The Reuters news agency has been expelled from Tripoli in the latest crackdown on media by the Libyan government, writes David Smith in Tripoli.

abcnewsradio:

(WASHINGTON) — Reps. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) and Walter Jones (R-NC) continued their bipartisan quest to end the U.S. military’s participation in the conflict in Libya, filing a lawsuit Tuesday in federal court against President Obama to “challenge the commitment of the United States to war in Libya absent the required constitutional legal authority.” The lawsuit challenges what the lawmakers see as “the executive branch’s circumvention of Congress and its use of international organizations such as the United Nations and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to authorize the use of military force abroad, in violation of the Constitution.” “With regard to the war in Libya, we believe that the law was violated. We have asked the courts to move to protect the American people from the results of these illegal policies,” Kucinich said in a statement announcing the suit.

(Source: abcnewsradioarchive)

In the late afternoon the cafe was full of men smoking and drinking coffee, mint tea or strawberry juice. It was a very public setting, but the businessman judged that he was in like-minded company and so did not bother to lower his voice.

“Gaddafi is losing support every day,” he said, placing another small coal on top of his shisha pipe. “If he wanted peace, he would have quit.”

These days of bombs and bluster and seemingly endless queues for fuel in Tripoli are the “glorious hours” of the Libyan people, according to their leader, Muammar Gaddafi, whose stern image gazes down from billboards across the capital. For nearly 42 years it has been only the exceedingly brave, or the foolish, who dared to dispute what he said. Or to talk openly about life without the “Brother Leader” in charge. But now, nearly four months into a conflict that has torn the country apart, people in Tripoli appear to be slowly losing their fear of speaking out.

“Ninety-five per cent of people want him to leave, not just because of politics, but because of our desire for a return to normal life,” the businessman said.

Foreign reporters are not permitted to work freely in Tripoli, so obtaining a genuine sense of people’s feelings here is difficult. But on several furtive trips around the city without government minders, it was possible to talk to a range of residents on the streets. The picture that emerged was of a people weary of the inconveniences of war, and weary of being held hostage to the whims of one man - a people now just waiting for the end.

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(via newsflick)