World Notes Libya

With such friends, who needs enemies? That was the question that dogged left- lean- ing Irish Opposition Leader Charles Haughey last week after Libya's Colonel Muammar Gaddafi told Irish television viewers that he hoped Haughey would win next year's general election. Gaddafi's remarks were seen as a boost for Prime Minister Garret FitzGerald's flagging coalition, which trails in the polls.

The mercurial Libyan also called on Irish youth to "fight to liberate" Northern Ireland. Infuriated, the Dublin government instructed its diplomats to protest Gaddafi's statement to the Libyan People's Bureau in Rome. Meanwhile, in farflung Chicago, four members of a street gang that espouses a bizarre brand of Islam were indicted on charges of conspiring with Libyan officials to launch terrorist attacks inside the U.S.