Africa, Moammar Gadhafi | featured news

A liberal alliance led by a former Libyan rebel prime minister said Sunday the party's unofficial preliminary results put it in the lead in the country's landmark parliamentary elections, the first since the ouster of dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

Crowds of joyful Libyans, some with tears in their eyes, parted with the legacy of Muammar Gaddafi on Saturday as they voted in the first free national election in 60 years.

Months after rebels brought down the extravagant dictatorship of Muammar Gaddafi, the disarray in Libya's state finances at the end of last year was so bad the new leadership did not know the size of state assets, how their money was being spent, or what had happened to more than $2 billion transferred from the sovereign wealth fund.

Libya urged Niger on Saturday to extradite Muammar Gaddafi's son Saadi, saying his call for Libyans to prepare for a "coming uprising" threatened bilateral ties.

After seven months of an aerial bombing campaign that helped depose longtime ruler Moammar Gadhafi, NATO officially ends its mission in Libya on Monday.

The International Criminal Court said Saturday that Libya's Saif al-Islam Gaddafi was in contact via intermediaries about surrendering for trial, but it also had information mercenaries were trying to spirit him to a friendly African nation.

NATO is to formally decide on Wednesday whether to end its mission over Libya now that Muammar Gaddafi is dead and buried and the country's new leaders have declared the nation "liberated".

Doctors completed the autopsy of Moammar Gadhafi on Sunday, with the chief pathologist confirming the former Libyan leader died of a gunshot wound to the head.

Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, who ruled Libya for 42 years, died Thursday as his last stronghold fell to the Libyan forces who drove him from power, officials of Libya’s transitional government said. There were conflicting initial reports of the specific circumstances of his death: some said he was killed in Surt, his hometown; others said he died while fleeing it.

Libya's National Transitional Council offered no official confirmation Thursday of the arrest of Moatassim Gadhafi, one of the deposed leader's sons believed to have been captured after a four-hour firefight in Sirte.