RIM delays release of upgraded tablet software (AP)

TORONTO ? Research In Motion said it is delaying the launch of an upgraded operating system for its struggling PlayBook computer tablet until February 2012, yet another setback for a tarnished company struggling to compete with Apple.

David Smith, RIM's senior vice president, said in a post on the company's blog late Tuesday that the new version of the operating system isn't up to its standards at this point.

Smith also said the new version also won't have the popular messenging service BlackBerry Messenger when it's introduced in February.

The BlackBerry-maker had announced earlier this fall the updated operating system would be available in October with features that include the ability for BlackBerry users to automatically access their email, contacts and calendar on the PlayBook, a function it doesn't currently have. When RIM launched the PlayBook in April it said would add the features within 60 days, but later pushed that back to the summer and then to October.

The PlayBook received negative reviews because it didn't have those features.

"As much as we'd love to have it in your hands today, we've made the difficult decision to wait to launch BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 until we are confident we have fully met the expectations of our developers, enterprise customers and end-users," Smith wrote on the Inside BlackBerry Blog.

Shares of RIM fell nearly 6 percent on Wednesday to $21.02 in early afternoon trading on the Nasdaq.

The PlayBook is RIM's first effort to branch out from its smartphone base and capture a portion of the tablet computer market, but it has been a major disappointment. RIM said about 200,000 of them sold last quarter ? far short of what analysts had expected. And that number paled in comparison to the top-selling iPad, of which Apple shipped 11.1 million units during its most recent quarter.

"They should stop pushing things out before they are ready. They don't have that many swings at the plate left," said BGC Financial analyst Colin Gillis.

Gillis said RIM has consistently over-promised and under- delivered. He said they have management problems.

"You don't get right up to the final hour, and say, `You know what it's going to be a few more months,'" he said.

The Canadian company has had series of recent setbacks. A massive outage frustrated tens of millions of BlackBerry users earlier this month.

RIM has also delayed the launch of new phones with the company's new QNX operating system for several months. RIM disappointed many in October when they didn't announce a clear timeline for when they would release phones and tablets with the new software which is now called BBX. The update that RIM says it will provide for the tablet in February won't include the BBX software.

RIM continues to have success overseas but has increasingly lost market share in North America. Many U.S. users have moved on to phones with big touchscreens like the iPhone and various competing models that run Google's Android software.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/software/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111026/ap_on_hi_te/cn_canada_rim_playbook

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Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (PS3, PS Vita, Xbox 360)

Platform

Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PS Vita

Genre

Action Games

ESRB Rating

T for Teen

More

Editor's Note: Product not yet tested.

Capcom and Marvel Entertainment plan to double dip on the red-hot Marvel vs. Capcom 3 with a follow up: Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. The manic 2D fighting game will be available for the PS3, Xbox 360, and upcoming PS Vita handheld. The home console versions will hit store shelves this November for $39.99, with the Vita version following in early 2012.

The highly acclaimed fighting game adds 12 new fighters to the Marvel vs. Capcom 3 roster, bringing the total overall roster of characters up to a whopping 50. New to the Marvel side is Doctor Strange, Ghost Rider, Hawkeye, Iron Fist, Nova, and the obscure Rocket Raccoon. Team Capcom sees Firebrand, Frank West, Nemesis Type-T, Phoenix Wright, Strider, and Vergil.

In addition to characters, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 features a host of enhancements and new features to improve the game?s balance and online functionality. One of the biggest additions to Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is the fan-requested Spectator Mode, which allows fighters to watch live online matches together. The recently announced Heroes and Heralds mode is a single and multi-player, team-based contest where gamers earn new abilities with upgrade cards by battling Galactus' heralds.

With multiple improvements and 12 new characters, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 looks to keep the fighting flame burning this fall.

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China flash PMI rebounds to ease hard-landing fears (Reuters)

BEIJING (Reuters) ? China's vast manufacturing sector expanded moderately in October to snap three months of contraction, reflecting the resilience of robust domestic demand that is likely to soothe fears of an abrupt slowdown in the world's second-largest economy.

HSBC's flash purchasing managers' index (PMI) also showed price pressures eased in China, underlining consumer price data that has shown a slight pullback in inflation from three-year peaks.

The flash PMI, designed to give an early snapshot of the month's factory activity, rose to 51.1 in October from September's final reading of 49.9 as new orders and new export orders expanded.

The reading surpassed the 50-point level demarcating expansion from contraction for the first time since June, when the PMI was 51.6.

"Thanks to the pick-up in new orders and output, the headline flash PMI rebounded back into expansionary territory during October, marking a steady start to manufacturing activities in the four quarter," said Qu Hongbin, China economist at HSBC.

"Meanwhile, inflation components within the PMI results confirmed stable output prices growth and slower input price inflation. All these data confirm our view that there is no risk of a hard landing in China," he said.

Qu expects annual industrial output growth to hover around 13 percent in October and the central bank to keep monetary policy stable in the coming months.

Both new orders and new export orders sub-indexes rose above the 50-point mark in October. Given the gloomy global outlook, however, it is too early to determine if the rebound in export orders can be sustained.

Still, the data provided support to financial markets, which were already firm on hopes that euro zone leaders were moving closer to stemming the debt crisis. Hong Kong stocks were up 4 percent.

China is vulnerable to fading demand from the United States and Europe, its two biggest export markets. China's trade surplus narrowed in September for the second straight month and annual exports growth to the European Union more than halved compared with August.

But robust domestic demand -- consumption and investment -- and solid export growth to emerging markets have provided some protection.

The worst for China's economy and the rest of the world could come if Europe fails to contain the sovereign debt crisis, said George Worthington, chief economist for the Asia Pacific at IFR Markets, a Thomson Reuters unit.

"But domestic demand conditions seem solid and enough to keep the economy growing by around 9 percent, judging from the rebound in the PMI from a low of 49.3 back in July," he said.

GRADUAL SLOWDOWN

China's annual economic growth slowed to 9.1 percent in the third quarter from 9.5 percent in the second quarter and 9.7 percent in the first.

Growth is expected to slow further. A Reuters poll showed analysts expect growth to weaken to 8.6 percent in 2012 from 9.3 percent this year.

Most analysts believe data points to an economic soft landing, rather than a crash for China. Many define a hard landing as a sudden dip in quarterly GDP growth below 8 percent, which they say could drive up unemployment.

However, the government has announced some measures to support the economy. In comments published on Sunday, Premier Wen Jiabao said the government will make job creation a more urgent priority.

Many of the country's small firms are breathing easier since the government took steps to expand financing support to small firms, said Zhu Jianfang, chief economist at CITIC Securities.

In addition, the central bank appears to be slowing down the appreciation of the yuan, partly to help Chinese exporters.

NO IMMINENT POLICY SHIFT SEEN

The HSBC data showed factory price pressures eased in October, offering some comfort to Chinese policymakers who have been trying to bring inflation under control.

The input price sub-index fell to 54.3 in October from 58.8 in September.

Annual consumer inflation eased to 6.1 percent in September, retreating further from three-year highs, although stubborn food price pressures will keep the central bank guarded about loosening policy prematurely.

Inflation could ease further in coming months but the full-year rate is almost certain to overshoot the government's 4 percent target.

The central bank has raised interest rates five times and lifted banks' reserve requirements nine times since last October. It last raised interest rates in July.

"We may have to wait until the end of the year to see a relaxation of monetary policy, although there could be some structural policy fine-tuning before that," Zhu said.

(Reporting by Kevin Yao; Editing by Ken Wills and Neil Fullick)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111024/bs_nm/us_china_economy_hsbc_pmi

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Government job losses a growing drag on recovery (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Conservative Republicans have long clamored for government downsizing. They're starting to get it ? by default.

Crippled by plunging tax revenues, state and local governments have shed over a half million jobs since the recession began in December 2007. And, after adding jobs early in the downturn, the federal government is now cutting them as well.

States cut 49,000 jobs over the past year and localities 210,000, according to an analysis of Labor Department statistics. There are 30,000 fewer federal workers now than a year ago ? including 5,300 Postal Service jobs canceled last month.

By contrast, private-sector jobs have increased by 1.6 million over the past 12 months. But the state, local and federal job losses have become a drag on efforts to nudge the nation's unemployment rate down from its painfully high 9.1 percent.

The economy has been expanding, at least modestly, since the middle of 2009. And state and local governments are usually engines of job growth during recoveries. But not now, said economist Heidi Shierholz of the labor-aligned Economic Policy Institute.

"The public sector didn't start to lose jobs right away. But then it did as the budget crunch really hit. State governments are not allowed to run deficits. So the private sector is expanding while the public sector is shedding jobs ? to the tune of 35,000 jobs a month," she said.

President Barack Obama sought to ease the crunch by including $35 billion to prevent layoffs of police, firefighters and teachers in his $447 billion jobs package. But that big bill hit a GOP wall in Congress.

Efforts to pass what Obama called "bite-sized pieces" of the big bill have stalled, too. Republicans don't want to swallow them, regardless the serving size. Senate Republicans blocked the $35 billion installment late last week when Democratic leaders called it up as stand-alone legislation.

The dynamic is already reverberating through the gathering presidential campaign cycle, with Republicans making an issue out what they depict as Obama's inability to turn the economy around. This has been driven home in every one of the frequent Republican presidential debates, and is certain to become even more intense as the GOP field narrows. The weak economy is a main factor in Obama's current approval ratings, the lowest of his presidency.

No sitting president since Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936 and 1940 has been elected with the unemployment rate as high as it stands today ? hovering near or above 9 percent for more than two years. In 1936, the rate was 17 percent and in 1940, 15 percent, but then it was on a downward trend from over 24 percent earlier in the Great Depression.

Ronald Reagan's durable 1980 campaign slogan that government "is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem" is a cherished GOP refrain. Most recently, it's been echoed in tea party calls for smaller government.

Yet the federal bureaucracy grew by leaps and bounds during Reagan's eight years in office ? and under every Republican and Democratic president since.

Reagan-inspired conservative visions of smaller government are usually premised on deep spending cuts, low taxes, and program eliminations. All current GOP presidential contenders have subscribed to this line, as have GOP congressional leaders.

The recession-forced shrinkage of state, local and federal workforces ? even as the federal debt continues to swell ? is not exactly what tea party activists and other fiscal conservatives had in mind.

Cities and counties are hampered by lower property tax revenue because of collapsing real estate values. States are hurt by lower income and sales tax revenue because of the deep recession and stubborn unemployment.

The National Association of State Budget Officers says states were able to sustain spending growth through 2010 principally with federal stimulus money. But it has since dried up. The loss of the federal stimulus "combined with a slow recovery in state revenue collections will continue the tight resource environment for states in fiscal 2012," reports the association. Most state fiscal years begin in July.

Private business gains are too modest to significantly lower the unemployment rate, despite last week's claim by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid that "private-sector jobs have been doing just fine."

Economists suggest roughly 200,000 new jobs a month ? or 2.4 million a year ? are needed to significantly lower the jobless rate. It takes from 100,000 to 150,000 new jobs a month just to tread water and match working-age population growth.

All told, since the recession began, local governments have bled 405,000 jobs, state governments 50,000. The federal government has added a net 63,000 jobs after subtracting the more recent losses.

Statistically, the recession ended in June 2009, but it's been a tough slog since for nearly everybody. One exception: The number of people earning $1 million a year or more increased in 2010 by nearly 20 percent, the government reported last week.

Efforts to spur job growth ? while also addressing chronic deficits ? have been snarled by adamant GOP refusal to raise taxes of any kind, and Democratic stands against trimming popular government health and retirement programs.

And more government job losses could be looming as the clock ticks down on Congress' deficit-cutting supercommittee. The panel, a product of last summer's debt-limit deal and comprising six lawmakers from each party, is tasked with delivering recommendations by Thanksgiving for $1.2 trillion in deficit reductions over the next decade.

If the panel fails to strike a deal that wins congressional approval by year's end, the $1.2 trillion would be triggered in indiscriminate across-the-board cuts beginning in January 2013. Defense jobs, here and on installations across the nation, would be particularly vulnerable to layoffs.

Of course, once the recovery runs its course ? and recoveries always have ? the jobless rate may well return to 5-6 percent. Consumer spending will be up again, and so will tax revenues for federal as well as state and local governments. And government hiring will probably resume. The big question is when.

Chris Edwards, tax policy director for the libertarian Cato Institute, said he doesn't believe helping state and local governments should be a federal financial responsibility. "They should tighten their belts," he said.

"Governments are not very good at manipulating the economy in the short run," Edwards added. "We haven't solved recessions yet. And I don't think governments will with activist policies."

But Rob Shapiro, a former undersecretary of commerce in the Clinton administration and now chairman of Sonecon, an economic consulting firm, sees things differently.

Cuts in spending and regulation don't encourage private job creation by making government more business friendly, as conservatives politicians contend, Shapiro said. They just mean more lost jobs upfront because government spending cuts almost always breed more layoffs.

"We need to give significant help to the states. Their revenues are down because the economy is weak. And that's forcing them to cut spending. And the spending they can cut the most easily is workers," Shapiro said.

Absent a federal helping hand, "the states will certainly continue to lose jobs," Shapiro said.

___

Follow Tom Raum on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tomraum

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111024/ap_on_re_us/us_broken_budgets_shrinking_government

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Even Outside Syria, Refugees Fear Kidnappers (Time.com)

Ramy al-Dow, 21, draws his thin-striped V-neck sweater up to his neck and crosses his arms over his chest in a futile bid to shield himself from the piercing chill cloaking this mountainous southern Turkish village overlooking the Syrian border. He's noticeably on edge, despite the fact that on this night he's in a safe house. Three generations of women sit in the courtyard outside, shelling buckets of pomegranates harvested from their nearby fields. Ramy's cousin Mahmoud al-Dow, 16, stands watch on the street. "Just in case," Ramy says.

The young Syrian refugees have spent the past two weeks sleeping outdoors, in mosques, in people's courtyards, in the fields along the border. They are afraid of being kidnapped by spies and sympathizers working for Syrian President Bashar Assad's ruthless regime and being taken across the border by force. They want their real names published in the event that if they are captured they will not disappear into the nameless, faceless pit of victims, but that somebody may ask after them. Their fears are not entirely unwarranted. (See photos of Syrians fleeing into Turkey.)

There's a palpable change in the border area since the heady, bustling days this summer when the sleepy village of Guvecci was inundated with refugees. Activists who swaggered around town have now moved deeper into Turkey, into the city of Antakya, where they keep a low profile. Gone are the days of illegally trekking across the Turkish border into Syria unimpeded by the security forces of either country, and of the hopeful optimism that the Damascus regime would soon fall. It's all been replaced with a sharp fear that Assad's reach extends well beyond his borders. Although Turkey pursues a foreign policy hostile to Syria, has opened its arms to thousands of Syrian refugees and housed them in a network of well-maintained camps, many of the fugitives still feel it is not a safe haven.

Human-rights groups are working to document the cases of Syrian refugees in countries bordering Syria, including Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, who are being kidnapped and forced back across the border. Some are reportedly sold by mercenaries, according to Syrian activists, others have been picked up by roving Syrian mukhabarat (intelligence and secret police) agents. In Lebanon ? which shook off Syrian occupation in 2005 but is now firmly back in the Syrian sphere of influence ? the country's top cop, Ashraf Rifi (an anti-Syrian stalwart), recently claimed that Syria's embassy in Lebanon was behind the kidnapping of three Syrian activists, the Jassem brothers, in Beirut, and that personnel from Rifi's own Internal Security Forces aided the alleged kidnapping. The Syrian embassy in Beirut denied any involvement.

Amnesty International's Syria researcher, Neil Sammonds, says several cases have been reported to the rights group in Turkey. "We can't verify them," he says, "but there's one ? the case of Hussein Harmoush ? we have written to the Turkish government about. But that was only the week before last, so we don't have a response yet. And we raised the alleged cases of three other people as well." (See TIME's video of Turkey's Muslim minority.)

Colonel Hussein Harmoush was one of the earliest and highest-ranking officers to defect from the Syrian army. He disappeared under mysterious circumstances on Aug. 29, before surfacing on Syrian state TV two weeks later, retracting his claims of leading the Syrian Free Officers Movement and insisting that he returned to Syria of his own free will. He'd been staying in a Turkish refugee camp along with his wife Gofran Hejazi and their four children. It's unclear if he was picked up in Turkey or Syria (which he reportedly frequented, according to people who spoke with him daily). Still, his wife lays the blame for her husband's capture squarely on Turkey.

Although Turkish authorities denied TIME's request to meet Hejazi, we reached her by phone. She says her husband was in regular contact ? both on the phone and in person ? with an Arabic-speaking Turkish man known as Abu Mohammad. Hejazi, 33, said she had met the Turk several times. Abu Mohammad called Harmoush before his disappearance, promising to provide weapons to the Syrian revolutionaries and to help the colonel ferry them across the border. "I heard this. I was near my husband during this call," she says. Abu Mohammad reportedly insisted that Harmoush keep the plan to himself, and insisted he meet him as soon as possible. According to other Harmoush family members, on Aug. 29, the colonel left the refugee camp to meet the mysterious Turk. That was the last time he was seen in the country.

"In my opinion, the Turks played a role," Hejazi says. "I think they pay lip service to the revolution, but under the table they are making deals with the Syrian regime." Harmoush, she alleges, "was under surveillance [by the Turks] ? even his phone, his Internet conversations. That's what Internet activists in Antakya and Ankara told me. So how could the Turks not know anything about his disappearance?"

The Harmoush family submitted details about Mohammad, including his cell-phone number, to Turkish authorities, but according to Hejazi, the Turks have told her that they do not have any suspects in the case. Now she fears that the same people who captured her husband can harm her and her children. "I want to apply for political asylum in an Arab country. Please, can you get my message out? I am not safe here. I am living in fear, not for myself, but for my children. A mother cannot see her children harmed. Look at what happened to my husband. He thought he was safe here."

Many exiled Syrian activists now live in the shadows. Mohammad Fezo, 31, hasn't left his barely furnished rented home in Antakya for more than two months. When he does venture outdoors, he's accompanied by several family members, lest he "disappear." "Ziad," another activist, has lived in three different places in Antakya since August. He's looking to move again, in part because he's running out of money, and in part because he and his activist roommates have recently noticed Syrians they don't know following them. "It has scared us," says Ziad, 26, a raised semicircular scar under his left eye a permanent reminder of a brush with Syrian security forces during a demonstration in his hometown, the coastal city of Latakia. "I've received threats, both direct and indirect, from Syrians here in Turkey," says Fezo. "It's not safe for us, they can reach us anywhere."

Read about Syrians fleeing into Turkey.

Ramy al-Dow's troubles started in earnest two weeks ago. In the summer, he and his family fled their native town of Jisr al-Shoughour, some 40 km south of Antakya, after his activist father was arrested by Syrian security forces in a raid. They joined the thousands of Syrians streaming into safety in Turkey, and soon settled in the Yayladagi refugee camp. Ramy continued to cross the border illicitly, ferrying food, water and other supplies to groups of Syrians huddled on the Syrian side, including more than two dozen military defectors in the tiny village of Ain al-Baida.

Two weeks ago, Ramy got a phone call from an associate of a Turkish Alawite businessman, a man he knew well. He'd seen him around Guvecci during the summer, offering food, water and shelter to Syrian refugees. "He said he wanted to help support the revolution, but that he couldn't discuss the matter over the phone," Ramy says. He and his cousin went to see the man in his home in a nearby village. "It was a trap," Ramy says. He claims he and his cousin were handcuffed and were pressed to enter a pickup truck. They resisted and a scuffle ensued, during which they managed to escape. After several hours, they made it back to Guvecci. More than 20 villagers saw the frightened, handcuffed pair. The Turkish businessman has reportedly told police that the young cousins were trying to sell him stolen smuggled weapons. (See photos of homelessness in Istanbul.)

"I'm very scared. I can't go to Syria, and now I'm wanted in Turkey," Ramy says. "It's my word against a rich Turkish man's. I don't know what is going to happen to me. If there's a way I can get a guarantee that I won't be sent to Syria, I'll go to Turkish authorities and hand myself in."

A Turkish official familiar with the case says the young men have not been charged with a crime and have nothing to fear from Turkish law enforcement. "We have strong orders ? very strict orders ? not to detain Syrian guests or send them back to Syria. It's not possible. It might just be that we have some questions, that's all," he told TIME, requesting anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the issue. The cousins "should go back to the camps."

But they won't. It doesn't matter that they haven't been formally charged, their fear of men in uniform runs deep, such is the formidable psychological barrier of fear cultivated by Assad and his father and predecessor Hafez Assad in the decades they have ruled.(Read about why the West won't intervene in Syria.)

In any case, many of the residents of these refugee camps don't feel any safer than the Syrians living outside the wire. There are six camps in all, housing some 7,500 Syrians. About 3,800 are in Yayladagi, just kilometers from the border. It's a well-organized, clean camp with white tents pitched along paved walkways. "We won't leave the camp and go into town alone anymore," says Nihad Hashari, a 45-year-old from Jisr al-Shoughour staying in Yayladagi. "We organize groups of four or five."

Hashari sits with about a dozen men on plastic chairs under a white canvas awning. They are all immensely grateful for the Turkish government's help, and for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's blistering attacks on Assad, but they fear that there are spies in their midst. "We have noticed cars of Syrian intelligence in the town," says another refugee, Mustafa. "We know that they are intelligence because their plates are either all zeros or there are several cars with consecutive numbers and Damascus plates."

The Turkish official acknowledges that possibility but says there is little his government can do about it. "We cannot know who is mukhabarat," he says. "The camps are open to everybody. We do not ask why you are coming or why you are leaving. If [the camp residents] say, 'This person is mukhabarat,' we become more careful. There are some allegations about people, but we cannot prove it. What are we supposed to do?" he says, becoming exasperated. "Please offer us a solution, and we will do it. Should we interrogate all of the refugees?"

The Dow cousins don't have solutions to offer. They just know that they'll be spending another night out in the open. "Sometimes we stay in homes, but we don't want to jeopardize anybody else," Ramy says, as he and his young cousin make their way down a gravel pathway toward fields of olive and pomegranate trees. They have one blanket between them. Ramy doesn't even have a jacket. "Don't worry about us," he says cheerfully. "We're used to hardship here and over there," he says, nodding toward the nearby border. "We'll be fine, as long as they don't find us."

Read about how Syria became one of Turkey's headaches.

Read about the Middle East in revolt.

View this article on Time.com

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Early sign in Tunisia of strong Islamist vote (AP)

TUNIS, Tunisia ? Tunisian electoral officials are counting votes in landmark elections that saw more than 90 percent of registered voters cast ballots.

Early results from individual voting stations carried by local radio stations Monday put the Islamist Ennahda Party in the lead in many constituencies.

Official results are not expected until later Monday or Tuesday. Secretary General Boubker Bethabet of the election commission said more than 90 percent of the 4.1 million registered voters participated.

Radio Mosaique FM posted results from polling stations around the country with many showing a commanding lead for Ennahda.

Tunisians voted Sunday to elect a constituent assembly in the first elections emerging from the uprisings around the Middle East known as the Arab Spring.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111024/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_tunisia_elections

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Libya declared free, but Gadhafi death questioned

Wahab Al Ghazali of Libya, left, poses next to a poster of Moammar Gadhafi reading "End of Dictator, Libya is Free, Thanks to the Blood of its Martyrs" as they celebrate at Saha Kish Square in Benghazi, Libya, Sunday Oct. 23, 2011 as Libya's transitional government declared the liberation of Libya after months of bloodshed that culminated in the death of longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

Wahab Al Ghazali of Libya, left, poses next to a poster of Moammar Gadhafi reading "End of Dictator, Libya is Free, Thanks to the Blood of its Martyrs" as they celebrate at Saha Kish Square in Benghazi, Libya, Sunday Oct. 23, 2011 as Libya's transitional government declared the liberation of Libya after months of bloodshed that culminated in the death of longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

Libyan celebrate at Saha Kish Square in Benghazi, Libya, Sunday Oct. 23, 2011 as Libya's transitional government declares the official liberation of Libya after months of bloodshed that culminated in the death of longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

Libyans celebrate at Saha Kish Square in Benghazi, Libya, Sunday Oct. 23, 2011 as Libya's transitional government declare liberation of Libya after months of bloodshed that culminated in the death of longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

A Libyan uses his cell phone to picture fireworks amid celebrations at Saha Kish Square in Benghazi, Libya, Sunday Oct. 23, 2011 as Libya's transitional government declared the liberation of Libya after months of bloodshed that culminated in the death of longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

Wahab Al Ghazali of Libya, left, poses next to a poster of Moammar Gadhafi reading "End of Dictator, Libya is Free, Thanks to the Blood of its Martyrs" as they celebrate at Saha Kish Square in Benghazi, Libya, Sunday Oct. 23, 2011 as Libya's transitional government declared the liberation of Libya after months of bloodshed that culminated in the death of longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) ? Libya's interim rulers declared the country liberated on Sunday after an 8-month civil war, launching the oil-rich nation on what is meant to be a two-year transition to democracy. But they laid out plans with an Islamist tone that could rattle their Western backers.

The joyful ceremony formally marking the end of Moammar Gadhafi's 42-year tyranny was also clouded by mounting pressure from the leaders of the NATO campaign that helped secure victory to investigate whether Gadhafi, dragged wounded but alive out of a drainage ditch last week, was then executed by his captors.

The circumstances of Gadhafi's death remain unclear. In separate accounts late Sunday, two Libyan fighters said Gadhafi was hurt after being captured, but was able to stand. One said that when he and others placed Gadhafi in an ambulance, the former Libyan leader had not yet suffered what Libya's chief pathologist said was a fatal gunshot to the head.

Critics said the gruesome spectacle of his blood-streaked body laid out as a trophy for a third day of public viewing in a commercial freezer tests the new leadership's commitment to the rule of law.

Britain's defense secretary, Philip Hammond, said the Libyan revolutionaries' image had been "a little bit stained" by Gadhafi's violent death. Both he and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said a full investigation is necessary.

Gadhafi's capture and the fall of his hometown of Sirte, the last loyalist stronghold, set the stage for the long-awaited declaration of liberation, delivered by the head of the National Transitional Council, Mustafa Abdul-Jalil.

He did not mention the circumstances surrounding Gadhafi's death ? mobile phone videos showed the wounded leader being taunted and beaten by a mob after his capture. But he urged his people to avoid hatred.

"You should only embrace honesty, patience, and mercy," Abdul-Jalil told a flag-waving crowd of several thousand at the declaration ceremony in the eastern city of Benghazi, the birthplace of the uprising against Gadhafi.

Abdul-Jalil laid out a vision for a new Libya with an Islamist tint, saying Islamic Sharia law would be the "basic source" of legislation, and that existing laws that contradict the teachings of Islam would be nullified.

He outlined several changes to align with Islamic law, including putting caps on interest for bank loans and lifting restrictions on the number of wives Libyan men can take. The Muslim holy book, the Quran, allows men up to four wives.

Abdul-Jalil thanked those who fought and fell in the war, saying they "are somewhere better than here, with God." Displaying his own piety, he then stepped aside from the podium and knelt to offer a prayer of thanks.

Using Sharia as the main source of legislation is stipulated in the constitution of neighboring Egypt. Still, Egyptian laws remain largely secular as Sharia does not cover all aspects of modern life.

Libya's revolt erupted in February as part of anti-government protests spreading across the Middle East. Islamist groups stand to gain ground in neighboring Tunisia and Egypt, which shook off their dictators several months ago. Tunisia has taken the biggest steps so far on the path to democracy, voting Sunday for a new assembly, while Egypt's parliamentary election is set for next month.

Libya's struggle has been the bloodiest so far in the region. Mass protests turned into a civil war that killed thousands and paralyzed the country. Gadhafi loyalists held out for two more months after the fall of the capital of Tripoli in late August. Gadhafi's hometown of Sirte fell last week, but Gadhafi's son and one-time heir apparent, Seif al-Islam, apparently escaped with some of his supporters.

The anti-Gadhafi forces enjoyed strong Western political and military support during their revolt, especially from the U.S., Britain and France, and NATO airstrikes were key to their victory.

Abdul-Jalil paid tribute to the Gulf Cooperation Council, a six-nation alliance led by Saudi Arabia, the Arab League and the European Union. NATO performed its task with "efficiency and professionalism," he said.

President Barack Obama congratulated Libyans on the declaration.

"After four decades of brutal dictatorship and eight months of deadly conflict, the Libyan people can now celebrate their freedom and the beginning of a new era of promise," he said.

In Brussels, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen welcomed the declaration and said NATO's mission in Libya "is very close to completion," referring to the alliance's decision to end air patrols on Oct. 31.

In Libya, leaders have said a new interim government is to be formed within a month, following by elections for a constitutional assembly within eight months. Elections for a parliament and president would follow in the year after that.

Gadhafi's body remained on display Sunday in a produce locker in the port city of Misrata, which suffered from a weeks-long bloody siege by regime forces in the spring. People have lined up since Friday to view the body, which was laid out on a mattress on the freezer floor. The bodies of Gadhafi's son Muatassim and his ex-defense minister Abu Bakr Younis also were put on display, and people wearing surgical masks filed past, snapping photos of the bodies.

It remains unclear what happened between the time Gadhafi was captured alive in Sirte on Thursday and arrived dead in Misrata. Libyan leaders say he was killed in crossfire during battles for Sirte, but revolutionaries who were present for Gadhafi's capture ? and even one who was in the ambulance with him ? said nothing about additional fighting in interviews with The Associated Press.

Dr. Othman al-Zintani, Libya's chief forensic pathologist, said he performed an autopsy that confirmed that Gadhafi was killed by a gunshot to the head. That finding did not clear up the circumstances of his death, and al-Zintani said he could not elaborate until a full report has been sent to the attorney general.

Al-Zintani told the AP that Gadhafi's body was removed from the freezer and taken to a secret location for the autopsy. He said he also examined the body of Muatassim.

In new testimony late Sunday, two fighters said revolutionary forces encountered heavy resistance from Gadhafi loyalists near the drainage tunnel where Gadhafi and others were hiding.

Omar al-Shibani, commander of a group of fighters involved in the capture, said one of his men found the wounded Gadhafi in the tunnel, disarmed him, pulled him out and walked him to one of the fighters' vehicles.

Another fighter at the scene, Jibril Othman, said it was difficult for Gadhafi to stand. According to both accounts, the fighters put Gadhafi on the hood of the vehicle, and drove with him for some distance. Othman said a crowd gathered, and that he and others were beating Gadhafi.

Othman said that when Gadhafi was eventually placed in an ambulance, he had not yet suffered a shot to the head. Al-Shibani said Gadhafi had been shot in the abdomen and suffered a head injury, but that he "was fine up to that point."

The New York-based group Human Rights Watch, which viewed the bodies, said video footage, photos and other information it obtained indicate that Moammar and Muatassim Gadhafi "might have been executed after being detained."

"Finding out how they died matters," said Sarah Leah Whitson of Human Rights Watch. "It will set the tone for whether the new Libya will be ruled by law or by summary violence."

Mahmoud Jibril, the acting Libyan prime minister, said he would not oppose an inquiry into Gadhafi's death, but added that there is "no reason" to doubt the credibility of an official report that he died in crossfire.

Addressing the celebrations around Gadhafi's body, Jibril told the BBC in an interview on Sunday: "You have to appreciate the agony that people went through for 42 years."

___

Associated Press writers Rami al-Shaheibi in Misrata, Libya and Slobodan Lekic in Brussels contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-10-23-ML-Libya/id-63f6e69687bd4fe9adeb033d9573e26a

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