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Libya’s prime minister, Ali Zeidan, was briefly kidnapped from a Tripoli (capital of Libya) hotel on Thursday in an apparent act of retaliation for his supposed consent to the capture of suspected Al Qaeda leader al-Libi by American Special Forces. The PM was seized before dawn and freed (unharmed) by early afternoon. The short-lived kidnapping was a sign for the instability of Libya’s transitional government and its cooperation with American counterterrorist efforts. The PM’s abductors appeared to be among the militias who serve as his government’s primary police and security force. The kidnapping of the PM was the most ominous sign yet that Libya is sliding toward anarchy two years after the revolution that ended former leader Qaddafi’s four decades of dictatorship. And it may also serve as a warning to other Libyan officials who contemplate collaborating with the United States in its pursuit of alleged terrorists. The PM was seized at a heavily guarded luxury hotel that he and other government leaders use as a residence and meeting place, reportedly without a gunfight or resistance.
In Other News • The Universal Orlando attraction, Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit, stalled due to what park spokesman Tom Schroder called a technical glitch. It came to a stop about 140 feet above the ground. Most riders were able to be safely taken off but, more than two hours later, about 10 still remained. • The Jonas Brothers canceled their planned concert tour because of "a deep rift within the band." The first of 19 shows had been scheduled for Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, on Friday. • Kendrick Johnson, 17, was found dead in a gym at Lowndes County High School back in January. State medical examiners concluded that the three-sport athlete suffocated after getting stuck in a rolled-up gym mat while reaching for a sneaker. There are now doubts about investigators' conclusion that it was an accident. The perosn who was hired by the Johnson family for a second autopsy, found Kendrick Johnson had sustained a blow to the right side of his neck that was "consistent with inflicted injury." Challenging the state autopsy's finding of positional asphyxiation, he concluded the teen died as the result of "unexplained, apparent non-accidental, blunt force trauma.“ Federal prosecutors in south Georgia have met with the family's representatives and are weighing whether to open their own probe. • Multiple House Republican members and GOP leadership sources have suggested that leaders are preparing a proposal to raise the debt ceiling temporarily while keeping the government shut down. • An early blizzard caught ranchers in South Dakota off guard this week in the state, killing as many as 20,000 head of cattle. "The smart thing to do this time of year is to have cows and calf off to pasture," he said. "Then the storm blew in. We've never seen anything quite like this.“ In addition to the thousands dead, herds of livestock still alive are wandering aimlessly far from home.
