Key Libyan diplomats disown Gadhafi’s regime
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Key Libyan diplomats disowned Moammar Gadhafi’s regime on Monday and the country’s deputy U.N. ambassador called on the longtime ruler to step down because of its bloody crackdown on protesters.
The Libyan ambassador to the United States also said he could no longer support Gadhafi. Almost all Libyan diplomats at the United Nations backed deputy ambassador Ibrahim Dabbashi’s pleas to Gadhafi to end his 40-year rule and to the international community to intervene.
 
Tunisian minister seeks to dissolve ousted autocratic ruling party
TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Tunisia’s interior minister on Monday sought to dissolve the political party of the country’s ousted autocratic president, while the government asked Saudi Arabia to extradite the widely reviled former first lady to face justice at home.
Former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia on Jan. 14, following a massive popular uprising that ended his 23-year rule and prompted a wave of protest against other autocratic leaders across the Arab world.
The caretaker government, which is preparing for elections later this year, has been trying to distance itself from the former regime in the North African nation. Interior Minister Farhat Rajhi on Monday formally petitioned a Tunis court to dissolve Ben Ali’s longtime ruling party, the official TAP news agency reported.
Some members of the current government — including the acting prime minister — are former members of the Democratic Constitutional Rally, known as the RCD. They quit the political group after Ben Ali’s ouster, and the party’s activities have already been suspended.
 
Giffords wishes husband happy birthday on Twitter, thanks hospital
HOUSTON (AP) — Rep. Gabrielle Giffords wished her husband and brother-in-law a happy birthday Monday afternoon — and also thanked the Houston hospital where she’s undergoing intensive rehabilitation, for a cake that featured the likeness of her astronaut husband.
The message, posted on Giffords’ Twitter page, was directed toward the Twitter accounts of her husband, Mark Kelly, and his twin brother, Scott Kelly, as well as to TIRR Memorial Hermann hospital.
 
Daughter of Malcolm X arrested in NC on multiple charges
MARS HILL, N.C. (AP) — Authorities say a daughter of Malcolm X is being held in North Carolina on several outstanding warrants from New York.
Chief Deputy Michael Garrison of the Madison County Sheriff’s Office said Monday that Malikah Shabazz will face an extradition hearing Tuesday.
He said Shabazz was arrested Friday night. Investigators found that the 45-year-old had several outstanding warrants from Queens, N.Y., that include charges for grand larceny, forgery and identity theft.
 
$2 million in state money will fund oyster spawn after summer loss
HOUMA (AP) — To ensure that the state’s oyster crop has a chance this spring to rebound after the Gulf oil spill, the state has committed $2 million to immediately restore oyster grounds.
As much as half of Louisiana’s oyster crop was wiped out this past summer not by oil, but by freshwater diversions opened by the state in an effort to flush oil out of wetlands east of the Mississippi River and in Barataria Bay.
 
BR man, 77, drowns while fishing on his property’s private lake
WILSON (AP) — A 77-year-old Baton Rouge man drowned Saturday in a private lake on his property in Wilson.
East Feliciana Parish Sheriff Talmadge Bunch says Clark W. Taylor was fishing with his brother when he fell out of his boat and went under shortly before 12:30 p.m.
Sheriff’s deputies, firefighters, Wildlife and Fisheries agents and the Baton Rouge Police Department’s dive team searched the lake, and a diver recovered Taylor’s body shortly after 7 p.m.
Divers estimated the water was about 14 feet deep where Taylor drowned.
 
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