NATO's Libya battleground; Syria's 13-year-old torture victim; FIFA boss re-elected
Fighting continues near the Libyan city of Misurata, where
forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi
are again using rockets to target opposition fighters. NATO has agreed
to extend its military campaign in Libya until late September, keeping
up pressure after
10 weeks of air strikes.
"We are determined to continue our operation to protect the people of
Libya," said NATO secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
UN inquiries accuse all sides of the conflict of committing war crimes, with the most violations attributed to Gaddafi forces.
Widespread demonstrations continue in Syria,
despite the alleged release of hundreds of political prisoners. Syrian
forces killed 41 civilians in Rastan, and nine civilians were killed
Tuesday in the town of Hirak. The killings come at a time when
Washington, which has been increasing pressure on the regime, has called
for sanctions on key members of Bashar al-Assad's government
Human Rights Watch has said that the scale of abuses by Syrian security
forces in the crackdown on anti-government protesters could qualify as
crimes against humanity. Syria has also denied that a
13-year-old boy was killed and tortured at the hands of security forces.
Sepp Blatter was voted in for a further four years as
FIFA president
at the 61st FIFA congress in Zurich, Switzerland. Blatter vowed to
renovate the voting system used to choose World Cup hosts after
controversy plagued
the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. He promised to shift the
power to award future World Cup hostings to FIFA’s 208-member congress,
as opposed to the committee’s 24 executive members.
Blatter was unopposed in the re-election following rival
Mohamed bin Hammam's withdrawal
from the race. He also insisted that the FIFA was not in crisis,
despite widespread corruption allegations that resulted in two top
officials being suspended following a
bribery investigation.
