LIBYA: Gadhafi son suggests election is way to stop NATO action.
Thunderous NATO airstrikes once again hammered Moammar Gadhafi’s stronghold of Tripoli on Thursday.
Officials in the capital said they are open to international efforts that would bring an end to four months of fighting. But they insist that Gadhafi will not bow to international pressure to push him aside.
“We don’t accept anything that may be done against him. He is a red line in our discussions,” Prime Minister al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi said. Any deal that would partition the country is also unacceptable, he added.
One of Gadhafi’s sons told an Italian newspaper that while his father would not seek exile, elections under international supervision could offer a way out. A vote could be organized within three months, he said.
The son, Seif al-Islam, told Corriere della Sera that Gadhafi would step aside if he lost, which the son said was unlikely. He acknowledged, however, that “my father’s regime as it developed since 1969 is dead.”
TUNISIA: Greater assistance sought for refugees.
The United Nations’ high commissioner for refugees called for greater international support for Tunisia to help with all the refugees fleeing the fighting in Libya. UNHCR’s Antonio Guterres was visiting Tunisia as part of the commemorations for world refugee day Monday. More than 400,000 people of various nationalities have fled to Tunisia since the rebellion erupted in neighboring Libya against Moammar Gadhafi. There are now 70,000 Libyans seeking refuge in the south.
SYRIA: Males over age 16 seized in rebellious villages.
Syrian security forces fanned out through villages and towns in the northern province of Idlib, randomly hauling in males over age 16 as the government worked to silence a center of anti-regime protest. In this border region, where thousands of Syrian civilians have fled to havens in Turkey, Turkish officials are preparing to send food, clean water, medicine and other aid to thousands more stranded on the Syrian side.
BRAZIL: U.N. chief tells Syrian president to “stop killing people.”
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon on Thursday called on Syria’s president to stop the bloodshed in his country and engage in dialogue before it’s too late. Since protests began in Syria in March against President Bashar Assad, about 1,400 civilians have been killed, according to human-rights activists there. Speaking to journalists in Brazil, Ban called on Syria’s president to “stop killing people” and told reporters that he’d urged Assad to “engage in inclusive dialogue and to take bold measures before it’s too late.”
EGYPT: Mubarak ally detained in Spain.
Spanish authorities detained a close associate of ousted President Hosni Mubarak wanted for trial at home on charges of bribing Mubarak and his family and squandering public funds. The head of Egypt’s Interpol, Brig. Gen. Magdy el-Shafei, said authorities are preparing to bring Hussein Salem back to Egypt. Salem was detained in his home in Mallorca.
Denver Post wire services
