Libya

PARIS - Lawmakers reauthorized yesterday France’s participation in the NATO-led bombing operations in Libya that have been targeting the forces of Moammar Khadafy, while French officials said they were increasingly optimistic about the possibility of a negotiated end to the conflict. “A political solution in Libya is more indispensable than ever, and it is beginning to take shape,’’ Prime Minister Francois Fillon told parliamentarians before the vote. He offered no details, except to say that such a solution would depend upon an “authentic and verifiable’’ cease-fire and “the...

For relatives of the people who died in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, the death Sunday of the only man who was convicted stirred up questions once again about his guilt and whether others went unpunished. It also gave families a chance to reissue pleas for further investigation. Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, a former Libyan intelligence official, died of cancer, a relative said. Al-Megrahi was convicted of blowing up Pan Am Flight 103 over the Scottish town on Dec. 21, 1988. The bombing killed 270 people, many of them New York and New Jersey residents.

GENEVA — Up to 1 million foreign workers and others trapped in Libya are expected to need emergency aid because of fighting in the North African nation, aid officials said yesterday as they sought $160 million to deal with the crisis. UN officials say that amount is only for the next three months — and they expect the crisis to go on longer than that. The United Nations is effectively frozen out of sections controlled by leader Moammar Khadafy’s forces and is only seeking humanitarian aid for opposition-controlled areas.

He was the embodiment of one of modern Libya's darkest chapters — a man synonymous with horrifying scenes of wreckage, broken families and a plane that fell out of the sky a generation ago. His name, Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, was little known compared to the single word that his deeds represented: Lockerbie. Seven months after his patron dictator Moammar Gadhafi was slain in a revolution that began a new chapter for his homeland, al-Megrahi died Sunday of cancer, leaving behind countless unanswered questions about the midair attack in 1988 that blew up Pan Am flight 103 over Scotland.

Senators will have their say on President Barack Obama’s decision to involve U.S. forces in the military operation against Libya. On Tuesday, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is to quiz State Department legal adviser Harold Koh about Obama’s claim that he doesn’t need congressional authorization for the attacks because they aren’t full-blown hostilities and the U.S. is supporting the NATO-led operation. That argument angered Republicans and Democrats. Later in the day, the committee is to consider a resolution by Sens.

Turkey’s prime minister says his country has offered Libya’s leader Moammar Gadhafi guarantees in return for leaving Libya. Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in an interview with NTV channel broadcast Friday they are still waiting to hear back. Gadhafi has previously vowed not to leave Libya. Erdogan did not specify what those guarantees are and when the offer to Gadhafi was made. Turkish leader said that Gadhafi has no other option but to leave Libya. Erdogan: “We said we will help you leave for where ever you would like.’’

TRIPOLI, Libya - Libya has called off efforts to retrieve bodies of more than 200 illegal migrants who drowned when their overcrowded boat capsized in the stormy waters of the Mediterranean as they set off for a better life in Europe. Laurence Hart, an official with the International Organization for Migration in Libya, said yesterday that authorities stopped the rescue operation because chances were slim of finding more survivors from the weekend incident. Only 20 survived when the wooden vessel with 257 people on board sunk.

The Security Council has extended the U.N. support mission in Libya for another three months to help the new government tackle a flood of arms in the country. The council on Friday unanimously approved a resolution to extend the end of the U.N. mission from Dec. 16 to March 16. The mission was initially established to support Libya's transitional government following months of conflict that ended when Moammar Gadhafi's regime was toppled. Libya's interim government was sworn in late last month.

An Italian coast guard spokesman says it has rescued hundreds of migrants whose boat stalled after leaving Libya. But there are unconfirmed reports of dozens of migrants dying during the journey. Antonio Morana says the first coast guard boat with some of the migrants aboard is expected to reach Italy's Lampedusa island off Sicily Thursday night. The ANSA news agency has reported about 300 migrants were rescued. But Morana says the exact number has yet to be determined.

U.N. human rights experts say they will visit Libya next week to examine the use of mercenaries to fight the uprising that eventually brought down Moammar Gadhafi's four-decade dictatorship. Faiza Patel, head of the U.N. Human Rights Council panel, says it also aims to collect "direct and first-hand information" on private companies offering military aid, consultants and security to Gadhafi's regime. Patel and another expert said Friday they will spend four days in Libya at the invitation of the government, which claims to have evidence linking Gadhafi's son Seif al-Islam...

Residents of the eastern Libyan city that served as the cradle of the uprising that toppled Moammar Gadhafi voted for a local council Saturday in the city's first elections since the longtime dictator's capture and killing last year. More than 400 people were running for the 41 seats up for grabs on the local council of Benghazi, Libya's second-largest city. The vote for the city council was the first in Benghazi since the 1960s, and some of the voting centers Saturday were so crowded that they stayed open an extra hour to meet the rush of voters.

U.N. human rights experts say they will visit Libya next week to examine the use of mercenaries to fight the uprising that eventually brought down Moammar Gadhafi's four-decade dictatorship. Faiza Patel, head of the U.N. Human Rights Council panel, says it also aims to collect "direct and first-hand information" on private companies offering military aid, consultants and security to Gadhafi's regime. Patel and another expert said Friday they will spend four days in Libya at the invitation of the government, which claims to have evidence linking...

CAIRO - Egyptian security forces seized dozens of heavy weapons Thursday near the Libyan border, arms that were allegedly bound for the Sinai Peninsula to stir up trouble ahead of upcoming presidential elections, a police official said. Authorities uncovered the munitions - including 40 surface-to-surface missiles, 17 rocket-propelled grenade launchers, mortar rounds, automatic rifles, and around 10,000 artillery shells - in three vehicles near the Mediterranean resort city of Marsa Matrouh, some 270 miles northwest of Cairo, the official said.

The top U.N. envoy in Libya said Thursday there are positive signs that the country is moving toward democracy but longstanding tensions have escalated into armed conflicts, detainees are still being tortured, and there is rising discontent among former revolutionary fighters. Less than seven months after the end of Moammar Gadhafi's 42-year dictatorship, Libyans are increasingly exercising their freedom of speech and have a strong desire to be consulted on national issues and a determination to hold their leaders accountable, Ian Martin told the U.N. Security Council.

An international rights group is urging Libya's national transitional council to amend a new law that protects from protection people who committed crimes under the pretext of "promoting or protecting the revolution. " The law that was passed May 2 stipulates that there is no penalty for "military, security or civil actions" carried out with the goal of defending the revolution that toppled longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi and his regime. Human Rights Watch's Middle East deputy director Joe Stork said in a statement Thursday that such a law promotes "a...

The head of eastern Libya's self-declared semiautonomous region on Friday called for a boycott of next month's national vote for an assembly that would form a government and prepare for the country's new constitution. Ahmed al-Zubair claimed that the elections are just another tool to "marginalize" the east. His call is a sign of the tribal and political factionalism that plagues Libya after the fall of longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi last year. The uprising against Gadhafi began in Benghazi, eastern Libya's main city, where people have long complained that Gadhafi's regime...

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. -- Claiming one victory in the fight against weapons of mass destruction, US officials yesterday displayed a few examples of the tons of nuclear weapons gear retrieved from Libya. The display included a dozen of the aluminum casings that would have enclosed high-speed centrifuges to separate weapons fuel from ordinary uranium hexafluoride gas. Guards armed with M-4 assault rifles flanked the display and encircled the tent where officials showed off the haul. The equipment was part of a shipment of 55,000 pounds of gear the United States flew out of Libya in January, after...

TRIPOLI — Libya said yesterday that Switzerland has paid $1.5 million for mistreating Moammar Khadafy’s son during his arrest there in 2008, and a Swiss citizen held in Tripoli arrived in Zurich, as the countries ended a two-year diplomatic row. The two nations struck a deal to end a dispute that began with the two-day detention of Hannibal Khadafy and his wife for allegedly beating their maid in a Swiss hotel. Libya’s protests of their arrests quickly escalated, and in February Moammar Khadafy even called on Muslims to wage jihad, or holy war, against Switzerland.

Libya's rulers have passed new laws aimed at punishing the loyalists of the country's deposed ruler, Moammar Gadhafi. One law imposes a life sentence on anyone convicted of talking part in Gadhafi's propaganda machine. Another allows for confiscation of property and possessions of 200 of Gadhafi's supporters, relatives, Cabinet ministers and military commanders. Anger still boils against Gadhafi's four-decade dictatorship, seen responsible for current problems like squabbling tribes and lack of government institutions.

VIENNA - Shokri Ghanem, Libya's former top oil official, who defected to the rebels in June, was found dead in the Danube River in Vienna, Austrian police said. Mr. Ghanem's remains were found floating in the river early Monday, Roman Hahslinger, a spokesman for the Vienna police, said by phone from the Austrian capital. The cause of death was not immediately clear and an autopsy will be carried out, he said. The corpse was fully clothed and showed no signs of third-party meddling, Hahslinger said.