The death toll in a government security crackdown in two northern Syrian towns rose to 35 as exiled opposition figures said any dialogue with President Bashar Assad’s regime now would be a joke. The deaths in Jisr al-Shughour and nearby Khan Sheikhoun included six policemen. The operation is part of a crackdown that began Saturday. Human-rights groups say more than 1,200 people have died in the brutal crackdown against anti-government demonstrators since March.
LIBYA: Tough talk stirs fears about Khadafy’s exit, nation’s future.
Government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim says he will personally pick up his AK-47 if he has to.
“When it comes down to it, we will all take our guns and Kalashnikovs and fight,” he said at a news conference last week.
Government scare-mongering, perhaps — but rhetoric that worries some business leaders from Libya and the West, who fear for the future of this divided and volatile North African country if Moammar Khadafy no longer is in power.
Khadafy’s government says it has distributed weapons to a million loyalists and is playing on ancient tribal rivalries to stoke fears of a takeover by eastern Libya.
One concern in many people’s minds is that the West has left little or no room for a face-saving exit for Libya’s “Brother Leader,” making it very likely that the colonel will fight to the last bullet.
LIBYA: Woman who claimed rape by troops headed to U.S.
A woman who claimed she was raped by government troops is on her way to the United States, her sister says. Marwa al-Obeidi says her sister Iman was flown out of Benghazi early Sunday morning. It was not immediately known where in the U.S. she was going.
EGYPT: IMF to provide $3 billion in loans.
The International Monetary Fund agreed Sunday to provide Egypt with $3 billion in financing to help the Arab world’s most populous nation ease the blow to its economy related to the popular uprising that ousted former President Hosni Mubarak. The loan announcement comes days after the government unveiled a draft budget that projects the deficit swelling to nearly 11 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product, as officials look to boost social-services spending to meet persistent demands by a population that complained of gross economic inequity under the former regime.
EGYPT: Poll finds little support for Muslim Brotherhood, Islamic theocracy.
A poll released Sunday indicates that at this point, a small minority of Egyptians supports the Muslim Brotherhood, and less than 1 percent favor an Iran-style Islamic theocracy. The Gallup poll conducted after the fall of President Hosni Mubarak found that while 69 percent of Egyptians want religious leaders to have an “advisory role” in new legislation, most do not want a government based in religion.
IRAQ: Prime minister accused of painting protesters as terrorists.
A leading human- rights organizer who confronted the prime minister on national TV says the official is trying to paint legitimate protesters as terrorists. Hana Adwar’s comments were broadcast live Sunday at a human-rights conference in Baghdad attended by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and U.N. officials. Earlier, al-Maliki spoke to the conference and suggested that some rights activists were terrorists, in an apparent attempt to delegitimize the country’s nascent activist movement. Adwar later got up and yelled at the prime minister, demanding that he apologize. Then the TV feed was cut.
Denver Post wire services
