TRIPOLI/BENGHAZI (Reuters) – Libya’s wartime rebel prime minister Mahmoud Jibril called for the some 150 political parties in the North African nation to back the creation of a grand coalition government, as election results were due to come in on Monday.

The call came as Libyans celebrated Saturday’s largely peaceful national assembly election, the first free national poll in Libya after 42 years of Muammar Gaddafi which went ahead despite widespread fears of violence.

TRIPOLI/BENGHAZI (Reuters) – Libyans, relieved that their first free national election in 60 years had survived violence and protests, celebrated the chance to draw a line under Muammar Gaddafi’s dictatorship and forge a brighter future for their North African country.

While two deaths were reported as anti-election protesters sought to disrupt Saturday’s poll which they reject as a sham, the interim Libyan government and Western backers of last year’s uprising hailed it as an early triumph for democracy.

TRIPOLI/BENGHAZI (Reuters) – Libyans, relieved that their first free national election in 60 years had survived violence and protests, celebrated the chance to draw a line under Muammar Gaddafi’s dictatorship and forge a brighter future for their North African country.

While two deaths were reported as anti-election protesters sought to disrupt Saturday’s poll which they reject as a sham, the interim Libyan government and Western backers of last year’s uprising hailed it as an early triumph for democracy.

DAKAR (Reuters) – Even blasé Parisians gaped as, one by one, a selection of some of the world’s most exotic sports cars emerged slowly out of a chic address a few steps from the Champs Elysees and were loaded onto a waiting transporter.

The Maserati, Bugatti and 14 other supercars were the toys of Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, farm minister in a small central African country. But if their seizure by order of French judge last September was a cruel blow to a man with a self-confessed taste for luxury, he may have worse to come.

DAKAR (Reuters) – Senegal’s Macky Sall has leapt back from the political wilderness with a crushing presidential run-off victory over incumbent Abdoulaye Wade that cements the West African country’s reputation as a stable democracy in a restive region.

Sall is a one-time prime minister who served under Wade but in 2008 lost favor with the outgoing octogenarian president known as “The Hare”, a local symbol of cunning. At one point, Sall seemed condemned to political obscurity.

DAKAR (Reuters) – President Adboulaye Wade accused foreign powers of being duped by his political rivals on Sunday after casting his ballot in Senegal’s most contentious poll in its recent history.

The 85-year-old leader, whose bid for a third term triggered deadly street riots in the normally peaceful West African country before a February first round, was urged by the United States and former colonial power France to give up power.

DAKAR, Feb 27 (Reuters) – President Abdoulaye Wade
said on Monday he was leading a tight election race with his
main rival, Macky Sall, as unofficial vote tallies pointed to a
possible run-off between the two for the leadership of Senegal.

But while Sall insisted a run-off was “inevitable”, Wade
announced he was leading the contest with half the votes counted
by nearly 7 points and said a straight first-round victory for
him or a deciding second round were both possible outcomes.

DAKAR (Reuters) – Senegal President Abdoulaye Wade, who is seeking to extend his 12-year rule in the West African state despite complaints he is violating term limits, was heckled by scores of voters as he cast his ballot on Sunday.

The election comes after weeks of violent street protests against the 85-year-old’s bid for a third term in office and a stream of warnings that Senegal’s reputation as an established democracy now hangs in the balance.

ATHENS (Reuters) – Ruediger Bolz has 350 students coming through the doors of his German language institute in central Athens each day – 20 percent up on a year go.

The rush among Greeks to learn German may seem odd after the war of words between the two countries, with Athens fuming at German accusations of financial mismanagement and some Greek media playing on Nazi caricatures of Berlin politicians.

DAKAR (Reuters) – “I will tread on no corpses to get to the presidential palace,” Senegal’s Abdoulaye Wade once declared from the opposition benches in a famous pledge to win power by democratic means.

But 12 years after he gained the presidency of the West African nation through the ballot box at his fifth attempt, riots over the octogenarian leader’s bid for re-election in an upcoming February 26 vote have already caused at least four deaths.