Libyan Leader Moammar Kadafi

France rejected mounting criticism that it went too far in praising Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi for helping free three hostages held by terrorists allied with Libya. French officials thanked Kadafi for his "noble and humanitarian gesture" in helping free Jacqueline Valente, 32, and her Belgian boyfriend Fernand Houtekins, 42, kidnaped in 1987 by Abu Nidal's Revolutionary Council of Fatah, and their daughter. "Such rhetoric is nauseating," the British newspaper The Independent wrote.

West Germany has recalled its ambassador from Libya for consultations over the murder in Bonn of a Libyan dissident, the government said Wednesday. "He will gather official information in Tripoli and then report to the Foreign Ministry in Bonn," chief government spokesman Peter Boenisch told a news conference. Gebril Denali, 30, an exiled opponent of Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi, was slain in Bonn's crowded Cathedral Square last Saturday and another Libyan has been charged with the killing.

Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi has upgraded his air defenses after the U.S. attack on his country, adding a second SAM-5 missile site at Benghazi on the Gulf of Sidra, but otherwise he seems unable to rejuvenate his military, U.S. officials said Thursday. The Soviet Union so far has sent Kadafi only limited amounts of new weaponry and equipment.

A new opera based on the life of Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi, featuring a rapper as Kadafi and a chorus of all-female bodyguards, highlights the new season of the English National Opera. The program of London's second-largest opera company will be the first season fully curated by the company's new artistic director, Sean Doran.