ALGIERS (Reuters) – Behind his image as a crazed tyrant, Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi is fiercely intelligent, loves his family and just might do what everyone is least expecting and let go of power.

The battle over Libya, now in its fifth month, is a contest of Western military technology, money, oil, diplomacy, rag-tag rebels and a stubborn system of government that has refused to be swept away by the wave of “Arab Spring” uprisings.

ALGIERS (Reuters) – NATO is trying to lay the groundwork for an armed uprising inside the Libyan capital to oust Muammar Gaddafi because it has lost hope that rebels elsewhere in the country can advance on Tripoli any time soon.

The pattern of NATO air strikes on Tripoli indicates that the alliance is trying to reduce Gaddafi’s ability to defend himself at the moment when his opponents in the city, who for the time being are underground, decide to rise up.

ALGIERS (Reuters) – Libya’s rebellion is creeping westwards from the rebel city of Misrata toward the capital along a chain of towns where opponents of Muammar Gaddafi stage clandestine night-time acts of defiance against his rule.

By day the three towns of Zlitan, Khoms and Garabulli are under government control but after darkness falls, a local man said, Gaddafi opponents daub graffiti on walls, hoist the rebel flag and the sound of gunfire can be heard.

ALGIERS, May 2 (Reuters) – Algeria announced a sharp
increase in budget spending and waived duties on staple foods on
Monday in a move designed to stop public discontent spilling
over into the kind of revolts rocking other Arab states.

Algeria, one of the European Union’s biggest suppliers of
natural gas, has been trying to head off an Egypt-style uprising
by using its cash reserves to soothe grievances and by offering
cautious political reforms.

ALGIERS (Reuters) – Algeria’s leaders risk losing control of a tide of strikes and protests that has been gaining momentum and outpacing the government’s attempts at reform.

Unlike the nationwide uprisings which toppled leaders in Egypt and Tunisia, Algeria’s protests are localised and have yet to turn into a national political movement.

ALGIERS (Reuters) – Algeria’s leaders risk losing control of a tide of strikes and protests that has been gaining momentum and outpacing the government’s attempts at reform.

Unlike the nationwide uprisings which toppled leaders in Egypt and Tunisia, Algeria’s protests are localized and have yet to turn into a national political movement.

ALGIERS (Reuters) – He has survived a revolt, Western air strikes and the defection of some of his closest aides, and now Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is hunkering down for a long siege.

In the past few days Gaddafi’s administration has emerged from a period of paralysis and started drawing up a blueprint for how to run the country — at least the parts he still controls — while isolated by the outside world.

ALGIERS (Reuters) – He has survived a revolt, Western air strikes and the defection of some of his closest aides, and now Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is hunkering down for a long siege.

In the past few days Gaddafi’s administration has emerged from a period of paralysis and started drawing up a blueprint for how to run the country — at least the parts he still controls — while isolated by the outside world.

ALGIERS (Reuters) – If Muammar Gaddafi, as now seems plausible, defeats an insurgency in the east and regains control of Libya, he is likely to resume a familiar role: that of international pariah, reliant on force to suppress unrest.

For two decades starting in the 1980s, Libya was subject to international sanctions and during the same period, Gaddafi fought off an insurgency in the east of the country.

ALGIERS (Reuters) – If Muammar Gaddafi, as now seems plausible, defeats an insurgency in the east and regains control of Libya, he is likely to resume a familiar role: that of international pariah, reliant on force to suppress unrest.

For two decades starting in the 1980s, Libya was subject to international sanctions and during the same period, Gaddafi fought off an insurgency in the east of the country.