US, allies pressure Gaddafi to halt Libya violence

The Obama administration threw its weight behind a European effort to expel Libya from the United Nations' top human rights body and said it was readying a larger sanctions package against Muammar Gaddafi's regime that it will take up with allies in the coming days.

President Barack Obama was consulting with the leaders of Britain and France on Thursday, while officials said Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton would help coordinate the larger international strategy to stop the violence in Libya at a meeting of foreign policy chiefs next week in Switzerland. (AP)