LONDON (Reuters) – In the absence of U.N. Security Council backing for a “no-fly” zone over Libya, Western states are meeting some success in winning assent from Arab and Islamic voices.

But more political cover will be needed before wary Western powers impose such a zone because its operation will inevitably place lives on the ground at a degree of risk, and any deaths of innocents will anger Muslim communities around the world.

LONDON (Reuters) – Muammar Gaddafi’s charge that al Qaeda is stirring Libya’s revolt may be empty propaganda, but the bloodier the strife becomes, the more likely it is that Islamists sympathetic to the group take up arms against him.

And any U.S. or European military assistance to the uprising could give al Qaeda another pretext for involvement — the group could preach the need for violence to prevent a Muslim land forging ties to the West, analysts say.

LONDON (Reuters) – Muammar Gaddafi’s charge that al Qaeda is stirring Libya’s revolt may be empty propaganda, but the bloodier the strife becomes, the more likely it is that Islamists sympathetic to the group take up arms against him.

And any U.S. or European military assistance to the uprising could give al Qaeda another pretext for involvement — the group could preach the need for violence to prevent a Muslim land forging ties to the West, analysts say.

LONDON (Reuters) – One evening not so long ago, at a party at the Tripoli compound where Muammar Gaddafi today plots his survival, I watched, dumbstruck, as superstar Lionel Richie walked onstage.

From the first note, hundreds of soberly dressed Libyan officials sprang from their seats and spent the next hour dancing to Richie’s greatest hits. Their delight was genuine. The superstar, too, was pleased.

LONDON, March 4 (Reuters) – One evening not so long ago, at
a party at the Tripoli compound where Muammar Gaddafi today
plots his survival, I watched, dumbstruck, as U.S. superstar
Lionel Richie walked onstage.

From the first note, hundreds of soberly dressed Libyan
officials sprang from their seats and spent the next hour
dancing to Richie’s greatest hits. Their delight was genuine.
The U.S. superstar, too, was pleased.

LONDON (Reuters) – On paper, Libya’s military has some 100,000 troops, more than 2,000 tanks, 374 aircraft and a navy and includes two patrol submarines. What Colonel Muammar Gaddafi actually has left to call on is a different matter.

Here are some details of Libya’s armed forces, officially totaling around 76,000 active personnel, plus a reserve or people’s militia of some 40,000.

By William Maclean

(Reuters) – Armed might alone will not save Muammar Gaddafi, but even with an army shrunk by desertions the Libyan leader has the firepower to foment chaos or possibly civil war.

Analysts monitoring Libya’s crisis say the most likely outcome is that rebels eventually take the capital and either kill or capture him and a hardcore group of loyalists.

Feb 26 (Reuters) – Armed might alone will not save Muammar
Gaddafi, but even with an army shrunk by desertions the Libyan
leader has the firepower to foment chaos or possibly civil war.

Analysts monitoring Libya’s crisis say the most likely
outcome is that rebels eventually take the capital and either
kill or capture him and a hardcore group of loyalists.

LONDON (Reuters) – Muammar Gaddafi was not bluffing when he vowed on Tuesday to defy mounting protests, a Libyan familiar with official thinking said, adding that the veteran leader would do “everything” to keep control of the capital.

Noman Benotman, who returned to Britain on Monday evening after spending the past 10 days in Tripoli, helped lead an armed Islamist rebellion against Gaddafi in the mid-1990s but has since built ties to reformists as well as Libyan security services under a program of political reconciliation.

LONDON (Reuters) – Revolts by young Arabs seeking freedom are a “huge opportunity” for Western counter-terrorism because they weaken al Qaeda’s argument that democracy and Islam are incompatible, Britain’s Security Minister said on Thursday.

The minister, Pauline Neville-Jones, said the example set by ordinary Muslims seeking peaceful political change would counter the attraction violent extremism still exerted on a small number of young people in Britain’s Muslim minority communities.