Qaddafi is dead: Found in drain after NATO airstrike; Transitional Council claim control of Sirte; So how successful was NATO campaign? How soon should elections be held? In other news: France and Germany haggle over rescue fund; Thailand flooding a "national crisis"; Indigenous protesters march on Bolivian capital; Iran says critical UN report is "exaggerated"; and more
Top of the Agenda: Qaddafi Reportedly Captured, Killed
A senior official of Libya's ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) said ousted leader Muammar al-Qaddafi was captured near his hometown of Sirte and died of gunshot wounds (al-Jazeera) shortly thereafter. However, the Associated Press reports that other NTC spokesmen have not yet confirmed these reports.
NATO warplanes bombed a convoy (Reuters) in which Qaddafi was attempting to flee, allowing NTC troops to fire upon and seize the fugitive dictator.
Reports of Qaddafi's capture came as NTC officials declared the coastal city to have been fully liberated (NYT) from Qaddafi loyalists. Earlier in the week, NTC fighters gained control of the other remaining Qaddafi holdout, Bani Walid.
Analysis
Elections held too soon after a civil war often end in violence, write Dawn Brancati and Jack L. Snyder in Foreign Affairs. The UN and the NTC should defer their plans until the rebel factions have disarmed and Libya has developed a civil society and modern political institutions.
The US campaign was a success, but a provisional and limited one. Qaddafi is gone, but his ouster will not become a model for future interventions, writes Michael O'Hanlon in Foreign Affairs.
In an op-ed in the National, CFR's Micah Zenko argues that overreaching Western eagerness to help Libya's rebels will now make it more difficult to line up meaningful outside support for Syria's opposition.
PACIFIC RIM
US Appoints New Envoy to North Korea
US President Barack Obama appointed Glyn Davies--currently the US ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency--as the new State Department envoy for North Korea. The two sides are set to meet in Geneva (WashPost) next week to discuss resuming multilateral talks to end the North's nuclear weapons program.
THAILAND: Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra called ongoing flooding in the capital of Bangkok a "national crisis" (BBC), warning that it would be impossible to protect the whole city.
ELSEWHERE:
France & Germany divided over EU fund
Indigenous protesters march in Bolivia
Iran rejects human rights report
This is an excerpt of the CFR.org Daily News Brief. The full version is available on CFR.org.