Gates of Vienna News Feed 3/30/2011

While the major players in the NATO coalition debated whether or not to arm the Libyan rebels, Col. Ghaddafi’s forces retook the town of Ras Lanuf, which had been in rebel hands for a while. The Al Qaeda presence among the rebels is reportedly growing, and several hundred Libyan mujahideen fighting with the Taliban in Afghanistan are reportedly making their way back to Libya to join the fighting.

Meanwhile, North African refugees who have escaped from holding camps in Italy are trying to cross the border into France, to join their relatives there. The French, however, are watching the border closely, and have been turning back any undocumented migrants, no matter what stories they tell.

In other news, levels of radioactive iodine found in seawater just outside the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan are more than 4,000 times greater that the maximum amount that is considered safe.

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

Thanks to AC, C. Cantoni, Fjordman, Gaia, Insubria, JD, KGS, Nilk, Prospero, Steen, Takuan Seiyo, TV, 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.