jon: new information now on some of the international stories we re keeping an eye on. celebrations breaking out in several western libyan towns. why? well, rebel forces have managed to fight off the forces loyal to moammar qaddafi, ending a very long seize there seige there. but in syria, there s new fighting breaking out amid reports of government troops shelling civilians in the central town. recent bombing said to have killed at least 41 people, including a four-year-old girl. secretary of state hillary clinton says the assad s regime himself assad regimes legitimacy has nearly run out. that e coli outbreak believed in at least 18 deaths, hundreds more sickened, experts say it s a strain they have never before seen. folks across europe are warned not to eat certain
defected from the libyan army, so that is a big deal. also in tripoli yesterday, we got our first look at moammar qaddafi in almost three full weeks as he was meeting with south african president jacob zuma in tripoli. concle, that was ironically that was at the very same compound in tripoli, the most ma mo maqaddafi compound getting hammered by nato air strikes over the last few weeks. zuno zuma was on the ground six hours and left empty handed, the same in april with similar results. qaddafi wants a ceasefire but there s no mention of him giving up power and that s a nonstarter for the opposition. in fact they are going further saying there will be no ceasefire until qaddafi agrees to leave libya all together. meantime a youtube video has surfaced apparently showing a qaddafi protest in tripoli. it s very different from the images shown on libyan tv, all you see there are people who are supporting qaddafi. so as the food and gas shortages get worse and nato attacks become more i
we may be seeing the people in the capitol turning, just as they did months ago in the eastern part of the country. and in benghazi, where we are, the heart of the opposition, a news conference today with italy s foreign minister, frankly fortini, was there to open a can slat in benghazi which recollectionnizes a national transitional council as the body of represent he representing the people of libya, he also calls the qaddafi regime over. the leader a week ago repeated, it s finished, he has to go. reporter: and perhaps just as important as that political support is the financial support that italy is throwing out to the ntc. they re saying that they are going to give hundreds of millions of euros in oil and also in financial support to the ntc as they try to get rid of qaddafi and rebuild after that. jenna. jenna: dan springer watching that developing situation out of benghazi, libya today. thank you very much for
qaddafi s ability to attack the rebels. his military capabilities have been degraded by 80%. you can see they don t have the fire power they once had. but they don t need that much fire power to hold off rebel forces on the ground. that s where they will make a difference very soon. we got word that 25 attack helicopters are here in country and it s only a matter of time before they are deployed and used to fly lower and hit their targets and help the ground forces gain ground where they haven t been able to in the past several months. bill: which way is the front line moving? is it moving in favor of the libyan government now? reporter: it s moving almost not at all. there is a steathere is a stale.
little more success. a russiang dell gaig is coming in. russia said say qaddafi could no longer stay in power. they may be in a better position to negotiate an exit strategy for qaddafi. bill: i got the impression from some in nato it would be an easy war. it s been far from it. what have we heard about the libyan generals who have left that country. reporter: the libyan government has lost a lot of its ability to strike at the rebels. they are poorly equipped and framed but we got word yesterday that there were defections in the amount of five generals, a colonel and some other high-ranking officials and 120 military personnel defected and held a news conference in rome. one of the generals said