LIBYA: Alleged rape victim deported by Qatar to rebel-held city.
A Libyan woman who claimed she was gang-raped by Moammar Gadhafi’s troops was deported from Qatar, where she sought refuge, and is now in Benghazi, a U.N. official said Thursday.
Her sudden expulsion cast light again on one of the most widely covered incidents of alleged abuses by Gadhafi’s forces, as NATO continued its relentless nightly bombing raids on Libyan military and security bases, backing rebels who are trying to unseat Gadhafi after a four-decade dictatorship.
The U.S. government on Thursday expressed concern for the safety of the Libyan woman, Imad al-Obeidi. No explanation was forthcoming from Qatar.
Rebel spokesman Jalal el-Gallal said al-Obeidi arrived in Benghazi by plane.
“She’s welcome to stay; this is her country,” el-Gallal said.
UNITED STATES: House GOP crafts measure to continue U.S. role in Libya.
House Republican leaders crafted legislation Thursday allowing the U.S. military to continue participating in the NATO- led operation against Libya. The GOP leadership was pursuing an alternative to anti-war Rep. Dennis Kucinich’s proposal to end U.S. involvement in the conflict, according to Republican lawmakers. A vote on the issue was postponed Wednesday, and officials in both parties said it was because the legislation from Kucinich, D-Ohio, was gaining ground.
The alternative seeks more information from the Obama administration in 14 days and explicitly opposes U.S. ground forces in Libya, said Rep. David Dreier, R-Calif., the chairman of the House Rules Committee.
The leadership discussed the alternative with rank-and-file Republicans at an hour-long, closed-door meeting. Votes on the measure were slated for today.
SYRIA: Military presses brutal crackdown.
Syria’s military forces continued pressing to crush a 3-month- old popular uprising Thursday, shelling a string of southern and central towns even as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton warned President Bashar Assad that his legitimacy had “nearly run out.”
The relentless military mobilization and unforgiving use of force killed 96 people in recent days, leaving more than 1,000 unarmed protesters dead since the popular protests started in mid- March, human-rights activists said Thursday.
As the death toll grew and Washington stepped up pressure, hundreds of opposition activists concluded a two- day gathering at a beach resort in Turkey, where they called on Assad to step down and pledged to help build democracy once he left power.
Most of the delegates were longtime exiles and expatriates who had fled the Assad government, but a few were Syrian demonstrators who slipped across the border.
TUNISIA: Two immigrants dead, 200 missing as boat sinks off coast.
At least 200 immigrants are missing and two are dead after a fishing boat carrying hundreds of immigrants sank off the coast of Tunisia in a storm.
The boat is believed to have set sail from Libya and was en route to Italy with an estimated 800 would-be immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa and Asia on board, including women and children.
Denver Post wire services
