LIBYA: Rebels claim key oil port city.
Libyan rebels battling Moammar Gadhafi’s troops along the country’s Mediterranean coast said they captured a key oil terminal Thursday. Rebel spokesman Mohammed al-Rijali said he was with the fighters in Brega when they gained control of the city after three weeks of intense fighting. Brega’s capture would be an important boost for the rebels.
EGYPT: Broad arrest law to be repealed.
Egypt’s government says it plans to lift the country’s hated emergency law before parliamentary elections later this year.
The law, imposed in 1981, gave security forces wide powers to arrest and detain Egyptians without charge. Canceling the law is a key demand of the protesters from the uprising that ousted President Hosni Mubarak. No firm date has been set.
YEMEN: President reneges on resignation provisions.
Yemen’s embattled president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, is now objecting to key points of a U.S.-backed deal that calls for him to step down in rturn for immunity from prosecution, a member of his ruling party said Thursday.
The official said Saleh spoke during a meeting with his top party officials in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, where he is recuperating from burns and other wounds suffered in a June attack on his compound in Sana, the Yemeni capital.
Denver Post wire services
