Denver Post Wire Report
MOROCCO: Boycott sought for upcoming election.
Thousands of Moroccans have demonstrated in dozens of cities and towns across the country calling for a boycott of next month’s parliamentary elections. The pro-democracy activists maintain the elections in the kingdom will only give credibility to an undemocratic regime.
King Mohammed VI appeared to have defused the country’s pro-democracy movement by amending the constitution to strengthen the prime minister and parliament. But activists maintain the changes are only cosmetic and real power still resides with the king and his counselors.
LIBYA: American-turned-rebel heading home.
The mother of an American who was jailed in Libya for six months and then stayed on to join rebel fighters says her son will be coming home in a couple of weeks. Sharon VanDyke said she spoke with her son, Matthew VanDyke, Sunday morning. She said he was in Tripoli and that he sounded fine. VanDyke, 32, was captured in March by forces loyal to longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi and was freed by rebels in August.
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: Insults trial delayed by no-show defendants.
The verdict in the trial of five activists accused of insulting the UAE president is expected Nov. 27, the judge said Sunday, after the defendants failed to show up for the third time in a row.
The defendants have said they would not attend the trial in objection to alleged mistreatment in jail.The five were arrested in April after signing an online petition demanding constitutional changes and free elections.
SYRIA: McCain ponders protecting civilians.
U.S. Senator John McCain said Sunday that military action to protect civilians in Syria might be considered now that NATO’s air campaign in Libya is ending.
However, President Barack Obama’s administration has made clear it has no appetite for military intervention in Syria — a close ally of Iran that sits on Israel’s border — and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton noted Sunday that the Syrian opposition has not called for such action.
McCain spoke at the World Economic Forum in Jordan.
In Syria on Sunday, Syrian security forces flooded into villages where residents have been on strike and shot two people dead in a central region of the country, activists said. President Bashar Assad also replaced the governors of two provinces that have been centers of the uprising.
Denver Post wire services
