libya’s new leaders have refrained from declaring national “liberation” until the fall of Sirte.

Revolutionary forces on Tuesday pushed from the east into the small pocket of the city under the control of Gadhafi loyalists and captured a vegetable market, though they came under heavy fire from snipers and rocket-propelled grenades.

Anticipating aid, Pakistan begins dam

Islamabad – Pakistan on Tuesday inaugurated construction of a giant dam that would help plug its crippling electricity shortfall, but without a hoped-for infusion of cash for the project from the United States and other international funders.

The Diamer Basha dam, in the far northeast of the country, would cost about $12 billion to build, money that the near-bankrupt government of Pakistan doesn’t have. It would be the first big dam to be built in Pakistan since the early 1970s.

Washington is seriously considering helping to fund the program, which would be the biggest U.S. civilian aid project in Pakistan for years. But while U.S. officials believe the project would help repair damaged U.S.-Pakistani relations, the decision on whether to provide support comes as tension is running high between the two countries.

Pakistan went ahead with the official launch of the dam, which provided a positive news story for the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party, seemingly confident that the U.S., the Asian Development Bank and other international funders will come through.

Tax case against Berlusconi dropped

Rome – After narrowly winning a recent vote of confidence in Parliament, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi won another reprieve Tuesday when a court in Milan threw out a tax fraud case against him.

Presiding Judge Maria Grazia Vicidomini ruled that Berlusconi did not commit an offense in connection with charges filed against the Berlusconi-owned media company Mediaset.

However, the judge indicted 10 other defendants – including Pier Silvio Berlusconi, the prime minister’s son, and Fedele Confalonieri, the company’s president – who will face trial Dec. 22. They are accused of using Mediaset’s purchase of television programs from U.S. companies to mask tax fraud and embezzlement.

The beleaguered Silvio Berlusconi, who last week survived the latest of more than 50 confidence votes in Parliament since his re-election in 2008, faces three other trials involving charges of tax fraud, abuse of power and underage prostitution.