Shadow Gov’t Meets in Libya

Libya’s rebels are on the move: As a group advances to do battle in Col. Gaddafi’s hometown, opposition leaders claimed victory in seizing or maintaining control of two towns: Zawiya, a strategic city near Tripoli, and the oil port of Ras Lanouf. They’ve also announced on opposition-controlled radio that they are beginning to form a parallel government, which held its first meeting on Saturday in the eastern city of Benghazi—though they are hoping to eventually establish a base in the country's capital, Tripoli. Opposition and government forces have been battling for control of Zawiya in the last several days. A rebel witness alleged that government forces withdrew from the city's Martyrs' Square after bloody clashes with protesters, reporting heavy gunfire, mortar shelling, and at least three rebel deaths.