In Libya, the man who would avenge Amb. Stevens

The camera captured a clamor of voices, a crush of bodies in a corridor, and then the blond hair and white T-shirt of a man lying on the floor.

Amateur videographer Fahed Bakoush didn’t know it then, but the blond man, Christopher Stevens, was about to become the first US ambassador killed while on duty in more than three decades.

The attack on the US consulate in Benghazi last month was, for Bakoush, a call to action. Part of a young generation of activists who cut their teeth in last year’s revolution, he was spurred to redouble his efforts to help build a stable country.

Ambassador Stevens’s death, a result of the consulate attack, has left Washington focused on the fear that militant Islamists are gaining a foothold in post-Qaddafi Libya. Bakoush says armed groups of all stripes are holding Libya back. In the wake of the attack, he helped organize demonstrations that gave new voice to Libyans’ growing weariness of guns and instability.

At one such demonstration, the anger directed toward a local militia was so fierce that the group withdrew from its compound without a fight.

“I want to see political parties, not militias with guns,” says Bakoush, 21.

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It’s still unclear how a protest at the consulate over an anti-Islam film made in the US became the occasion for the attack that killed Stevens. But for many Libyans, it highlighted a fundamental problem: War has flooded the country with weapons, while the fledgling government has struggled to absorb militias into national security forces.

A PERSONAL REVOLUTION

Bakoush’s own revolution started small: following exiled dissidents via the Internet and an instance of modest civil disobedience in December 2010, when he was an engineering student.

When the director of the engineering institute asked the class if anyone had the then-national anthem on his mobile phone, Bakoush saw a chance for dissidence. He went to the intercom, and the director told him to press play. Seconds later, the pre-Qaddafi anthem resounded through the classrooms.
“What are you doing?” the director cried. “Get out!”
Bakoush was expelled the next day. But two months later, he had a new occupation as revolt erupted. He joined a militia and went to the front. Later, he traveled the region as an activist to promote Libya’s revolution.

On Sept. 11 of this year, a friend called with urgent news: A mob was burning the US consulate. Bakoush rushed to the scene.

“I heard them crying ‘We have entered!’,” he says. “Some were looting the buildings, others seemed afraid. It was chaos.”

Clutching his mobile phone with its video camera feature running, he followed young men into the depths of the consulate, where they discovered the prone body of a blond-haired man.

“We didn’t know who he was, just that he was foreign,” says Bakoush. “They wanted to protect him. He was alive, still breathing.”
The video clip he uploaded afterwards to YouTube shows the young men carrying Stevens toward an exit. The ambassador was brought to a hospital, where he was found to have died of smoke inhalation
'THE LAST STRAW'
For Bakoush – as for many Libyans – the attack was a last straw. The following week, he and other activists had one of Libya’s two mobile phone operators send a mass SMS urging customers to demonstrate that Friday against violence and “militias not integrated into the army.”
Details of the attack remain murky, but it underscored the persistence of armed groups despite the end of revolution.

On Sept. 21, thousands marched in Benghazi to call for peace. Among them was the engineering institute director.

“You’re like a son to me!” he said when he saw Bakoush. “I only expelled you because we were under pressure."

The Benghazi marchers proceeded to a compound occupied by Ansar al Sharia, a hardline Islamist militia accused of involvement in the consulate attack. Perhaps swayed, or at least awed, by the show of people power, the group peacefully left the compound. Today it stands empty.

However, some marchers later clashed with members of the Rafallah al Sahati brigade, an officially pro-government militia that was apparently targeted by mistake. Eleven people were killed when members of the brigade opened fire.

Bakoush has not rejoined his old militia since war ended last year. He is planning to take an engineering exam to complete his studies, and in July run unsuccessfully in congressional elections.

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Can Obama and Romney Shake the Nasty and Act Nice for Debate?

After 18 months of attack ads and petty squabbles, President Obama and Mitt Romney, in their first face-off before a television audience of millions, need to dust off the nastiness of the campaign and act nice.

Aside from policy differences, voters will have their first opportunity to see for themselves how Obama and Romney stack up against each other in temperament and values.

"They need to look presidential," said Paul Beck, a presidential scholar at the University of Ohio. "Presidential means there has to be a certain augustness to them. They can't be too negative. They can't look like they're dismissive and arrogant. They have to be articulate, they shouldn't be argumentative."

Tune in to ABCNews.com on Wednesday for livestreaming coverage of the first 2012 Presidential Debate from Denver. Coverage kicks off with ABC News' live preview show at noon, and full debate coverage begins at 8 p.m.

Expect the candidates to eschew the highly effective but negative attacks of the campaign and take the high road.

As recently as Monday, the Obama campaign released an ad attacking Romney for hiring "sweatshop labor" in China.

And Romney comes to the debate after taking heat from Republicans and Democrats for appearing to politicize the death of Ambassador Chris Stevens in Libya.

To be sure, debates aren't the venue for hugs and smiles. But overly aggressive or aloof candidates have resulted in withering reviews afterward.

"There have been debates where style has certainly trumped substance," said Bob Shrum, a veteran Democratic strategist who worked on several campaigns, including former Vice President Al Gore's run against George W. Bush.

"The first Gore-Bush debate, where Gore won hands down on the substance of the debate, Republicans did a good job of spinning it as sighs, exasperation and fighting with the moderator," said Shrum.
Gore's sighs and eye rolls didn't come across as negative in the debate hall, but they did on television, Shrum said.
When George H.W. Bush routinely glanced at his watch during a 1992 debate with Bill Clinton, the move telegraphed impatience.
Former presidential candidate Howard Dean, who became known for his impassioned "scream" after the Iowa caucus in 2004, said Obama needed to carefully watch his mannerisms while sharing the stage with Romney.

"It's not what they say, it is their mannerisms. It's how they come across," Dean said on ABC's "This Week With George Stephanopoulos" Sunday. "The president has to avoid being irritable. He's got to roll with the punches.

"He's got to relax, he's got to show a little sense of humor, he's got to be likable," Dean said.

Obama comes to Wednesday's debate with the advantage of rosy poll numbers in several swing states and personal favorability ratings that have hovered at more than 50 percent for the entire campaign.

But Obama has often been criticized for appearing too "professorial." His aides, working to prepare him in Nevada for the debate in Denver, acknowledged that they were grooming him to shorten his answers.

And Romney, who has the advantage of getting extensive debate practice during the primaries, may try to get under Obama's skin.

"In terms of style, I think you're going to see Mitt Romney be fairly aggressive," said Republican strategist and pollster Dan Judy.

When Obama last faced a debate opponent as a presidential candidate, he had little in the way of a record that could be attacked.

"Now he's got a record to defend, and his record is not popular. And he has a tendency to get a little defensive, sometimes irritable when he's questioned on his record," Judy said.

As the challenger, Romney must prove that he can go toe-to-oe with Obama on policy without turning primetime television into a "wonkfest," Shrum said.

And to bounce back from his campaign's pitfalls of the past several weeks, Shrum said Romney won't pass up the opportunity to challenge Obama.

"The challenge for Romney is that he's got to get back in the game. He's got to be aggressive, but he's got to do it in a kind of friendly way," Shrum said. "Confrontational with a smile."

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Wanted: Woman Who Took Joy Ride on Manatee

Authorities in Florida are searching for a mystery woman who hitched an illegal ride on the back of a manatee.
Deputies from the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office responded to a call at Fort De Soto Park Sunday afternoon after a concerned witness reported a woman riding a manatee in the waterway.
Witnesses provided deputies with photographs of the woman on her joy ride and a description of her, but they were unable to locate her in the area.
No manatees were believed to have been injured, but the woman could face a second degree misdemeanor charge for disturbing the mammal, police said.
The Florida Manatee Sanctuary Act states, "It is unlawful for any person at any time, by any means, or in any manner intentionally or negligently to annoy, molest, harass, or disturb or attempt to molest, harass, or disturb any Manatee."

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Malawi halts talks with Tanzania on border dispute

Malawi has cut off dialogue with Tanzania in a long-time territorial dispute concerning Lake Malawi, thought to sit over highly coveted oil and gas reserves.

Malawi claims sovereignty over the entirety of Africa's third largest lake, while Tanzania says 50 percent is part of its territory. The row, which goes back half a century, could worsen if significant oil and gas discoveries are made.

Malawian President Joyce Banda said late on Tuesday she believed Tanzania had raised tension by moves such as alleged intimidation of Malawian fishermen on the lake, which also borders on Mozambique.

"I was of the view that the matter is being resolved through dialogue but now it looks bigger than I thought. While in New York, I wrote them (Tanzania) telling them that there is no point going on with the dialogue," Banda told a news conference in Lilongwe.

Tanzanian foreign ministry officials were not immediately available for comment on Banda's remarks.

The Malawian leader also cancelled a planned visit to Tanzania this month for talks on the dispute.

Malawi, an impoverished southern African country, a year ago awarded oil exploration licenses to UK-based Surestream Petroleum to search for oil in Lake Malawi, which is known as Lake Nyasa in Tanzania.

But in July, Tanzanian authorities asked Surestream Petroleum to postpone any planned drilling on the lake. The company has not yet started to drill.

Tanzania, east Africa's second-biggest economy, became a player in energy this year with several onshore and offshore gas finds, attracting multinational energy concerns to the area.

French oil major Total is close to signing a deal to explore for oil and gas in Tanzania's Lake Tanganyika. The government is also processing deals for deep sea exploration spots off Tanzania's Indian Ocean coast.

Lake Malawi contains more than 2,000 different fish species, attracting scuba divers, and environmentalists are concerned that oil exploration will disturb its freshwater ecosystem.

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Distracted and maybe tougher China defers North Korean leader's trip: sources

China quietly deferred a request by North Korea for its young leader to visit last month because the Chinese leadership was preoccupied with its once-in-a-decade leadership change and a host of other distractions, two independent sources said.

The move also suggests that China, North Korea's main food and oil supplier, may be seeking an assurance from the isolated state that it drops its nuclear ambitions, one source said, after it ignored warnings from Beijing not to go ahead with a rocket launch in April.

Kim Jong-un's desire to visit China in September was relayed by his powerful uncle, Jang Song-thaek, effectively the second most powerful figure in North Korea, when the latter met Chinese leaders on a visit to Beijing in August.

But China discreetly put off the request, which was never publicized, because the Chinese Communist Party has been busy preparing for its five-yearly congress which is scheduled to open on November 8 when leader-in-waiting Xi Jinping is tipped to replace Hu Jintao as party chief.

There is no new timetable for Kim's visit.
"Kim Jong-un wanted to come but it was not a convenient time," a source familiar with China's foreign policy said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"The diaries of Chinese leaders were full with certain set events they had to attend," the source said, citing Premier Wen Jiabao's summit with EU leaders in Brussels in September.
"...From China's perspective, he has to come with something positive," the source said, referring to North Korea dropping threats to conduct a third nuclear test.
Impoverished North Korea is under U.N. Security Council sanctions due to its 2006 and 2009 nuclear tests. Earlier this year, Western powers had expressed concern that North Korea would carry out a third test, but it never took place.

TOUGHER TEST

North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Pak Kil-yon told the U.N. General Assembly on Monday that the country's nuclear deterrent was a "mighty weapon that defends the country's sovereignty" and said

Analysts have said Beijing may be loath to host Kim due in part to North Korea ignoring Chinese warnings against the rocket launch in April. The U.N. Security Council, of which China is a permanent member, strongly condemned on the failed launch as a violation of council resolutions.

Any insistence on Beijing's part for "something positive", for instance that North Korea reins in its nuclear ambitions, would indicate that it is holding its alliance with Pyongyang to a tougher test.

Former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, who died in December, made six visits to China from 2004 to 2011 while Hu was in office (Hu is president until March 2013), a period that also saw Pyongyang actively engage in missile and nuclear arms development.

The Chinese leadership has also had distractions apart from the party congress. It has had its hands(...)More.

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