Gates of Vienna News Feed 3/27/2011

Nicolas Sarkozy’s aggressive campaign against Libya has not helped his party, UMP, in local elections. UMP was beaten by the Socialists, and Marine Le Pen’s National Front also did surprisingly well, with 11%

The Libyan rebels recaptured three key oil cities today, and are closing in on Col. Gadhafi’s hometown of Sirte, which is now under bombardment by NATO warplanes. Meanwhile, the Syrian army continues to crack down on protesters, and the death toll in recent days has risen to more than 60. In Jordan, one protester is reported to have been killed during Friday’s clashes with police and soldiers.

In other news, water in the basements of all six reactors at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant is contaminated with radioactive materials. Radiation levels spiked again today, hampering efforts to restore the reactors’ cooling systems. Trace amounts of radioactive iodine from Fukushima have been detected in rainwater in Massachusetts.

To see the headlines and the articles, open the full news post.

Thanks to AC, C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Insubria, Kitman, SWH, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

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Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.