World/Nation Briefs April 26, 2011
Thousands of Syrian troops raid rebellious city
BEIRUT - Thousands of soldiers backed by tanks and snipers moved in before dawn to the city where Syria's anti-government uprising began, causing panic in the streets when they opened fire indiscriminately on civilians and went house-to-house rounding up suspected protesters. At least 11 people were killed and 14 others lay in the streets - either dead or gravely wounded, witnesses said.
The military raids on the southern city of Daraa and at least two other areas suggested Syria is trying to impose military control on the centers of protests against President Bashar Assad, whose family has ruled Syria for four decades. Residents and human rights activists said the regime wants to terrify opponents and intimidate them from staging any more demonstrations.
The offensive was meticulously planned: Electricity, water and mobile phone services were cut. Security agents armed with guns and knives conducted house-to-house sweeps, neighborhoods were sectioned off and checkpoints were erected before the sun rose.
NATO airstrike hits Gadhaficompound
TRIPOLI, Libya - The latest NATO airstrike on Moammar Gadhafi's compound that reduced parts of it to a smoldering ruin of broken concrete slabs and twisted wires stepped up pressure on the increasingly embattled Libyan leader who is struggling to hold on to the western half of the country.
A Libyan government spokesman denounced Monday's bombing as a failed assassination attempt, saying the 69-year-old leader was healthy, "in high spirits" and carrying on business as usual.
A separate airstrike elsewhere in Tripoli targeted Libyan TV and temporarily knocked it off the air, a government spokesman said.
Giffords can attend husband's shuttle launch
HOUSTON - Arizona U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords can fly to Florida this week to watch her astronaut husband rocket into space as commander of the space shuttle Endeavour, but she will return shortly after the launch to resume rehabilitation, her doctors in Houston confirmed Monday.
The doctors at TIRR Memorial Hermann said Giffords is "medically able" to travel and that they view the trip to Cape Canaveral as part of her rehabilitation from a gunshot wound to the head.
"Medically, there is no reason she could not travel safely to Florida to participate in this incredible event with her husband," said Dr. Dong Kim, director of the Mischer Neuroscience Institute at Memorial Hermann.
The last time Giffords flew was when she was transported on a private jet from the hospital in Tucson, Ariz., that treated her immediately after the Jan. 8 shooting to Houston, where she has been undergoing intensive rehabilitation.
- The Associated Press