Tripoli, Libya -- Moammar Gadhafi, rallying his supporters in war-torn Libya, threatened Friday to take the fighting to Europe, according to an audio message aired by state TV.
"You are mistaken, you are involved in a battle that you don't know what you are going to face, so withdraw, and run away," Gadhafi told a pro-government gathering in Tripoli. "Our people is able in one day to move the battle to the Mediterranean, and able to move the battle to Europe."
Gadhafi referred to NATO, which began bombing military targets in Libya after the U.N. Security Council approved a resolution in March authorizing force by whatever means necessary, with the exception of a ground invasion, to protect civilians.
He vowed vengeance for the bombings, saying the Libyan military could be "like locusts, like bees" in Europe. Homes and offices could be potential targets, he said.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the United States was taking seriously the Libyan leader's remarks. "Certainly this is an individual who's obviously capable of carrying out these kinds of threats," he told reporters. "It's what makes him so dangerous. But he's also someone who's given to overblown rhetoric."
He said the United States would continue to support NATO's mission of increasing pressure on Gadhafi to step aside.
The French government, meanwhile, is in talks with Libyan rebels about supplying them with weapons and ammunition, a Libyan opposition military spokesman in Misrata said late Thursday.
The French government has not confirmed the claim, which follows an acknowledgment earlier this week that its military has previously dropped light weaponry to rebels elsewhere.
New York -- A New York judge released Dominique Strauss-Kahn from house arrest Friday, after prosecutors presented evidence questioning the credibility of the hotel maid who accused the former International Monetary Fund chief of sexual assault.
The alleged victim, a 32-year-old immigrant from Guinea, admitted to prosecutors that she lied about the specifics of her whereabouts following the incident, the details of an asylum application and information she put on tax forms, according to documents filed in court Friday by prosecutors.
But while the case has taken a dramatic turn, it has not been dismissed, said Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance. The indictment and charges -- including criminal sexual acts and sexual abuse -- against Strauss-Kahn, 62, still stand, Vance said.
His lawyers said the alleged victim told "substantial lies about her own background and the facts of this case."
Defense attorney Benjamin Brafman commended Vance for doing what he said was appropriate.
"We believed from the beginning that this case was not what it appeared to be," he said. "We are absolutely convinced that while today is a first giant step in the right direction, the next step will lead to a complete dismissal of the charges."
Strauss-Kahn's release significantly eases the extraordinary bail conditions that had been previously ordered.
The French financier had been released from jail on $6 million bail but was under house arrest in a luxury townhouse in Manhattan's Tribeca neighborhood. He was paying roughly $250,000 a month for court-ordered 24-hour armed guards posted at the townhouse.
The presiding judge said authorities will continue to withhold Strauss-Kahn's passport but that he is free to travel in the United States.
The stunning twist in the case came after prosecutors, in the course of their investigation, discovered that the alleged victim had not been truthful in a variety of topics regarding her history and circumstances, prosecutors said in a letter submitted to the court.
Prosecutors said the woman admitted lying in her application for asylum in the United States and that she had been a victim of a gang rape, providing details of that attack. She cried when she first told prosecutors about the rape but in a subsequent interview, she admitted the gang rape never occurred.
She said the fabricated account on the asylum application was made with the assistance of a man who "provided her with a cassette recording of the facts" so that she could memorize them.
The woman told prosecutors that she has declared the child of a friend as her own dependent on her tax return in order to receive a larger refund. She "also admitted to misrepresenting her income in order to maintain her present housing," the prosecutors said.
After the alleged hotel assault, the woman told prosecutors that she "fled to an area of the main hallway of the hotel's 28th floor and waited there until she observed the defendant leave," the prosecutors said. She said she then reported the incident to her supervisor.
But in subsequent interviews, the woman admitted her testimony before the Grand Jury was false; that she "proceeded to clean a nearby room, and then returned to Suite 2806 (the room occupied by Strauss-Kahn) and began to clean the suite before she reported the incident to her supervisor."
In angry remarks delivered outside the courthouse, the woman's attorney, Kenneth Thompson, admitted problems with his client's credibility, but the bottom line, he said was that she was attacked.
"That was true the day it happened and it is true today," he said, describing in chilling detail the account the woman gave of her attack and the bruising on her body.
"She has described that sexual assault many times to the prosecutors and to me. And she has never once changed a single thing about that account."
The development is particularly stunning given prior statements by New York authorities, who spoke forcefully about the accuser's credibility, and it leaves the felony case against Strauss-Kahn teetering on collapse, despite incontrovertible DNA evidence of sexual contact recovered from the hotel suite.
"It's just an extraordinary, extraordinary development considering this case was brought with such great fanfare by the Manhattan district attorney and they very loudly trumpeted the credibility of the accuser," said Jeffrey Toobin, CNN's senior legal analyst.
"What makes it even more extraordinary is that the (DNA) evidence apparently shows a sexual encounter between Dominique Strauss-Kahn and the woman who is the maid. Yet even with DNA evidence, the prosecution is considering dropping the case. That shows how bad her credibility may be."
Kenneth Thompson, her attorney, said allegations about the woman's involvement in drugs, published in The New York Times, are a lie, adding that Manhattan District Attorney Vance was afraid of losing the high-profile case.
Thompson also said one of Vance's top aides is married to an individual connected Strauss-Kahn's defense team, creating an untenable conflict of interest in the case.
Vance told reporters Friday that Strauss-Kahn's release did not dismiss the indictment or any of the charges against the former IMF chief, though he did not address Thompson's accusations of impropriety.
The implications of the case are far reaching, especially in France, where before his arrest, Strauss-Kahn was considered a viable candidate in France's presidential election.
The turnaround in the case comes just ahead of the July 13 filing deadline for the French presidential primaries. If the case collapses, Strauss-Kahn theoretically has enough time to file.
His supporters would still like to see him run, though some Parisians interviewed on the streets Friday said even if Strauss-Kahn was cleared of wrongdoing, it was too late for him to seek office this go-around.
Still, many in France felt vindicated over concerns that New York prosecutors were perhaps over zealous and that there had been a rush to judgment.
They were shocked by widely broadcast footage of Strauss-Kahn in handcuffs in May, since a French law passed in 2000 prohibits the publication of images of suspects in handcuffs or in court in order to protect defendants' presumption of innocence.
Jack Lang, France's former minister of culture and education, said he was very happy about the latest developments -- and hoped to see his fellow Socialist party politician make a comeback.
"If the prosecutor and the court decide to declare the innocence of DSK, it will be a good day -- a good day for Dominique himself, a good day for American justice, a good day for France and a good day for the Left," he said.
The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association announced details Friday of a new agreement on fatigue recommendations in the aftermath of several incidents involving controllers falling asleep on the job.
Among other things, air traffic controllers will now be allowed to listen to the radio and read appropriate printed material while on duty during the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., as traffic permits. The agreement allows controllers to request a leave of absence if they are too fatigued to work.
The agreement reinforces existing FAA policy that prohibits air traffic controllers from sleeping while they are performing assigned duties The FAA will continue to provide controllers breaks on the midnight shift based on staffing and workload.
Controllers on break will still be expected to "conduct themselves professionally and be available for recall at all times," the FAA said in written statement.
"The American public must have confidence that our nation's air traffic controllers are rested and ready to work," Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said. "We have the safest air transportation system in the world, but we needed to make changes and we are doing that."
Sleeping controller prompts FAA review
FAA boss: No more sleeping on job
The FAA has already changed air traffic controllers' work schedules to ensure a minimum of nine hours off between shifts. In addition, controllers can no longer be put on an unscheduled midnight shift following a day off.
New schedules accounting for the latest fatigue studies are slated for implementation by September 1, 2012.
Also, a "Fatigue Risk Management System" for air traffic operations should be in place by next January, according to aviation authorities.
Air traffic controller fatigue became a highly scrutinized public concern after several controllers were reported falling asleep in recent months.
In April, an air traffic controller at Seattle's Boeing Field was fired after twice falling asleep on duty. Another controller was fired for falling asleep in Knoxville, Tennessee, while a third was dismissed in Miami.
The firings followed a spate of incidents in which controllers in various cities were reported to be dozing off while on the job.
Andrew Lloyd Webber told CNN's Piers Morgan that Michael Jackson wanted to play the title role in the film version of "The Phantom of the Opera." According to Webber, the King of Pop came to see the Broadway show multiple times -- years before the film came out -- and he and Jackson had spoken about a potential "Phantom" movie role.
However, Webber said, "People in those days were very worried that a film, if it was made, would destroy the Broadway or the West End show, and everybody would just go and see the movie. In fact, it's been proven to be completely the other way around. If you make a movie, it's just a great help for the theater. But goodness knows what it would've been like."
The seven-time Tony-winning, four-time Grammy-winning composer of musicals including "Phantom," "Cats," "Evita" and "Jesus Christ Superstar," among others, is a guest on Friday's "Piers Morgan Tonight."
Webber also recalled another legend who had an interest in portraying the Phantom -- Sammy Davis Jr. Webber recalled being introduced to Davis by Liza Minnelli while in the south of France.
"I have never felt so ashamed in my life," said Webber, who said he was skeptical about Davis' ability to fill the role at first. "For 2½ hours I heard one of the most consummate performances I've ever heard, and he ended up doing 'The Music of the Night.'"
Webber told Morgan he had hoped to get Davis to open the production on the Toronto stage but it did not work out.
Webber also told Morgan the story of how "Phantom," which is billed as the most successful musical of all time, came to be. Webber's fiancee at the time, performer Sarah Brightman, had been offered a role in a theatrical farce based on the "Phantom" novel by Gaston Leroux. Several months later, Webber bought a used copy of the novel at a book fair in New York.
Today, Webber's musical version of "The Phantom of the Opera" is coming up on its 25th anniversary. A celebration concert in Londonis planned.
The musical that catapulted Webber and lyricist Tim Rice to fame, "Jesus Christ Superstar," was called "blasphemous" when it hit the stage in the 1970s.
"We never wrote 'Superstar' to be in any way shocking," said Webber. "We wrote it because we wanted to write the story of the man. And in fact, we really wanted to write a love triangle, because the whole thing was -- did Judas Iscariot have God on his side?"
Morgan pointed out the irony of "Jesus Christ Superstar" causing a controversy when "The Book of Mormon" -- a musical that takes a cynical look at faith -- has just won multiple Tonys.
Webber also told Morgan that "Superstar's" breakout song, "I Don't Know How to Love Him," was originally entitled "I Long for Kansas Morning."
When Morgan suggested that narrative was the key to the longevity of his productions, Webber agreed, and pointed out that "Cats" was a "collection of poems by T.S. Eliot about cats that he wrote for his godchildren. Well, that was quite different, and we stitched them together with a vague story that we discovered that his widow had that he wrote, which was a sort of, forgive the pun, cat's cradle."
Webber told Morgan that the moment in his career that remains in his mind the most and that he would re-live if possible is actress Betty Buckley's performance of the song "Memory" on opening night of "Cats" on Broadway.
Webber's current project is a stage revival of "The Wizard of Oz." He and lyricist Tim Rice have written several new songs for the production, which will also include the songs from the film. The musical will star Michael Crawford in the title role. A longtime colleague of Webber's, Crawford originated the Phantom role on stage.
When Morgan asked Webber why he selected "Oz," and how he knew it would fare well with a modern audience, the composer said, "The trick with those is you've got to find a character to cast that the public knows.
"And of course, the role of Dorothy is something that everybody knows. And that's why we started with that. But interestingly with 'Oz,' it's never really worked in the theater before. And we looked at it very carefully, and came to the conclusion that what people had been trying to do was to stage the film, whereas what you really had to do is to go back and rethink it."
Webber said if he were casting his all-time "dream" musical, it would star Elvis Presley, but of all the people he's worked with in real life, Glenn Close as Norma Desmond in his production of "Sunset Boulevard" would be the hardest act to follow.
Los Angeles -- Maria Shriver cited "irreconcilable differences" in a petition filed Friday to dissolve her 25-year marriage to former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The move comes more than a month after Schwarzenegger acknowledged that he fathered a child outside of his marriage.
The couple announced their separation on May 9, calling it a mutual decision made "after a great deal of thought, reflection, discussion, and prayer."
It became clear a week later that the split was triggered by Schwarzenegger's revelation to his wife that he had fathered a child with his housekeeper.
"After leaving the governor's office I told my wife about this event, which occurred over a decade ago," Schwarzenegger said in a statement May 17. "I understand and deserve the feelings of anger and disappointment among my friends and family."
Maria Shriver talks about her marriage
Schwarzenegger mistress: Shriver knew
Shriver, in a written statement that same day, described it as "a painful and heartbreaking time."
"As a mother, my concern is for the children," she said. "I ask for compassion, respect and privacy as my children and I try to rebuild our lives and heal. I will have no further comment."
It was confirmed several days later that a son fathered by Schwarzenegger with his housekeeper was born less than a week after Shriver gave birth to Schwarzenegger's son, Christopher, who is now 13.
Shriver's signature on the divorce papers is dated June 18, but her lawyer filed them with the Los Angeles County Superior Court on Friday.
Shriver's petition proposed that she and Schwarzenegger share joint custody of their two minor sons, Patrick, 17, and Christopher. They also have two adult daughters, Katherine and Christina.
The date of their separation was listed as "to be determined."
The filing did not detail the assets to be divided between Shriver and Schwarzenegger
"There are community and quasi-community assets and obligations of the parties, the exact nature and extent of which are unknown to petitioner at this time," Shriver's petition said.
Schwarzenegger, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Austria who gained fame as the youngest winner of the Mr. Universe bodybuilding contest, was governor until January. He has been busy in recent months reviving his acting career and signing movie deals -- including plans for another installment of the "Terminator" series.
Tripoli, Libya -- Moammar Gadhafi, rallying his supporters in war-torn Libya, threatened Friday to take the fighting to Europe, according to an audio message aired by state TV.
