UNITED NATIONS: Evidence on Assad’s crackdown being gathered.
At least one Western government is bankrolling a project to gather evidence that could be used to indict Syrian President Bashar Assad at an international tribunal over his crackdown on the country’s democracy movement, said a jurist leading the effort and a diplomat whose government is sponsoring it.
The fact-finding mission mostly involves assembling testimony from Syrian refugees that conforms to standards of international law necessary to sustain a war-crimes trial at the International Criminal Court, said the diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
LIBYA: Government admits it’s holding U.S. writer.
The Libyan government has acknowledged that a Baltimore writer who went missing in the early weeks of the conflict there is alive and in custody, a Maryland congressman said Tuesday. Libyan officials acknowledged last week that Matthew VanDyke was in custody, according to U.S. Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger’s office. For months, Libyan officials said they had no information about VanDyke.
Meanwhile, rebels forces advanced Tuesday into Brega. Two people were killed and 14 wounded in fighting around the strategic oil-terminal town. In Tripoli, the Libyan government news agency said NATO airstrikes overnight killed 85 people in Zlitan.
YEMEN: President planning to return.
President Ali Abdullah Saleh will return to Yemen after he recovers, the state- owned Saba news agency reported Tuesday, citing an unidentified official in his office. Saleh is in Saudi Arabia, where he was treated after an attack on his compound in Yemen’s capital.
Denver Post wire services
