Libya Economy

Thousands of Ghanaian migrant workers who recently returned from Libya after attacks there against black Africans say they are relieved to be home, though their hopes of finding their fortunes have been destroyed. At least 5,200 Ghanaians have returned since October, after violence against blacks that, by unofficial accounts, left more than 135 dead.

Reporting from Vineyard Haven, Mass. - President Obama will speak to the nation about the unfolding situation in Libya this afternoon from Martha's Vineyard after convening a conference call with his national security team about the latest developments, his spokesman said. Josh Earnest, the president's principal deputy press secretary, offered few details about what U.S. forces would be doing in the weeks ahead. He said, however, that the president's position that there will be no U.S. boots on the ground in Libya is unchanged.

In the two decades since he overthrew the Libyan monarchy in a bloodless coup, Col. Moammar Kadafi has gained a reputation as the Middle East's most feared and unstable leader. Even his allies refer to the Libyan strongman as "mercurial." The son of a Bedouin shepherd who lived in Libya's oil-rich desert, Kadafi has embraced domestic and foreign policies of opposite extremes.

For two allies passing through rocky times, the leaders of the United States and Germany on Tuesday put on a show of unity at the White House, demanding that Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi relinquish power and pledging to cooperate on issues as diverse as the war in Afghanistan and the global economy. President Obama welcomed German Chancellor Angela Merkel to Washington and used the occasion to reiterate his determination to see Kadafi ousted. Obama said Kadafi's four-decade-long grip on power was nearing an end and described his regime as "hunkered down" with his forces pushed back.

As a busload of foreign journalists was being expelled from Libya the other day, it passed a small, straggling line of people shuffling into a stadium near the Aziziya barracks, where Libya's leader, Col. Moammar Kadafi, nearly lost his life in the U.S. air strike on Tripoli three years ago.

In Janzur Village, a Mediterranean beach haven for the new oligarchy of rich, well-connected Libyans, families sit outside whitewashed bungalows, watching television with expensive satellite dishes that bring a glimpse of the outside world to their ostracized nation. Ignoring warning glares from neighbors, two university students converse with some visiting Americans, eager to discuss NBA basketball and their favorite musicians--singer Barry White and the rock group Metallica.

Moammar Kadafi took a whack at one of the security guards holding back the photographers, parted the line of armed soldiers standing along the edge of the stage and stood mugging and preening before a cast of thousands. It was a star-spangled, laser-lit, orchestra-thumping production that anywhere else in the world would have been the simple opening of a water pipeline but which, in this land of revolution and mirage, became the Great Man-Made River.

Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi has criticized the killing of political "deviates" in his country, saying the executions have given his revolution a bad name. In a speech broadcast on state television, Kadafi said he is aware that people who had deviated from the course of the revolution had "infiltrated" some committees, and that the committees took it upon themselves to liquidate some of these people. These actions caused the "masses to come to hate" the revolutionary committees, he said.

Not far from Revolution Square, a vast expanse of lime-green asphalt that has become the symbolic stage for Col. Moammar Kadafi's Libyan drama, a young Algerian named Ali Mahmoud stood under a Moorish arch selling Marlboros, cassette tapes and electrical appliances from a stall fashioned out of a cardboard box.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi, patching up a decade-long rift, agreed at a meeting in Aswan to set up joint committees on banking and trade. An Egyptian information officer said the two sides agreed to establish a joint committee comprising central bank governors and other financial representatives. He said a second committee will be formed for economic cooperation and the removal of all trade barriers.

President Obama will publicly honor the German chancellor during an elaborate official visit to the White House on Tuesday, but behind closed doors he is expected to press her to step up Germany’s involvement in the international response to unrest in the Middle East and North Africa. Obama will present Chancellor Angela Merkel with the Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest honor for civilians, while First Lady Michelle Obama plans an event highlighting the importance of women in diplomacy.

Thousands of Ghanaian migrant workers who recently returned from Libya after attacks there against black Africans say they are relieved to be home, though their hopes of finding their fortunes have been destroyed. At least 5,200 Ghanaians have returned since October, after violence against blacks that, by unofficial accounts, left more than 135 dead.

It's a country of 5 million people with hundreds of miles of pristine beaches, spectacular unspoiled desert scenery and Roman ruins that sweep away the centuries. But it does have a small image problem. Libya would like to be your tourist destination. Since the country's "revolutionary guide," Moammar Kadafi, agreed in April to hand over two suspects to stand trial in the 1988 Pan Am jet bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, the U.N.

In Janzur Village, a Mediterranean beach haven for the new oligarchy of rich, well-connected Libyans, families sit outside whitewashed bungalows, watching television with expensive satellite dishes that bring a glimpse of the outside world to their ostracized nation. Ignoring warning glares from neighbors, two university students converse with some visiting Americans, eager to discuss NBA basketball and their favorite musicians--singer Barry White and the rock group Metallica.

Outside the large Russian Embassy compound here, the burned-out shells of four cars stand on the curb, windshields smashed, diplomatic license plates singed. The wreckage marks the day a mob of angry Libyans stormed the embassy and were fought back from the chancery door with bursts of tear gas as they demanded an answer from the Russian "traitors." In many ways, however, the black hulks also mark the end of the Cold War in the Middle East.

Moammar Kadafi took a whack at one of the security guards holding back the photographers, parted the line of armed soldiers standing along the edge of the stage and stood mugging and preening before a cast of thousands. It was a star-spangled, laser-lit, orchestra-thumping production that anywhere else in the world would have been the simple opening of a water pipeline but which, in this land of revolution and mirage, became the Great Man-Made River.

It's a country of 5 million people with hundreds of miles of pristine beaches, spectacular unspoiled desert scenery and Roman ruins that sweep away the centuries. But it does have a small image problem. Libya would like to be your tourist destination. Since the country's "revolutionary guide," Moammar Kadafi, agreed in April to hand over two suspects to stand trial in the 1988 Pan Am jet bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, the U.N.

The Arab Maghreb Union--Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia and Mauritania--vowed to speed their economic integration and announced plans for a customs union by 1995. The partner nations, meeting in Algiers, also called for strengthened ties with the European Community.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi, patching up a decade-long rift, agreed at a meeting in Aswan to set up joint committees on banking and trade. An Egyptian information officer said the two sides agreed to establish a joint committee comprising central bank governors and other financial representatives. He said a second committee will be formed for economic cooperation and the removal of all trade barriers.