LIBYA: Gadhafi’s forces may face war-crimes charges.
There are “reasonable grounds” to charge Moammar Gadhafi’s security forces with having committed war crimes and crimes against humanity during their crackdown on Libyan protesters, according to the chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court.
The prosecutor, Argentine lawyer Luis Moreno-Ocampo, has claimed in a report to the U.N. Security Council that his investigators have established preliminary but “credible” estimates that at least 500 to 700 civilians have been shot to death by government forces. Moreno-Ocampo said he intends in the next few weeks to submit his first application for arrest warrants against officials “most responsible for crimes against humanity” in Libya since Feb. 15. The abuses, he noted, are ongoing.
Italy pledged Tuesday to seek an end date for NATO’s Libya operations. Foreign Minister Franco Frattini told reporters that Rome “will try, along with international organizations . . . to set an end” date for the operations.
Also Tuesday, the general in charge of Libya’s rebel forces said a car bomb exploded in front of their headquarters in northeast Benghazi late Tuesday. Gen. Abdel-Fattah Younis said no one was injured.
YEMEN: Embattled president asks mediator to delay visit.
Yemen’s president asked a key mediator from a powerful alliance of neighboring gulf countries, the Gulf Cooperation Council, to indefinitely delay his visit, said two of his associates Tuesday.
President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s move was a political slap to attempts by Yemen’s neighbors to resolve nearly three months of anti-government unrest in this impoverished Arab country. The group was expected to ask Saleh to resign as part of the council’s initiative to resolve the crisis.
Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators have been clamoring for Saleh to step down, inspired by the mass protests unleashed through the Middle East.
At least 140 people have been killed in the regime’s crackdown on protesters.
TUNISIA: Banks pledge $500 million to speed reforms.
The World Bank and the African Development Bank have pledged $500 million each to support Tunisia’s transition to democracy and economic reforms.
The announcement came during a visit to Tunis by World Bank president Robert Zoellick and his African Development Bank counterpart, Donald Kaberuka.
Denver Post wire services
