Libya: What are Foreign News Sites Saying?

[Update:  This is from Al Jazeera's live blog:

These offers of a ceasefire are a little strange, seeing as there is already the offer of a ceasefire from the foreign minister yesterday.
You have to ask if this is a decision being made in the full view of the Libyan public. When the military spokesman was asked if this was going to be broadcast on state TV and Libyans would be made aware that there was a ceasefire offer, he said no.

What kind of cease fire do you not announce to your own public?  If there was any question about the intent of these cease fires to be anything other than providing diplomatic cover and an attempt to split the military coalition I think this detail adds a lot of context.]


This is by no means a representative survey, just a brief run through of some foreign news sites I check moderately frequently.  Given the contentiousness of foreign interventions I thought others might be interested in some brief highlights.

Chinese news sites are unsurprisingly still dominated by headlines from Japan.  People's Daily plays it straight and is mostly reiterating China's focus on sovereignty without making any strong claims about the specifics of the Libya situation.

Xinhua is somewhat more opinionated and is not so subtly insinuating ulterior motives for the intervention.

Some highlights:

The western coalition claimed they launched the assault for humanitarian interests. But many analysts and media believed they did it for the sake of their own goals and interests instead of the safety and welfare of the unarmed Libyan civilians as they have claimed.

With a record-low popularity and facing a presidential election next year, Sarkozy was eager to take the reins in global crises and show voters that he can take the lead.

Gaddafi, then, offers Sarkozy an opportunity.

Pravda probably isn't an example of mainstream Russian opinion, but wow.  Read it for yourself; I have no comment.  Hitlerites, Luftwaffe on the Move. 

Al Jazeera's coverage has been studiously neutral from what I've read so far.  I find their live blog especially interesting.

 This is by no means meant to be a representative sample, it's simply a summary of what I've read so far.  If anyone has been reading some other foreign news sites that diverge in coverage from the US I'd be curious to know what they're saying.