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Libyan bulldozers began knocking down the green walls surrounding Moammar Gadhafi’s main Tripoli compound known as Bab al-Aziziya on Sunday, as the new leaders said it was time “to tear down this symbol of tyranny.”

The sprawling, fortress-like compound has long been hated by Libyans who feared to even walk nearby during Gadhafi’s more than four decades in power and its capture was seen as a turning point in the civil war as revolutionaries overran the capital in late August.

Ahmad Ghargory, commander of a revolutionary brigade, said the area will be turned into a public park.

“It’s the revolutionary decision to tear down this symbol of tyranny,” Ghargory said. “We were busy with the war, but now we have the space to do this.”

Already, Libyans have turned the courtyard in front of Gadhafi’s former house, which he used for many fiery speeches trying to rally supporters during the uprising, into a weekly pet market. Tripoli residents roam the premises as if at a museum, with vendors selling revolutionary flags and other souvenirs.

The Bab al-Aziziya compound had been a mystery to most Libyans. Though it is one of the city’s largest landmarks, no streets signs indicate where it is. Few ever entered, and many Tripoli residents said they wouldn’t even walk nearby, fearing security guards on the compound’s high green walls would get suspicious and arrest or shoot them.

“I was never able to enter this building or even pass by these walls before. We won’t have any more walls in our lives,” Ghargory said.

The compound was one of the main targets for NATO airstrikes during the months leading to Gadhafi’s ouster in late August.

Libyan fighters overran the area on Aug. 23 during fierce fighting for the capital, jubilantly rampaging through the remnants of barracks, personal living quarters and offices seen as the most defining symbol of Gadhafi’s nearly 42-year rule.

Gadhafi’s residence, now gutted and covered with graffiti, was also targeted in a U.S. bombing raid in April 1986, after Washington held Libya responsible for a blast at a Berlin disco that killed two U.S. servicemen. A sculpture of a clenched fist crushing a U.S. fighter jet that had been erected after the strike has been removed.

Gadhafi entertained guests in a Bedouin-style tent pitched near two tennis courts about 200 yards (meters) from the family home.

“All the bad things that happened, happened inside these walls. And he kept his mercenaries and tortured people inside these walls,” said Tarek Saleh, a 25-year-old revolutionary. “Before we were never able to enter this site, and we’re tearing these walls down so we don’t have to remember those dark days.”

Libyans are eager to move on after decades of repression, even though fighting continues on two fronts and tensions between supporters of the former regime and revolutionary forces remain high _ even in Tripoli.

Revolutionary forces have squeezed Gadhafi loyalists into one main district in his hometown of Sirte after weeks of fighting, but some said fears of friendly fire as well as a lack of coordination and communications were slowing their advance. Fighters from the eastern city of Benghazi and Misrata to the west were trying to reorganize themselves to solve that problem.

“We have them cornered in a 900 by 700 meter area, but the fighting is difficult because we are worried about firing on our own forces, they are mixed together,” Benghazi field commander Khaled al-Magrabi said Sunday.

Commanders said they have agreed to divide the remaining loyalist area between them to prevent confusion.

Libyan fighters also faced discord over the looting of buildings, including the airport and houses in Sirte, on the coast 250 miles (400 kilometers) southeast of Tripoli.

Associated Press Television News reporters saw trucks carting off tractors, industrial generators and heavy machinery on the road from Sirte to nearby Misrata, which was under siege by Gadhafi forces for months and saw some of the fiercest fighting of the war.

Trucks also carried off equipment from Sirte’s airport, including red-carpeted mobile staircases, baggage carts, airplane towing vehicles and security screening equipment, all apparently meant for Misrata’s badly damaged airport.

Smaller pickups were loaded with rugs, freezers, refrigerators, furniture and other household goods, apparently taken by civilians and fighters to be used in their homes or resold.

The looting was an indication that reconciliation and unity may be difficult to achieve in post-Gadhafi Libya.

Commanders tried to rein in looting by ordering fighters to refrain from entering private homes and to detain anybody not authorized to be in the area. Benghazi fighters arrested three men for looting on Saturday.

Revolutionary forces also distributed fliers at checkpoints leading into the city that read, “Dear Muslims, avoid God’s wrath. Do not steal from people’s homes, their cars, or take their personal possessions.”

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Dudes don’t drink diet.

Or at least that’s the idea behind Dr. Pepper Ten, a 10-calorie soft drink Dr Pepper Snapple Group is rolling out on Monday with a macho ad campaign that proclaims “It’s not for women.” The soft drink was developed after the company’s research found that men shy away from diet drinks that aren’t perceived as “manly” enough.

To appeal to men, Dr. Pepper made its Ten drink 180 degrees different than Diet Dr. Pepper. It has calories and sugar unlike its diet counterpart. Instead of the dainty tan bubbles on the diet can, Ten will be wrapped in gunmetal grey packaging with silver bullets. And while Diet Dr. Pepper’s marketing is women-friendly, the ad campaign for Ten goes out of its way to eschew women.

For instance, there’s a Dr. Pepper Ten Facebook page for men only. And TV commercials are heavy on the machismo, including one spot that shows muscular men in the jungle battling snakes and bad guys and appear to shoot lasers at each other.

“Hey ladies. Enjoying the film? Of course not. Because this is our movie and this is our soda,” a man says as he attempts to pour the soda into a glass during a bumpy ATV ride. “You can keep the romantic comedies and lady drinks. We’re goo

Dr. Pepper Ten is not the first diet soda aimed at men. (Think: Coke Zero and Pepsi Max.) But Dr. Pepper Ten’s ad campaign is the first to be so overt about courting men who want to drink a soda with fewer calories. The ads come at a time when overall sales in the $74 billon soft drink industry are slowing as more Americans buy healthier options like juice and bottled water. Volume has fallen from slightly over 10 billion cases in 2005 to 9.4 billion cases in 2010, according to Beverage Digest data.

“Regular sugared soft drinks have declined in recent years, and some consumers have taste issues with some of the diet sodas,” said John Sicher, editor and publisher of Beverage Digest, said.

Dr. Pepper said men, in particular, are dissatisfied with the taste and image of diet drinks guaranteed high risk personal loans. The company wouldn’t disclose the formula of Dr. Pepper Ten, but said that the drink has 10 calories and 2 grams of sugar, which gives it a sweeter taste. Dr Pepper said there are 23 flavors in its regular soda, (which has 150 calories and 27 grams of sugar per can) and Dr. Pepper Ten contains all of them.

The company, which declined to give figures for how much was spent on the campaign, also worked hard to craft a macho message. The company said ads for Dr. Pepper Ten will air on all major networks, FX and ESPN during college football games.

A Facebook page for the drink contains an application that allows it to exclude women from viewing content, which includes games and videos aimed at being “manly.” For instance, there’s a shooting gallery where you shoot things like high heels and lipstick, for example. There is also a “man quiz” with questions on activities like fishing and hunting.

Whether the ads will resonate with men remains to be seen. Paul McDonald, 25, who works in green energy contracts in Berkley, Calif., says he drinks soda labeled diet and doesn’t think there is any stigma attached.

“No one has ever made fun of me for drinking a Diet Coke, and I’m on a rugby team we make fun of each other for everything,” he said.

And women? Jim Trebilcock, executive vice president of marketing for Dr Pepper, said he’s not worried that they’ll be offended by the campaign. The drink and marketing were tested in six different markets across the country before being rolled out nationally, and women weren’t offended, he said. In fact, about 40 percent of people who have tried the soda so far are women.

“Women get the joke,” he said. “`Is this really for men or really for women?’ is a way to start the conversation that can spread and get people engaged in the product.”

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Libyan revolutionary forces claimed to have captured parts of a sprawling convention center that loyalists of Moammar Gadhafi have used as their main base in the ousted leader’s hometown and were shelling the city to try to rout snipers from rooftops in their offensive aimed at crushing this key bastion of the old regime.

The inability to take Sirte, the most important remaining stronghold of Gadhafi supporters, more than six weeks after the capital fell has stalled efforts by Libya’s new leaders to set a timeline for elections and move forward with a transition to democracy.

Gadhafi supporters also hold the enclave of Bani Walid, where revolutionary forces have been stymied by a challenging terrain. But the transitional leadership has said it will declare liberation after Sirte’s capture because that will mean it holds all of the seaports and harbors in the oil-rich Mediterranean coastal country.

British Defense Secretary Liam Fox pledged to keep up NATO airstrikes even after Sirte’s fall, saying the international military action would continue as long as the remnants of the regime pose a risk to the people of Libya.

“We have a message for those who are still fighting for Gadhafi that the game is over, you have been rejected by the people of Libya,” he told reporters Saturday in Tripoli before flying to Misrata.

Revolutionary forces began a major attack on Sirte on Friday after a three week siege from the outskirts of the coastal city, during which they said they were giving civilians time to flee. On Saturday, fighters fired rockets into the city from the backs of pickup trucks, though visibility was severely limited by a sandstorm.

Libya’s de facto leader, Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, the head of the governing National Transitional Council, said the battle for Sirte has been “ferocious,” with 15 revolutionary fighters killed and 180 wounded on Friday.

“Our fighters today are still dealing with the snipers positioned on the high buildings and we sustained heavy casualties,” he said at a joint news conference in Tripoli with Fox and Italian Defense Secretary Ignazio La Russa.

Abdel-Basit Haroun, a revolutionary field commander, said 32 people had been killed in two days of fighting, while the military council in the nearby city of Misrata, which has sent many fighters to Sirte, reported 80 wounded.

The council said revolutionary forces were attacking houses to try to eliminate the “overwhelming hordes of snipers out there.”

Sirte, 250 miles (400 kilometers) southeast of Tripoli, is key to the physical unity of the nation of some 6 million people, since it lies roughly in the center of the coastal plain where most Libyans live, blocking the easiest routes between east and west.

Mohammed al-Rajali, spokesman for the brigades attacking the city from the east, said the fighters have gained control of the Ouagadougou Convention Center, an ornate complex in the city center that Gadhafi frequently used for international summits. But they were meeting heavy resistance from villas behind the building so were focusing on firing artillery from the outskirts.

“After the intensive shelling, we will move forward,” he said.

A military spokesman in Tripoli, Abdul-Rahman Busin, and several commanders and fighters confirmed the center was under control of revolutionary forces.

“We have passed the area and we moved on to the residential area behind it,” brigade commander Musbah Alhadar said. “Our forces are camping around the center because the center itself has been destroyed by the NATO airstrikes and our artillery.”

Seizing the convention center complex, named after the capital of the West African nation of Burkino Faso, would be a significant gain for the attackers. Throughout the siege, Gadhafi fighters have used the walled complex as a base and stronghold. From there they were able to dominate surrounding neighborhoods and assault revolutionaries trying to enter Sirte.

Anti-Gadhafi forces also have surrounded the central Green Square and a presidential palace after fierce street fighting in the heart of the city.

Loyalist forces have been driven away from Ibn Sina Hospital where hundreds of civilians have sought refuge from the fighting, according to another commander, Suleiman Ali.

NATO warplanes flew overhead but no strikes were immediately reported.

Abdul-Jalil, meanwhile, called on the international community to help Libyans treat the wounded, saying they could deduct the cost from Libyan assets that were frozen under Gadhafi’s regime.

The international community has rallied around Libya’s efforts to move forward with forming a new government, with transitional leaders promising elections within eight months after liberation is declared.

Fox announced 500,000 pounds ($775,000) and extra military expertise to help Libya prevent the proliferation of weapons, including portable missiles capable of shooting down aircraft.

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TORONTO

California Attorney General Kamala Harris said Friday that she will not agree to a settlement over foreclosure abuses that federal officials and other state attorneys general are negotiating with major U.S. banks.

Her announcement is the latest to undermine a resolution that had been in the works between the banks and attorneys general in all 50 states. Other states including New York also have expressed reservations about the deal, which would help keep people in their homes and compensate borrowers who faced improper foreclosures.

The agreement was supposed to settle claims of poor mortgage and foreclosure practices, including document fraud known as “robo-signing” _ approving documents in foreclosures without actually reading them.

However, Harris said the pending deal is “inadequate for California homeowners” and gives bank officials too much legal immunity.

The state is being asked as part of the settlement “to excuse conduct that has not been properly investigated,” she wrote, promising to continue her own investigation.

Without agreement from the nation’s most populous state _ and one of the hardest hit by foreclosures _ the settlement could end up doing little to resolve the issue. Foreclosure fraud class-action lawsuits are also piling up against major banks across the country.

Harris noted that more than 2.2 million California residents are underwater, meaning they owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth. Since the negotiations began 11 months ago, foreclosures have begun against more than 560,000 additional California homes.

“No state has been harder hit than my home state of California,” Harris wrote in a letter to Associate U.S. Attorney General Thomas Perrelli and Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, who have been leading the talks.

Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. are among the banks that have been involved in the talks.

“We will continue to work with all parties, including our customers to restore home ownership nationally and locally,” Wells Fargo spokeswoman Vickee Adams said, adding that the bank has helped more than 700,000 people nationwide with new low cost loans or modifications.

JPMorgan Chase spokesman Thomas Kelly and a Bank of America spokesman Lawrence Grayson declined to comment.

Harris said California will go it alone in negotiating a settlement with the banks that would keep more families in their homes. She also promised to seek regulations and legislation to prevent future problems.

Assistant Iowa Attorney General Patrick Madigan said California had been an important part of the negotiations, which already have had lasting effects, delaying foreclosures in many states.

“However, the multistate effort is pressing forward and we fully expect to reach a settlement with the banks,” he said in a statement. The settlement will still be presented to all 50 states, he said.

States need to move quickly to prevent more foreclosures, Madigan said.

“Providing relief after the foreclosure crisis is over would be a hollow victory indeed,” he warned.

Community organizations praised Harris for rejecting the settlement.

“The first step in restarting our economy is keeping people in their houses and holding banks’ feet to the fire,” Rick Jacobs, chairman and founder of the Courage Campaign, said in a written statement.

“This settlement would have only been able to help around 20,000 California homeowners out of 2.2 million, while giving away all future rights to pursue investigations and litigation around a broad list of fraud that has been committed,” said a news release from People Improving Communities Through Organizing.

The talks have been designed to institute new guidelines for mortgage lending nationwide. It was anticipated to be the biggest overhaul of an industry since the 1998 multistate tobacco settlement.

However, over the last year, issues have arisen that have caused significant obstacles, including the amount of money in a reserve account for property owners who were improperly foreclosed upon, and how much civil liability the lenders should face.

The issues have caused attorneys general, including those in New York and Delaware, to withdraw from the talks. Attorneys general in Minnesota, New Mexico and Kentucky in recent weeks have criticized aspects of the deal in media reports.

Banks’ responses to the scrutiny have varied.

Many, including Bank of America and Ally Financial Inc.’s GMAC Mortgage, temporarily halted their foreclosure cases in October after allegations surfaced that employees signed but didn’t read documents that may have contained errors. Wells Fargo also admitted it had made mistakes in thousands of foreclosure cases and promised to fix them but did not stop its foreclosures. All three lenders have said they’re fixing the problems.

One of the biggest sticking points in settlement talks has been the amount of penalties the mortgage lenders would pay for their role in improper foreclosures. Federal and state officials have sought a figure greater than $20 billion while banks have pushed for about $5 billion.

A “monetary relief fund” was agreed upon in principle by May. But the formula for how much states and federal agencies would get became contentious.

Some states, upset with the slow movement on the settlement, have already taken action on their own.

Attorneys general in Arizona and Nevada, two of the states hardest hit by defaulted mortgages, have filed lawsuits against Bank of America, the country’s largest bank, saying the lender misled and deceived homeowners who have tried to modify mortgages.

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U.S. stock futures are falling as traders close out what could be the worst quarter since the peak of the financial crisis.

Fears about a European debt crisis with potentially catastrophic consequences have weighed on markets since the spring. Economic data are mostly weak. Major stock indexes have fallen more than 10 percent. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index is down 12 percent _ the most since the final quarter of 2008.

The government reports before the market opens on consumer spending and personal incomes in August easy to get unsecured personal loans. Economists expect spending edged up after rising in July.

At 7:33 a.m. Eastern time, S&P 500 futures were down 14, or 1.2 percent, at 1,143. Dow futures were down 118, or 1.1 percent, at 10,981. Nasdaq 100 futures were down 22, or 1 percent, at 2,168.

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Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke says the United States and other rich nations could re-learn a few lessons from developing countries: Adopt disciplined budget policies, embrace free trade, make public investments and support education.

Bernanke’s speech about the explosion of growth in the developing world was largely academic. But in his conclusion, he appears to criticize U.S. lawmakers and others in developed countries who he says have failed to embrace some key economic principles.

Bernanke has cautioned U.S. lawmakers against cutting deficits too quickly to reduce budget deficits. He has said that could put the fragile economy at risk.

In his speech, Bernanke suggests many emerging countries have enjoyed three decades of strong economic growth with support from their governments. .

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The Securities and Exchange Commission is considering taking civil action against Standard & Poor’s for its rating of a 2007 mortgage debt offering low rates payday advance. Such action could be just the first shot in a legal assault against the major credit rating agencies.

The three major agencies

Someone is about to play the fool _ Wall Street analysts or investors.

For months, analysts who write reports praising or panning stocks have been saying they were cheap. Investors were unconvinced, buying one day, selling the next. Last week, they mostly sold, and stocks got cheaper yet.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose slightly Friday but closed the week down 6.4 percent, its worst showing since the depths of the financial crisis three years ago. In the broader Standard & Poor’s 500, the selling pushed down all variety of stocks _ sexy high techs and staid utilities, risky small companies and cash-rich big ones.

Stock prices compared to expected profits are now nearly as low as they were in March 2009, a 12-year nadir that marked the beginning of one of the greatest bull markets in history.

Have investors sold too much, as they did back then?

“I’d be buying the market,” says Citigroup’s chief U.S. strategist Tobias Levkovitch, who warned that prices were too high in the spring. Says Harris Private Bank’s Jack Ablin, who sold $6 billion or so of stock in August, “We’re sharpening our pencils to figure out when to get back in.”

Who’s right _ or who’s about to play the fool _ may turn on earnings, or rather, analysts’ estimates of how fast they will grow.

Recently, they’ve been cutting them for companies in the S&P 500 as fears of another recession spread. But they’re still predicting they will earn 13 percent more earnings in the three months through September than they did in the same period a year ago, according to data provider FactSet. That would mark the eighth straight quarter of double-digit gains. And for the full year, analysts say earnings will hit a record.

“You can throw toss (those estimates) in the garbage,” says Peter Boockvar, equity strategist at brokerage Miller Tabak & Co. “Will Greece go bankrupt? What will be the extent of the global economic slowdown? I can’t get that out of an analyst report.”

If history is any guide, more cuts from analysts are coming.

One ominous sign: Those who changed their estimates this month chose to cut them more than six out 10 times, according to Citigroup. Early last month, raised estimates outnumbered lowered ones by nearly the same ratio.

Analysts are easy to bash. They usually tend to far too optimistic, cheering on stocks long after they’ve headed down. Now they want us to believe that companies can continue making record profits in the face of falling housing prices, tightfisted consumers, sputtering U.S. growth and a European debt crisis that is pushing a crucial market for U.S. exports closer to recession.

But it’s worth remembering that it’s been the naysayers, the investors, and not the optimistic analysts, who’ve mostly been wrong lately.

At the start of the bull market, investors worried that companies couldn’t generate enough profits in such an anemic economy. Then companies cut expenses to the bone, and profits soared. Investors next worried that companies wouldn’t be able to sell more, and that profits were bound to fall. And then companies defied expectations again with higher revenue, much of it overseas.

In fact, if anything, analysts haven’t been optimistic enough. For several quarters, nearly three out four companies have posted profits greater than analysts had estimated, FactSet says.

At Friday’s close, the S&P 500 was trading at 10.6 times analyst estimates for earnings over the next 12 months. That’s low for this so-called earnings multiple, which could mean stocks are cheap. When stocks bottomed on March 9, 2009, they were trading at 10.4 times estimated earnings. The 10-year average is 15.

Of course, the multiple might not look so appetizing in hindsight if companies’ results show the estimates were too high.

That won’t be clear at least for another two weeks when companies start reporting third-quarter results. But already investors are getting a taste of might be in store.

On Thursday, FedEx Corp., the world’s second-biggest package delivery company, met earnings expectations for the three months that ended in August. But it cut its target for full-year earnings, citing a slowdown in shipments from Asia. The stock fell to a two-year low.

Then, after the markets closed, some good news. Nike, the world’s largest athletic shoe maker, posted surprisingly strong earnings. It cited robust sales in India and China. The stock rose 5.3 percent Friday.

“The highest growth for companies has been in the emerging markets,” says John Butters, senior earnings analyst at FactSet. “We’re getting mixed signals.”

The good news is that even if analysts ended up playing the fools this time, stocks could still rise.

Harris Private Bank’s Ablin says analysts are “out to lunch” with their cheery projections. But he thinks investors may have overreacted, too. He says they’re selling as if earnings will fall 20 percent or so next year, which he thinks won’t happen.

“Investors are so dour, reality could surprise,” he says.

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The United Auto Workers union won $5,000 signing bonuses, the possibility of sweeter profit-sharing checks and guarantees of more union jobs as part of a new four-year contract with General Motors Co., two people briefed on the talks said Saturday.

The deal, reached late Friday, also includes a $2- to $3-per-hour-pay raise for entry-level workers over the life of the contract and the promise of more jobs, the people said.

Both persons asked to remain anonymous because the details of the contract haven’t been reviewed by all local union leaders.

In addition, workers could get profit-sharing checks that are larger than the roughly $4,000 they received based on the company’s earnings last year. But the formula was changed so it is based only on GM’s North American financial results, said the people.

The GM deal will serve as a template for contracts that still must be negotiated with Chrysler Group LLC and Ford Motor Co. It would set the pay and benefits for 112,500 U.S. auto workers. It also will set the bar for pay and benefits at nonunion auto companies and other industries across the country.

The contract is the first since GM and Chrysler received government bailouts to make it through bankruptcy protection in 2009.

The UAW and GM would not give details of the contract. Union President Bob King said Friday that he won’t talk about them until local union leaders are briefed on the pact Tuesday in Detroit.

Workers have to approve the contract before it can take effect. A vote is expected within 10 days.

The union said in a statement Friday that the pact includes some of its major goals, including improvements in profit-sharing, new jobs and better health care benefits.

The deal also will include creative ways to cut GM’s hourly labor costs, which at $56 are still higher than those at nonunion U.S. plants owned by foreign competitors.

GM was the first of the Detroit Three to reach agreement with the UAW. Chrysler is likely to be next, followed by Ford, where little progress has been made in negotiations so far.

The UAW announced the GM agreement just after 11 p.m. EDT Friday, after a little more than seven weeks of closed-door bargaining.

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