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Friday, October 21, 2011

Announcement of Libya National "Liberation" (October 23, 2011) -- 5 p.m. Benghazi, Libya

as reported by Irish Press Agency Media -- online posting

Libya's new leadership will formally proclaim the country's liberation on Sunday after the death of Muammar Gaddafi, while NATO has tentatively decided to end its mission over the country on 31 October.
However some observers suggested that the deposed dictator may have been summarily executed after his capture yesterday.
Russia, the UN's human rights chief, Amnesty International and Gaddafi's widow all called for a probe.
The US said the National Transitional Council should provide a "transparent account" of Gaddafi's death.
"The announcement of the liberation will be announced in Benghazi at 5 p.m. local time on Sunday, at the court of justice," said a senior NTC official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Benghazi, Libya's second city, is where rebels first rose up against the Gaddafi's regime in February, and where the National Transitional Council, the country's new regime, is still based.
With the death of Gaddafi, his son Mutassim and other top regime figures, and the fall of his hometown Sirte, the promised declaration was widely expected.
It will be followed by the formation of an interim government to oversee drawing up a new constitution and free elections after four decades of dictatorship.
But with another Gaddafi son - long-time heir-apparent Seif al-Islam - still unaccounted for, NTC leaders have waited, despite jubilation in towns across the country at the news that the once all-powerful tyrant was dead.
Today Gaddafi's body was being held in a refrigerated chamber outside Misrata, an AFP correspondent reported, with the authorities wanting to run DNA tests before the burial.
NTC leaders were vague about the actual burial, not wishing to see the grave become a rallying point for residual loyalists.

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