30 more die in Syria
Syrian security forces killed about 30 people Friday as mass protests erupted calling for the downfall of President Bashar Assad's regime, activists said.
It was the highest death toll in weeks stemming from the 7-month-old uprising.
Much of the bloodshed happened after the protests had ended, and security forces hunted protesters and activists, according to opposition groups monitoring the demonstrations. Authorities disrupted telephone and Internet service in restive areas, they said.
Syria's revolt has proved remarkably resilient, with protests erupting every week despite the near-certainty they will face bullets and tear gas. The United Nations estimates the government crackdown on the protests has killed 3,000 people since March.
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BEIRUT -- A group of mercenaries has offered to help Moammar Gadhafi's fugitive son and onetime heir apparent to evade arrest and trial, an international prosecutor said Friday.
The International Criminal Court warned that authorities might intercept any aircraft linked to the plot to shield Seif Islam Gadhafi from facing war crimes charges pending against him.
ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo also said his office has had "informal contact" with the fugitive son, once regarded as the reformist face of his father's regime.
Mercenaries have offered to help the son escape to an African nation that does not recognize the court's jurisdiction, Moreno-Ocampo said. The prosecutor did not identify the nation.
Prosecutors are "exploring the possibility" of intercepting any aircraft carrying Gadhafi's son in order to make an arrest, Moreno-Ocampo said in a statement issued in The Hague, Netherlands, where the court is based. He did not say how the ICC could intercept a plane, other than to note that such a move would have to be done in the airspace of a nation that accepted the court's jurisdiction.
Meanwhile, NATO said Friday that, as expected, it will end its controversial Libya operations as of Monday. That will mark the end of a momentous seven-month air and sea campaign that played a central role in the ouster of Gadhafi after more than four decades in power.
"We have fully complied with the historic mandate of the United Nations to protect the people of Libya," NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in a statement.
The ICC has issued a warrant against Seif Islam Gadhafi for crimes against humanity allegedly committed this year as his father's security forces cracked down on protesters. The London-educated son, who once mingled with European high society, publicly threatened dissidents.
Moammar Gadhafi's second-eldest son has remained at large, despite a manhunt. The senior Gadhafi and his younger son, Mutassim, were killed last week during the climactic battle for the coastal city of Sirte, their clan's ancestral home.
Reports indicated that Seif Islam Gadhafi escaped earlier this month from Bani Walid, another stronghold of the former regime, before opposition forces overran the town. He has since been variously reported to be in southern Libya's Saharan expanses and in the neighboring country of Niger.
