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Militias from the Libyan city of Misrata have beaten and killed displaced residents from the nearby town of Tawergha, accusing them of siding with pro-Gadhafi forces and committing violent crimes in Misrata, according to a report by Human Rights Watch.
The rights group said Sunday it interviewed dozens of Tawerghans across the country, including those detained or displaced.
"They gave credible accounts of some Misrata militias shooting unarmed Tawerghans, and of arbitrary arrests and beatings of Tawerghan detainees, in a few cases leading to death."
CNN could not immediately verify the claims.
Local authorities and Misrata residents widely accuse Tawerghans of having committed serious crimes - including murders and rapes - in Misrata with forces loyal to ousted Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, Human Rights Watch said.
The group said pro-Gadhafi forces used Tawergha as a base for attacks on Misrata and the surrounding area from March until August. Many Tawerghans supported the 42-year ruler, whose regime claimed that Libyan opposition fighters would enslave Tawerghans if they took power, Human Rights Watch said.
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Libya's transitional government would prefer to try former leader Moammar Gadhafi's son Saif al-Islam in a Libyan court despite an arrest warrant issued for him by the International Criminal Court, a spokesman said Sunday.
The court's chief prosecutor said Friday it was having "informal conversations" about the surrender of Saif al-Islam Gadhafi, who is wanted for crimes against humanity. But Luis Moreno-Ocampo said the court did not know his whereabouts and would not reveal with whom the court is talking.
Saif al-Islam Gadhafi has realized there is no escape, and wants to negotiate a surrender to limit the damage, said Anees al-Sharif, spokesman for the National Transitional Council's Tripoli Military Council.
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After seven months of an aerial bombing campaign that helped depose longtime ruler Moammar Gadhafi, NATO officially ends its mission in Libya on Monday.
NATO's move comes after the United Nations Security Council last week rescinded its March mandate for military intervention to protect civilians targeted during anti-regime protests.
"Libyans have now liberated their country. And they have transformed the region," said NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Friday. "This is their victory."
"Our operation for Libya will end on October 31. Until then, together with our partners, we will continue to monitor the situation. And if needed, we will continue to respond to threats to civilians," Rasmussen said
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The United Nations secretary-general and the president of the U.N. General Assembly arrived in Tripoli, Libya, on Wednesday, according to a U.N. statement.
Ban Ki-moon and Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser of Qatar, General Assembly president, will meet with members of Libya's National Transitional Council and others, the statement said. The two will also meet with reporters.
Ban will travel to Cannes, France, Wednesday night, according to the U.N. More details on Ban and Al-Nasser's visit will be provided later Wednesday, the statement said
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President Barack Obama will sign an executive order Monday designed to help reduce a growing number of prescription drug shortages while protecting patients from possible pharmaceutical industry price gouging.
Among other things, the order requires the Food and Drug Administration to increase its reporting of possible shortages of certain prescription drugs, while also speeding up regulatory reviews of new drug manufacturing sites, drug suppliers and manufacturing changes.
The Justice Department will be tasked with examining whether specific drug shortages are tied to an intentional stockpiling of medications designed to raise prices.
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A shuffle of Greece's government and questions over how it will deal with its debt – which could drag down larger European economies – will be in a spotlight this week as the country's prime minister prepares to resign. Here is a look at this and some other stories CNN plans to follow this week.
Greece dealing with government shakeup, questions about debt
Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou is expected to resign this week after the makeup of a new coalition government is decided. He narrowly won a confidence vote last week after announcing he would seek a new government, and he's agreed to resign – after talks with the opposition – on the condition that a controversial 130 billion euro bailout deal is approved.
Papandreou found himself in turmoil when he announced he would put a European bailout package for his country – a deal that would slash half of Greece’s 100 billion euro debt – to a referendum. He later backed off the referendum, and he says implementing the package is a priority, but the fate of the deal still isn’t clear.
The bailout deal, reached October 26, comes with strings that would require Greece to slash government jobs, privatize some businesses and reduce pensions. If Greece ever were to decide it doesn’t want to meet those conditions, it could decide to default.
A Greek default could drag down larger European economies, in particular those of Italy and Spain, as well as struggling Portugal and Ireland, analysts warn.
The new government will have a life of four months, according to Greek television, and elections will be held in early spring. Papandreou and main opposition leader Antonis Samaras will meet Monday to discuss who will be Greece's next prime minister and who will be part of the new government, according to a statement released Sunday night by the office of Greek President Karolos Papoulias.
Mississippi 'personhood' vote could affect abortion, birth control rules in state
Mississippi residents on Tuesday will vote on whether to amend the state constitution to define fertilized human eggs as a person. If passed, the measure likely would render abortions illegal in the state and hamper the ability to get some forms of birth control, such as the morning-after pill.
Initiative 26 – also known as the Personhood Amendment – would define personhood as "every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning or the functional equivalent thereof."
Anti-abortion forces hope the amendment, if passed, would ultimately be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, providing another opportunity for the justices to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion.
Besides a likely effect on abortions, the measure also could make in vitro fertilization treatments more difficult because it could become illegal to dispose of unused fertilized eggs.
Opponents of the measure argue that, among other things, it would give government too much control over women's reproductive rights, and that it could have unintended consequences. An area of particular concern for opponents is that it doesn't provide exceptions for a victim of rape or incest who wishes to terminate her pregnancy. Some anti-abortion religious groups say it could lead to a Supreme Court ruling that actually strengthens Roe v. Wade.
Also on Election Day: Two gubernatorial races
We're a year away from presidential and congressional elections, but this year's Election Day will feature gubernatorial races in Mississippi and Kentucky.
In Mississippi, Republican nominee Phil Bryant, the state's lieutenant governor, will face Democratic nominee Johnny L. Dupree, the mayor of Hattiesburg and the first black candidate to win a statewide primary nomination.
In Kentucky, Gov. Steve Beshear, a Democrat, is seeking re-election against state Sen. David L. Williams, a Republican.GOP presidential candidates debating twice in four days
Republican candidates for U.S. president will have two debates this week – on Wednesday at Michigan's Oakland University, and on Saturday at South Carolina's Wofford College.
A national poll released last week showed GOP candidate Mitt Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, virtually tied with President Barack Obama in a hypothetical contest for the presidency.
While businessman Herman Cain now polls closely with Romney in national surveys on the GOP nomination, Cain didn't fare as well in a potential matchup with Obama. According to the Reuters/Ipsos National Poll, Obama holds a 46-41 edge over Cain, and a 47-41 advantage over Texas Gov. Rick Perry.
The poll was conducted after news broke of sexual harassment allegations against Cain when he led the National Restaurant Association in the late 1990s.
The bid of another GOP candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, appears to be on the rise. According to a poll by ABC News and the Washington Post last week, 12% of Republicans and independents who lean toward the GOP say they support Gingrich for the GOP nomination – up 5 points from one month ago. Gingrich is in fourth place in the new poll, 1 percentage point behind Texas Gov. Rick Perry. Gingrich was in third place at 10% support in a Quinnipiac University national poll released Wednesday, up 7 points from late August.
Diplomats: IAEA to detail Iran's efforts to develop nuclear weapon
In a report to be released early this week, the International Atomic Energy Agency will make the most detailed charges to date that Iran's nuclear program is geared toward weapons development and military use, several Western diplomats briefed on the report told CNN.
The diplomats said that the report will include more data than the organization has previously released on clandestine efforts by Iran to develop technologies to build a nuclear weapon, including computer models of a nuclear warhead. They argue the IAEA studies offer no other explanation for those efforts beyond Iran seeking to develop a nuclear weapon.
Although previous IAEA reports have cited concerns by the organization that Iran has been seeking to develop nuclear warheads and ballistic missiles to deliver them, the diplomats said the upcoming report is expected to make the charges more explicitly. The United States and other Western powers suspect Iran's nuclear program is geared toward weapons development, although Tehran insists its program is for peaceful purposes.
The Obama administration has downplayed speculation that the United States and Britain are weighing a military strike against Iranian nuclear facilities, saying U.S. officials are focused on a diplomatic strategy. However, some officials say privately the U.S. military and intelligence community is growing increasingly concerned that Israel could be preparing such a strike and are monitoring both Israel and Iran closely.
Carlos the Jackal on trial in connection with '80s bombings
A man who once was one of the world's most wanted fugitives is expected to go on trial Monday in connection with fatal bombings in France in the early 1980s.
Carlos the Jackal, a Venezuelan whose real name is Illich Ramirez Sanchez, is accused of complicity in the bombings that killed 11 and injured more than 100 people in France in 1982 and 1983.
Ramirez, who was a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, already is serving a life sentence in Paris for the murders of two French secret agents and an informer in 1975. He also was involved in an assault during an OPEC meeting in Vienna 1975; the raid resulted in 70 hostages being taken, including 11 oil ministers.
He was captured in Sudan in 1994 and brought to France, where he was convicted of the 1975 slayings in 1997.
Obama expected to see MSU-UNC game on carrier
President Obama is expected to be in attendance when Michigan State and North Carolina meet for the first college basketball game to be played on an aircraft carrier.
The two teams are scheduled to play Friday – Veterans Day – aboard the USS Carl Vinson at pier side at the San Diego Naval Base. On hand will be honorary captains James Worthy, a UNC alumnus, and Magic Johnson, who went to Michigan State.
About 7,000 fans will be able to see the event in person. The game is scheduled to be carried live on ESPN.
Asteroid to pass closer to earth than moon
An asteroid the size of an aircraft carrier will pass Earth to within eight-tenths of the distance of the moon - the closest approach to Earth of an object this size in over 30 years.
The asteroid poses no threat of an Earth collision for at least the next 100 years, according to NASA’s Near Earth Object Program. But scientists will be interested in the pass, in part because it is a rare opportunity for amateur astronomers to directly observe an asteroid with optical telescopes.
NASA plans to study the asteroid with Goldstone radar antennas in California’s Mojave Desert. Scientists will use the antennas to map the asteroid's shape with a resolution as fine as 13 feet. Several days of high resolution operations are also scheduled at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.
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(CNN) -- Henry "Hank" Skinner came within 45 minutes of lethal injection in March 2010 before the U.S. Supreme Court stepped in -- and ultimately handed him a legal reprieve.
But as another execution date looms, pressure is mounting on Texas officials to grant Skinner's long-standing request to have crime-scene DNA tested before it's too late.
"Executing Mr. Skinner without testing all the relevant evidence would suggest official indifference to the possibility of error in this case and needlessly undermine public confidence in Texas's criminal justice system," said a letter from former Texas Gov. Mark White and 16 other current and former Texas lawmakers, prosecutors and judges, dated October 27 and sent to Gov. Rick Perry, Attorney General Greg Abbott and Gray County District Attorney Lynn Switzer.
Skinner, 49, was convicted of the New Year's Eve 1993 killings of his 41-year-old live-in girlfriend, Twila Busby, and her two adult sons in the Texas Panhandle town of Pampa. He is set to die Wednesday.
He has strongly denied any involvement in the crime and claims that the DNA analysis of untested evidence will prove his innocence and help determine the real killer.
"All the district attorney has got to do is turn over the evidence and test it, and let the chips fall where they may," Skinner told CNN's Kate Bolduan in 2009 in an interview from death row at the Polunsky Correctional Institution in Livingston, Texas. "If I'm innocent, I go home. If I'm guilty, I die. What's so hard about that?"
On Thursday, the Texas trial court denied Skinner's latest motion asking to have the crime scene items tested.
"We are deeply disappointed that the trial court has denied Mr. Skinner's request for DNA testing," Rob Owen, Skinner's attorney, said in a statement. "Unfortunately, the trial court's order offers no explanation for its conclusion that DNA testing is not called for in this case."
The case will now go to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, Owen said, adding that he is confident the court will give the case "deliberate consideration. ... We are confident that upon such careful review, the court will conclude that DNA testing is necessary in this case to ensure the reliability of the verdict.
"But for now, the Court of Criminal Appeals must stop the scheduled November 9 execution rather than allow itself to be rushed to a hasty and ill-considered decision," Owen said. "The stakes in this case are too high to allow Mr. Skinner to be executed before he has a fair chance to make his case that the trial court made a grave mistake in denying his request for DNA testing."
The Court of Criminal Appeals is Texas' highest criminal court.
Owen said he is asking the Court of Criminal Appeals to ask the trial court to provide more information on why it made its ruling. A federal case in which Skinner is also seeking the testing has been put on hold pending the outcome of the state court proceedings, he said. If the Court of Criminal Appeals denies Skinner's motion, the federal court case will proceed.
Texas state attorneys argued at a recent court hearing that the testing should not be conducted because there was not a reasonable probability the trial jury would have found Skinner innocent if the testing had been done for his trial, Owen said.
Switzer's office refused comment on the case to CNN on Thursday. Perry's office referred questions to the attorney general's office, which also denied comment.
More than 120,000 people have signed an online petition calling for the testing.
In May 2010, after halting Skinner's execution in March of that year, the Supreme Court said on a 6-3 vote that Skinner has a basic civil right to press for DNA analysis, giving him another legal avenue to push his claims of innocence.
At the time, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg noted that Skinner's victory was limited and that the ruling only gave Skinner access to the DNA evidence, which might point to his innocence, point to his guilt or be deemed inconclusive.
However, Texas prosecutors have fought the testing, claiming that Skinner is not entitled to testing of evidence not analyzed before his 1995 trial. Forensic evidence gathered at the scene, as well as witness statements, points to Skinner as the killer, they maintain.
Skinner admits being at the crime scene when Busby and her sons died but said he was passed out on the couch from a combination of vodka and codeine and was too intoxicated to have committed the murders.
A female friend of Skinner's who lived four blocks away testified at his trial that he walked to her mobile home and told her that he may have kicked Twila Busby to death, although evidence did not show she had been kicked. The neighbor has since recanted parts of her testimony.
Authorities followed a blood trail from the crime scene to the female friend's home and found Skinner in the closet, authorities said. He was "wearing heavily blood-stained jeans and socks and bearing a gash on the palm of his right hand," according to the Texas attorney general's summary of the case.
Authorities said cuts on Skinner's hand came from the knife used to stab the men. Skinner claimed he cut it on glass. Some DNA testing was done, which implicated Skinner, but not on the items he now wants tested.
In addition to Twila Busby, also found stabbed to death were her sons Elwin "Scooter" Caler, 22, and Randy Busby, 20, both of whom were developmentally disabled.
"The victims' injuries show that whoever murdered them must have possessed considerable strength, balance and coordination," Owen wrote in the Supreme Court filing. Twila Busby was manually strangled so forcefully that her larynx and the hyoid bone in her throat were broken. She then was struck with an ax or pick handle 14 times, hard enough to drive fragments of her "unusually thick skull" into her brain, the court documents said.
"While attacking Ms. Busby, the perpetrator had to contend with the presence of her six-foot-six-inch, 225-pound son, Elwin Caler, who blood spatter analysis showed was in the immediate vicinity of his mother as she was being beaten," the court filing said.
"Somehow, the murderer was able to change weapons and stab Caler several times before he could fend off the attack or flee."
Among the items Skinner wants tested, according to court documents, are vaginal swabs from Busby contained in a rape kit; clippings from her fingernails; two knives, one found on Busby's front porch and the second found in a plastic bag in the living room; a dish towel; and blood and hairs from a jacket found next to Busby's body.
Skinner's attorneys have in the past presented what they call compelling evidence pointing to another man who may have committed the murders. Evidence presented at trial suggested that Busby's uncle, Robert Donnell -- who is now dead -- could have been the killer. At a New Year's Eve party she attended for a short time on the last night of her life, Donnell stalked her, making crude sexual remarks, according to trial testimony. A friend who drove her home from the party testified that she was "fidgety and worried" and that Donnell was no longer at the party when the friend returned to the celebration.
Sandrine Ageorges-Skinner, a Frenchwoman who married Skinner in 2008, told CNN's "Larry King Live" in March 2010 that she began writing to him in 1996, and they began visiting in 2000. Ageorges-Skinner has been an outspoken anti-death penalty advocate and a key ally in her husband's struggle.
"I'm convinced of his innocence ... (because) there is scientific forensic evidence to prove that he was not even in a state to stand up at the time of the crime, let alone murder three people that he loved," she told "Larry King Live." "There is absolutely no motive."
Ageorges-Skinner said Thursday that she was not surprised by the trial court's ruling.
"What can you expect from a sentencing judge who has signed four death warrants, denied two previous DNA motions and denied all (Skinner's) appeals?" she wrote in an e-mail to CNN. "This is not justice. When sentencing judges are expected to review their own work and decisions, one cannot expect a fair and impartial decision."
In an interview aired Thursday by France Info, a news radio channel, Ageorges-Skinner said the last few years have been "with the stress and anguish, very intense ... with moments of hope, since he had a new execution date. ... Also moments of laughter, moments of relaxation, because life is too short and you can't forget to live."
A documentary is set to air on the French television network Canal Plus on Tuesday, she told France Info. It was filmed last year, when a camera crew followed her in the days before Skinner was set to die.
"I try not to look at the calendar, even though every morning when I wake up, I know how many days are left," Ageorges-Skinner said at one point, according to excerpts of the documentary posted on Canal Plus' website. At another point, she reads a letter from Skinner telling her he does not want her to witness his execution because "I want you to remember me as I was in life, laughing, joking and talking."
Ageorges-Skinner told France Info that she has been barred from visiting her husband by prison administrators "because we both are exposing problems of incarceration."
Michelle Lyons, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, said Ageorges-Skinner was banned from her husband's visitation list a couple of years ago because of "security issues." Skinner was found in possession of a cell phone, she said, and his wife was taken off the list after some "unauthorized money exchanges around the same time."
Ageorges-Skinner will be allowed to visit her husband as his execution date approaches, Lyons said.
Ageorges-Skinner, however, said Sunday that she was banned six months before the cell phone incident. She said she was accused of facilitating trafficking between Skinner and another inmate by sending money to a prison account.
An investigation found no proof of trafficking or violations, she said, and the funds were credited to the inmate's prison account, but the ban stands. She said she appealed, but was rejected.
Texas has executed more prisoners than any state since 1976, when the high court allowed executions to resume.
Questions have swirled in Texas regarding the 2004 execution of Cameron Todd Willingham for a fire that killed his three daughters and claims that he was not guilty.
In 2009, Perry issued a posthumous pardon for Timothy Cole, who was serving a 25-year sentence for aggravated sexual assault when he died in prison from an asthma attack. After his death, DNA tests established his innocence, and another man confessed to the crime.
"We believe that the death penalty is an appropriate punishment for certain crimes, and we understand that the DNA testing might well show that Mr. Skinner is deserving of that punishment," said the letter from lawmakers to the Texas officials. "But we are also steadfast in our belief that when it comes to the ultimate penalty, we must to everything in our power to ensure certainty before taking the irreversible step of carrying out an execution."
The letter notes October's exoneration of Michael Morton after 25 years of wrongful imprisonment. That case "highlights why state officials should consent to DNA testing when untested evidence is available," the letter said.
"There is simply no justifiable reason why Texas continues to waste taxpayer dollars in its decade-long fight to prevent scientific testing in Mr. Skinner's case."
The Texas Criminal Court of Appeals initially determined that the evidence was not tested at Skinner's trial because of the strategy of his trial attorneys -- which the court determined did not meet the no-fault provision of Texas law, which then stated that inmates could access post-conviction testing only if the testing was not done through no fault of the defendant. That "no fault provision" was stripped from state statutes in June.
Busby's family has also pressed state officials to do the forensic testing, saying it would end the years-long delay while Skinner has pressed his legal claims. The family, including Busby's surviving daughter, believes Skinner is guilty.
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