sarah sidner, cnn, tripoli. >> and sarah sidner is still in tripoli. trying to get her on the phone. when we get her on the phone we'll bring her to you live. >>> president obama wants gadhafi to face faxes and give up. in a statement the president says tripoli is slipping from the grasp of a tyrant. the president is being briefed on developments while on vacation. dan lothian joins us live from martha's vineyard. republicans have already come out, namely senator john mccain, and said that if the united states and nato had thrown more at libya, wouldn't have taken six months for this thing to drag on and moammar gadhafi to be knocked out of power. still, it was only six months, so is the president happy with the way things turned out? >> well, look, this is good news for the administration as you pointed out. it was just six months ago that president obama stepped in front of the cameras and said that moammar gadhafi needed to go. and there has been, as you pointed out, a lot of criticism from republicans that the administration should have been more f

cnn reporter sarah sidner who you might remember as a former ktvu reporter, is in the very center of tripoli. she was there when shots were fired celebrating. >> reporter: the sun is setting in this area, it's starting to become darker. over here you're seeing them, these are cars that belonged to the gadhafi regime. they are sitting, they are blowing off rounds from the top of them. that is obviously a security -- [gunfire ]. i'm going to try not to get hit by any of those rounds. you see the people streaming through the main gate. that's all the way into the compound. so you see -- [gunfire ] a lot of smoke coming from the compound. you see these huge walls. these were supposed to be protective walls. this gives you a sense of power of the gadhafi regime [gunfire ] this honestly is the nicest part of the city. you're seeing these nicely -- [gunfire ] i'm going to back up. let's pull back a little bit. let's pull back just a little bit. let's just pull back because i'm getting hit by some of the shells. >> that was sarah sidner reporting from tripoli. fortunately she was not injured

cnn's sarah sidner has been watching the rebel invasion and pretty heavy fighting as well. she fired this report before the rebels pulled back from the square. >> finish, gadhafi finish. >> very, very happy. gadhafi finish. >> reporter: we are in green square. what you're seeing behind me, the rebels are now saying there's going to be a massive battle here. they do not have full control of the city. >> at the moment, we are not fully in control of tripoli because you can see, you can see that -- >> reporter: what does this make you -- how do you feel about this day? you are from tripoli? >> yeah. >> reporter: why is this day important? it's an historic day? >> historic day because we had to leave from here without anything and we had to fight. a >> reporter: we also now have to leave. what's happening is everyone started -- we are in green square here in the middle of tripoli. what we're seeing is rebels all over this square. there are really no civilians. mostly men with guns in the square. but we're also seeing people running. there's a lot of gunfire. they say there are

they can't do this until this thing with the compound is said and done. >> sarah sidner, matthew chance, arwa damon have done amazing reporting over the past several days. to see sarah at the gates trying to recognize what's incoming and outgoing -- >> i don't think her mother would feel the same way. >> i think you're right. >> a story everyone else is talking about, the day that east coast shook. the 5.8 magnitude earthquake collapsed some homes near the epicenter in virginia, caught millions off guard in the middle of a work day in places like new york city where people were -- dozens of stories above the ground feeling the floors move and sway and now the earthquake is bringing attention to a nuclear power plant that sits just about 85 miles from the nation's capital. our brian todd is live outside the north anna nuclear plant in mineral, virginia. p tell us what the situation is there, brian. >> we've found out a short time ago that power from the main grid was restored to this nuclear power plant overnight. that's the power that fuels the cooling systems for the nuclear reactors a

that was sarah sidner who we have been talking live to here on cnn.hat was her pushing her way, making her way into the compound belonging to or certainly did belong to did belong to at one point moammar gadhafi. now it seems as though sara has been reporting that the rebels have taken over. they've been taking moammar gadhafi's cars, guns, as she was making her way in, looking at some of the guns, even still in the boxes sniem i don't know if you caught it last hour, i think, we saw inside the compound one rebel holding up a -- what looked like a gold-plated ak-47 that he had obviously souvenired from one of the buildings. most of the ak-47s, there were belgium-made automatic weapons as well. what i'm noticing here too, some of the guys clearly rebels, some of them are equally clearly civilians. you've got guys running around in t-shirts and shorts not part of the rebel movement itself. that comes down to, well, looting, i guess. >> i know you would call it that. we have to get a quick break in. we'll be right back with these live pictures as it all

. >>> sarah sidner was in the middle of all the chaos today in tripoli. she was inside gadhafi's compound as the rebels rushed in. >> the whole place has been secured by the rebels. and there are cars driving in and out easily. but there is still quite a bit of gunfire. that gunfire is celebratory gunfire. and clearly there is extreme excitement here in tripoli. >> sidner and her camera man were forced to back away repeatedly and take cover behind barricades to keep from getting hurt. both got out safely from the compound. >> today ktvu spoke to one libyan living in exile who says he is now excited about the future of his homeland. >> we've been waiting for this day when libya is free of gadhafi. we have to go back and contribute. this is a time of need, help. >> he's been in exile ever since he left for college in the states more than 40 years ago. he says he expects many like himself to return home and help rebuild the new libya. >>> what local leaders say needs to change at a new grocery store so minors don't walk away with bottles like these. >>> i'm

sarah sidner ace reporting in tripoli. she says it's difficult to determine who is in control. >> reporter: the situation is always changing here in tripoli. one moment, everybody says that rebels have control of 90% of the city, and the next moment, we hear there are some serious problems in sections that they said they were in control of. things change quickly. >> overnight, rebels celebrated with fires works and gunfire. qaddafi's whereabouts are still unknown. he has not been seen in public in more than two months. >>> hurricane irene is turning into quite a monster, taking aim at the east coast as the first major hurricane to strike that region in seven years. towns and cities along the coast are bracing for that hit along with the u.s. navy which is moving dozens of ships away from that area. the storm is expected to hit on saturday in north carolina. it will chen chug up the east coast, dumping rain from virginia to new york. east coast refineries are preparing for the possibility of disruption which could push fuel

lot of concern right now about our people that are on the ground, about sarah sidner. she's in a car making her way over to that compound. people concerned, too, about matthew chance and so many other people that are really caught up in all of this. this is the way a news organization lives during these periods of time, when we're covering stories like this one that are breaking. so that's one aspect of it. i have all along thought they were fighting here a battle over the momentum in all of this. yes, it has been in the rebels' side but after the fiasco of the alleged capture of saif al gadhafi and then had him come down on the streets about 12 hours ago and declare that we have broken the backs of the rebels, well, what we just saw here is no, they have not. how big is that victory there? hard to tell. how much resistance was there, how many fighters did they capture. some say there was very little or no resistance and they didn't capture any. but there are tunnels underneath that compound. do they lead to the hotel where the journalists are really being held, not as

cnn's sarah sidner and her crew were caught in the middle of a fire fight today. here is her report. >> reporter: just a 40-minute drive from tripoli, rebels battled their way closer to the capital. this is the city of zalwi. even if you couldn't see the fire fight close up, you could hear its deafening sounds reverberating from the city. so it is just getting too close. there are sniper on the tops of buildings, loud bangs, artillery fire, morters. we have to get out of here. despite the major battle going on around him, a rebel fighter who did not want to be identified to protect his family was confident of a victory. considering the fighting is fierce here, how long do you think before you're able to push into tripoli? >> hopefully a couple of days. >> reporter: a couple of days? >> a couple of days or one week maybe. >> reporter: you think it will be that soon? >> i think so. we are -- we are in control 80%. >> reporter: but to push forward, they need to secure the whole city where gadhafi's army is doing everything it can to keep hold of this strategically im

. >> sarah sidner reporting from inside -- what was the compound of moammar gadhafi. >>> meanwhile, fearser libya's chemical weapons. as the regime is now falling apart, could the arsenal fall into the hands of a vital link terrorist? there's one man very concerned about it. the chairman of the house intelligence committee mike rogers. he's standing by live right here in "the situation room." hi there! that's not going to satisfy you. it's time for a better snack. here, try this. it's yoplait greek. it has two times the protein of regular yogurt. you'll feel satisfied. [ female announcer ] yoplait greek. it is so good. it's pretty good! >>> senior u.s. officials tell me one of their biggest concerns in libya right now involves the stockpiling of chemical weapons of moammar gadhafi's regime. our correspondent, barbara starr, has been investigating. >> reporter: as moammar gadhafi tripoli's compound is looted for weapons, there is still the old inventory of artillery, rockets, missiles, that could make a terrorist's head spin. >> al qaeda could be looking at this knowing that there's an opp

. >> sarah sid p sidner bravely o front lines for us. also important develop this is syria. will assad answer demands that he step down? by shedding more blood. thousands took to the streets across syria and eyewitnesses and human rights activists report at least 23 deaths. let's show you some of the demonstrations. you won't hear gunfire here, but what an inspiring scene this is. people waving their shoes, the bottom of their feet, saying assad must go. in this town, a suburb of damascus, ghon stldemonstrators street, gunfire arrest with a daily arwa damon is covering it for us tonight. is that crackdown essentially president assad's answer to the united states and other enter national pressure? >> the concentration today appeared to be in the southern previo province where there are numerous towns saying they were being targeted. many people wounded, many unable to go to hospitals. they're being treated in these secret underground clinics because they're afraid that the government will come and detain them if they try to go to a regular hospital. so on the ground this syri

straight to sarah rah sider in who has been covering the story, she drove into the city, she is out of the city. sara sidnernt job. set the scene for me. i understand you are in zawiyah, the town west of the capital. what have you seen tonight? >> reporter: that's right. we've seen and heard fighting in the city center, more so actually than yesterday and so things are always changing with these conflicts especially in an urban setting because there are of course going to be some rebels coming from all over the country literally coming in to tripoli, some of them know the city very well, some of them do not and have been training to try to learn the city, to know where to go, but we do understand that there have been some teams of journalists who have turned corners and found themselves face to face with what could be gadhafi forces and had to turn tail and run. a difficult situation especially when it gets dark. hard for the rebels to figure out just what they're dealing with. the one thing to note here is that for days, months really, the gadhafi regime, gadhafi himself said there will be thousands of peo