SYRIA: Turkey’s premier calls for Assad to resign.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey said for the first time Tuesday that President Bashar Assad of Syria should resign, raising the pressure on Assad from a country that Syria had once counted as its friendliest neighbor and economic partner.
Erdogan likened Assad to the self-delusional dictators of history who have met violent ends, most recently Moammar Gadhafi of Libya.
“Just remove yourself from that seat before shedding more blood, before torturing more and for the welfare of your country, as well as the region,” Erdogan said in a televised statement at his party meeting in Ankara, the capital.
LIBYA: Gadhafi’s son can be tried in home country, court says.
The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor on Tuesday said Moammar Gadhafi’s captured son and one-time heir apparent can be tried in Libya, provided that international standards are met.
Court prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo was in Tripoli, the Libyan capital, to confer with the country’s transitional leaders about the handling of Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, who was captured Saturday in the southern Saharan hinterlands and is being held in the western town of Zintan.
The international court has charged the younger Gadhafi with crimes against humanity committed during attempts to suppress the uprising that toppled his father, who was slain last month while in the custody of his captors during the fall of his hometown, Sirte.
Denver Post wire services
