(Euronews: 1118 PST, April 4, 2011) Libya's rebel National Transitional Council has rejected a proposal to end the conflict from Colonel Gaddafi's most prominent sons. Salaam and Saif al-Islam reportedly want to be interim leaders if there is a transfer of power and their father steps down. But after talks with Italy, which has now recognised the National Council, there was a very negative reaction.
(Euronews: 2330 PST, April 3, 2011) Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has sent a trusted adviser to Athens as speculation grows that he is trying to find a way out of his stand-off with the international community. The diplomatic mission comes amid signs that those close to Gaddafi are becoming nervous about the long-term consequences of his defiance.
Libya's deputy Foreign Minister Abdelati Obeidi flew to Greece carrying a personal message from Gaddafi to Greek premier George Papandreou. It is thought the Libyan leader is seeking a way to stop the fighting.
(Al Jazeera English: 0645 PST, April 4, 2011) Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, has always publicly insisted that he will not leave Libya, despite the crisis in the country, and that he will fight "to the death" against his opponents. In private, however, it appears that he may be open to a negotiated exit. Al Jazeera's Alan Fisher reports on the Libyan leader's potential options.
Three American hikers who have been detained in Iran since July 31st, including Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd, and Josh Fattal, apparently unwittingly strayed over the border from Iraqi Kurdistan, according to a fourth member of their party, Shon Meckfessel. Meckfessel, who did not join his friends on the ill-fated hike, wrote in a statement that the four were travelling in Iraqi Kurdistan on vacation, and his friends went off on a recommended hike to popular tourist destination Ahmed Awa, an area known for its lovely waterfall. Apparently unaware that Ahmed Awa was near the Iranian border, the three were detained while hiking in the area by Iranian authorities, and have yet to be released. Meckfessel writes, "I hope that people understand my friends' presence in the area for what it was: a simple and very regrettable mistake."
With the recent release of journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee from North Korean custody, thanks to a deus ex machina intervention from former U.S. President Bill Clinton, the question being asked in the Iran case is where diplomacy goes next. Have Clinton's actions in North Korea piqued the interest of the Ahmadinejad regime, perhaps empowering them to turn these hikers into pawns in a greater diplomatic game with the United States? Iran has detained many Americans over the years, most recently arresting Iranian-American scholar Kian Tajbakhsh, charged with instigating post-election violence.
The story of one of these hikers, freelance journalist and documentary photographer Shane Bauer, was featured in today's episode of Democracy Now below, which airs on Link TV. Bauer, an Arabic speaker and graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, delivered a report for Democracy Now in February 2009 on U.S. military alliances with Iraq's Sunni militias.
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