SYRIA: State TV says mediation deal reached with Arab League.
Syria said Tuesday it had reached agreement with an Arab League delegation on a road map to end more than seven months of bloodshed and start a dialogue between the opposition and the government of President Bashar Assad.
Details about the agreement were scant, but Syrian state television reported it would be announced today at Arab League headquarters in Cairo.
Arab League mediation was viewed as one of the last diplomatic initiatives underway to end the uprising and crackdown, in which the United Nations said more than 3,000 people have been killed.
On Tuesday, a Syrian official confirmed that troops were laying mines along the border with Lebanon, saying they were aimed at stopping weapons-smuggling into the country during the uprising.
The mines also are the latest sign that Syria is working to prevent Lebanon from becoming a haven for the Syrian opposition.
LIBYA: Two-day hospital gunfight highlights struggles ahead.
Groups of Libyan fighters involved in a personal feud exchanged fire at a major hospital, leaving one dead and five wounded over two days of battles, the hospital’s security chief said Tuesday.
It was one of the most serious cases of personal score-settling by revolutionary forces since they toppled the regime of Moammar Gadhafi late last month, capturing and killing the former dictator.
Libya is awash in weapons, and the country’s interim leaders have promised repeatedly they would collect them, now that the eight- month civil war is over. However, the government has not followed through, and rival military commanders jockeying for position appear reluctant to be the first to have their fighters disarm.
TUNISIA: Facebook posts bash Obama over Occupy protests.
President Barack Obama got a virtual smackdown this week — all the way from Tunisia.
Tunisian Facebook users posted thousands of comments on Obama’s Facebook page this week, launching what they dubbed a “virtual surprise attack” mocking him and showing support for the Occupy Wall Street movement, al-Arabiya reported Tuesday.
The Facebook spamming was organized on Twitter in response to the police brutality some users said they saw at Occupy Wall Street via social-media websites.
A number of the most popular and reposted comments were jokes connected to the Arab Spring, such as “Tunisia is the first country to recognize the American Transitional National Council” and “To overthrow any corrupt system in the world, please contact the Tunisian people.”
Denver Post wire services
