NATO warplanes bombed Libyan naval vessels in three ports Friday, leaving ships partially sunken and charred and showering docks with debris in the military alliance’s broadest attack on Moammar Khadafy’s navy.
NATO said the overnight bombing runs were meant to protect the nearby rebel- held port of Misrata, the only major city in the western half of Libya that is under the control of the fighters trying to end Khadafy’s nearly 40-year rule. One of the attacks struck the main port of Tripoli, and reporters could see flames and smoke pouring into the night sky from stricken vessels.
YEMEN: President rejects rule-ending proposal.
Yemen’s embattled president snubbed a U.S.-backed proposal by gulf Arab nations that would end his rule and instead called Friday for new elections, a move unlikely to end the months of mass protests demanding his ouster.
The announcement by Ali Abdullah Saleh dashed hopes for a quick end to the crisis in the Arab world’s poorest country, also home to one of al-Qaeda’s most dangerous branches.
Saleh’s announcement Friday to a crowd of cheering supporters in the capital, Sana, follows the apparent collapse of weeks of efforts by the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council to mediate an end to the crisis.
EGYPT: Journalists held after reports of alleged amnesty deal.
Military prosecutors summoned and then released the editor and two journalists of an independent newspaper for reporting on an alleged deal to offer amnesty to ousted president Hosni Mubarak.
The three were released after they signed a pledge agreeing not to report on issues involving the armed forces that might cause “confusion” in the streets, Egypt’s state news agency and a rights activist said Friday.
UNITED STATES: Congress unruffled by continued action in Libya.
The White House is skipping a legal deadline to seek congressional authorization of the military action in Libya — but few on the Hill are objecting.
Under the War Powers Resolution of 1973, a president can send troops into combat for only 60 days without congressional mandate. That deadline fell Friday, but in absence of pressure from Congress, White House officials say they think they are on solid ground continuing U.S. involvement in the mission, now led by NATO, without formal congressional sign-off — as long as consultations with Congress continue.
SOUTH AFRICA: Nation rebukes Khadafy over death of photographer.
South Africa charged Friday that Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy had provided misinformation about a journalist whose death in the North African country was only recently confirmed after weeks of anguish about his whereabouts.
Anton Hammerl’s death was confirmed Thursday by journalists who said the 41-year-old photographer had been shot and left to die in the desert as Khadafy’s forces took his colleagues away.
“We are particularly disappointed by the dishonesty of the Libyan government, which assured our government that our citizen was alive and in custody,” said South Africa’s governing African National Congress Party in a statement. “This raised our hopes and that of the family and friends of Hammerl, only to be crushed later.”
Denver Post wire services
