Libya to Declare Liberation from 42-Year Gadhafi Rule

Libya's provisional leaders are gathering in the eastern city of Benghazi to make a formal declaration of the country's liberation from the 42-year rule of Moammar Gadhafi.

Huge crowds are expected to gather in a Benghazi square for Sunday's announcement.  The city was the hub of the anti-Gadhafi uprising that began in February and ended when he was killed Thursday as provisional government forces defeated his die-hard loyalists in his hometown of Sirte.

International concern about the circumstances of Gadhafi's death partly overshadowed the celebratory mood inside Libya. Rights groups have called for an investigation into mobile phone video that shows provisional government fighters taunting and beating a wounded Gadhafi shortly before he died.

Libyan doctors performed an autopsy on his body in the city of Misrata Sunday and said he died of gunshot wounds to the head and abdomen.

It is not clear who fired the shots that killed him. Libyan officials have said the former leader was shot in a crossfire between his loyalists and provisional government forces.

Gadhafi's body was on public display in a commercial freezer in Misrata Friday and Saturday. Details of his burial have not yet been disclosed.

The declaration of Libya's liberation is expected to put the country on a path to democracy. A preliminary schedule calls for the formation of an interim government within one month, followed by elections for a constitutional assembly within eight months.

Parliamentary and presidential elections would be held within a year after that. ---VOA News