SYRIA: Troops push toward border, sending refugees into Turkey.
Syrian troops pushed to the Turkish border in their sweep against a 3-month-old pro-democracy movement, sending panicked refugees, including children, rushing across the frontier to safe havens in Turkey.
The European Union announced it was slapping new sanctions on the Syrian regime because of the “gravity of the situation.” The Syrian opposition says 1,400 people have been killed in a relentless government crackdown.
LIBYA: Gadhafi supporters defend leader.
Supporters of Moammar Gadhafi rallied in Tripoli after the Libyan leader lashed out at NATO over civilian casualties, calling the alliance “murderers” after an airstrike on the family home of a close associate.
A few hundred supporters, most of them women, gathered in the capital’s Green Square hours after the late-night speech, vowing to defend the Libyan leader against rebels seeking to oust him and NATO forces giving them air support.
Gadhafi warned the alliance that its more than three-month mission in Libya was a “Crusader’s campaign” that could come back to haunt the West.
YEMEN: Diplomat says turmoil won’t impede fight against al-Qaeda.
A senior U.S. diplomat pushing for a peaceful transfer of power in Yemen said that whichever side emerges from the four-month political crisis to lead the nation will cooperate with Washington in battling Yemen’s al-Qaeda branch.
The Obama administration fears Yemen’s turmoil will give al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula more room to operate freely and plot attacks on the West from the country’s remote and mountainous reaches.
Denver Post wire services
