Libya's transitional leaders named a new Cabinet Monday and said they would step down after the country is fully secured, putting an end to weeks of political infighting as the North African nation struggles to get back on its feet.
U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham said Thursday that Libyans who met a team of visiting senators had expressed gratitude and want to repay the international community that rallied around Col. Moammar Gadhafi's opponents and played a key role in the dictator's defeat.
Hours after NATO airstrikes pounded the area near Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's compound again before dawn Thursday, Russia's envoy to Libya turned up at a bombing site while on a visit to Tripoli for talks on ending the civil war.
Libya's rebels have launched their first homegrown satellite TV station, trying to counter the regime's powerful media machine, which churns out Moammar Gadhafi's message, depicts the opposition as terrorists and drums up patriotic fervor by beaming images of burning buildings hit by NATO strikes.
Russia offered Friday to mediate the exit of Libya's longtime leader, cranking up pressure on Moammar Gadhafi as France and Britain seek to intensify their bombing campaign.
Moammar Gadhafi's forces poured rocket fire after dawn Saturday into Misrata, the only western city still in rebel hands, and weary residents who have endured more than a month of fighting angrily lashed out at NATO for failing to halt the deadly assault.
Libyan rebels, backed forcefully by European leaders, rejected a cease-fire proposal by African mediators on Monday because it failed to insist that Col. Moammar Gadhafi relinquish power.
Libya's rebels will agree to a cease-fire if Moammar Gadhafi pulls his military forces out of cities and allows peaceful protests against his regime, an opposition leader said Friday.
Aides close to Moammar Gadhafi are urging the Libyan dictator to crush the resistance in a rebel-held town close to the capital, Tripoli, and then propose a division of the country with the rebels holding the eastern part, rebel sources told The Washington Times on Thursday.
