U.N. backs Libyan change

UNITED NATIONS - The United Nations gave strong backing to Libya's former rebels Friday, handing their National Transitional Council the country's U.N. seat and then lifting and modifying some sanctions that were imposed on Moammar Gadhafi's regime.

News from the war front told a different story, however, as Gadhafi's fighters beat back an attempt to crush remnants of the old regime, forcing revolutionary troops to retreat into the mountains and turning Gadhafi's seaside hometown of Surt into an urban battlefield.

The General Assembly vote to accept the credentials of the National Transitional Council, which led the rebellion that ousted Gadhafi, gave its representative the right to speak at the United Nations. Libya's former deputy ambassador, Ibrahim Dabbashi, addressed the Security Council hours later.

"Today is undoubtedly a decisive, historic day in the life of the Libyan people," Dabbashi said. "It is an indication that dictatorship has fallen, a period of terror, of denial of freedom, and of violation of human rights has now come to an end for the Libyan people."

Dabbashi spoke after the Security Council unanimously approved a resolution establishing a new U.N. mission in Libya. The resolution also unfreezes assets of two Libyan oil companies, lifts a ban on flights by Libyan aircraft, and modifies an arms embargo to allow Libyan authorities now controlling the country to buy arms "intended solely for security or disarmament assistance."

Under the resolution, the no-fly zone imposed in March after Gadhafi launched his crackdown will remain in force but will be kept under review.

The tough defense of the holdout towns of Surt and Bani Walid displayed the firepower and resolve of the Gadhafi followers and suggested Libya's new rulers may not easily break the back of regime holdouts. It also raised fears that the country could face a protracted insurgency.

Gadhafi's spokesman, Moussa Ibrahim, said loyalist forces inflicted a heavy blow Friday on their enemies, killing many and taking many others hostage.

"We have the ability to continue this resistance for months," he said in a phone call to Syria's Al-Rai TV, which has become the mouthpiece of the former regime.

French President Nicholas Sarkozy, British Prime Minister David Cameron, and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan all visited Tripoli this week.

Erdogan joined Friday prayers in Tripoli's Martyrs' Square, the heart of the city once known as Green Square where Gadhafi's regime threw rallies for supporters before his fall.

"You have shown the whole world that no one can stand before the power and the will of the people," Erdogan told a cheering crowd of thousands. He predicted the Syrian regime would be next to fall, saying "the era of autocracy is ending."

President Obama plans to meet at the United Nations next week with Mahmoud Jibril, prime minister of Libya's Transitional National Council. He and other world leaders will also convene a high-level meeting where the Libyan council will outline its plans for a post-Gadhafi nation.

The White House sees the meetings as an opportunity to promote the United Nations' role in the months-long Libya effort as a model for future interventions.

Egypt: Several hundred people demonstrated Friday in Cairo against a decision by military rulers to enforce and expand the widely despised Emergency Law. The law, in force for more than three decades, allows civilians to be tried in state security courts and detained indefinitely.

Yemen: Thousands of protesters took to the streets demanding the resignation of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, a day after the U.S. State Department said it hoped a power transfer deal could be signed within a week. Saleh, who has been in neighboring Saudi Arabia since his compound was attacked in June, has come close to signing the power transfer proposal several times, only to back out at the last minute.

Bahrain: Security forces clashed with thousands of mourners and opposition factions after the funeral march for a man who relatives say died after inhaling tear gas fired at Shiite-led protesters in the gulf kingdom.

- APEndText